Democratic Veteran :: Jettisoning the Baggage

previous entry | main | next entry | TrackBack (2)

November 12, 2004

Jettisoning the Baggage

Now that Preznit Knows Candy is getting ready to add all the real wingnuts who hate America to his Coalition of Greedy for the No Lobbyist Left Behind Administration 2: Grand Theft Government....he's sending Rod "Teachers are Terrorists" Paige back to Texas. Check how the New Whore Times writes of Paige, a man who never met a statistic he couldn't pervert:

A Texan like Bush, Paige, 71, rose to prominence as an award-winning superintendent in Houston before becoming the nation's first black education secretary. He has been an outspoken defender of No Child Left Behind, the education law at the center of Bush's domestic agenda. emphasis added

I guess using Google would be too low-class for the exalted writers at the Times...one quick search found this:

Specifically, allegations that have been made about schools in Houston, Texas under the watch of superintendent Rod Paige, the man chosen by President Bush to be the Secretary of Education. Paige's focus on quantification of results became known as the "Houston Miracle." There was a dramatic decline in dropout rates and an increase in test scores.

But critics have alleged that these results that sound to good to be true were, in fact, completely fabricated. Houston schools claimed a dropout rate of 1.5% when in fact the actual dropout rate is estimated to have been higher than 50%. This incredible discrepancy, some critics say, was deliberately done through false student transfers and other means to cover up for students who had dropped out. Some former students were surprised to learn that they had been "transferred" to schools they had never even heard of before.

At the same time, test scores were directly manipulated through a sinister process that hurt the very kids the school system was supposed to be educating. The plan was simple: educators evaluated students potential to pass required standardized tests. Those who were judged as potentially failing the tests were reclassified as "special" and therefore, no longer required to take the tests. Only students who were predicted to achieve passing grades were allowed to participate. This scam was brought to light when parents became angry and questioned why their children were reclassified.

Thus, the "Houston Miracle" is now becoming known as another notorious example of "cooking the books" and the alleged architect behind it all has been chosen by our president to be the highest educator in our country.

As with most of the other appointments made by Preznit Corruption B Me, Paige is lucky he got to wear pinstripes instead of prison stripes for that debacle.

And to Mr. Paiges credit, the one part of the NCLB most useful in upcoming years: the rule directing schools who want federal money to pony up lists with name and addresses of all student for yup, recruiters. Gee, and I thought "All-Volunteer" meant just that...

posted by Jo Fish on 11.12.04 at 05:30 PM

Comments:

He's what, the third horse changed midstream? Or is that horse's ass changed midstream? Anyway, they sure are changing horses midstream.

posted by: Nina on 11.12.04 at 06:34 PM [permalink]

Isn't this the third horse that has been changed midstream? Or is that horse's ass that has been dhanged midsteam? Anyway, the preznit sure wants to change horses midstream now.

posted by: Nina on 11.12.04 at 06:39 PM [permalink]

Erm, sorry about the sorta double post. I received an error message for no. 1 and so did no. 2...Internets conflict I guess

posted by: Nina on 11.12.04 at 06:42 PM [permalink]

BREAKING NEWS

Washington (ap)

Mass reality grips White House as hoardes of key staff exit. This comes a day after the death of Irony, which was found in a deserted alley behind the White House.

Investigators have found evidence that while Irony struggled mightily against her attackers, she was eventually overcome by repeated blows dealt by blunt political instruments.

While there are no suspects for the death of Irony at present, sources have said that Gross Ignorance, Blind Stupidity, Sheer Mendacity, and Wilful Incompetence have been brought in for questioning. It is feared that the murder is the work of the notorious criminal mastermind, Unbelievable Hubris.

This is also thought to be a leading suspect in the mass reality hysteria.

posted by: Barndog on 11.13.04 at 07:01 AM [permalink]

Thanks, Barndog.
And you too, Mr. Fish.

posted by: merl on 11.13.04 at 11:10 AM [permalink]

Hmmmmm....wonder who them 'some critics say' might be.

Any guesses?

posted by: Miracle Werker on 11.13.04 at 12:41 PM [permalink]

A dropout rate of over 50%? Wow.

posted by: political news on 11.13.04 at 06:06 PM [permalink]

50 percent isn't unusual for an urban district. Enron accounting is, though.

posted by: Tony Goins on 11.15.04 at 03:27 PM [permalink]

I was teaching at an elementary school in HISD immediately prior to Mr. Paige's tenure. HISD's official dropout rate at the time was 5%.

I found out that the older brother of one of my students, a boy of around 15 years of age, was spending all his time shooting hoops rather than going to school. I inquired, and "Oh yeah, he just never showed up at high school when it was time to go." I inquired further, and found that almost 50% of HISD middle school students never bothered showing up for high school. I inquired of the school truancy officer why the district never went after these kids, and he put his finger to his lips and said, "we don't want to drive up our dropout rate."

In other words, the fabrication of HISD's dropout rate occurred before Mr. Paige's watch, and appeared to be part of a pattern of misbehavior that went all the way from local truant officers all the way up to the top, all in order to avoid bad numbers. While it's fair to blame Mr. Paige for driving up test scores by labeling lower-performing students as "special" and thus ineligible to take the tests (when I was teaching in HISD, prior to Mr. Paige, even special education students had to take the tests unless they just absolutely could not hold a pencil), you can't blame him for the dropout fiasco. And this behavior is not restricted to HISD. After I left teaching, I consulted for school districts regarding their computer systems. At one school district, I was helping them transmit their student data to the state. The state kicked back a list of students who should have been on the list, but weren't (i.e., had been there last year, but weren't there this year). Now, picture this. It's 8pm on a Friday evening in late December. We get back this report from the state on the missing students. The district attendance officer looks at me. I look at the district attendance officer. No way are we going to be calling schools to find out what happened to those kids.The secretaries are gone home, and aren't going to be back until January.

We marked them all as transferred to out of state, rather than as dropouts. Case closed. Students accounted for. It was a lie, of course. But what the hey, it's all BS anyhow, all those statistics we were reporting to the state had nothing to do with educating children in the first place. At least, that was this attendance officer's justification. He was, like, "this hasn't a thing to do with educating kids, it doesn't even affect the per-pupil monies we get, so why NOT cook the data?"

Lesson: Don't trust educational statistics. Ever. You never know when they're true, or when they're made-up lies. About the only statistics that are close to true are the student attendance numbers, and that's because schools get funded on those in most states (i.e., more students = more money) and thus the states audit those closely. Well, that and the number of free lunch and special ed kids, which are audited closely too. Other than that... it's all bull****.

- Badtux the Teacher Penguin

posted by: Badtux on 11.17.04 at 12:23 AM [permalink]