Saturday, February 5, 2011

Foregone conclusions in NYC

From the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/nyregion/05winerip.html?_r=1


The article describes how 2,000 people attended a hearing on school closings even though "the outcome was never in doubt." The chancellor, deputies and mayor "seem to share a sureness they are right." NYC continues a push toward small schools even though "studies indicate the size of a school is no guarantee of quality" and toward charter schools despite "a national study that 17 percent are superior to traditional public schools; 37 percent are worse..."

5 comments:

Questioner said...

This type of confidence on the part of administrators in the face of absent or contrary evidence has been a hallmark of the school reform movement- in Pittsburgh and across the country.

Disgruntled said...

It's nice to have someone in the media actually notice this. It's only been happening for a decade or more in some of the largest cities.

Do we have to wait another 5 years here before our local papers actually read some studies, look at facts and do some reporting? I hope it's not that long, because I don't think we've got 5 more years to give here.

Questioner said...

Again, it probably all comes down to money. The NYT is not going out of business- one way or another it will survive. And the more it actually investigates, the stronger it will be. The PG in contrast seems to be very insecure about its future.

Anonymous said...

Money and politics rule the day. PG reporters have and easy job if all of their news reports comes from Press releases instead the time, footwork and thinking necessary for investigative reporting.

Questioner said...

Thus making the newspaper more irrelevant. We can go to the PPS website if we want to read press releases.