Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Graduation rate rise is misleading

From the NY Times:

A year after reports showed that New York City high schools were offering failing students a chance to earn credit simply by completing worksheets or attending weeklong cram sessions, educators say the system of making up schoolwork is still abused, and the state is seeking to crack down on it.

At William H. Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn, for instance, a nearly illiterate student racked up many of his credits through after-school remediation programs. He was promoted to 12th grade still unable to write full sentences or read a line of text, his teachers said.

At Mathematics, Science Research and Technology Magnet High School in Queens, several students were awarded credit last school year for clicking through questions on a computer screen until they got the right answer, teachers said.


Let's recall that less than a month ago, the Mayor was beaming with pride over the fact that graduation rates had gone up 10 points since 2005 and 4 points over the last year and has been using these stats to make his case for extending mayoral control of the schools.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The kids in high school today are morons! My nephew can not make change for a dollar and he's a junior at Francis Lewis! At his age I was hanging out at the Met and seeing Bergman films. He CAN NOT read. And he's going to graduate in 2 years. He should be in third grade!

Please don't release these dummies on Queens businesses. They're stupid enough as it is.

Anonymous said...

Graduation rates being up is as ludicrous as the test scores going up.

All of a sudden under Mayor Bloomcrud, kids are doing better???

Yeah right.

Hey Bloombutt: Why don't you come clean and tell people the tests were dumbed down.

Anonymous said...

CUE WADE with his canned illegals and minority rant in 5...4...3...

Anonymous said...

H-m-m-m....and Bloomberg keeps on bullshitting us in his most recent TV ads that he's improved NYC schools!

Bah !

The only numbers we see improving are on Mike's personal balance sheet!

How much more did he and his wealthy buddies in the real estate industry make last year?

The man speak with forked tongue (once again)...while NYC's middle class are leaving the city in droves!

Wade Nichols said...

Graduation rates?!?!?!?!

As Pink Floyd once said, "We don't need no education!".

(Those of you out there with the slightest familiarity of the English language will know that song is incorrect, as it's a double negative.)

Interesting headling in the NY Times article:

"Makeup Work Allows Students to Slide by"

Where do the students do their makeup work? Do they work in the theater district? Do they help in the movie industry?

Snake Plissskin said...

Oh God, Wade with a dose of humor before my third cup.

A good point for Tony A to take up - make a list of all the mayor's supposed triumphs (schools, employment, small biz, the city finances) and gleefully take them apart one by one.

As they have not been critiqued, they are burned into the public's conscience. When Tony raises them as talking points in a debate the Mayor will be caught with his pants down.

As we used to same in 'them hills', "it will be a turkey shoot".

Sid? said...

Thinkers? Who needs that? We need consumers . . . just keep churning them out (partial sarcasm mode).

Wade Nichols said...

CUE WADE with his canned illegals and minority rant in 5...4...3...

At least I sign my name, unlike you. I suspect this is "Ridgewoodian", or perhaps it's Ridgewoodian's "male friend".

I call it like it is. The statistics don't lie. The liars are the fools who scream "RACIST!" if you point out the inconvenient facts.

Whites graduate at MUCH higher rates than Blacks and Hispanics. White kids take the Advanced Placement (AP) tests more often than Blacks and Hispanics, and pass those tests at much higher rates.

Asians graduate at even higher rates than Whites, and pass the AP tests at higher rates as well.

And they have the nerve to call me a "RACIST!" for pointing out the truth???

Anonymous said...

Its not the truth, its your multiple question marks (???) and caps in quotes that's most offensive

Snake Plissskin said...

Political correctness police are bad enough, we got the grammar police too?????

Anony2 said...

"...we got the grammar police too?????"

Yes. :) I believe you mean to say "we HAVE grammer police too"

If we do not speak correctly, how do we expect the children to?

Anonymous said...

Yes. :) I believe you mean to say "we HAVE grammer police too"
=====================================

Is good spelling off the table?

Anonymous said...

Yes, I am a Math Teacher in NYC. The kids these days come to high school not knowing how to add/sub/div/mul fractions. Most of them don't know the multiplication tables well. Kids are so dumb these days. I don't know if it's the system failing them. Perhaps. I'm moving to NJ and getting the heck on out of this boro.