MONDAY, JULY 3, 2023
So far, the answer is no: Is an "education revolution" underway in Mississippi's public schools?
Has a "Mississippi miracle" occurred? Have the state's education officials engineered a "huge success story?"
At this point, we'd say that the answer is no, even on the fourth grade level. Within the long-standing American context, it's obscene to make such claims about a state which, for all its admirable efforts, still generated numbers like these:
Average scores, Grade 4 reading
2022 Naep
Asian-American kids, U.S. public schools: 238.49
White kids, U.S. public schools: 226.03
White kids, Mississippi: 229.53
Black kids, Mississippi: 204.41
Lower-income black kids, Mississippi: 202.76
It's on the basis of that Grade 4 reading test that people are claiming a huge success story. As we noted in our last report, it's astounding to see journalists and experts say such things about a state which is still producing the giant "race gap" reflected in those numbers.
Amazingly, that's the way the numbers look on the very test which is being used to support the claim of a miracle! Judged by conventional rules of thumb, the "race gaps" on display in those data are absolutely gigantic.
Does anyone care about black kids at all in these feel-good latter days? The only "miracle" we can see here would involve the miraculous way our journalists and experts can walk away from data like these in describing a huge success story.
That said, Mississippi's numbers on that Grade 4 test can sometimes seem impressive. In our June 27 report, we showed you such data as these:
Average scores, Grade 4 reading
Lower-income kids, 2022 Naep
U.S. public schools: 202.67
Mississippi: 211.74
Average scores, Grade 4 reading
Lower-income black kids, 2022 Naep
U.S. public schools: 193.42
Mississippi: 202.76
Average scores, Grade 4 reading
Lower-income white kids, 2022 Naep
U.S. public schools: 211.49
Mississippi: 224.45
Those data can look quite impressive! Through whatever manner or means, Mississippi's lower-income black and white kids outscored their nationwide peers last year on that Grade 4 Naep reading test.
In each case, they outscored their peers by a good, healthy margin. Without any question, data like those can look impressive—if you skip past that giant "race gap."
Where did those (improved) Mississippi test scores come from? Tomorrow, we'll return to that unresolved question.
For today, we'll focus on a basic fact. If we think of those test scores as some sort of revolution, Mississippi's revolution—its huge success story—hasn't yet reached the eighth grade.
Quick review! Everyone from Nicholas Kristof on down is attributing this revolution to a policy change which dates back to 2013. In his June 1 essay in the New York Times, here's how Kristof described it:
KRISTOF (6/1/23): Perhaps the most important single element of the 2013 legislative package was a test informally called the third-grade gate: Any child who does not pass a reading test at the end of third grade is held back and has to redo the year.
This was controversial. Would this mean holding back a disproportionate share of Black and brown children from low-income families, leaving them demoralized and stigmatized? What about children with learning disabilities?
In fact, the third-grade gate lit a fire under Mississippi. It injected accountability: Principals, teachers, parents and children themselves were galvanized to ensure that kids actually learned to read. Each child’s progress in reading is carefully monitored, and those who lag—as early as kindergarten and ramping up in second and third grades—are given additional tutoring.
This retention policy lit a fire under the state, Kristof says. Tomorrow, we'll return to the possibility that the third grade retention policy may have had another effect:
We'll return to the possibility that the retention policy may have made it harder to compare Mississippi's Grade 4 scores to those from most other states.
We'll return to that question tomorrow. For today, we'll only note an obvious fact—for whatever reason, evidence of Mississippi's revolution, such as that revolution is at this time, hasn't yet appeared in Mississippi's Grade 8 Naep scores.
By this time, should the revolution have made its way all the way up to eighth grade? As a matter of simple chronology, a person can argue that Mississippi needs a bit more time for such evidence to appear.
By common agreement, Mississippi's Grade 4 Naep scores really "popped" in the 2019 Naep testing—and those higher-scoring Grade 4 kids were still just in the seventh grade when the 2022 Naep testing occurred.
