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Date sent: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 14:09:08 -0500
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Subject: [FAIR-L] In Attack on Public Schools, Did Stossel Do His
Homework?
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FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports
ACTION ALERT: In Attack on Public Schools, Did ABC's Stossel Do His
Homework?
November 24, 1999
On 20/20's November 12 broadcast, ABC News correspondent John Stossel
devoted his "Give Me a Break" segment to taking on public schools and
teaching standards. But a close examination of the report reveals so many
mistakes and omissions that one can only wonder whether Stossel did his
homework.
The report is divided into two segments: a full-scale attack on public
schools and teachers, and a comparison between failing, bureaucratic
public schools and successful, high-achieving private Catholic schools.
>From the beginning of the segment, it's not hard to tell where Stossel is
headed. Anchor Barbara Walters introduces Stossel's report by saying, "So
what's the matter with teachers today?" Stossel then proceeds with his
case against "government schools" and their "Soviet-style bureaucracy."
Here are a few of the claims made in the report, accompanied by a response
to each.
STOSSEL: "Lots of people are complaining about public schools, but that's
not the story the teachers' union tells."
FACT: While it's certainly true that some people are critical of public
education, their overall impression is not negative. According to the
latest results of the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll Of the Public's
Attitudes Toward Public Schools, 49 percent of respondents give public
schools a grade of A or B, and 31 percent assign them a C. Only 5 percent
of respondents gave public schools a failing grade
(http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kpol9909.htm). It's worth noting that
parents with children in public school graded schools more favorably; 66
percent of these gave an A or a B to the school their oldest child
attends.
It's also worth noting that one teacher's union, the National Education
Association, offers plenty of criticisms of public schools on their own
web site.
STOSSEL "SAT scores are lower than they used to be."
FACT: Data from the Department of Education show a slide from the mid-'60s
to the mid-'70s, with SAT scores remaining relatively stable over the past
20 years. But using the SAT to compare students of today with students of
yesteryear is a meaningless exercise. A much larger pool of students
takes the test today than in the past, when they were mainly required by a
small group of elite colleges. Most importantly, the questions on the
test change every year, so there is no way to know how the class of 1966
would have done on 1999's test, or vice versa.
STOSSEL: "Since I was in school, America has more than tripled spending on
education."
It's commonly claimed that school spending has increased
dramatically--most often, it's said to have doubled in the past 25 years.
But prices for labor-intensive services like education generally rise
faster than prices for goods, which are held down by improvements in
technology. Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute has
calculated an inflation rate for services, and when this is used instead
of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate real spending on education,
Rothstein found that spending on public schools actually grew 61 percent
between 1967 and 1991--about 2 percent per year--and much of that increase
went to special education programs. Likewise, spending from 1991 to 1996
has increased only 0.7 percent.
STOSSEL: "The U.S. Education Department says that only one in five
teachers feels prepared to teach to high standards."
FACT: Stossel appears to be referring to a Department of Education study
released in January 1999 (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/1999080.htm). This
study dealt with teacher preparedness, but it had nothing about teaching
to "high standards." Instead, it found that 20 percent of teachers--one in
five--felt comfortable integrating high *technology* into classroom
instruction (20 percent).
Of course, such misuse of a survey would constitute either gross
dishonesty or extreme sloppiness. The Department of Education could find
no study that more closely matched Stossel's description; ABC refused to
provide any more specifics.
STOSSEL: "This summer, the Massachusetts teachers' union staged this
protest after almost half the state's new teachers flunked the competency
test and kept flunking."
FACT: First, as Dr. Penelope Earley of the American Association of
Colleges for Teacher Education points out, many of those flunking the exam
were not teachers, but members of the public trying to get teaching
credentials.
Second, Stossel fails to mention the most important aspect of the
Massachusetts tests-- namely, the serious questions about the reliability
and validity of the test. An ad hoc committee of education experts
evaluated the Communications and Literacy portion of the exam and found
the margin of error to be "double or triple the range found on
well-developed tests." (Education Policy Analysis Archives, 2/11/99)
STOSSEL: Stossel also relies on Martin Gross, author of "Conspiracy of
Ignorance," whom Stossel says "has spent the last few years studying
teacher's colleges." Gross, who calls such colleges "a sinkhole of
stupidity," claims that "Fifty-four percent of all our teachers have a
master's in qualification. That's a zero qualification."
FACT: Perhaps Gross meant to say 45 percent, which is the actual figure
for teachers that have a master's degree, according to the U.S Department
of Education. While Gross is trying to make a point about teacher's
colleges, the fact remains that most teachers major in academic subjects
other than education during their undergraduate and graduate years.
***
Stossel does find one school system "that's doing a better job for a
fraction of the money"--Catholic schools. But there are a number of
problems with this public/private comparison, most of which are omitted
from the report.
STOSSEL: "Catholic students test higher."
FACT: While this is generally true, this claim magnifies the problems with
Stossel's comparison. Most private schools screen students prior to
admission, in effect "weeding out" the low-performers. Of course, public
schools cannot do this. This accounts for some of the disparity in test
scores.
STOSSEL: "98 percent [of Catholic school students] graduate, vs. 49
percent for the public schools."
FACT: The graduation rate in public schools is far higher than Stossel
says. According to the National Department of Education Statistics, the
completion rate for public schools was 76.4 percent in 1996
(http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/dropout/98250-06.html).
Given the level of inaccuracy in Stossel's report, it's worthwhile to note
the irony-- an error-filled attack on the supposedly low standards of our
public education system.
ACTION: Contact Disney/ABC and inquire as to whether this report was
subject to any kind of review for factual accuracy. If you have written to
ABC before about Stossel before, point out that the network has given no
satisfactory explanation for the apparent inaccuracies in prior Stossel
broadcasts.
Contact:
ABC News
47 W. 66th Street
New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777 (ABC News general number)
212-456-7301 (John Stossel)
Fax: 212-456-4297
E-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (ABC News)
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Stossel)
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