Stephen Hoffman

Education in the USA
What are schools for? What makes education in a democracy unique? What counts as evidence of that uniqueness? What roles do schools play in educating citizens in a democracy for a democracy? In this course, we will engage these questions while investigating education as a social, cultural, political, and economic process. We will develop new understandings of current policy disputes regarding a broad range of educational issues by examining the familiar through different ideological and disciplinary lenses. 3 hrs. lect.

Understanding Educational Testing
Achievement testing is now a cornerstone of education policy. It is also complex and routinely misunderstood by educators, policymakers, and the media. In this course students will use statistical methods to explore and address testing issues that arise in both policy and practice. We will examine the uses and abuses of educational assessment. We will examine and interrogate trends and group differences in achievement. And we will broaden our understanding of essential concepts of measurement, such as reliability, validity, and bias, by analyzing both large and small datasets. Prior experience with the statistical package “R” is not required, as learning this package will be part of the course. 3 hrs. lect.