It is a strange world we live in, when schools are compelled to compete for “customers” and when some chain schools hold themselves up as owners of a “secret sauce” to produce high test scores, and some individuals market themselves as savants. We have a plethora of savants, individuals who claim that they alone have cured vexing educational problems. They boast, and their boasting naturally draws scrutiny.

Steve Perry, who is principal of a magnet school in Hartford, Connecticut, has perfected the style of the boastful savant. He used to be a commentator on CNN, which accepted his self-portrait as a miracle man. He recently created a managent company to open charter schools at a hefty fee. He claims a graduation rate of 100%.

No one has been more relentless in fact-checking Perry’s claims than Connecticut political analyst and blogger Jonathan Pelto. See here and numerous other entries.

In his latest blog, Pelto shows that Perry’s school has lower test scores for African American students than the much-maligned public schools of Hartford. yet Perry now seeks to open more schools.

A couple of years ago, when I checked various “miracle schools,” none turned out to be true. All had high attrition, skimming, or other ways of manufacturing high scores. And then there are charters who get high scores by turning children into “little test-taking machines.” This is the current definition of “success,” but there are no careers that rely on test-taking. It is difficult to see the exaltation of the ability to guess the one right answer as the key to success in college or careers.