An op-ed in the New York Sun and the folks at The Daily Howler focus on a recent article praising Wake County (NC) for raising test scores. The real picture, it seems, is not what the NYT the made it out to be.
Here's what the NYT printed:
Over the last decade, black and Hispanic students here in Wake County have made such dramatic strides in standardized reading and math tests that it has caught the attention of education experts around the country.The main reason for the students' dramatic improvement, say officials and parents in the county, which includes Raleigh and its sprawling suburbs, is that the district has made a concerted effort to integrate the schools economically.
Here's what the Daily Howler concluded, after a spot of online digging:
Wow! Times readers felt a familiar glow; 80 percent of Wake County black kids scored at grade level on last spring’s tests! But here’s what Finder didn’t tell you—across the state of North Carolina, 77 percent of all black kids scored at grade level on those same tests! That’s right; the Times devoted this front-page story to a three-point difference in passing rates—a three-point difference in passing rates on tests almost everyone passes!...WHY YOU’RE BEING PLAYED THIS WAY: Finder’s piece has an obvious sub-text. Wake County is busing to achieve economic integration—and this is producing big score gains.
For ourselves, we would favor such a program as long as the voters were willing. But these Wake Country test scores provide little evidence of big pay-offs in minority achievement if you enact such a program. Yes, Wake has shown good score gains (most likely on easier tests)—but so have schools all over the state! How can Wake’s program account for gains which are happening in all the state’s districts?
Yes, the gains are occurring all over the state...But apparently, Finder didn’t want you to know that. As good pseudo-liberals have endlessly done, he just wanted you feeling real good about a type of program he favors. As good pseudo-liberals have shamelessly done, he wanted you thinking something bogus and cruel: When it comes to the education of poor black children, success is right there for the taking...
And here's what the op-ed writer concluded:
Intrigued by the story's claim that the percentage of Raleigh's students achieving proficiency had risen dramatically over the past several years, my research assistant, Mark Linnen, took it upon himself to check out the data available on the North Carolina Web site. Over the past 10 years, the percentage proficient or better in grades 3-8 in Raleigh (Wade County) had in fact risen by 13% in math and 12% in reading between 1995 and 2005. That seemed to confirm the bragging of local officials - until it was discovered that, statewide, proficiency rates were up by 21% in math and 19% in reading - gains that outstripped those in Raleigh by over 50%. Nor did the proficiency rates of Raleigh's black and Hispanic students climb any faster than the statewide average for these groups. In fact, the gains were somewhat smaller.Not that proficiency rates in North Carolina mean much. The state has some of the worst state standards in the country. Last spring, my Education Next co-editor, Rick Hess and I gave North Carolina's proficiency standards one of the worst marks in the country - a D minus. (By comparison, South Carolina got an A.) So low were the standards that 85% of all North Carolina eighth graders was said to be proficient in reading, despite the fact that only 29% of the state's eighth graders was found proficient on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation's report card.
One can only suspect that the allegedly astronomical gains in North Carolina - in both Raleigh and elsewhere - were simply a function of a dumbed-down scoring system.
Does the NYT even realize that all the NC scores are online, and that readers can do the math for themselves?
Parapundit has a few things to say on the topic as well
Posted by kswygert at September 29, 2005 01:54 PM