Prometheus 6

Boy's been busy.

The selections were made without regard to geographic balance, said Roland G. Fryer, a Harvard economist and principal investigator for the school's American Inequality Lab, which studies issues of poverty and race. Fryer said he built an algorithm that included the 28 District schools serving middle school students and generated about 30,000 possible combinations that gave him two blocs of 14: one to receive the cash incentives, and a control group that would not.

Fryer said the two groupings he selected were the most evenly balanced based on several criteria, including size and level of academic achievement.

"We wanted to make sure that the treatment and control groups were as alike as possible," said Fryer, who leads a similar program in the New York City schools.

Come on, now...you're doing this while Rhee is shaking up the whole system? How do you sort out the effect of that from the bribes?

And again, why isn't anyone using the ideas we know will improve the educational process instead of just experimenting on the kids?

Why do I feel Mr. Fryer is exercising his famous insulation effect?

Fryer well appreciates that he can raise questions that most white scholars wouldn't dare. His collaborators, most of whom are white, appreciate this, too. ''Absolutely, there's an insulation effect,'' says the Harvard economist Edward L. Glaeser. ''There's no question that working with Roland is somewhat liberating.''