Bronx School’s Top Ranking Stirs Wider Doubts About Rating System

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/education/21grades.html?_r=2&ref=education

The Department of Education, which revealed on Wednesday that it was investigating grading practices at the school, says that it has a team devoted to analyzing school statistics every year and looking for red flags like abnormal increases in student scores or dropout rates. But a department official said that nothing in its data had raised suspicions about the school, known as Tapco, until a whistle-blower filed a complaint in October.

Still, in a data-driven system where letter grades can determine a school’s fate, one big question looms over the investigation: If the allegations turn out to be true, are they an exception or a sign of a major fault in the school accountability system?

“The D.O.E. has absolutely created a climate for these types of scandals to happen,” Michael Mulgrew, the president of the teachers’ union, said in an interview. “Their culture of ‘measure everything and question nothing a principal tells you’ makes it hard to figure out what’s real and what’s not real inside a school.”

<snip>

Tapco’s administrators got a bonus once, for the 2008-9 school year, when the high school’s overall score was 85.8, which earned it an A. (The middle school scored 73.) Ms. Passarella received $7,000, while her assistant principals got $3,500 each, according to the Education Department. (Administrator bonuses for 2009-10 performance have not been doled out.)

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Does this fall into the

NO ONE COULD HAVE POSSIBLY IMAGINED!!!* category?





*only for those without imagination. . ..





Tansy Gold, who has a VERY active imagination.

[david_vincent]

5. Oh Tansy, your imagination

is just so... doggone...










RELIABLE.

[Starry Messenger]

9. It should at least have gotten the Captain Obvious award.

:D What did they *think* was going to happen?

[Tatiana]

2. And this is why these value-added rankings are garbage.

Schools in Georgia are being investigated due to whistleblowers pointing out that gains in the state mandated exam were achieved falsely.

Should we be rewarding people who cheat with higher salaries and raises?

Do these inflated scores really reflect the true learning of a student?

It's a joke. I'm glad these brave whistleblowers are telling the truth about our race to the bottom in public education... not because of competent teaching and administrative professionals, but because of a harmful and misguided education policy espoused by the right-wing and White House.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. The gullibility of the public is a wonder to behold.

It would be funny if it weren't for the fact that lots of families have to USE these schools ( did I say "paperwork factories"?... no, ok, whew!).

By "these schools" I mean modern urban public schools.

They... unlike the families of wealthy school "reformers", and apathetic suburban "liberals"... have no OPTION.

These "reform" statistical shell games create * real * problems for *real* people.

But who cares.

K and R

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. LOL. Great name for a principal of a school under investigation for....

...fudging the P/F stats.


>>>>Current and former teachers at the school said that even students who were regularly absent were given passing grades, in some cases with course credits granted by the principal without a teacher’s knowledge. Some students’ records showed credits for courses the school did not offer.

The investigation over the irregularities at Tapco, which began in October, also include allegations that the school’s principal, Lynn Passarella, manipulated teacher and parent surveys, which represent 10 of the 100 points in a school’s score. Graduation rates, passing rates on Regents exams and earned credits constitute most of the score.

Ms. Passarella declined to comment on the allegations.>>>


Were I she, I'd decline to comment also.

[Angry Dragon]

6. Did the teachers receive a bonus??

You know the ones actually doing work......

[Starry Messenger]

7. lololol.

The universe might break apart if a teacher got a bonus.

[Angry Dragon]

8. The universe breaking apart might be a good thing

:hi: