When reports are issued by the State Education Department, we must look at the data as "spin", and read the report only to find out what the topic of the month is, and then discard it. Unfortunately, the media headlines the data, as if the information given by the educrats were true.Then, the 'spin' or false information becomes 'true' or 'more true' simply because the information has now been repeated in another medium. For example,

Fewer Schools Labeled Failing in New York
By ELISSA GOOTMAN, NYTIMES, September 4, 2004

One out of four New York City public schools failed to meet state proficiency standards last year, but the number fell by 10 percent compared with the year before, the State Education Department said yesterday.

According to the new figures, 328 city schools that receive federal poverty money failed to meet state standards in the 2003-4 school year, down from 366 that had previously been classified as failing. This year, 36 city schools were added to the list, 65 made enough progress to be taken off, and 9 were removed because they either closed or no longer receive federal antipoverty money.

Yesterday's list took many educators by surprise. They had speculated that the list of failing schools would grow over the years because of the increasingly rigorous demands of the law. Some public officials wondered aloud whether the state had changed its formula for calculating schools' scores, but state officials said that only tiny, technical changes had been made, affecting only a handful of schools.

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein celebrated the results, saying they reflected the success of his widespread changes to the school system.

"The nearly two-to-one margin of schools that improved enough to leave the list reflects the hard work of principals, teachers and parents, but it especially reflects student achievement gains that are both genuine and significant," the chancellor said in a statement. "All of our reforms are aimed at giving every New York City public school child a quality education and a better chance in life."

The list was released to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires that states keep close tabs on student performance at schools receiving federal antipoverty money, known as Title I schools. According to the law, such schools must be held accountable for their overall scores and for the scores of students in various subgroups. If, for example, special education students or children in one ethnic group failed two years in a row to make adequate yearly progress, the school is labeled as failing.

One of the most significant aspects of the law is that it requires that children be allowed to transfer out of failing schools.

But this summer, the city's Department of Education said it planned to limit the number of transfer seats allowed, probably to less than 1,000 citywide. And Michele Cahill, the school system's senior counselor for education policy, said students would not be allowed to transfer out of failing schools until the end of October, a decision that some public officials are criticizing.

Last year, more than 7,000 children transferred under the law, but the list of transfer schools was based on data from the 2001-2 school year.

The state released its updated list of failing schools, based on 2002-3 data, after the school year started, and the city did not allow children at newly named failing schools to transfer, saying it would have been too disruptive.

Some public officials called upon the city yesterday to start immediately contacting parents whose children are eligible to transfer, instead of waiting until schools open on Sept. 13.

"Now that they have the list, which was always their fake reason for not doing this early, now they need to immediately start processing" transfer applications, said Eva S. Moskowitz, chairwoman of the City Council Education Committee. "As a parent you need to plan. It's complicated logistics. You need to know where your kid is going."

In the four biggest cities after New York - Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Yonkers - a total of 68 schools were labeled failing, down from 77 last year. In those cities, five were new to the list, while nine were removed after they performed well two years in a row, and five because they had closed.

It was impossible to tell yesterday why certain schools were taken off the list and why others were added, because the state did not provide details. Officials said more information would be released next week.

Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said she believed the list had shrunk because the state had used relaxed federal standards to decide which schools were failing. Specifically, Ms. Weingarten said she believed that special education children have been counted differently.

"People should be more forthright about the changes that have been made in the calculations that have led to this new data," Ms. Weingarten said. "It's always good news when schools get off the list, and it's always good news when the state and the federal government, regardless of what motivates them to do so, start looking at the data in a more appropriate way."

James A. Kadamus, a deputy commissioner of the State Education Department, said the most significant change was that while schools could not meet adequate yearly progress last year unless 95 percent of children were tested, this year they were required to have tested only an average of 95 percent of children over two years. Only six schools were affected by this change, he said.

