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Scores on Standardized School Tests Are Up, but Criticism Continues
By ELISSA GOOTMAN and ROBERT GEBELOFF They determine the A through F grades that can make or break a school’s reputation, as well as which schools go out of business. They dictate which principals receive five-figure bonuses and which stand to lose their jobs. Acing them has meant cash rewards for thousands of students, and their teachers. One of the hallmarks of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s seven-year stewardship of the New York City public school system has been an intense focus on standardized tests. The change has also aroused opposition, as critics have questioned whether an overemphasis on developing test-taking skills is overtaking more valuable lessons in critical thinking. A New York Times analysis of state test scores before and after the mayor took control chronicles a broad and steady march upward. While statewide passing rates have risen in every grade on English and math tests, New York City’s have gone up even more. This year, 82 percent of city students passed in math and 69 percent in English, up sharply from 42 and 38 percent, respectively, in 2002. Progress has been made across the city’s diverse neighborhoods: All five boroughs once ranked at the very bottom of counties statewide on virtually every test, but Queens and Staten Island are now among the top counties in elementary-school math scores. The Bronx remains on the bottom, though in some cases its gains outstrip its peers, because it started so far behind. The racial achievement gap in passing rates has been cut in half on some tests, though the chasm in actual scores has not closed by as much. Perhaps nowhere is the emphasis and the attendant scrutiny so intense as in New York City, where schools are judged not just on how their students perform on the tests, but also on how effectively their teachers tailor instruction based on the results of the annual exams and eight interim tests each student must take every year. In its campaign to extend the mayor’s schools control law, which the State Senate is expected to take up this week in Albany, the Bloomberg administration has used the rising test scores as evidence of improved teaching and learning under its direction. Still, educators continue to debate the true value of the tests and a curriculum guided by them, arguing that some of the rise in scores is attributable simply to students’ growing comfort with test-taking, and that some of the skills developed to prepare for the exams, like time-allocation techniques and multiple-choice shortcuts, are poor substitutes for true understanding of key concepts. Questions of whether the state tests have been dumbed down grew in 2007, when the results of a federal test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, showed that the city’s eighth graders had made no significant gains in reading or math under the mayor’s control. (Fourth-grade math and reading scores on the federal test rose; new federal results are expected this fall.) Average SAT scores for city students fell 2 percent from 2004 to 2008, though that is partly explained by the increasing number of students who took the tests: 40,500 last year, up from 33,150. Critics ask: If students were really learning more and better, as opposed to just better learning the state testing protocol, wouldn’t their performance rise on all manner of measurements? “The tests need to become more defensible,” Merryl H. Tisch, chancellor of the State Board of Regents, said when the latest round of record results were released this spring. “We had a very serious conversation with our vendor, and they assured us of the validity of our exams. But they also understood that we are ready to move in a direction that tests a deeper number of items in our curriculum, and tests that become far less predictable.” Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said in a recent interview that he was in favor of more rigorous national standards, but that progress on the state tests remained a meaningful barometer of the school system under his leadership. “You can’t pass the math test if you don’t know how to do algebra, and you can’t pass the English Language Arts test in the fourth grade if you can’t read the paragraph or understand the paragraph,” he said. “If that’s what test prep is about, teaching people to read and understand paragraphs, that’s what I think education is about.” Mr. Klein attributed the city’s gains in large part to its multiple efforts to hold teachers and principals accountable for improving scores, including paying students $50, teachers $3,000 and principals up to $25,000 for significant progress. One measure of the centrality of testing under his leadership: From 2001 to 2008, the city’s Office of Accountability, which created and implements the school report card system and helps schools analyze student data to pinpoint areas of weakness, grew to about 110 people from about two dozen, according to Education Department numbers. “I believe accountability is a driver in a system,” Chancellor Klein said. “And, yes, if people get rewarded for high performance, if people get their schools shut down for nonperformance, they view