"Even with such low standards, the Texas Education Agency decided to rate hundreds of Texas schools and scores of Texas districts as 'academically acceptable' last year--the lowest 'passing' catagory--by counting thousands of students who flunked the TAKS as passing it. ... For example, TEA reported that statewide the number of 'exemplary' campuses, the highest rating, more than doubled from 1,000 in 2008 to 2,158 in 2009. But without the statistical projections that some failing students would later pass, the increase would have been only 44 campuses. ... [Scott] Hochberg said the new system is disturbing not only because of the large number of schools that are receiving upgraded ratings under it, but also because of the statistical formula itself. ... 'But they're not doing that,' [Hochberg] said.'If you're projected going up, you're counted as passing. But if you're projected going down, you're not counted as not passing'," Rick Casey at the Houston Chronicle, 20 June 2010, link:
Stress tests for Texas! Financial engineering for schools! I had noticed more schools with signs indicating they were exemplary. Yeah, sure. Accept no government statistic at face value.
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Here are some interesting government numbers from Pres-O's home state...
Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo.
He picks the papers off his desk and points to a figure in red: $5.01 billion.
“This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university — and it’s getting worse every single day,” he says in his downtown office.
Mr. Hynes shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services,” he says. “That is obscene.”
For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession. Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget.
Then there is the spectacularly mismanaged pension system, which is at least 50 percent underfunded and, analysts warn, could push Illinois into insolvency if the economy fails to pick up.
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