Who knows? Maybe Mississippi's Grade 8 scores will soar in the next Naep testing. That said, as of 2022, the revolution didn't yet seem to have reached the eighth grade, at least for the state's black kids:
Average scores, Grade 8 reading
Lower-income kids, 2022 Naep
National public schools: 247.88
Mississippi: 247.29
Average scores, Grade 8 reading
Lower-income black kids, 2022 Naep
National public schools: 238.17
Mississippi: 238.82
Average scores, Grade 8 reading
Lower-income white kids, 2022 Naep
National public schools: 254.81
Mississippi: 262.34
In 2022, at the Grade 4 level, Mississippi's lower-income kids outscored their peers nationwide by roughly one academic year. Mississippi's lower-income black kids also outscored their nationwide peers by roughly one grade level.
That didn't happen on the Grade 8 level of those same Naep tests. Most specifically, at the Grade 8 level, Mississippi's lower-income black kids merely matched their lower-income national peers last year.
That's better than Mississippi used to do. But until very recently, those low scores by black kids nationwide were taken as a major national problem, not as an acceptable part of some "huge success story."
Through whatever circumstance, Mississippi's lower-income white kids did outscore their nationwide peers by a substantial amount on the Grade 8 level last year. It's always possible that the state's lower-income black eighth graders will be performing on that level by the time the next Naep rolls around.
That said, it's still quite possible that Mississippi's retention policies are skewing all the state's test scores, even on the Grade 8 level. It's possible that skewed comparisons are involved in all these Naep scores.
We'll return to that possibility tomorrow. For today, we'll only tell you this—this is the way some test scores looked on the Grade 8 level last year:
Average scores, Grade 8 reading
2022 Naep
Asian-American kids, U.S. public schools: 281.07
White kids, U.S. public schools: 267.11
Black kids, U.S. public schools: 242.77
Black kids, Mississippi: 240.37
Lower-income black kids, Mississippi: 238.82
On the Grade 8 level, Mississippi's black kids were performing light-years behind other groups of their nationwide peers. Back in the days of Jonathan Kozol, very large "race gaps" of this type were seen as a national problem.
Back then, those gaps were seen as a major national problem! Today, are they just wished away?
As noted, there remains the possibility that all of Mississippi's Naep scores have been skewed by the state's (perfectly reasonable) Grade 3 retention policy (and by related practices). Tomorrow, we'll return to that statistical question.
For today, how about it? Has Mississippi authored an education revolution? We'd say the claim is obscenely premature. As we close, we remind you of "race gaps" like these:
Average scores, Grade 4 reading
2022 Naep
Asian-American kids, U.S. public schools: 238.49
White kids, U.S. public schools: 226.03
Black kids, Mississippi: 204.41
Average scores, Grade 8 reading
2022 Naep
Asian-American kids, U.S. public schools: 281.07
White kids, U.S. public schools: 267.11
Black kids, Mississippi: 240.37
"You say you want a revolution?" Should we perhaps free our minds instead?
Tomorrow: The lingering (statistical) question
Take care of yourself, Bob, as you selfishly bug out on us for a bit.
ReplyDeleteRemember that the country needs you!
"As noted, there remains the possibility that all of Mississippi's Naep scores have been skewed by the state's (perfectly reasonable) Grade 3 retention policy (and by related practices)."
ReplyDeleteThere is not even the likelihood that the 4th grade scores were "skewed" by the retention policy. Now Somerby wants to use that retention policy to show a lack of progress in 8th grade (after claiming it explained the 4th grade progress). This is ridiculous.
The scores are low for the 8th grade test because the kids in 8th grade did not experience the improved reading instruction. The legislation for that program was enacted in 2013. It was not fully implemented until several years later. As described by educators, it took time for the state to identify the need for better training of teachers and provide that training. It took time to place reading specialists in more schools. And it took time to identify the kids lagging behind their peers and provide them with early interventions aided by those reading specialists. Despite the provision of increased funding with the 2013 legislation, not all aspects of the program were implemented fully immediately after passage of the act itself.
