A NAEP for Every Taste
The 2009 NAEP reading scores are out, and advocates of all stripes will be in a mad rush to interpret them in self-serving ways. That's bad news for NAEP.
People often use NAEP to support grand ideological claims. Just over a week ago, one blogger credited charter schools with DC's gains in NAEP scores from 1994 to 2007. "One blindingly obvious cause for the improvement: the 100 charter schools operating in the district educating over 30,000 children," he wrote.
Blindingly obvious? Perhaps not. The latest NAEP reading scores included bad news for charter schools in DC, whose 4th grade performance didn't budge, and whose 8th grade performance actually declined since 2007. In fact, the charters dragged down DC's overall numbers, which showed no improvement in eighth grade. Take charters out of the picture, and DC schools showed significant gains.
So does this prove that charters are a flop? Of course not. But it does suggest that anyone who thinks the policy lessons of NAEP are "blindingly obvious" is prone to wishful thinking. There's been a lot of that going around.
It's always possible to find support for your favorite reform idea if you look hard enough at the NAEP results. Take mayoral control, for example. If you love it, you'll point to DC's gains in fourth and eighth grades. If you hate it, you'll point to New York City, which saw no significant gains in eighth grade since 2007. (Mayors in both cities have control over the public schools.)
The fact is that NAEP scores won't prove anyone's case for the benefits or evils of any reform strategy. Critics of Michelle Rhee in DC might blanch at the DC results. Supporters of Race to the Top might studiously ignore the fairly lackluster record of Chicago, whose reforms over the past decade helped inspire the federal program.
NAEP scores can help us if we agree to check our ideology at the door before we even look at them. We have to consider the number of reforms underway in any given district, the support people in the system have to carry those reforms out, and the context in which those reforms are taking place--among many other factors. Yes, that's devilishly difficult.
But it's sure better than what's happening now. People are drawing very hasty conclusions about what's going on in hot-button districts like DC, New York and Chicago. Ironically, few are paying much attention to Atlanta, which boasts the largest and steadiest NAEP gains since 2002. Atlanta offers little fodder for pundits who would like to build up or tear down the handful of school reforms that consume most of our attention.
Atlanta may have a much richer but more complex story to tell. If only more people would listen.
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Your point is well taken,
Your point is well taken, that's why I'm asking and not rhetorically. D.C. has continued its 8th grade pattern where the top 10 percentile are increasing scores, but it also seems to be continuing a pattern where its sample isn't represntative. Do you or anyone else know why D.C.'s NAEP sample was only 73% free or reduced lunch and only 8% special ed?
Actually, I don't know why
Actually, I don't know why the DC NAEP score seems to be unrepresentative. Nor do I know if the samples from other cities are equally unrepresentative.
It might be fair to ask whether Chancellor Rhee's supporters celebrated the city's previous gains in NAEP--before her tenure--with the same vigor. At least the Post's editorial on the matter today noted that Cliff Janey, who held the post before Rhee, might deserve a share of the credit.
Still, it strikes me as unfair and premature to dismiss the city's most recent gains, which were apparently the most robust of gains since 2007 in any urban district included in the TUDA--if you take both 4th and 8th grades into account and discount the charters.
I watched the press briefing
I watched the press briefing for the release of the TUDA results on the NAEP website. I think it might still be there. They did it from Atlanta, as they should, given Atlanta's strong and consistent gains.
Beverly Hall spoke. I thought she was terrific. Concise and to the point. She first took a swipe at the "bold" reform types: "We achieved these results through collaboration throughout all levels." Then she quickly went through a four-point program: strong curriculum, substantive professional development and support, use of data, and something else.
Joel Klein was the other supe invited to speak. Why I don't know, because NYC's results have certainly not been stellar. He was telecast in and frankly came across as a golem. Any parent who watched would run quickly in the other direction before entrusting her child to him. He spent a rambly 5 minutes or so trying to spin the NYC data that completely lost me. Then he touted his iniatives. Later, he had to respond to an emailed question from a reporter about why there were gains in 4th but not 8th grade. Of course, he didn't have a clue, because he doesn't know what it takes to educate children. So he muttered some mumbo jumbo about middle school curriculum not being quite right. The contrast with Hall, who appeared to know exactly what was happening in classrooms, was startling.
I've been wondering why the organizers selected Klein, because NYC's NAEP scores don't really justify giving him a platform with Hall. My guess is that it was a political choice to have them as representives of two very different -- one might say opposite -- approaches to urban education reform. From their presentations -- and the results -- it was obvious which one was better.
Thanks, Melody-- In general,
Thanks, Melody--
In general, I think the media should spend more time looking at a wider variety of districts that have done great things. My big concern is that the media are helping raise expectations for a fairly limited number of reforms to very high levels. If those reforms don't deliver, and soon, people might have one more reason to become disaffected about public education. That's dangerous and unwarranted.
The nice thing about Beverly Hall's story is that it's a story of long and deliberate action. It's not very simple, but it does support common sense.
Mr. von Zastrow- You have
Mr. von Zastrow-
You have built yourself a staw man in this post. NAEP estimates on charter schools are notoriously bumby from year to year. Here in Arizona, I've watched the charter schools vastly outperform the statewide average one year, only to underperform them the next. This is most likely a sampling issue. It was not my contention that DC's performance improvement happened because the kids in the charters are outperforming those in DCPS. That may be the case, but I don't think we can trust NAEP on the subject.
Instead, it was my contention that competition from charter schools helped to drive improvement in the district by creating competition for students. The large improvement in DCPS does predate Rhee (as I noted) but does not predate charter schools in the district.
If charter school opponents were correct about the impact of charter schools on district school performance, DCPS already awful performance on NAEP ought to have worsened.
Instead, it improved by a great deal. Does this provide metaphysical certainty that charters helped to drive the improvment? No, but the weight of the evidence strongly suggest that it contributed. Does it provide metaphysical certainty that the opponents of charter schools are wrong about their impact on district school performance. Pretty much in my view.
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