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Comment by spamizbad | Hacker News Reader

This was already tried with No Child Left Behind, with schools above proficiency obtaining additional funding and those falling below would be penalized. In many states, it created a testing frenzy, caused a huge push for curriculum standardization that rankled both teachers and parents. It funneled tons of money into test prep providers that probably would be better spent recruiting and retaining skilled teachers.

I wish education reform enthusiasts would try a different tactic.

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Even worse: the No Child Left Behind Act tested and funded schools based on improvements in student test scores.

A school in an impoverished community that managed to excel, to overcome adversity, may well be penalized for doing so; when you're at 90% of the national test score range, even small improvements become difficult.

Basing the funding on score improvements is easy to explain to the taxpayers as maximizing return on investment. And sure, a school that fails to get their kids through the system might be in desperate need for more funding.

But you also end up increasing investment into school districts and methods that are not effective.

Source: Personal experience, served two years on the board of a tiny charter school in a rural village, that managed to provide good education on a minimal budget. This was pre- Betsy DeVos charter school "reform".

Welcome to why metrics in ill-conditioned systems are the most toxic policy instruments on Earth.

I think the model in Finland is better because it rewards talented teachers. Those teachers, if you have a favorite one, would excel at devising ways to simplify complicated things, I think.

Finland is a homogenous society. The US is very heterogenous in class and race.

This is something americans tell themselves as a coping method.

Finland doesn't have the obscenity that is homeless kids coming to school tired because they couldn't sleep, hungry, scared because of violence and instability in their life circumstances, and otherwise with so many strikes against them it would take a miracle for them just to graduate, let alone thrive.

It also resulted in teaching to the tests and not for understanding or usefulness.

So, more power to the bean counters led to less flexibility for the teachers, misallocating money, measuring the wrong things and providing much worse education.

Sounds like another tale about a Chinese Communist Party top-down initiative executed to perfection with disastrous results.

Weird how China gets dragged into everything. The Chinese educational system is similar to all East Asian systems. SK famously stops flights to avoid disturbing test takers. Find another scapegoat

> Sounds like another tale about a Chinese Communist Party top-down initiative executed to perfection with disastrous results.

They might have been referring to the sparrows:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign

The 20th century’s history is filled with unintended consequences. DDT spraying caused a mass extinction event. CFCs destroyed the ozone layer. Outsourcing cheap labor led to human rights abuses and destroying the middle class. Etc.

Yes, this is what I was referring to.

> It also resulted in teaching to the tests

Or outright fraud, much more reliable than cramming.

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