"I think everyone was predicting that these lists were going to grow and grow and grow," he said. "I think what it suggests is that when you give people some focus, you make it clear where they're not performing well, and what subgroup is not performing well; it appears to be that people are concentrating their resources to make a difference."
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Joanne Jacobs of Fox News has a different perspective on the claims of State and city education department school report cards:

'A' Is for Awful
By Joanne Jacobs, FOX News, Monday, August 30, 2004

LINK

Self-evaluations by Michigan schools are meaningless. (see article below) Metro schools pad rankings: Poor performers again give selves high marks to boost overall grades; reviews may be retooled By Christine MacDonald, and Brad Heath / The Detroit News.

Self-esteem has run amok. The Detroit News reports:

One Detroit elementary, for example, gave itself a perfect score for its facilities despite being closed in October because it started sinking into the ground.

. . . Eighty-three percent of Michigan elementary and middle schools that failed federal achievement standards for at least four years -- including schools in Detroit, Pontiac, Taylor and Utica -- gave themselves A's on self-evaluations worth a third of their overall grades, according to a Detroit News analysis of state report card data released earlier this month. The percentage is up from the previous year, when 70 percent of failing schools gave themselves the highest possible marks.

Administrators are giving themselves points for having programs to solve their school's problems -- even if the programs aren't working. Two elementary schools that earned an F in English and a D in math gave themselves an A, which raised the schools' average grade to a C. Both have been listed as failing schools for six years.

Lying to Children

John Stone of the Pacific Research Institute is dead right in this Washington Times oped: "It is a disappointment when a child performs poorly in school. It becomes a tragedy, however, when the child and his parents are not told the truth." After years of grade inflation, students who've passed all their courses are finding they can't pass basic skills tests; "B" students are stuck in remedial classes in college.

California's universities admit only the top third of high school graduates, but 37 percent are required to take remedial math and 48 percent remedial English.

Recently, researchers took a closer look at the letter grades awarded in a Florida school district. Judged by the scores students earned on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), only 9 percent of the A's assigned to third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students were deserved. Of the students who performed at a D or F level on the FCAT, 17 percent had earned an A from their teacher. Many had been taught by teachers whom the study called "easy graders." On average, these teachers assigned an A to those who were in reality D or F students 32 percent of the time.

Grade inflation benefits teachers and administrators, Stone writes.

High grades are more comfortable for everyone involved, including educators. Teachers, administrators and school districts can bolster constituent satisfaction and their public image or they can do the opposite depending on the grades they assign. The incentive is obvious.

Parents who are poorly educated themselves tend to believe their children's report cards are genuine. Eventually, students realize they lack the skills they need to meet their college and career goals. By then, their years of free education are over, and it may be too late to recover.

Getting Serious

High school juniors in California will have to pass the state's graduation exam to get a diploma. This Los Angeles Times' story starts with a familiar refrain: A poor girl might not achieve her dream to be a pediatrician if she can't pass the math portion of the exam. The implication is that the exam hurts the prospects of low-income minority students. But the Manual Arts High student won't make it through college, much less medical school, if she doesn't know enough math to get a 55 percent, the minimum passing score, on a four-choice multiple-choice exam covering sixth through eighth grade math skills.

The story goes on to show that the exam is forcing schools to offer tutoring and Saturday classes, so students can pass the graduation test on their second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth try. The test is motivating students to work harder to improve their math and reading skills. Teachers are paying more attention to teaching the state standards, and they're keeping track of students' progress.

Junior Adriana de la Rosa, who grew up in Guatemala and struggles with English, said she would benefit from attention to fundamentals such as vocabulary development and reading comprehension rather than from reading "The Odyssey" in her English class.

"That's why I'm taking the classes on Saturday because I think I need more help with my English," she said.

. . . Manual Arts teachers and administrators said they were doing all they could to make sure their students were prepared. Among other things, teachers say they closely follow the state's academic content standards on which the test is based. And school counselors met last month with incoming juniors who failed one or both parts of the test, recruiting the students for the Saturday classes.

...Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer said his district's high schools were trying new approaches to better prepare students for the exit exam.

For example, he said that ninth-grade teachers are now using instruction guides that cover the tested standards, and are assessing students regularly to make sure they are learning.

What a concept!

"I think it's important to pass it, to see if you've been learning for the last [four] years," said junior Julio Sosa, who failed the math section and now gets after-school algebra tutoring twice a week. "I think I'll pass it this year."

