letter to Mayor from David Bloomfield about the school grades

Dear Mayor Bloomberg:

Sufficient questions have been raised regarding the grading of New York City public schools (except charters) that it is time to rescind all recently issued letter grades. The system's unreliable data; the subjective, crazy-quilt method of computation; and the politicization of scores make useful judgments about school quality impossible.

Further, the grades bear little or no relation to other evaluations of school quality, sowing confusion rather than clarity among students, parents, educators, public officials and the general public. Perhaps you want to see this as a noble experiment gone bad. Fine. Whatever the rationale, as today's New York Times editorial suggests, it is time to replace this system since it has so obviously failed any reasonable measure of public or professional confidence.

David C. Bloomfield
Program Head, Educational Leadership at Brooklyn College
NYC public school parent and member, Citywide Council on High Schools