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February 17, 2004

Nashville honor roll ban: Another education urban legend is born

America's education leaders have just been treated to a lesson in how urban legends are born, The Nashville Tennessean reports. It's so much fun, BoardBuzz is dedicating a day to it.

It all started in December when The Tennessean reported that Metropolitan Nashville schools had temporarily held up the posting of honor rolls. Seems a few parents had complained to the district's attorney that some students might be ashamed for not making the grade. The parents asked whether honor rolls could be publicized without parental permission. Researching that question, the attorney discovered that, lo and behold, a state privacy law does require parental consent for release of any academic information.

When she reminded district leaders of this fact, the district discontinued posting honor rolls, just temporarily, in order to collect the required consents. School district officials never banned honor rolls and never said they were acting out of the concern initially expressed by the parents. The 1970s era state law has nothing to with the alleged sensitivity of C students. All this The Tennessean reported accurately.

But a January Associated Press story by Matt Gouras on the episode led with the juicy line that the honor roll "has become an apparent source of embarrassment for some underachievers." The story gave many readers the strong impression that the parental complaint, and not the privacy law, had prompted the district's action. Logicians identify this type of fallacy with the words "post hoc ergo propter hoc," Latin for "after this, therefore the consequence of this."

The story of a "politically correct honor roll ban" was eagerly seized on by the press and commentators all over America, and even abroad. Along with some milder expressions of incredulity by parents, educators, and editorialists, the myth has been indignantly bewailed amidst the usual spluttering banalities about the decline of public education and, with it, America's competitive spirit and civilization.

Check out a range of examples, here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here... well, you get the idea. Once the horse has left the barn...

Even after checking in with the school district, CNN still ran a commentary indicating honor rolls had been stifled by political correctness. More level-headed, stodgy news outlets like People magazine concluded there was no story. A Hartford Courant editorial expressed skepticism about Tennessee's privacy law, but accurately explained the details. Congrats to Diane Long of The Tennessean for getting the facts right in the first place and now for reporting on the urban legend. And kudos to reporters like Michelle Galley of Education Week, who, even after the frenzy erupted, got the story exactly right.

NSBA's own weekly school law e-newsletter Legal Clips initially reported the AP story, but also quoted and linked to the Nashville Schools' own online explanation. The following week, Legal Clips made it a point to run the follow-up information from The Tennessean explaining what had happened.

Here's a fun experiment on mass media and culture:

Step one: See if you can find out whether your favorite news sources, blogs, and e-mail chatrooms ran or commented on the story. Did they? Did they get it right?

Step two: If they didn't, see whether they've corrected the misinformation.

Step three: If they haven't, try to call their attention to the mistake (maybe just point them right here to BoardBuzz). You could explain how the mistaken impression may have been understandable, but see if they'll run an update with the correct details.

Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised. Maybe all those newspapers, Web sites, commentators, TV reports, blogs, and e-mail chatrooms that swallowed this one hook, line, and sinker have already figured out the erroneous parts and taken the time to share these facts with their readers. Or maybe they'll at least do so now.

Yeah, right. BoardBuzz rather suspects we can all look forward to being subjected to this one ad nauseum. Journalism teachers and social studies teachers take note: Wouldn't this make for a great lesson plan? It is never going to appear on any standardized test, but it is a subject kids can relate to, and it is just loaded with insight into how the real world works.

Posted February 17, 2004 12:00 AM