With her hopes for medical school, (Edith) Nicolas is eager to improve her algebra skills and is signing up for Saturday classes.

If the graduation exam didn't exist, these students wouldn't be trying to learn algebra and wouldn't have Saturday classes to help them get on track for college. I just don't understand why "advocates" for disadvantaged students oppose the graduation exam.

Letters

John Lucia of Indianapolis writes:

News Flash: Unions try to discredit non-union employers. News Flash: Unions are more interested in employee salary and benefits than product quality.

Does anyone really think that teachers unions, which contain people as human and caring as the rest of us, would act any different than other unions?

Roy W. Hogue writes:

In the end, all human organizations serve themselves and the interests of their members, losing sight of everything else. That's true for schools, especially when control rises to a level (state, federal or union) where immediate accountability for failure disappears.

Here's my prescription: Scrap the public education system above the local level. Put schools back into small local districts accountable to the voters, and most importantly, the parents. Forbid county, state and federal governments from getting involved. Direct accountability to the people the schools serve is the only way out.

Wayne Halsey writes:

In regard to Benedict College's grading policy, I can see effort playing some role in grading in elementary school, where you don't want students to become discouraged about trying to solve difficult problems. But by high school, let alone college, effort should have no impact on grades. You either solve the problem or you don't.

I can see the lawsuits now. Employer forced to pay workers because they tried to do the job, but couldn't.

Success is rewarded. Failure is not. Period!

Benedict College should be driven to bankruptcy due to a shortage of students paying their tuition: They can always claim that they tried to pay it, but just couldn't.

Doug Schexnayder of Vidalia, La., writes:

I just retired after six years of high school and 27 years of community college teaching. Education is no longer about character and success. It's about student happiness. Spineless parents and administrators have dumbed it down to 'keep the peace.'

The only groups having the freedom to fail under modern educational theory are teachers. National tests like the ACT were dumbed down in 1991 ("re-normed" in educationese): what once was a 17 is now a 20 for example. The SAT is adding a "subjective" writing section.

If athletics was as dumbed down as education has become the past 30+ years, it would now be "5 strikes for an out" and "7 yards for a first down."

J.C. Gallagher writes:

The ho-hum, dumbing down of the population has been going on for over 40 years. Incompetence prevails. The last thing I want to deal with is an incompetent moron who feels good about himself. All of these 'colleges' should be shut down and become primary education centers.

Joanne Jacobs writes about education and other issues at JoanneJacobs.com. She's writing a book, Ride the Carrot Salad, about a start-up charter high school in San Jose.
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Metro schools pad rankings: Poor performers again give selves high marks to boost overall grades; reviews may be retooled
By Christine MacDonald, and Brad Heath / The Detroit News

Self-assessments:

Districts are asked questions relating to the topics which are worth points that equal a grade:

Family involvement
Four-year education and employment plans for students after graduation
Attendance, drop-out rates
School facilities
Curriculum alignment
Advanced course work
Continuous improvement programs
Performance management systems to determine if children have learned critical skills
Teacher quality and professional development
Arts education and humanities for all students
Extended learning opportunities

Principals and School Administrators give their school an "A" for each of these categories, when indeed the accurate assessment may be a D or F. No one is held accountable for the 'incorrect' grade.

More of Michigan's chronically failing schools have given themselves straight A's on annual report cards, sparking concern among state officials that the marks erode confidence in the grading system.

Experts say parents who rely on the annual report cards to evaluate their children's schools could be misled with self-assessments that boost overall grades.

But school district officials maintain they are accurately responding to the state's questions as part of a self-review and don't see it as giving themselves a grade. Schools rate themselves, and then points and a grade are later attached to the rating.

"The individual schools don't grade themselves, they complete a questionnaire based on a point system," said Ken Coleman, district spokesman.

One Detroit elementary, for example, gave itself a perfect score for its facilities despite being closed in October because it started sinking into the ground.

"I would have a hard time believing that," said 31-year-old Trina Parker, whose two kids attended George Ford Elementary last year before it shut down. "Maybe the community or parents should grade the schools.

Of course, you are going to make yourself look good.