their challenge differently.” The Results Come In But in some of the city’s struggling schools, teachers expressed confidence that preparing children for the tests served them well. At Public School 398 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, 77 percent of students passed the math tests this year and 60 percent passed English, up from 56 and 43 percent last year. Gene McCarthy, a fifth-grade teacher, attributed the improvement to “a tremendous amount of test prep,” but said that with a little creativity on his part, “ultimately I think it’s learning.” In another classroom, Jayvon Sneed, 9, was diligently reading a passage about a raccoon and bubbling in answers on a computerized test form, completing the last of his interim tests. “I like doing it, because I like passing tests and I like learning stuff,” he said afterward, peering from behind wire-rimmed glasses. “I like making my brain smarter.” The principal, Diane Danay-Caban, said her own son suffered nerve-induced stomach aches several years ago when test-preparation began at his high-performing Queens school. But at P.S. 398, which had struggled for years with low scores and discipline problems, she has come to feel that the push to raise scores has brought genuine gains in knowledge. She acknowledged that there were casualties of the school’s efforts to raise its numbers — like art classes, which were bumped out of the schedule until the official tests were completed this spring. “Now that I see that we’re improving,” she said, “maybe we can start earlier next year.” Mr. Klein, for his part, said he was confident that rising scores reflected real improvements. “No matter how you look at them,” he said, “the picture is one that shows that the city is making dramatic progress.” Howard T. Everson, a senior research fellow at City University of New York and chairman of the Technical Advisory Group, a collection of experts who oversee the state testing process, said he believed New York’s tests were “about as good as we can build them.” But he said that with so much riding on the tests, there was a need for greater study to certify that rising scores correspond with an increase in learning. Dr. Everson said that “the skepticism that you hear and I hear is real skepticism, and it’s warranted.” “Are things getting better?” he asked. “That’s what we really want to know, and we need more research to tell us how to sort that out.” Taming the Gap On the fourth-grade English exams, for example, the gap between the percentage of students passing in New York City and the rest of the state has shrunk 11 points over the seven years. In math, the gap shrank 20 percentage points. In the 2001-02 school year, New York’s five boroughs posted the worst average scores of the state’s 62 counties on both English and math in most grades. Now, the rankings have changed significantly, and Queens and Staten Island are in the top 10 on elementary school math. While the Bronx is still in the basement, three quarters of its students are now proficient in math, up from a third when the mayor took over, and a quarter as recently as 2000. One of the most persistent challenges for educators in New York and across the country is closing the gap in performance between white and Asian students and their black and Hispanic peers. Under the Bloomberg administration, the gap in pass-rates has shrunk significantly, but the difference in actual scores did not change as much, as all demographic groups improved their performance. (“Passing” in 2009 was 650 points out of 770 to 800, depending on the test.) The city provided The Times a set of scores statistically adjusted to make the numbers comparable over time, and they suggest that about three-quarters of white students still post better scores than the average score for black students on English and math tests, down from about 79 percent when the mayor took over. In a 2009 paper using similar methodology, Jennifer L. Jennings and Aaron M. Pallas wrote that this gap in actual scores was more important than the pass-rate gap. “If the goal of the New York City education system is to ensure that every demographic and socioeconomic group is equally prepared to compete in higher education and the workplace,” they said, “relative achievement measured on a continuous scale is what matters, not proficiency rates.” Chancellor Klein, in the interview, disagreed, saying that the pass-rate was the more critical measure because it indicated proficiency, an important gateway to future success. “You don’t want to see achievement gaps narrow because white kids do less well,” he said. “Our job is to get all kids to basic proficiency and then continue to move them forward, and I think we can do that.” Michael J. Petrilli, a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, an educational research organization, said the persistent difference in scores was not to be ignored. “New York City has succeeded in getting most of its kids to master basic skills, at least as measured by the state tests, but those skills aren’t going to be nearly enough to succeed in the 21st century economy,” Mr. Petrilli said. “There should be an honest conversation about the fact that white students on average are far, far ahead of minority students on average.”
