Re: [LiteracyForAll] spellings make a big claim

["GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net>]

Well, duh, Russ.  The Digest of Education Statistics gives the 2005 public 
school K-12 enrollment as 12,375,000.  That's pretty damn close to my 
"assumed estimate," no?  Which, of course, was based on some knowledge in my 
head.

JB

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Whitehurst, Grover" <Grover.Whitehurst@ed.gov>
To: "GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 7:26 PM
Subject: RE: [LiteracyForAll] spellings make a big claim


Dr. Bracey,

Questions about the Secretary's statements are better directed to the Office 
of the Secretary.  Upon request, IES checks facts for her office, as we do 
for other agencies and offices inside and outside government.  But we are 
not responsible for the content of her speeches and presentations, have no 
clearance authority with respect to them, and do not comment on them to the 
public.

As to whether there is something wrong with your arithmetic, I can say only 
that were we asked to do such a calculation we would base it on the actual 
population of 4th graders in the years in question rather than assuming a 
number.

Sincerely,

/s

Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst, Ph.D.
Director
Institute of Education Sciences
555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.
Suite 600
Washington, DC 20208

http://ies.ed.gov




-----Original Message-----
From: GERALD BRACEY [mailto:gbracey1@verizon.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 5:49 PM
To: Schneider, Mark; Whitehurst, Grover
Subject: Fw: [LiteracyForAll] spellings make a big claim


Madame Secretary's claims seem a)true but very misleading in the case of
reading b) false in the case of mathematics.  Is there something wrong with
MY arithmetic?

Jerry Bracey

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net>
To: <LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: [LiteracyForAll] spellings make a big claim


