Still More Education Wars

Just because 97 percent of NYC's elementary and middle schools get A's and B's for their efforts in "making progress" in raising standardized test scores doesn't mean anything. As we know, since these are public schools the administrators ALL grade on a curve.

The progress reports, which help determine bonuses for teachers and principals, have become one of the most contentious policies in Chancellor Joel I. Klein’s administration. Dozens of school districts from cities around the country and as far as Australia have worked with the city’s Department of Education to develop their own progress reports, but the grades have been widely criticized by those within the city system who say that they do not accurately reflect a school’s strengths and shortcomings.

New York’s report cards focus on how much students at a school have improved on state standardized tests, unlike most accountability systems throughout the country, which are based primarily on how well students perform on tests. The grades are assigned using a complicated formula intended to compare schools with similar student populations to one another.

The tests are a total crock of shit anyway, for students in general don't take the tests seriously and therefore the tests are NOT an accurate measure of student achievement or of anything, for that matter.