The Subjectivity of Wine – And everything else for that matter…

So much of what we do is subjective.  As a matter of fact, some would argue that everything we do, and are, is subjective.  You often see this in practice when you see something happen and then watch it on the news that night.  Many times, it is reported completely different than you saw it.  Then you turn the channel to another news broadcast, and they report it different still.  Then, you are at a ‘get together’ with a friend, who also happened to see the same event as you, and he/she has a completely different interpretation of the events than you.  The catch?  It’s very possible that they were all true, or none of them were true.  You may have heard the saying before, “The facts and the truth are not necessarily the same thing.”

However, in order to attempt objectivity, it helps to set criteria ahead of time.  For instance, as it relates to the Mehlville School District, one of the criteria that we set with COMPASS is that we wanted the outcome to truly represent the majority of our community’s desires.  (No one in their right mind would ever think you could make every Tom, Dick, and Harry happy.)  By setting this criteria, it is a little easier to at least be a little objective about what the community wants as it relates to the future of the Mehlville School District.

On the other-hand, if someone (Tom, Dick, and/or Harry) sets the criteria for themselves that no matter what COMPASS does, it is going to be a farce, that is how they will see it from beginning to end.  Or in other words, subjectivity in practice.  For more on subjectivity, be sure to read the article below.  It tells a story of 57 wine experts who were duped…and duped well.

The Frontal Cortex : The Subjectivity of Wine
This is the analysis of the tests, to see what happened, click the link to read the story.  What these experiments neatly demonstrate is that the taste of a wine, like the taste of everything, is not merely the sum of our inputs, and cannot be solved in a bottom-up fashion. It cannot be deduced by beginning with our simplest sensations and extrapolating upwards. When we taste a wine, we aren’t simply tasting the wine. This is because what we experience is not what we sense. Rather, experience is what happens when our senses are interpreted by our subjective brain, which brings to the moment its entire library of personal memories and idiosyncratic desires. As the philosopher Donald Davidson argued, it is ultimately impossible to distinguish between a subjective contribution to knowledge that comes from our selves (what he calls our “scheme”) and an objective contribution that comes from the outside world (“the content”). Instead, in Davidson’s influential epistemology, the “organizing system and something waiting to be organized” are hopelessly interdependent. Without our subjectivity we could never decipher our sensations, and without our sensations we would have nothing to be subjective about. In other words, we shouldn’t be surprised that different people like different bottles of cheap wine.

 Click here to read the rest…

More information on Project STAR – including study methodology and contact information

One of the studies referenced by the Center for Public Education is this independent Project STAR study.

Here you will find a summary PDF of Project STAR. (I like to make everyone’s research as easy as possible on them.) It includes the study methodology, including the population studied contact information for the researchers themselves. If you have any questions or doubts about the study, I am sure they would be happy to answer any of your questions.

ClassSizeSTAR.pdf (application/pdf Object)

POPULATION
Nearly 12,000 students in more than 300
classrooms participated in Project STAR.
Approximately one quarter of the students in
Project STAR were minorities, primarily African
Americans from Tennessee’s large metropolitan
areas. In the Lasting Benefits Study,
evaluators continued to track the academic
progress of between 4,000 and 6,000 of the
STAR participants annually from 1990-1994.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Research Contacts
Jeremy D. Finn, Professor
Graduate School of Education
409 Baldy Hall, North Campus
State University of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY 14260-1000
Phone: 716.645.2484×1071
finn@acsu.buffalo.edu

lan B. Krueger, Professor
Economics and Social Policy
Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544-1013
Phone: 609.258.4046
Fax: 609.258.2907
akrueger@princeton.edu

Class size and student achievement – Center for Public Education

Class size and student achievement – Center for Public Education
Class size and student achievement

Reducing class size to increase student achievement is an approach that has been tried, debated, and analyzed for several decades. The premise seems logical: with fewer students to teach, teachers can coax better performance from each of them. But what does the research show?Some researchers have not found a connection between smaller classes and higher student achievement, but most of the research shows that when class size reduction programs are well-designed and implemented in the primary grades (K-3), student achievement rises as class size drops.

Click here to read on…

Archived: Class-Size Reduction: Myths and Realities

Archived: Class-Size Reduction: Myths and Realities
Class-Size Reduction
Myths and Realities

Myth 1: Reductions in class size have very little impact on student achievement.

Reality: Studies have consistently identified a positive relationship between reduced class size and improved student performance.

Click here to read the rest of the myths and realities…

Further Clarification on Smaller Class Sizes – Dr. Lisa Counts

As always, I had some questions about all factors being considered when a study is presented as it was the other night for COMPASS.  And as always, our excellent staff at Central Office had all the bases covered.  Here is the response I received from Dr. Counts:

Karl,

I’m going to include a couple of the websites that I referred to where you can read further information. A few key points that I’ll highlight:

• Project STAR involved nearly 80 schools from 42 school districts, included about 7,000 K-3 students from families ranging from very poor to very affluent
• The SAGE study was phased in over five years and targeted high-poverty schools and districts

These were 2 of the 4 studies that I referenced in the presentation.

As for the correlation of socio-economic status and the correlation of increased achievement in a reduced size classroom, it may be logical to assume that students of higher socio-economic status achieve at higher rates, regardless of class size, so therefore reducing the class size will only further escalate their achievement. But, I think this research is pretty solid in covering a wide range of socio-economic variables.

As I stated numerous times in the presentation, reduced class size is not an automatic “fix.” There are many other variables that must be in place (research indicates this also), coupled with reduced classes, for students to achieve to the levels indicated in the research findings. A key component is highly qualified teachers who are provided high quality professional development on a regular basis. The focus must be on research based best instructional practices. Another key component is a rigorous curriculum aligned to state standards, which includes a scope and sequence for grades K-12 to insure that all curriculum goals and standards are taught and are taught in the right order. Again, professional development is key; teachers must be implementing the curriculum consistently. The list goes on and on: supervision of instruction, time for professional collaboration among teachers, instructional resources to support the curriculum, parent/community involvement, etc.

In a nutshell, to reach the achievement levels indicated in the research, requires reducing class sizes along with the many factors listed above.

I hope I haven’t bombarded you with too much information…it’s obviously all still fresh in my brain! Below are some websites you might want to reference.

www.centerforpubliceducation.org

• Click on High Performing, high-poverty schools
• Go to class size
• View “key lessons” link and “Research review” link

www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/ClassSize/myths.html

Happy reading!