> Spellings claim is true, at least for reading, but very misleading.  From
> 1971 (NAEP's start) to 1999, scores for 9-year-olds rose 4 points, 208 to
> 212.  From 1999 to 2004, they rose 7 points to 219, a little more than
> half a year's worth of growth.
>
> Several things to note, though.  If Spellings had started her time frame
> at 1980, the gain to 2004 would be only 4 points.  The gain from 1971 to
> 1980 is the same as from 1999 to 2004--between 1980 and 1999, scores
> varied little.
>
> Second, NCLB was in place for only two of the 5 years.  Because of the gap
> in assessments from 1999 to 2004, we can't tell if NCLB did it or if Bill
> Clinton should get the credit.
>
> Third, the gains are larger for the 10th and 25th percentiles than they
> are for the 50th, 75th, or 99th.  That is, low scorers have gained more
> than average kids and high scorers.  The gains reflect raising the floor,
> not the ceiling.
>
> For math, the gains from 1973 to 1990 were larger than for 1999-2004.
>
> I believe Ms. Spellings' use of reading statistics is commonly referred to
> as "cherry picking."
>
> Her math statistics are more problematic--for her.  The NAEP 2005 report
> card shows that in 2003, 76% of fourth graders scored "Basic" or better.
> In 2005, it was 79% a gain of only 3%.  The percents at or above basic is
> the only meaningful intrepretation of her sloppy comment about
> "fundamental math skills." But...if we assume that there are 4 million 4th
> graders, that means that 3,040,000 kids score Basic or better in 2003 and
> 3,160,000 did in 2005, a gain of 120,000, not 250,000.
>
> Jerry
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Stephen Krashen" <skrashen@yahoo.com>
> To: <literacyForAll@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 12:21 PM
> Subject: [LiteracyForAll] spellings make a big claim
>
>
> > This is a press release from the US Dept of Education,
> > March 20. It includes this claim:
> >
> > "No Child Left Behind is making a real difference,
> > especially in the early grades. In the last 2 years,
> > the number of fourth-graders in our country who
> > learned their fundamental math skills increased by
> > 235,000 kids, enough to fill 500 elementary schools.
> > According to the NAEP results released last summer,
> > over the last 5 years, more reading progress was made
> > among 9-year-olds than in the previous three decades
> > combined."
> >
> >
> > Washington, D.C. - U.S. Secretary of Education
> > Margaret Spellings today addressed the Council of the
> > Great City Schools Annual Legislative and Policy
> > Conference. She praised urban schools for raising
> > achievement and discussed the importance of math,
> > science and rigorous coursework in preparing American
> > students to be globally competitive. Following are her
> > prepared remarks:
> > Thank you Arlene Ackerman for introducing me. I know
> > you've served in public education for 36 years, which
> > makes you a great example of the hardworking people
> > that become school administrators because you care-and
> > certainly not because it's a glamorous job.
> > I'm also happy to see Mike Casserly. You've been a
> > friend to me over the years, and more importantly, you
> > and the entire Council of Great City Schools have been
> > great friends to our nation's schoolchildren. I
> > especially want to thank you for working with the
> > Department of Education on a pilot program to make
> > free tutoring more available for hundreds of thousands
> > of students who qualify for it under No Child Left
> > Behind.
> > You and I both know that there's nothing more
> > important than increasing opportunity for the next
> > generation. Last week I was honored to join First Lady
> > Laura Bush in announcing a $14 million Striving
> > Readers grant for Newark, New Jersey. This grant will
> > help arm more than 200 teachers with strategies to
> > help more than 12,000 struggling students improve
> > their reading skills. And my friend Senator Ted
> > Kennedy recently joined me in awarding a similar grant
> > to Springfield and Chicopee Public Schools in
> > Massachusetts, which will benefit 7,000 students.
> > In total, the Department of Education will distribute
> > 8 such grants this spring, benefiting more than 50,000
> > middle and high school students in Great City Schools.
> > By helping struggling readers, we not only open the
> > door to other critical areas of study, we dramatically
> > improve their chances of succeeding in college, in the
> > workforce, and in life. And a recent study by the
> > National Governors Association found that strong
> > reading skills result in lifelong learning and
> > increased civic engagement.
> > And you know what? Even though these grants benefit so
> > many students-and by extension, communities like yours
> > across our nation-what I'm most looking forward to is
> > the day we no longer need them.
> > That's the goal we set with No Child Left Behind. As a
> > parent, I don't think that's too much to ask, and I'm
> > sure you agree. Fortunately, thanks to the hard work
> > of students, parents, educators, and administrators
> > like you, we're well on our way to every child
> > learning on grade level by 2014.
> > Your own 2006 Beating the Odds study, which will be
> > officially released tomorrow, confirms what we saw
> > with the latest Nation's Report Card for urban
> > schools. The Great City Schools are raising
> > achievement in many ways, for many students.
> > Your fourth-grade students have posted a 14-point gain
> > in math and an 11-point gain in reading since 2002.
> > That progress is a tribute to schools like C.L.
> > Gideons Elementary, one of the poorest schools in
> > Atlanta, where fourth graders posted a 23-point gain
> > in reading... and a 34-point gain in math since 2003.
> > And Dayton's Bluff Elementary in a tough neighborhood
> > in St. Paul Minnesota, which went from being the worst
> > school in the city to one of the best over the last 5
> > years.
> > Just like you, these schools serve children who have
> > been often been left behind. And just like you,
> > they're proving that all students can succeed,
> > regardless of their race, background, or ZIP code.
> > How did they do it? Dayton's Bluff Principal Von
> > Sheppard told his staff "There are no excuses. Excuses
> > are dream-killers. When you make an excuse for poor
> > academic performance on the part of a child by saying
> > he is poor, or doesn't have good family support, you
> > are essentially saying that he will not be able to
> > achieve."
> > I would also like to thank those of you from New York,
> > Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Charlotte, Cleveland,
> > Chicago, Atlanta... and of course, my fellow Texans
> > from Houston and Austin... for volunteering for the
> > NAEP Urban District Assessment.
> > Thanks to your willingness to take an honest look at
> > your school systems, we now have proof that minority
> > students are catching up to their peers. In addition,
> > African-American and Hispanic children in many of your
> > districts performed as well or better than others from
> > those minority groups nationwide-in reading and in
> > math. And I'm looking forward to seeing your science
