Re: education: EPI vs. the Manhattan Institute

[Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 5/24/06, Max B. Sawicky <sawicky@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The politics of it are more evident.  A finding that the rate is "not as bad
> as you thought" puts public schools in a somewhat better light and proposals
> for privatization have somewhat less political urgency.  This does not
> really follow on the merits, but that's the politics.

Yes, we can get that political spin out of it, but I thought that a
better spin is to call attention to the problem of grade retention,
which, if Michel is correct, is one of the main factors in statistical
overestimation of dropout rates and, as many education activists have
suggested, is also probably responsible for actual worsening of the
acquisition rates of regular high school diplomas (as opposed to
GEDs).

How about back to social promotion?  Social promotion doesn't solve
the educational problem, but it may very well help a number of inner
city youths get jobs that they couldn't have gotten otherwise.

--
Yoshie
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