If you can read this, chances are you did not get your education in the NYC public school system in the last decade. Frankly, I don't understand it. There is a war going on in the NYC school system. Those who want our children to be able to learn the basic skills of being able to read and write proficiently against those who want to use learning to read, write, and basic math skills as a political "mind" field.
In anticipation of the new school year that started today, the NYC Department of Education released the 2013/2014 test scored from the New York State public school system. They were by all account appalling!
Math scores passed grades 3-8 -
Asians - 66.6%
Caucasian - 55%
Black - 18.6%
Hispanic - 23.1%
English scores - passed grades 3-8 -
Asians - 49.5%
Caucasian - 49.4%
Black - 18.1%
Hispanic - 18.3%
These are up from past scores...what??? Am I the only one who sees a huge problem? Now, I don't know what the new Common Core curriculum is suppose to be or what it is supposed to achieve, but what the hell does this mean? And this was supposed to be an improvement!
Here are some other statistics. By the way, these are the scores that our Mayor DiBlasio and the UFT (United Federation of Teachers Union) are fighting their hardest to stop. Success Charter schools founded by Mayor Diblasio's nemesis Eva Moskowitz. I am guessing that they must make the public school system in NYC look bad. You see, poor Black and Hispanic students are not supposed to be able to learn because of their background - poor, minority, deprived etc. But please explain to me how they can do this?
Now, I admit, I am cherry picking*, but...
Success Charter Schools in New York City - same poor, minority demographics; chosen by lottery, not by test scores or any other means other than a parent or guardian took the time to fill out a form to enter the student's name in a lottery:
Math - 93.1% passed
English - 64.5% passed
Demographics -
Black - 59%
Hispanic - 39%
Asians & Caucasian - 2%
Oh, Success Charter schools have a non-Union teaching staff. Explain how any school system would want to hide this. Please explain why any public school system would not want to pick the brains of the founders of this charter school system for how and why they are so successful?
In fairness, all charter schools including union and non-union charter schools -
Citywide Charter School scores with the same demographic:
Math - 43.9%
English - 28.1%
On a related note - The top high school in New York City and the state (and one of the top in the country) - Stuyvesant High School - is on the block. Traditionally, those who are allowed to attend this specialized math/science High School are chosen by test scores. The demographics of this specialized school skew mostly Asian and Caucasian. Not because they are Asian and Caucasian, but because they score the highest on a specialized test. The problem is that very few Black and Hispanics pass this test, so the demographics skew too heavily to Asian and Caucasian students (mostly Asian). Being that we have a new progressive Mayor and new progressive School Chancellor, they see a problem...a demographic problem. The answer - lower the standards to improve the demographics. So, they propose to lower the standards to improve the demographics...at the expense of that other unsung poor, deprived minority demographic that always seems to be left out of the "minority" demographic category - Asian students.
*I admit that I have skewed the statistics to make a point. The overall scores for charters are marginally better than the public school scores. However Success charters schools have 7 of the top 15 schools in all of New York state and have a majority of poor, minority students. My point is why are they being targeted by the Mayor and the school chancellor as bad for NYC and why aren't they working with the founders to find what they are doing right?
In anticipation of the new school year that started today, the NYC Department of Education released the 2013/2014 test scored from the New York State public school system. They were by all account appalling!
Math scores passed grades 3-8 -
Asians - 66.6%
Caucasian - 55%
Black - 18.6%
Hispanic - 23.1%
English scores - passed grades 3-8 -
Asians - 49.5%
Caucasian - 49.4%
Black - 18.1%
Hispanic - 18.3%
These are up from past scores...what??? Am I the only one who sees a huge problem? Now, I don't know what the new Common Core curriculum is suppose to be or what it is supposed to achieve, but what the hell does this mean? And this was supposed to be an improvement!
Here are some other statistics. By the way, these are the scores that our Mayor DiBlasio and the UFT (United Federation of Teachers Union) are fighting their hardest to stop. Success Charter schools founded by Mayor Diblasio's nemesis Eva Moskowitz. I am guessing that they must make the public school system in NYC look bad. You see, poor Black and Hispanic students are not supposed to be able to learn because of their background - poor, minority, deprived etc. But please explain to me how they can do this?
