Correlation between poverty, low school achievement

by David Safier No one should be surprised to hear that schools with more low income students also tend to have low test scores. But it's still amazing to see how clearly the Arizona stats make that correlation. A reader sent me an excel spreadsheet of data he compiled from 3 public sources on the … Read more

I wish we were this organized

by David Safier I envy the conservatives' ability to think 2 or 3 steps ahead when they're trying to sell an agenda to voters. I think they stink at governing, and their ideology tends to be anywhere from wrong headed to inhumane. But man, can they put together a frontal assault to push their agenda. … Read more

Fool’s Gold: Head Start is worthless

by David Safier Have I ever told you never to take anything from Goldwater Institute at face value? In case you missed me saying it before: Never take anything from G.I. at face value. Latest exhibit: a G.I. Daily Email from Jay Greene, who has a blog Matthew Ladner posts on regularly. Greene's email cites … Read more

What to expect in education legislation

by David Safier A reader did a whole lot of work and sent me an 8 page Word document filled with education legislation being proposed this year. I'm going to cherry pick the items I find interesting, but I'm putting the entire document online so those of you who know more about this stuff than … Read more

TUSD doing school closures right

by David Safier This is encouraging. After last year's debacle where TUSD tried to close some schools from the top down and got so much blowback it retreated, this year the district is trying a rewards based, bottom up approach that appears to be bearing fruit. TUSD has told schools, if you can join together … Read more