Eighty-three percent of Michigan elementary and middle schools that failed federal achievement standards for at least four years including schools in Detroit, Pontiac, Taylor and Utica gave themselves A's on self-evaluations worth a third of their overall grades, according to a Detroit News analysis of state report card data released earlier this month. The percentage is up from the previous year, when 70 percent of failing schools gave themselves the highest possible marks.

School officials stand behind the self-reviews which are based on 11 factors including parental involvement and teacher quality saying they are meeting the state's criteria. Experts suggest some of the questions could be open to interpretation.

State officials point out that in Ford's case, the review doesn't directly ask administrators about building condition. But they acknowledge that Ford is an example of why the self-assessment needs to be improved. Officials say the state Department of Education will begin auditing the self-reviews this school year and will retool them for the 2005-06 school year.

"It's an example of why we need to firm up the system," said state Superintendent Tom Watkins, referring to Ford. "We need it to pass the smell test.

(Schools) better have ... appropriate justification on why they gave themselves an A."

Outside factors have effect

In Detroit, school administrators at all but two of the district's 212 elementary and middle schools that were graded gave their schools A's on their self-reviews.

Administrators argue the criteria are set by the state and they are just reporting the extent to which they have implemented programs related to the 11 factors.

For example, districts aren't asked to report how many parents are involved but rather if they have programs in place to communicate with parents.

But they do rate themselves on a scale of how far they have come in implementing the programs, for example whether they consistently meet or are just starting to meet the criteria.

Schools could have all the programs in place but may not be seeing results because of outside influences, such as poverty, said Northville's Superintendent Leonard Rezmierski, who is also president of the Tri-County Alliance for Public Education.

Jeremy Hughes, the state's chief academic officer and deputy superintendent, agrees.

"These are the kind of things that may not bear fruit right away," Hughes said.

More oversight is needed

Still, many see a problem in the disconnect between the two separate systems evaluating schools: the federal No Child Left Behind Act and the state's report cards.

The federal measurement, called adequate yearly progress, is primarily focused on test scores, while the state report cards are based two-thirds on test scores and one-third on the self-assessment.

There is no penalty for low state grades, but receiving an F means the school is deemed unaccredited.

The state needs to devalue the self-review portion, said Jim Sandy, executive director for the Michigan Business Leaders for Education Excellence. Schools have undermined the credibility of the Department of Education by grading themselves so high, he said.

"Obviously, there is an opportunity for abuse and people have taken advantage of it," Sandy said.

Gerry Burke, a 46-year-old father of three in Bloomfield Hills, said he understands that schools can have all the proper programs in place and still fail because of outside influences.

But he said the number of schools failing federal standards and giving themselves A's at the same time is "crazy" and thinks the state should monitor the schools' claims.

"I am not for more government, but ... it's a joke," Burke said. "That doesn't give you a whole lot of confidence (in the grading system)."

Subjectivity may weigh in

The state's grading system is designed to help parents compare schools using more than just test scores.

But David Plank, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University, said that although while some questions on the self-review are straightforward, others are more subjective.

"There is a lot of ambiguity about what that means and how you measure it," Plank said, referring to the parental involvement portion.

Plank, who helped the state develop the self-review, questions whether it is working.

"If schools are simply putting themselves at the top of the grade scale, it is failing that purpose," Plank said. "It appears that schools are grading themselves high and they have every incentive to do so. It is still a pretty fragile system in terms of information it provides to parents."

Pontiac had three schools that failed the federal standard for four or more years and which all gave themselves A's. Utica had one and Taylor had three.

Pontiac Superintendent Mildred Mason says the self-evaluation is straightforward.

"The state tells you the criteria," Mason said. "It is not that we go out and give ourselves a grade. We just tell the truth as it is. All it means is you have those things in place at your buildings."

Utica also says it can back up its perfect self-evaluation of Davis Junior High.

"(Administrators) took that self-assessment seriously," said Susan Meyer, Utica's director of secondary education. Administrators say the school is not a poor performer and only failed the federal standards this year because not enough of a subgroup of 32 disabled students passed.

And Taylor officials say they have implemented all the programs asked about in the state self-reviews.

"We have aggressive school improvement plans in place," said Lynette Suton, assistant superintendent of elementary instruction for Taylor.

