Wisconsin voucher schools get worse test scores, so Walker EXEMPTS them

[yurbud]

So why exactly are we giving our tax dollars to for-profit schools that do WORSE than existing public schools?

And when will the leaders of the Democratic Party admit that this is a scam and their support of it is blatant corruption?

Our education policy should not be dictated by right wing think tank and hedge fund managers looking for a way divert our shrinking education dollars in to their pockets.

Democrats at the top need to call this a failure and change course NOW.

Wisconsin Raises Standards, Voucher Schools and MPS Schools Plummet

by dianerav

Wisconsin decided to raise the passing mark on its tests, and the results were not pretty in Milwaukee.

90% of students in voucher schools were found not to be "proficient" in math or reading.

In the Milwaukee public schools, 85% were not proficient in reading and 80% were not proficient in math.

Governor Scott Walker has solved the problem for the voucher schools: In his new legislation expanding the voucher program to more students, the schools will no longer be required to take the state tests.

Therefore, their proficiency rate will not be known or reported.

In the future, there will be no more comparing the results of voucher schools and public schools in Milwaukee.

http://wp.me/p2odLa-2Me

[Blue Owl]

1. What is it with the GOP and their fucking vouchers?

Those greedy millionaires sure are some stingy fucks.

[yurbud]

3. they believe the government can only spend money to make them richer.

[SharonAnn]

9. They want private (and church) schools paid for with government dollars.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, yurbud.

[yurbud]

4. de nada

[Squinch]

5. And keep in mind: charter schools and voucher schools don't have to take anyone they don't want.

They reject kids who have learning disabilities, physical disabilities, emotional issues, or even if they are simply bad test takers.

The public schools have to take everyone.

So these voucher and charter schools should be performing far and away better than the public schools.

And they are doing much worse. Because their teachers are young and inexperienced, and their administrators are concerned with religion or profit or test scores or whatever. Anything other than educating children.

This is truly one weapon in the war to make the USA an oligarchy: take away education from all those below the elite levels, and make a tidy profit in the process.

[yurbud]

6. yep: they have a built in advantage and still suck. Now we have to make it widely known

enough to make it radioactive to at least Democratic politicians.

[Squinch]

7. Yurbud, I'd love to, but I don't know how. Where would you suggest I start with that?

[riversedge]

8. I fear for WI. Each day

I learn of something worse!

Spud Lovr ?@SpudLovr

RT @CoffeeBean26: WI voucher schools get worse test scores, so Walker EXEMPTS them test taking http://www.democraticunderground.com/101646917 #wiunion #wipolitics

[midnight]

10. "numbers are not the only type of data that matter"

At a basic level, it seems to signal a general orientation toward making decisions based on the best information that we have, which is a very good thing. But there are two problems here. First, we tend to have an extremely narrow view of the information that counts – that is, data that can be quantified easily. Second, we seem to operate under the illusion that data, in and of themselves, can tell stories and reveal truth.

But the thing is: (1) numbers are not the only type of data that matter; and (2) all data need to be interpreted before they can be elevated to the status of evidence – and theory should drive this process, not data.

Remember the parable about the drunk man searching for his wallet under a streetlight? When someone comes to help, they ask “Are you sure you dropped it here?” The drunk says, “I probably dropped it in the street, but the light is bad there, so it’s easier to look over here.” In science, this phenomenon – that is, researchers looking for answers where the data are better, “rather than where the truth is most likely to lie” – has been called the “streetlight effect.”

As David Freedman explains it in a Discover Magazine article that asks why scientific studies are so often wrong, researchers “don’t always have much choice. It is often extremely difficult or even impossible to cleanly measure what is really important, so scientists instead cleanly measure what they can, hoping it turns out to be relevant.”

http://shankerblog.org/?p=7015

[yurbud]

11. In this case, it's more like the drunk is looking for our wallet

and he isn't drunk, he's a hedge fund manager or trust fund baby.

[happyslug]

12. According to the following web site, the best school in Milwaukee are the Catholic Schools

http://www.greatschools.org/wisconsin/milwaukee/

The first and fifth schools are Catholic Schools:
http://my.dsha.info/

Second is a "Public School" a product of the "Fox Point J2 Public School District" within the Milwaukee School District
Fox Point J2 School District School District

http://www.foxbay.k12.wi.us/aboutourdistrict.cfm

Through another group gives it only an 8 out of 110:
http://www.zillow.com/wi/districts/fox-point-j2-school-district-438444/

Fox Point seems to be a School District covering grades 1 through 8, No High School is listed. Thus "J2" may mean a school district up to 8th grade, and another "School District" handles students above 8th grade (I have to reject the other alternative, that Fox Point ONLY educate up to 8th grade and then the student is on his own).

Third is a private Academy:
http://www.greatschools.org/wisconsin/milwaukee/3360-Eastbrook-Academy/

The Fourth school is a PUBLIC School, with a high number of African American teachers (and appears to be a Magnet School, with all of the problems of a magnet school):
http://www.greatschools.org/wisconsin/milwaukee/1110-Golda-Meir-School/

Of the top five school, only one is private and two are Catholic. This is about normal for most school. The best schools are tend to be neighborhood schools with high parental input. In this regard, Public Schools that are NOT magnets but where most of the students go to the local school AND the school District encourages parental (and parents participate) input have ALWAYS been the best. Right behind them were the Catholic Schools, again with a local population to draw from AND high parental participation (and I do NOT mean in Sports, but in the education of their children in the school). Other schools tend to fall way below these two types of school.

Milwaukee seems to have a problem with a lot of low income students and the related problem of them always moving AND parents to busy just trying to keep the family housed and feed to have time to participate in how the school is being run. Thus Golda Meir has a high rating for it seems to be a school parents want their children in. In such Schools, parental input is a huge plus, the problem is these same parents, would provide the parental input the other schools need. Thus it benefits while the other public school fall.

More on school districts in Wisconsin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Public_Schools

In Wisconsin and other states:
http://www.sunshinereview.org/index.php/Evaluation_of_Wisconsin_school_district_websites

[yurbud]

13. Catholic schools are probably the closest to what public schools used to be

before the "reformers" came at us with their long knives.