Miracles that weren't

Diane Ravitch's latest piece in the New York Times contains some fine, necessary instruction to which many in the education-policy world might listen: stop creating education miracles. One can be wary of Ravitch's late-period work, suspicious of her use of data and facts, and still believe her correct when she writes that ?the news media and the public should respond with skepticism to any claims of miraculous transformation.? Ravitch gives several examples of miracles that weren't, and included in the list is Chicago's Urban Prep, which, in February, announced that for a second year in a row, all its seniors had been accepted to a four-year college. I blogged about the occurrence, and wrote then that ?as usual? I was ?skeptical?: ?I wonder, for instance, if all the seniors are actually prepared to succeed in college (King told the Tribune that this year's graduating class had an average ACT score of 17.5, which ain't great); to what sort of four-year colleges these young men were accepted; and whether the school's college-for-all push is necessarily in the best interests of its students.? Turns out the skepticism was warranted. Only 17 percent of Urban Prep students passed state tests. All the school's graduates may be headed to campus. It seems indisputable that most shouldn't be.

?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow