Tag Archives: ABCs of Public Education

Once again, the average performance composite score of charter schools beat the district school average. The performance composite is the percentage of students’ scores in each school that were at or above grade level on state end-of-grade and end-of-course tests.  Admittedly, I am not a fan of comparing average performance composites, but critics of charterContinue Reading

By now, I am sure you heard the news.  North Carolina’s graduation rate was 80.2 percent, a 2.3 percent increase from a year ago.  There was a 1.9 percent decrease in the percentage of students that met or exceeded growth expectations on state tests. Here are a few interesting findings: I examined the End ofContinue Reading

Yesterday, I noted that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) won the 2011 Broad Prize for Urban Education.  Tara Servatius added some excellent commentary and context. I reviewed the data compiled by the Broad Foundation and suspect that CMS won based on two metrics.  The first was a residuals analysis, a statistical measure that allows one to compareContinue Reading

According to the News & Observer, State Schools Superintendent June Atkinson argued, “I do believe that these [test score] drops reflect the continued education cuts we’ve had to make the past few years.” A few thoughts on the claim: 1. If Atkinson is going to make this argument, she needs to show a causal linkContinue Reading

According to a preliminary analysis of last year’s state test results, 23.5 percent of charter schools received the state’s top classification – Honor School of Excellence.  Only 7.9 percent of regular/traditional public schools received that honor.

I compared the average performance composites of all regular/traditional public schools and all charter schools.  (Note: All schools classified by the Department of Public Instruction as “alternative” were not included.)  The performance composite is the percentage of students performing at or above grade level (Level III) on all state tests taken at the school duringContinue Reading

According to a Department of Public Instruction press release, North Carolina’s graduation rates increased and test scores decreased last year.   We do not know why the graduation rate and pass rate are going in separate directions. One possible explanation is that the weak job market encouraged academically weak students to stay in school and earnContinue Reading