"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Misleader, Liar, or Both? NAEP and the Art of Manipulation

8th Grade NAEP Reading Scores at left (click charts to enlarge)












4th grade NAEP reading scores at left










And here is what the President said in his SOTU address:
"Minority students are closing the achievement gap, and student achievement is rising – more reading progress was made by 9-year-olds in five years than in the previous 28 years combined, and reading and math scores for 9-year-olds and fourth-graders have reached all-time highs.

Now below are 4th and 8 grade reading comparisons based on ethnicity:






















And below is the chart (click it to enlarge) from which the President drew his conclusions that were delivered in his speech to show that NCLB is working:











You be the decider!

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous4:08 PM

    Great post! The visuals really make an impression... I'll be linking to this on my higher ed blog at

    http://higheredchat.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete