comments on ed schools

 
I continue to be surprised by the media coverage of the new school grading plan in NYC.  The NYT headline, instead of "The Day After School Grades Come in, Parents Are Buzzing", could have easily been, "The Day After School Grades Come in, Principals, Teachers and Parents Are Up in Arms".  To be sure, there's plenty of griping in this article, but I was expecting a lot worse than this:

... some parents whose children attend those celebrated schools, largely in well-to-do neighborhoods, said they were perplexed by the way the grades were calculated. Others dismissed them as meaningless, saying they overemphasized standardized tests and improvement from 2006 to 2007.
 
“I find the methodology to be confusing, problematic and  flawed,” said Emily Horowitz, who has a daughter at the Muscota New School in the Inwood section of Manhattan,  which received an F.  Ms. Horowitz said that the grade “doesn’t mean anything” to her, and that parents were planning a rally this morning to “celebrate our school.”

On the grading system, one wise friend wrote:

To be sure, there will be anomalies. But if, as a general rule, the grading system works -- if it dispenses rough justice and shines a light on failing schools -- it will have served a very important purpose.

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November 7, 2007
The Day After School Grades Come in, Parents Are Buzzing
By ELISSA GOOTMAN <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/elissa_gootman/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

It came up over lunch at a Middle Eastern cafe in Brooklyn Heights, where Todd Glass broke the news to Davide Cantoni that Public School 8, where their sons attend kindergarten, had received a C on the city’s new report card for its schools. He urged his friend not to panic.