Rick Perry exaggerates about percentage of TX students taking SAT

[sonias]

PolitiFact Check 7/22/10
Rick Perry says that Texas has a high percentage of students who take the SAT

As CNBC pronounced Texas the nation's best state for doing business, Gov. Rick Perry offered reasons why Texas is "still on top" during an interview with the business-news network. One of them: the number of Texas students participating in a national college-admissions' exam.

"We have more kids take the SAT than any other state in the nation," Perry said on the July 13 CNBC broadcast. "I mean a high percentage of our kids take the SAT."

Which is it?

(snip)
We turned next to Perry's second statement, that a high percentage of "our kids" take the SAT — arguably a powerful talking point because a state's percentage of SAT takers signifies its share of potential college students.

According to the College Board in 2009, Texas had the 22nd highest SAT participation rate (21st if you don't count the District of Columbia): 51 percent of Texas students in the class of 2009. The national average was 46 percent. Maine had the highest participation rate (90 percent), followed by New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and D.C.

The site rated his statement "Barely True"

His lips are moving in an election year, so he's spewing half truths or exaggerating his record of course. :eyes:

[sonias]

1. Only 27 percent of Texans hold college degrees

AAS 7/23/10
Only 27 percent of Texans hold college degrees

WASHINGTON — A College Board study says Texas is one of the least highly-educated states in the nation.

The board, which administers the SAT and AP tests, ranks Texas 40th in the number of people ages 25 to 34 who hold at least a college associate degree.

In addition, less than one-third of Texans in that age group have a postsecondary degree, far below the 41 percent national average.

Welcome to Rick Perry's future Texas where we keep racing to the bottom. Remember he and G.W. Bush have been Governors since 1994. That's a whole cycle of public school education that's been trending downward.

Perry can stretch the truth as much as he can, but the reality is that Texas is failing in educating a new generation work force to keep up with the global economy and 21st century.

:mad:

[onestepforward]

3. Well, this is one way

to keep high-paying technical and scientific jobs away from Texas. I had no idea that Texas has only 27% with college degrees. With college getting more expensive, there will be even less in the future unless some big changes are made. Very sad.

[tammywammy]

2. So while students may take the SAT, what does that really matter anyways?

Can they afford our public universities?

How many students are still not able to graduate out of high school?

[sonias]

4. Exactly - they want to keep higher education for the rich only

And everyone else in minimum wage jobs. Employers generally like that for service industry jobs, but that economic mix is a disaster for job growth and a vibrant economy. Tech, medical and science industry jobs will just go to the states with the better educated work force.

And as long as wages are kept low in Texas with a very uneducated work force - we're just setting ourselves up for big trouble in the future.

We know Rick Perry lies about the drop out rate. He lies it's only 10% - that is total bullshit. The real number is more like 30% supposedly. The numbers are manipulated by his lackey the education commissioner, Robert Scott. Scott like Perry is very good at stretching the truth. Representative Scott Hochberg caught the TEA and Robert Scott fudging the passing rate numbers for the TAKS recently - big time.

Houston Chronicle 7/6/10
How schools get credit for a TAKS zero

'Projected' numbers

Hochberg appeared skeptical. He noted that the number of school districts given the top rating of "exemplary" based on TAKS scores had risen from 43 in 2008 to 117 in 2009.

He also noted that 73 of the 74 additional "exemplary" districts used the Texas Projection Measure to attain that distinction.

TEA says the Projection Measure is an effort to give schools and districts "credit" for students who hadn't passed the TAKS, but were showing improvement. So Hochberg asked Cloudt to use a calculator on the TEA website that adjusts scores according to the "projection" formula. The results were beamed to a screen on the wall.

The "projection" is based on an analysis indicating that if a child does well on math and reading, other scores will improve.

TEA and Robert Scott essentially invented "pre-passing" like pre-crime, it never has to occur it's just a wild guess. Robbert Scott would have fit very comfortable at Enron. :puke: