A Paradox? Or a Genuine Contradiction?
Can something really be good and bad at the same time? How about that delicious but fattening dinner you had last week? It was great, until you added up the calories, right? Now what about a school? Can it be both good and bad at the same time? Is educational quality–like beauty–in the eye of the beholder or do test scores say it all?
More precisely, can a school with only 18% of its 4th graders at grade level in reading be considered a good school? Before you say, “Of course not,” please read on. Because we discovered that the FIRST graders at that school were reading confidently and competently. That’s right: the first graders were readers, but the fourth graders weren’t according to the results of the state test.
Is this a paradox, or a full-blown contradiction?
I’m asking these questions of you because we are asking them of ourselves, in our reporting for the