Looks really interesting, anyone seen it? Thoughts?

5/31/2010 4:06:37 PM

http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/cartel-recap/

there's a lot there, but i'll just post the summary

Quote :

"Summary So, here it is in a nutshell: 1. Even if there is a crisis, Bowdon provides no legitimate evidence of one, and in fact, provides laughable claims that make it hard to take him seriously at all; 2. Since there is no validated crisis, there is no need for a solution, but Bowdon offers one anyway; * Instead of attending NJ’s dreadful traditional public schools, students should flock to NJ’s outstanding charter schools, which, it turns out, have average performance the same as the poorest NJ traditional public schools, or * NJ children should be provided vouchers at levels that will allow them only to select from cash strapped urban religious private schools. Seems reasonable enough. Ill-conceived? Intellectually vacuous? Schlockumentary? I must stop myself. As a professor of school finance who lives every day immersed in national and state databases on school funding and student outcomes and who has advised many national organizations on the development of indicator systems for comparing schools/districts and states, Bowdon’s presentation of “shocking statistics” is quite honestly the most offensive, absurd and amateur presentation I have ever witnessed – regardless of political angle. "

[Edited on May 31, 2010 at 4:21 PM. Reason : .]

5/31/2010 4:20:51 PM

Some interesting replies to a similarly negative review in the NYT here:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/movies/16cartel.html




This one was apparently well reviewed:



[Edited on May 31, 2010 at 4:29 PM. Reason : probably wind up seeing both]

5/31/2010 4:27:15 PM

Quote :

"Bowdon complains of our lagging national performance by making comparisons of international assessments such as PISA to other countries (critique of the relevance of PISA here). Here, Bowdon twists the argument to specifically blame states like New Jersey, which are not only a part of this substandard American education system, but are emblematic of it, by spending obscene amounts of money for these failures. Okay… so here’s the basic logic: * Our national average test scores are bad compared to other countries * New Jersey spends a lot on schools, and is part of this terrible national system * Therefore, spending is bad, our schools are terrible nationally, and New Jersey is even worse But, as I discuss here: http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/vacuous_bowdon/ New Jersey actually performs very well even on international comparisons, in a legitimate, rigorous statistical analysis by the American Institutes for Research (http://www.air.org/files/International_Benchmarks1.pdf) And, our national average is only as low as it is because of our many very low spending states that have chosen to throw their public education systems under the bus. Can’t blame New Jersey’s high spending for Louisiana and Mississippi’s low performance Bob."

5/31/2010 4:31:37 PM

Well, if a schill for the Center for American Progress hates it, and the NYT does too....this might be worth watching.

5/31/2010 8:43:26 PM

who's the shill for CAP again? if you're talking about the guy I linked, he has a front-page post taking issue with a CAP report.

in fact it appears he has a whole blog CATEGORY where he criticizes CAP reports/:

http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/category/center-for-american-progress-reports/

[Edited on June 1, 2010 at 8:41 AM. Reason : .]

6/1/2010 8:39:50 AM

Dont worry, Bill Gates is gonna fix this shit along with energy and healthcare.

6/1/2010 10:22:27 AM