Peter Greene writes here about an exceptionally silly “study” that Betsy DeVos is using to drum up fading public support for charter schools.
The study, by choice advocates Patrick Wolf and Corey DeAngelis, attempts to measure “success” by return on investment, converting taxpayer dollars into NAEP scores.
Sounds crazy, no?
Greene writes:
This particular paper comes out of something called the School Choice Demonstration Project, which studies the effects of school choice.
A Good Investment: The Updated Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities pretends to measure school productivity, focusing on eight cities- Houston, San Antonio, New York City, Washington DC, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Boston, and Denver. In fact, the paper actually uses the corporate term ROI– return on investment.
We could dig down to the details here, look at details of methodology, break down the eight cities, examine the grade levels represented, consider their use of Investopedia for a definition of ROI. But that’s not really necessary, because they use two methods for computing ROI– one is rather ridiculous, and the other is exceptionally ridiculous.
The one thing you can say for this method of computing ROI is that it’s simple. Here’s the formula, plucked directly from their paper so that you won’t think I’m making up crazy shit:
Cost Effectiveness=Achievement Scores divided by Per-Pupil Revenue.
The achievement scores here are the results from the NAEP reading and math, and I suppose we could say that’s better than the PARCC or state-bought Big Standardized Test, but it really doesn’t matter because the whole idea is nuts.
It assumes that the only return we should look for on an investment in schools is an NAEP score. Is that a good assumption? When someone says, “I want my education tax dollars to be well spent,” do we understand them to mean that they want to see high standardized test scores– and nothing else?? Bot even a measure of students improving on that test. The paper literally breaks this down into NAEP points per $1,000. Is that the whole point of a school?
It gets worse, and Greene explains why.
I am reminded of a fad in the 1920s to compute the dollar value of different subjects. The curriculum experts of the day calculated that teaching Latin was a total waste of time because it was expensive and produced no return on investment.
The whole thing called “education” got left out of the calculus.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The study is a fine example of crap in crap out.
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Per crapita spending
See poem below
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There is a more cost effective option and one that doesn’t hurt public education — community schools. Multiple high quality studies have documented that community schools have a substantial and real return on investment:
“Initial results from four separate studies indicate a positive return on investment of approximately $10 to $15 for every dollar invested. These returns derive from improvements in education, employment, and health outcomes, and reductions in crime and welfare.”
Source: https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Community_Schools_Evidence_Based_Strategy_BRIEF.pdf
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LeBron James is showing that investing in struggling students in a public school can help the whole student do better. https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/lebron-james-opened-school-for-hopeless-students/
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Thank you. This was a very interesting study that highlights the flexibility within ESSA. It also challenges the narrative coming from the reform movement that ESSA demands charters and vouchers. Demonstrating that good community schools are e best hope for real school improvement, real reform, the study suggests that schools are best if they are stable parts of the community.
Particularly impressive to me is the point that investment in good community schools has a dollar return, something that may be hard to quantify, especially if you are consciously looking for the opposite. Reformers are often trying to suggest an argument that can uphold their desire to shift the taxpayer’s money from the public to your own pocket.
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“… especially if you are consciously looking for the opposite.” And the reformers do this so adamantly and so LOUDLY across the nation.
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This perverse type of thinking is what we get when business attempts to define the cost of an education based on test scores. Of course, there is no mention that scores reflect the relative wealth of a student’s family. The warped DeVos and her bean counters simply are looking for another way to come up with another talking point for their agenda. Those of us that have spent a career in public schools understand that schools are for the development of the whole student. Schools teach so much more than reading and math.
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. ” John Dewey
Anyone fond of statistics could create a variety of measurements. We could develop a “waste, fraud and embezzling index” for charter schools and/or public schools. We could calculate a salary ratio for the top and bottom employees of charters and/or public schools. Based on what we know without bothering to do the math, we already understand what the results would look like. Charters would have a much higher waste, fraud, and embezzling index, and they would also have top heavy salaries for their top administrators. If we looked at the salaries in relation to the number of the students served, the charter figures would be much higher than any public school district.
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It’s interesting how DeVos and the rest of the ed reform never advocate for investing in public schools.
Maybe they have a study that shows that there is not a single strong or valuable public school in the country, since apparently none of our schools, and none of our kids, are worthy of investment.
Can one claim to be an “agnostic” while never, ever working on behalf of PUBLIC schools? Is that based on a study?
