I was really geared up to be wowed by Peter Gorman’s reform plan — he has certainly said many of the right things, and even little details of his plan, like intensive K-3 reading emphasis, are long overdue — but then I hit the official Strategic Plan and am greeted by the same old everything-is-fine CMS spin. Crash.

Yes, the same old compare urban-suburban CMS to urban basket-case districts and jump up and down over the results. We shot this down last December and here it is again in CMS speak, just seven pages into the Plan:

In December 2005, CMS students scored higher than their peers and most states in fourth-grade reading
and mathematics, and eighth-grade reading on the NAEP. In eighth-grade math, CMS students performed
better than most other states and all other peers except Austin, Texas, which had scores equal to
those at CMS. In addition, most subgroups of students at CMS outperformed peer subgroups in the
nation.

Well, no, not exactly. Again as The Daily Howler pointed out when everyone from The New York Times on down confused the results:

For purposes of this NAEP study, Charlotte-Meck is an “urban district”—but it’s much less “urban” than other districts involved in the study, with a much less impoverished student population. In this year’s grade 4 math assessment, for example, here are the percentages of students who receive free or reduced-price lunch:

Students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, 2005 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (grade 4 math)

Charlotte-Mecklenburg: 44 percent
Boston: 84 percent
Chicago: 87 percent
Cleveland: 100 percent
New York: 84 percent
Los Angeles: 86 percent

Some peer group, eh? And there is more:

In the Trial Urban District study, NAEP tests reading and math, in grades 4 and 8. Among lower-income kids, here’s how Charlotte-Mecklenburg fared:

Results among students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment, 2005

Grade 4 reading: Charlotte-Mecklenburg placed second among the eleven districts, finishing behind New York City.

Grade 8 reading: Charlotte-Mecklenburg placed sixth among the eleven districts, finishing behind New York, Boston, Chicago, Houston and San Diego.

Grade 4 math: Charlotte-Mecklenburg placed second among the eleven districts, finishing behind Austin.

Grade 8 math: Charlotte-Mecklenburg tied for fourth/fifth among the eleven districts, finishing behind Boston, New York and Houston, tying with Austin.

Among these eleven districts, Charlotte-Mecklenburg scored near the top on the grade 4 tests—and in the middle at grade 8. Remember: This involves performance by the various systems’ lower-income students—by students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

I frankly have no idea how CMS is looking at those NAEP scores and coming up with its claims, unless it really is looking at overall population scores which have that peer-group problem.

But here’s the big picture with regard to Gorman’s proposed changes: This continued spin by CMS confirms that Gorman has yet to achieve buy-in from core Ed Center holdovers. This was the question all along about truly turning CMS around, could Gorman whip the Ed Center deadwood into shape? At 100 Days in, the answer seems to be, “Not yet.”

There is still a core group at CMS who thinks the path to success involves better PR work and “selling” the district to parents. As we’ve said before, this is nuts as parents already see CMS up close 180 days a year and form their own opinions, for good and ill.

Maybe Gorman is just ignoring this in-house stuff for now, picking his battles and working on building up his capital. Certainly he seems to have gotten the school board to back him pretty solidly. But some battles will have to be fought sooner or later.

And, oh, can we get any more lipservice about outsourcing from CMS? Gorman includes it in his areas to “evaluate,” almost a year after the CMS Task Force said the district should up and, well, outsource stuff.

Let’s do it.

Update: I had to go back and recover the Uptown paper of record story when the NAEP scores were first released. The spin really was quite amazing, and it came from all over:

Community leaders celebrated test scores Thursday that showed students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools outperforming those across the state and the nation.

Results of the rigorous National Assessment of Educational Progress — known as “the nation’s report card” — gave the often criticized district a chance to tout its classroom success. The tests evaluated fourth- and eighth-graders in reading and math. CMS as a whole — from its brightest students to its most disadvantaged — matched or surpassed similar groups nationwide.

Mayor Pat McCrory called the scores “a positive jolt” that will help keep parents and businesses in Charlotte, despite recent “growing pains.”

Outgoing Charlotte Chamber president Carroll Gray wished the results had been released before voters rejected last month’s bond package.

And while CMS interim Superintendent Frances Haithcock acknowledged the need for improvement, she said the community should have more pride.

“We have a great school system,” Haithcock said. “It needs to be supported.” …

The district topped the 10 other urban school systems and the majority of other states in three of the four categories.

“It helps to dispel the myth that you can’t get a good education in a large urban district,” said Henry Johnson, a former associate superintendent with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, who now serves as an assistant secretary with the U.S. Education Department.

Others were more skeptical.

Some questioned why eighth-grade reading scores dipped. School board member Larry Gauvreau said trumpeting results slightly higher than the national averages makes CMS “queen of the pigs.” And others have said they’d like to see CMS measured against additional high-performing urban districts, such as Wake County (which was not part of the sample).

Even calling CMS an urban district riles some county critics, who think that’s inaccurate for a system with many suburban schools. And the district acknowledged that the achievement gap along racial and economic lines needs to shrink.

The more things change, eh?