This year, once again, Tucson will bask in the knowledge that two of its charter schools–Basis and University High School– are among the top schools in the nation, according to the US News and World Report survey.
But, says, Tim Steller, these schools are atypical. He says that because the schools are so highly selective, the rankings don’t mean much.
He writes:
“Both Basis and UHS are selective – UHS formally so through an entrance exam and Basis informally so through high workloads that lead to attrition – meaning they end up with the students who perform highest at academics in the Tucson area. The rankings also reflect the number of kids taking Advanced Placement exams, an old-fashioned measure that doesn’t necessarily reflect the best education available.
“They’re gauging success on the fact that a lot of their kids take AP tests,” Tucson education consultant Jonathan Martin, the former head of St. Gregory school, told me. “It’s an absurd gauge.”
Basis and UHS then use the rankings to attract the area’s higher-performing students, which ensures that they’ll be highly ranked again the next year. Both schools feature their rankings prominently on the opening page of their websites.
In the end, U.S. News and World Report is happy, the College Board, which runs the AP system, is happy, and the schools are happy.”
These two successful schools prove the obvious: any school that seeks a high performing student body will get high scores.
The best part about the story is that a wise journalist had the good sense to realize the importance of looking at admission practices and attrition. That’s a good sign.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When will we ever learn that cheating comes in many forms and at the expense of students who are pushed out. How many times will we fail, cover up and fail again until we learn that the problem is systemic. http://www.wholechildreform.com has more details. Am tired of seeing myself type the same things
Is the assumption here that the high workload at Basis does not contribute anything to student learning at all but only serves to sort students based on preexisting academic talent?
More than likely, those students would work hard at any school. At Basis and at University High they have the luxury of homogeneous grouping.
The article suggested that a screen before any teaching has essentially the same impact on the student population as attrition over the course of teaching. Do you discount the possibility that teaching had an independent impact in the students success?
Yes.
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David Safier at Blog for Arizona wrote about an MSNBC program filmed in Phoenix, where Chuck Todd of MSNBC asked the AZ State Supt of Instruction, John Huppenthal, (who is not and never was an educator) if the Basis model was replicable in a D rated school.
David wrote:
“Todd, enthralled by The [BASIS] Legend, asked Huppenthal if you could take the BASIS manual, hand it to a D rated high school principal and turn it into a top 100 school. Hupp said, yeah, sure. Just bring in the BASIS form of performance pay for teachers and create an all AP environment. Then he added, it could be a challenge and take a few years, but . . .
Only someone living in a dream world of his own creation who has never been a teacher would think all you have to do is import the very difficult and demanding AP curriculum into a school where reluctant students are working below grade level and inspire them to meet the challenge — so long as you dangle a performance pay carrot in front of teachers’ noses.
Finally, Joe Thomas, a working teacher, put everyone in their place. No, he said, the AP-style curriculum with its high pressure and demands simply won’t work for everyone. Then came the zinger:
“If we could scale up BASIS, BASIS would have scaled up in Tucson, and they would be 10,000 strong by now. . . . It’s a wonderful option for students, it works for particular students, but even they struggle with dropouts.”
http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2013/05/basis-the-legend-vs-the-truth-on-msnbc.html
A dream world indeed! Too bad our nightmare is one lie after another, seasoned with distortion and denial. What an embarrassment that this Heppenthal guy is a state superintendent. But, we are awash in embarrassments…
Here is the essence of what Tim Steller wrote about BASIS-Tuscon:
“the Basis schools require students to take eight AP courses before graduation, take six AP tests and pass at least one…That naturally helps Basis place high in the U.S. News rankings”
And, it is ALL about the rankings. And the College Board’s Advanced Placement program (which Diane neglected to mention).
Steller adds this important point in his article about BASIS, made by an education consultant:
“AP has pulled the wool over people’s eyes across the nation…”
Actually, it’s the College Board that has “pulled the wool over people’s eyes.” About AP, to be sure. But also about the SAT and PSAT, and Accuplacer, the placement test used by more than 60 percent of community colleges. They’re all mostly worthless, more hype than reality.
Consider the Advanced Placement program, pushed shamelessly buy the College Board, and by Jay Mathews at The Washington Post (Mathews started the Challenge Index, a ranking of high schools based on the number of AP tests they give).
A 2002 National Research Council study of AP courses and tests found them to be a “mile wide and an inch deep” and inconsistent with research-based principles of learning.
A 2004 study by Geiser and Santelices found that “the best predictor of both first- and second-year college grades” is unweighted high school grade point average, and a high school grade point average “weighted with a full bonus point for AP…is invariably the worst predictor of college performance.”
A 2005 study (Klopfenstein and Thomas) found AP students “…generally no more likely than non-AP students to return to school for a second year or to have higher first semester grades.” Moreover, the authors wrote that “close inspection of the [College Board] studies cited reveals that the existing evidence regarding the benefits of AP experience is questionable,” and “AP courses are not a necessary component of a rigorous curriculum.”
A 2006 MIT faculty report noted ““there is ‘a growing body of research’ that students who earn top AP scores and place out of institute introductory courses end up having ‘difficulty’ when taking the next course.” Two years prior, Harvard “conducted a study that found students who are allowed to skip introductory courses because they have passed a supposedly equivalent AP course do worse in subsequent courses than students who took the introductory courses at Harvard” (Seebach, 2004). Dartmouth found that high scores on AP psychology tests do NOT translate into college readiness for the next-level course. Indeed, students admit that ““You’re not trying to get educated; you’re trying to look good;” and, “”The focus is on the test and not necessarily on the fundamental knowledge of the material.” Students know that AP is far more about gaming the college acceptance process than it is learning.
In The ToolBox Revisited (2006), Adelman wrote about those who had misstated his original ToolBox (1999) work: “With the exception of Klopfenstein and Thomas (2005), a spate of recent reports and commentaries on the Advanced Placement program claim that the original ToolBox demonstrated the unique power of AP course work in explaining bachelor’s degree completion. To put it gently, this is a misreading.”
Ademan goes on to say that “Advanced Placement has almost no bearing on entering postsecondary education,” and when examining and statistically quantifying the factors that relate to bachelor’s degree completion, Advanced Placement does NOT “reach the threshold level of significance.”
The 2010 book “AP: A Critical Examination” noted that “Students see AP courses on their transcripts as the ticket ensuring entry into the college of their choice,” yet, “there is a shortage of evidence about the efficacy, cost, and value of these programs.” And this: AP has become “the juggernaut of American high school education,” but “ the research evidence on its value is minimal.”
As Geiser (2007) notes, “systematic differences in student motivation, academic preparation, family background and high-school quality account for much of the observed difference in college outcomes between AP and non-AP students.” College Board-funded studies do not control well for these student characteristics (even the College Board concedes that “interest and motivation” are keys to “success in any course”). Klopfenstein and Thomas (2010) find that when these demographic characteristics are controlled for, the claims made for AP disappear.
Yet, the myths –– especially about AP, the SAT and PSAT –– endure. Meanwhile, the College Board is promoting the Common Core and says it has “aligned” (cough, wink) its products with it. And people believe it.
Stopping corporate-style “reform and the Common Core is easier said than done. Parents, students and educators are going to have to remove the wool from over their eyes.
And that means abandoning blind belief in the College Board and the products it peddles.