In a widely distributed press release on Sept. 24, Harford County Public Schools indicated that 44 percent of students in the Class of 2012 had passed one or more Advanced Placement exams by the time they graduated from high school. The actual figure was 19.4 percent.
An incorrect denominator used in the rate calculation was the source of the error, according to Teri Kranefeld, HCPS manager of communications. The press release was corrected via a Nov. 5 posting on the school system’s Web site, a copy of which appears below:
This is what happens when you use Everyday Math as your math curriculum.
BELAIRMOM, that was AWESOME, and so true!!!
Enough already with everyday math. That is a ludicrous thing to say.
How long are we going to put up with this administration? Isn’t this elementary school math? Poor Terry Kranefeld. Every day she has to try to put more lipstick on the pig.
So, Randy Cerveny, since it turns out that the student ‘achievement’ of 44% wasn’t an achievement at all because it was actually 19% then what was the cause of that? You lauded the 44% number as being due to effective teaching. You need to be really careful in the league where you are trying to play.
ALEX, you know full well that while exceptional performance is the result of excellent teachers, less than desirable outcomes can only be blamed on the BoE and HCPS.
You and I have oft lamented this double standard.
Jeff
Regardless of the methods they used, what a glaring error! How embarrassing that a school system who is patting themselves on the back, didn’t check, double check or better yet have a student who scored better than the State and National average calculate this! However it does not diminish the efforts of those students who did so well nor their teachers…just the Admin. Shameful.
Particularly when that number seems so out of the norm. Note to admin…when it looks fishy it is fishy and surely should have prompted somebody to run that number again. There is a certain irony in running with a wildly obvious math error when touting educational excellence. Somebody needs to teach the teachers.
Central office administrative staff are not teachers. The public might want to “learn” to understand the difference.
And they are not managers either. And they have no expertise in food service or student transportation. Or security. And no expertise in organizational leadership. Or in public relations. Or labor relations. Or policy formulation. Or financial planning. Or HR.
Eventually you get to the question exactly who are they and what are they able to do well? The answer to those 2 questions is what should frighten all of us.
While there may be legitimate reason to question the numbers of people assigned to central office your assertion that the people working there have no expertise in the given fields is absurd.
Gosh not sure folks are saying there isn’t any expertise however it’s pretty darned embarrassing to assert and crow about a sudden and unusual statistic that supports the fabulous job you’re doing (don’t forget that number was widely used to justify this most recent teacher windfall), while the number was nothing more than a pretty obvious, easily detectible, should have raised a red flag incorrect number. Heck if I handed my boss a report that showed a year over year 60% improvement and that improvement however lauditory seemed implausible my boss would ask a question; something about where the numbers come from, etc. To run around with a bullhorn makes everybody look pretty stupid I’d say, both the folks that ran the number, to the folks that wrote the report and moreso to the managers and politicians who bought it without question.
What windfall?
Nice attempt to obsfuscate but the fact remains, this is pretty darn idiotic and was indeed shouted from the rooftops just around the time you all got your bonus, steps and wage increase…given the continuing state of the economy you didn’t do so badly with your part time job.
Obfuscate…sorry wouldn’t want to risk the expected finger wagging from somebody who had the day off yesterday while the rest of us worked.
Actually schools were open yesterday – check the HCPS website if you think I’m lying. That correction I will make. Oh yeah, a friend of mine works at the Pentagon, he had off… angry at him? You know… he’s a public employee and he had off of work for a holiday. Bad or poor grammar on this board is expected… not like it’s getting graded.
Let’s play…
I had a new furnace installed for an agreed price. Funny thing, I paid the bill in full. I didn’t pay it because I felt good about parting with so many hard earned dollars. No, I paid it because we had a contract setting the price.
You seem upset that the BOE signed a contract to provide two steps and a 2% COLA, and did neither. Facing a labor board that would find against them [most likely], they went back to the table. The revised agreement went HALF way to the original agreement [while cutting staff and inflating class sizes, remember, “students first”].
How would it have played out if I told my furnace installer that I intended to pay NONE of our agreed price? Would you expect him to not replace some of his employees so he could be happy accepting half of what I owed him? Do you think he’d consider getting paid a ‘windfall’? Careful how you answer.
You worked? I thought you were retired?
Money Tree, I’m no longer angry with you. It seems your hatred of me and teachers is alive and well, though. What brought this tone from you? Merely my question? Recent election results? If it’s worth anything to you, nothing and no one I voted for won – oops, one person did…
This thread is about the posting of a report based on wildly inaccurate numbers; one that was touted by HCPS, both administrators and teachers alike and that was not a little bit wrong, but a lot wrong. Care to comment?
A mistake was made. A mistake was corrected. I did not put that number up to brag or otherwise make any other related statement about my instructional skills. I do not believe any datum could make such a determination. Besides, 85.6% of all statistics are made up… Were you hoping for something more snarky?
You brought up the bit about our compensation – not me – and I responded to it. Since you took the conversation to compensation… finish it. Answer my question.
There was a question within the 6 paragraphs that I missed?
Fair enough Money Tree. I can fully understand your reluctance to answer – if I were you in that situation I wouldn’t either.
I don’t care about grammar around here, I don’t mind an erroneous argument based off inaccurate data, I don’t mind many things. However, I do have a short span of patience for willful stupidity and dishonesty.
Tell me this, though, do you really think Mr. Craig found the $70 million for HdGHS and that 4% raise from higher than expected tax receipts? Be honest, it won’t hurt you.
Tell you this, I really wish you, him, and other fake conservatives – the RINOs – would just go away as you make us look really bad.
I’ll just peek in to see your answers… ciao.
Amen Alex!!!! Robert Tomback and especially Bill Lawrence, are a complete embarrassment; and everyone in the system knows it. The sooner that the new board can remove them, the better for all of us. Yet another mess from the arrogant ingnorance of the M. Wolkow, R. Rich era that we need to clean up.
Did they give out a revised press release like they did the initial one or did it have to be requested? What is going on in HCPS and where is the oversight of such huge mistakes. These kind of math errors are across the board as anyone who has been involved with “balancing enrollment” knows. How is is that Bel Air High School with more enrollment projected is at or overcapacity and Fallston High so far under? The numbers were at their disposal and they kept changing them to make a case favorable for a desired outcome.
Amazing that this data isn’t easily accessible on their website. Why do parents and students have to dig for information? Lesson learned about HCPS – if the news is good you will hear all about it and if the news isn’t so good they will try to hide it or feign ignorance.
I bet the person who completed that project will get Promoted at Central Office. That what they did with our problem at John Archer.
Hmmmmm….sounds like an interesting “error”. It was very, very difficult to find the revised press release. Of course, I am sure that is intentional too. Idiots.
This is quite scary since the school system cannot even get their math right. They must have had stellar math teacher Cerveny working on that project! How ridiculous is this. Makes me question every other statistic they have ever reported.
Statistics are simply organizations using mathematicians to lie for them.
I would like to pose a question:
If these folks can’t perform a simple calculation of a percentage correctly could anyone explain to me why we would give them $70 million to undertake the long and complex process of building a school building?
Thy mustt hve gon to Hartford Cuonty Publc Schols.
So now they’re claiming 20% AP instead of 44%? When I took math in HCPS, I was always told that if your fractional part was less than half, you rounded DOWN. It should be 19%; but that would look so much worse than 20%, wouldn’t it? How about the notion that HCPS doesn’t even check its own math before making wildly imaginative claims? As a student I would never have been let off the hook for that.