CURMUDGUCATION: Gerrymandering Charter Success

CURMUDGUCATION: Gerrymandering Charter Success:

Gerrymandering Charter Success

Once again I'm reading a spate of charter fan fiction in which charters are lauded for out-performing the rest of the schools in their city.

That one right there near the center is where I've been smacking my head

"Out-perform the rest of the schools in East Egg" is a meaningless metric, and I keep trying to explain why to some folks. Let me try it again, because looking at the mess in North Carolina has given me a thought. 

Let's start with one of the best graphics out there for explaining gerrymandering. It comes from an article by Christopher Ingraham at Washington Post's wonkblog, with the graphic itself adapted from Stephan Wass.

This shows how you can divide up a city to create different combinations of the voters to create particular outcomes. It explains, for instance, how Pennsylvania and North Carolina can have legislatures completely dominated by one political party even though that party doesn't have a vastly greater number of actual voters.

But now, look at the graphic again, and this time, think of the red blocks as high-achieving students.

Let's say East Egg, back when it had only public schools, looked like #2. Five schools, all containing some high-scoring students (aka "high-achieving," but as always I will remind you that "high-  CURMUDGUCATION: Gerrymandering Charter Success: