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Fraudulent People, Fraudulent Ideas

Rodin
@Rodin
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There seems to be a non-trivial correlation between fraudulent ideas, and the fraudulent people who promote them. From the fundamental dimness of DEI “scholars” to the perversions of Kinsey, to the DDT scare of Rachel Carson, there is a destructive path of overclaims, thinly sourced, misrepresented, or downright fraudulent research. The latest seems to involve a math “scholar”, Jo Boaler, who has been influential in California adopting “heterogeneous classes” that throttle high performers and fail to support low performers, and to delay teaching algebra until the 10th grade.

Dr Boaler gives bad advice and charges a lot for it from her coveted perch in the Stanford University education department.

Though some of the specific allegations are new, the complainant’s conclusion — that Boaler has “engaged in reckless disregard for accuracy” throughout her career — won't be surprising to those familiar with her track record. Besides routinely misrepresenting citations for decades, Boaler also has a history of deceptively presenting her professional credentials, charging underperforming schools exorbitant consulting fees, and pushing to water-down public school courses while placing her own children in elite private schools.

Academic/research fraud is at a crisis level (IMO). It was bad in 2020 when reviewed by Lee Harvey in an issue of Quality in Higher Education. Events since then do not suggest things are getting better.

I have long held the belief that fads in elementary and secondary education have been largely driven by a desire for teachers not to be bored by the repetition. I sympathize, but making kids your (involuntary) guinea pigs is a violation of your fiduciary duties.

When you blend in bad ideology with ineffective instruction you have quite a stew of malpractice. And when you have miseducated two generations of students your society may be doomed.

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Discussion (25)

  • MWD B612 "Dawg"@danok1

    Jo Boaler is not a mathematician, but rather a researcher in "math education." I probably studied more math in my undergrad college that she has in her entire career. And I did not major in math!

    Rodin (View Post):
    I have long held the belief that fads in elementary and secondary education have been largely driven by a desire for teachers not to be bored by the repetition.

    Nah, it's because in general, the least-smart students major in education. Most teachers at the elementary level have no mastery of any subject; they major in things like "early childhood education." Very few at the secondary level have any mastery of the subject they teach. You can't teach what you don't know.

    IMHO, elementary school teachers should major in an actual discipline, like math, English, history, etc. They can learn "teaching" on-the-job. Secondary school teachers should have at least a Master's degree in the subject they teach.

  • Red Herring@EHerring

    Military kids move from school to school just as parents more from base to base. We saw it all. Private Lutheran school K-4- very good. Moved. Middle school very bad. Students weren’t issued books to take home so we demanded one and got it. No homework because kids didn’t bother to do it. Husband had retired so we ordered Abeka home school books and he worked with her several hours a day after school. Moved. Schools were much better but lumped all performers together so smart ones could raise the dumb ones up. Teacher confided with us that daughter was smart but underperforming because dumb ones had teased her. We pushed her but she resisted because she was already the smartest in the class and didn’t believe us when we said it wasn’t enough. Moved here. Finally a school with honors and AP courses. We enrolled and demanded they ignore her less than A average. They enrolled her in honors and teacher was one of their most demanding. Daughter got her butt kicked the first reporting period and said she had no idea how hard she really needed to work. We assured teacher she would be Ok, to not ease up. Each reporting period she gained ground and was recommended to continue in honors. She rose to the challenges. She majored in chemistry in college because she had a good HS chemistry teacher. Her college required all students to pass a freshman competency test she passed first time and her professor wanted her to major in English. California had it all wrong. Why? Teacher performance judgments depend on student performance. Teachers are resisting failures. Remember when we heard of schools caught helping students cheat on standardized tests? Even in adult ed, people who teach can’t administer the GED to students.

  • Lunchbox Gerald@Jose
    Rodin (View Post):
    From the fundamental dimness of DEI “scholars” to the perversions of Kinsey, to the DDT scare of Rachel Carson, there is a destructive path of overclaims, thinly sourced, misrepresented, or downright fraudulent research.

    If one has an agenda, one requires a crisis.

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