The 1600 Crew sold so many Americans on their Educational Reforms...it seemed like such an attractive issue to wrest from the Democrats as they lied and clawed their way to power. What they have really done, yet again, is to fix the numbers and lie about the success of the programs that they barely supported using data from books that were pre-cooked to produce pre-ordained results.
When the state of Texas bestowed "exemplary" status on Austin High School in August 2002, ecstatic administrators compared the honor to winning the Super Bowl. There was more cheering and pompom-waving a few weeks later when a private foundation honored Houston for having the nation's best urban school district.
Just a year later, the high school has been downgraded to "low-performing," the lowest possible rating. And the Houston Independent School District -- showcase of the "Texas educational miracle" that President Bush has touted as a model for the rest of the nation -- is fending off accusations that it inflated its achievements through fuzzy math.
I think there's a new term for this, the 1600 Crew Educational Ponzi Scheme...all the marks of the classic; robbing Peter to pay Paul and everyone loses. SNAFU.
posted by Jo Fish on 11.08.03 at 09:48 AM
Comments:
The Eyes of Texas that are upon us need an eye exam. But W doesn't read very much, relying upon his objective advisors in the White House. Maybe W needs his hearing checked. Something smells. Must be the EPA reversals of recent days. Perhaps this is all beyond his touch or taste. As Pogo might have said: "I senses something ain't right."
posted by: Shag from Brookline on 11.08.03 at 10:13 AM [permalink]
oh c'mon...how can anyone take that illiterate know-nothing seiously about edumacation?
The story of the Houston school district is a clear presentation of what is wrong with the "no child left behind" BS. When draconian sanctions are placed on schools that fail standardized tests, the response is either to put all academic effort into teaching the test (a pretty shallow and academically pointless thing to do) or manipulating the reality of who takes the test and when - an easier thing to do. This is what the Houston schools did, with the result that their numbers looked really good, but their students suffered and failed. This is the reality of the Bush way - all hat and no cattle. Total bullshit.
posted by: SOB on 11.09.03 at 12:40 AM [permalink]
This is the natural byproduct of "schools as businesses". As long as the bottom line is statistics, they'll be fudged, just as businesses fiddle with their profit/loss statements to impress the shareholders.
