Bob Somerby, who writes The Daily Howler, covers the media. He is especially good on education. When the TIMSS results came out, showing that the US made a strong showing, he was quick to call out the major media for the usual doom-and-gloom headlines.
Today, he critiques the New York Times article about the Massachusetts miracle. It is an entertaining and insightful critique of our nation’s most important newspaper.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“But in part, this reflects the demographics of the state’s student population, which is disproportionately white and middle-class. In the 2011 NAEP test to which Chang refers, black and Hispanic students in Texas outscored their peers in Massachusetts!”
This gets to the truth of the so-called Massachusetts miracle. Minorities have a tough time in Massachusetts, as do white students who don’t fit the Massachusetts “one size fits all” education system.
MCAS has done nothing to help education in Massachusetts. If anything, it has taken time and resources from the classroom and Massachusetts succeeds in spite of it.
I wonder how many students that do well in charter schools did just as well in public schools given the same conditions?