John Hood is trumpeting how Wayne County's low-income students are doing better than their peers in Wake County.
In a Monday column, John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, questions how the state NAACP can take action against Wayne County while threatening to take similar action against Wake. He notes how Wake, which has been using the diversity policy praised by the NAACP, is doing worse among its disadvantaged students.
"By virtually every measure, Wayne County matches or outperforms Wake County when it comes to student achievement among the disadvantaged," Hood writes.
He notes how 49 percent of Wayne County's low-income students passed both the state math and reading exams compared to 44 percent in Wake. Wayne County's black students are doing slightly better at 45.5 percent compared to 45.2 percent in Wake.
On high school end-of-course tests, Hood notes that the passing rate for Wayne County's low-income students is 60.4 percent. It's 58.5 percent in Wake. He does concede that black Wake high school students are doing slightly better than in Wayne County.
"Intent on using the Wayne litigation as a shot across the bows to the new conservative majority on the Wake school board, the Left has again advanced a foolish and contradictory position," Hood writes."The guiding philosophy seems to be something like this: never let the facts get in the way of a good photo op."
Comments
Here's what it all boils
Wed, 01/13/2010 - 13:10 — shearertwHere's what it all boils down too.
Whether you're comparing schools in Wake Co., comparing WCPSS to Wayne or CMS, or comparing NC schools to schools across the country, there is absolutely no correlation between the %ED in a school and the performance of %ED students at an individual student level. Does a school with a higher %ED students have lower average scores? DA, YEH. So what? The average, school level statistics are meaningless.
What IS clear is that there are a many many factors that contribute to the success or failure of ED students. F&R% is just not one of them.
"By virtually every measure,
Wed, 01/13/2010 - 12:46 — user12345"By virtually every measure, Wayne County matches or outperforms Wake County when it comes to student achievement among the disadvantaged," Hood writes
Maybe we should just export our kids to Wayne Co.
Indicator
Wed, 01/13/2010 - 12:23 — pmJohn Hood is trumpeting how Wayne County's low-income students are doing better than their peers in Wake County.
Remember, the whole point of "diversity" is to try and reach students that are high risk. In the past, race was used. When that became illegal, a shift was made to economic status; the idea being that poorer students were more at risk than those with higher incomes.
Supporters of this diversity policy should be honest and caveat that any attempt at "economic diversity" is only an attempt to reach those students and is not a perfect indicator.
For example, growing up I was 1 of 4 kids in a single income home, mom stayed to raise us, and my dad was a teacher. We qualified for free and reduced lunch and would be one of the families considered economically disadvantaged. But in no way were we at risk. We all did well in school, we all went to college and all of us have nice careers.
So, the fact that poor kids in one place are doing better than poor kids in another without normalizing for the true factors that indicate at risk is some what misleading.
Oohhh....
Tue, 01/12/2010 - 17:50 — Bob_SconceWhy do I feel like Rev. Barbour just got a thumb in his eye? In one fell swoop, Hood takes out both of Barbour's causes.
John must read this blog b/c
Tue, 01/12/2010 - 17:22 — shearertwJohn must read this blog b/c that's exactly what I said about 4 weeks ago.