Rankings of all NYC public schools (New York, York: credit, how much, elementary school)

[mead]

Just found this on the NY Times' webpage: New York City Schools Progress Report - New York Times

It gives a letter grade to all public schools. 50 schools in the city received an F (thats 50 too manyin my mind). Many of these schools are likely to close and their principals will be fired.

Check out this associated news story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/ed...portcards.html

I'm somewhat surprised by the list. I looked up some schools that I considered to be quite good and they only got a B.

Does anyone else see any surprises?

EDIT: I just completely read the news article. The methodology for this report is somewhat suspect in my mind. They are not comparing raw data, but rather are rating the schools compared to how they did to other schools with similar racial and economic demographics. Also they weighed it heavily based upon improvements made on the state standardized tests. The list is still interesting nevertheless.

[Calibound-Yorkiemom]

I saw plenty of surprises on that list. I used to teach and NYC. I also went to school there. It seems that to me this list judging schools from where there were and where they end up than judging them based on an assessment of would you want to send your child there. Schools that are in mixed to rough nieghborhoods can receive grades of A's or B's by improving from what they were. That doesn't mean that it is a truly grade A or Grade B school. This list is very misleading. For example one of the former schools I taught at received a B grade. This school is in a roughpart of Brooklyn with low parental involvement. The building is overcrowded. Some classrooms are intrailors and former supply closets.The school teaches to the test, lacks recreational activities, & is constantly underperforming. The school does do the best with what they got but i wouldn't send my child there. Another school I taught at also got a B. Although this school may be closer to a B this school has a lot of shady practices that keeps it from being a B school. My former Elementary school got an A. I do not consider this school a grade a school. To me an A school is a school you would consider sending your child to. I would never send my child to this school.

[biggyboy]

very surprised by the list

several schools that are lauded by insideschools.net received Bs and Cs

just doesn't make sense

EDIT: this also holds true for schools that received As that are normally considered a last resort for students when all else fails

[mead]

Yeah since I posted this I have read many articles that have harshly criticized these rankings.

In my opinion I would completely disregard this list, as it is next to useless. This is not a normal ranking of schools as is to be expected. This study focuses mostly on improvement in standardized test scores and groups schools by race and economics.

So as a result an excellent grade school like PS 6 in Manhattan gets a B grade, even though it is probably one of the top 10 grade schools in the city, while some ghetto grade school in the South Bronx can get an A because it has made some minor improvements over last year's standardized tests.

The whole ranking system doesn't make any sense to me. I think it should be disregarded.

Originally Posted by biggyboy

very surprised by the list

several schools that are lauded by insideschools.net received Bs and Cs

just doesn't make sense

EDIT: this also holds true for schools that received As that are normally considered a last resort for students when all else fails

[Rachael84]

the school I teach in in the south Bronx got a D. the school I student taught at received an A. It was an ok school, but definitely not good enough to receive an A. that school is in hell's kitchen. the local elementary here in Maspeth got a C, which I was really surprised by.

[TrudiRose]

The big problem with the ranking is that two-thirds of the score is based on how much students IMPROVED. So if a school has 90% of kids scoring at level 4 (the highest level), it's almost impossible for that school to get an A, because the students are ALREADY so high, there's nowhere to improve TO.

Meanwhile, a school where 90% of the students came in at level 1, and improved to level 2, WOULD get an A because the school helped them improve so much.

Now, the second school absolutely DESERVES a ton of credit for helping students improve so much...yet as a parent, I'd rather have my child in school with other kids scoring 3's and 4's than in a school where most of the children are underperforming.

So it's a tough call. I really think there should have been two grades: one for how much kids improved, AND one for the percentage of kids scoring above grade level. It's not fair to penalize schools where the kids are CONSISTENTLY scoring high year after year, just because they didn't "improve" enough.

[Rachael84]

that's a good point.

[biggyboy]

any lists for private schools?

[DonnaReed]

Yes, ditch that list

(based on improvement in test scores)