Dive Brief:
- Tulane University's Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives has retracted a study that reported New Orleans' public high schools were exceeding expectations when working with "vulnerable students" who face various disadvantages.
- The study was released October 1st, but Cowen Institute Executive Director John Ayers released a statement saying there were faults in the study's methodology and that its conclusions were inaccurate.
- The Cowen Institute was created in 2007 to review the effects of school reform efforts post-Katrina.
Dive Insight:
According to the Associated Press the study defined "vulnerable students" as "those who are more than two years above grade-level age in ninth grade, who failed an eighth-grade assessment test, who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches or who are eligible for special education services." It then used "regression analysis" to calculate the performance of these vulnerable students, finding that "60 percent of New Orleans public high schools exceeded passage rates on End of Course exams. Half had higher-than-predicted ACT scores and all were at or above their predicted four-year graduation rates."
What's most confusing about the Institute's paper retraction is Ayers never gave an explanation for why the methodology was flawed and in an email with the Associated Press he declined to comment further.
Would there be a benefit in shrouding the success of a traditional public school? Since the Cowen Institute began New Orleans has become the first school district comprised solely of charter schools. First there was the Recovery School District and overtime it became the only district, as public schools were closed.