Mayor Bloomberg's boast on graduation rates is misleading, according to study

BY Meredith Kolodner
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, September 23rd 2009, 4:00 AM

Miller for News

Mayor Bloomberg does not have his facts straight about certain graduation rates, according to a new study.

Mayor Bloomberg's claim that graduation rates are up at small schools he created after shuttering large dysfunctional ones is misleading, a new study asserts.

The study, done at Columbia University's Teachers College, questions a key vehicle Bloomberg hopes to ride to a third term as mayor.

A recent TV ad from the Fund for Public Schools, which Bloomberg founded to funnel private money into public schools, cites Evander Childs High School as an example of a "turnaround school."

It compares five successful small schools with the massive Bronx behemoth they replaced.

One principal proudly boasts in the ad that the graduation rate has increased to 80% from 30%.

A closer look shows that in 2005, only 11% of ninth-graders entering Evander were reading at grade level, the study claims.

At the same time, 30% of students entering the small replacement schools were proficient in reading, significantly higher than the boroughwide average.

"We cannot make sense of large differences in the graduation rates at Evander and the small schools which replaced it without taking these differences in who entered the schools into account," said study co-author Aaron Pallas, a Teachers College professor.

The same is true, on average, of all of the students who attend the new small schools that have replaced the roughly 20 large high schools that have been closed since 2002.

Students entering the new schools were between 10 and 15 percentage points more likely to be reading and doing math at grade level, as measured by state tests.

They also were less likely to be special education students, more likely to be female and more likely to qualify for free lunch.

The study also suggests that the lower-performing students who would have gone to the large schools that were closed end up in other nearby large high schools.

"One in three students were graduating, and now three in four are, despite the fact that they are disproportionately high needs students."

City Education Department officials dismissed the study, saying that Pallas and co-author Jennifer Jennings were longtime critics of the Bloomberg administration.

"This is a reform that has changed the lives of thousands of students," said John White, acting deputy chancellor.

Meanwhile, city Controller William Thompson criticized Bloomberg Tuesday night in a speech laying out his own education policy, saying the Education Department has fudged numbers to boost graduation rates and test scores.

mkolodner@nydailynews.com

With Adam Lisberg

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election_2009/2009/09/23/2009-09-23_bloomberg_claim_misleading_according_to_study.html#ixzz0RvF7k3Qv