Ohio Voucher Data Is Being Manipulated, Researcher Charges.An education researcher from Indiana Indiana, state, United States Indiana, midwestern state in the N central United States. It is bordered by Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan (N), Ohio (E), Kentucky, across the Ohio R. (S), and Illinois (W). has charged that pro-voucher advocates manipulated data from Cleveland's "school choice" program in an effort to prove that vouchers had increased student performance. Kim Kim orphan wanders streets of India with lama. [Br. Lit.: Kim] See : Adventurousness K. Metcalf, director of the Indiana Center for Evaluation at Indiana University's School of Education, wrote in Education Week Sept. 23 that her team examined the Cleveland program objectively, without the aim of supporting or opposing vouchers. The analysis showed that after one year of operation, students in the voucher A receipt or release which provides evidence of payment or other discharge of a debt, often for purposes of reimbursement, or attests to the accuracy of the accounts. program were performing no better than their counterparts in the city's public schools. The researchers said they believe that one year is too early to draw definitive conclusions and recommended another study after the plan had been in operation for several years. But pro-voucher advocates took the data and "reanalyzed" it, insisting that it shows voucher students faring better than those in public schools. Metcalf charges, however, that the pro-voucher scholars either manipulated or misinterpreted test scores and other data to support their pre-drawn conclusions. "Did the advocates intentionally in·ten·tion·al adj. 1. Done deliberately; intended: an intentional slight. See Synonyms at voluntary. 2. Having to do with intention. manipulate manipulate To cause a security to sell at an artificial price. Although investment bankers are permitted to manipulate temporarily the stock they underwrite, most other forms of manipulation are illegal. the data to get the results they wished?" wrote Metcalf. "Or, did they unknowingly apply inappropriate research techniques? The members of the team of advocates, though some of them represent prominent institutions, are strong supporters of vouchers and have done much to promote the implementation of voucher programs throughout the country. So, it is possible that they are engaged in a deliberate effort to misrepresent mis·rep·re·sent tr.v. mis·rep·re·sent·ed, mis·rep·re·sent·ing, mis·rep·re·sents 1. To give an incorrect or misleading representation of. 2. the Cleveland data in order to influence educational policy. We would prefer to believe that scholars would not do such a thing, no matter how strongly they believed in their cause. On the other hand, it is perhaps equally troubling to believe that the advocates were either so uninformed about acceptable standards of educational research that they unknowingly used inappropriate techniques, or they were so arrogant ar·ro·gant adj. 1. Having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance. 2. Marked by or arising from a feeling or assumption of one's superiority toward others: that they believed it unnecessary to follow accepted standards." Metcalf, noting that massive school funding is at stake, said there are no clear answers yet about the efficacy of vouchers. Wrote the researcher, "Until there are, it is important to separate research activity from political activity, information from opinion and good science from bad." |
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