Bottom line: Three NYC professors – Bob Tobias (NYU prof who ran the NYC testing department for 13 years), Howard Everson (Fordham prof and advisor to New York State Ed.), and Aaron Pallas (TC prof) – all agree that there’s not much action on the achievement gap in New York City.
The most priceless parts of the article involve Onion-worthy quotes from newly minted postmodernist Joel Klein. Apparently, the achievement gap is really just a matter of opinion!
Silly me – I thought New York City was data-driven. Never mind.
Note to self: burn my stats books and sprinkle their ashes over Tweed, deinstall Stata, and buy Foucault, Derrida, and Baudrillard. I’m tired of those damn social scientists getting in my way. Science is dead! Let’s nuke positivism! Readers, are you up for it?
Here are some delicious snippets and my commentary in italics:
1) “In an interview at Tweed Courthouse, the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, said the achievement gap is ‘an issue,’ but he said it should not obscure the significant gains black and Hispanic students have made under his watch.” [Hey, wait! What about that “Educational Equality Project” that was founded specifically around closing the achievement gap? Now it’s not important? Huh? And PS - your own "Chief Equality Officer" Roland Fryer has written two important articles about the achievement gap focused on gaps in scale scores, not proficiency!]
2) “Mr. Klein criticized the National Center on Education Statistics analysis. ‘Those are just confidence levels. Nobody is saying this is a science,’ Mr. Klein said. He added: ‘If three points is flat, and four points is statistically significant, then what you're doing is, you're playing something of a game.’” [A piece of free advice for the Tweed PR Department: You guys need to get someone else out front when there are numbers involved. Your fearless leader’s statistical prowess is quickly becoming the best evidence of high variance in male math achievement, such that men are overrepresented at the bottom of the distribution.]
The Department of Education’s shameless attempt at big lie propaganda can be found here, as can the New York Sun’s experts’ analysis of the data.
Update: Kelly Vaughan at Gotham Schools is all over this, too.
Hi, America. I'm Paris Hilton. Just like Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein, I hate The Gap. Have you seen those sweaters? Ewww. Not hot. We need to eliminate The Gap.
Teenagers need more choices. Stores need more competition. That is the only way we can get rid of The Gap. But unless we know how to read the "half off" signs, we are never going to know if The Gap is really having a real "going-out-of-business-sale" or not.
Unlike some people, I know what "half off" really means. Not that I would buy a Gap sweater even if it was half off. But I know the difference between a "storewide sale" and a "discount on selected merchandise." Trust me. You don't want to be standing at the cash register screaming at a clerk for overcharging you only to realize you messed up your math. Not hot.
And Mike and Joel, let me just say on a personal note that I understand that people make mistakes. As a famous New Yorker once said, "I have always believed in second chances." But let me warn you -- when something you did that a lot of people think was really wrong gets out on the internet, it won't go away. My advice to you is to swallow your pride, lay low, and hope none of your friends talks about it to the press. The last thing you need is that white-haired wrinkly dude talking about you over and over and over again because that will just make people google your name. And guess what they will find? Exactly. In 24 hours, your dumb mistake will be the most searched phrase in the entire world. Everyone will link to it. Everywhere. People might even forget that you are a singer and a model and so much more. Or whatever you guys are.
America, I am Paris Hilton. If Mike and Joel and I and all of us just work together, we can put an end to The Gap. Now, that would be hot.