Monday, March 4, 2013

A Tale of Two (Virtual) Students | EduShyster

A Tale of Two (Virtual) Students | EduShyster:


A Virtual Charter Miracle (But Not a Milagro…)

Virtual twins Chandra and Polly are exactly the same except that Chandra attends an academy of excellence and innovation while Polly goes to a union-stifled public school.
Meet virtual twins Chandra and Polly. The two share a common strand of demographic and testing DNA, but while Chandra attends a local academy of excellence and innovation, Polly whiles away her short and ineffective days at a union-stifled public school in Boston. Now, thanks to some expert data analysis (and a little cash infusion from our friends at the Walton Foundation), we can track the relative progress of these virtual twins. Will Chandra *crush* Polly on the Massachusetts high-stakes test in math or reading or in math AND reading? Does Polly even know that her teacher is a LIFO lifer who lacks the motivation to help her master 21st century skills?
I’m talking, of course, about the new CREDOw report on charter school outstandingness in Massachusetts. If you are a glutton for punishment, you know that CREDOw has been pumping out these reports all winter long.By now, there’s a dreary sameness to the ritual: ecstatic applause from charter boosters, the wholesale printing of