G&T: Everything Tweed Touches Turns to Shit

Where are those great civli rights activists Joel Klein and Al Sharpton now?
Another example of non-educator ideologues who think they know it all. Jeez, we status quoers just have to stop being so negative.

Comment by Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters.
www.classsizematters.org
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/

The NY Times has a front page story today describing how the G and T admissions process this year led to a much less diverse group of students being served, both economically and racially, a fact that was pointed out on our blog as well as Eduwonkette’s weeks ago.

Months before that, when the city first proposed to centralize the G and T admissions process and base the decision solely on uniform cut off scores on standardized exams, we pointed out that this would likely restrict diversity and benefit wealthier students at the expense of poor and minority kids. Apparently others warned the DOE directly, including Joseph Renzulli, who serves as a consultant to a city task force on the gifted.

Using standardized exams for high stakes decisions has a racially disparate impact, according to the National Academy of Sciences task force on the subject – and thus is racially discriminatory.

But Joel Klein’s notion of “equity,” as it is becoming more and more clear, is not to increase diversity and opportunity for all kids – but to base all decisions on an abstract, numerical formula that he and his minions devise without input from others– like the FSF formula and the formula for school grades -- no matter what the results or the real impact on kids.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/nyregion/19gifted.html?_r=3&hp=&pagewanted=all

How Regressive Ed Reform Robs Neighborhood Schools of Their Base

(Revised)

Education Notes has maintained that the small schools movement and alternative parental choice undermines neighborhood schools by robbing them of their base of students who are succeeding.

To the regressive education reformers, the BloomKlein "reforms" are a wonderful thing. But on the ground in the schools, there is a different view. PS 3, in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant, has been viewed as a fairly successful school, with a somewhat middle class base that brings stability.

At a Manhattan Institute breakfast a few months ago starring Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee and others, one of the themes was the "success" of the implementation of charter and small schools.
When some of us talked about the creaming of the top students by these schools, I remember panelist Joe Williams claiming that if kids are successful (those who score 3's and 4's on the tests) in a neighborhood school, why would they move to a charter?

I went up to him afterwards and told him that the kids who are succeeding are the ones that move because their parents are more proactive and are looking for a school without kids who score ones and twos on the tests, special ed, ELA's, discipline problems, high class sizes (even if the actual number looks small on paper the level of difficulty of working with an at-risk population is impacted). In other words, they themselves want to get their kids away from the most at-risk kids, the local form of what used to be called "white flight."

Thus, the neighborhood public schools - from elementary through high school – become drained of the very kids that provide the school a somewhat stable environment by shunting the top students to places like KIPP. And by the way, do not underestimate the positive impact these kids have on teacher morale, which is affected by seeing kids succeed.

If one wanted to design the perfect program to accomplish the destruction of the neighborhood school by shunting higher performing students into a semi-privatized environment BloomKlein and their high-priced consultants have designed such a program.

The latest attacks on elementary schools go after the youngest kids by the modifications in the gifted and talented programs and in the registration process for pre-kindergarten. (We always found that the students whose parents rush to register, turn out to have the highest level of success over the following years.) By moving this registration from the school to some central office one more obstacle is added to the process.

Chapter Leader Lisa North expresses the frustration being felt in the schools as she nails all of these issues in this email to the NYCEducationNews listserve:

My school, PS 3 in Brooklyn, has had 3 pre-k classes for the last 2 years. Parents would come to the school to register. Now they have to go downtown Brooklyn first. Our parents DO NOT do that! At this time we only have enough students for ONE class. Why can't parents register directly in the school?

We are also in danger of losing our "gifted and talented" program – one of the few in Bedford-Stuyvesant, because of the new DOE testing.

On top of that, the charter schools are beginning to take a number of our level 3/4 students (as well as some of the others), but especially students whose families are more involved with their education. The DOE is wreaking havoc with our school!

Tweed G&T "Reform" - And the Winners Are?

More from BloomKlein, those great civil rights activists. They get more MLK-like every day.

Eduwonkette reports (Of course the Quick and the Ed won't believe these numbers, as they bow down to the God of BloomKlein, from some anonymous person who is not ready to throw her credentials on the table):

The Upper West Side Relief Act of 2008 (Or: More on Gifted Admissions in NYC)

Upper West Side kids face obstacles, folks - sometimes there are two Bugaboo strollers blocking their path to the Elephant Playground at 76rd and Riverside. Joel Klein recognized their struggle against adversity, and gently tweaked the gifted and talented admissions rules to open the door of opportunity for all (Manhattan) kids.
Make no mistake - NYC's poorer community school districts lost out under the new gifted and talented admissions process. Full report with maps here.

Gifted and Talented in NYC

They use the language of civil rights to win over people to their reform model that makes teacher quality and expectations and poor leadership in schools the main culprits of the ills of the school system. "See, there is no need to throw away money on schools because we need to save it for bailouts and wars."

Joel Klein uses the expression "Shame of the Nation" when he talks about achievement gaps.

The DOE's modification of the G&T program was supposed to create more opportunities. Andrea Peyser in the NY Post today is in a lather.

Eduwonkette takes a statistical look at the DOE G&T program as to which districts were winners and which were losers.

The DOE did not release socioeconomic or demographic breakdowns, but one way to get at the equity question is to look at which districts won and lost under the new system.

Did poor kids gain ground? The graph below, which plots the percent change in the number of students offered gifted seats in the entry grades against the percentage of students qualifying for free lunch in the district suggests that the answer is no. On average, districts with higher proportions of poor kids saw declines in gifted admissions.

In Washington Heights' District 6, 80 students are currently enrolled in kindergarten G&T classes, but only 50 have been offered seats next year. In Manhattan's more advantaged District 2, 174 students are enrolled in G&T kindergarten this year, but 371 have been offered seats for next year.

If we cut the data by the percentage of African-American students in the district, we also see that many districts with high proportions of black students lost ground.

The full piece is here.