State school board member Bob Griffin repeats half-truths in confirmation hearing

In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Education Committee Monday, Bob Griffin recycled the misleading conclusions he draws about the quality of education in Alasksa based on the percentage of Alaska students who earn a score of 3 or higher on an Advanced Placement test compared to Florida.

“One of the recent metrics that I’ve been tracking too for judging quality of systems is the number of students that graduate with an AP test of 3 or higher. Florida, again ranked the least adequately funded system in the United States, is third in the nation, 29 percent of their students achieving an AP test of 3 or higher. And Alaska we lag a little bit behind at 45th in the nation, with only 12 percent of our kids,” said Griffin.

Griffin, an Alaska Airlines pilot nominated by Gov. Mike Dunleavy for a second five-year term on the state school board, made the same false pitch to the House Education Committee April 17.

In both cases, Griffin failed to mention that in Florida 46.1 percent of students took one or more AP tests in 2023, while only 20.3 percent of Alaska students took one or more AP tests.

It is impossible for the percentage of Alaska graduates earning a 3 or higher on an AP test to come anywhere close to the numbers in Florida because so few students take the test.

The tests are given near the end of the school year and graded on a scale of 1 to 5. Students who earn a 3 may qualify for college credit, depending upon what college they attend.

Griffin also failed to mention that Florida subsidizes the cost of taking AP tests, one of the reasons why nearly half of high school students take one or more tests. Alaska does not subsidize the tests, according to the College Board, one of the reason why only 20 percent of students take one or more of the tests.

Instead, he claims that everything else is equal and that the “best indicator of the quality of kids graduating a system” is how many high school graduates score 3 or higher on an AP test.

Griffin has made this same false claim for years. It is a flagrant statistical foul by Griffin, the volunteer “senior education research fellow” for the right-wing Alaska Policy Forum.

Griffin also again cited the Rutgers study that ranked the state on “adequacy” of school funding and failed to tell the whole story. He said that study found Alaska has “the second most adequately funded system in the United States. Florida is the least most adequately funded system.”

Griffin failed to mention that the authors of the Rutgers study have said their national model does not work for Alaska and the results are flawed. There are many idiosyncrasies that distort the results, the authors said.

“After careful consideration, however, we have decided not to publish adequacy estimates for Alaska in future releases of the School Finance Indicators Database. We would strongly recommend that the state commission its own costing study, using its own academic standards as an outcome benchmark, and including variables that capture the unique situation of Alaska,” Matthew De Carlo of the Albert Shanker Institute wrote me April 23 when I asked about this.

In his comparisons of Alaska and Florida, and especially on fourth-graders taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Griffin invariably fails to mention that Florida has a mandatory retention policy for third-graders who do not do well in school. Excluding these students from tests given only to fourth-graders guarantees better results on the NAEP tests.

The Legislature will hold a joint session Tuesday to confirm or reject Griffin and other nominees from the governor.

In other items,

Sen. Loki Tobin asked Griffin about the October 10, 2022 meeting of the Family Partnership Charter School Academic Policy Committee. The minutes from that meeting said Griffin was there “on behalf” of the state Department of Education. He took part in a discussion about “private school funding.” The charter school was a public school, funded with public money.

Griffin said he didn’t remember saying he represented the department at that meeting, but just giving his own opinions.

Under questioning from Sen. Jesse Kiehl, who said the education department has failed to provide details on charter school wait lists, Griffin says he thinks there are about 800. Less than two months ago, Griffin wrote that there were thousands of families on waiting lists.

Under questioning from Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, Griffin said he now supports a $680 increase in the base student allocation. Three months ago he wrote that no increase was needed and that the current amounts are “generous.”

Under questioning from Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, Griffin said he lobbied members of the Legislature to support the Dunleavy veto of the education bill this year, claiming it did not have reforms. Griffin wants the state board on which he sits to be allowed to create new charter schools, overriding local school boards.

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