Boston to get school athletics boost
By Bob Hohler, Globe Staff | August 3, 2009 Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino will announce today the creation of a multimillion-dollar charitable foundation and consortium of professional sports teams, colleges and universities, and corporations to enhance opportunities for Boston student-athletes - a potential breakthrough for Boston’s chronically underfunded high school athletic system. The partnership plans to boost the annual athletic budget for the Boston public schools over the next three years from about $4 million to an average of $6.5 million, a 61.5 percent increase with the potential to restore the system’s respectability. Menino launched the initiative after a Globe series detailed deep-rooted inadequacies in equipment, facilities, coaching, and academic eligibility in the school sports system. “It’s a new renaissance for the athletic and academic programs in the Boston public schools,’’ Menino said Friday. “These kids need help, and we’re going to give them that little extra to make sure they’re successful.’’ In an innovative collaboration that grants a private organization unusual power in managing public schools, Roxbury-based Suffolk Construction Co.’s Red & Blue Foundation will administer the new Boston Scholar Athlete Program. Foundation officials - including a new executive athletic director and chief academic officer - will report directly to Menino and participate in hiring and evaluating coaches. Suffolk CEO John F. Fish, whose foundation contributed $1 million to launch the initiative, said the mission is to promote academic achievement through athletic success. “The kids in the city of Boston deserve this,’’ said Fish, whose foundation has spent millions of dollars building and improving facilities for disadvantaged youth. “The business community, the pro teams, and the colleges and universities will be good partners in making this a reality.’’ The city for many years has spent less than a half-percent of its total budget on athletics, far below the state and national averages. Menino said he expects “100 percent’’ participation from Boston’s professional sports teams, which previously indicated to the Globe that they would contribute to the cause if the city asked. Every major college and university in Boston has also agreed to provide goods and services, including academic tutors, through the foundation, Menino and Fish said. Brighton-based New Balance also has pledged major support, as has Dorchester-based Good Sports, a nonprofit that distributes athletic gear to needy youths. “That’s only the tip of the iceberg,’’ Fish said of the community’s financial support. The program is expected to provide some relief to Ken Still, the city’s lone athletic director for 18 high schools. In addition to providing administrative support, the foundation will have the time to raise money and organize clinics to improve coaching and participation in school sports. Boston School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson expressed enthusiasm for the program, particularly its emphasis on academics. She helped Fish develop standards such as classroom attendance and grade point averages to measure the program’s success. “The academic and athletic pieces together are the strength of this initiative,’’ Johnson said. “It’s a lot more focused on both than we’ve had before.’’ Johnson said Still, who was on vacation and not available for comment, was “excited because it’s really an investment in developing the coaches and helping with equipment and uniforms . . . I think he sees it as a really important partnership.’’ The program marks the start of a new era for the city’s coaches. Although Boston boasts some of the best in the state - coaches expert in teaching sports and highly committed to ensuring their athletes succeed as students and citizens - many others in the city lack the proficiency, mentoring skills, and dedication required for their players to thrive. The foundation plans to establish new job criteria for coaches that stress academics and mentoring. Foundation officials also expect to play a key role in hiring, despite the city’s contract with the Boston Teachers Union, which grants teachers preference and gives headmasters the final authority in hiring. “The Red & Blue Foundation, with the mayor and the superintendent of schools, needs to have the authority to select coaches,’’ Fish said. “If we don’t have that authority, it’s impossible for us to control the outcome we’re looking for.’’ Stutman, the union president, applauded the effort to upgrade the athletic system but indicated that teachers may be less receptive to waiving the contract’s hiring rules. Boston high school coaches rank among the best paid in the state, with stipends next fall ranging from $4,947 for volleyball and soccer coaches to $10,778 for football coaches. Still, he said, an accommodation can probably be reached. With schools scheduled to open in less than six weeks, the foundation’s immediate goals are hiring the new executives, recruiting board members (Linda Whitlock, former CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, already has joined), and launching a plan to improve the system one sport at a time, first with boys and girls soccer this fall. Fish said every soccer player in the city will receive new uniforms and the equipment they need, including soccer goals for teams that practice on fields lacking them. The foundation also plans to stage school fairs to encourage students, particularly girls, to participate. Several large high schools, including Charlestown, Dorchester, Hyde Park, and South Boston, fielded no girls soccer teams last year, partly because of low interest. Fish said the foundation will fund intramural soccer programs at schools without interscholastic teams. “We need to get kids off the street corners and out of their houses watching TV in the afternoon,’’ he said. The foundation’s schedule calls for overhauling boys and girls basketball teams next winter, then baseball and softball in the spring. Football and field hockey will be upgraded in the fall of 2010, followed by boys and girls indoor track that winter. In spring 2010, the foundation plans to launch the city’s first boys and girls lacrosse teams. Teams scheduled for upgrades in 2011-12 are cross-country, ice hockey, and outdoor track. The plan also calls for academic incentives. Once a year, the city will stage a gala celebrating high school athletes, especially those who get good grades. “We don’t just want great athletes,’’ Menino said. “We want scholar-athletes who can cut it after their athletic days are over.’’
