No Child Left Behind Act – The Progress Report

http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress/index.html

I searched the U.S. Department of Education website to find some NCLB data. One of the NLCBA reforms strongest advocacy points is its ability to collect data. This data, which could be clearly stated, seems very elusive. I felt the closest to finding something on their website when I stumbled upon the page “Mapping Educational Progress” in relation to the NCLBA. I guess I assumed the title had something to do with the article. This turned out to be a silly mistake. Clicking on the state-by-state analysis I was hoping to see information about South Carolina’s progress, so I downloaded the PDF that contained the “information about educational progress.” There are lots of pretty graphs. Looking at the data there is also a lot of information about student demographics. Actually, I would say the downloaded PDF is approximately 90% demographics. This of course is interesting, but only a cross sectional look as there is no information on how it has changed over the years. The academic progress, as reported by standardized testing…I assume, is noted in the last two graphs at the bottom of the page that are entitled “achievement trends” (Yes we are now looking at trends and not progress as mentioned by the title). Looking at these graphs led me to wonder; do these graphs say anything about progress? The answer was no. I was disheartened by the misleading title and lack of context of the data. Here is a list of things I would tell the designer of the achievement graphs to do –

1. Include standard deviation
2. Do a statistical test to determine if there is any statistical significance in the findings
3. Include standard error
4. Do a statistical test to determine if there is any statistical significance in the findings
5. Include means
6. Do a statistical test to determine if there is any statistical significance in the findings
7. Define the Y axis
8. Do a statistical test to determine if there is any statistical significance in the findings
9. Don’t present a graph that leaves the reader with no grounds for determining if the information is important or correctly made.

In conclusion this website does not help in “mapping educational progress.” The government should rename the misleading title to: “School Demographics having nothing to do with Educational Progress,” and stop producing horrific graphs which could (or could not I suppose) be misleading. Listing/graphing that one mean is bigger than another doesn’t tell the reader anything unless it is statistically significant (remember things like p-values, critical values, t-test/anova). I get irritated when governmental agencies get purposefully sloppy in presenting findings with the intent to mislead its readers. Sorry this is mean blog, I was really hoping to find some good data on this website about how NCLB might be helpful.