Dem Haters

Blogs, Letters & Testimonials

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August 20, 2014

 

By Charles Barone, Policy Director

Most of the commentary on Michelle Rhee’s announcement last week that she was stepping down as CEO of StudentsFirst focused on her style and personality. It’s important, however, to focus on the results of her work, specifically the longer-term impact of the policies she put in place as chancellor of DC Public Schools.

We’ve seen a lot of spin in the reporting of D.C. results, such as that recently by G.F. Brandenburg, which was dutifully regurgitated by Valerie Strauss and Diane Ravitch, among others. The disconnect between what they see as troubling results for D.C. students and their glee in reporting such kind of creeps me out.

The grand spinning prize, however, goes to the folks at Broader, Bolder who worked up a 15-page memo for reporters a month before D.C. released its 2014 test results (Hat tip to Bernie Horn. I don’t appear to be on BB’s mailing list).

While you’re poring over the statistical gymnastics Broader, Bolder performed to put Rhee’s policies in the worst possible light, keep in mind that Broader, Bolder launched itself as an organization that believes schools can only play a limited role in furthering student achievement and that test scores are a poor measure of student learning. No school could possibly produce dramatic changes in student achievement. And dagnabbit, they’re gonna use test scores to prove it.

Here’s how convoluted Broader, Bolder got when trying to downplay DC black student achievement gains:

“….[B]lack students made slightly larger gains than their white peers in most grades, but in many cases due to actual losses for white students.”

Broader, Bolder, you had me at “Black students made slightly larger gains than their white peers…”

I’m not going to say the results for D.C. aren’t mixed or imperfect. They are. That’s always the case when public policies are implemented on a massive scale. But here’s what’s irrefutable:

  • The NAEP results show positive changes for DC students between 2009 and 2013 across the board in fourth-grade reading for all subgroups.
  • This is true for the increase in NAEP scale scores and Proficiency rates, as well as reductions in the percentage of students performing Below Basic (the lowest possible category).
  • D.C. tied for the highest 2011-2013 NAEP gains (five points, roughly equivalent to half a grade level) in fourth-grade reading with Tennessee, Indiana, Minnesota and Washington State.
  • D.C.’s NAEP overall gains – in math and reading – between 2011 and 2013 were higher than any state.
  • Only six out of 21 urban districts, including D.C., scored significantly higher on NAEP in 2013 than in 2011 in mathematics in at least one grade level (the others – none of them among BB’s favorites – are Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Fresno and Los Angeles).
  • Only five of 21 urban districts, including D.C., scored higher in 2013 than in 2011 in reading in at least one grade level (the others – none of them BB favorites – are Baltimore, Dallas, Fresno and Los Angeles).

When Mayor Adrian Fenty was defeated and Chancellor Rhee stepped down, their adversaries danced around proclaiming that getting rid of Fenty and Rhee would mean an end to their policies. That did not happen. And there are signs that the policies they put forth, while in need of further reinforcement and refinement, are working. The sooner Broader, Bolder and others stop making this about personalities and develop the necessary discipline to prevent their hatred of someone from distorting their view of what is actually happening with real kids in real classrooms in real cities like D.C. (and Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.), the better.

Charles Barone has more than 25 years of experience in education service, research, policy, and advocacy. Prior to joining Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) full-time in January of 2009, Barone worked for five years as an independent consultant on education policy and advocacy. His clients, in addition to DFER, included the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, the Education Trust, The Education Sector, and the National Academy of Sciences. Read more here.