More Monday News (See Below For More) [html]Baby formula part of equation at school for pregnant teens Chicago Tribune At its peak, Chicago Public Schools ran three sites. And yet, instead of being a relic of another era, Simpson is thriving. Head Start's changing face Chicago Tribune The 16518 children in Head Start in Chicago are divided among 411 sites at centers, home day care and programs at Chicago public schools. ... Catholic Schools' Scores Surpass Nation WBEZ Elementary students in Chicago Catholic schools are scoring higher than the nation's average on standardized tests. Former CPS Chess Chief Hospitalized Tom Larson, the former chess coordinator for the Chicago Public Schools who presided over several tournaments attended by Ray School chess kids, is serious ill, according to a report by Illinois Chess Association President Chris Merli posted on the organization’s online forum. Helping kids get through the weekend Chicago Tribune Nourish for Knowledge distributes weekend snack packs at 28 Chicago public schools. Including a day when Henson would be closed for teacher-training ...[/html]
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Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 2:58 AM
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Maybe someone will at least realize this kind of "news" about schools is fundamentally statistical pornography -- long on fantasy and marketing and short in some other places.
"Catholic Schools' Scores Surpass Nation
"Elementary students in Chicago Catholic schools are scoring higher than the nation's average on standardized tests. Students in Cook and Lake counties who took the Terra Nova II tests scored as high as the 81st percentile. Dr. Nicholas Wolsonovich is the Catholic Schools superintendent. He says the high scores demonstrate a strong commitment to academics." (WBEZ report on Terra Nova II scores from Chicago Catholic schools).
While this report is rather typical of the gee whiz stuff that often comes gushing out of NPR and WBEZ when the magic of test score comparisons is invoked, there is no way to know how "well" the Catholic schools in the Chicago area are doing by contrast -- or comparison -- with the publics. This is because the comparisons are not the fabled metaphor ("apples and oranges") but more like like Apples to bricks.
The Catholic schools are using Terra Nova II; the publics ISAT and Prairie State. To make national comparisons, the publics are trying to use the NAEP, and that's collapsing under the weight of all the statistical silliness involved (and the propaganda claims that gush out as soon as a germ of "good" news can be conjured up amid everything else).
If there were any public transparency in the Cathollc schools (there isn't on most things), then they'd be using the same measuring rods for "accountability", welcoming real-time real-world comparisons, and providing all of the underlying data (including family SES, demographics, and mobility data) for each of their schools, one by one, the way the publics must under No Child Left Behind and state accountability rules.
A transparant "accountability" system would also involve the head-to-head comparisons in suburban school districts where, say, the Catholic schools are "competing" (that old "choice" market place thingy) with high schools like, say, the Glenbrooks, the Maines, or even Evanston Township.
There has never been a problem when people choose a religious education over a public one. The problem came when the religious schools (and this is almost exclusively the Catholics, especially in Chicago) decided to hype the superiority of their schools over some of the publics (viz, CPS). Head-to-head comparisons based on full and equal transparency on all major factors is a preliminary requirement. Then some sense might come out of the PR mush that was just reported on WBEZ. Can you imagine the response if, say, the Hassidic schools in Rogers Park touted their success, or any of the schools sponsored by the various Protestant denominations? Religious schools are not a competing school system -- until they try to leverage political clout and enter the gray. That's a very very very bad idea, and almost all of the religious schools know it (except, in the Chicago area, the Catholic ones).
Instead of helping understanding, the WBEZ report is simply another dose of the statistical pornography that most reporters serve up when test scores are reported by those with an interest in promoting their wares by means of spinning the results.
Dressed up in a certain way, the data are always going to look good (and when invoked against certain competitors, make the competition look bad). But that's why most sane people don't go to Vegas casinos to pick a spouse. Usually, there is less to this than meets the eyes (and other senses).
