The 74 Million – Wendy Castillo
“The differences between Chatham and Commerce come into sharp relief with new data tools such the Opportunity Explorer by the Education Opportunity Project at Stanford University. This tool allows users to search for all schools in the nation and compare them using the same metrics. The disparities between Chatham and Commerce are alarming. Test scores in my hometown’s school district (Montebello Unified), for example, were 1.91 grade levels below the national average, while Chatham’s were almost three grade levels above (2.91) — a total difference of almost 5 grade levels. The tool also calculates annual learning rates, which are a better way to assess school quality than simply comparing test scores. This is because test scores are influenced by many factors outside of school. On average, each year, students from Commerce learned 23 percent less than students in Chatham did.” (more)