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The numbers aren't staggering, but often the exponential growth from last to bottom tenth, sixth, or third is a more important improvement threshold than the move from 70 t0 80, or, 80 t0 90 percentile.

It is indeed considerably more important. According to the site that tracks these things, the fourth graders who managed to climb to the 30th percentile can now be considered functionally literate. They were illiterate before. That's a major qualitative difference. Fourth grade is pretty late for learning how to read, but better late than never.

Calling it a "STEM-based school" is a joke in poor taste though. This is remedial instruction of the most fundamental kind, and a damning indictment of the previous three to five years of schooling. A school that can't teach a child to read is not a school—it is a kid warehouse. And these kids can learn to read, as they have now demonstrated.

If LeBron James lending his name is what it takes to break through, more power to him. Unfortunately, as InterGuru points out below, that's not scalable or sustainable. There's only one LeBron James, and once his name is lent out too much, it's diluted and doesn't mean anything anymore. And it ages fast. How many of GenZ even knows Michael Jordan's name?

I'm not even saying rural. I don't believe what I've noticed about the midwest has anything to do with how rural it is. It's as bad in Tulsa as it is in Westville.
You keep trying to bring political beliefs into this as well, and I really don't get it.
I had a very evangelic math teacher in southern Oregon, who was frankly brilliant. He doesn't get included in my list. Very rural. Obviously a smart dude who believes some dumb shit. Generally *not* ignorant in any way.
Where did money come into play? I'm glad welders make good money. They should. Are you telling me you have to be educated to be a welder?
Now, back to the midwest.
http://www.alec.org/publicatio...
http://www.nationsreportcard.g...
Have you ever had to explain to argue with someone that we have proven that the Earth orbits the sun? Me neither, until I lived in Oklahoma.
I believe it's part of some evangelist southern baptist culture to reject science in general. All the sciences, from astronomy to math- not just things that conflict with their dogmatic teachings.
One note on the cattle rancher, you pointed out a bunch of true things about him, but in no way did you show that he was not generally ignorant. Ignorant people can be talented at things, or not ignorant in specific things. Good for them. The world needs cattle ranchers. Cattle ranchers who don't know a god damned thing about civics, math, science, engineering, history, or anything else outside what affects his field. Perfect kind of person for a democracy, right?

Citation needed.

The best data on educational achievement is from the NAEP.
http://nationsreportcard.gov/ltt_2008/

The NAEP shows a small but steady increase from 1971 to 2008 in math and reading scores. The major change over that period is that the hispanic students, and especially the black students, had a fairly significant increase. That's the result of ending the blatant discrimination that existed in 1971, and improving the schools in black neighborhoods where they couldn't overcome segregation.

Diane Ravitch was assistant secretary of education under both GHW Bush and Bill Clinton. At first she supported these reforms. Then when she looked at the data, she decided she was wrong. Here's what she thinks about NCLB.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-no-child-left-behind-and-the-damage-done/2012/01/10/gIQAR4gxoP_blog.html

Ravitch said elsewhere that the most significant factor in student achievement is parent income. Raise the parent income and you raise the student achievement. Ravitch said that (based on an NAEP study) charter schools were worse overall than public schools, when you correct for parent income (although a few charter schools did well).

The experiment is at http://nationsreportcard.gov/science2009ict/mysteryplants/mysteryplants.aspx , and it's completely bogus, revealing that it's not just kids who are stupid in US.

http://nationsreportcard.gov/science_2009/

Cut and pasted from a comment by Pavon Even if you limit your comparison to students within the same demographics the state ranking are about the same for the most part. Some states really do have much better public education than others.

From TFA:

“The sample sizes for these tests are generally somewhat small to make any real sense out of them,” county Superintendent William Habermehl said. “Also, most of these students tested in California come from large urban districts, so it’s not always an accurate representation.”

If you want to see something that is a fairer guide to academic achievement, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is a much better guide. Iowahawk used it to take down a weak argument about ACT/SAT scores during the public kerfluffle about the efficacy of union vs. non-union teachers.

With 14k California tested there is not a by any means a sampling size problem.

5 sample questions here:

http://nationsreportcard.gov/science_2011/sample_quest.asp

all questions for grades 4,8,12 here:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrlsx/search.aspx?subject=science

5/5 for me

Even if you limit your comparison to students within the same demographics the state ranking are about the same for the most part. Some states really do have much better public education than others.

You can look at questions here: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrlsx/search.aspx?subject=science
Also, there's a little sample test: http://nationsreportcard.gov/science_2011/sample_quest.asp

From TFA:

“The sample sizes for these tests are generally somewhat small to make any real sense out of them,” county Superintendent William Habermehl said. “Also, most of these students tested in California come from large urban districts, so it’s not always an accurate representation.”

If you want to see something that is a fairer guide to academic achievement, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is a much better guide. Iowahawk used it to take down a weak argument about ACT/SAT scores during the public kerfluffle about the efficacy of union vs. non-union teachers.

First, I'd like to know what data (not anecdotes) you have to support the claim that the problem has been getting worse for 50 years.

If you believe in test scores, the NAEP has tests scores in math and reading going back to 1973. They've improved steadily over 35 years. http://nationsreportcard.gov/ltt_2008/alt_index.asp The improvement has been most dramatic for black and hispanic kids. That's a problem?