Share
Commentary

Prof. Busts AOC's Cocky Claim About Extremely High Test Score in High School

Share

Far-left Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez boasted about being in the “99th percentile” on a “high-stakes test” in high school during an “Education Town Hall” in New York on Saturday.

But a former official in the Department of Education had a different take on the topic entirely.

Ocasio-Cortez claimed that before taking a “high-stakes test,” her teachers thought she needed “remedial education” because she grew up speaking Spanish, according to the New York Post.

“As a child, I spoke Spanish first. … and I went to a school where no one looked like me. I went to a school where teachers thought I needed remedial education because I spoke two languages instead of one,” the freshman lawmaker claimed.

Ocasio-Cortez was attempting to make a point about the abysmal quality of public schools.

Trending:
Hillary Clinton Jumps Into Trump 'Bloodbath' Frenzy with a Question, Doesn't Want to Hear the Answers

Ocasio-Cortez said she took a “high-stakes test” and made it into the 99th percentile, which changed her teachers’ minds about her, the Post reported.

“It took a test instead of understanding the child in front of them,” the congresswoman said. “I should never be made to feel that being bilingual was a deficit in the first place.”

But it turns out, Ocasio-Cortez’s anecdote about a “high-stakes test” might not have been completely true, at least according to a blog post by Diane Ravitch, a professor at New York University and former U.S. assistant secretary of education.

Ravitch was also a speaker at Saturday’s event, according to the socialist magazine Jacobin.

Do you think Ocasio-Cortez was deliberately lying about this test?

“It was a bit jarring to hear AOC say that she was treatedin (sic) the Yorktown schools as in need of remedial education because she was Hispanic, not mainstream, but, she said, ‘a-high-stakes standardized Test’ revealed she was in the 99th percentile,” Ravitch wrote.

“No one stopped to point out that she could not be referring to any high-stakes test used for accountability purposes because they don’t rank by percentile,” Ravitch continued.

“They classify students as 1, 2, 3, or 4. Her teacher must have given her a no-stakes individual test that produces a percentile ranking for diagnostic purposes.”

It’s important to note here that Ravitch is clearly a fan of Ocasio-Cortez.

Ravitch, whose time at the DOE came at the end of the George H.W. Bush presidency, wrote in her blog that, prior to Saturday’s event:

Related:
Southern State Lawmaker Threatens Riots After General Assembly Passes Pro-Police Bill

“I had about ten quiet minutes with AOC. She is warm, comfortable in her skin, somewhat taken aback by her sudden fame, and unpretentious. When I walked in, she jumped up and hugged me as though we were old friends. Or her grandmother.”

Ravitch’s blog post was even headlined “AOC Did Not Disappoint.”

That makes it all the more telling that Ravitch basically busted AOC’s claim by pointing out the huge flaw in her tale of a “high-stakes test.” Whether Ravitch wanted to or not — she tried to pass it off with the comment, “Well, she can’t know everything about everything” — she just crushed Ocasio-Cortez’s claim.

Only Ocasio-Cortez would have confused a “high-stakes test” with a “no-stakes test.”

As with most of Ocasio-Cortez’s ridiculous statements, it appears she’s either extremely ignorant or intentionally misleading people.

She used the anecdote as a way to slam her former teachers and school, but she was apparently completely wrong about the non-existent “high-stakes test” she took.

And there’s no telling how often she unjustly criticized her former teachers over wrong details.

It’s hard to take anything Ocasio-Cortez says seriously anymore because she’s gotten basic facts wrong more times can be counted.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , , , , , ,
Share
Malachi Bailey is a writer from Ohio with a background in history, education and philosophy. He has led multiple conservative groups and is dedicated to the principles of free speech, privacy and peace.
Malachi Bailey is a writer from Ohio with a passion for free speech, privacy and peace. He graduated from the College of Wooster with a B.A. in History. While at Wooster, he served as the Treasurer for the Wooster Conservatives and the Vice President for the Young Americans for Liberty.
Topics of Expertise
Politics, History




Conversation