“How Am I Doin’?”: A Plea for an Impartial Agency to Evaluate Student Performance Data.

In the private sector we evaluate the performance of corporations through reliance on generally agreed upon accounting principles, transparency, a host of rules and regulations and strictly enforced statutes.

Evaluating performance in schools is a totally different story.

One of the primary purposes of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is to establish a “generally agreed upon” metric for school performance. Unfortunately NCLB is too zip code driven – the only metric that counts of moving students to “proficiency,” and the rate of movement is set by each individual state.

Increasingly states, and maybe in the reauthorization of NCLB, we are looking at a different way of evaluating student progress, that is called value-added, the improvement in student performance regardless of zip code.

In grades 3-8 the metric is a standardized test. In my view looking beyond how many kids are moved from Level 2 to Level 3 (proficiency)) but looking at the average growth of all the kids in a school makes sense.

While Klein and friends tout improvements in grades 3 – 8 others  are far more critical pointing out that some progress predates Klein and other improvement is across the state and probably due to an easier test.

Tweed however has flacked improvement in graduation rates: the result, says Tweed, of the rapid expansion of small high schools.

In 2000 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided hundreds of millions of dollars across the country to create small high schools. The movement to close low performing high schools and create a campus of small high schools predates Klein – it began in the late eighties and continued in the Chancellor’s High School District. However, the Gates dollars, called the New Century High School Initiative (NCHSI) accelerated the closing of large schools and the creation of smaller high schools. The result was the “deflection” of students, including Special Ed and ELL students, who initially were not accepted by the small high schools. The resultant overcrowding only accelerated the problems in large high schools. All of this is recounted in a thoughtful study by the teacher’s union.

In June Tweed proudly announced significant jumps in graduation rates, especially in small high schools and gleefully patted themselves on back.

Are they right?

 The City University, the destination of most NYC college bound kids uses a college readiness metric for admission to four year CUNY colleges. It is commonplace for high schools to have college readiness rates for graduates that are 30%, 40% and 50% below graduation rates. Couple this with significant college freshman dropout rates  and we have to question the touted graduation rates.

Why are college readiness rates so far below graduation rates?

The answer: there is no accountability in the current NYC high school world.

Are schools granting credits appropriately? Should teachers be grading their own student’s Regents? Is there a review of Regents scoring? Does the Department vigorously pursue accusations of malfeasance in grading, and is the “new thing,” Credit Recovery, a valid method of students accumulating credits, or a sham? Who monitors “Credit Recovery” programs?

The bottom line is that if the same rules that applied to profit-loss statements in the private sector were applied to measuring graduation rates in NYC high schools we’d have to build more jails.

As the NYS Legislature begins to look at what follows mayoral control they should consider a non-partisan, outside scholarly agency whose role would be to analyze school data and produce regular, transparent reports.

Inchoate and Incoherent: The Tweed Imam Cries of an Educational Jihad Falls on Deaf Ears.

The Caliph cries from the Tweed Towers of Babel … SSO, PSO, LSO, FSF, ARIS … the jihadists prostrate themselves and chant Sura from the Qur’an of Klein … and teachers look at each other quizzically and shrug.

As I speak with teacher after teacher I receive the same responses … Klein is anti-teacher with “crazy, unproven” ideas. I’m sure there are some, a few, one, teacher(s) who support(s) Joel … I just haven’t found her/him/them.

Teachers struggle with the day to day challenges of the classroom. The kid who doesn’t get an adequate breakfast, single parent or no parent homes, homelessness, foster care, abusive caregivers, and on and on … how do these external situations impact the child sitting in that teacher’s classroom? Are supplies and resources appropriate and adequate? Is the classroom too hot or too cold? Are supervisors supportive or intimidating? Do I feel “wanted” and “respected” and “rewarded” by my principal and the school system?

In the pre 2003 days, the pre-Klein days, teachers knew they taught in a certain district with a certain superintendent – now most teachers have no idea about the “Support Organization” with which their school is involved.

The inchoate nature of the system dooms Children First. The 29 members of the Tweed Communications Department can spin out press release after press release to no avail. We just don’t believe them! It is not only teachers who don’t believe them … it is also parents, elected officials and advocates.

Effective organizations are characterized by coherence, clearly defined messages and a synergy among the stakeholders within a learning organization.

Tweed is a parody … an organization that learns nothing and stumbles from one “new thing” to another “new thing.”

What saves the school system, and the kids, is the dedication of untold numbers of teachers who plod along in the trenches doing the best job they can as system leaders, who have become pariahs, threaten teachers with flaky theories (i.e., Weighted Student Funding, Student Pay for Performance, etc.).

You roll your eyes, hope the union can fight the good fight and concentrate on the kids … after all, they’re the only ones who count. 

Contract for Excellence: A Case Study in Arrogance and the Klein Plutocracy Disdain for the “San Culottes.”

The saga of how Klein is planning to spend the CFE dollars is a classic!

After intense negotiations the Governor and the State legislature and a range of stakeholders from around the State agreed on a framework  for the allocation of the billions of dollars of State funding … after fourteen years of litigation.