Black Intellectuals Decry White House 'Beer Summit'; Say Notion of a Post-Racial America is a Myth
by Zenitha Prince The inherent prejudice against people of color remains alive and well in American society, said a panel of Black intellectuals, critics and activists last week. ''This whole notion of a post-racial society is ridiculous, we need to stop saying it, we need to stop even talking about it,'' said BET's Jeff Johnson. ''Let's be honest about the fact that many of us from all races are racist…. We've lied about progress.'' The statement was part of an assessment of the ''State of Black America,'' an annual conversation held at the yearly convention of the National Urban League, which produces a report of the same name. Johnson's statement emerged out of a conversation that revolved around – you guessed it – beer. Even here at the Urban League, the media's binge on the Thursday tête-à-tête between President Barack Obama, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge, Mass. Police Sgt. James Crowley to discuss the officer's arrest of Gates in his own home and the president's resulting criticism continued. But unlike some in the media who saw the meeting as a significant step forward in resolving the issue of racial profiling and the underlying prejudice, many on the panel thought it was a mostly empty gesture. ''It is a significant brouhaha [but] I'm not sure it gets to what 'ales' (ails) us,'' commented Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson. ''The real problem is still on the streets where disproportionate numbers of Black and Latino men and women are subjected to arbitrary forms of police power.'' ''I'm offended by the discussion at the White House,'' the political commentator said, ''because if they were serious about solving this problem, Gates would be there, Crowley would be there, but so would Tyrone and Shaniqua and other young people who have dealt with this kind of psychosis from the police; they are not represented in this conversation.'' Asked by moderator, CNN special correspondent Soledad O'Brien, about Sgt. Crowley's questioning of Gates' anger at being asked to produce several IDs and the professor's lack of gratitude for the officer's presence, MSNBC political analyst Michelle Bernard said she hoped the White House talk would foster better understanding. ''I think the most important thing that has to come out of this meeting today is an understanding of where each person is coming from—that's what's missing from the debate,'' she said. ''I don't think other races have a fundamental understanding of why we feel the way we do [about police].'' She continued, ''[But] if we're going to talk about a quote unquote 'post-racial America' – I still don't understand what that means – it's not just talking about history, it's talking about what it is that people feel when a White man shows up at your door and you've worked very hard to get where you are and they say, 'Show me your ID.''' Where Gates was coming from is a history of Black men like Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo, who have been shot and killed by police, and longtime criminal policies that disproportionately target Black and Hispanics, several on the panel said. And those structural inequities would not be addressed by looking only at individual cases like Gates'. ''We're looking at a macro problem through micro lens,'' said Schott Foundation President John Jackson, who said the larger problem was the law enforcement environment created by former President Ronald Reagan. ''In 1980, the Reagan administration institutionalized new criminal justice policies [and] you began to see a 70 degree spike in the number of incarcerations for Black males,'' Jackson said. ''So we can't have this conversation without talking about the systemic policies and practices. And you're not going to solve that macro challenge by just tipping back a few beers at the White House.'' Johnson said solving that overarching problem of deep-seated racism is something that has to happen on a personal level, he's more concerned about acts of discrimination within government agencies. ''I don't care if you're racist or not…I am concerned with the way you do your job,'' he said. Calling for the federal government to withhold funding from police departments that practice racial profiling and for the empowerment of citizen review boards to conduct reviews of police behavior, Johnson said it will take the coordinated effort of community organizations to push for those changes. ''If we're going to be serious, it is not President Obama's job. It is the job of organizations like the National Urban League [and] the NAACP,'' he said. ''There are roles each of us has to play. But we are playing checkers instead of playing chess. And so the movement is, 'well, I want my organization to get to the end and king me.' And we're just sliding across the board as kings and not really making any impact.'' Stephanie J. Jones, executive director of the National Urban League Policy Institute and editor-in-chief of the ''State of Black America Report'' agreed that such a collective approach