Twitter Feed Analysis April 17-24
Twitter Feed Analysis Week April 17th through 24th
By: Tiernan Donohue
So in this our last twitter feed analysis, twitter has provided us with some hard hitting, dare I say deeply serious topics and highly controversial discussion, the likes of which we have not yet seen in the twitter-verse this semester. This week on twitter the discussions spanned from debates on: New Jersey to Canada to, wait for it, pineapples. In all seriousness, these seemingly confusing topics all dominated twitter this week serving as source material for far more practical discussions on parental involvement in education reform and the place and purpose of standardized testing in American education.
At the beginning of this week (April 17th through 19th), the discussion on twitter continued the debate on parent engagement and standardized testing carrying over from last week. At the start of the week, the discussion on twitter focused largely on the New Jersey story of students who were “opting out” of New Jersey standardized testing (http://willrichardson.com/post/21226188628/opting-out). This report sparked discussion early in the week regarding parents’ role in guiding education reform. The Center for Education Reform (CER) tweeted on April 18th “Need 2 stop talking 2 parents as though they r policy wonks…” in response to the discussion of parent’s decision to opt their children out of standardized testing in New Jersey. The theme of this discussion on parent engagement was well balanced with supporters and opponents both voicing their opinions on twitter. This debate paralleled a larger discussion in education reform in America over how parental involvement benefit student’s education versus harming policy wonks ability to execute reform policies.
Towards the middle week, a new topic on twitter was sparked by Edutopia, a subsidiary of the Pearson Foundation, tweet on “How Canada is Closing the Achievement Gap’ as part of their Education Everywhere Series (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDs4gr0pYrw&feature=youtu.be). This video was trending on twitter throughout the middle of the week after it was first released by Edutopia on Wednesday, April 18th. This discussion revealed another theme on twitter this week which was measuring student achievement. The video presents a case study of the Ontario school system as a larger example of how education policy can deal with diversity and promote student achievement.
Most tweets expressed interest in how Ontario’s “full-time student success teachers” program allowed greater communication among teachers and with families, and advocated looking at student’s lives holistically in addressing how teachers can help them. This type of community school model being used in Canada received positive reactions on twitter, and many retweeted this as something that should be applied in American education as a way to increase student achievement and close the performance gap.
Standardized testing in general was the main theme on twitter this week and dominated #edreform and #edpolicy discussions through the middle up until the end of the week. Discussions on standardized testing continued throughout the week, and spanned from commentary on New York’s ban on “references to dinosaurs, birthdays, Halloween, dancing in standardized tests” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/new-york-city-bans-refere_n_1380991.html) to discussion of student learning and teaching to the test. This discussion on standardized testing mirrored the start of the standardized testing season in schools this month, and through the middle of the week the discussion of the standardized testing question was evenly divided between proponents and opponents of testing. That is until ‘Pinapplegate’ broke.
How are pineapples and the anti-standardized testing movement connected you may ask? Well on twitter this week, the two became intimately involved as ‘Pinepplegate’ exploded in the twitter-verse. “Pineapples don’t have sleeves” became a popular tweet on twitter this week following a New York Times report from April 21st dealing with the controversy surrounding one of New York’s standardized English tests (http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/nyregion/standardized-testing-is-blamed-for-question-about-a-sleeveless-pineapple.xml). Gaining its own hashtag (#pineapplegate) and traction with Diane Ravitch, the use of the “Pineapple and the Hare” story in a New York standardized English test, substituting a pineapple for the traditional tortoise, left students confused and twitter in outrage.
To sum up this retelling of the classic fable, the pineapple challenges the hare to a race and the other animals agree, “No doubt, the crow insists, the pineapple has something up its sleeve.” The animals decided to cheer for the pineapple and foil its plan, but of course, the pineapple does not move, and the hare wins, then the animals eat the pineapple. This interesting (slightly disturbing) story was followed by these questions to students:
Why did the animals eat the pineapple? AND Who is the wisest?
A. They were annoyed A. The hare
B. They were amused B. The Moose
C. They were hungry C. The Crow
D. They wanted to D. The Owl
The story coming out of New York was picked up by both the Times and the Washington Post who stated “This may well go down in the annals of history as the least comprehensible reading comprehension question of all time” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/post/talking-pineapples-and-unanswerable-questions/2012/04/20/gIQAZ6M3VT_blog.html). Moreover, the twitter discussion grew even more heated after the Post reported that this question was not just administered to eighth graders in New York but was a question featured on tests around the country this testing cycle.
Based on this controversy, Diane Ravitch claimed “Standardized testing has become a vampire” and released an article on EducationWeek this morning entitled “The Problem is Bigger than the Pineapple” this morning, April 24th addressing the development of what she called a “genuine national revolt” against standardized testing in America (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2012/04/the_problem_is_bigger_than_a_p.html).
