This doesn’t surprise me at all. The SED probably does not see its message as being as much about communicating with local community members as a local school district (like the NYC DOE). It would be nice is state DOE’s were better about public communication, but I don’t think they’ve ever been really well funded, so they often have to make a lot of compromises.

Also, a local district — methinks — is more likely to think about individual schools and making information about individual schools available to the public. A state DOE would be more accustomed to thinking about districts, rather than individual schools.

And SUNY? Well, there wouldn’t be a lot of experience there with any K12 reporting stuff. But I don’t know what kind of info they post about individual campuses, as compared to leaving that to the individual campuses to do for themselves.

So, I think that we are talking about picking the right tool for the job, recognizing that experience counts, and recognizing that organzations need to pay for various capacities. People can complain about districts and central offices, but it is the thoughtfulness, skill and work of the central offices of the NYC DOE that made those reports so accessible to you. Rather than simply taking it for granted and criticizing those who are not serving your needs as well, why not laud the NYC DOE for making them available while still criticising the SED and SUNY for failing to do what the NYC DOE proved was possible?