Re: the education trust's disinformation campaign

[aburke5054@aol.com]

I did not listen to the show, but does getting one statistic wrong 
constitute a disinformation campaign?  And how are international 
comparisons relevant to NCLB?  NCLB was designed to close gaps in 
achievement among American kids, not gaps (real or imagined) between 
American kids and the rest of the world.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: GERALD BRACEY <gbracey1@verizon.net>
To: LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com; arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 7:20 am
Subject: [arn-l] the education trust's disinformation campaign


Amy Wilkins' performance yesterday on "On Point" might most politely be 
called
"outrageous."  Susan Ohanian was there to counter many of Wilkins' 
claims.
Seems to me that the Washington Post's Amit Paley was kinda left out of 
it.

What follows is a repudiation, by the numbers, of one of Wilkins' 
biggest lies.
Sorry that these lists don't accept attachments.  Anyone who needs a 
formatted
copy can contact me off list or, wait for it to show up on the EDDRA 
list or at
www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey.

Jerry

-------------------------------

THE EDUCATION TRUST’S DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN
YOU CAN’T TRUST THE EDUCATION TRUST

Gerald W. Bracey

There appears to be no level of dishonesty to which the Education Trust 
will not
sink in propagating its agenda which is right now to get No Child Left 
Behind
reauthorized.  Thursday, July 19, on “On Point,” an NPR show that comes 
out of
WBUR, the Trust’s Amy Wilkins told host Tom Ashbrook, “Our most 
affluent kids
are getting their lunches eaten by kids in other countries.  The system 
we have
has not served our children well.  There is no point pouring more 
federal money
into very broken bottles.”

I listened to the show again this morning (July 20) and assure you the 
quote is
accurate and that it is not taken out of context.  Anyone can find it 
at
www.wbur.org.  The statement comes a little after minute 40 in the show.

Leave alone for a moment if a bottle can be “very broken,” what do the 
results
of international comparisons actually look like?  Here they are for the 
most
recent incarnations of PIRLS (Progress in International Reading 
Literacy Study)
and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study).  I 
present
the results for U. S. schools with fewer than 10% of students in 
poverty (13% of
all U. S. students), 10-25% (17% of all students), 25-50% (28%), 50-75% 
(22%)
and more than 75% (20%), interwoven with the top countries, the 
international
average for all countries and the U. S. overall average.

PIRLS Reading

US 10% 589
US 10-25% 567
Sweden 562
Netherlands 554
England 553
U. S.25-50% 551
Latvia  545
U. S. overall 542
.
.
U. S. 50-75 519
.
.
Int’l avg. (35 countries) 500
U.S 75+ 489


TIMSS Math 4th Grade

Singapore 594
Hong Kong 575
US 10% 567
Japan  565
Taiwan  564
Belgium 551
US 10-25% 543
Netherlands 540
Latvia  536
Lithuania 540
U. S. 25-50% 533
.
.
US overall 518
US 50-75% 500
Int’l avg. (25 Countries) 495
US  75%+ 471


TIMSS Science 4th grade

US 10% 579
US 10-25% 567
Singapore 565
US 25-50% 551
Taiwan  551
Japan  543
Hong Kong 542
England 540
US overall 536
.
.
US 50-75% 519
.
Int’l avg. 489
.
U. S. 75%+ 480

TIMSS 8th grade results look very similar.


Thus, for reading and science, the two categories of US schools with 
the
smallest percentages of students living in poverty score higher than 
even the
highest nation, Sweden in reading, Singapore in science.  In math, the 
top US
category would be 3rd in the world.

It is only in American schools with 75% of more of their students 
living in
poverty where scores fall below the international average.

The TIMSS results are in NCES report NCES 2005-005 from the National 
Center for
Education Statistics, U. S. Department of Education.  The PIRLS results 
are
online only at www.nces.ed.gov.

Eating our kids’ lunches?  Wilkins’ performance makes me want to hurl 
lunch.



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