On Education, Obama Blows It, Part II

[LWolf]

This is a couple of weeks old; I'm really behind in reading and cleaning out my inbox.

I posted part I last month:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5130256

<snips>

OK, there were some good things in the talk to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I especially liked an expansion of early childhood education having worked in the field and recently surveyed a meta-analysis of how well it works........

.......But a lot of the speech contained flat out errors. He said that graduation rates had fallen from 77% to 67%. Huh? Graduates are a contentious topic, but the U. S. Department of Education says the best method for estimating it puts it at 74.5% nationally (a short treatise of the topic can be found in Paul Barton's 2009 "Chasing the High School Graduation Rate." Free copies at www.ets.org/research/pic).

He said dropout rates have tripled over the past 30 years. Come again? A 10% decline in graduation rate = a 300% increase in dropout rate? Talk about fuzzy math.

......After evaluating public schools on test scores, he then turns around and praises charters for creativity and innovation. But study after study of charters has come away saying they were surprised at how much the charter schools look like regular public schools. And charter schools don't score as well on tests as regular public schools ("NAEP gap continuing for charters," Eric Robelen, Education Week, May 21, 2008). You can't bash the public schools on test scores then praise the charters which have lower scores. That's hypocritical....

...I voted for Obama. I canvassed for him. I registered voters for him. But on education, he has yet to hit the basket. Diane Ravitch, never once called a bleeding-hear liberal and assistant secretary of education for George H. W. Bush, recently said that, from what she's seen, Obama is a third term for George W. Bush and Arne Duncan is Margaret Spellings in drag. She was not doling out compliments to either man. (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2009/02/is_arne_duncan_really_margaret.html.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/on-education-obama-blows_b_173666.html

[imdjh]

1. I'll stipulate to the report

I'll assume that the gist is that there is not at present a way of tracking every student who enters high school by an ID number, and then in the year in which he should have graduated, sorting out the entire age-class by those who graduated, those who didn't, those who died, those who are repeating a grade, and those who disappeared or are otherwise unaccounted for, those who couldn't possibly graduate because they had no business in a regular school, those whose real names we don't know, those who are in the country illegally, those who are in the country legally but in hiding for some reason, etc.....

It's a wonder we can get any kind of meaningful number at all. Perhaps we can't. Certainly not without assigning each student who enters high school a number, chipping them, and then scanning them as they cross the stage to get their diplomas.

I really had no idea it was this difficult.

[Name removed]

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