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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FastC6 who wrote (59166)	11/4/2000 7:30:14 PM
From: greenspirit	Respond to of 769670

Article..Texas' Progress is Real: Bush's School Record is Impressive 11/04/2000 oklahoman.com THE Texas Education Review is a new academic journal that regularly tackles the data and the reality of education, including government-run schools. The newest issue includes a scholarly analysis by Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Jay Greene demonstrating that education progress in Texas is real. Greene rebuts critics who have relied on a new Rand Corp. study to discount the record. (Ironically, an earlier Rand study had praised the state.) Greene looked at trends in both the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The latter scores were stagnant even as the Texas scores rose, especially among ethnic minorities. Greene notes, "According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is the most reliable long- term measure of educational achievement, test scores have hardly changed during this time (1961-1998). That is why the significant increases in student achievement in Texas during the 1990s are so surprising. Not only were the increases large, but they occurred across the board demographically. The NAEP math scores of Texas 13- year-olds went from 258 in 1990 to 270 in 1996. Black 13-year-old results went from 236 to 249. Hispanics increased their scores from 245 to 256. These are larger gains in six years than the U.S. has experienced over 20 years." Publisher and editor Brent Tantillo of the Review adds this point: "Some critics ... argued the gains are the result of higher high school dropout rates, but Greene analyzes the data and shows that dropout rates have actually decreased in Texas." The Texas Education Review is published by the Texas Review Society, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) corporation. Just after the two political conventions, we noted in an editorial ("Education Tug-of-War: Will Two Parties Meet in the Middle?") that at the national level there was some evidence that Democrats and Republicans were converging in their education policy views. The key difference, it seems to us, is in the arena of parental choice in education. Republicans have a much broader and more inclusive agenda than the Democrats. Still, the emerging convergence is a hopeful, not negative, sign for the future. In that light, it is unfortunate that so many partisans have worked so hard to distort George W. Bush's exemplary record -- especially the methodical and real progress made in improving schools. On educational policy, Bush is more visionary and inclusive in his thinking than is Vice President Gore -- yet another reason to support Bush for president. ------------------------------------------------------