None of the other cities in NYS are run as 32 fiefdoms, and NO ONE is advocating that for NYC. But they ALL — under various School-Board / Superintendent models — enjoy a meaningful public debate over policy, and the power to implement same that is ABSENT in NYC. And with all due respect to our successes, our results simply do NOT prove to the exclusion of all other contributing factors that autocracy beats democracy.

I’m not blaming the Chancellor for the poor grad rate. Per reported state data, it’s up in the city by virtually all measures. It’s up all over the state, and moreover, in cities WITHOUT Mayoral Control. But to hear Bloomberg and Klein recently, you’d think they had eliminated the achievement gap between NYC and the state; and between blacks and hispanics, and whites and asians, within the city. And Mayoral Control — not the kids, the teachers, the principals, and the parents (who I assume ARE fully invested), let alone questionable test and graduation standards or “Credit Recovery” — gets the credit? Puleeze.

My point in connecting the admissions process to the graduation rate is simple: Which high school any given student goes to, or rather GETS IN TO… matters. On that, I dare say we clearly agree.

Cheers.

I also did not say the current process was perfect. But I know what the old one was like, especially the newspaper reports that politicians and connected people would call up Board of Ed members for their free “get into any school you want but Stuyvesant, Bronx Science or Brooklyn Tech” cards.

And, didn’t we both just reply to a string based on the same study that showed the success of the small high schools was coming at the expense of the “vast majority” of students in the large high schools? To that end, your last phrase above may be as true as ever — under EITHER system.

Last, NYC high schoolers get offers from, or assignments to, schools to which they did not apply. And not all of them are “great.”

How about we work on improving the current system — or getting a Chancellor willing to acknowledge there’s even room for same? Or is a 60% graduation rate that still lags the state-wide public school average good enough?

Since CUNY had to raise admission standards for its 4-year colleges because so many NYC DOE kids who had passed Regents exams were flunking out of freshman-level courses, it seems to me that at least one source of information which is not within the school’s or NYC DOE’s control should continue to be made available.

I mean, how many small high schools will admit that their kids graduate because they inflate grading and do “credit recovery” pervasively? And how will such schools really educate a kid who believes a school’s hype and sincerely wants to take the course work (and pass the courses) that are necessary to get throughthe first year of college without having to take remedial non-credit work first?

What is happening with Inside Schools? Any word on whether they’re getting enough donations? Our PTA sent out a notice to all parents asking them to donate to Inside Schools