[ethbr1]

From the article,

>> But there are key differences. For starters, families have access to housing and health care through the military, and at least one parent has a job.

>> “Having as many of those basic needs met does help set the scene for learning to occur,” said Jessica Thorne, the principal at E.A. White Elementary, a school of about 350 students.

[Spinnaker_]

From my comment,

>> don't take it seriously enough.

A serious comparison would be to schools in fairly well off neighbourhoods in the suburbs. But they don't do that.

[ethbr1]

So, you think it's worth dismissing an article that clearly calls out its measures, because they didn't "take it seriously enough" to renormalize their data against categories they likely don't have access to?

They're fully transparent about the measures of achievement they're looking at:

>> Their schools had the highest outcomes in the country for Black and Hispanic students, whose eighth-grade reading scores outpaced national averages for white students.

>> Eighth graders whose parents only graduated from high school — suggesting lower family incomes, on average — performed as well in reading as students nationally whose parents were college graduates.

>> the military’s schools have made gains on the national test since 2013. And even as the country’s lowest-performing students — in the bottom 25th percentile — have slipped further behind, the Defense Department’s lowest-performing students have improved in fourth-grade math and eighth-grade reading.

>> Despite their high performance, Black and Hispanic students, on average, still trail their white peers at Defense Department schools, though the gap is smaller than in many states. The Pentagon has also faced scrutiny for its handling of student misconduct at its schools, including reports of sexual assault.

[red-iron-pine]

so is it because military folks are better, or that society is skewing to unemployed single parents?