Monday, April 30, 2012

Michael Winerip Exposes Flaws in NYC Grading System


Winerip writes: Indeed, a recently released study by the city’s Independent Budget Office concluded that by focusing on student progress, the department had improved the grading system’s reliability.

What system?  There was no school grading system before the progress reports.  Does that mean the SINI or SURR list?

And what about this?

Though the progress reports are assumed to control for demographics like poverty and race, an analysis by The New York Times indicates that schools with the most middle-class students get the best grades. Schools with wealthier students are three times more likely to get an A than schools serving the poor, which are 14 times more likely to get a D or F. Mr. Polakow-Suransky said this partly reflected the achievement gap.

But he also said that if department officials had wanted to create a grading system that completely controlled for poverty and race, they could.

“It’s a very intentional choice not to,” he said. “We could zero it out. But that would undermine our goals. We don’t want the achievement gap to be invisible. We want to see if we’re making progress and creating change.”

What does that mean?  Punishing schools for having more  poor kids?

On Report Cards for N.Y.C. Schools, Invisible Line Divides ‘A’ and ‘F’ - NYTimes.com - http://goo.gl/EVvQM

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