4 thoughts on “My Question”

1. That’s simple, Mitch! The under performing and senior teachers and Edumacation Minnesota goons.

2. If the Minnesota Poll asks 1000 people about education, Tom Dooher gets 320 votes.

3. Finally! Good data on the percentage of the population who wor…, er uh, are employed by the government

4. Semi-on topic, and fully deserving of a Mitch post I will point you guys to a fascinating study about charter schools out of Stanford. It actually answers a few of the questions I had for the Puppy a while back.

   Minneapolis has some interesting statistics on the attendees of charter schools that explains WHY many of the charters struggle compare the below on the charter school/public school percentage breakdown on several key metrics:
   Special Ed: 10/14
   English Language Learners: 33/22
   Percent in Poverty: 79/65
   With those numbers it should be absolutely no surprise that charter schools struggle. By any traditional measure, adding 25% more kids in poverty and 50% more English learners SHOULD hammer charter school results as compared to traditional public schools.

   Despite that disadvantaged population, on average Minneapolis charter schools have statistically significant gains in math (0.08 standard deviations) and perform AS WELL in English (a 0.02 standard deviation gain) as traditional public schools. But Table 6 of that report is MOST interesting: for students in poverty and Hispanic students, the charter schools have a significant positive impact. In fact, the only group who lag in charter schools in Minneapolis are White students. English language learners and special ed kids, blacks, and asians all benefit on average from charter schools.

   In fact, a majority charter schools in Minneapolis do better at math than the public schools (56%), and 93% of them do at least as well. For English, 32% do better than the public schools, and 86% do at least as well. And remember, we’re talking about a charter system with 25% more poor kids and 50% more English learners.

   So the Pound Puppy is making a racist attack on a system that actively helps minorities and poor folks. Why am I not surprised that what is purported to be “compassion for the poor” is actually not?

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