Kids who were tested in 8th grade in 2022, were in 3rd grade in 2017 and 1st grade in 2014. That means they did not learn to read via the improved phonics program because it had not been implemented yet. If they had difficulties learning, they did not get the help of reading specialists who had not yet been hired. They may have repeated 3rd grade, but they didn't do so with the improved teachers and reading specialists now being provided in MS schools. That lapse in implementation occurred because MS didn't realize how little training in reading instruction their teachers had, how few reading specialists. They beefed up the training requirements in teacher training courses, but it took years for new teachers to move from the colleges into the schools. It took time for remedial education in reading instruction to be given to the existing teachers after 2013. That means that the improvement in reading instruction was uneven and delayed and didn't magically occur all at once after the law was passed funding that improvement.
This should be obvious, even to Somerby, but he doesn't seem to understand that if kids first saw improvement on the recent NAEP for 4th grade, it shouldn't be there for the 8th graders because they didn't receive the same improved reading instruction in their classrooms, whether they were retained in 3rd grade or not.
Somerby calls this enthusiasm for the 4th grade improvement "obscenely premature" because he isn't willing to admit that any improvement has occurred unless it continues to show up for subsequent cohorts. I think the contrast between the 4th and 8th graders is another sign that there has been actual improvement, that this is not a fluke.
Initially, Somerby claimed the learning in 4th grade was fading by 8th grade, and called that another reason to distrust the claims of MS about improvement. He said the miracle was dying. That is ridiculous when the kids hadn't experienced the improved training to begin with. Now he is still trying to say that the kids haven't actually learned to read, but if 8th grade improvement shows up, it too will be artificial, a result of retention -- his catchall explanation for any result he doesn't want to accept. That is ridiculous too, because retention cannot cause increases in one group and decreases in another (the 8th grade) for the same reason.
Not only is Somerby oddly persistent in refusing to accept progress in MS, but he has been obsessed with this topic to the point of discussing it every day for 5-1/2 weeks. Why would anyone work so hard to deny kids their success in MS? And now he is making things up in order to justify sticking to his denial of MS reading improvement. It would be sad, if it weren't so completely strange.
"It’s unclear how many of Mississippi’s third graders were held back solely because they failed the reading test; the state’s education agency doesn’t track the number of third graders retained for failing the test separately from those who were retained for other reasons. What we do know is that districts that reported higher failure rates on the reading exam also reported higher retention rates. (About 12 percent of the state’s third graders earned exemptions to move on to the fourth grade.)"
ReplyDelete"The Bryant administration has taken the stance that schools can ensure positive outcomes for retained students by making changes to the regular curriculum for students who are held back. The state requires districts to provide 90 minutes each day of intensive help to students repeating the third grade, for instance.
The Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District held back more than 30 percent of its third graders this year. Iris Hurt, who oversees elementary education for the Delta district, said schools there now provide the extended literacy block for all third graders. Teachers also devote part of their planning period to pulling out students who need an extra boost.
But Hurt said it’s still hard to give children as much individual attention as teachers would like. “With a really big number of kids we’re trying to get as much one-on-one time as possible,” she said. “More resources would give us more people to pull kids.”
https://hechingerreport.org/mississippi-made-the-biggest-leap-in-national-test-scores-this-year-is-this-controversial-law-the-reason-why/
" In response to the act, in January of 2014 the Mississippi Department of Education began providing early literacy professional development to all K–3 educators using the Language Essentials for Teaching Reading and Spelling program (Moats & Tolman, 2009). Participants received the professional development content across eight
ReplyDeletemodules split into two phases. Each phase included six weeks of online coursework and three days of face-to-face workshops. Typically, educators completed one phase per academic year. Content ranged from learning the foundations of language and reading to teaching comprehension strategies and writing instruction.
At the same time as the professional development, the department provided state literacy coaches to target schools (those most in need based on the percentage of students in the lowest two achievement levels on the statewide literacy assessment). The state literacy
coaches spent an average of two to three days per week in each school they served. "
At the end of that two year period, an evaluation concluded that teachers still required greater knowledge and training but had improved somewhat. That learning encouraged the idea that continuing to provide teacher training and coaching would benefit student learning.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED573545.pdf
Educator outcomes associated
with implementation of
Mississippi’s K–3 early literacy
professional development initiative
Is the Daily Howler being written by A-I now?