Years ago, statisticians wryly pointed out the "Lake Woebegone Effect" which comes when standardized tests become high stakes. It's ironic that the same broadcasting network that offers Garrison Keillor's wry portrayals on Saturday also proffers this kind of reporting of "news." What is the Lake Woebegone Effect? -- One you get high-stakes testing, at some point, just about everyone is "above average" because the political demands made on the schools require that result, even if statistically it's impossible. Hence, Lake Woebegone -- Garrison Keeler's fictional town where all the men are brave and strong, all the women beautiful, and all the children are above average.
Every time claims are made on the basis of test scores on so-called "standardized" secret multiple-choice computer scored one-time tests, the better news story would be the one that takes the public into the sausage factory and explains how these icons of "accountability" are produced and how serious their limitations are as measures of anything (except, maybe, family income and mother's education level).
A full release of all the test items and all the scoring data, administrators' guidelines, and technical manuals (the huge tomes that tell you -- or are supposed to tell you -- how the tests were developed and psychometrically "normed", including the limitations of use and the product liability warnings) would be a good start.
But that's not on anyone's agenda -- public or other -- in Illinois at this point in history.
Instead, we get the two ridiculous "facts" reported in the Catholic schools piece on WBEZ. For the record, at this point in history, both the Chicago Catholic schools and the Chicago public schools are "above average" on the particular tests the children are taking in those schools. And of course the more affluent suburban public schools are above above above average -- nicely superior in every way.
This kind of "reporting" is typical of NPR, which for the past decade or more has really meant "National Propaganda Radio" when it comes to corporate "school reform."
"Catholic Schools' Scores Surpass Nation
"Elementary students in Chicago Catholic schools are scoring higher than the nation's average on standardized tests. Students in Cook and Lake counties who took the Terra Nova II tests scored as high as the 81st percentile. Dr. Nicholas Wolsonovich is the Catholic Schools superintendent. He says the high scores demonstrate a strong commitment to academics." (WBEZ report on Terra Nova II scores from Chicago Catholic schools).
While this report is rather typical of the gee whiz stuff that often comes gushing out of NPR and WBEZ when the magic of test score comparisons is invoked, there is no way to know how "well" the Catholic schools in the Chicago area are doing by contrast -- or comparison -- with the publics. This is because the comparisons are not the fabled metaphor ("apples and oranges") but more like like Apples to bricks.
The Catholic schools are using Terra Nova II; the publics ISAT and Prairie State. To make national comparisons, the publics are trying to use the NAEP, and that's collapsing under the weight of all the statistical silliness involved (and the propaganda claims that gush out as soon as a germ of "good" news can be conjured up amid everything else).
If there were any public transparency in the Cathollc schools (there isn't on most things), then they'd be using the same measuring rods for "accountability", welcoming real-time real-world comparisons, and providing all of the underlying data (including family SES, demographics, and mobility data) for each of their schools, one by one, the way the publics must under No Child Left Behind and state accountability rules.
A transparant "accountability" system would also involve the head-to-head comparisons in suburban school districts where, say, the Catholic schools are "competing" (that old "choice" market place thingy) with high schools like, say, the Glenbrooks, the Maines, or even Evanston Township.
There has never been a problem when people choose a religious education over a public one. The problem came when the religious schools (and this is almost exclusively the Catholics, especially in Chicago) decided to hype the superiority of their schools over some of the publics (viz, CPS). Head-to-head comparisons based on full and equal transparency on all major factors is a preliminary requirement. Then some sense might come out of the PR mush that was just reported on WBEZ. Can you imagine the response if, say, the Hassidic schools in Rogers Park touted their success, or any of the schools sponsored by the various Protestant denominations? Religious schools are not a competing school system -- until they try to leverage political clout and enter the gray. That's a very very very bad idea, and almost all of the religious schools know it (except, in the Chicago area, the Catholic ones).
Instead of helping understanding, the WBEZ report is simply another dose of the statistical pornography that most reporters serve up when test scores are reported by those with an interest in promoting their wares by means of spinning the results.
Dressed up in a certain way, the data are always going to look good (and when invoked against certain competitors, make the competition look bad). But that's why most sane people don't go to Vegas casinos to pick a spouse. Usually, there is less to this than meets the eyes (and other senses).
