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The biggest change to this year’s high school progress reports, being released this morning, won’t affect schools’ scores.

In a nod to the growing recognition that a high school diploma does not guarantee college success, the Department of Education is adding three “college readiness” data points to the annual reports. They will calculate the percentages of students who passed college-level exams or courses; who would not require remedial courses at CUNY colleges; and who enroll in college the fall after they graduate. Starting next year, those figures will factor in to schools’ final grades, but this year the department is including them for informational purposes only.

Another change to the reports does reflect the growing focus on the quality of high school work — and is factored into the results. The credit accumulation metric, which looks at how many courses each student passed, has been narrowed to focus on classes completed in the core subjects of English, math, social studies, and science. In the past, a student was counted as having appropriately accumulated credits if he passed 10 classes, regardless of what they were. Now, at least six of the classes have to be in the core subjects.

One thing that won’t be on the reports: credit recovery numbers. Since last year, the department has been collecting data on the number of students who receive credit through non-traditional means after failing a class. The practice is sanctioned in policy but has been accused of being abused at some high schools, where students have been awarded credit after doing only minimal work.

Another change will help some schools relax. (more…)

In an education department that’s driven by data, what gets measured is a clear expression of values.

So this year’s elementary and middle school progress reports signal that the city is serious about integrating disabled students into regular classes, helping minority boys, and quickly getting immigrant students learning in English.

The broad contours of what we’ll see later today when the Department of Education releases the newest progress reports, based on the last school year, have been clear for months. Back in the spring, the DOE told principals that it would not insulate schools against steep score drops as it did last year, so we know that more schools will get failing grades that put them at risk of closure.

In fact, the department set a fixed distribution of scores: 25 percent of schools will get As, 35 percent Bs, 30 percent Cs, 7 percent Ds, and 3 percent Fs. Last year, just 5 percent of schools were awarded D or F grades.

We also know each school’s state test scores, announced last month. While high or low average scores don’t always equate to high or low progress report grades, because the reports are based mostly on the test scores, they often do. (The department is also guaranteeing that schools with test scores in the top third citywide get no lower than a C; last year, only schools in the top quarter got that promise.) Also, because fewer schools registered large test score gains or losses this year, progress report grades are likely to be relatively stable.

That means that the biggest changes could come as the result of the department’s annual tinkering with the reports’ formula. (more…)

Since becoming chancellor in April, Dennis Walcott has made many public appearances but few policy pronouncements.

That’s set to change tomorrow morning, when Walcott is set to deliver the first policy address of his tenure, a speech at New York University titled “Why We Can’t Rest: How To Move the Middle.”

The city is mum on what exactly the speech will be about, but it’s clear that Walcott has spent some time talking about middle schools in the last week. On Thursday, he met with roughly a dozen principals of high-scoring middle schools — both district-run and charter — to ask them a question that has long bedeviled educators and policymakers: How to curb the performance drop-off that takes place after students leave elementary school.

The 2011 state test scores released last month told a familiar story: Middle school students scored proficient at a far lower rate than students in the elementary grades.

“We still need to increase our focus on those years,” Walcott said at the time.

It wouldn’t be the first time that the city has made improving middle schools a priority.  (more…)

Tomorrow, when the city releases its progress reports for elementary and middle schools, parents will begin the annual rite of deciphering their schools’ report cards. But this year the tradition will be complicated by a new formula and, for many schools, lower grades.

The city is trying to accomplish several goals at once: It is hoping to improve the methods it uses to measure student progress and reduce the wild fluctuation and inflation of grades that has marked past years’ progress reports. At the same time, city officials hope to convince parents, teachers and principals that the grades are meaningful, especially in light of this year’s sharp drop in test scores across the city.

Last year, the city gave 84 percent of elementary and middle schools A’s, while 13 percent received a B, and 2 percent received a C. Just five schools were given D’s, and two were given F’s. Those grades were much higher than the year before, when 38 percent of schools were given an A. In 2007, when the reports were first issued, 23 percent received that rating.

For this year’s progress reports, the city is making several big changes to how the grades are calculated. First, it is modifying how the city calculates students’ progress. In the past, a significant percentage of a school’s grade  — 85 percent for elementary and middle schools — was based on student performance on state math and reading scores. So when test scores went up throughout the city in 2009 (reflecting a statewide trend), the grades soared on progress reports.

This year the city is doing something different. It is comparing the progress of each student to other students who began the school year performing at the same level. (more…)

Teachers’ union president Michael Mulgrew will urge the Department of Education to return superintendents to their districts when he testifies before the City Council tomorrow.

In the wake of new school governance legislation passed this summer, the City Council Education Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow on whether the city is complying with changes in the law. Among those changes is a revised role for superintendents and new powers for the citywide school board, which is now legally empowered to vote on certain contracts.

In draft comments released to reporters this afternoon, the United Federation of Teachers expresses “grave concern” that the DOE is ignoring what few changes were made to the law.

The UFT will argue that the city is not complying with a provision of the law that calls for superintendents to work within the districts where they are assigned, rather than in districts throughout the city. According to the union, the superintendents in districts 26 and 25, both in Queens, are still being made to answer for the performance of over a dozen schools outside of their districts. In an extreme example, the union says that all of the schools supervised by the superintendent for district 30 are outside of her district. The union’s draft statement reads:

“I wish I could say they can’t be serious, but my experience tells me otherwise.  How can a superintendent supervise his own schools when given responsibility for over 15 schools in another district? … I’m here to tell you — it currently doesn’t measure up to the standards set forth in the new governance law.  It doesn’t even come close.” (more…)

The city schools are likely to be heaped with praise tomorrow when Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announces this year’s progress report grades. But a dearth of low grades could actually turn out to be a double-edged sword for Klein.

When the progress report initiative was first announced, Klein said the grades would be used to determine which schools to close. This year, if the chancellor decides to close more schools, he could find himself in the position of arguing that his own accountability system did not accurately reflect a school’s shortcomings.

The grades are also sure to add to the scrutiny currently being given to the test scores that account for most of each school’s grade. The vast majority of a school’s progress report grade — 85 percent — depends on its students’ scores on state math and reading tests, with the bulk of that based on how much each student’s scores increased since 2008. (The remaining 15 percent of each score is based on attendance data and the results of surveys given to parents, teachers, and students.)

Under this formula, this year’s citywide jump in test scores could give rise to a significant jump in progress report grades. Indeed, we’ve heard from several sources that most elementary and middle schools are getting very high grades, and only a handful are getting failing grades. (more…)