BY GEORGE, I THINK THEY’VE GOT IT
In an article that beats to death the fact that failing schools use “technology” less than more successful ones, the most salient fact is buried in the tenth ‘graf:
Despite a clear correlation between technology use and school success, educators say it cannot be assumed there is a causal relationship between the two.
“I suspect … that we may find the same factors are related to lack of technology and poor performance, but the lack of technology is not necessarily the cause of the poor performance,” said Raymond Yeagley, superintendent of the Rochester, N.H., school system.
“Perhaps schools with the least financial resources, in addition to having less technology, are also unable to attract the best teachers because they don’t pay as well as their more affluent counterparts, are located in poorer communities or sections of communities where behavior problems and other issues are known to abound, and have less prestige,” he added.
It’s easy to find a correlation between academic performance and technology use, poverty, teacher qualifications, or a host of other factors, Yeagley said–but it’s much harder to determine which factors are causing what outcomes.
Holy cow! An educrat who understands the correlation/causation problem. Whodathunkit?