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Bad teachers should not be sacked because kids need to learn how to deal with mediocrity and idiot bosses? I’d wager we have mediocre workers and idiot bosses largely because they, in turn, had worse than mediocre teachers.
If it results in better student outcomes, there’s your marketable metric! And if not, Ockham’s Razor dictates that the hidden benefit is “hidden” for the same reason the invisible cat sitting on my desk is invisible. 🙂
“I would not remove every single useless teacher because every grown-up in a workplace needs to learn to deal with the moron who sits four desks down without lamping them and to deal with authority that’s useless.”
Your invisible cat makes a vexing point, Greg, but spurs yet another idea. Given the otherworldly perspectives of unions, perhaps they could make “visible” an outcome metric for this particular quality of a school’s faculty lineup by conducting longitudinal workplace followup studies after, say, 30 years. An optimal ratio of bad to good faculty may eventually become the gold standard; we just need to give the system enough time and begin asking the right questions!
Clarification on the article… Mr. Gates has made it VERY CLEAR in every form of communication that the foundation is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – I wish that others would be as observant!
And YES, “Here’s hoping he continues his plain speaking about education”
BUT I think he is already closely observing “how vouchers might aid his hope of cracking open the existing system”
I don’t have any “inside information” – just watching like everyone else…
I’ve been studying his work for about six or seven months. He does not do a good job of metabolizing the information that he has generated. I however have.
There is another world of information which can be generated from his data.
Out of my 15 years in chemistry I did 3 years in Analytical Chemistry. The quantitative study of things you can’t see but you can measure with reproducability. After spending about 100 to 200 hrs on the subject of teachers pay based on Dr Greens work I can actually measure the impact with pretty good accuracy.
I can determine what wage scales are necessary to create jobs, how many jobs have been lost as a result of the current wage scales. At any rate I have a real job and have to go. I’ll be keep posting now that I know Dr green has a blog.
Go to comments, I’m joe123abc. Right now “”” keep it simple “”””” has attacked my position. Remember nobody funds me so I’m free to say whatever I want.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
[…] in the Wall Street Journal (H/T Matt Ladner), John Fund’s Political Diary highlights a speech made by mega-billionaire Bill Gates right […]
But alas, those three pillars of mediocrity may yet offer a hidden benefit to students:
http://trueslant.com/caitlinkelly/2010/07/14/the-real-value-of-a-rude-stupid-teacher/
I do admit some difficulty, however, in devising an appealing metric to reflect this as a marketable feature for schools.
Bad teachers should not be sacked because kids need to learn how to deal with mediocrity and idiot bosses? I’d wager we have mediocre workers and idiot bosses largely because they, in turn, had worse than mediocre teachers.
On another note, why is Gates against vouchers?
If it results in better student outcomes, there’s your marketable metric! And if not, Ockham’s Razor dictates that the hidden benefit is “hidden” for the same reason the invisible cat sitting on my desk is invisible. 🙂
Possibly my favorite quote:
“I would not remove every single useless teacher because every grown-up in a workplace needs to learn to deal with the moron who sits four desks down without lamping them and to deal with authority that’s useless.”
Your invisible cat makes a vexing point, Greg, but spurs yet another idea. Given the otherworldly perspectives of unions, perhaps they could make “visible” an outcome metric for this particular quality of a school’s faculty lineup by conducting longitudinal workplace followup studies after, say, 30 years. An optimal ratio of bad to good faculty may eventually become the gold standard; we just need to give the system enough time and begin asking the right questions!
Clarification on the article… Mr. Gates has made it VERY CLEAR in every form of communication that the foundation is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – I wish that others would be as observant!
And YES, “Here’s hoping he continues his plain speaking about education”
BUT I think he is already closely observing “how vouchers might aid his hope of cracking open the existing system”
I don’t have any “inside information” – just watching like everyone else…
Concerning JP Green,
I’ve been studying his work for about six or seven months. He does not do a good job of metabolizing the information that he has generated. I however have.
There is another world of information which can be generated from his data.
Out of my 15 years in chemistry I did 3 years in Analytical Chemistry. The quantitative study of things you can’t see but you can measure with reproducability. After spending about 100 to 200 hrs on the subject of teachers pay based on Dr Greens work I can actually measure the impact with pretty good accuracy.
I can determine what wage scales are necessary to create jobs, how many jobs have been lost as a result of the current wage scales. At any rate I have a real job and have to go. I’ll be keep posting now that I know Dr green has a blog.
Look at me attack this sucker at
http://www.ohio.com/editorial/vop/98485609.html?displayComments=y
Go to comments, I’m joe123abc. Right now “”” keep it simple “”””” has attacked my position. Remember nobody funds me so I’m free to say whatever I want.