Thursday, August 28, 2003

Red Houston: Home of the Republican Stalinists

For Houston Schools, College Claims Exceed Reality: "Davis High School, where students averaged a combined SAT score of 791 out of a possible 1600 in 1998, reported that every last one of its graduates that year planned to go to college."

Reminds one of the Stalinist claims of agricultural production and election results. Houston, bastion of the Bush wing of the Republican party, has given us both a Potemkin corporation (Enron) and a Potemkin educational system.

Too bad there's still a free press, but on the other hand Fox's numbers look pretty good. Rove needs to put the Office of Strategic Information to work.

Meanwhile, at home in Saint Paul, school rankings promise to turn our schools into a Potemkin system, where the weak are hidden or eliminated and gaming the system is job one. Alas, I was so naive to support standardized testing; I imagined the information would actually be used wisely. (My wife only occasionally reminds me of my error.)

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