This has been an ongoing problem all over the nation. Teaching to test well is happening in the high tax paying suburbs for years. The property taxes must be justified by stats "proving" everyone is a genius.
As long as the very same schools are in charge of their own evaluations, this sort of thing will continue.
The best way to evaluate the graduates is check with the colleges that must accept them. That takes years and a lot of money, but its the only proof that matters.

let's put this in perspective:

when republican rudy took over the schools budget (and installed the chancellor, which the media likes to omit to pretend rudy didn't run the schools) it was an insane $5,000,000,000 (billion) per year, for 1 million kids.

today, it's $23,000,000,000 (billion) for 1.1 million kids, and the graduation rates etc are about the same as in 1994.

this is because almost all of that extra $18 billion annually was STOLEN by republicans and their shady contracts, consultants, and so on.

none of that cash went to teachers or students.

for example, rudy and mike moved new schools into private buildings owned by their rich developer friends (who kicked money back to Rudy and team Bloomturd) at a cost of billions per year just in rent. (then, they and the media raved about how they increased "education spending" by record amounts.)

why do you think bloomturd was the #1 funder of Bush's reelection and endorsed him?

and remember to not blame bloomturd. he's just the monster our slimey reporters created in the first place.

never attack the symptom (bad govt)
always attack the problem (bad media)

I'd rather attack both

to help steal the 2005 election, bloomturd simply put "aside" the special ed grades and VOILA! it instantly raised the grade averages of everyone else!

this man is the biggest fraud in america's history and it only took 10 years for most of you to realize it.

good people don't become billionaires.

only greedy psychopaths and the most serious criminals ever do.

I'm against data manipulation and for education reform and directing more resources towards underserved schools, but at what point will blame be directed towards students and parents instead of at politicians, administrators, and teachers? I fully believe that poor people are disadvantaged and don't grow up in a just social environment, but in my opinion students still have opportunities to take advantage of that they don't seem to care enough about. Basically, I think we need politicians who don't make outrageous claims of improvement in education when it's obvious they've done nothing but lower the bar or manipulate the data.

Perhaps I'm too nostalgic of those paintings of Abe Lincoln reading by the fireplace (and take them too literally), but last I checked he seemed to be doing it under his own devices and motivation. Just sayin...

the only reply to that is one that nobody wants to hear.

Grades don't matter, and by making grades the only thing that matters you're cheapening the purpose of education. Not everyone is born an academic and not everyone finds their legs in life during their childhood/teenage years.

You literally have to keep throwing funding and opportunities and support at these people until they reach out, grab hold of them and pull themselves out of the quicksand. It's a problem that will be ongoing and requires a steadfast and long term commitment to solving.

A society so focused on short-term, high-value fixes and so lacking in compassion as this one simply isn't capable of providing those solutions.

Wasn't trying to elicit a response that "nobody wants to hear," but I like your point. Throwing resources at stagnant educational improvement is a lot better than throwing it at Afghanistan and Iraq and still represents the best bang for the buck.

But as Rod says, the smart kids get beat up. Learning and curiosity are as far away as they possibly could be from "cool;" I only wish that people had better ideas than "more resources" as the answer towards improvement in education since it doesn't seem to do much.

If it weren't for my slightly overbearing (yet very good, not-terrible) parents, I probably never would have given a shit about school. Especially because I didn't grow up in a place where there were people to scare you into not wanting to become like them.

don't forget that we live in a society where they beat up the smart students.

that sums it up right there.

Are there still any specialized public High schools like Aviation High etc?
I learned my HS stats has gotten worse since I graduated in the 80's. Why mess with something that had been working so well? Yes, some public HS work and perform well. Not just Stuy and Bx Sci.

Damn, I wish I still had that link. There was a great article about how Bloomberg's control of the school and 'adjustments' to graduation requirements were one of the single biggest problems for NYC in the long term because it would produce years of absolutely useless graduates.

And it was an article published by Bloomberg News.