Years ago, statisticians wryly pointed out the "Lake Woebegone Effect" which comes when standardized tests become high stakes. It's ironic that the same broadcasting network that offers Garrison Keillor's wry portrayals on Saturday also proffers this kind of reporting of "news." What is the Lake Woebegone Effect? -- One you get high-stakes testing, at some point, just about everyone is "above average" because the political demands made on the schools require that result, even if statistically it's impossible. Hence, Lake Woebegone -- Garrison Keeler's fictional town where all the men are brave and strong, all the women beautiful, and all the children are above average.
Every time claims are made on the basis of test scores on so-called "standardized" secret multiple-choice computer scored one-time tests, the better news story would be the one that takes the public into the sausage factory and explains how these icons of "accountability" are produced and how serious their limitations are as measures of anything (except, maybe, family income and mother's education level).
A full release of all the test items and all the scoring data, administrators' guidelines, and technical manuals (the huge tomes that tell you -- or are supposed to tell you -- how the tests were developed and psychometrically "normed", including the limitations of use and the product liability warnings) would be a good start.
But that's not on anyone's agenda -- public or other -- in Illinois at this point in history.
Instead, we get the two ridiculous "facts" reported in the Catholic schools piece on WBEZ. For the record, at this point in history, both the Chicago Catholic schools and the Chicago public schools are "above average" on the particular tests the children are taking in those schools. And of course the more affluent suburban public schools are above above above average -- nicely superior in every way.
This kind of "reporting" is typical of NPR, which for the past decade or more has really meant "National Propaganda Radio" when it comes to corporate "school reform."
Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 11:09 AM
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I think the local education reporters, including 'BEZ's, are in over their heads when it comes to explaining testing and scores. Not sure where they can learn how to do it well. The Poyter Institute, maybe?
Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 11:18 AM
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George, stop being such a hater and, please, stop being so anti-Catholic.
Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 11:32 AM
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Although the Catholic schools are more visible, numerous and clout-heavy, I think the Lutheran schools are starting to hype themselves, too.
Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 12:04 PM
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I think it's fairly obvious that most private schools are going to be superior to the non-selective enrollment schools in CPS for the students that attend them. Why? Because the students come from families that are serious about education. The family either paid for the schooling or jumped through hoops to get a grant or scholarship so their child could attend that school. So you wind up with a room full of students who come from motivated families. As a result the peer group of the children is full of students who are, themselves, serious about education. Which is probably the best selling point of these schools, the fact that you get to pick a "better" peer group for your child.
Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 12:49 AM
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What's "anti-Catholic" about the above post?
A one-liner with a generalization (like blah blah blah's) is anti thinking, anti history, and anti-fact.
We should never miss the obvious just because we're supposed to be afraid to say it because someone will launch into a defense of the bully that's truncated CPS policy for generations.
Pointing out that Chicago's public schools have been taken advantage of (uniquely, by the way, among the larger cities in the USA) by the Catholic schools is simply updating a long and scandalous history. Noting the dumb propaganda being airwaved as fact on NPR should be considered a public service. Many many people still credit NPR (WBEZ included) with some measure of journalistic integrity, mounting evidence -- contemporary and historical -- to the contrary.
So to add to the pot (in addition to my questions about the Terra Nova II and transparency), here are a couple of others. Call it "hater blogging" if you want, but it's like pointing out that when CPS finally purchased the old St. Rita's high school campus and buildings, the place had been allowed to crumble for more than a decade -- with CPS taking a mess off the parochial hands.
So in the new century, the games the same, but the names have changed.
My favorite? Arne Duncan allowed CICS to flip Good Counsel -- complete with all those suburban girls -- into a "public charter" school five years ago. Saved a lot of tuition, that little favor. And never a peep from my colleagues in the press about the layers of deals. The only time the place (now "CICS Northtown") got in the "news" since then was when Gates bankrolled the fraudulent "WestEd" "study" proving that CICS Northtown was a "model" for fixing up urban high schools. And that thingy marched into the public domain before the last suburban young lady had become a "public school" graduate certified by CPS.
