Index Last Week Contact DQ News
Rochester Schools Plan to Seek Opinions of
Parents in Evaluating Teachers
According to an article in the July 9th issue of The New York Times, the City School District of Rochester (New York) wants parents to respond to a yearly survey of teacher performance, answering questions about how adept teachers are at instructing children and how thoroughly teachers inform parents about their childrens' academic progress. The Rochester proposal comes from recent thinking among some educators that business concepts like "customer satisfaction" and "total quality management" can be transferred to schools.
The survey proposal is the subject of heated discussion in Rochester regarding survey design, survey questionaire collection, and use of survey data for teacher evaluations. On one side of the controversy school officials want to make schools more accountable to parents, to encourage more parental involvement, and to identify teachers who have problems teaching. On the other hand, the teachers union feels that most of the parents who filled out survey questionnaires would be those with complaints. Other educators feel the surveys would become a teacher "popularity contest."
The article's author, Times journalist Pam Belluck, reports that many details about the proposed survey need to be worked out. It appears likely a survey form will eventually be designed that is agreeable to the union and school district officials. For now, the debate is holding up an agreement on a new contract for teachers, who have been working without a contract for a year. The article appears on page A26.
Public Information, Business Rates
On July 14th The New York Times reported that state and local agencies are beginning to charge newspapers and other media organizations substantial sums of money for information in computerized databases; information that had been previously available either free of charge or for a nominal copying fee. According to the article, state and local agencies have come to realize that they possess "gold mines" of information in the form of driving records, tax assessments, professional licenses, and other data. And although millions of public records are becoming available in databases, cash-strapped state and local governments are charging so much for access to public records databases that news media organizations are unable to afford to search the volumes of data for broad trends when researching major stories.
Moreover, newspapers and other media organizations may soon be prevented from searching driving records databases by a Federal law, the 1994 Driver's Privacy Protection Act, which Congress enacted to prevent stalking of celebrities and abortion rights advocates. The Federal Drivers Protection Act is being challenged on both state sovereignty (10th Amendment) and 1st Amendment free-speech grounds. Several sources believe that access to electronic records will be a major freedom-of-information battlefield over the next decade. Written by Iver Peterson, the article appears on page D1.
Census Calls Sampling Essential
The U.S. Census Bureau is calling limited use of scientific sampling "essential," according to an August 15th report in The Washinton Post. Maintaining that limited use of scientific sampling is essential to making the 2000 census accurate, on July14th the Bureau revealed its plans to supplement information it attempts to obtain from the all the nation's households.
The Bureau's proposed sampling process would be done in two phases. First, enumerators would attempt to sample 22.5 million of the estimated 34 million households that are expected to fail to return mail questionnaires. A second sample will be taken of 750,000 randomly-selected housing units in about 25,000 census blocks. The objective will be to compare the results of returned mail questionnaires and follow-up enumeration to the results obtained by the survey interviewers.
Census officials produced detailed scientific research to show the 2000 census could be a "statistical disaster" is sampling is not allowed. The Bureau estimated the 1990 census failed to count 1.8 percent of the population, or 4.7 million people; and estimates the 2000 census will miss 1.9 percent of the U.S. population without sampling. This undercount would include significant percentages of poor people, children, Native Americans, Hispanics, and African Americans.
Most Republican members of Congress are opposed to sampling, believing it is unconstitutional and will help Democrats by artificially inflating the number of minorities and city dewellers. The article reports that Republicans will attach anti-sampling language to various appropriations bills, and may also sue to block the use of sampling. The front page article was written by Post staff writer Bill McAllister.
Doctors Favor Ultrasound Use in Right Hands
Ultrasound screening in prenatal care remains a subject of considerable debate among experts, according to a report in The New York Times on July 15th. A recent conference held in New York was bluntly titled "Ultrasound Screening for Fetal Anomalies: Is It Worth It?" The consensus was, "Yes, in the right hands."
At the conference, which was sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences, researchers presented preliminary results of the Eurofetus Project, a study designed to assess the accuracy of high quality ultrasound in detecting fetal abnormalities. An earlier large clinical trial in the United States, the "Radius trial" was criticized by conference participants for its low accuracy rate.
Conference participants also discussed how to improve the accuracy of fetal sonograms. Such basic questions as what constitutes a "false positive" and "false negative" fetal sonogram were extensively debated. Conference participants also discussed improving the quality of ultrasound by urging practitioners to go through a rigorous accreditation program. Written by Times science staff writer Natalie Angier, the article appears on page C1.