is necessary to solving the myriad issues that plague the Black community. In response to a query about the ''main'' issue facing African Americans, Jones said there is none because ''so many of these issues (criminal justice, education, economic power and health) are interrelated.'' She added, ''All of these things have to be dealt with in a comprehensive way and that's why it feels overwhelming.'' Citing her experience with low-income mothers in Washington, D.C., Bernard said she believes education is the main concern. ''I believe education is the great equalizer and that's something we should be beating the streets for and demanding,'' she said. There were some who disagreed with Bernard's postulation that a good education would automatically bring parity to African-American communities. Princeton University professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell said the idea mirrored comedian and actor, Bill Cosby's theory that ''if we would all just be sufficiently respectable – pull up your pants, stop listening to hip-hop, name your kid Tina instead of Tanisha, whatever … you can attain equality.'' She said, ''If nothing else, the Gates' arrest proves the lie that is the Cosby thesis. Education does not save in that moment.'' Dyson mirrored Harris-Lacewell's concern that Blacks have to be ''super citizens'' in order to be accepted in American society, saying Gates' case proved that such effort does not change the basic facts. ''Don't buy the fallacy that your education and your pedigree – whether you're at Harvard or the White House – exempt you from being treated like a n-gg-r,'' he said, eliciting cheers. ''High-, middle-class and educated elites must never think that they're not implicated [in discriminatory acts] against Taniqua and Shaniqua and Mohammed because on the wrong day, that could be your Black a-s too.'' Saying progress lies in the election by communities of politicians that represent their interests, Dyson added that Blacks also need to hold those lawmakers responsible – beginning with President Obama. ''I'm a lover of that brother … but you've got to call him on the stuff he's not doing right,'' Dyson said, pointing to what he saw as Obama's unnecessary ''non-apology apology'' for his criticism of Gates' arrest. ''You shouldn't expect more from the president of the United States because he's Black, but you [darn] sure should not expect less of him.''
At School, Lower Expectations Of Dominican Kids
Copyright © 2009 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. MADELEINE BRAND, host: From NPR News this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, I'm Madeleine Brand. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: And I'm Robert Siegel. Now, why some immigrants' children do better in school than others. Yesterday, we heard about the kids of Chinese immigrants and the tensions between what their parents want for them academically and what they want. Today, the achievement gap between Chinese-American students and students of Dominican background. In Boston, researchers have zeroed-in on that gap. They've looked at whether one culture values education more than the other and what role do schools play. NPR's Claudio Sanchez has the second of two reports. CLAUDIO SANCHEZ: Carmen Merced has had two sons in the Boston Public Schools. Fernando, an eighth grader, and Wildo, her oldest, just finished high school. They were born in Boston and grew up speaking English. In school, though, both were tagged learning disabled. Merced is convinced that it's because they're Latino. Ms. CARMEN MERCED: (Foreign language spoken) SANCHEZ: Latinos, even if they know English, are always discriminated, says Merced. It's not something schools even try to hide. Like the time one of Wildo's teachers told him he was never going to amount to anything in life. Ms. MERCED: (Foreign language spoken) SANCHEZ: These were such negative words to say to a child, so negative, Merced remembers thinking. She met with the teacher and told her that if that was all the school had to offer her son, insults, she wanted him transferred immediately. Wildo transferred. The teacher accused Merced of being a bad parent and this, says Merced, is how many teachers view Latino parents. Ms. MERCED: (Foreign language spoken) SANCHEZ: It's always the parents, says Merced. The parents are always at fault, never the school. She'd be surprised to know that Boston Schools' superintendent Carol Johnson agrees with her. Furthermore, says Johnson, some teachers and administrators don't expect Latino students to do well. Dr. CAROL JOHNSON (Superintendent, Boston Public Schools): There isn't this sort of sense that with the right supports and the right incentives and motivation you can get students who are underperforming to achieve at higher levels. So part of this work is about changing attitudes and belief systems. Part of it also, though, is about access. SANCHEZ: For too many Latinos, Johnson concedes, access to rigorous and advanced placement courses is not what it should be. Dr. JOHNSON: So the achievement gap is also an access gap. SANCHEZ: Latinos now