Doug Mann wrote: > The mere assertion that a claim made at the MPS website is > "bogus, deceptive, insincere, and intellectually vacuous" > does not prove that the MPS is a left-wing "progressive" organization.
That's true, I didn't claim that it did. > Does the data show that reduced class sizes are not > beneficial to all of the "races" which the MPS keeps > track of? And if so, or if not, how is the statement > bogus, deceptive, etc? The webpage is deceptive because of two major factors: 1) The graphed achievement scores compare two different population on the same scale. Namely, the students with zero years of reduced class size are not students who have been in the district and did not have their class sizes reduced, they are students who transferred into the district (an entirely different population who are known to have unique problems). 2) The webpage uses observational data to draw conclusions about causality. If you didn't learn that, "correlation does not imply causation," in your intro statistics class you should have. > And are left-wing, progressive organizations the only > source of "bogus, deceptive, insincere, and intellectually > vacuous" statements? My position, as previously stated in this thread, was that both conservative and liberal groups can misrepresent the facts. > According to The Merrium Webster Dictionary, the term > progressive refers to > > "...a person believing in moderate political change and > social improvement by governmental action..." "Progressive" has a unique meaning and set of philosophical beliefs in education. Even so, I believe that as an institution the MPS can be characterized using your definition as supporting moderate "social" improvement by governmental action. After all, they are branch of the government and education brings about social improvement. > and the term "Left" refers to > > "...those professing political views marked by desire to reform the > established order > and [usually] to give greater freedom to the common man." > > Though the Minneapolis School Board may be to the left of > Michael Atherton, I would not classify the Minneapolis School > Board as a left-wing, progressive organization. Although Doug Mann's Socialist philosophy maybe further left than the Minneapolis School Board I don't think that makes them right wing, after the schools are managed by mostly DFL endorsed school board members. If the school board was dominated by Republicans then you might have a valid point. Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
