Introduction
Being wrong is an easy task. Being wrong consistently and when hundreds of people are actively trying to make you less wrong is a work of art mastered by few groups as well as our school. Over my next few posts, I will discuss some of the more egregious mistakes that our school has made, and explain their relationship to common fallacious reasoning.Measurement Bias
Measurement bias is often harder to spot than other forms of bias. It comes in two forms: well meaning people who choose a bad way of measuring data that leads to incorrect conclusions, and people that purposefully manipulate what information they disclose in order to deliberately misinform outside groups.Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias is one of the most pernicious forms of bias in logical reasoning. It is caused by starting with strong preconceived notions about how the world is or should be, and forcing evidence to fit with your position, or simply disregarding it because it must be wrong as it disagrees with you.Our School
In 2011-2012, administration in our school decided that a Diversity and Equity Task Force was necessary to address the challenge that an increasingly diverse Burlington High School would create for creating an effective curriculum. This report had several severe problems in how it was set up.- It did not include teachers or students, the two groups that know most about how teachers are affecting students.
- It did not account for differences in socio-economic class, despite the fact that numerous studies have shown class to have a much larger effect on achievement than race, and the strong correlation between class and race in Burlington
- Consort rates (students who did not complete high school in 4 years) were misreported as drop-out rates, despite the fact that 4 year graduation rates are a particularly poor measure when looking at large populations of refugee students who enter the school system far below grade level.
- Lying about graduation rates: it was reported that there was a 20% difference in graduation rates between students who received free and reduced lunch and those who did not. Both groups have 95% or greater graduation rates.
- Looking at static measures of student performance rather than growth from year to year to account for the fact that students enter high school at different academic levels.
The Burlington School District is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity... of the District and community through their teaching and/or service. How can you, as a paraeducator, help the district to further this goal.In other words, the only thing the school district cares about for hiring purposes is diversity. There are no questions asked about style of education, no questions about how they would handle difficult situation. This creates an environment where the way to get a job at our school is not to be well qualified for the job, smart, or hard working, but simply to be a member of a race or ethnicity that is currently under-represented in Burlington High School's staff.
Works Cited
"Equity Audits at the School District Level." Using Equity Audits to Create Equitable and Excellent Schools (2009): 57-66. Burlington School Board, 13 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
"PARAEDUCATOR." Burlington School District: Jobs. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Rome, David. "1 Response to the “Task Force
Report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”." (n.d.): n. pag. 30 Jan.
2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
This may have been the best roast on BHS that I have ever heard. Would it be correct to say that Burlington High School's use of confirmation bias is what led to Mr. Rome being laid off? Do you think that it is equally wrong to use this type of thinking in a scientific domain compared to this given situation at BHS?
ReplyDeleteA few clarifying remarks. The incidents described had no direct link to Mr. Rome leaving BHS. They happened 5 years ago, and Mr. Rome's decision to go to Essex was his alone.
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