The new "report cards" for New York City's public high schools are out (you can read them here) and they do not paint the prettiest of pictures for our city's students, especially considering the fact that education has been one of the biggest touchstones for the Bloomberg regime. According to the data only one in four students who enter high school in the city are ready for college after four years and less than half of those that are ready bother to enroll. Shame Mayor Bloomberg can't blame this on Cathie Black, eh? more ›

The Department of Education released its latest school progress report cards, and this time the curve is gone. Last year, 84% of public schools got an A, but this year only 25% did. The NY Times says the shift "was largely predetermined," and besides the 25% of "A" schools, there were "35 percent B’s, 35 percent C’s, 4 percent D’s, and 1 percent F’s. No school that earned an A last year could get worse than a C, and the schools that earned B’s last year could do no worse than a D." more ›

Over the weekend, Rep. Carolyn Maloney handed down her second annual report card on the Second Avenue subway project, giving it a "B" grade, which is a slight improvement from last year's B-minus. At a press conference over the weekend, Rep. Carolyn Maloney held up a $275 million federal check for the project and told the press, "Real progress has been made on the Second Avenue Subway this year—with the subway’s tunnel boring machine literally moving closer to the finish line with each passing hour." But the Sisyphean project continues to go over-budget and make a mockery of target dates. more ›

The Department of Education mailed out thousands of inaccurate letters to parents informing them that their children attend schools that are failing. The botched mailing—which was sent to parents of students at 16 schools citywide including Brooklyn's esteemed Edward R. Murrow High School—stated that under federal law, students had the right to transfer to a better school. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg has implemented a controversial report card system for the city's teachers and schools and he's pushing restaurants to display their cleanliness grades on their windows — but he has no interest in grading the president. As a guest on CNN's "State of the Union" yesterday, the Mayor declined to issue a letter grade to President Obama. "I'd give him a pretty high grade," he said, adding that "[f]or a new president, he's in a very tough time" with issues including the war in Afghanistan, a "partisan," and the economy. more ›

While the Parks Department's solution to the city's garbage is a giant Dumpster amongst the trees, the same thing can't quite help our water. The Daily News has a report card on our beaches, and of the 13 rated in the annual "Testing the Water" guide... things aren't looking so good. more ›

Two preliminary studies suggest that the Bloomberg administration's controversial report cards for schools may be useful in getting those struggling schools to succeed. The Post reports that students in previously failing schools are now doing better on their state tests (which is a big component of the school report cards). Columbia professor Jonah Rockoff, who worked on one study, explained, "One of the big benefits of this accountability system is that it lights a fire under the schools that are lagging behind." Another former Department of Education official credited mayoral control of the schools, "The old Board of Education was unwilling to hold schools accountable for performance. They were more interested in making excuses." However, there are still critics: NYU professor Diane Ravitch, who recently disputed Bloomberg's claims to school success in a Times Op-Ed, says city "look[s] at closing schools joyfully" so charter schools can be put in. Last fall, when school report cards were released, critics also pointed out how school grades focus too much on year-to-year improvements versus proficiency. more ›

Last year New York City Transit handed out 795,883 report cards to riders asking for feedback, and now officials have begun to share the grades, the Post reports (the Post also created this nifty graphic). Let's just say they're going to need your signature on this report card—when you average out all the grades the overall score is average. Not a single subway line did better than a C, and officials have only released data on eight subway lines so far; the G train report card is still to come. more ›

The Department of Education's new round of school report cards showed 82% of high schools getting A's and B's, "up from 65% last year," according to the Daily News. (Grades of schools K-8 were released in September.) However, there some struggling schools, like Washington Irving near Union Square, which received an F for a second year in a row. You can find the "school progress reports" here. And the Independent Budget Office says it costs the DOE $130 million/year to grade schools; initially private money funded the endeavor but the NY Times reports the IBO estimates NYC "will spend $105 million" next year. more ›

The New York City Transit Authority, the MTA division that oversees the subways and buses, will be now split up the management of the subway lines and instead assign a manager to deal with a line or a number of lines. The NY Times spoke to NYC Transit president Howard Roberts Jr.:The goal, Mr. Roberts said, is to have 24 subway lines operating in many ways as 24 self-contained railroads. (The number may vary,... more ›

