Bridging Differences: Should Data Matter?

As you know, Mark Twain (or Disraeli or someone) once wrote that there are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. Everyone in education, or so it seems, has learned how to present them in ways that bolsters whatever they want to do. Either, the sky is falling, or things have never been better.

Let me suggest that the statistics you offer are open to different interpretations, to be generous. I don't really know how anyone can say how students in Singapore or Sweden would perform IF they took a NAEP test, which they did not take. Why not just look at the international tests that were taken by students in the United States and many other nations? At least one need not hypothesize about what would have happened, but can look at the results of taking a common test (by the way, this makes my point about the value of having a common national test, rather than 50 different state tests).

More here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2007/05/should_data_matter.html