Within weeks the Board of Regents set forth specific guidelines  and the State Ed Department amended State Ed Regs  to reflect the changes.

The folks at Tweed … did nothing, at least nothing that involved the public.

No public hearings, no consultation with elected officials, no consultation with parents, no consultation with advocates … they speak only to the gods.

For months parents and school advocates have been discussing a range of issues

Middle Schools: the crisis in middle schools has been with us for decades … early adolescence are difficult years, for kids and for adults. Yet dollars have been targeted for pre-K and early childhood and the massive infusion of funds into the creation of small high schools, not for middle schools. The Board of Ed, predecessor of the Board, has made a few rather half hearted attempts at reform. The recent John Hopkins research data is clear – we can predict dropouts as early as the sixth grade. The Department response: a range of interventions after kids are well on their way to dropping out of school. The City Council Middle School Task Force  headed by NYU scholar Pedro Noguera is ignored.

Targeted Class size Reductions: Lower class size in targeted subject areas in targeted grades is not rocket science … except at Tweed. The assumption that the “threats” and “rewards” encompassed in the School Report Card will result in principals making the “right decision” is foolish. Principals and teachers work as hard as they can and a philosophy based upon a combination of merit pay and loss of tenure will not make them smarter.

The sans culottes , those simple folk that populate the city, after all, know nothing. They don’t have fancy degrees, they haven’t studied public policy at institutions of higher learning, they don’t read the research, they just go to work, try to earn a living and send their kids to public schools expecting that we will provide the best possible education.

The Klein Contract for Excellence plan is a charade — an attempt to slip around the law and continue doing whatever they want — including schemes such as Fair Funding and Pay for Student Performance.

If the coalition hadn’t intervened the Mayor wouldn’t have backed off  … and Midwood High School, one of the finest high schools in the city would have lost over $800,000 in funding for the 07-08 school year!

Klein waited until school was out to hold public hearings on his plan – and held the hearings in unbearable hot school auditoriums – and lo and behold parents and teachers flocked to the meeting and assailed the plan.

As the clock ticks toward the sunset of mayoral control opinion makers in the city are beginning to have second thoughts and Klein continues to be Bloomberg’s worst enemy.

Chaos Theory: Can Millions of Incoherent Acts Improve Teaching and Learning? Will the “Wings of a Butterfly” Crash a School System?

The Department is in the midst of the most sweeping reorganization that has ever taken place … without public hearings, without any oversight and very little public discussion.

* The ten Regions that supervised schools and provided instructional support services are gone … replaced by a range of School Support Organizations , namely, four citywide theme-based instructional support entities, 450 schools in Empowerment Networks of 20-25 schools each and a number of Partnership Support Organizations, not-for-profits who have been involved in schools for many years

* 32 Community Superintendents and 10 High School Superintendents will supervise and evaluate schools … the division of which schools are being supervised by which superintendent continues to be fluid.

These superintendents will also serve as Senior Accountability Facilitators for a cohort of schools that they do not supervise.

* From District Offices, to ROC/SPYFSS to ROC/OYD to ISC … the school operations support model continues to shrink in size and change in delivery mode.

* ARIS, the data warehouse that will encompass all the current systems (Galaxy, ATS, HSST, CAPS, NY START) is being “rolled out,” in theory it will enable school personnel to analyze a vast range of student data … and some say will be the platform for pay for performance for schools, principals and teachers.

* School Progress Reports (SPR) will “rate” each and every school – a metric based on student progress data, student performance data and school climate data (including the School Quality Review) – the rating generates a letter grade from A to F and the new Principal’s Collective Bargaining Agreement ties the grade to the principal evaluation.

* Inquiry Teams, made up of teachers and supervisors, are mandated in every school will deeply explore 15-30 low achieving students and their findings, in theory, will be shared and used to drive instructional models.

All of these changes, occurring at the same time are a prime example of Chaos Theory.

   complex and unpredictable results can and will occur in systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions … a very small occurrence can produce unpredictable and sometimes drastic results in triggering a series of increasingly significant events.

The crew at Tweed is looks like the folks in Jurassic Park, planning to use advanced science to create theme park: that crashes and burns.

The only saving grace is the insular nature of teaching. As David Herszenhorn so poignantly points out in his NY Times article  teachers are special people. They are consumed with their students. Each and every day locked in a room with twenty-five or thirty thinking, evolving, vibrant, frustrating little beings.  

   The daily work in schools is so hard that most educators in the system do not distinguish between the     chancellor’s office and the mayor, the labor unions and state government, the teachers’ contract and the federal No Child Left Behind law when they complain, frequently, that the “system” is against them.

In spite of the impending chaos the strength of teachers, their dedication, their caring and their resilience will enable them to weather the storm and prepare for the next cast of “characters,” hopefully not lawyers and MBAs who will impose the next set of “reforms.”

Maybe, just maybe, they will pay attention to some more interesting looks at urban education . Building coherent models from the bottom up … a school system designed to support and truly empower the classroom teacher.

