tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post8555329787446741970..comments2024-03-22T02:15:56.280-07:00Comments on Jersey Jazzman: NJ's New Reformy School Report Cards: Peer Grouping MysteriesDukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16535645107179796099noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-41336542757749386782013-04-15T04:27:38.903-07:002013-04-15T04:27:38.903-07:00Great analysis. Another point worth making: If you...Great analysis. Another point worth making: If you want to sell across-the-board reforms that affect all schools--both troubled schools dealing with high levels of poverty and good schools in more affluent districts--you need to massage the data in order to obscure some obvious socioeconomic realities, and that's exactly what these reports do. They create the illusion of poor performance even in more affluent schools, and obscure the all-too-obvious actual relationship between poverty and poor performance. As you point out, by creating these peer groups, many good schools, including ones in affluent suburbs, look worse. But also, the fact that they've actually entirely removed the district factor groups from the report serves to obscure the in-your-face relationship between poverty and school performance. Now Cerf can run around advocating big (unproven) systemic changes instead of creating targeted solutions that address the elephant in the room: poverty.Tamar Wyschogrodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16753681671510193847noreply@blogger.com