I actually agree with the statement that nobody (state or city) dropped the ball - the city enforced its policy based on the best data the state had in June. Under the city promotion policy for 5th grade, the test score is what's supposed to determine the promotion decision, although anyone who was ultimately held back scored Level 1 twice (in the spring and during summer school, where nobody's disputing the score) and had two portfolio reviews of their work by their teachers and principals. How is holding back a kid that goes through all that "dropping the ball"?
Of course nobody at Tweed dropped the ball. They're incapable of dropping it ... only skells such as teachers and principals (non-Leadership Academy principals, that is) are ball-droppers.
The fickle finger of accountability never points at Mayor Mike or his mighty minions.
State Education Department spokesperson Tom Dunn categorically stated that the test scores were not meant to solely determine promotion.
It's tough to miss that NYC is the only district in the state to have done so. It's even tougher to find any substantive improvements under this mayor's tenure. Despite the city's announcement that it lowered class sizes, based on I have no idea what, oversize classes are worse than ever, with no relief in sight.
Funny that the state is saying that when they designed June cut of scores specifically for the NYC promotion policy (nobody else in the state got them). Then again, the state education department is completely clueless. And you're still missing the point that the kids "mistakenly" held back flunked summer school unquestionably and had their other work reviewed twice by teachers and principals.
Re class size, I trust you're referring to the UFT's chapter leader survey - really accurate stuff. Not to mention that the UFT is currently spending lots of money on a campaign to reduce maximum class size. Trusting that survey would be like trusting an oil company's study finding that there's no global warming.
Shall I take your word over public pronouncements in the News? Why do you know so much? And why isn't the city saying that publicly?
While I happen to have observed how the UFT collects oversize class data, and absolutely believe them, I don't need any survey from anyone to tell me about overcrowding and oversize classes. I work in a building at 250% capacity and I see them every day.
What's Bloomberg done about it? He's sent us 500 more kids this year, that's what.
I'm just saying, you really don't want to be citing the state education department as an authoritative source. Even people who detest the mayor hit Mills even harder. But in any case, this whole thing affected a small number of kids who were all at a very low level. They got extra help they needed over the summer (and still scored Level 1 then). And the city is fixing the problem the best it can in response to updated data. I think you're making too big a deal out of this.
Let's change the subject and talk about Woodward's new book or something; we can probably agree on that.
Those poor children...
It's so traumatic!
I don't know of anyone who detests the mayor and hit Mills even harder, and you've typically cited no one.
If my kid were left back for no reason, the small number would be little consolation for me or my child.
And once again, only the city had this problem. That strongly suggests they were at fault. And fixing the problem "the best they can," frankly, is a case of too little too late.
You seem to think that anyone who criticizes this mayor's abysmal education "reform" is making too big a deal of things. I can assure you not a single one of those kids or their parents concurs.
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