What's New at Asora
Advancing
the Goal of Ending Education as We Know
It
For First Time
Visitors:
Welcome
to Asora Education Enterprises, which presently consists of
the Stellar Schools Franchising Project, the online
courseware brokerage, a speakers bureau, and the
achievement test analysis consulting service. To get
started, consider reviewing our home page where there are links to descriptions
of the many features of Stellar Schools. Then come back
here later to "What's New" and to "What Was New" to
learn more about our most recent
undertakings.
What Was New In Preceding Updates:
If you
have not seen our previous quarterly "What's New" updates,
then you might want to peruse our What Was New page.
What's
New In June 2009
June
Theme Is Assessment
To use
the phrase, “A Perfect Storm,” probably
overstates the coincidental nature of recent developments
at Asora Education Enterprises. However, every recent
activity has had assessment as its key component or at
least as an important aspect.
Honest
Assessment Drives Reforms
The need
for honesty in public school assessment reporting may go
unanswered within the public systems. Thus private testing
and certification proposals should be considered. We have
written on this in our report, "Making Tests And Diplomas
Honest Will Drive Reform." It's here for download from
our Reports on Reform
page.
Tipping Point
There
are now several indicators that online instruction has
entered a rapid growth phase and will affect nearly all
aspects of K-12 education going forward- if for no other
reason because of its low cost. Perhaps our realization of
this sudden surge in Online Education has been late and
delayed by our earlier blindness to what was going on
around us. As the two book reviews (below) suggest, online
instruction will dominate in about ten years. We had better
get busy doing our part!
Assessment
As Profit Center
Those of
you who have explored our business plan (available in
our Reports on
Development area)
know that it has many facets. In terms of instructional
modes of operation it proposes up to 15 different
options within each course of study. The only one
required, however, was the assessment component’s
proctored examinations. In every other instructional
mode, the student will be free to use it or not. Implict
in that will be the freedom for students to take their
instruction elsewhere. It suggests that we design our
service to have two profit centers: instruction and
assessment. Our brand will depend more on the latter-
perhaps much in the same way that the accounting
industry’s designation of CPA relates to the
“test” and not to the learning process.
New
Mappings
One of
Asora Education's services has been the estimation of what
local schools and districts would have attained on the
Nation’s Report Card or NAEP. The ELQ method we
employed converted or mapped the state reported (and almost
always inflated) proficiencies into ones on the NAEP scale.
We now have written a fairly detailed report that derives
the old or Simple ELQ method and derives a new more
accurate Piecewise Continuous ELQ method. It checks the
errors of the methods in simulated examination environments
and then applies them against known demographic groups
proficiencies on the two exams. The report
ELQ-Mappings.docx and its
supporting spreadsheet
ELQ-Derivation.xlsx are
downloadable from our Reports on Reform
page.
Discovery Of Enhanced Deception
Our
analysis in the Mappings work brought us face to face with
some of the harms inflicted by the states' almost routine
use of inflation in reporting assessment proficiencies.
Though always there in the published data we had not
realized the extent to which inflation is different for
different demographics. It’s small in good schools
and large in schools where disadvantaged children
predominate. How convenient for making public schools
“look good!” It serves inflation in small
portions where only a small amount is needed to make the
schools look good. And for the truly dysfunctional schools
it ladles giant servings to make the horrible appear barely
passable. For the public education propagandists it
optimally apportions the deception to where it is needed
the most- to cover up the worst situations the most.
Taken
For A R.I.D.E.
As an
example of the Enhanced Deception just mentioned we wrote
an op-ed piece for a Rhode Island newspaper. “Taken
For A R.I.D.E.,” refers to the Rhode Island
Department of Education and its use of inflation to make
the good look better and the bad look not so awful. It is
on our Reports on Reform
page
for your perusal or download.
Liberating
Learning - Book Review
Scholars
and policy analysts Terry Moe and John Chubb (both are
both), have written the book, “Liberating
Learning,” which is a very interesting review and
prognosis of how online instruction will grow and help
reform public schools. As is my habit, I generally write an
online book review on the Amazon.Com website when I
purchase books from the site and I did so for this
excellent book. Their book was, more than any other input,
influential in convincing me of the Tipping Point mentioned
above. It is on our Reports on Reform
page.
Disrupting
Class - Book Review
Another
book we reviewed is “Disrupting Class.” It also
makes arguments about how disruptive innovation will
develop within the education sector and confirms we are at
or beyond this Tipping Point. My review of it, "Good wheat
- Too much chaff," is also on the Reports on Reform
page.