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athematicians occasionally worry has checked into our concerns and we shouldn’t
about the misuse of their subject. worry. Value-added modeling is promoted because
G. H. Hardy famously wrote about it has the right pedigree—because it is based on
mathematics used for war in his “sophisticated mathematics”. As a consequence,
autobiography, A Mathematician’s mathematics that ought to be used to illuminate
Apology (and solidified his reputation as a foe of ends up being used to intimidate. When that hap-
applied mathematics in doing so). More recently, pens, mathematicians have a responsibility to
groups of mathematicians tried to organize a boy- speak out.
cott of the Star Wars project on the grounds that
it was an abuse of mathematics. And even more Background
recently some fretted about the role of mathemat- Value-added models are all about tests—standard-
ics in the financial meltdown. ized tests that have become ubiquitous in K–12
But the most common misuse of mathemat- education in the past few decades. These tests have
ics is simpler, more pervasive, and (alas) more been around for many years, but their scale, scope,
insidious: mathematics employed as a rhetorical and potential utility have changed dramatically.
weapon—an intellectual credential to convince Fifty years ago, at a few key points in their educa-
the public that an idea or a process is “objective” tion, schoolchildren would bring home a piece of
and hence better than other competing ideas or paper that showed academic achievement, usually
processes. This is mathematical intimidation. It is with a percentile score showing where they landed
especially persuasive because so many people are among a large group. Parents could take pride in
awed by mathematics and yet do not understand their child’s progress (or fret over its lack); teach-
it—a dangerous combination. ers could sort students into those who excelled
The latest instance of the phenomenon is and those who needed remediation; students could
valued-added modeling (VAM), used to interpret make plans for higher education.
test data. Value-added modeling pops up every- Today, tests have more consequences. “No
where today, from newspapers to television to Child Left Behind” mandated that tests in reading
political campaigns. VAM is heavily promoted with and mathematics be administered in grades 3–8.
unbridled and uncritical enthusiasm by the press, Often more tests are given in high school, includ-
by politicians, and even by (some) educational ex- ing high-stakes tests for graduation. With all that
perts, and it is touted as the modern, “scientific” accumulating data, it was inevitable that people
way to measure educational success in everything would want to use tests to evaluate everything
from charter schools to individual teachers. educational—not merely teachers, schools, and
Yet most of those promoting value-added entire states but also new curricula, teacher train-
modeling are ill-equipped to judge either its ing programs, or teacher selection criteria. Are
effectiveness or its limitations. Some of those the new standards better than the old? Are expe-
who are equipped make extravagant claims with- rienced teachers better than novice? Do teachers
out much detail, reassuring us that someone need to know the content they teach? Using data
from tests to answer such questions is part of the
John Ewing is president of Math for America. His email current “student achievement” ethos—the belief
address is jewing@mathforamerica.org. that the goal of education is to produce high test
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