Posted on 01/05/2004 6:31:21 AM PST by johnny7
ALBANY — New York's drive to have all students pass five challenging exams before leaving high school is at a critical moment. Flawed tests have fueled an anti-testing movement. Education leaders backpedaled on imposing higher passing scores. And concern has continued to grow around one troublesome figure — the graduation rate.
Some studies have shown the rate has declined in recent years. Others have said the rate is overestimated, and states have not been given clear guidelines on how to calculate it. Most important, the much-debated figure is worrying state officials trying to follow new federal regulations that require every student to obtain the same skills. "It's certainly something that we've got to turn around or we're going to lose a lot of kids, more than we can afford to," said state Regent James Dawson of Clinton County.
If the testing program has drawbacks, many say it has succeeded in at least one important respect — it's trained educators' and the public's attention on the need to improve education, particularly in urban and low-income areas. Lisa Demarest, a mother with two children in the Nyack schools, said improving graduation rates is not about lowering state standards. It is about getting more money for teachers in poorer districts where it is harder to teach. "They need to pay them a little bit better, so they feel better about where they are," Demarest said.
Education experts and government officials have used a wide range of statistics to try to get a handle on how many students are finishing high school. But all of the statistics are a little old, and no one is quite sure who has the right number.
• The Council of School Superintendents says more than 50,000 students, or 25 percent, of freshman who started high school in the state in 1996 disappeared four years later.
• John Robert Warren, a University of Minnesota sociologist, says New York's success rate fell from 69 percent of ninth-graders graduating within five years in 1992 to 61 percent in 2000. That would place New York 10th-lowest among the states, according to his preliminary study.
• State officials say the graduation rate, compiled from schools, has remained about 72 percent for the past four years, both before and after the testing requirements were instituted.
Getting an accurate sense of how schools are failing has become a critical issue, as educators work to comply with the new federal No Child Left Behind Act. The law requires schools to report their academic performance to the public and holds districts accountable for the success of all students.
The Education Trust, a national advocacy group for poor and minority students, says the picture is as murky as ever. In a report issued this month, the group says most states have overstated their graduation rates, in some cases by more than 20 percent. Kevin Carey, a senior policy analyst with the trust, said states are not getting clear guidance from the federal government on how to calculate the success rate. For instance, the law allows state officials to leave out from the statistics those students who dropped out in the ninth, 10th or 11th grades, reporting only the fate of those students in the 12th grade. In response, the Department of Education has hired the National Institute of Statistical Sciences to review how states are reporting high school dropouts and on-time graduates. It is expected to issue a report in the spring. State education officials, who concede their statistics may not be accurate, are working on a system to keep track of all individual students as they move through the school system. "When that is fully up and running, we will have exact data," said Alan Ray, a state Education Department spokesman.
No matter what the right number is in New York, eyes are already focusing on whether state officials make it too difficult to earn a diploma. Students are required to pass exams in math, English, science, American history and global history to graduate. Boston College education professor Walter Haney, an outspoken opponent of judging schools based on tests, said the graduation requirements have helped drop New York's graduation rate to 58 percent in 2001. "New York has had one of the most rapid declines in graduation rates of any state in the nation," Haney said. "As they have been raising the requirements on the Regents, fewer and fewer kids have been meeting those."
Warren, the Minnesota sociologist, doesn't attribute the decline to the testing requirements and noted that the national graduation rate also fell, to 68 percent. "The graduation requirements we think are reasonable and are minimal in terms of what a child should know," said Robert Bennett of Erie County, the chancellor of the Board of Regents. "We think it would be a very bad thing to say some kids can't do it."
For disabled students, the state allows testing "accommodations" designed to enable them to take the Regents exams. Those include having test questions read to them, or taped and played back, and allowing them to speak their answers instead of writing them. This year, even state education officials conceded there were faults in the Regents tests. Mills decided to rescore June's Math A exam after thousands of students failed it. The state Education Department is also planning to rescore the Regents physics exams from 2002 and 2003. Only 53 percent of students passed that exam this year. "I really do think it's an excellent idea to have all kids graduate with a Regents diploma," Carmel Schools Superintendent Marilyn Terranova said. "(But the tests) don't seem to be aligned with the standards."
While schools try to prepare students for the tests, some educators complain that they have had to reduce time for innovative lessons. In Scarsdale, where parents at one point boycotted the state's eighth-grade exams, teachers no longer offer a unit on hurricanes in the eighth grade, which used to have students using computers and math to track storms. "There are a lot of high-performing districts where teachers are cutting out strong programs and are no longer taking the time to explore a topic in depth," said Michael McGill, Scarsdale's superintendent.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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8 |
48.12 |
531 |
0.73 |
255.00 |
18 |
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Possibly the ultimate rhetorical question.
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"Warren, the Minnesota sociologist, doesn't attribute the decline to the testing requirements and noted that the national graduation rate also fell, to 68 percent."
Can this be? Public schools are graduating only two out of three students nationwide?
How about "Some See Tests Hindering Union Teachers' Raises?" The Albany paper would print a story like for one reason; the teachers' union ordered it to so as to influence the legislators.
The teachers' unions scream "more money is needed" and the legislature throws it at the teachers (who belong to a powerful and wealthy unions). The only problem is that money isn't the issue. It is lazy, inept teachers who spend far more time on administrative paperwork and teaching kids about kind fairies and evil corporations than the stuff they need. These teats measure the "stuff" and not the socialist materials. They make the teachers look bad and that is why they are criticised.
Proof? There is no discussion of minority performance on these tests. To do so would attack the teachers in the inner cities. They don't want to criticize ANY teachers. just the tests.
It's actually time for them to admit their utter failure and disband, selling off the government school facilities to the highest bidder.
Looks that proves how good the public education system is, overestimating and not knowing how to calculate graduation rates. It's not that hard. Take x number of seniors, subtract transfers and drop outs, divide that total from the number of actual graduates. That wasn't so difficult for people that actually got an education.
Looks like that proves how good the public education system is, overestimating and not knowing how to calculate graduation rates. It's not that hard. Take x number of seniors, subtract transfers and drop outs, divide that total from the number of actual graduates. That wasn't so difficult for people that actually got an education.
Another under-educated person, evidently. Why is it harder to teach in poorer districts? Maybe because of poor education being provided? Hey let's pay them more money so they at least feel better about working there, but that won't really help with the quality of the education (same teachers, more money). While I do believe teachers are under paid, I think those that actually do a good job teaching deserve to get more money. We throw more money into the system year after year, but the teachers don't see it. How about chopping a few heads at the top and having the money freed up go to the teachers.
Good!
The New York State Department of Education shows teacher salaries outside the city outstripping city salaries by wide margins. For example, in Senate candidate Hillary Clinton's home town, Chappaqua, the median teacher salary is $75,190, compared to $47,345 in New York City. And it's not just posh districts that pay more. The median salary in Yonkers is $67,291. In Mt. Vernon, it's $67,900.
Starting salaries all over the region dwarf New York City salaries, too. A first year teacher in Yonkers earns $40,000. New York City pays $31,900.
The NYC teachers are paid less than their suburban counterparts, but most of NY state teachers are making a very livable salary in a few years time. And let's not forget the very generous state retirement plan, health benefits, etc. for what amounts to a six hour a day job(for the lazy ones) with 15 weeks off, plus all the holidays. Now when you look at $67,000 a year median income, it doesn't look underpaid at all.
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