Subject: Root cause of the 'teaching systems' problem

Posted by Jack Harich on 12/24/2010
In Reply To:Root cause of the 'teaching systems' problem Posted by Chris Rowe on 12/23/2010

Message:

Chris,

Perhaps we have different definitions of root causes and high leverage points. Also, you may be confusing intermediate causes with root causes. High leverage points resolve root cause. Low leverage point attempt to resolve intermediate causes. Most difficult social problem solutions fail, because they push on low leverage points. Why do people push there? Because they have used intuitive or shallow analysis, rather than root cause analysis.

I appreciate your note, but the evidence shows that "pushing" on the leverage point of "teacher quality" can affect only 7.5 to 10 percent of test results. How can one reason that this is anything but a low leverage point?

Root cause analysis causes us to ask: What is causing low quality teaching? Or better yet, what is causing low quality students who are disruptive, inattentive, cheat a lot, and place little value on education, compared to students of the past or other cultures? Does the answer to that lie in the family? What then causes families to turn out poor potential students? Etc, etc. The idea is to drill down to systemic causes.

In systemic problems like education, factors like teacher quality are invariably symptoms of deeper causes. That, I believe, is what the Brookings article was trying to say: "So while teachers are the most important factor within schools, their effects pale in comparison with those of students’ backgrounds, families, and other factors beyond the control of schools and teachers."

The article is at: http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2010/1111_superman_ravitch.aspx

Just one humble opinion,

Jack