Mike Francesa Makes an NFL Draft Day Data Point We Can Apply to Teacher Ratings

I've been listening to Mike since he began on WFAN almost 30 years ago. The other day he was discussing tonight's NFL draft (Will the Jets screw it up again? I'm going to start early - Boooooo!). Every player is tested and measured at the NFL combines. Mike was complaining that too much can be made of all this data. His guest said that some teams make their draft choice based on data and not the actual player. "A football player is a football player," Mike said. "Sometimes you have to look at the person, not the data."

Data is a funny thing. We know that the Bloomberg grad rates were phony, yet they are accepted by a fawning press as real.

One of the nicest things said about me as a teacher - not to my face but to the teacher trainer in my school -- yes, Virginia, in the late 60s there were so many new teachers many schools had a full-time teacher trainer to work with them - we have regressed - was from the principal, a guy who, like most principals at the time who rose through the ranks of teacher, AP. He had dropped in to observe me and told her I was a born teacher. No data -- just watched me interact with the kids.We all knew - some years my data would be good, others not so good. In addition, there was a guy at my school who the principal loved -- this guy was a data guy -- his scores were out of sight every year -- but then again he was given the top class every year -- but still they were 2 years above level. I'm not even assuming he cheated - but that was what he focused on. I focused on other things - the whole child, lots of trips for kids who barely ever left their neighborhood. Even with the same kids I never could have gotten the scores he did because I was not comfortable teaching his way.

That is why I think that today I would not, could not, be a teacher. I would be thinking electrician or carpenter - and I can't think why Michael Mugrew would wanted to switch.