NYC students: undeniable progress under Mayor Bloomberg

Joel Klein with a strong defense of NYC's progress:

In a guest editorial here last week, Sol Stern observed that New York State had significantly raised the bar for meeting proficiency requirements on state tests and that fewer students are meeting the new standard ("The testing mess," August 5, 2010). Seeking to parlay that into a wholesale attack on New York City's progress since Mayor Bloomberg took over in 2002, Stern and Diane Ravitch have launched several recent broadsides. The facts tell a different story, however.

It's no secret that many states have low standards; and the gap between "proficiency" on state tests and on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams is typically very large. Mayor Bloomberg pointed that out in a 2006 op-ed with Jeb Bush, and recommended that the "well-respected NAEP…should become an official benchmark for evaluating states' standards." So NYS did the right thing in raising standards. But that doesn't erase the fact that, by multiple measures, NYC has made substantial progress.

 

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NYC students: undeniable progress under Mayor Bloomberg

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