Newsweek Jukes the Stats for Arne Duncan

by Clay Burell

categories: Education Politics, Mainstream Pundits, Standardized Tests

Published May 06, 2009 @ 08:28AM PT

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
--Winston Churchill

A couple of weeks ago it was Thomas Friedman practicing stenography instead of journalism in his op-ed on the McKinsey report; now it's Newsweek. In this week's feature article on Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman, who replaced Arne Duncan when Duncan followed Obama to take the Education Secretary position, Newsweek characterizes Duncan's stint in Chicago as follows:

Backers of mayoral control point to successes in Chicago, where 64 percent of the students met or exceeded state standards on achievement tests in 2008, compared to 36 percent in 2000. Under Duncan's leadership, test scores improved overall, and the city revamped dozens of schools, typically dismissing administrators, teachers and staff in underperforming schools, and starting over from scratch.

Chicago's Catalyst Notebook blog offers some much-needed complication to Newsweek's wholesale swallowing of Duncan's record there:

As CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan boasted about ISAT [i.e., Illinois Standards Achievement Test - the "state standards" assessment mentioned in Newsweek above] gains, even though the district showed poorly on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card.

[...] According to the most recent scores, only 16 percent of Chicago’s 8th graders were proficient in reading and math on the NAEP; while more than 70 percent of 8th graders met reading and math standards on the ISAT.

So: Duncan's test scores in Chicago rose on the state tests, but stayed dismal on NAEP. Too bad Newsweek couldn't see here the same thing Diane Ravitch saw with NYC schools chancellor Joel Klein's similar boasting about New York state test performances:

On the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP] — widely acknowledged as the gold standard of the testing industry — New York City showed almost no academic improvement between 2003, when the mayor’s reforms were introduced, and 2007. There were no significant gains for New York City’s students — black, Hispanic, white, Asian or lower-income — in fourth-grade reading, eighth-grade reading or eighth-grade mathematics. In fourth-grade math, pupils showed significant gains (although the validity of this is suspect because an unusually large proportion — 25 percent — of students were given extra time and help). The federal test reported no narrowing of the achievement gap between white students and minority students.

The city’s Department of Education belittles the federal test scores and focuses on the assessments given by New York State. And, indeed, the state scores have soared in recent years, not only in the city but also across New York state However, the statewide scores on the N.A.E.P. are as flat as New York City’s. Our state tests are, unfortunately, exemplars of grade inflation.

Brought to you by the "juking the stats" department, compliments of The Wire.

--screenshot from The Wire, HBO