Survey says....Spend $1M on a survey on school reform, then annouce it was inconclusive

$1M Newark school reform survey was inconclusive

In the giddy days after a billionaire donated $100 million to Newark schools, the group created to gather input for reform sent an army of canvassers to knock on the doors of Newarkers asking how to fix the state’s largest school system.

Thousands of doors and $1 million later, the effort has produced a mountain of survey answers so vague and simplistic that they are of little or no use, according to university professors and city educational leaders who reviewed the data.

Despite critics who say the survey was an ill-conceived waste of time and money, PENewark, the group that did the survey, is going back to the drawing board - this time with the help of scholars from Rutgers and New York University. And this time, officials say, they’re going to get it right.

"The major problem is it’s too short to be of significant use," said Rutgers education professor Alan Sadovnik of the original survey. He is one of several academics at Rutgers and New York University who have helped design a longer poll that will measure residents’ thoughts. "A number of people stood up and said if we are to do this, it should be done by independent researchers."

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/academics_say_1m_newark_school.html