Pineapplegate served as a mechanism for a more heated discussion on the state of standardized testing in general on twitter, however. After this story, the discussion of standardized testing on twitter shifted to mostly negative opinions on standardized testing. Many of the tweets reflected the anti-standardized testing sentiment and tied back into the “opt out” discussion from earlier in the week; with numerous tweets like this one “Stories like that are why I’m giving strong consideration to opting my kids out” appearing in #edreform and #pinapplegate. Also, tweeters exhibited backlash against the standardized testing industry, targeting Pearson who was responsible for this test question with tweets such as Pearson “has to keep on making dollars off our kids.” These tweets highlighted a more subtle theme of this week’s twitter feed which was the profitability of the standardized testing industry, and questions about the power these companies were gaining over general education policy in America.
This week’s twitter patterns matched the previous week in terms of the continued discussion on “opting out,” but also varied as the Bullying theme and pushback against the Obama administration disappeared in favor of discussion more directly related to news from this week, such as Pineapplegate. This week’s discussion was largely dominated by the standardized testing theme, which overshadowed other topics and with the controversy surrounding this issue on twitter, left little room for other meaningful discussions.
Some anomalies this week on twitter included a brief discussion of flipped classrooms after Edutopia tried to spark a discussion on whether “Can they work?” in American education on April 18th (http://www.edutopia.org/files/existing/edutopianews.html). This theme was initially picked up on twitter and gained some traction but was overtaken by midweek when Pineapplegate broke.
Additionally, another anomaly for this week involved a discussion of a state bill sent to the Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam which would place a cap on the number of foreign workers charter schools can hire in Tennessee (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2012/04/tenn_bill_to_limit_foreign_workers_at_charters_goes_to_governor.html). The bill specifically states “that a charter school could not rely on non-immigrant foreign workers on H1B or J1 visas for more than 3.5 percent of their workforce in any given year.” News of this bill was first tweeted on April 18th but failed to gain a following on twitter after Education Week tweeted on April 23rd that Michelle Rhee had asked the governor to veto the bill (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2012/04/rhee_urges_tenns_governor_to_veto_bill_on_charter_teachers.html). Michelle Rhee’s involvement seemed to attract a larger audience on twitter, and the discussion on this topic was growing towards the end of the week.
My overall assessment for this week was that the twitter discussion focused on standardized testing and student achievement, which echo pertinent questions about how we should be measuring student performance and learning. This discussion coincided with the onset of the standardized testing season, but brought up important themes including parent engagement, the power and ethics of the standardized testing industry, and the need for alternative methods of measuring student achievement. This emphasis suggests a growing national concern over the standardized testing industry and the need for either increased accountability or fundamental reform of the current system.
Twitter Feed Analysis March 13th-20th
Twitter Feed Analysis Week March 13th through 20th
By: Tiernan Donohue
This week on twitter the discussions spanned from debates on teacher quality and evaluations to the ways in which American education can learn from international school models.
Beginning on Tuesday, March 13th, a lot of the discussion on twitter centered on the controversy regarding the Khan Academy in response to a 60 Minutes story on the program which aired on Sunday, March 11th. The Khan Academy was founded by Sal Khan to help a family member with homework through “a collection of video lectures” (http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.in/2012/03/khan-academy-not-good-pedagogy-and-not.html ). The discussion on twitter to the Khan Academy continued through the middle of the week, but the reactions were generally mixed. Criticisms argued that the Khan Academy’s program of video lectures was bad pedagogy which lacked the interactive and student centered learning necessary for effective education reform . Those on twitter who favored the Khan Academy noted the “Flipped Classroom” model, in which students watch videos and lectures at home while the teacher does other work in the classroom such as answering questions
Towards the middle of the week, March 14th and 15th, the conversation on twitter turned to addressing Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s address to the Louisiana House Education Committee following passage of a voucher reform bill, HB 976, and a teacher tenure reform bill, HB 974, by large margins. These bills represented part of a larger education reform package Governor Jindal proposed which includes “which includes vouchers for students in under-performing public schools, performance-based tenure, and tax credits for individuals and businesses to sponsor tuition for the schools that best meet a child’s educational needs” (http://www.freedomworks.org/press-releases/governor-jindal%E2%80%99s-school-voucher-and-tenure-reform ). The response to this legislation varied on twitter, with initial support expressed earlier in the week. As the twitter discussion in #edpolicy and #edreform shifted to teacher qualification, however, responses became more critical of the legislation.
