A Think Twice Review of:
Closing the Racial Achievement Gap: Learning from Florida's Reforms
Think Twice - Nov 30, 2010
Publisher/Think Tank - The Heritage Foundation
Author(s) -
This report contends that Florida's "far-reaching" education policies have caused test scores to increase and the achievement gap to narrow. In particular, the report focuses on fourth-grade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Reviewer(s) - Madhabi Chatterji, Teachers College at Columbia University
In her review, Chatterji finds that "The report's key conclusions are unwarranted and insufficiently supported by research." Most importantly, she points out the very direct effects of the state's grade-retention policy, causing the report's comparisons to be largely meaningless.