On-Time High School Graduation Rate Fell in 2005
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg said it would take years before many of his changes, like grade retention policies that hold back elementary and middle school children largely on the basis of test scores, were reflected in improved graduation rates.
On-Time High School Graduation Rate Fell in 2005
The percentage of New York City high school students graduating on time dropped last year, according to new figures released yesterday, to 53.2 percent in 2005 from 54.3 percent in 2004.
The figures, released as part of a preliminary version of the Mayor's Management Report, which provides statistics on government performance, raised anew what was an important topic of contention during Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's re-election campaign last fall.
While Mr. Bloomberg's Democratic challenger, Fernando Ferrer, had accused him of failing to address the city's graduation rate, the mayor had countered that in 2002, before he took control of the school system, the rate of graduation in four years, so-called on-time graduations, was 50.8 percent. The numbers, he had said, were "going in the right direction."
But with yesterday's figures, that direction changed, sending education officials scrambling for explanations.
"I think information like this should cause us to pause and reflect a little bit about the direction in which the system is going and its impact on students," said Robert Tobias, director of the Center for Research on Teaching and Learning at New York University's Steinhardt School of Education.
"This decline in and of itself I wouldn't call a substantial or educationally meaningful decline," said Mr. Tobias, the former executive director of assessment and accountability for the city schools, "but in the context of the trends and data over the past few years, it raises questions as to whether school completion really is improving in New York City."
posted by Whitney Tilson at 8:38 AM
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