Euthanasia or Genocide: How the Department Is “Killing” Large High Schools

What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world,

 and lose his own soul?  Matthew 16.

There must have been joy in Mudville , excuse me, Tweed, as they sprinted to churn out the press releases praising the higher graduation rates in  small high schools . Some at Tweed were rumored to swoon as the NY Times, although wary of the low numbers of Special Education and English Language Learners, also praised the results .

Not one noted that three/quarters of high school students are housed in large high schools. The Board began closing large high schools in the eighties beginning with Andrew Jackson and Erasmus … the Chancellor’s High School District accelerated the closings and Tweed has been stumbling over itself to close down schools. Over twenty large high schools and lately middle schools have been closed.

The pell-mell closing of large high schools and the “deflection” of students  into other large schools causing overcrowding, and, guess what, low student achievement, is well documented.

In the fall the Department announced the preemptive closing of five high schools – three large schools: Tilden, South Shore and Lafayette. The Brits who evaluated the schools found them “proficient” in the School Quality Review process – to no avail.

In March the State Education Department declared nine newly identified Schools Under Registration Review  – and sent Teams to the schools to conduct detailed reviews. One of the nine – Canarsie high School is a large (2700 students) school.

The Team spends three long days in the school – observes scores of classes, interviews everyone, reviews a range of school documents and shares observations. The Team includes Regional Superintendents from outside the city, their selected staff members, representatives from the CSA (Principal’s union), the UFT (Teacher’s union) and a parent representative. The Team produces a detailed Report that is eventually posted by the SED.

As other schools were closed students were “deflected” into Canarsie and neighborhood students were attracted to the new small schools.

In spite of the growing difficulties the Region ignored the school. The Local Instructional Superintendent was rarely in the building. The Regional coaches were virtually invisible. The Regional Superintendent “beat up” the Principal, and offered no concrete help.

In effect, the school was abandoned.

The Principal was “under the gun” and consumed with discipline issues, the other supervisors fought with each other, and, the teachers without any guidance or leadership did the best they could …

In the latest budget many small high schools – only one-tenth the size of Canarsie received twice as much of the Fair Student Funding dollars.

In June the Department identified the “fall guy,” the Principal, and gave him a U rating.

What is so distressing is that there are many large high schools (i.e., Hillcrest, New Dorp, Madison, etc.) that have restructured into small learning communities – fka houses, or academies, or mini schools. These restructured schools encompass the benefits of small schools (personalization) and large schools (more course offering and economies of scale).

Where are the press releases? the fanfare?  Only silence …

The students and staffs of large high schools are invisible, after all they don’t embellish the legend, or, is the fairy tale?

Once again throwing away kids and teachers who don’t fit the myth of that great Klein-created school system.

Does Klein Sound Like GW43? Is Joel “Spinning” the DOE? Can We Believe DOE Press Releases?

Is Joel Klein sounding increasingly like GW 43?

Even leading Republican senators are beginning to call for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq – everytime Bush praises our troops and points to progress in Iraq, eyes roll …

As Klein spins out press release after press release lauding his own efforts he is beginning to sound more Bush-like.

Claims of increasing ELA and Math scores and higher graduation rates mirror claims of the success of the “surge.”

Bob Gordon and Roland Fryer, Klein latest “generals” seem to be the DOE equivalent of General Petreus.

Fred Smith , a retired Department data analyst, quoting an audit of the ELA test found that scores were inflated. Teachers in small high schools mark papers of their own students. Are the scores inflated? Only an outside audit can allay suspicions …

Diane Ravitch , a leading scholar, calls the Klein/Fryer “pay for performance” plan “unethical and immoral.” Her analysis of the ELA test scores is far less promising than that of the Klein administration.

Sol Stern , a resident scholar at the Manhattan Institute has been a continuing critic of the Department approach to teaching reading.

If we take a closer look at the high school graduation rates -if we look at college readiness we should be quite concerned. The City University of New York (CUNY) has a college readiness rubric – it uses grades on Regents Examinations and the number of Regents passed – it concludes that a  diploma with advanced designation is the baseline for college readiness.

What percentage of high school graduates are “college ready”?

The answer of that in most schools less than half of graduates are “college ready” using the CUNY college readiness rubric, and, in some schools fewer than a quarter are “college ready.”

No surprise … the Department is selective in the data it releases. In overwhelming numbers high school graduates are only ready for non-credit remedial classes in college.

The latest Department “innovation” is “unique and different” summer schools. Principals are encouraged to offer summer schools that give “credit recovery” programs – ways to get around the State Ed Department requirement that a credit bearing course requires 54 hours of instruction. The message from Tweed: a wink and a nod …

There is an irony that GW43 is credited with the phrase , “…the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Hopefully the recent Carnegie Foundation College Readiness  Grant will override Klein cynicism.

As the 08 Presidential election approaches GW43 will probably begin to extricate us from Iraq and as mayoral control sunset also approaches one wonders whether the school system will adopt a more student/parent/teacher friendly policy, i.e., Randi Weingarten’s speech at the Edustat Summit?