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Monday, October 8, 2012

Shanker Blog » The Stability And Fairness Of New York City's School Ratings

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The Stability And Fairness Of New York City’s School Ratings

New York City has just released the new round of results from its school rating system (they’re called “progress reports”). It relies considerably more on student growth (60 out of 100 points) than absolute performance (25 points), and there are efforts to partially adjust most of the measures via peer group comparisons.*
All of this indicates that the city’s system is more focused on school rather than student test-based performance, compared with many other systems around the U.S.
The ratings are high-stakes. Schools receiving low grades – a D or F in any given year, or a C for three consecutive years – enter a review process by which they might be closed. The number of schools meeting these criteria jumped considerably this year.
There is plenty of controversy to go around about the NYC ratings, much of it pertaining to two important features