Giving Schools a Grade

You had to love the first line in the STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE.

The report cards are out and for once it’s not the students who were sweating.

Utilizing a complex set of measurements, the first ever set of progress report cards on New York City schools were made public. All 1,224 schools citywide were evaluated. The results indicated that 279 (23 percent) earned As; 461 (38 percent) got Bs; 312 (25 percent) scored Cs; 99 (8 percent) landed Ds, and 50 (4 percent) received an F. The numerical scores reprotedly ranged franging -.45 to 104.4.

Utilizing a Former System
While most of education is attempting to get into the standards era and away from the sorting criteria of letter grades, the city has taken a page out of the old school formula to sort its schools. The grades are based on a complex set of factors that include academic achievement, progress of students and the results of surveys taken by parents, students, and teachers last spring.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered the following: “Is this a wake-up call for the people who work there? You betcha.”

Yet it is interesting to see why ranking schools is so challenging. P.S. 35, Sunnyside, one of those schools receiving a grade of F, is a school with a very good reputation that was apparently victimized by its own prior successes. For example, in 2006, the school could boast that 96 percent of its third-graders read at or above grade level. However, when tested as fourth graders, the number fell to 84 percent. With 55 percent of the ranking criteria based on year-to-year progress the school was rated very negatively because of that drop.

There are three concepts of note. One, the score of 84 percent is still considered very good (in fact it likely tops many other schools with better letter grades than P.S. 35). Second, there is no mention of any changes within the students, was it truly the exact same set of students tested or were there any transfers in or out? Third, if there were no changes, we have to suspect that Mayor Bloomberg had in mind that people begin to question the competency of the fourth grade teachers at P.S. 35.

Despite situations such as these, schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein was very supportive of the concept, stating that the new reports will serve as a tool to identify which schools need to do more to excel. Said Klein, “Schools can’t improve without first knowing exactly what they’re doing well and what’s not working,” Klein said in a statement.

Scores Account for Socioeconomic Status
Theoretically, the scores are compared to peer schools of similar socioeconomic status and therefore schools are not penalized by that element. Ironically, schools that received A’s will be eligible for additional funding. Those receiving Ds and Fs are required to submit “action plans” addressing specific steps they will take to address performance issues.