Surprise! Chron facts are wrong in HISD story (updated!)
The Chronicle's HISD reporting is still as stunningly incompetent as ever, with the latest example being today's story on how HISD discriminates through uniform requirements. It is a textbook example (sorry!) of the new MSM meme, "the narrative was right, but the facts were wrong."
Here's Sarah Viren's narrative:
A Chronicle review of dress codes within the state's largest school district found that high schools that have bucked the uniform trend are, on average, whiter and more affluent than those with stricter dress standards, state numbers show.
And here are her facts:
Of the nine high schools still without standardized dress requirements, four are majority white, a rarity in HISD overall, which is about 90 percent minority. Of the more than 20 with some form of uniform dress, only one campus Lamar is majority white.
Except that Viren's facts are flat out wrong. She summarizes her facts, but doesn't provide the reader with the actual data. In the comments to Viren's story, HISD spokesman Terry Abbott provides the data Viren didn't:
The premise of the story that many of the HISD high schools that do not require students to wear uniforms are majority white is wrong.
The story claims: Of the nine high schools still without standardized dress requirements, four are majority white ... . This claim is false. Of the nine high schools without standardized dress in HISD, only one of them the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is majority white.
Here are the demographic breakdowns of those nine schools:
Bellaire High School 43% white, 41% black and Hispanic
Carnegie Vanguard High School 43% white, 54% black and Hispanic
Challenge Early College High School 25% white, 68% black and Hispanic
Eastwood Academy 2% white, 98% black and Hispanic
HSPVA 56% white, 40% black and Hispanic
Madison High School -- .4% white, 99% black and Hispanic
Liberty High School 0% white, 99% black and Hispanic
Westside High School 33% white, 57% black and Hispanic
Worthing High School -- .7% white, 99% black and HispanicOnly one of the nine schools HSPVA is majority white. The other eight are not majority white, and seven of the eight have a majority of minority students. This is a very substantial error that invalidates the premise of the story.
The story also claims: Of the more than 20 with some form of uniform dress, only one campus Lamar is majority white.
This claim is also false. Lamar High Schools student population is 61 percent black and Hispanic and only 34 percent white. Clearly, Lamar is not majority white, as the story claimed.
Woopsie! It would seem Viren is confused about the difference between a majority and a plurality. And then there's the problem with her "facts," which undermines the premise of her story.
What an embarrassment! Although, the Chron isn't often embarrassed by its bad reporting, and certainly not when it involves HISD.
UPDATE: That was fast! The Chron has now revised Viren's "facts" paragraph. Here's the original version:
Of the nine high schools still without standardized dress requirements, four are majority white, a rarity in HISD overall, which is about 90 percent minority. Of the more than 20 with some form of uniform dress, only one campus Lamar is majority white.
And here's the new version:
Of the nine high schools still without standardized dress requirements, whites make up the largest single ethnic group in three schools a rarity in HISD overall, which is about 90 percent minority and in one of them, HSPVA, whites are in the majority. Of the more than 20 with some form of uniform dress, only one campus Lamar has whites making up the largest single ethnic group.
And there's an editor's note at the end of the story:
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described four HISD schools without standardized dress requirements as having white students in the majority. Of the nine high schools without standardized dress requirements, whites make up the largest single ethnic group in three schools, and in one of them whites are in the majority.
And tomorrow there'll probably be a small correction on the bottom of Page 2.
But other than that, the narrative is still good, you know -- the facts just needed a little tweaking.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/03/07 10:42 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (5)
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