Now, I admit, I am cherry picking*, but...
Success Charter Schools in New York City - same poor, minority demographics; chosen by lottery, not by test scores or any other means other than a parent or guardian took the time to fill out a form to enter the student's name in a lottery:
Math - 93.1% passed
English - 64.5% passed
Demographics -
Black - 59%
Hispanic - 39%
Asians & Caucasian - 2%
Oh, Success Charter schools have a non-Union teaching staff. Explain how any school system would want to hide this. Please explain why any public school system would not want to pick the brains of the founders of this charter school system for how and why they are so successful?
In fairness, all charter schools including union and non-union charter schools -
Citywide Charter School scores with the same demographic:
Math - 43.9%
English - 28.1%
On a related note - The top high school in New York City and the state (and one of the top in the country) - Stuyvesant High School - is on the block. Traditionally, those who are allowed to attend this specialized math/science High School are chosen by test scores. The demographics of this specialized school skew mostly Asian and Caucasian. Not because they are Asian and Caucasian, but because they score the highest on a specialized test. The problem is that very few Black and Hispanics pass this test, so the demographics skew too heavily to Asian and Caucasian students (mostly Asian). Being that we have a new progressive Mayor and new progressive School Chancellor, they see a problem...a demographic problem. The answer - lower the standards to improve the demographics. So, they propose to lower the standards to improve the demographics...at the expense of that other unsung poor, deprived minority demographic that always seems to be left out of the "minority" demographic category - Asian students.
*I admit that I have skewed the statistics to make a point. The overall scores for charters are marginally better than the public school scores. However Success charters schools have 7 of the top 15 schools in all of New York state and have a majority of poor, minority students. My point is why are they being targeted by the Mayor and the school chancellor as bad for NYC and why aren't they working with the founders to find what they are doing right?
Bev, I've written several times that I find it shocking that schools aren't aiming for 100% success. Kids are more important than burgers, but imagine if McDonalds said "as long as 60% of the orders are right, then we're doing well." People would abandon McDonalds in droves. Yet, when it comes to schools, everyone pretends this is a good first step toward something years down the road.
ReplyDeleteShocking.
BTW, I've had a lot of contact with the schools lately and I've learned some fascinating things.
ReplyDeleteFirst, as suspected, conservatives are absolutely wrong about Common Core. The best school district in the state does it here and the curriculum is both clever and advanced. Our girls (4th and 6th grades) are learning a ton -- they were about a year behind having come from Washington state, but they're catching up really fast because the schools make it a point to help them catch up.
Interestingly, the schools also use some really cool tools to help the kids learn. For example, to teach our fourth grader math, they have a computer game she accesses by the internet which turns math into a game. She is enthralled by this program and it's teaching her an amazing amount even as she doesn't realize it. It's been great to watch her progress.
Similarly, they put all of her grades and assignments online so we can know in real time if she is skipping class or not turning in her work or doing poorly.
In terms of reading, they are assigned 20 minutes of reading at home each night (parents are supposed to sit with them). They need to keep a log and the parents need to sign it. In terms of what they can read, the answer is anything. Our 4th grader is reading books by Mary Pope Osborne, who does an amazing job of including all kinds of things our 4th grader needs to learn to read (silent letter, words people confuse, multiple words with the same meanings or subtle differences, hard to spell words, and even a few common "foreign" words).
All in all, they are learning a lot more than we did at their age and in much more engaging ways. And nothing the Common Core critics have said has proven true.
Bev,
ReplyDeleteLike I've said before, I think the reasons for the big performance gaps are parents. Generally speaking the more encouragement and assistance parents are willing/able to give their kids, the better they do.
Of course, a kid with the most hands-on of parents is going to suffer if they find themselves in a class filled with a bunch of unmotivated students (teachers tend to try to bring everyone alone).
I think its amazing that some people are lobbying for the lowering of standards and others are lobbying for the destruction of charter schools (I'm not as high on them as some but they certainly help kids with motivated parents and they don't hurt anyone).
When I hear the education news out of cities like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, I begin to understand why people knee-jerk oppose national education standards. Especially with the likes of DiBlasio saying the problems is that the standards are too high.