Rezmierski said although he believes schools have been honest in their evaluations, the state's decision to monitor them is a good idea.

"Everything we do now is under the microscope," he said.
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More spin from the New York Times in an article published September 6 2004 is below. Parentadvocates has spoken to many people who have been working or are currently employed by the New York City Department of Education, and the consensus is that no one has ever seen anything as bad, in terms of workplace respect (there is almost none), concern for misallocations of funds, lack of accountability, transparency, or compliance with the law. Mr. Herzenhorn quotes people who work for Klein as his sources, but if we read between the lines, we see that people are getting hired and leaving quickly, unlike previous chancellorships. And the firing of Diana Lam was entirely expected by almost anyone in education in the US who can access her extremely well documented ride through school districts. It was her hiring that was a surprise. We can see that the NY Times must not be considered an unbiased source of information about education. Please read the article below with an informed perspective.

Betsy Combier

September 6, 2004
Despite Outflow, City Schools Administration Is Said to Remain Solid
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

With just two years on the job, Joel I. Klein is fast approaching the average tenure of recent New York City schools chancellors. But while Mr. Klein has pledged to stay as long as Michael R. Bloomberg is mayor, his management team has been in constant flux, with important posts changing hands virtually every month.

Of the most senior positions at the Department of Education's headquarters, only two of Mr. Klein's appointees remain in their original posts. Some of these jobs have changed hands twice: for example, the chancellor is on his third chief of staff and his third communications director.

The latest high-level departure was that of Lester W. Young Jr., the senior executive for youth and family support services, who said late last month that he would retire after the first week of school, ending a 36-year career in the city's public schools.

Dr. Young's announcement came a week after Caroline Kennedy, by far the highest-profile outsider to join Mr. Klein's team, announced that she was stepping down as chief executive of the school system's Office of Strategic Partnerships.

Aside from Mr. Klein, the first chancellor hired under mayoral control of the schools, the two top officials still in their original positions are Kathleen Grimm, the deputy chancellor for finance and administration, and Michele Cahill, the senior counselor for educational policy.

And while Mr. Klein's administration has been characterized by an outflow of veterans in favor of young people from the private sector, even some of them are starting to leave - some because they had completed discrete projects, others apparently tired of 18-hour-plus workdays.

The most significant of these departures was that of James E. Sailer, 36, who led Mr. Klein's initiative to create a new accountability system and to develop sophisticated new methods of analyzing school performance. In July, Mr. Sailer returned to the Population Council, where he had worked before joining the Education Department. The council is an international, nonprofit organization, based in New York, that does research on biomedical, social science and public health issues.

"I did what I wanted to do and what the chancellor had asked me to do," Mr. Sailer said in an interview. "It's entering a new phase when it's being implemented and announced," he added. "It seemed like the logical break point. If I had continued on, I would have felt it necessary to stay on for another two years."

Among others to leave since the last school year ended were three officials who had worked at McKinsey & Company, the management consulting firm, before joining the Education Department.

Jeremy D. Lack, 27, who was director of strategic planning for the schools, is now an associate at Oxford Bioscience Partners IV, a venture capital firm in Westport, Conn. Elisa K. Mandell, 27, who was Mr. Klein's liaison to the Panel for Educational Policy, is going to Africa to teach. And Ethan Kurzweil, 25, a staff member in the chancellor's office, is now working in a corporate department at The Wall Street Journal.

In a statement, Chancellor Klein acknowledged the turnover of both management and staff, but he said he was more than pleased with the administrators now in place.

"I am confident we have a truly extraordinary team to execute the largest school reform this city has experienced in decades," he said. "We have the right mix of skills from people who have been in the department for years and outstanding new talent drawn here as a result of mayoral control and the promise it holds for meaningful change. We always regret losing members of the team, but the team is more than strong enough to adjust to the kinds of personnel changes that any management team experiences."

Some former education officials have questioned whether partisan politics have been a factor in the turnover. Mr. Klein is a Democrat who worked in the White House during the Clinton administration and recruited heavily from Democratic circles. But Mr. Bloomberg, his boss, is a Republican. One such Democratic recruit, Mr. Klein's first press secretary, David K. Chai, now works for the City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, a Democrat who is a possible challenger to Mr. Bloomberg in next year's race.

