Fewer City Schools Earning A's on their Progress Reports

There were no easy A's this year when the city gave out its annual progress reports to elementary and middle schools. Last year, 84 percent of schools got A's as student scores went up on the state math and reading tests. But this year only 25 percent of schools earned A's.

The city's Department of Education says that's because it needed a fair way to deal with the huge drop in student proficiency this year when the state made its exams tougher to pass. Nearly every school saw its scores go down, often by double digits, and the report cards are largely based on test scores. So the city graded schools on a curve, handing out a limited number of A's, B's, and C's and putting a "floor" in place so that no school could drop by more than two grades.

"We think that this is a fair and accurate representation of how schools did this year," says Deputy Chancellor Shael Polakow-Suransky.

As a result of this curve, 740 schools saw their grades go down, or about two-thirds of all elementary and middle schools. Only 22 schools saw their grades go up. The rest kept the same grade as in 2009. And while a total of 97 percent of schools earned A's and B's last year, this year 60 percent earned A's and B's, another 35 percent earned C's, 4 percent earned D's and 1 percent earned an F.

Schools that earned D's and F's this year, or got 3 C's in a row, may face consequences including a change in leadership or a shutdown. But Suransky says the city would look at other forms of data such as enrollment and safety before making any of those decisions.

One school that received low marks was The Earth School in the East Village. It went from a B to a D rating. Principal Alison Hazut says the grading system is flawed because it relies on a single year's scores. "All the small schools, like ours, especially schools that are trying to be diverse and progressive, we're all fluctuating all over the map so how can that be?" she asked.

The progress reports look at how much growth students make from one year to the next, and compare schools to 40 other schools it considers demographically similar. Like many principals, Hazut questioned whether that was a fair match because some of the comparison schools were much larger or had fewer special education students.

Another principal, who did not want to be identified, noted that schools can be penalized if they do too good job with special education students. The progress reports award more points in their grading system to schools that raise the scores of special ed students, but don't give credit if the kids get out of special ed and return to regular classes. The city says it's considering changing this next year.

P.S. 85 in the Bronx lost two grades when it fell from an A to a C. Principal Ted Husted says he understands that the state needed to raise standards, and redefine proficiency, because the tests had become too easy. But he says, "I think the kids got penalized by changing the rules after the game started."

"We throw around the term 'raising the bar' and that gives you the image of the high jumper," Husted explains. "But what actually happened was we raised the bar after the high jumper landed. We had already taught, we already assessed and then we raised the bar. But it was time for that to happen."

Husted says it's time for schools to use multiple measures in determining which kids are proficient and he hopes this year's experience will show the dangers of relying too heavily on test scores.

Deputy Chancellor Suransky says the city has already started doing that. He says the schools used what's called a "growth percentile." They compared students to other kids who started off with similar scores. For example, a student who scored a Level 3 in math in 2009 would be compared to another kid who scored a 3 to see which one did better this year.

“That measure is much less sensitive to changes in the state exams," Suransky says. "And as a result, in years that you don’t have a very big shift like you did this year, there will be more stability.”

He says the city will also begin using middle school course grades, the way it does in the high school progress reports, to avoid relying too heavily on state exams. This adds another measure of stability because the report cards provide additional data.

But Dale Kelly, principal of the Gateway Intermediate school in Brooklyn says that poses a risk of its own. "The administrator in the classroom also takes into consideration classwork, participation, homework," he explains.

Those course grades can be very subjective. Kelly's school got a B this year after earning an A in 2009. He says he expected the change and took time to meet with a concerned mother, showing her how her son had made individual progress, despite his scores on the state exams.

Originally, the city had planned to factor in multiple years of test scores in computing its annual progress reports. But Suransky says the city decided to grade them based on a year's worth of progress instead because, "If you don’t do it that way, then what could happen is you could have a school that is dropping in performance and that is masked by the fact that two years earlier they were doing better. Or you could have the reverse," with a school's improvement masking years of failiure.

There were other changes in this year's progress reports. For the first time, grades were given to schools in District 75, which serves the neediest special education pupils. Twenty-eight of these schools were measured; four got D's and two received F's.

Among charter schools, 12 received A's, or 20 percent, which was a smaller share than the percentage of A's given to regular public schools. Charters also saw a higher percentage of schools earning D's (5 schools, or 8 percent).

The United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew crowed about this in a statement, saying, "Superman must have been delayed." It was a jab at the new documentary "Waiting for Superman," which has been criticized by teachers' unions for portraying their members in a negative light while focusing on high-performing charter schools that don't take unionized teachers.