In my continuing effort to be Joan Rivers to Rick Hess’ Johnny Carson — or perhaps Wally Pipp to his Lou Gehrig — I again did the Fordham Institute’s Gadfly podcast today along with host Mike Petrilli (who, incidentally, does a good job of unpacking the tensions between achievement gaps as measured by relative- vs. [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Achievement Gap'
Note to High Performing High Schools: Mind the Gap
On the front page of the Washington Post today, there’s an article about racial achievement gaps in SAT scores at local “high performing” high schools. The gist of the article is that high overall SAT scores at some high schools hide the fact that average scores for African American students at these schools are much [...]
Second rate nation?
12th grade NAEP results were released this morning (see here and here) at a press conference filled with gloom and doom. The results aren’t good–despite high school students taking more classes, harder classes and getting better grades, NAEP performance overall is down slightly and the achievement gaps aren’t closing.
Panelists John Engler (former governor of [...]
Unwarranted Pessimism on the Achievement Gap
Matt Yglesias is too pessimistic about the prospect of closing the achievement gap.
Referring to Paul Tough’s recent NYTimes article, which concludes that the gap can be closed if we put disadvantaged students in schools that are better-run and have more money, he says:
This seems to me to involve assuming a can opener. Schools full of [...]
NYTimes on the Achievement Gap: What To Think
Paul Tough went long–really long–on the achievement gap in yesterday’s New York Times Sunday magazine. While I’ll quibble with some his conclusions and interpretations, on the whole I think he got the story right.
First, the quibbles. Tough frames the story by discussing the latest NAEP data, which is fine since there’s no better source of [...]
Yglesias on the Achievement Gap
Matt Yglesias responds to Zachary Norris’ post about closing the achievement gap in Baltimore:
But what would it mean — what could it mean — to close the achievement gap between high- and low-SES students in American schools? For a whole variety of reasons, this just doesn’t seem like it’s going to be possible. At the [...]
AFTie Confusion
In critiquing my post on Richard Rothstein, AFTie John can’t figure out the difference between the title of a law and what the law actually says.
Or he thinks Rothstein can’t tell the difference, or Congress can’t. I’m not exactly sure.
The larger point being, the phrase “close the achievement gap” can mean equally legitimate but very [...]
Summer Daze
Ok, I have to admit that I’ve had a bit of a case of spring fever lately. The weather’s gotten warmer and suddenly all I really want to think about is how soon my pool will open, when I can get in that first weekend trip to the beach, and how long I’ll have to [...]
Ignorance is Strength, We Have Always Been at War with Eastasia, Holding Schools Accountable for Minority Achievement Hurts Minority Students
Yesterday the AP continued it’s week-long inadvertent expose of muddled thinking about NCLB with an article titled “Law raises fear of more school segregation.”
NCLB unexpectedly hurting the very students it’s designed to help! Man, that would be quite a story if it were, what’s the word…oh, right: true. But the story offers little evidence, starting [...]
N Size Fits All
Monday’s AP story about minority students being excluded from NCLB accountability calculations has generated enough commotion among legislators and commentators to warrant…another AP story, about said commotion.
I’ve been of two minds (or hands) on this. On the one hand, I’m a hard-liner on the various bureaucratic gambits and statistical trap-doors currently being used by state [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.