Feedback Systems Watch -- Education

Given that it's "School Choice Week", Education is a good stop for our next feedback systems analysis.

What systems of feedback do we need to watch in the education space?

• Learner-Solution:  The killer feedback loop is the feedback system between the student and the problem.  All other solutions are subsidiary to this...but getting this going is tough.
• Teacher-Topic:  The 2nd feedback loop in the standard education model is between the teacher, the topic, and the learning outcomes.  Do we change what or how we're teaching, based on how well the students learn?
• Administrator-Outcomes:  The 3rd feedback loop in the standard education model is between the administrator's choices, and the learning outcomes.  The most recognized bit here is administrator's capability to fire teachers.  But it's bigger than that.  How much learning does $1000 of computer investment buy, as compared to an extra $1000 investing in teachers.
• $-School:  The 4th feedback loop in the standard model is when parents discover that the administrator is failing to educate their particular student, and move the student to a different school.  Alternatively, the superintendent/state discovers that a school isn't working, and replaces the administrator.
• Learning-Goal:  A sometimes underappreciated feature of feedback loops is that they are primarily valuable when you have a goal.  No goal...it's awful hard to tell if you're getting there.  In the 1800s, the Germans developed the modern school system in order to teach obedience to soldiers and factory workers because the under-schooled did not have the requisite obedience to nominal authority figures...and their soldiers had lost badly to Napoleon.  So...does the method of schooling that does not accomplish the goal of schooling get replaced?

How do they stack up?

• Montessori is still the only big player in the learner-solution feedback loop.  No one else seems to get it. Marginally, the DI folks...but not as clearly as Maria.
• Teacher-topic?  Most teachers do, very slowly.  However, teaching experience doesn't get shared as much as it can.  I think Kahn Academy works in this space.
• Administrator-Outcome?  I think it's illegal.  The teacher's union is the big-evil here.
• $-School.  Fully broken.  The purpose of school choice is to fix this feedback loop.  It's a really good idea to have at least 1 working feedback system.
• Learning-Goal:  There is much hand-wringing, and NO action on this point.

Unsurprisingly, I support school choice.  I even more strongly support bailling on the whole mid-1800s German obedience training  for peasants model.  But school choice (with the important point allowing schools and their associated teachers to fail/go out of business) would at least resurrect 1 of the feedback systems.  Of course it's not THAT simple.  So long as the district owns all the schools...and teachers impact learning quality (We estimate that a 2 sigma teacher is worth ~1 sigma of IQ)....and union rules require the district to keep long-tenured teachers on regardless of quality....you won't get massive improvement in-district.  However, private schools will work to solve.

Another monster issue in education is that undert he current system, the feedback system to the parent is massively masked.  IQ + Teacher Quality + School Quality + Peer effects + etc....it becomes very hard to tease real causal relationships out...and the individual parent is almost at the point of pure guesswork.  Proxying student-happiness and Learning Outcomes are about as good as one can do.

And so I exhort:  Support school choice.  Private schools or homeschooling.  Not only are you saving your own children, you are marginally fixing the feedback-free system, which helps everyone.