Reply to Study: "Discussions of D.C. public school options in an online forum" (yes, this one)

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Reply to "Study: "Discussions of D.C. public school options in an online forum" (yes, this one)"

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[quote=jsteele]There are so many problems with the report's methodology. They have lists of "low attention schools" and "high attention schools". Generally, the "high attention schools" are the schools in the neighborhood in which our users live and the "low attention schools" are in neighborhoods which few of our users live. Two exceptions on the low attention list are Duke Ellington and Banneker. Duke Ellington has about 550 students and is a specialized Arts school. Nobody should be surprised that it is not discussed as often as 1800 student Wilson. Banneker is a more complicated case. It may be true that white families avoid it due to racism or it may be true that white families avoid it due to respect for the black student body which has created a special place. It may be a mixture of both or neither. This report doesn't offer evidence in any case.

The report's word lists are useless in my opinion. There is no context. For example, if "diversity" gets mentioned is it being used as a positive or a negative? If posters are promoting a school due to its diversity, is that supporting segregation or opposing it? "Diversity" gets counted just as often as "no diversity". To the report's authors, none of this is important. It is enough that "diversity" comes up at all in relation to some schools. But, then they use this to form conclusions that I don't think can be supported without necessary context.
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