Wednesday, April 3, 2013

In Ravitch’s Defense: Milwaukee Voucher Study Found Wanting | deutsch29

In Ravitch’s Defense: Milwaukee Voucher Study Found Wanting | deutsch29:


In Ravitch’s Defense: Milwaukee Voucher Study Found Wanting

I hold a Ph.D. in applied statistics and research methods from the University of Northern Colorado (2002).  The title of my dissertation is A Monte Carlo Study of the Type I Error and Power Associated with Descriptive Discriminant Analysis as a MANOVA Post Hoc Procedure.
Why am I beginning this post with information about my credentials?
Yesterday, Dr. Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas’ Department of Educational Reform (which is heavily funded by an influential Arkansas family bent upon educational reform– guess who?) published a scathing attack on my colleague Diane Ravitch, accusing her of venturing academically ”beyond her element,” so to speak, in her commentary of his work. Wolf states that
…commentators such as Ravitch spend their time and energy attacking me as a person because thatdemonstrates that they don’t have the ability to critique the methodological rigor and quality of my actual research.  [Emphasis added.]
Let me first comment that Ravitch in no way attacked Wolf  “as a person.”  Here is an excerpt from the recent Ravitch post, to which Wolf links:
The “independent evaluator” of the Milwaukee and D.C. voucher programs is Patrick J. Wolf of the University of