There are many more stories here for someone who doesn't want to simply practice corporate "He said, she said" reporting. One of my personal favorites (since I spent more than a week getting the photographs from Peterson and Pulaski all the way out to 115th and Prairie, see the story on CICS Northtown in the February 2007 Substance) jarred me in this direction when I kept seeing those concrete statues of the Bless Virgin Mary in front of all those "public schools." Then I realized that the "public" part of those public schools (the little brown sign) was a lot more discreet than the Catholic advertising that was still all around the buildings, from St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas More all the way north to St. John Bosco and beyond.
In any other town, the visuals alone would raise some medium's questions. But not in Chicago. Just say it and there are a thousand phone calls (or bloggins) accusing a reporter of being "hate filled" and -- cringe everyone -- "anti-Catholic."
Why has CPS allowed "New Schools" to generate leasing deals and other privileges for CICS (Chicago International Charter Schools) that benefit only the parochial schools that get them. Who ultimately ends up owning the buildings? And on what legal basis does CPS leave those buildings -- now "public schools" -- with all those statues of the Virgin Mary and all those Christian crosses over them?
The earliest CICS deals now go back more than six years (Academy of Our Lady on 95th St.) and anyone walking up to any of those "public schools" would still be left believing that the school was being run by whatever parochial school group had run it before it went "public". That list keeps getting longer.
By the way, the deal of camouflage "public" charter schools behind Catholic iconography doesn't only include CICS. Many of the UNO schools have the same penchant. Not all of them (as with CICS), just the majority.
Separation of church and state anyone? I have a hunch if a Yeshiva or a Mosque tried to pull the same thing for millions of dollars (facilities costs only) with CPS there would be a Chicago-wide outcry. What's "hating" about pointing out the obvious about the negative way in which Chicago's parochial school system has played off and profited from Chicago's public system.
Why -- broad implication and pun fully intended -- the story is as simple as black and white. And as rooted in racism as Arne's hagiographic historical prattlings that begin The Era of Miracles and All Things Good to 1995, when Richie Daley took over the public schools as dictator and began "school reform" along with "welfare reform" and "housing reform." Other places they call this thing ethnic cleansing. Here is Chicago it's business as usual.
A one-liner with a generalization (like blah blah blah's) is anti thinking, anti history, and anti-fact.
We should never miss the obvious just because we're supposed to be afraid to say it because someone will launch into a defense of the bully that's truncated CPS policy for generations.
Pointing out that Chicago's public schools have been taken advantage of (uniquely, by the way, among the larger cities in the USA) by the Catholic schools is simply updating a long and scandalous history. Noting the dumb propaganda being airwaved as fact on NPR should be considered a public service. Many many people still credit NPR (WBEZ included) with some measure of journalistic integrity, mounting evidence -- contemporary and historical -- to the contrary.
So to add to the pot (in addition to my questions about the Terra Nova II and transparency), here are a couple of others. Call it "hater blogging" if you want, but it's like pointing out that when CPS finally purchased the old St. Rita's high school campus and buildings, the place had been allowed to crumble for more than a decade -- with CPS taking a mess off the parochial hands.
So in the new century, the games the same, but the names have changed.
My favorite? Arne Duncan allowed CICS to flip Good Counsel -- complete with all those suburban girls -- into a "public charter" school five years ago. Saved a lot of tuition, that little favor. And never a peep from my colleagues in the press about the layers of deals. The only time the place (now "CICS Northtown") got in the "news" since then was when Gates bankrolled the fraudulent "WestEd" "study" proving that CICS Northtown was a "model" for fixing up urban high schools. And that thingy marched into the public domain before the last suburban young lady had become a "public school" graduate certified by CPS.
There are many more stories here for someone who doesn't want to simply practice corporate "He said, she said" reporting. One of my personal favorites (since I spent more than a week getting the photographs from Peterson and Pulaski all the way out to 115th and Prairie, see the story on CICS Northtown in the February 2007 Substance) jarred me in this direction when I kept seeing those concrete statues of the Bless Virgin Mary in front of all those "public schools." Then I realized that the "public" part of those public schools (the little brown sign) was a lot more discreet than the Catholic advertising that was still all around the buildings, from St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas More all the way north to St. John Bosco and beyond.