> > results later this year.
> > No Child Left Behind is making a real difference,
> > especially in the early grades. In the last 2 years,
> > the number of fourth-graders in our country who
> > learned their fundamental math skills increased by
> > 235,000 kids, enough to fill 500 elementary schools.
> > According to the NAEP results released last summer,
> > over the last 5 years, more reading progress was made
> > among 9-year-olds than in the previous three decades
> > combined.
> > But as you know, the same old standards no longer add
> > up to success. Thirty years ago, a majority of
> > manufacturing workers did not have high school
> > diplomas. Today, not only do most of them have high
> > school diplomas, almost one-third have studied at the
> > college level. Our children aren't growing up in the
> > same world we grew up in.
> > In the last century, America led a communications
> > revolution that connected people like never before. We
> > have also helped spread democracy and capitalism to
> > countries around the world.
> > These changes bring benefits to our citizens and
> > countless others worldwide. But they also present new
> > challenges. You can't pick up a newspaper or magazine
> > these days without reading about global
> > competitiveness, especially in math and science.
> > Employers today need workers with "pocket protector"
> > skills-creative problem-solvers with strong math and
> > science backgrounds. Math is becoming essential in
> > fields ranging from advertising to consulting to media
> > to policymaking.
> > To keep up in this fast-changing economic landscape,
> > our education system must pick up the pace. As you
> > know, every year about a million students drop out of
> > high school. Nearly 5 out of 10 African American and
> > Hispanic 9th graders don't graduate from high school
> > on time.... which would explain why the average
> > graduation rate for large cities is only 58 percent!
> > We wouldn't tolerate 5 out of 10 planes going down. We
> > wouldn't tolerate 5 out of 10 heart surgeries failing.
> > And we shouldn't tolerate 5 out of 10 city students
> > dropping out of high school!
> > Meanwhile, 90 percent of the fastest-growing jobs
> > require some education beyond high school!
> > Wherever I go, I hear from governors, business people,
> > educators, and parents that our students aren't
> > prepared. There's a wide and growing consensus on this
> > issue. Organizations from the National Academies to
> > the Business Roundtable to the National Governors
> > Association are giving us the same message. We must
> > make sure a high school diploma is a record of
> > achievement, not just a certificate of attendance.
> > We know that rigorous coursework is one of the best
> > ways to solve the dropout problem. Just taking one or
> > 2 Advanced Placement courses increases a student's
> > chance of graduating from college in 4 years.
> > Unfortunately, many students, especially in
> > lower-income communities, still don't have the
> > opportunity to take these classes. Forty percent of
> > high schools across the country offer no AP classes.
> > The College Board tells us that, based on PSAT scores,
> > there are nearly a half million students who were
> > ready for AP calculus last year, but didn't take it.
> > We know that white students are far more likely than
> > African Americans or Hispanics to take advanced
> > courses in math and science. Sounds like "the soft
> > bigotry of expectations" to me. With the way we ration
> > these courses, you would think we don't want students
> > to take them.
> > I know that many of you are working to end course
> > rationing, and I'd like to commend Nashville, Chicago,
> > Dallas, Detroit, Greensboro, New York, Jacksonville,
> > San Francisco, Charleston, and Palm Beach. The College
> > Board recently recognized the outstanding AP programs
> > in several of your schools.
> > And those of you from Miami deserve special
> > congratulations. Not only were 7 of your high schools
> > honored by the College Board, you've also ensured that
> > every high school in your district offers at least 8
> > AP courses.
> > We can't wait until students are 17 years old to
> > address course rationing, the dropout problem, or the
> > need for math, science, and rigor. The competition
> > starts in elementary school. So, let's talk about our
> > legislative priorities for the coming year and beyond.
> > With No Child Left Behind, we laid a strong foundation
> > of student achievement. We also made a strong
> > statement that student achievement was a top national
> > priority.
> > Since my days at the Texas Association of School
> > Boards, I've known resources are always an issue. I
> > continue to fight for more resources for schools-just
> > as I always have. And I'm proud to serve a President
> > who is providing historic resources for our nation's
> > education system.
> > Since 2001, the U.S. Department of Education has
> > received the largest percentage budget increase of any
> > domestic, non-security-related agency. National
> > elementary and secondary school funding has increased
> > by $125 billion, or about 25 percent, over the last 5
> > years. Title I funding has risen 45 percent. Special
> > education grants have risen 69 percent. And overall
> > funding for No Child Left Behind has risen by 40
> > percent.
> > The next step is to make sure all our children have
> > the skills to succeed in our ever-more-competitive
> > world.
> > -1. The President's new American Competitiveness
> > Initiative would devote $380 million to extending high
> > standards and accountability from kindergarten through
> > high school.
> > -1. It would create a National Math Panel to collect
> > the best research on teaching math-just as we have
> > done for reading.
> > -1. Through a program called Math Now, it would help
> > elementary and middle school students prepare for
> > rigorous high school math.
> > -1. And by recruiting new teachers and training others
> > to teach AP courses, it would practically quadruple
> > the number of students taking AP tests... from 380,000
> > today... to 1.5 million by 2012.
> > Those are my legislative priorities, and I encourage
> > you to make them yours.
> > Math teaches critical thinking skills. Science teaches
> > how to explore our world. Together, they teach
> > students to become innovators who will fight AIDS,
> > cure cancer, end hunger, develop new renewable sources
> > of energy, and improve the lives of people around the
> > world.
> > If we raise our expectations, our students will rise
> > to the challenge. As the President said in the State
> > of the Union, "If we ensure that America's children
> > succeed in life, they will ensure that America
> > succeeds in the world."
> > As leaders, it's our job to look down the road and
> > make sure our kids are prepared for tomorrow's jobs
> > today. America has always been the most innovative
> > society in the world, and together, we will make sure
> > we always are.
> > Thank you. I would be happy to answer your questions.
> > ###
> > Top
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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