Aides to Mr. Klein said that he had shifted the school system's work culture from that of a bloated and slothful government bureaucracy to a leaner corporate environment, in which a combination of experienced managers and smart young staffers were willing to work as long as necessary to carry out an ambitious turnaround campaign.

Officials said the turnover was a natural result of that effort and reflected the staffing patterns at a large corporate law firm or a management consulting company. "The aggressive agenda for change is a factor, and the pace of the work involved in organizing and effectuating that change," said Stephen Morello, who was hired in April as Mr. Klein's third communications director.

But some departures have been anything but expected. Deputy Chancellor Diana Lam, who was hired by Mr. Klein as the system's top instructional leader, was forced to resign in March after a controversy over efforts by her and others to get her husband a job in the school system. The department's top lawyer, Chad Vignola, also resigned for his role in the matter.

Mr. Klein initially sought to promote Ms. Cahill to deputy chancellor but was blocked by the State Education Department because she did not have the necessary superintendent's certification. Instead, Mr. Klein chose Carmen Fariña, who had been a regional superintendent in Brooklyn and is emerging as one of the system's most forceful leaders.

Of the 10 regional superintendents, who are essentially the top instructional officials in the field, eight of the original hires remain. Ms. Fariña was succeeded by Marcia Lyles, a lower-ranked administrator, in Region 8, covering part of Brooklyn. And Shelley Harwayne, who retired as superintendent of Region 9, covering much of Manhattan and part of the South Bronx, before the start of school last year was replaced by Peter Heaney, who had reported to her.

The turnover has been higher among local instructional superintendents, who each oversee 10 to 12 schools and report to the regional superintendents. About a quarter of these officials - 28 of 113 - are not returning to their jobs this month.

In some cases, Mr. Klein has decided not to replace departing officials and to divide up or redefine job duties. For example, Dr. Young, who had broad responsibilities, will not be replaced. His duties will be split between Ms. Cahill and another official, Jean S. Desravines Jr.

Other officials to leave recently included Benjamin Tucker, the head of school safety, and Jonathan S. Gyurko, who had headed the charter school office and now works for the teachers' union, the United Federation of Teachers.

Critics of the changes say they are destabilizing the school system and raise the prospect that Mr. Klein's management structure cannot be sustained.

After Mr. Klein said he would divide up Dr. Young's responsibilities rather than replace him, the president of the principals' union, Jill S. Levy, warned that the administrative turnover would ultimately hurt schools. And she said that the departure of some officials recruited from the private sector indicated a lack of commitment among those who had not made education their career.

"Slowly and surely we are losing our people with institutional knowledge," Ms. Levy said. "And we are going to be leaving the operation of our schools and policy to folks who have neither the knowledge base, the foundation of knowledge, nor the long-term commitment to our children, our city and our schools."

By contrast, some of Mr. Klein's predecessors maintained a solid core of advisers throughout their tenure. Many top deputies to Rudy Crew, who was chancellor from October 1995 to January 2000, stayed in their jobs even after Dr. Crew left.

"We were a very concentrated group who worked with Crew and, you know, I sort of think of us as a political campaign," said Chiara Coletti, who was Dr. Crew's communications director. She said the job was such "that you never rest, you are always on overdrive, and it creates a sense of solidarity among the staff and especially among the chancellor's closest advisers."

Some of the changes have generated excitement. Many current and former officials, including Mr. Sailer, said they were tremendously impressed by Elizabeth Arons, who took over as chief executive of human resources in January.

Mr. Morello said that the greatest stability in the system was at the top, where it was perhaps most important. For the last two decades, chancellors have averaged about 26 months in the job. Not only has Mr. Klein been in the job nearly that long, but his tenure has been free of acrimony that had existed between some chancellors and City Hall.

Mr. Klein often says that he believes Mr. Bloomberg will be re-elected in November 2005, and that he would stay on as chancellor.

"Joel has been here for 25 months and is committed to another 60 - another five years," Mr. Morello said. "We think the prospect of that stability is extremely important."