The Sound of Bubbles Bursting: Record Gains Vanish into Thin Air
Posted on August 4, 2010
In case you were wondering about NYC’s record gains in education test scores, the miracles became mirages last week. Reprinted from the NY Daily News (8/1/10), in its entirety:
The sound of bubbles bursting: Student gains on state test vanished into thin air
Every year for the past four years, the New York State Education Department has announced dramatic test score gains. And every year, it turns out they were misrepresenting reality. This year, New Yorkers got an accurate accounting of student performance, and it was sobering.
Since 2006, scores have gone through the roof. Teachers and principals quietly told reporters that the tests were getting easier to pass, but no one listened. A few critics and testing experts warned that outsized annual gains were not credible, but no one listened.
At the same time that the state was announcing phenomenal annual gains, national tests administered by the federal government – exams considered the gold standard – told a different story. On those tests, the state’s scores in reading were flat from 2000 to 2009. Math scores were up in fourth grade, but not in eighth grade, where they were flat from 2005 to 2009.
New York Commissioner of Education David Steiner made a bold move. He decided to end the inflation – and administer some shock therapy. The sharp contrast between mostly flat scores on national tests and dramatic annual claims by the state made it necessary for him to act, and he did.
Now we know the painful truth. Last year, 86.4% of the state’s students in grades three to eight were deemed proficient in mathematics; today it is 61%. Last year, 77.4% of students in the same grades were deemed proficient in reading; today it is 53.2%.
When the scores were released, there was a sound of bursting bubbles across the state. What once were miracles turned into mirages.
Since 2005, Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein have trumpeted historic gains. But after the state’s adjustment, the pass rate on the state reading test among city students fell from an impressive 68.8% to an unimpressive 42.4%, and from an astonishing 81.8% to a disappointing 54% in mathematics. Overnight, the city’s historic gains disappeared.
Now, look at the achievement gap between the performance of white students and that of minorities. Last year, black students were 22 points behind white students in passing the state English exam. This year – after the state corrected its scoring – the gap increased to 30.4 points.
In math, the gap grew even more. Black students were 17 points behind whites last year. Now they’ve fallen 30 points behind.
Charter school advocates saw their bubble burst as well. The pass rates in the state’s charter schools, overall, dropped even faster than those in regular public schools. In third grade math, it plunged from 96.1% to 61.6%, and in eighth grade, from 84.5% to 50.4%. On the 2010 reading tests, the scores of charter students in New York City were nearly identical to those of district schools: 43% compared to 42%.
In math, 63% of the city’s charter students passed, compared to 54% in public schools, which was an advantage but nothing like the miraculous results previously claimed by charter promoters.
Among other bubbles that popped were the city’s school report cards, which based 85% of their grades on the state’s test scores, mostly on gains on the test now proven to be vastly overstated. Some schools were given an A for “progress” on dumbed-down tests, and others were closed because they didn’t make the grade. But the measure was a deeply flawed instrument.
The hundreds of millions of dollars that the city has spent on test preparation turned out to be a bad investment. Students were learning test-taking skills, not truly learning reading or mathematics.
As a result of the fiasco, we now know that the bonuses of more than $30 million handed out last year to teachers in schools that made “gains” on the state tests were a waste of precious money.
Why does test score inflation matter? Aside from the fact that the state misled the public, the inflated scores caused tens of thousands of students to be denied needed remediation. The inflated scores also help to explain why 75% of the city’s high school graduates require remediation when they enroll in community colleges at the City University.
Now we know that achievement in the city and state did not grow by historic proportions, as officials claimed.
The way to avoid similar messes in the future is to use test scores for information and diagnosis, not for rewards and punishments.
Two questions remain: Will Bloomberg and Klein accept this new reality or will they continue to deny the plain facts and refuse to be held accountable? And will the state education department find and fire the bureaucrats and private contractors responsible for this scandal? Unfortunately, the prospects for genuine accountability by the city and state are not promising.
- Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University.
» Filed Under DOE, New York, achievement gap, articles, education reform, joel klein, mayor bloomberg, news, nycdoe | Leave a Comment
Throwback: A Crisis of Zeroes
Posted on July 30, 2010
The following article is reprinted from the September 2003 issue of Tri-State Voice. It’s the first public statement 20/20 Vision for Schools’ executive director Jeremy Del Rio made on the subject of education reform.
A Crisis of Zeroes: Engaging NYC Public Schools
Where are the Christians?