ReplyDeleteYesterday, a commenter wrote to me, "You might not feel like you fit in, but no one is going to become wary of you the minute they see you. You will not be followed around a store to make sure you steal nothing. No one will wonder what you are doing there -- whether you belong there or are a delivery person or server at a social gathering. People will be less likely to ignore you or interrupt you during a conversation. No one will examine your clothing or find it odd that you like the same things they do or ask you how you came to be the exception they obviously think you are."
ReplyDeleteThis is true, but it doesn't imply what the commenter thinks is does. I had a somewhat similar, but lesser, situation working in an antisemitic business. The antisemitism motivated me to work all the harder. I felt that an average performance would not be enough for a Jew to succeed.
Read a biography of Jackie Robinson. He faced a whole different level of racism than exists today. That encouraged him to work all the harder. Look at the black sports heroes of today. Does racism hold Steph Curry down? No, he works harder than most.
Although the commenter's observations are valid, they don't help. The challenge is to help black students learn more in a somewhat racist society. It can be done. Focusing on the racism becomes an excuse to fail in this challenge.
Alito needs to work harder. He'll still be a corrupt piece of shit, but we won't have to hear hm whine about how everyone knows it.
DeleteDavid keeps implying that black kids do not read better because they don’t work hard. That isn’t the problem. Blacks are not poor because they are lazy. They are not doing less well at reading because they “focus” on racism (the white way of suggesting blacks use racism to excuse poor performance). Black scores improved along with white ones when reading instruction improved. A school focus on needs of black poor readers, combined with early intervention by reading specialists working one-on-one would do more to increase black reading scores than DeSantis’s erasure of blackness in the classroom.
DeleteBy the way, Jackie Robinson played in the Negro League before being recruited to desegregate white baseball as an accomplished adult. He had the support of his family, his team and the press when he faced that racist hostility. He was not a 3rd grade child being called lazy for being unable to read.
Focusing on the racism is protective of self-esteem and results in more effort than if a child wrongly believes racist accusations. Black parents teach their kids to ignore racists because otherwise they might believe themselves incapable of success, that’s what white people tell them.
That’s what Somerby has been saying for 5-1/2 weeks. Kids in MS don’t really read better. Someone cheated or it is the retention or a fluke that will go away by 8th grade. Don’t believe it when someone poor or black does well and wants to go to Harvard or a special high school.
Requiring that black kids adjust to racism because it will always be with us is putting the burden on the innocent. It is time for racists to stop picking on black kids. And that means Somerby too.
Black student scores go up and down, it matters little since racism persists, and therefore metrics like the Black wealth gap hold steady, regardless of scores.
DeleteDavid thinks he is being clever, twisting MLK jr’s notion of a future without racial oppression in an attempt to “own the libs”, but really he is just exposing himself as a vile, hate-filled, immoral, racist.
Play on, David, play on.
@11:49 -- for you to conflate a suggestion that more focus is needed with an accusation of laziness is playing the race card. Playing the race card may be a useful debating tactic, but it doesn't add anything to the search for improved black academic performance. It actually hurts the effort, because it shuts down some plausible alternatives.
DeleteThink about how Ben Carson and Clarence Thomas and Thomas Sowell rose from poverty to become outstanding students and intellectual leaders. We should find a way to replicate their experience.
David your claims are misleading, inaccurate, not credible, and therefore irrelevant.
DeleteThose groups do not “outdo” Whites, some of them are White, and none of them experience oppression like Black people have.
Any individual’s “success” is due to privilege and happenstance.
There is no free will; were one to experience life exactly like Ben Carson, one would turn out pretty similar to Ben Carson - who is not particularly impressive, and was a complete failure and totally incompetent as head of HUD.
Solving many of our key problems is not a great mystery: child poverty was recently cut nearly in half in a single year just by expanding the child tax credit, which has since been undone by right wingers.
