And now the grades are out
You can check out an excel file with all of the schools' grades over at the DOE's website. Fifty schools got F's, and 23 high schools' grades have not yet been finalized. (At Pissed Off Teacher's school, the original grade is being revisited because the principal complained.) New schools that haven't yet graduated a class also don't have grades.
Read the DOE's explanation of how the grades were calculated and then let us know what you think of the rankings. Do you see any surprises?
3 comments:
I haven't taken a thorough look at the numbers, but at first glance it's perplexing...some of the highest performing middle schools in District 3 received some low letter grades (Mott Hall II = C and Center School = D?). Is Manhattan School for Children really on par with Andersen; both with A ratings?
I agree with djarnot. The schools with which I'm familiar in Brooklyn (elementary, middle, and high schools) have grades that don't correspond much at all with what I know of student performance, student and parent satisfaction, etc. At this point, I shudder to think that prospective applicants might judge schools based on these mysterious grades.
I think these new school greades are virtually meaningless. The main problem with the DOE's scoring method is that it gives the most weight to student progress, i.e. improvement in test scores from last year to this year. So high-performing schools are penalized if there is not much difference in scores from one year to the next (if 91% of students are passing the test there is not much room to make progress versus schools where only 60% of students are passing). Of course, the fundamental problem is the DOE's overwhelming emphasis on test scores.
Post a Comment