Towards the end of the week, March 16th through 18th, the discussion began to focus on the question of state tests and teacher evaluation. These discussions sparked in reaction to a twitter posts in #edpolicy regarding South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed a new teacher evaluation law that would “will eventually eliminate state teacher tenure provisions, and that will award bonuses to top teachers based on student achievement” (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/state_edwatch/2012/03/sd_governor_signs_new_teacher_evaluation_law.html). The reaction to twitter regarding this legislation was mostly negative, and perpetuated similar themes on twitter this week regarding teacher quality and the relationship between state achievement tests and teacher performance.
A new conversation gained traction on the twitter feed yesterday afternoon and continuing today regarding high school dropout rates in the U.S. The discussion represents an offshoot of the international theme on this week’s twitter feed. The tweets on U.S. dropout rates lament the U.S. falling short of international standards, noting that the U.S. formerly had the highest percentage of high school graduates. The discussion also focused on the state of so-called “Dropout Factories,” such as those found in Ohio, as “schools that fail to graduate more than 60 percent of students on time” (http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/03/20/dropout-factories-grow.html).
The discussion on twitter this week largely concentrated on the subjects of teacher evaluation and teacher quality. Following the passage of a new teacher evaluation law in South Dakota, twitter responses began focusing on methods of teacher evaluations and the implications on teacher quality in American education. The National Association of State Board of Educators (NASBE) began tweeting on March 16th regarding this issue and helped perpetuate the debate on the best method for evaluating teachers in today’s school environment. Their tweets regarding the New York Times “Sunday Dialogue: How to Rate Teachers” and tweets calling for ideas on how to raise the teaching profession helped facilitate this discussion on twitter. Meanwhile, the Louisiana Teachers decision to protest the legislative proposals on teacher quality in the state house was retweeted.
Additionally, the twitter discussion on teacher evaluations and quality created a twitter debate regarding the relationship between state achievement tests and teacher performance in public education. The Scholastic survey, funded by the Gates Foundation, of 10,000 teachers found that “teachers don’t trust annual state skills tests” in increasing numbers. The study revealed that “only 16% believe linking student performance and teacher pay is “absolutely essential” or “very important” in retaining good teachers” which was down 28% from 2010 (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-03-15/survey-teacher-pay-linked-to-test-scores/53554210/1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=206567). While this discussion continued throughout the end of the week, the main focus on twitter was less so on problems with state achievement tests than on the state of teacher quality and evaluation today.
Another theme I found in this week’s twitter analysis, was an emphasis on education reform in an international context. These tweets responded to the second International Summit on the Teaching Profession which met in New York City this week. The conference brought together educators from twenty-three different countries and the theme of the conference was how we “can learn from other countries with such different contexts and cultures” (http://www.freedomworks.org/press-releases/governor-jindal%E2%80%99s-school-voucher-and-tenure-reform). This theme carried over to twitter, with the Gates Foundation tweeting on the ways in which American education can learn from East Asian education systems, which boasts four of the top five highest-performing education system’s in the world according to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). This was consistently retweeted, as was Diane Ravich’s post on the Norway education model.
This week’s twitter patterns varied from the last two week’s discussion. The discussion of NCLB waivers and charter schools subsided in favor of a greater focus on the teacher evaluation. This week’s discussion was directed by events from this week such as the International Summit on the Teaching Profession, South Dakota Teacher Evaluation law, and Governor Jindal’s education reform proposals.
Some anomalies this week included a post by the University of Chicago from the beginning of the week stating that Virginia parents were being tried in court for “too many tardies” with fines up to $3,000 (http://ht.ly/9EDrW /). Also, singer John Legend called for national education reform at the at the NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Conference in Phoenix as part of his Show Me Campaign which works toward education reform (http://www.statepress.com/2012/03/11/singer-john-legend-calls-for-national-education-reform/). Also, an anomaly this week which had been a pattern in previous weeks on twitter was mention of parent trigger laws. Parent trigger laws were briefly mentioned at the beginning of the week but failed to attract a real debate or discussion on twitter this week.
My overall assessment for this week was that the twitter discussion focusing on teacher evaluation and quality echoes contemporary questions of how best to measure teacher achievement and to what degree state tests help or hurt. Furthermore, the discussion stressed the various opinions on this subject which are affecting education reform policy. Moreover, this week the twitter feed demonstrated the role of education in global competition. The emphasis on learning and improving American education based on different international models stressed how the U.S. was falling behind. Also, this emphasis implied the importance associate with the U.S. reclaiming primacy in global education standings as not only an education issue but a matter of national reputation.
Policy Paper Recommendation:
My recommended policy paper for this week is “Teacher Evaluator Training & Certification: Lessons Learned from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project” part of the Practitioner Series for Teacher Evaluation. This policy paper looks at over 23,000 lessons collected from more than 3,000 classrooms as part of the Gates Foundation’s MET project in order to offer policymakers and district leaders’ insight for improving teacher effectiveness thereby improving student learning.
