Julian Vasquez Heilig, a professor at the University of Texas, deconstructs another one of those miracle stories that turns out to be too good to be true.
Secretary Arne Duncan is collecting high-fives for a solid leap upwards in the high-school graduation rate, but Heilig says that what he is reporting is manipulation of graduation rate data.
Heilig uses Texas as an example. He shows how state officials played with the data, so that Texas went from 29th in the nation to 4th in the nation in only three years.
That’s a miracle, but as Heilig shows, the data don’t support the claim.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Texas Miracle Part Deux? This sounds similar to how Rod Paige et al cooked the books in Houston which inspired NCLB.
It’s easy to increase the HS graduation rate: just intimidate teachers into passing every student who breathes in class, and provide bogus “credit recovery” for those who don’t show up.
Ask NYC teachers about increased graduation rates – even though the number of graduates needing remedial courses at CUNY continues to rise – and you’ll hear stories ranging from farce to horror.
Yet another falsehood from the so-called reformers…
And these same people want to use their clandestine data methods to evaluate a teacher’s performance. While they are saying graduation rates are up, they are also cooking the books to hide the fact their new STAAR tests are a huge failure. The tests are a waste of time, resources, and destroying education in Texas. But I guess if graduation rates are up there is nothing to worry about — right?
So little time, yet so much mental masturbation put out by the edudeformers!
Oh, the data and figures feel so good!
Always important to understand how statistics are constructed.
The Texas miracle man Rod Paige is CEO of the Chartwell Group and connected with Liberty Partners. He took his senior staff with him to set up Chartwell, as a consulting company with insider savvy on education. His 2007 book is a follow on to his infamous “teachers are terrorists” proclamation, with more bashing of teachers and their unions.
I thought it really hilarious when Michelle “Erase to the Top” Rhee chose Rod Paige to be her second for the duel with Diane Ravitch. What a pair, there! I guess the former Atlanta Superintendent wasn’t available.
From the Rheeformish Lexicon:
data-driven decision making. Rheeformish numerology
Stats from Ed Deformers typically make about as much sense as this:
This is real hoot, I love the reference to toxic numbers, the exotic addition of numbers for “a life path (a bit like VAM).
I did not watch the nearly 11 minute exercise, but it has the mind-numbing character of a professional development sesstion from a person who is all style and no substance.