The New York City Department of Education will spend $12,200,000,000 ($12.2 billion) to educate 1,100,000 students (1.1 million) in its public schools beginning this month – an average of $11,220 per student. For those of us who scrimp by on modest means, our minds struggle to grasp the effect of all those zeroes. Let’s put them in perspective.
12.2 billion: Larger than the economies of dozens of nations. More revenue than the net worth of all but the nine wealthiest Americans.
1.1 million: Larger than eight U.S. states and all but nine U.S. cities, including Detroit, Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas.
That’s a lot of kids, and a lot of money, especially considering that they reflect only New York’s public schools while the City also boasts private schools, charter schools, parochial schools, home schools, and too many dropped-out-of-schools to count with certainty. They are taught by a system where, as of June 2002, 18% of teachers had failed licensing exams.
Even more telling:
60.7% of the City’s elementary students do not meet state and city reading standards.
64.7% do not grasp math standards.
26.5% of students in Grades 4-12 exhibit symptoms of at least one diagnosable psychiatric disorder requiring intervention.
5.1% of high school students abuse alcohol so severely as to impair daily functioning.
Fiscal mismanagement. Failing educators. Underachievement. Mental illness. And enough children to make one school system the tenth largest city in the nation. All this crisis, plastered on the front pages of metro area newspapers at least weekly during every school year, has made reforming our public schools one of the great public mandates of our day.
Politicians, educators, teachers unions, bureaucrats, academics, corporate big shots like New York City’s current mayor and schools chancellor all seem to have opinions on how to improve our schools, but where are the evangelicals in the public discourse? As a collective voice, how many summits have we held or debates have we entered? How many coordinated city-wide efforts have we undertaken to address the problems?
Zero. The real crisis.
Individually, some are engaged. They function as principals and administrators, teachers and paraprofessionals, student missionaries and advocates, coaches and volunteers. But for every Christian employed in a public school, for every local church that has adopted a neighborhood school, for every outspoken parent or pastor, scores do nothing. For instance, how many leaders have reached out to local principals or superintendents as a resource to serve? How many retirees or youth workers or Sunday school teachers volunteer as hall monitors or teachers’ aids or tutors? How many parents are active in PTAs or coach PSAL teams or regularly attend parent-teacher conferences? How many student organizations, whether Bible clubs or not, have Christian business people supported? How many prayer groups intentionally intercede for community schools?
Sadly, not enough. In some communities, zero.
Last year, New York City’s officials finally set aside partisanship long enough to initiate the most widespread, systemic education reform in decades. As a collective group, administrators, politicians, and the teachers union all agreed to tackle entrenched problems with innovative strategies. Only time will tell how effective the reforms are.
In the interim, evangelicals, as a group, should follow their lead and bypass whatever excuses have kept so many of us disengaged for so long. It’s time for our community to seriously consider its role in one of our great public issues. It’s time for us to propose comprehensive strategies that go beyond the pat answers we are more commonly known for. Cliché solutions are no more helpful to our schools then they would be in the board room of a $12.2 billion Fortune 500 company or in Detroit’s City Council chambers.
Finally, it’s time we recognize that mandating a return to institutionalized prayer in schools is bankrupt. Legalistic prayer, devoid of faith, is no prayer at all. Besides, purposeful prayer by men, women, and students of conviction is already in public schools. It’s time for us to turn zeroes into heroes by becoming answers to those prayers.
» Filed Under articles, education reform, jeremy del rio | Leave a Comment
On Student Led Student Leadership at Reload 1.2.3
Posted on June 21, 2010
Those familiar with 20/20 Vision for Schools’ Transformation Matrix know that empowering student leaders as change agents within schools is a pillar of our paradigm for transforming public education within a single generation of students. In summary, it goes something like this:
- Stop viewing students as consumers of education, buying a product from teachers
- Instead empower them as owners of their lives, investing in their education as a means to a life worth living
- As owners, nurture a culture of leadership among the student body of public schools
- Develop a 10% pipeline of student leaders within any given school because when 10% of a community changes its values, the rest of the population generally follows
Because of this foundational commitment to student leadership development, it was 20/20’s privilege to sponsor Reload 1.2.3 on June 12, the first ever multi-site multi-state student ministry conference. (1 conference. 2 States. 3 sites.) Specifically, 20/20 Vision contributed three core components to Reload 1.2.3’s one-of-a-kind program.
First, 20/20 inspired and shaped Reload’s Plus-1 program strategy, requiring every adult involved in the program at all three venues, from musicians and singers to trainers and general session speakers, to integrate a “Plus-1″ protege into their content delivery. With live music and workshops at all three venues, this strategy created a platform for more than 50 Plus-1 student leaders to provide meaningful leadership at a premiere training event for more than 500 youth workers. More importantly, Plus-1s demonstrated what empowered student leaders look like, rather than adults simply talking about student leadership as a value, and created a common reference point for more than 500 leaders who can influence a shift towards more authentic student leadership in organizations throughout greater New York.
