Please reject the Children at Risk school rankings
Unfortunately for all of us that care about public schools, Children at Risk is back to releasing more of their junk science in the form of school rankings. They use test scores and graduation rates and a few other variables to create what they claim is a more accurate picture of how schools compare than what the state does. Newspapers all over the state just parroted their nonsense. And here’s why its nonsense: they don’t—and this is unfathomable to me given their position as a research and advocacy organization—have a clue what a standardized test is, what the scores mean, or the limitations on their use. They, like so many others, think that once a score exists it is free to be interpreted in any manner convenient to the interpreter. That is bogus. A standardized test score allows a researcher to analyze the differences in total literacy and numeracy attainment between children. However, absent other research, it does not allow for an analysis of what caused that literacy or numerac...