Strange Bedfellows

When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Center for American Progress agree on something, it should be big news. But I completely missed the discussion of this plan proposed jointly by the two groups and the American Enterprise Institute on education effectiveness.

While some of the information is really not all that new, the report card format offers one particularly new item I have never seen before, the Truth in Advertising About Student Proficiency.

According to the report: To grade the states in this area, we depended on a study by Paul E. Peterson and Frederick M. Hess titled Keeping an Eye on State Standards. The authors calculated a grade for each state based on the difference between the percentage of students deemed proficient by the state and the percentage identified as proficient on the NAEP in 2005.(Link Added)

Part of the problem of NCLB's incentives is that states are incentivized to "fudge" the numbers a little bit when using their own tests. But NAEP is a national test, the same test given to all students in the program. The results are often very much at odds with what the state reports for their successes on their own tests.

A very neat study and very good presentation by the Chamber. I look forward to a more in depth read.