In any other town, the visuals alone would raise some medium's questions. But not in Chicago. Just say it and there are a thousand phone calls (or bloggins) accusing a reporter of being "hate filled" and -- cringe everyone -- "anti-Catholic."
Why has CPS allowed "New Schools" to generate leasing deals and other privileges for CICS (Chicago International Charter Schools) that benefit only the parochial schools that get them. Who ultimately ends up owning the buildings? And on what legal basis does CPS leave those buildings -- now "public schools" -- with all those statues of the Virgin Mary and all those Christian crosses over them?
The earliest CICS deals now go back more than six years (Academy of Our Lady on 95th St.) and anyone walking up to any of those "public schools" would still be left believing that the school was being run by whatever parochial school group had run it before it went "public". That list keeps getting longer.
By the way, the deal of camouflage "public" charter schools behind Catholic iconography doesn't only include CICS. Many of the UNO schools have the same penchant. Not all of them (as with CICS), just the majority.
Separation of church and state anyone? I have a hunch if a Yeshiva or a Mosque tried to pull the same thing for millions of dollars (facilities costs only) with CPS there would be a Chicago-wide outcry. What's "hating" about pointing out the obvious about the negative way in which Chicago's parochial school system has played off and profited from Chicago's public system.
Why -- broad implication and pun fully intended -- the story is as simple as black and white. And as rooted in racism as Arne's hagiographic historical prattlings that begin The Era of Miracles and All Things Good to 1995, when Richie Daley took over the public schools as dictator and began "school reform" along with "welfare reform" and "housing reform." Other places they call this thing ethnic cleansing. Here is Chicago it's business as usual.
Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 2:56 AM
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>>George, stop being such a hater and, please, stop being so anti-Catholic.
The comment above really confused me. I had to read through George's posting a couple of times just to read his 'anti-Catholic' intent and just couldn't see it. Take the word 'Catholic' and substitute it with something like 'alternative' or whatever and his words would still convey the same meaning. That wasn't an attack on Catholicism, but just an attack on another facet of our flawed educational system.
Another good example of this 'redirecting' of comments was in the recent Ayers/Charter schools posting -- commentaries criticizing Charters were being 'reinterpreted' as personal attacks on Ayers.
It would be nice to see people stay on topic, and not steer things into another direction for their own purposes. This blog is a great forum for information and contrasting opinions, I'd hate for it to become a place where everyone just looks at our schools through rose-colored glasses.
The comment above really confused me. I had to read through George's posting a couple of times just to read his 'anti-Catholic' intent and just couldn't see it. Take the word 'Catholic' and substitute it with something like 'alternative' or whatever and his words would still convey the same meaning. That wasn't an attack on Catholicism, but just an attack on another facet of our flawed educational system.
Another good example of this 'redirecting' of comments was in the recent Ayers/Charter schools posting -- commentaries criticizing Charters were being 'reinterpreted' as personal attacks on Ayers.
It would be nice to see people stay on topic, and not steer things into another direction for their own purposes. This blog is a great forum for information and contrasting opinions, I'd hate for it to become a place where everyone just looks at our schools through rose-colored glasses.
Sat Nov 24, 2007 at 7:32 AM
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George may ramble during his postings, but he did mention an important point- that many of the Catholic school facilities that CPS took over in the past few years were in pretty bad shape. What a waste of time and money shaping up some of these sites! My favorite WBEZ education story came out earlier this year, when the station raved about an all-boys high school that would be opened in an existing public high school based on the model of a Catholic school in that impoverished neighborhood. This wonderful Catholic high school supposedly did such a better job with the poor boys of that neighborhood that CPS is now willing to boot everyone else out of the converted high school to turn it into a sex-segregated school; never mind that the "poor boys" at the Catholic school were and have generally been in reality the sons of middle class black families.
