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Center for new york city affairs finds serious flaws in NYc school accountability"Managing by the Numbers" Study Evaluates Management and Accountability Efforts in NYC Schools, Offers Six Key Fixes
NEW YORK, June 16, 2010—The city’s public school accountability system put in place by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, is deeply flawed, the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School has found. The Center’s report, entitled “Managing by the Numbers,” examines Klein’s shift away from a tightly controlled, top-down administrative structure to a system that gives principals control over culture and practice in their own schools. The report is one of the first broad studies of the Bloomberg administration’s school reorganization. “The new freedom for principals has allowed some schools to flourish, reversing decades of poor performance and low expectations,” said Clara Hemphill, Senior Editor at CNYCA and co-author of the study. “At the same time, some principals are floundering without sufficient supervision. Most important, the city’s accountability system, particularly for elementary schools, rewards mediocrity while failing to recognize gains made by schools that are striving for excellence.” Building on interviews with hundreds of principals and school administrators, school visits, and analysis of school performance statistics, the report identifies important gains as well as troubling problems. Following the city’s 2007 decision to give principals authority to run their schools without day-to-day supervision of superintendents, the city Department of Education has relied on statistical data to monitor and evaluate schools. The elementary school Progress Reports, for example, are largely based on yearly gains on state reading and math tests, but the current tests offer only a rough guide to whether a school is performing at grade level, not the statistical precision necessary to measure that school’s year-to-year progress. Based on its findings, “Managing by the Numbers” offers five key fixes to improve New York City public schools management and accountability systems: 1. Eliminate single-letter grades for schools: Don’t oversimplify school quality with a single letter grade such as “A’” or “F”, and instead provide parents with multiple grades on different aspects of the school. 2. Dial down data: Rely less on purely statistical measures and include methodologically sound qualitative assessment in school evaluations. 3. Put the right principals in the right schools: Give more guidance to inexperienced principals and put more experienced principals in the toughest city schools. 4. Get smart about tests: Form a technical advisory board with expertise in using psychometrics to evaluate the efficacy and fairness of standardized tests. 5. Close with caution: Close failing schools only after providing parents and communities with a clear plan for something better to put in their place.
THE CENTER FOR NEW YORK CITY AFFAIRS AT THE NEW SCHOOL is an applied policy research institute dedicated to improving the effectiveness of government and other organizations in their work with urban families and communities. The Center illuminates the real-life impact of public policy and politics in New York's neighborhoods, supporting innovation in urban policy and practice through journalistic research, policy analysis, public dialogue, strategic planning and coalition building.
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