Assessing Assessing

The New York City Department of Education’s system for assessing schools’ achievement comes under fire again from the New York Times.  Disregarding that this piece comes out well after the mayor’s election is safely secured, the article points out that not all schools are held to the same standard, even though the systemic differentiation is justified on the grounds of helping IEP students, ELLs, and other who have been historically underserved.  The Times writes:

Several of the city’s largest high schools that have struggled for years received low grades on the progress reports, and those schools have a high population of black and Latino students, as well as special education students and English language learners.

One high school principal in Queens, who declined to be named for fear of punishment, said that the school had received more needy students in recent years and that it was difficult to help them catch up.

“I don’t disagree with holding us to a higher bar, but not all schools are being asked to do the same thing,” the principal said.

In conversations I’ve had with a principals recently, this sense that the city’s assessment system is unfair and doesn’t fairly represent schools’ successes pervaded.  For instance, if schools are rewarded for the “growth” they make year to year–that is, moving from a B to an A–what reward is in place for an already successful high school?  In another instance, if schools are rewarded for reaching out to students’ homes, is it really fair that whether you are a school of 100 or 5000, you get only one parent coordinator to help you do that? 

To be clear, I think a system of comparing and developing a strategy to improve schools is vital to the city.  I also think the assessment method is in need of assessment itself.