GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

New data from the College Board on last year’s class of graduating seniors shows that while more city students are taking and passing Advanced Placement courses, black students are still underrepresented in both groups.

From 2009 to 2010, the number of New York City high school seniors taking at least one AP test increased by six percent from roughly 13,697 to 14,522. That was matched by a slight increase of 6.8 percent in the number of students who passed at least one test during high school. It’s impossible to say what the overall passage rate was, as the city’s data doesn’t indicate how students performed on the exams they took.

Those gains have been made mainly by Asian and Hispanic students. Both groups are taking Advanced Placement tests and passing them at significantly higher rates than in the past, while participation and passage rates among white students have stagnated. (more…)

A day after an election that saw most of the union-backed candidates win their races, New York City teachers union president Michael Mulgrew was still celebrating. “We had a very good night,” he told me.

In total, 157 of the 170 candidates the United Federation of Teachers supported were victorious on Tuesday, union officials said.

Mulgrew said he was pleased to see former City Councilman Tony Avella take Republican Frank Padavan’s seat in the State Senate. A month before the election, when polls showed Avella was down by over two dozen points, Mulgrew said he sent union members to campaign in northeast Queens. Avella, who also ran and lost in the city’s mayoral race last year, ended up with 53 percent of the vote.

“It was fun because everyone told us we wouldn’t win,” Mulgrew said.

Union-backed candidates lost in 13 races. Among them was Democratic Congressman Michael McMahon, who was also endorsed by Mayor Bloomberg and was expected to hold onto his Staten Island seat, but lost to Republican Michael Grimm. (more…)

New data on the increasingly popular ACT college-entrance exam show that city students’ scores have risen to meet the national average, but the gains are spotty.

Since 2005, the average city student’s score has crept from 19.9 to 21.4 — a modest gain, but one that carries weight on an exam that’s only 36 points in total. The bulk of the progress has come from the city’s Asian and white students, while black students’ scores have risen slightly. Hispanic students’ average scores have shown little change, dropping by a third of a point. (more…)

When the New York Post ran a story last week praising a Harlem charter school network’s test scores, a few principals wondered why their own schools’ scores hadn’t arrived.

State and city officials were also puzzled. City eighth graders sat for the science and social studies exams only weeks ago and the state won’t release the results for months, so how did Harlem Village Academies have their scores?

Harlem Village Academies Chief of Staff Matt Scott explained that because the network grades its own tests and the state publishes scoring guides online, it was able to figure out how its students fared in advance of the state’s official release. According to the network, all of its eighth grade students passed the state’s science and social studies exams this year.

“We do not release test scores for Science or Social Studies until the school report cards for 2009/2010,” said SED spokesman Tom Dunn. “They are not scheduled for release until next winter. The charter school promoted their own performance.”

The early release highlights the different ways that charter and district schools grade their students’ state tests.

(more…)