10. Sense of security in stations And in a sign of showing that the MTA is taking these suggestions seriously, NYC Transit president Howard Roberts says that he'll add more trains around the peak periods, which the NY Times explains "if riders are willing to travel a little earlier or a little later than they currently do, they may be rewarded with a less crowded ride." Hmm, "may" may be the operative word. more ›

From the looks of these photos, the commute home for those on the L train was no fun last night. On the same day that riders on the line were asked to rate the service, service came to a halt during the evening rush. Who's to blame? It seems like the MTA actually gets a pass this time. Rumor has it that someone pulled the emergency brake. more ›

After hearing about the tragic rush-hour bridge collapse in Minneapolis that has claimed at least four lives, we wondered what the conditions of New York City's bridges were. Like the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, several of our city's largest bridges are undergoing what seems like constant construction. All the East River bridges are either undergoing repairs right now, have plans for the future, just finished construction, or all of the above. more ›

- Borough Presidents should take the lead in encouraging civic engagement and private investment in parks to raise the level of safety and cleanliness. “Borough Presidents already play an integral role in building and repairing parks in their boroughs. The next logical step is for them to take the lead in creating more community stewardship to work with the Parks Department to ensure that each and every park is receiving the attention it needs,” DiPalermo said.You can read the Progress Report and past Report Cards here. more ›

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NYC Parks Advocates released a report yesterday saying that many parks are actually very terrible, especially those in poor neighborhoods. Saying that it had surveyed all 1,700 city park areas, NYCPA said that Central Park and Bryant Park had the benefit of other funding resources, while parks in lower income neighborhoods aren't maintained as well. And to compound the problem, the Parks Department's funds have been slashed over time. From the NY Times:

The Parks Department said its expense and capital budgets have increased to $283 million in the current fiscal year from $185 million in 1991. But the percentage of the city budget allocated to parks dropped to 0.38 percent in 2004 from about 1.4 percent in 1960, according to the report. The city's budget proposal for parks and recreation for the 2007 fiscal year would cut financing by about $800,000.

The Straphangers Campaign has released its annual State of the Subways Report Card and yet again, the 6 train is named the best line while the N is the worst. The other trains, from best to worst, were the 1/9, 7, 4, E, J/Z, L, 5, Q, 2, 3, V, F, A, D, R, M, B, W, C. So, overall, it seems that the crappiest grouping of lines are the B, D, F, V - which comes as no surprise, as though cars are really old and crappy. The 6 gets its high rating because the train cars are newer, which means more comfort (if not more seats), more clear announcements and less breakdowns, whereas the N gets slammed because it performed below average on these four measures: "arriving with regularity, seat availability, cleanliness and announcements." If you look at the data (there are a bunch of PDFs available at the Straphangers), it seems to suggest that shorter lines - and ones with the newer subway cars - tend to rise to the top. Newsday, though, gets a quote from MTA spokesman Paul Fleuranges who says, "The subway system was never designed to offer everyone a seat during rush hour, particularly at the most crowded point along the route." Yeah, so suck it up, New Yorkers! more ›

Grand Army Plaza's 2/3 station in Brooklyn and the 21st Street-Queensbridge F in Queens tied for cleanest. The cleanest stop in Manhattan is the West 81st Street B/C at the Museum of Natural History; the dirtiest is 47-50 Street Rockefeller Center's B/D/F/V station. Check out the report - it's actually fascinating reading, with lots of suggestions on how to continue to improve stations, which have improved since the NYCTRC's last study in 1994. And here's the Straphanger's State of the Subways Report Card. more ›

The Hollywood Reporter is running a series of articles about how great New York is for film and TV production. One of them, Location report: New York, gives us some interesting information: "The original "L&O" has contributed more than $650 million to the city during 672 weeks of regular production spanning nearly 15 years." Wow! And that's just ONE of the Law & Order shows. Katherine Oliver, the Film, Theatre and Broadcasting Commissioner, says that L&O is a "repeat customer" coming into for permits "every single day." Commissioner Oliver will also help out films that are shooting entirely in the city: "[Stay, an Ewan MacGregor-Naomi Watts film] was a $50 million-budgeted film, and they shot the entire film in New York City," New York film commissioner Katherine Oliver says. "We diverted Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for 10 nights; this is not something easy to do, but the message was that if you're going to spend that kind of money, do the entire project here and employ New Yorkers, we will give you the Brooklyn Bridge." There are you go: You get the Brooklyn Bridge for 10 nights, at a cost of $50 million. more ›