Numbers are the bureaucrats' way of fooling the public into
thinking they're doing a good job. The problem, of course, is
that numbers can be manipulated and many times do not represent
reality. Whether we're talking about school test scores, crime
statistics, or administrative successes, all these figures can be
manipulated. But when the test scores of public schools are
tweaked to deceive, it's especially egregious because our
children's futures are at stake.
Mayor Bloomberg announced this week that test scores are up
across the city and in some schools as much as double digits. The
mayor considers the improved test scores as proof that public
schools have improved under his administration's takeover of the
Board of Education.
I hate to burst his bubble, but numbers don't always tell the
true story. Two years ago I wrote a column, "Children Left
Behind," about the chicanery of test scoring. I had
interviewed a recently retired educator who disclosed that when
she was called to evaluate a school in Staten Island's wealthy
South Shore district with a very high ranking, she discovered
that the "teachers were dumb as posts" and that the
test scores were doctored by the principal. When she asked a
colleague why, she was told to look around her at the
million-dollar homes. Who would buy them unless they were in the
best school district?
Another teacher I wrote about was a young sixth-grade math
teacher, who was disheartened by the cheating done by fellow
colleagues. This gifted, inspirational teacher is now giving up
her career because she says, "It's just not worth it
anymore. I'm being criticized for my students' lowered math
scores because I'm not giving them the answers that their
previous teachers gave them. I'm actually teaching them what they
need to know, not what makes me or the school look good."
A similar scandal erupted at Susan E. Wagner High School in
Staten Island in 2005 after 17 teachers disclosed that the test
scores of the June Regents exams had been tampered with. In a
WCBS-TV report, sources said they had been threatened with
retaliation for coming forward. In other words, whistle-blowers
should either shut up or quit.
The fact is that some educators are self-serving and lack
integrity. All state and national testing should be supervised by
proctors unrelated to the schools to ensure the validity of the
scores. Scoring should be handled by impartial state and local
monitors, not local principals.
A few months ago I met educator Tom Carroll, president of the
Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability and founder
and chairman of the Brighter Choice Charter School for Boys and
the Brighter Choice Charter School for Girls. In the recent state
exam results, these inner-city schools were ranked no. 1 in the
city of Albany for math in third and fourth grade and no. 1 in
English in fourth grade. Asked the reason for their success, he
said, "Much of the focus in the world of education is on
what's new and novel. In reality, though, much of what works is a
throwback to the 1950s parochial schools; high expectations; lots
of testing; strict discipline (which would make the nuns proud!);
traditional (not fuzzy) math; phonics, and lots of hard
work."
Notice he did not say more money.
My 6-year-old grandson attends Immaculate Conception School in
the Stapleton section of Staten Island. Not only can he read just
about everything, he astounds me when I hear him talk about
compound nouns, the metric system, and click beetles. He's only
in first grade and he's not even the smartest kid in his class.
His teacher, Miss Helm, is a traditional educator who loves her
job and does not believe in social promotion. Students don't
leave her class unless they've passed legitimately.
While sorting out my correspondence file, I came across a letter
from Edward Cardinal Egan, the archbishop of New York, who wrote
me in response to an early column praising Catholic schools. At
the end of the letter he had scrawled, "Imagine what we
could do with 14 billion dollars." This was the budget at
the time of the Department of Education. It's now $20.9 billion,
and Chancellor Klein went before the City Council in March to say
that it might not be enough. Yet Johnny still can't read in
public schools, but 6-year-olds in inner-city parochial schools
can. What's wrong with this picture?