The Choice Channel

“Much celebrating and high-fiving has been taking place amongst Chicago Public School hierarchy and Chicago city government this summer for their having purportedly managed to raise students’ test scores by ‘historic’ levels, according to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. It’s unclear whether those busy tooting their own horns are doing so because they actually believe the data, or because they know they have succeeded in fooling most of the voting public once again. Before we rally around to hand out gold stars too quickly, let me share with you some of the ways I observed firsthand that this district and others manage to very skillfully manipulate student performance data to their advantage.” (07/31/06)