Second, 20/20 shaped the “Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible?” workshop which featured four accomplished student leaders as experts on what student-led change looks like and how to achieve it. The workshop description follows, along with a slideshow that captured visually the impacts of their student leadership.
It’s trendy for youth ministers to say, “Youth ministry is not about ministering to youth, but about empowering youth to minister,” but what does youth-led youth ministry actually look like? Experience youth ministry by young people as NYC students discuss recent student-led ministry models including God Belongs in My City, Kickin’ It Old Skool, Generation Xcel, and World Vision’s Youth Empowerment Project.
(Student Led Student Ministry: Possible from Jeremy Del Rio on Vimeo.)
Finally, Reload 1.2.3 provided a platform for the 20/20 Vision Workshop to be taught live at three venues simultaneously, thanks to our instructors Edwin Pacheco (associate pastor Gateway City Church and director Youth Rock), Walter Sotelo (director New York Gospel Outreach), and Rohin Beach (youth pastor St. Luke’s Baptist Church of Paterson). Here’s that workshop description:
Adults promise children that if they stay in school they will be equipped to succeed in life, but we have failed to make good on that promise for generations — with high school graduation rates in some cities hovering at or below 30%. Come explore how urban youth ministries are transforming public education within a single generation of students by activating congregations, adopting schools, and becoming answers to prayer.
Download video of the Vision Workshop, along with its PowerPoint and lecture notes, here.
Thanks Urban Youth Workers Institute for being an incredible partner and affirming that empowered student leaders are key to reaching their generation.
» Filed Under best practices, case studies, events, matrix, reload, reload 123, student leadership, trainings, uywi | Leave a Comment
20/20 Mentors Matter
Posted on June 21, 2010
A year ago this month, Mayor Bloomberg appealed to concerned New Yorkers to volunteer as middle school mentors. Be an answer to his prayer. Mobilize and equip congregational volunteers to respond to his plea.
In partnership with the Christian Association of Youth Mentoring, 20/20 Vision for Schools offers a two day mentoring training June 25-26. Learn best practices for recruiting, screening, matching, and supervising safe and effective mentoring programs. Scholarships up to 80% are available. Go here for more info or to register.
» Filed Under caym, mentoring, trainings | Leave a Comment
Honor to Whom it’s Due: Celebrating Journalism Stars at PS 102
Posted on June 16, 2010
Eight months ago, the Journalism Stars club didn’t exist at PS 102 in Brooklyn. Today 20/20 Vision for Schools joins Jeremy Del Rio in celebrating the sixth issue of their online publication, Our Virtual Journal, since January.
Here’s the tribute Jeremy shared on his website for Margaret Sheri, PS 102’s amazingly inspired parent coordinator. Enjoy!
In October 2009, Margaret Sheri had a dream that one day PS 102 students would find their voices, tell their stories, and create a platform for the world to celebrate their school community. She imagined an online journalism club that overcame budget cuts to the school newspaper to regularly publish stories of students learning, growing, and discovering the world together.
She recruited two parents to help her and a dozen fourth graders to lead the way on a crazy adventure that produced six monthly issues from January-June 2010 organized around the elements of storytelling, six basic questions: who, what, when, where, how, and why. They built the club on a simple idea that the most interesting stories are the stories of our lives, and the job of journalists is to tell those stories.
This final issue of the 2009-2010 school year is The Virtual Journal‘s “Why? Issue.” In it, our students explore why journalism matters — to tell stories like Ms. Sheri’s of everyday heroes whose lives sacrificially benefit others around them — and more specifically why Journalism Stars matters. Stories like Ms. Sheri’s take place everyday at PS 102, and someone has to tell them. What better storytellers than the students who live them alongside caring adults like Margaret Sheri?
Thanks, Margaret, for your leadership enriching the lives of 1,100+ students, parents, and staff at PS 102. New York City’s 1,500 public schools would be in much better shape with 1,500 parent coordinators just like you.
» Filed Under jeremy del rio, parent coordinator, ps 102 | Leave a Comment
I Am My School
Posted on April 17, 2010
Register for I Am My School here.
WHEN & WHAT?
Saturday // May 15
Join 1500 students in prayer walking the schools near you.
Sunday // May 16
Invite your congregation to adopt 1 school within walking distance of the church for regular prayer and service.
