Was achievement gap understated?
This post was written by Richard Innes, education analyst for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions. By Richard Innes I’m used to getting bad data from Kentucky’s educators, but this time it’s the National Center for Education Statistics that messed up. In a new set of web pages that accompanied the recent release of 12th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and math scores from 2009, the NCES included a graph supposedly showing the proficiency gaps between whites, blacks and Hispanics for fourth grade math. The only problem is that NCES officials used the wrong numbers!