However, the problem presented by right wingers, such as yourself, on an individual level, is trickier but not intractable; these poor folks, you right wingers, are suffering from unresolved trauma, mostly childhood trauma, that have turned you all into walking zombies of wounded lost souls, obsessed with dominance, and without a moral compass.
Who taught Clarence Thomas to be dishonest?
DeleteMormons discriminate in favor of other Mormons.
DeleteIt is unethical for Clarence Thomas to be bought by, and a puppet of, wealthy and powerful people like Harlan Crow.
DeleteBut Clarence Thomas was being honest when he told his staff just after becoming a Supreme Court justice that his singular goal was not to make decisions to make society better, but to “make liberals’ lives miserable”.
Someone whose goal is to "to make decisions to make society better" might be a good legislator or executive, but s/he would be a terrible judge. The judge's job is to interpret the law and the Constitution. That's what Thomas does. Liberals don't like that, because they want their judges to make policy.
DeleteThe role of SC justice is not to make liberals miserable. That shows bias.
DeleteThe actual quote is "The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years," a former clerk remembered Thomas – who was 43 years old when confirmed – saying, according to The New York Times. "And I'm going to make their lives miserable for 43 years."
DeleteHe took it for granted, accurately, that his decisions would be unpopular with liberals. The goal he expressed was to serve for 43 years.
Not only is DinC related to everybody in the Universe, he's also a Clarence Thomas whisperer.
DeleteGotta admire someone with such a petty mean-spirited goal. What ever happened to character?
DeleteClarence Thomas’ court decisions are based on Capitalism. They go to the highest bidder.
DeleteDavid your claims are again inaccurate and thus irrelevant.
DeleteA judge’s overriding goal indeed is to resolve disputes for the common good of society.
Your claim is further invalidated by reading Article 3 of the Constitution, in particular Section 2.
Thomas largely did nothing on the Court up until the last few years, where he has been busy with judicial activism, which right wingers fully support when it’s to their benefit.
This aligns with Thomas’ stated singular goal in being appointed to the SC, which is to merely make liberals’ lives miserable.
This unethical and hate-fueled goal, combined with Thomas’ corrupt nature and incompetent work on the Court, makes Thomas one of the worst justices in Supreme Court history.
David’s seeming discomfort with his own racism is indicated by how much he tries to rationalize his racism, although failing every time.
DeleteDavid doth protest too much!
David, just own your racism, be a man and step up. No one is going to think any worse of you than they already do.
Sincere question: Why do you continue to read him?
ReplyDeleteLast week Somerby applauded Margaret Renkl's op-ed on joy. Today she writes:
ReplyDelete"We live in two countries now: one in which basic civil and human rights are recognized and enshrined in law, and another in which ideological extremists can decide how everyone else lives."
To defend truth.
ReplyDeleteMississippi has made a good start toward improving the reading ability of its children. Kudos to them. I hope this will encourage them to continue focusing on their schools, training teachers in best practices, and helping their kids toward better jobs and a better future.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
DeleteThe new breed of fascist Dem cares about people of color ... if and only if they support their politics.
ReplyDeleteI know, Dems only get about 97 percent of black voters. You know, the ones Republicans view as inferior and stupid.
DeleteAs Bob stretches this Mississippi sort of story out into eternity, isn’t it fair to ask on this fourth: why did Bob Somerby sell out his Country?
ReplyDelete"He pretends to care about black kids but denies improvement for them in every way he can think of."
ReplyDeleteThe "truth" is that Somerby has repeatedly said that over the past few decades black kids have registered remarkable improvements in reading and math skills, right up until the Covid pandemic hit. Your statement that Somerby "denies improvement for them in every way he can think of" is not a defense of any "truth." (And it makes me wonder about your reading comprehension skills.)
If you are born with certain advantageous physical traits, if you love what you do, you are never “working hard”, in fact you enjoy what you do.
ReplyDeleteThe hardest working people are those that do not like what they do, and were not born with traits that give them an advantage.
A better society would be one where there is no benefit nor disadvantage from however you were born, and where you are free to explore your unique interests, instead of being coerced into work you do not like in order to have a place to live and food to eat. This may seem to some like an unobtainable utopia, but not only is it attainable, it’s largely how we humans have lived for most of our existence, up until about 10k years ago.
