Reply to Studies on "integrated schools"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Please read the study.

If you really believe the study is solid, then let's see what the study does.

It compares students/families being randomly assigned to PUBLIC HOUSING that belongs to different school zones.
E.g. PUBLIC HOUSING A belongs to school A, HOUSING AREA B belongs to school B, etc....

The study did find some difference between student performance going to different schools (with different FARMS rate) (Figs. 6 and 7)

However, one key question is that, is the location of the housing, or the school that they attend that is driving this?

The author in the study tried to address this, however, in a strange approach. See Figs.9 and 10. Here she compares student performance for 
kids living in different NEIGHBORHOODS of different  poverty levels, and concluded that the poverty levels of neighborhoods only contribute to about
half of the difference compared to the school effects (shown in Figs. 6 and 7).

This is not the right approachWhen you look at the effect of the "NEIGHBORHOOD", you can't use categorize the neighborhood differently than how you do the schools. i.e., in Fig.6 and 7, one may be comparing 
children going to schools A+B+D vs schools C+E+F+G; but in Figs.9 and 10, one may be comparing children living in neighborhood A+B+C vs neighborhoods D+E+F+G.
Her study only tells us that the poverty level of neighborhood has less effect on student performance. It does not tell us whether these specific neighborhoods that are associated 
with less/more poverty schools have an effect.

The right approach, would be to get students living in neighborhood A, randomly assigned to schools B, C, D, etc... then we will know whether it is the "school" or the "neighborhood" that is 
affecting the performance. I think the author knows this, but she does not have the power to perform the experiment because she can't change the housing/school assignment.

Anyway, conclusions (if you believe the data from the report are solid):

Students being assigned to [b]PUBLIC HOUSINGS [/b] associated with less poverty schools can probably have an edge in their performance.

However, the report does [b]NOT[/b] tell us:
(1) Changing the school assignment of  a PUBLIC HOUSING to a less poverty school would have a positive effect.
(2) Changing the school assignment of anyone not in PUBLIC HOUSING to a less poverty school would have a positive effect.

Does that help MCPS? Apparently NO. If MCPS is to follow the report, than it should simply send more kids into those "PUBLIC HOUSINGS" that are "proven" to be good, 
instead of changing school boundaries.

[/quote]

Is there something about [b]"PUBLIC HOUSINGS"[/b] that somehow invalidates the conclusion that poor kids whose families got randomly assigned to live in areas zoned for low-poverty schools did better in school than kids whose families got randomly assigned to live in areas zoned for high-poverty schools?[/quote]

As  I said: "Students being assigned to [b]PUBLIC HOUSINGS [/b] associated with less poverty schools can probably have an edge in their performance" (compared to those
in PUBLIC HOUSINGS associated with high poverty schools). I should probably add "currently" before "associated" to be more accurate.

However, we do not know (i) how much a factor being in PUBLIC HOUSING plays. So this can't be applied to anyone not in public housing.
(ii) how much a factor the neighborhood (note: NOT THE POVERTY LEVEL of the neighborhood, as studied in the report) plays. So this can't be used as evidence supporting the change of school zone assignments (MAYBE IT IS THAT PARTICULAR NEIGHBORHOOD OF PUBLIC HOUSING that makes these students perform better, instead of that particular school).

It is just that simple.[/quote]

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