account for 38.1 percent of the student body - blacks are right behind, whites and Asians about 20 percent. Latinos drop out in much higher numbers and they struggle academically more than any other group. In large part, school officials say, because when you track Latino students into the least rigorous courses, you're saying to them, we don't expect you to work hard. Just ask Carmen Merced's oldest son, Wildo. Mr. WILDO: It just seemed like almost every time we step into the class, like, they would almost, like, try to go way too slow with me. They looked down on me most of the time when they were teaching me. SANCHEZ: That was all through elementary school, says Wildo, although at Charleston High School, he turned out to be quite the math wiz. Still, says Wildo, school seemed like such a waste of time. Mr. WILDO: I'm usually just bored out of my mind because, like, I already know most of the stuff that's going on. I'm, like, why am I even in this class and I pretty much taught myself a lot of things. I taught myself how to draw, taught myself how to write at a certain level. SANCHEZ: And yet, says Wildo, some teachers saw him as slow or lazy. But what really infuriates his mother, Carmen Merced, is that teachers don't see Asian students in the same way. Ms. MERCED: (Foreign language spoken) SANCHEZ: Merced says teachers see an Asian student and immediately think this one's intelligent, easy to work with. Latinos? It's a different story. Dr. MARGARET BLEDSOE (Headmaster, Charlestown High School): Well, I think the Chinese and Dominican populations are very different… SANCHEZ: That's Margaret Bledsoe, the headmaster at Charlestown High School where about half the students are either Asian or Latino. Dr. BLEDSOE: What do you mean to for (unintelligible), you need a bag? Unidentified Child: Yeah. SANCHEZ: As Bledsoe makes her early morning rounds mingling with students, she says no one here is discouraged from working hard, but Chinese kids work harder. Dr. BLEDSOE: Many of our Chinese students have a lot of, you know, just a high - valuing academics very highly and a lot of family support and do very well, so they're some of our absolute top-performing students. SANCHEZ: What about the Dominicans, I ask. Again, they're different, says Bledsoe. Chinese students are just more focused. Dr. BLEDSOE: They buy in more to a belief that academics is their ticket, whereas our Latino students often are, you know, have a lot less confidence that this is actually going to work for them. SANCHEZ: It's an incredible thing for an educator to say but Harvard professor Vivian Louie says she's not surprised. Dr. VIVIAN LOUIE (Professor, Harvard University): We've heard this time and time again. SANCHEZ: Louie has written extensively about Chinese and Dominican students in Boston and other cities and found that educators often buy into stereotypes. Dr. LOUIE: So these Asian-American overachievers have the right ethnic culture that lead them to value school and to achieve. Latinos, the story goes, are not likely to be high achievers. Their parents don't - do not value education, do not care as much about the opportunities available in the United States. SANCHEZ: Louie says these stereotypes endure because they become part of, what she calls, cultural scripts, which reinforce the myth of the model minority, attached especially to Chinese students. In reality, says Louie, not all Chinese students excel in math or science and not all are encouraged at home. Dr. LOUIE: There are Chinese immigrant parents who are not as involved in their children's schooling, because they themselves do not have a lot of formal schooling. One difference that does exist between the Chinese immigrant community and the Dominican immigrant community in the greater Boston area is that there are differences in the wealth of the different communities. SANCHEZ: This is crucial, says Louie, because regardless of whether their children attended a good or a bad public school, Chinese families save and pool their money to pay for tutoring, test-prep programs, weekend -cram schools. Dr. LOUIE: Which provide extra academic preparation, but also there's a network of parents, immigrant parents, across class backgrounds - working class, middle class, upper-middle class - who share information about the schooling system and the college system. SANCHEZ: That's not the case among Dominicans, says Louie. Class differences often keep Latinos apart and the Latino community doesn't pool its money like the Chinese. So it's harder for Latinos to enrich or supplement their children's education. But as Carmen Merced, Wildo's mom, points out, in America a child's lack of wealth is no excuse for schools to give up on him. Ms. MERCED: (Foreign language spoken) SANCHEZ: It's the school system where the problem exists, says Merced. Whether you're Dominican or any other culture, no one wants their child to be a bum, a delinquent. She says all immigrant parents want their children to grow up to be professionals and forthright. Claudio Sanchez, NPR News. SIEGEL: And you can listen to Claudio's story from yesterday about the kids of Chinese immigrants and find more stories from our series Immigrants' Children at the new npr.org. Copyright ©2009 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
