Report Cards for Public Schools

After this weekend's big NY Times article about NYC's Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's "rethinking" of how to makeover the public school system, the Department of Education announces that schools would be graded each year. Plus, parents, teachers and students will have to complete satisfaction surveys that will enter into the analysis. What's interesting is that the DoE will concentrate on schools' teast scores as a barometer of success; from the Times:

Mr. Klein and his aides said the most critical factor in deciding the schools' grades would be how individual students' test scores improve from one year to the next. So, for example, a school where students make great strides but do not ultimately score on grade level could receive a good grade, while a school in which most students are on grade level could get a low mark if their test scores do not improve from the year before.

We'd imagine it would take these things into account, because what about schools that perform well and don't have much room to move with test scores? One interesting thing is that the DoE will also monitor inidividual students over time to gauge their success in the school system. The principals' union isn't too pleased, while the teachers' union is wary. The Post speaks to one high school principal who was part of the pilot program - his experience was positive, but maybe that's because his school was in good shape to begin with.

Check out the DoE's announcement about the "Accountability Initiatives".

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By Jen Chung in News on April 12, 2006 9:23 AM

Comments [rss]

Tim Fredrick

Collecting this kind of data and making it simple to understand is a good thing. It is what is DONE with the data that can be problematic. In the Daily News article, it states that schools that get good grades will get more money and schools that get poor grades will get "intervention". So, "bad" schools get punished - that's what "intervention" means for those of you who don't know. Any educator will tell you that "interventions" typically make things worse. With the "good" schools getting more resources and "bad" schools getting intervention, the academic divide between those schools will grow even wider. What would be smart would be for the city to study what makes the "good" schools so good and try to replicate it in the schools that aren't.

Daniel Millstone

Good post. Thanks for collecting a number of the relevant articles. Readers interested in the area may also want to check out recent posts on the uft blog: www.edwize.com

The concept of collecting trend data on individual child performance is a good one. But, before using such data to rate principals and schools, shouldn't it be provided to teachers and prinicpals? If they know how a child is developing over time, they can adjust the program for the child's needs (assuming Mr. Klien's bizzare lock-step, one-size-fits-all curriculum is abandoned).