Category Archives: Education

NYC high schoolers can’t earn ‘0′ even if they skip class

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That’s right: The lowest grade you can get in a NYC high school is a 55. Why? Because it would make it “extremely unlikely that a student can recover if the semester gets off to a difficult start.”

“It is common practice in high schools to establish 55 as the lowest grade awarded to students,” superintendent Juan Mendez wrote in an email to a teacher complaining about the policy. . . . education officials told The News that the practice is routine at other schools . . . “This is not an issue of grade inflation,” said schools spokeswoman Erin Hughes. “Schools do not typically use the full 0-100 scale for the reason that doing so makes it extremely unlikely that a student can recover if the semester gets off to a difficult start.”

Just another example of Bloomberg cooking the books at the Department of Education.

via NYC high schoolers can’t earn ‘0′ even if they skip class, miffed teachers say – NY Daily News.

“How’re we doing?” International math scores

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Usually, your BiteMaster contents himself with sticking it to some blowhard but occasionally we try to spice things up with a fact or two.

Today we bring you the results of a study by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Every four years they conduct the ponderous Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS. In 2011, they did a study of math education in 63 countries. I would have called it The Big Ass Study O’ Math. But they rejected my advice and named it TIMSS 2011 International Results in Mathematics (which expands to Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011 International Results in Mathematics). Like Dickens, they’re probably paid by the word.

If you want to read the Executive Summary, you can find it here.

But if you’re lazy like us, here’s the Really Short Version: we’re getting our asses kicked by Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong SAR, Chinese Taipei, and Japan.

PIRLS.ORG.

Good news, bad news, scary news

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The good news is that NYC students are doing a teensy bit better on the standardized tests:

The bad news is that the scores are still piss poor (only 35%-40% are proficient in math or reading).

The scary news is — hey!  They’re on par with the rest of the country.

The new results, released Thursday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, found that 32 percent of New York public-school eighth-graders were proficient in math, up 2 percent over tests given in 2011. Only 35 percent were proficient in reading in 2013, the same as two years ago.

The good news is that fourth-graders are doing a bit better. Forty percent of them were rated proficient in math, up 4 percent over 2011, and 37 percent were proficient in reading, an ­increase of 2 percent.

The national numbers:

  • Math — 35 percent for eighth-graders, 42 percent for fourth-graders.
  • Reading — 36 percent for eighth-graders, 35 percent for fourth-graders.

60% of NY students not up to par | New York Post.

What does the Department of Ed do with $24 billion? It ain’t going to the teachers.

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The NYC Department of Education has about 75,000 teachers, who are paid an average of $72,708 per year. For a total of

$5,453,100,000 total teacher expense per year

How much is that per student? Divide by about 1,100,000 students:

The cost of teachers is $4,966.45 per student

The DOE budget is $24 billion per year. Divide by 1,100,000 students and we find that we have:

$21,818.18 budgeted per student

Subtract $4,966.45 from $21,818.18 to get:

$16,852.35 overhead per student

SUMMARY:

$21,818.18 total expenditure per student
$16,852.35 overhead per student (77.2%)
$ 4,966.45 cost of teachers per student (22.8%)

Makes you wonder.

Bloomberg touts success of schools using five-year-old numbers

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Here’s an actual quote from the NY Daily News, 10/24/2013:

“Students at the new, smaller high schools also got four more days of instruction each year on average, according to the study of 101 schools from 2003-2008.”

Performance must have really sucked for the last five years if they’re touting this ancient study.

Gov. Christie cracks down on salary and perks for public school employees but gives sweatheart deals to schools for disabled students

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In New Jersey, disabled students often go to private schools funded by taxpayer dollars. But, according to a Star-Ledger investigation, costs at these schools go largely unchecked and are inflated by nepotism and self-dealing.

Christie thinks these school are a great idea since they’re private, unlike the wasteful public school system. (Prof. H. O. Hell notes that at least Christie is supporting education for disabled kids.)

Some N.J. private schools for disabled students cashing in on taxpayers | NJ.com.

California College Tells Student He Can’t Hand Out Copies Of The Constitution On Constitution Day

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“Virtually everything that Modesto Junior College could do wrong, it did do wrong. It sent police to enforce an unconstitutional rule, said that students could not freely distribute literature, placed a waiting period on free speech, produced an artificial scarcity of room for free speech with a tiny ‘free speech area,’ and limited the number of speakers on campus to two at a time. This was outrageous from start to finish. Every single person at Modesto responsible for enforcing this policy should have known better.”

California College Tells Student He Can’t Hand Out Copies Of The Constitution On Constitution Day « Above the Law: A Legal Web Site – News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law Schools, Law Suits, Judges and Courts + Career Resources.

$16 million Columbia University bequest disappears

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‘Mining magnate Henry Krumb left millions to Columbia University in the 1950s, but you’d have to dig deep to find the cash or his legacy today. . . . Krumb’s wishes were to “make the School of Mines one of the best known and largest schools of its kind in the world,” according to a copy of his will obtained by The Post.’

But today there is no school of mines, no scholarships, no degrees, and no one filling the endowed chairs of mining. Reminds me of the Met scandal.

Columbia University mining program runs dry – NYPOST.com.

Union City is the anti-Bloomberg model for success in education

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“Union City is the anti-Bloomberg model for transforming public education: It hasn’t closed a single school, fired teachers en masse, introduced perform-or-perish accountability or encouraged charter schools. And yet it has seen its schools thrive.”

via Union City: Anti-Bloomberg Model for Success, Suspensions Down and StudentsFirstNY Failing/Falling Apart – NY-GPS.

and NY Daily News

At Bloomberg “transfer” schools, more students drop out than graduate

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“The city’s second-chance high schools saw more students drop out than graduate in 2011-12 — a major drop in performance compared to a year earlier, a Post analysis found.”

Not only does Bloomberg think his mayoralty has been a great education success, so do several of the people running the succeed him.

Graduation rates decline at New York’s transfer high schools – NYPOST.com.