NEPC Review: Report Card on American Education

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/defaults/d791sg986

Abstract

The "Report Card on American Education," published by the American Legislative Exchange Council, uses poor and misleading methods to draw some very controversial findings. The report presents readily available statistics to generate hundreds of tables and figures concerning each state's education "inputs," "outputs," and demographics. Interspersed among these tables are a mere dozen pages of analysis intended to support the conclusion, in the words of ALEC Executive Director Lori Roman, that per-pupil spending increases, pupil-to-teacher ratio reductions and raises for teachers "...are not going to make the difference in raising American student achievement to international standards. Empowering parents will" (p. 1). But ineptness and naiveté in measurement and data analysis have thwarted any attempt to legitimately derive such conclusions.

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