A step in this direction would be for every person to have a guaranteed minimum income. In caveman times, that would be the equivalent of a seat by the fire and a spot in the cave, plus a share of whatever the hunters and gatherers have brought in, much as oldsters and children receive. It is close to the idea of from each according to his means and to each according to his needs. We have the wealth in our country to do this, but not the will, because rich people would rather sit around counting their money, like Scrooge McDucks. So we have homeless people on our streets and the poor always with us, as if that improves anyone's view.
DeleteThis comment is repugnant.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, not this one - Anon at 3:34
ReplyDeleteMcCarthyism is common now.
Deletehttps://apple.news/AAe6mSmeTQc-Tg4qljZgseQ
ReplyDeletehttps://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-07-03/how-mississippi-gamed-national-reading-test-to-produce-miracle-gains
ReplyDeleteThis only proves that Hiltzik doesn't read the comments on either blog, and that he is a whore for controversy. It doesn't make him any less mistaken than Somerby and Drum. I am disappointed in the NY Times but not surprised. Somerby had to go way out into the weeds and lie through his teeth to discredit this MS accomplishment. They will have the last laugh, since they will keep doing what they are doing and the NAEP scores will show ongoing progress for their kids, and that is what really matters.
DeleteCorrection: LA Times, not NY Times
DeleteI have written a letter to the editor of the LA Times. I hope others will too.
DeleteI hope Somerby is happy that his name is being used in a snarky editorial the premise of which is that such a “benighted state” (Hiltzik’s term) as Mississippi couldn’t possibly be competent enough to produce score gains that are anything but an illusion. Hiltzik’s piece is filled with exactly the kind of contempt for southerners and conservatives that Somerby spends his blog railing against. But kudos to Bob that he is now associated with such condescension.
DeleteBe careful what you write, Bob.
Perry, let us know if your letter gets published. Thanks,
Delete(do they publish 2000 word letters? 😜)
Deletedo you ever read them?
DeleteAs has been pointed out repeatedly, Somerby argues from both sides of his mouth. There is his real argument and his pro forma statement of something socially acceptable to give himself plausible deniability of racism and other ugly attitudes and beliefs.
ReplyDeleteSomerby has repeatedly denied any real improvement by black children in MS because he has called the rise in scores the result of cheating, statistical anomaly, retention policies, and statistical manipulation. He has ignored the changes in policy and procedures, the retraining of teachers and all of the legitimate hard work put in by both teachers and students to make those score gains -- yes, including the black kids.
In some schools, all of the black 3rd graders were retained. In some schools as many as 30%. In some schools they are providing 90 minutes of reading instruction to the retained kids. In others, the teachers are devoting their prep periods (when they would be eating lunch) to working with black students one-on-one. Somerby in his churlish way calls this a non-miracle, a statistical fluke that went away by 8th grade (a lie, since those kids didn't experience the new policies and practices).
What way is there to deny what happened in MS that Somerby has not used? He even called Morning Joe ugly names for pointing to a Southern "miracle" and admiring progress in LA and AL too.
The truth is that MS has worked hard and accomplished a greal deal by moving from 2nd to last place among states to 21st place. Instead of rushing to accuse them of cheating, Somerby should have said positive things, as everyone in education has already done. Everyone. Even Diane Ravitch, an expert who Somerby slimed.
The truth is that kids in MS have improved their reading skills. Period. End of story.
Notice that Cecelia went away while all of these new racist trolls have invaded this blog. Just like Mao went away. If Somerby were to stop blogging (having jumped the shark a long time ago), we wouldn't have to put up with any of them.
ReplyDeleteThis is worse than the picketing of speakers on college campuses. This professor's personal info was published online so that violent extremists could threaten her and her family. Cecelia and David have objected to the picketing of speeches, but they are silent about this abuse of speech to harrass teachers doing their job.
