A Little About A Lot

It’s a rainy, cold day in Iowa…duck weather! Here’s “A Little About A Lot”:

Many Parents Value Grades Over Test Scores, Missing Signals to Intervene (The 74, 3/30/26)

By now, ABPTL readers should know how unreliable teachers’ grades are when it comes to assessing desired learning outcomes. For peat’s sake, we still have teachers rewarding students “A’s” for bringing toilet paper and hand sanitizer for classroom use.

This week, The 74 reported that,

“Parents who value grades over test scores could be missing out on a key indicator their child needs more support – and raises the possibility students are graduating without necessary skills, a new study found.”

“While trends across the country show grades are increasing while test scores are decreasing, an online survey of more than 2,000 parents by researchers at the University of Chicago and Oregon State University found parents are less likely to invest in academic support when a child has high grades and low test scores. Similarly, parents are more likely to intervene when grades are low, even if a student is scoring proficient in standardized tests.”

“Grade inflation may make families think a student is performing better than they are; along with a distrust of standardized testing may mean ‘there’s skills that we’re leaving on the table, said co-author Derek Rury, assistant economics professor at Oregon State University.”

“’If it’s true that parents place more weight on information contained in grades rather than test scores, that has very big implications for the economy and the growth of skills [in students],’ Rury said.”

When I was a public school principal and superintendent, we found way more kids that had high grades and low-test scores versus low grades and high-test scores.

We tended to believe the test score.

Most Popular U.S. Graduate Degrees Aren’t Worth the Money, Study Shows: “A Very Risky Proposition” (The New York Post, 3/31/26)

“According to a study recently released by the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at American University, which was originally based on research from the Tale Tobin Center for Economic Policy, degrees in social work, psychology and curriculum and instruction have the potential to yield a zero-to-negative return on investment, considering the full cost that goes into earning the degree.”

“’A graduate degree can benefit you financially in some circumstances, but it is a very risky proposition,’ Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Post. ‘You want to make sure you are working with all the information.’”

“On the other hand, t hose looking to pursue graduate degrees in medicine, law and pharmacy can breathe easier, as the study showed that these degrees have the highest return on investment. Researchers found that salaries nearly tripled for those with medical doctorate degrees and shot up by over two-thirds for those who earned a doctorate in pharmacy.”

“’The message is that we need to provide better information to students,’ Joseph Altonji, a Yale University economist and one author of the report, told the Washington Post, when referring to sussing out which grad programs are worth the time and cost.”

In certain Asian countries like South Korea, there is close alignment between governmental officials responsible for healthy national employment and higher education leaders. The labor experts will tell university leadership how many degrees are needed over the next ten to twenty years for maximum economic performance; then the colleges will admit that number (maybe more keeping in mind attrition) to the respective programs. That way, countries control admissions, so that once the student earns their degree, there is a job waiting for them.

Our country does none of that.

A New Approach to Algebra in 8^th Grade Seems to Produce Big Benefits (EdWeek, 4/1/26)

If you hang around long enough, you’ll see what we already knew pop up again as “new research.”

EducationWeek reported this week that San Francisco 8^th graders succeeded in learning Algebra, if those 8^th graders were afforded extra time during their school day to work on basic mathematics curriculum along with Algebra.

Extra time learning Algebra, including important mathematic skills, matters.

We learned this back in 1994.

When I was a middle school principal in the mid-1990’s, we knew that our kids had to take Algebra in the 8^th grade if they were going to have the opportunity to take Calculus in high school. So we started building an Algebra pipeline, starting with our sixth graders and continuing into the seventh grade. We offered extra time to all of our students, and within three years we had nearly 70% of our 8^th graders taking Algebra.

That was over 30 years ago.

Why don’t we do what we know?

White Texans, Students Previously in Private School or Home-School Make Up Bulk of Voucher Applicants (The Texas Tribune, 4/1/26)

So far, education savings accounts (ESAs) have benefited white families who already enrolled their children in private schools or home-schooled them – in Texas and other states approving ESAs.

In Texas, according to The Texas Tribune,

“Of the 256,700 Texans who applied as of late March [for ESAs], 45% are white, 23% are Hispanic and 11% are Black. Low-income families make up 36% of applicants – defined as a family of four earning $66,000 or less per year.”

“For comparison, 24% of Texas public school students are white, 54% are Hispanic and 13% are Black. About 60% of public school students are considered low-income.”

“In addition, about 73% of applicants attended a private school or home-school during the 2024-25 academic year….”

What Texas and other ESA states should do is to launch a public service campaign directed to all of those families stuck in sucky schools,  or, in other words, low-performing schools. If those families learned more about their options, and were equipped with dollars to pay for a different choice, here’s guessing we would see student achievement soar from a group of young learners historically trapped in bad, bad schools.

I’ll be away tomorrow. Til Monday. SVB