N.Y. Senate Renews Mayor’s Power to Run Schools
By JENNIFER MEDINA The State Senate on Thursday extended Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s control over New York City schools for six more years, handing the mayor a major victory as he attempts to make education reform a centerpiece of his re-election campaign and legacy. While the legislation includes some changes in the way contracts are approved and grants more oversight power to the city’s Independent Budget Office, it leaves largely intact the mayor’s total control of the city school system. So far, Mr. Bloomberg has used that power to make significant changes, including opening charter schools all over the city, handing schools blunt A through F grades, and granting hefty bonuses for principals who show that their students are improving. Should he win his bid for a third term in November, Mr. Bloomberg could use his renewed power to push for more radical changes, like tying teachers’ tenure and salaries to student performance. As Mr. Bloomberg and his schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, have pointed to improvements in standardized test scores and graduation rates as evidence of success, they have garnered support from around the city and the nation, including from Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The Senate approved the legislation by a vote of 47 to 8, ending months of debate that left the school system in an administrative limbo for part of the summer. The Assembly approved the legislation in June, but the Senate came to a halt during a leadership battle. Even when that ended, some senators were adamant about making changes to the Assembly bill. The Bloomberg administration finally struck a deal with Senate leaders last month that allowed the bill to come to a vote. In a statement Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg praised senators who “refused to let politics stand in the way of progress.” “The State Senate today took a major step that will benefit millions of public school children for years to come: It preserved a system of clear accountability for our schools that has produced clear and dramatic results for our students,” the mayor said. The city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., who is challenging Mr. Bloomberg’s re-election bid, said in a statement that he supported the legislation, but raised skepticism about how much would change. “With its top-down approach, the Bloomberg administration has sought to avoid public debate and scrutiny, while fundamental decisions regarding education policy have been made by central administrators with very little education background,” Mr. Thompson said. “I hope that the governance structure established by this new legislation will ensure that there is transparency, accountability and meaningful parental participation in decision-making.” The city’s powerful teachers’ union, which has criticized many of Mr. Bloomberg’s changes but whose members have been the recipients of hefty pay raises, eventually provided key support in his bid to renew control over the schools. And that support comes in the same year that the city prepares to negotiate contract renewal with the union, the United Federation of Teachers. Under the bill, the Panel for Educational Policy, the oversight board that replaced the old Board of Education and is controlled by the mayor, will decide on every contract of more than $1 million, and the city will be required to hold hearings in local communities before shutting down a school. The city’s Independent Budget Office, which has long monitored City Hall and City Council programs, will also have the ability to oversee Education Department spending. As part of the deal with the mayor, the Senate also passed four amendments that grant more power to district superintendents, require schools to have an annual meeting with parents to discuss school safety and policing, and establish a parent training institute and an arts council. Approval by the Assembly would be needed for those amendments to take effect, though the city has promised to begin carrying them out immediately. The changes did little to reassure the mayor’s critics, who say his power has gone unchecked for the last six years. “The point is that no matter what the law says, no matter how weak or strong it is, is there is somebody who is willing or able to hold them accountable for anything,” said Leonie Haimson, the founder of Class Size Matters, a parent advocacy group, who has been a vocal critic of the administration and pushed for more changes in the legislation. There were a few signs of discontent in the Senate chambers on Thursday. A handful of senators voiced their opposition, saying that they had not been impressed with the mayor’s efforts and that many parents in their districts complained that they had not seen much improvement. Indeed, the debate seemed to be divided along racial lines — most of the senators