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It's not that you have to hold all variables equal. One of her core arguments is that people need to be transparent about these variables when comparing charter

by japhyr 12y ago

It's not that you have to hold all variables equal. One of her core arguments is that people need to be transparent about these variables when comparing charter schools to open public schools. If the expulsion rate and parent engagement is part of the 'secret sauce', then everyone needs to be aware of that. Charter schools are impressing people because they claim to get results, and people assume they're getting better results with the same students. This would be interesting if it were happening, but it doesn't seem to be happening. Anyone can take the most motivated, compliant, best-supported students and do well with them.

humanrebar 12y ago
> If the expulsion rate and parent engagement is part of the 'secret sauce', then everyone needs to be aware of that. What if the key variables are harder truths? What if it's the education level of parents, implying that natural intelligence (or something correlated) is the most important thing. What if it's the marital status of the parents, implying the stability of their homes is the most important thing? What if it's the crime rate in their neighborhood they live in? Honestly, it's incredibly important to know if we're wasting our time and should be concentrating on lead paint, exercise levels, or healthy marriages. It seems to me that reporters don't really approach those kinds of issues either. We like to control for those sorts of variables as it they don't matter.
clavalle 12y ago
>Anyone can take the most motivated, compliant, best-supported students and do well with them. The question is: are charter schools doing better with these students than is being done with them in public schools? On the other end of the spectrum: would it be better to filter kids with behavior issues to their own school where it would be easier to concentrate experts to help them? How do we maximize the area under the student education curve? I don't claim to know but at least under the charter school system we have the ability to tweak the dials.

by japhyr 12y ago

humanrebar 12y ago

> If the expulsion rate and parent engagement is part of the 'secret sauce', then everyone needs to be aware of that. What if the key variables are harder truths? What if it's the education level of parents, implying that natural intelligence (or something correlated) is the most important thing. What if it's the marital status of the parents, implying the stability of their homes is the most important thing? What if it's the crime rate in their neighborhood they live in? Honestly, it's incredibly important to know if we're wasting our time and should be concentrating on lead paint, exercise levels, or healthy marriages. It seems to me that reporters don't really approach those kinds of issues either. We like to control for those sorts of variables as it they don't matter.

clavalle 12y ago

>Anyone can take the most motivated, compliant, best-supported students and do well with them. The question is: are charter schools doing better with these students than is being done with them in public schools? On the other end of the spectrum: would it be better to filter kids with behavior issues to their own school where it would be easier to concentrate experts to help them? How do we maximize the area under the student education curve? I don't claim to know but at least under the charter school system we have the ability to tweak the dials.