PHIL On FIRE: New York Public School Standardized Test Scores Plunge!
Surprised? Not.
When the results of New York City test scores in reading and math weren’t released this past June, I knew something was wrong. As a parent with two kids attending NYC public schools, I’ve witnessed firsthand the amount of test preparation my kids have been made to put up with. I’ve been an outspoken critic of the myth of Mike Bloomberg’s “Control” of our schools for the last five years. The Mayor’s claims of advances in education was his main claim of achievement when he ran for his third term. I still have the flyers he mailed me, to prove it! Today the latest round of test scores are out, and it ain’t pretty.
On the math exams, only 54% of third-graders through eighth-graders passed, compared with 82% the year before—a stunning decline of 28 percentage points.
Reading scores also dropped a whopping 27 percentage points, from 69% during the 2008-2009 school year to only 42%.
Charter schools statewide also saw massive declines, dropping to 60% passing math from 89% last year and 43% passing English, down from 76% in 2009. [NY Daily News]
It’s important to remember that kids were prepped all year for the test. My kids’ school was open on Saturdays in the months leading up to the test, for additional preparation. As you will see in this story that I wrote for the WG News in June, our kids have been used as a prop by the Mayor to show how “Mayoral Control” is working. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of spin the Mayor will put on this, to explain the huge drops in our kids’ test scores.
Still on Fire,
Phil
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