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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Department of Education Responds with More Information about Turnarounds - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Department of Education Responds with More Information about Turnarounds - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:
Living in Dialogue

Department of Education Responds with More Information about Turnarounds

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On Tuesday, I posted a blog titled "Spinning the Numbers on Turnarounds: School Improvement Grant Controversy Brews." In it I questioned the very limited information Secretary Duncan had released the previous week, when he claimed positive results for the program. I even went so far as to question what the numbers could mean. I had written to the Department of Education asking for clarification on Monday, but had not received any reply. Thursday, an entry was posted at the Department of Education's Homeroom blog, which contained further information that clarified the issue. I immediately updated Tuesday's post to include this. Yesterday, I received a formal response, with the request that I share it with my readers. What follows is that response.
From the Department of Education's Jason Snyder:
We had started to gather the data to answer your follow-up questions about the preliminary, year-one achievement data in the School Improvements Grants (SIG) program when you posted your blog item "Spinnin