Dispatches From The Nexus Of Bad Research And Bad Journalism
In a recent story, the New York Daily News uses the recently-released teacher data reports (TDRs) to “prove” that the city’s charter school teachers are better than their counterparts in regular public schools. The headline announces boldly: New York City charter schools have a higher percentage of better teachers than public schools (it has since been changed to: “Charters outshine public schools”).
Taking things even further, within the article itself, the reporters note, “The newly released records indicate charters have higher performing teachers than regular public schools.”
So, not only are they equating words like “better” with value-added scores, but they’re obviously comfortable drawing conclusions about these traits based on the TDR data.
The article is a pretty remarkable display of both poor journalism and poor research. The reporters not only
Taking things even further, within the article itself, the reporters note, “The newly released records indicate charters have higher performing teachers than regular public schools.”
So, not only are they equating words like “better” with value-added scores, but they’re obviously comfortable drawing conclusions about these traits based on the TDR data.
The article is a pretty remarkable display of both poor journalism and poor research. The reporters not only