ReplyDelete"The New York Times on Monday published a lengthy story about a college professor at the University of Chicago who was forced to cancel a class she had planned after being bombarded with violent threats from supporters of a student on campus who in the past has promoted the work of infamous neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
The controversy began when Dr. Rebecca Journey announced plans to hold a class called "The Problem of Whiteness" that dealt with how whiteness as a racial and socioeconomic concept had evolved over time.
This quickly drew the attention of a student named Daniel Schmidt, who railed against the class for "anti-white bias" and posted Journey's contact information to his followers.
Journey was quickly inundated with violent threats that grew so intense that she was forced to cancel her class -- a fact that Schmidt celebrated upon hearing the news.
As the Times notes, Schmidt's views are controversial even among his fellow campus conservatives, as last year he endorsed the presidential campaign of Hitler-praising rapper Kanye West and has openly promoted the work of Fuentes, a Holocaust denier.
Despite this, the University of Chicago has done nothing to get Schmidt to halt his crusade against Dr. Journey, which it believes is protected under the school's free speech policies.
Watson Lubin, a senior at the University of Chicago who has taken Journey's classes, tells the Times that he fears the school is setting a bad precedent where " you can, under the auspices of free speech, more or less intimidate and harass a professor, and sic your incredible following on TikTok and Twitter on them for the purpose of chilling speech."
Based on the comments of various trolls here yesterday, these right wingers should welcome criticism of the concept of a white race, since they were so vocal about knocking blackness as any kind of construct (race or subculture). I guess they only like it when blacks are being discussed, not whites and whiteness as a subculture and white supremacy.
Delete"Has the revolution reached the eighth grade?"
ReplyDeleteSomerby has mentioned the 8th graders now for more than a week, without talking about those scores, even though he has promised to multiple times.
Somerby has stated that the revolution died by eighth grade, that it has failed, that the score gains faded away.
The error here is of course that the 8th graders didn't receive improved reading instruction when they were in 1st through 3rd grade. They may have been retained but if so, received a repetition of 3rd grade, not any intensive attention. No phonics, no reading specialist, no improved instructional techniques due to teacher coaching or on-the-job training, as was mandated for the kids with the 2013 Act. That's because they were no longer in the grades affected by that legislation. Even the kids in those grades received phased in improvements during 2014-2015, if then. The audit of districts that found that few had any reading specialists at all, took place later, as did hiring and provision of specialists in all schools. And segregation still exists in MS, with 32 districts still under a desegregation court order, today. MS in 1971 was the most segregated state in the union. Some black children had no schools at all prior to degregation in 1971. Of course there are still gaps between black and white children. Black children have certainly been held back, perhaps more than white children. Does that suggest that the retention of black kids is likely to have resulted in those inflated NAEP scores that Somerby claims are artificially inflated due to retention?
Retention of kids at Kindergarten is also part of the MS retention policy, not just at 3rd grade for failing a reading test -- that test made it evident that many kids were not reading well at the point when they should be. How many kids tested by NAEP in earlier years included such retained kids? We don't know. Retention was happening back in 2002, not just in 2013 with the new policies on reading instruction. Note also that there is no record kept of retention percentages in MS and that retention is not solely for reading deficits, but also due to math and other subjects. Note that MS allows waivers of retention -- do you imagine they are given to the black kids? We do not know what % of retained kids were due to failing the reading test or how many were of which races? But Somerby assumes that the entire increase in NAEP scores in 2022 (but not prior years) must be due to reading retention. This despite stats showing that the avg went down among older students compared to younger ones in 4th grade. How can the retention be producing higher averages across the board when the retained students (who are older) had a lower average than the rest of the students? That is statistically impossible, but that doesn't stop Somerby from claiming it happened.
The kids who took the 2022 8th grade NAEP did not benefit from any special instruction. They are not the same kids who took the 2022 4th grade NAEP. To determine whether the gains persist to 8th grade, we need to wait four years and then compare the 2026 8th grade NAEP to the 2022 4th grade scores. I wouldn't be surprised to see a substantial gain due to the impact of improved reading on other subjects. More knowledge in 5th-8th grade will lead to better reading and the added knowledge comes from better understand of leisure reading, other textbooks and even the internet. The gains should be cumulative, not disappear as Somerby predicts.
