Broad Prize for Most Improved School District Will Be Awarded Oct. 14

The Broad Prize will be awarded on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
See Broad press release at Norms Notes.

NYC won last year.

According to its website, the Broad Prize is awarded each year to honor urban school districts that demonstrate the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among low-income and minority students. http://www.broadprize.org/about/overview.html

It might as well be Broad Jumping for how real the NYC results were.

I guess they didn't account for credit recovery, phony test scores, phony grad rates, etc. But the Broad Prize is all about ideology, not education. Oh, lookie: they have merit pay got rid of seniority, eliminated much of the union opposition, etc. So they cheated to show results? Big deal.

Leonie Haimson sent this to her listserve.

An analysis of NAEP scores between 2003-2007 shows that NYC came in 11th out of 12th of urban school districts in terms of gains. http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2008/07/comparative-naep-results-help-cut.html

There was no closing of the achievement gap in NYC in the NAEP scores over this period, either in math or in ELA, for any grade level tested.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/eduwonkette/2008/07/new_york_city_achievement_gap_1.html

The NAEPs are considered the “gold standard” of assessments in terms of reliability.

As for the NY state scores, there has been no narrowing of the achievement gap in NYC if scale scores are analyzed.

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/achievement-gap-in-city-schools-is-scrutinized/83215/

How can we be assured that the decision to award the Broad Prize is not determined more by politics and PR spin than actual improvements, and that this year’s winner deserves it more than NYC did last year?

I received a press invite to attend the ceremony at the Museum of Modern Art tomorrow. I remember seeing Picasso's Guernica there before it was moved back to Spain. Watching the Broad prize distribution ceremony will be like old times, only with more horror.