Does the Fordham Reform-Friendliness Index Matter?
Yesterday, Fordham released a measure of which cities were reform friendly and which ones weren’t. Their study identified New Orleans, Washington D.C, New York City, and Denver as the most reform minded cities. At the bottom of their index were Albany, Philadelphia, Gary, and Detroit. Their index measured the district’s reform environment based on six domains – human capital, financial capital, charter environment, quality control, district environment, and municipal environment. This study was an interesting idea. I generally think that these reform areas are important policy areas, and should in theory have an impact of the quality of education that students in these districts receive.
But, after taking a look at their study, the question that came to mind for me is