Mike's promotion policy fails kids
Last month, Mayor Bloomberg announced his latest "get-tough" scheme for improving the city's public schools.
Bloomberg vowed not to promote any third-grader who scored in the lowest level on city standardized reading and math tests that will be given in April.
As many as 15,000 pupils - 20% of all third-graders - could be left back if their scores fall within Level 1, the lowest of four basic tiers on the test.
Under the new policy, a test that has always been used to pinpoint student learning problems has been turned into what educators call a high-stakes test.
That means that a single test will be all the city needs to determine if an 8-year-old gets promoted or left back. Forget the judgment or discretion of the professional teacher who has that child in a classroom for an entire year. A child can have one bad day and a year's work is discounted.
"I don't think we're doing any student any favors by moving people along," Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said recently in defense of the policy.
What the chancellor didn't mention was how the new policy will benefit Bloomberg politically.
Next year, when fourth-graders take their required state assessment tests, reading and math scores in New York City are likely to rise dramatically. Of course, keeping all the worst performing students back in the third grade an extra year can only help those scores rise.
So in the summer of 2005, just as the race for mayor is heating up, Bloomberg will pull those fourth-grade test scores out of his pocket and claim, "See how I fixed the schools!"
"The mayor's way of improving test scores is to eliminate the children who are most at risk from taking them,"
said Jane Hirschmann, chair of Time Out from Testing, a parents group that is organizing opposition to high-stakes tests."My office has gotten an overwhelming number of calls from parents concerned about this policy," said City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz (D-Manhattan). Moskowitz, who chairs the Council's Education Committee, has scheduled a Feb. 26 hearing to solicit the views of parents.
Bloomberg and Klein apparently don't feel they have to listen to parents. The new policy is already considered in effect, even though the city's Panel for Educational Policy won't vote on it until next month.
The panel is the official body that replaced the old Board of Education when Bloomberg gained direct control of the school system in 2002.
It's such a rubber stamp that when Bloomberg appointed the majority of its members he warned he would fire anyone he discovered talking to reporters.
On the agenda of the panel's monthly meeting last night, according to two panel members, was supposed to be the new third-grade testing policy. But yesterday morning it was removed from the agenda.
Klein's spokesman, Jerry Russo, said some panel members had requested more time to review the policy.
Bloomberg and Klein roar like lions when it comes to failing third-graders and parents who have no power over their schools.
Meanwhile, up in Albany, Gov. Pataki and the Legislature keep failing the biggest school test of all - the order from the state's courts that they stop robbing our city of its fair share of education dollars.
When will Bloomberg and Klein get as tough with the politicians as they get with 8-year-olds?
Originally published on February 9, 2004