Indisputable proof that NYC school closings based on statistically invalid metrics
I knew that if I had enough patience the corporate reformers would eventually let slip some data which would prove, once and for all, how unscientific are the metrics they’ve been using to shut down schools.
That day came earlier this week. I’ll encourage anyone to recheck my calculations, just in case, but if I’ve found what I think I’ve found, it will be the ‘death blow’ to the New York City ‘value-added’ model they use to rate and close down schools.
Schools are shut down for getting multiple years of poor progress reports. The progress reports are what give schools their letter grades, A, B, C, D, and F. The way the progress reports are calculated are as follows: 15% is based on school environment, 25% is based on student performance, and the majority 60% is based on something called student progress.
This is defined by the DOE in the guidebook as
I. Student Progress (60 points): measures how individual students’ proficiency on state ELA and math exams has changed in the past year, as they move from one grade to the next. The Progress Report measures individual students’ growth on state English and Math tests using growth percentiles,
