\doc\web\99\11\bishop.txt Date sent: Sun, 01 Aug 1999 22:13:01 -0700 To: Arthur Hu From: Wayne Bishop Subject: Endorsement At 10:36 AM 7/22/99 -0700, arthur hu wrote: >I'll mark you down for $200 and collect later though, thanks! >for all those who have made pledges, you can now send them The check is in the mail. Wayne Bishop, Ph. D. Professor of Mathematics California State Univ., LA Los Angeles, CA 90032 Voice: (323)343-2159 Fax: (630)604-8901 >What would it take to get your early endorsement? You've had it all along. >As far as I know, the only disagreements we would have is that I >don't agree with STAR being used as a proficiency test - kids should be >exposed to tough math, but they should not be expected to master it any >better than any other group of actual kids have demonstrated. Of course not. 100% of my daughter's school does competent algebra in eighth grade (ignoring the few who do it before) and 100% of them would pass the Texas end-of-course algebra exam. I did an item analysis of every item of the 1995-1998 exams so I know. Further evidence along that line, 99% of the eighth grade algebra students in the Aransas Pass, TX, district *did* pass it (all but one student) and 40% of the entire student body (almost exclusively Hispanic, some quite recent) were in algebra. By contrast 15% of the Dallas ISD kids did, the state runs about 30% overall. These kinds of clear, absolute measures must be enhanced, even enforced, not deprecated. Where you are right, is when these are the "higher order thinking skills" tests, as opposed to standard material with clear guidelines as to what will be on the tests and that they be consistently doable given that information. That's what CA standards and testing is about, not the absurd notion of trying to get everybody above the mean. Unfortunately, your strong rhetoric on that point only reinforces the arguments of the fuzzies that try to get rid of testing entirely, MALDEF, the ACLU, FairTest, 98 out of every 100 education professors, etc. >So I don't believe in ANY obe, whether the outcomes are written by >long division and phonics advocates or problem solving in context And you are wrong. It helps to continue the status quo where poor schools and poor principals are under no real pressure to improve. It feeds the notion that blacks and Hispanics are inferior, likewise whites to Asians, when the truth is vastly more complex. If the culture imposes the content and performance standards, great. When they don't, we wind up with such horrendous discrepancies associated with race, affluence, education of parents, etc. American egalitarianism requires more and that requires meaningful testing with reasonable measures of levels of performance to advance. Done well, it works. But it does need screws that can be tightened at the individual student level. By the way, some of your writing could be construed to mean that Asian students out-perform because of genetic superiority, that race *causes* performance. That perspective, in the hands of the wrong press-person or political opponent has the potential of dismissing your candidacy, it could trump everything. Wayne.