Poverty, Shmoverty! Part II
As I said before, Amanda Ripley misstated Diane Ravitch's claims about international comparisons of poverty; she doesn't seem to understand a low-poverty district still has poor kids, so it and others like it can be compared to a low-poverty country, which also has poor kids.
But Ripley also has a problem with how the US traditionally defines children in poverty:
Poverty, Shmoverty!
But Ripley also has a problem with how the US traditionally defines children in poverty:
The free/reduced-price lunch figure measures the number of kids from families making 185% of federal poverty line, right? So that means a family of 4 needs to make less than about $40,000 to qualify. Under this measure, roughly 40% of American kids qualify as “poor.”OK. Then the other measure is the measure usually used in international comparisons of poverty. That is the percentage of kids from families earning less than 50% of the median
Poverty, Shmoverty!
I came across this post by Amanda Ripley in my reformy-type blog travels; she is taking on Diane Ravitch's claim that the USA's relatively poor showing in international test comparisons can be blamed, in large part, on poverty:
Happy 20,000 Blue Jersey!
Blue Jersey just posted its 20,000th diary, a remarkable accomplishment. Let me be the first to say congratulations!
I've been writing at BJ for a while now, but haven't really played up my connection, which is a mistake on my part. Being a part of the community at BJ has really helped me sharpen my writing and strengthen my political chops. BJ has a great stable of featured writers, and the regular diarists and commenters are a smart, savvy set.
Blue Jersey would be nothing were it not for Rosi Efthim, a true force of nature. Her tireless work has made the
Ravitch’s claim can be traced back to a small table on page 15 of a government report that broke down the PISA results based on the percentage of kids who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. When you do that, you see that kids at U.S. schools where less than 10% of the students qualify for free/reduced-price lunch score on average very high—indeed higher than the average for, say, Finland.But then she makes the magical leap. She says that since Finland has less than 10% poverty,
Happy 20,000 Blue Jersey!
Blue Jersey just posted its 20,000th diary, a remarkable accomplishment. Let me be the first to say congratulations!
I've been writing at BJ for a while now, but haven't really played up my connection, which is a mistake on my part. Being a part of the community at BJ has really helped me sharpen my writing and strengthen my political chops. BJ has a great stable of featured writers, and the regular diarists and commenters are a smart, savvy set.
Blue Jersey would be nothing were it not for Rosi Efthim, a true force of nature. Her tireless work has made the
Have we hit a plateau in student achievement in this nation? In a paper 