Cont.
DeleteSomerby even wanted to say that because the 4th graders improved in math as well as reading, the gains must be an anomaly. Somerby didn't tell his readers about the links between reading skills and math skills, familiar to most educators and well documented in the education literature. Kids who can read better, get more out of their math textbooks and can read their math word problems better on tests. Why wouldn't they do better in math too?
Somerby has been fundamentally dishonest during this entire 5-1/2 week discussion. Facts about MS schooling can be found by anyone interested, right on the internet using a google search. Somerby prefers his own narrative, which is why he doesn't read his comments, much less do any research on the so-called MS miracle at all. That is a disservice to all of his readers, and now he has misled Drum and Hiltzick too. He should be ashamed of this past several months, but he will return unrepentent.
The question is, is it a miracle?
DeleteThink about the difference in the lives of the kids.
DeleteIn the context of education and testing, is it a miracle? Is that an accurate description of what you have discussed here?
DeleteMiracle is not a technical term.
DeleteYou see you can't answer the question. It's not a miracle. That's the crux of the whole complaint. Everything else all you've written here is a complete waste of time based on misreadings and misunderstandings and a lot of neurosis!
DeleteI did answer. Miracle is figurative language. Somerby complained about the word but even he didn’t take it literally and it was far from his only complaint.
DeleteIs it a miracle though? Figurative or otherwise? Is it accurate to label it a figurative miracle?
DeleteCan't wait for this answer!
Delete10:32: no, that isn’t the question. Somerby has raised complaints claiming the naep results were skewed and were not genuine because of Mississippi’s retention policy. He ignores the fact that 17 states including DC have a mandatory retention policy, and do not show similar results as Mississippi. Aside from that, many other states allow voluntary retention of third graders. The idea that you put forward, that the disagreement is merely or primarily about the term “miracle”, is a red herring, and laughable.
DeleteIs it a miracle though? Is it accurate to call it a miracle, figurative or otherwise? If so, how? It's the title of the series and has been asked in every single post.
DeleteCan't wait for this next dodge! Love the good old this is a red herring red herring.
DeleteThe subject of this series is journalism, not Mississippi test scores.
DeleteThere are no miracles. A Republican voter who knows something about economics is an impossibility, not a miracle.
DeleteSee how full of shit all you idiots are? You can't even answer the question that is the basis for this entire series.
DeleteThe subject of this series is ... journalism.
DeleteNot Mississippi test scores.
For the troll: yes it is a miracle in the sense that the term was applied.
DeleteFor the rest: a puzzling aspect to Somerby’s stance is that the MS 8th grade scores already are relatively good, showing a modest but decent increase over the last 20yrs and significantly closing the gap to the national average.
For the upper echelon: score growth is not a cure for larger societal ills.
Why is it a miracle as the term is applied?
DeleteWhy precisely would journalists be accurate when they describe it as a miracle? The subject of this series is not the test scores. This is about journalism. Do you understand that? Does not seem like it
Delete🤣
The definition of a miracle is not 'relatively good.", Is it? So how is it a miracle?
DeleteThe subject of this series is why journalists would call these test scores a miracle. And you blather on day after day yet you have nothing at all to say about the subject of this entire series.
3:35 what exactly is his stance?
DeleteI guess mm doesn't understand what the word "claim" means.
Deletemm who?
DeleteAs usual the only research that the "scientists" will do involves increasing big pharma profits. They will never cure anything as they can make more money by keeping people reliant on drugs, and they will do everything possible to discourage others from trying other medications like herbal medicine but thank God i never listen to them despite all they did to convince me that my husband ALS has no cure when he (my husband) was diagnosed 7 months ago . Am happy to inform you all that my husband is free and completely cured of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) after using Dr. Osunbum ALS herbal formula, the formula works like magic . Always learn to follow your heart refuse to be discouraged there is no problem without a solution . My husband is back on his feet stronger than before thanks allot peter. contact Osunbumi for her ALS herbal formula via drosunbuminaomispiritual@gmail.com you can call him or chat live with him on whatsapp via 2348070894186.
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