who criticized the administration were black, while those who spoke up in support were white. “The challenge we faced this year was how do you keep the progress going while improving in the ways that improvements were needed,” said Senator Daniel L. Squadron, who represents parts of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. “How do you add transparency and parental input while maintaining that strict accountability to the mayor? I think that this bill does that perfectly.” While the test scores have been a major source of pride for Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein, they have also become a lightning rod, with many people questioning the validity of the results and others complaining about the single-minded focus of test preparation in schools. The Legislature handed over the management of the city’s schools to the mayor from the Board of Education in 2002, and set June 30, 2009, as the date for the law to expire if it was not renewed. Similarly, the legislation approved on Thursday will expire in 2015. “There is no doubt in my mind that those of us who are here will be having a similar discussion then,” said Frank Padavan, a Republican senator from Queens. “We will look at the last six years and ask: Did our changes help?” The relatively minor changes will do little to alter the overarching power the mayor has over the city schools. There were no changes, for example, in the makeup of the Panel for Educational Policy. The mayor still appoints 8 of its 13 members and can remove his appointees at will. In a unanimous vote, the Senate approved the creation of a committee to monitor school governance in the city, though the committee does not allow the Senate to assert any more authority than it already has.
SCHOTT GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT A new player set to enter city education politics tonight
A New York non-profit whose political action committee supports critics of mayoral control is making its debut into city education politics tonight. But its strategy is to hold off supporting city candidates this election year and instead spend the fall collecting community input. The effort kicks off tonight with two “neighborhood dialogue” meetings in Brooklyn and Queens, said Glynda Carr, executive director of Education Voters of New York, a three-year old branch of the national Education Voters of America. The group has previously supported some of mayoral control’s staunchest opponents in Albany. But Carr said that she aims to launch a public conversation about schools freed of political agendas, including her own. “These neighborhood dialogues aren’t going to be framed,” she said. Carr said she planned to use the fruits of the fall meetings to map out an agenda for future local campaign work. If she succeeds, her group could become a key player amid a crop of new lobbying groups directing their dollars with education issues in mind. In 2008, NY EdPAC, Education Voters of New York’s political action committee, considered candidates’ positions on increased accountability under mayoral control in their criteria for endorsements. According to campaign contribution records, among the list of candidates the group supported in 2008 are Senators Eric Adams, Kevin Parker, Velmanette Montgomery and Ruben Diaz, Sr., four of the eight who voted against mayoral control today. The group gave a total of just over $69,000 to 43 state legislature candidates around New York state in 2008. The group piloted its legislative strategy in New York in 2006 and 2007, supporting the winning campaigns of three candidates in Westchester, Syracuse and Nassau County, Long Island. Carr has also been a critic of mayoral control and has testified to the State Assembly urging a more autonomous Panel for Educational Policy, the school board under the mayor’s tenure. She is the former chief of staff to State Senator Kevin Parker, a sponsor of the Better Schools Act, which would have removed the mayor’s control over the Panel for Educational Policy and was defeated in July. NY EdPAC isn’t the only political action committee currently wading into the city educational fray. Last month members of the parent-led NYC Coalition for Educational Justice launched their own committee to support City Council candidates. The Democrats for Education Reform lobbying group, launched in 2007, has also been pouring money into local New York races with an eye to advancing its pet causes of charter schools and aggressive accountability for failing schools. Imagine: NY Schools will continue to hold public forums throughout August and use ideas from the meetings to generate questions for mayoral candidates’ debates and City Council candidates’ forums this fall. The ultimate goal is to create a policy “blueprint for 21st century schools” that the group will present to the new mayor and City Council, she said. The schedule and locations for Imagine: NY Schools’ “neighborhood dialogue” meetings can be found here.
SCHOTT GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT ONE Massachusetts Weekly Update
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