Monday // May 17
Commission students to return meaningful, student-led prayer and service to schools.
» Filed Under Prayer, events, i am my school | Leave a Comment
Suspect Improvements
Posted on April 1, 2010
New York has boasted record gains in Math and Reading proficiency for the last five years. Federal testing suggests differently. Have we been lying to our kids?
[L]ast week, the federal government released scores for the nation and the states, and New York did not fare well. In fact, almost all of New York’s reported gains for the past seven years disappeared into thin air.
The federal test – the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP – is the gold standard of testing. Congress requires all states to take NAEP tests to audit state claims. The federal audit was an embarrassment for New York.
The reading scores released last week show that 36% of New York’s fourth-graders – not 77% – are proficient. And unlike the state scores, which have gone up every year without fail, the state scores on NAEP for fourth-graders have been flat since 2002. The federal test continues to show huge achievement gaps: 45% of white students are proficient, as are 52% of Asians. This contrasts with 18% of black students and 22% of Hispanic students.
In eighth grade, the picture is no better. On the NAEP test, 33% of our students are proficient in reading, not the 69% claimed by the state. The federal test shows zero improvement at this grade since 1998. And the racial achievement gap is shocking: 44% of whites are proficient, as are 49% of Asians, but only 13% of blacks and 16% of Hispanics.
In math, the state does slightly better, but not much. The federal tests show 40% of our fourth-grade students are proficient, while the state says it is 87%. Over time, the federal scores have improved for this grade, but not for eighth grade. There, only 34% are proficient, not the 80% claimed by the state. And, unlike the state, which has boasted of big improvements in the eighth grade, the federal tests reveal that there have been no gains in eighth grade since 2003.
If students in New York made no gains on the national tests, why did state tests report spectacular progress every year? The people of the state deserve an honest answer.
Fortunately, there is new leadership in Albany. Merryl Tisch, the new chancellor of the Board of Regents, and David Steiner, the new state commissioner of education, have pledged to review the entire testing program. Surely they will determine how standards dropped so low that the public was regularly misinformed about student progress.
Now is the time for honesty, integrity and transparency.
» Filed Under New York, achievement gap, education reform, policy, politics | Leave a Comment
Political Bickering Means NYS Races to the Bottom of Education Reform Funding
Posted on March 29, 2010
Education officials and charter school backers on Monday lashed out at teachers unions and the Legislature after New York failed to get $700 million in federal Race to the Top money.
Tennessee and Delaware scored a combined $600 million of the competitive $4.3 billion pot of education money to help turn around failing schools and implement other reforms.
New York finished 15th out of the 16 finalists.
“Race to the Top sets a high bar for states to adopt sweeping education reforms, and at least this time, New York State couldn’t clear that bar,” Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said.
New York lost 30% of its potential points because of its failure to pass charter school reform, link teacher evaluation to student performance and develop a statewide data system.
The state also lost points for not having full support from local school districts and unions and not having a strong plan in place to turn around failing schools.
» Filed Under New York, Race to the Top, education reform | Leave a Comment
F is for Failure
Posted on March 17, 2010
Newsweek probes the failures of education reform over the last decade.
» Filed Under education reform, policy | Leave a Comment
Even “the 20/20 Vision Guy” has to Practice what he Preaches
Posted on February 7, 2010
20/20 Vision executive director Jeremy Del Rio confesses on his personal blog how he wasn’t practicing what he preached until this fall, when his son enrolled in PS 102.
It’s time for a confession. Even before launching 20/20 in 2008, despite being known is some circles as the 20/20 Vision guy, my work on education reform was mostly theoretical. My passion was real, but day to day, aside from designing and architecting 20/20, my personal involvement actually living 20/20’s engagement paradigm was non-existent.
Why? I haven’t run a community group or helped lead a congregation in almost four years, which means I couldn’t commit an organization to adopt a school for service and advocacy. Nor have I been involved in direct youth work since 2005, so I couldn’t directly empower student leaders to become change agents within their schools. Finally, until this year, my son attended private schools, so engaging a school as a volunteer was difficult.
Then this fall everything changed.
Within weeks, he was tutoring ESL students in his son’s classroom, and before the Christmas break he helped start a journalism club with the parent coordinator and another volunteer parent. They launched a student blog last week, and fourth graders are discovering their voice as they learn to live life out loud.
Jeremy is just one parent (of potentially 2 million) who was activated by 20/20’s Vocational Calling to use his talents and access as a parent to add value to a local public school. What’s your story?
» Filed Under case studies, jeremy del rio, matrix, parents, vocational calling | Leave a Comment
