korrents

Freddie deBoer

@freddie-deboer · 18 positions · 0 changes of mind

Writer with a PhD in English who taught writing for years, author of The Cult of Smart and How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement. Argues that academic ability is unevenly distributed and that schools cannot close the gaps they are blamed for.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

Freddie deBoer did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    Putting the children most likely to succeed into one school is segregation, not educational excellence.

    Their wordsSimply creating artificial separation between different students is not a strategy for “educational excellence.” It’s just segregation.

    ↗When People Say They Want to Send Their Kid to a Good School, They Usually Mean Schools Without "Bad Kids"freddiedeboer.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    The best teachers, unlimited resources and every evidence-based intervention still fail on a student who does not want to learn.

    Their wordsYou can staff a school with the best teachers on earth, give them unlimited resources, and wrap the place in every evidence-based intervention imaginable, and it still won’t work if students are resistant, disengaged, or actively hostile to the enterprise.

    ↗When People Say They Want to Send Their Kid to a Good School, They Usually Mean Schools Without "Bad Kids"freddiedeboer.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    Education cannot be done to a person: without at least a minimal act of will from the learner, no method, resource or reform works.

    Their wordsEducation is not something that can be done to someone; it’s something that requires at least a minimal act of will from the learner, and no reform agenda can engineer that away.

    ↗When People Say They Want to Send Their Kid to a Good School, They Usually Mean Schools Without "Bad Kids"freddiedeboer.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece

    Interesting
  6. 12 days earlier

  7. Our reading

    Opening school to everybody necessarily made average measured performance look worse, because the students who used to be excluded are now in the data.

    Their wordsBut if you know anything about my obsession with selection bias, you can predict the outcome: when you expand access from a population that excludes more students to one that excludes fewer, you’re very likely to see declining performance.

    ↗What People Want From Our Schools Has Never Been Accomplished, Anywhere, Everfreddiedeboer.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    The educational crisis narrative is downstream of the labour market: we destroyed the jobs that did not need a degree and then ordered schools to make everybody degree-ready.

    Their wordsEverybody thinks our schools are in crisis all the time because they’re being forced to do something they were never meant to do, which is to make everyone college-ready, and they’re being forced to do that because we have seen jobs that provide a living wage without a college diploma evaporate.

    ↗What People Want From Our Schools Has Never Been Accomplished, Anywhere, Everfreddiedeboer.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece

    AI and jobs

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    The golden age of American schooling that reformers want to return to never existed anywhere.

    Their wordsBut please, stop saying things like “I just want us to get back to a world where kids were graduating high school with basic skills!” Because the world you’re referring to never existed.

    ↗What People Want From Our Schools Has Never Been Accomplished, Anywhere, Everfreddiedeboer.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece

    America

    Interesting
  12. 4 months earlier

  13. Our reading

    The United States was never a leader in international educational comparisons, so there is no lost first place to return to.

    Their wordsWe have never, ever done well in international educational comparisons.

    ↗Was the United States Once a Global Leader in Educational Metrics? Have We Fallen From Those Lofty Heights? No and Nofreddiedeboer.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece

    America

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    The recent fall in test scores is a rich-world phenomenon, and steeper in several European countries than in America, so it cannot be blamed on American policy.

    Their wordsLearning loss is a global phenomenon, exacerbated by a catastrophic event, not a structural flaw unique to the American education system.

    ↗Was the United States Once a Global Leader in Educational Metrics? Have We Fallen From Those Lofty Heights? No and Nofreddiedeboer.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece

    EuropeAmerica

    Interesting
  16. 8 weeks earlier

  17. Our reading

    Educational miracles are manufactured by selection: the students who would have scored badly are quietly moved off the books.

    Their wordsThat’s how educational miracles are manufactured: through artificially creating selection bias, which is the most powerful force in education.

    ↗There Are No Miracles in Educationfreddiedeboer.substack.com 1st of 4 in this piece

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    Who is in a school predicts its results better than anything about its teaching, its teachers or its methods.

    Their wordsOnce again, the composition of the student body is always more powerful a predictor than any identifiable pedagogical, school, or teacher variable.

    ↗There Are No Miracles in Educationfreddiedeboer.substack.com 2nd of 4 in this piece

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    Academic talent is normally distributed, so some students failing is inevitable rather than anybody's fault.

    Their wordsAcademic talent is normally distributed throughout the population, and so some degree of failure is literally inevitable.

    ↗There Are No Miracles in Educationfreddiedeboer.substack.com 3rd of 4 in this piece

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    Schools account for a tenth or less of the variation in how well students do.

    Their wordsThat makes perfect sense when you consider that schools control 10% or less of the variance in student academic outputs.

    ↗There Are No Miracles in Educationfreddiedeboer.substack.com 4th of 4 in this piece

    Interesting
  24. 3 weeks earlier

  25. Our reading

    Any teaching method that helps the weakest students also helps the strongest, so closing the gap between them is not something teaching can do.

    Their wordsBecause some people are simply better at school than other people, any pedagogical strategy, practice, or method that improves the performance of the worst students will also improve the performance of the best students

    ↗Education Doesn't Work 3.0freddiedeboer.substack.com 1st of 6 in this piece

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    We accept without difficulty that people differ in athletic or musical talent, and refuse to accept that they differ in academic talent.

    Their wordsBut with education and intelligence, we’re unwilling to countenance the simple reality that some people are better equipped to succeed and some worse.

    ↗Education Doesn't Work 3.0freddiedeboer.substack.com 2nd of 6 in this piece

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    Education can raise how much everyone knows, but it almost never changes who is ahead of whom.

    Their wordsDecades of grading data; standardized test scores; cross-sectional, longitudinal, observational, and experimental studies; along with many other types of ancillary and convergent evidence, ultimately tell the same story: education can raise the absolute performance of most students modestly, but it almost never meaningfully reshuffles the relative distribution of ability and achievement

    ↗Education Doesn't Work 3.0freddiedeboer.substack.com 3rd of 6 in this piece

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    Children settle into a band of academic performance early in life and stay in it, whatever their schooling does.

    Their wordsThe brute reality is that most kids slot themselves into academic ability bands early in life and stay there throughout schooling.

    ↗Education Doesn't Work 3.0freddiedeboer.substack.com 4th of 6 in this piece

    Interesting

  33. Our reading

    In thousands of years of trying, nobody has found a reliable, repeatable way of moving a child from one educational percentile into another.

    Their wordsBut in thousands of years of education humanity has discovered no replicable and reliable means of taking kids from one educational percentile and raising them up into another.

    ↗Education Doesn't Work 3.0freddiedeboer.substack.com 5th of 6 in this piece

    Interesting

  35. Our reading

    School's purpose should be humanistic rather than economic, and the people who are not academically talented need a welfare state rather than a promise that school will lift them.

    Their wordsWhat we need, ultimately, is a return to a holistic, humanistic vision of what school is for, and we need a robust social safety net to protect those who are not lucky enough to be naturally academically talented.

    ↗Education Doesn't Work 3.0freddiedeboer.substack.com 6th of 6 in this piece

    Interesting