ReplyDeleteWhat baffles and angers me is that, even with schools like these, high-density liberal enclaves still manage to get their schools rated "best" on national rankings. I know why it is, though. The people making the rankings give points for higher spending, lower student/teacher ratios, and more certification requirements to offset the more objective measures of success like drop-out rates and actual test scores. Thus, a midwest school that spends less but turns out more skilled graduates can actually score lower than an east coast school squandering fat stacks of cash.
When's the last time anyone heard the word "efficiency" related to education?
tryanmax, That's absolutely the problem. I wrote about this once before (HERE). When they do these rankings, they talk about things like "education achievement," but then they skew the results based on factors like "spending" and "teacher pensions" and "diversity." When you look at pure education results, you see a very different picture than when you look at the overall ratings.
ReplyDeleteTryanmax and Andrew - New York spends more per student than any state in the union - $20,000 - and we have the most dismal results. Our graduation rates are about the same (77%) as states that spend 1/2 as much per student. And only 20% of the students who do graduate have the skills (reading, writing, studying, math etc.) to go to college.
ReplyDeleteSo it ain't the money. And one reason for the high spending in NYC are...the union demands - salary, pension/retirement, health insurance - all paid 100% by the citizens of NY. Teachers/administrators/aides contribute nothing to their pension or health insurance. And to make matters worse, it is very difficult to fire incompetent teachers or adminstratorsr even outright criminals (child molesters mostly) if they have tenure.
Anthony - You are right. There is a huge performance gap between students with parent involvement and no parent involvement. Without motivation, most students languish and do not see the point. Education means nothing. Many of the charter schools in NYC (the non-union ones like Success Academy schools) bridge the gap and help parents help their kids. The teachers are very involved in social work as well. Helping the parents right along with the kids. No doubt the kids are already motivated because someone cared enough to put their name in the lottery. There are many motivated kids who can learn anywhere in any situation too.
ReplyDeleteThis country has been throwing money at education for over 60 years and we have gotten nothing back in return. students can't write, do math or make decisions...oh a few can, but everyday I see people in their 40s with some college or high school diplomas who cannot read and understand a simple declarative sentence, nor can they do math with multiple steps, but they want $15.00/hr for putting widgets on wadgets at the lawnmower factory. I really feel like there is a large underclass of Americans who are not educated, don't want to be educated and don't want their kids to be educated. It's discouraging. I teach parish school of religion and I find it interesting that my teenagers from Mexico, Guatemala, India and Pakistan can write and read English better than the Anglo kids.. I don't have a solution, if common core works, fine, but I also know that Common Core on the history and English side almost ignores the real history of the Western world in favor of some BS view from the Left.
ReplyDelete"Interestingly, the schools also use some really cool tools to help the kids learn. For example, to teach our fourth grader math, they have a computer game she accesses by the internet which turns math into a game. She is enthralled by this program and it's teaching her an amazing amount even as she doesn't realize it. It's been great to watch her progress."
ReplyDeleteThat actually pisses me off. Why? BECAUSE I'M JEALOUS! I STRUGGLED IN MATH AND THESE KIDS ARE GETTING HELPED BY A FREAKING GAME!!! ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!
re: "ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!"
ReplyDeleteUm, Kit, that term can only be used legally and without consequence on Sept. 19 - Official International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Otherwise, someone may confuse you for an actual real pirate...
I'm not a Luddite by any means, but I still don't see anything wrong with memorizing math facts....we also learned all sorts of things about numbers in the old days as well,,although it's possible we didn't have as many numbers...
ReplyDeleteCritch - I was just watching a "Schoolhouse Rock" special on the making of and influence of their animated math, history, science etc. lessons. They were great and everyone remembers the songs (and the preamble to the Constitution) and the facts that went along with them. There are just some things that one has to learn by memorization - the times tables in mathematics, the rules in geometry, the periodic tables in science, rules of grammar, and dates in history.
ReplyDeleteI went through a great public high school .... in suburban Philly, in the early 60's. By the time my oldest got involved in school in the mid 70's, I was apalled by what was going on in public schools. By the time my youngest was going through, He never stepped inside a public educational institution until his MBA at U. T. in Knoxville. Look, parenting is huge in all of this, but I do believe public education misses on many, many cylinders by focusing on dollars instead of results.
ReplyDelete