Let's Try Lying

Achievement First Mayoral Academies proposal:

There are several examples of Cranston’s intra-district inequities. One of Cranston’s three middle schools, serving over 747 students in grades 6-8 has an achievement gap of over 40 percentage points between African American students and white students. In reading, 70% of Asians and 60% of white students are proficient, while only 14% of African American students are. In math, 57% of Asians and 50% of white students are proficient, yet only 5% of African American students achieve proficiency.

I didn't even disbelieve this so much as I wanted to see how many African American students actually attend this school.

I'm no expert on the Cranston School District, but I can't confirm that this school exists at all -- none of the three Cranston Middle Schools listed at http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/district/cranston as cited in the application actually serve grades 6-8. They're all 7-8. None of them have racial achievement gaps anywhere near those cited. The biggest one, Western Hills, serves 695 students and has no black/white acheivement gap in math whatsoever.

I think they copy/pasted the wrong data in the application.