DeVos goes out of her way to make sure that public school families and students know she doesn’t consider them and their schools a worthwhile investment. They are NOTABLE in their absence from ANY of her efforts. It’s also so great how she sells charters and private schools by using testimonials from people who “flee” public schools to escape the low performing violent thugs IN public schools. Does she mean my son? Me? We went to public schools.
What am I to think about this publicly funded propaganda campaign against public school students as a public school graduate and parent? Why is the US Department of Education working AGAINST 90% of familes, and do I really have to pay them for it?
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Go look at any ed reform site or lobbyists (including the US Department of Education) and try to find anything positive or worthwhile directed to children who attend public schools.
They simply do not work on behalf of the students in the schools they oppose and hope to replace. They think they’re really clever with this insistence that public schools are “buildings” but make no mistake- there are students in those “buildings” and they do not lift a finger on behalf of any of them. The BEST ed reform offers public schools and families is their policies promoting charters and private schools will not harm public school students.
You’re paying thousands of people in government NOT to harm your kid. And that’s the best case! The worst case is they WILL harm your kid, because public schools are simply not part of their plans.
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Since the study — do I really have to call it a study ‘cause it’s about as scientific as creationism — since the, er, study compares test scores to dollars spent, here’s what it found: charters don’t teach as many students with special needs as public schools (costs more). And because, well, segregation is so cool. Awesome.
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The study, by choice advocates Patrick Wolf and Corey DeAngelis, attempts to measure “success” by return on investment, converting taxpayer dollars into NAEP scores.
Sounds crazy, no?”
It might sound crazy but it is actually the policy of the last two decades taken to it’s logical conclusion.
At least they are stating what many others simply imply: that test scores are the “measure” of students teachers and schools.
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Per Crapita Spending
NAEP is the measure
Of all that is good
A measure of treasure
That’s well understood
A measure of student
And measure of school
‘twould be quite imprudent
To sideline this tool
Per crapita spending
Is dollars per point
The logical ending
To testing the joint
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“Test” sould be substituted in for NAEP to make it encompass all tests
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As you have written before SDP:
Whatever is measured counts
Whatever counts is measured
And counting whatever measures
Is measuring whatever counts
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Here’s the US Department of Education “Homeroom” blog:
https://blog.ed.gov/?src=feature
How odd that we have an entire federal agency that is supposedly “about” education yet completely excludes the schools the vast, vast majority of people attend!
Complete and utter capture, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, really, since we’re not on the THIRD President in a row who doesn’t value public schools and indeed hopes to replace them! That’s why we get zero investment and effort. It’s not a mystery.
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What you realize when you read ed reformers is they believe they are in a POST public school era. They don’t expend any effort or investment in public schools because they have already written off every public school in the country:
Join us this summer in Denver.
“The disruption that educator empowerment and school choice create in systems designed for stability is real…for children and families, and everyone who cares about whether all kids have access to a quality education, the question before us now is what comes next.”
In the echo chamber, they’ve declared victory over the public school your child currently attends, and they no longer concern themselves with “those students” at all.
And they utterly dominate elite policy, the federal government,. and about half of states.
It’s not a mystery why public schools always lose under ed reform. It’s the natural and inevitable result of their policy focus. You can’t point to anything these folks have done to improve your public school because they don’t concern themselves with public schools at all.
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The theme of “reform” is DISRUPTION. That’s also the theme of my new book, out next January.
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Do you sense the tide is turning? I just got an email from my republican state rep. I had asked him if he could think of any conditions under which it would be advisable to spend public money on private schools. I was writing to beg his opposition to the voucher bill now in Tennessee legislative process. His response was “none I can think of”. I am staying tuned.
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MY BIG QUESTION: WHO GETS the $$$$$$$ for doing this CR**?
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Here’s some research I found :
“New federal data show reports of student fights, bullying, and other forms of victimization have continued a decades-long trend of decline.”
Interesting that the political appointees in the federal government don’t point this out, and instead spend most work days telling the public that public schools, and public school students are dangerous.
They do that to promote the schools they prefer- charter and private schools. The effect on public school students of this propaganda isn’t considered.
According to the “scientists” of ed reform, charter and private schools have no bullying or problems of any kind, and the implication is this is because their students are “better”.
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The captured policy makers do not want to hear, read or disseminate anything positive about public schools. It would not feed their biased narrative.
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Not sure why they even do these bogus “studies,” since they will persist–on behalf of ideology and/or profit–with or without evidence On the other hand, thinking optimistically, maybe our writing and organizing is exerting enough pressure so that they feel compelled to respond. In any case, while all the negative attention to charter schools is necessary, to defeat their threat we need to make the positive case for democratically-governed public schools and what they need to achieve their potential for all students.
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