Media: When Journalists Do Their Own Data Analysis
Behind the scenes, Green Dot charter schools and the LA Times continue to debate the merits of the paper's story from last week (‘LAUSD bests reform groups in most cases), which purported to show that low-performing district schools were making more progress than turnarounds operated by Green Dot or the Mayor's cluster of schools which are operated by outside nonprofits. Read below if you're interested in what Green Dot's saying, how the newspaper has responded, and what the implications are for other newsrooms interested in conducting their own research.
What Green Dot disputes (see email below) is whether it's fair to compare district schools in the bottom 20 percent with schools where outside management has been brought in, which are in the bottom 5-10 percent. The charter network also argues that the LAT's analysis omits retention effects (ie, the impact on scores of lower dropout rates). And
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