Disturbing ethics by BeyondChron and CES

A commentary posted on BeyondChron today violates basic journalistic standards and misleads the reader with a dishonest statement.

The commentary, written by Brett Bradshaw, praises small schools and the Coalition of Essential Schools.

Nowhere does the commentary mention that Brett Bradshaw is the Director of Strategic Communication (that is, the PR spokesperson) for the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES).

This lapse is an ethical problem for BeyondChron — which, as the name implies, positions itself as higher-level journalism than the mainstream San Francisco Chronicle. It's also an ethical lapse by CES.

As to the misleading information, the commentary makes this statement:

"CES network schools around the country have higher achievement levels on every measure of success..."

Yet as that statement relates to San Francisco's June Jordan School for Equity, which the op-ed praises highly, it's inaccurate. June Jordan, as previously noted, actually has the lowest score of all general San Francisco public high schools on the state's Academic Performance Index -- and also has the district's highest truancy rate.

I understand that test scores are only one measure, but it's still inaccurate to refer to "higher achievement levels on every measure of success" when that's entirely untrue of the example here in our midst.

We followers of education issues are frequently subjected to misleading claims and deceptive commentary by parties with a concealed self-interest. My understanding is that it's a basic CES principle not to engage in deception. That was violated here.

In addition, BeyondChron has (not for the first time, unfortunately) violated a basic journalistic principle. The mainstream Chronicle violates its own journalistic principles at times, but at least it claims to have principles. BeyondChron has no established standards that I can spot and no reader comments section. It picks and chooses which e-mailed comments to post and whether to respond to criticism. So it's unknown whether BeyondChron will repair this ethical lapse.