Surprisingly little change in NAEP scores for NYC students compared to NYS & nation; & NCES finds no link between school closures and scores

The NAEP results were released today for every state and many large urban districts.  Unsurprisingly, given the disruptions to learning due to the pandemic,  most states saw significantly declines in all four areas tested:  4th and 8th grade reading and math.  The declines in math were especially large.  

In NYC, 4^th grade math scores dropped but so did 22 other districts; and somewhat surprisingly, there was no significant change in NYC scores in the three other categories: 8^th grade math, 4^th grade reading or 8^th grade reading.

NYC scores declined less  than many other districts and better than NY state as a whole, which showed significant drops in all four areas, including 4^th grade math and reading, as well as 4^th & 8^th grade math.

You can check out the data for reading and math.  

Especially given the bitter and ongoing controversy over school closures and remote learning, here is the quote of the day from NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr: 

 “There’s nothing in this data that tells us that there is a measurable difference in the performance between states and districts based solely on how long schools were closed."

 Below is a pdf copy of screenshots captured off today's NCES online webinar, with titles I've added focusing on NY State and NYC results.  Comments welcome. 

Update on Omicron and what's happening in schools in NYC and elsewhere to limit transmission

Correction:  Just informed that on Dec. 29, CDC updated its guidance & now calls for 10 days quarantine for any Covid positive school staff or students. So the DOE directive that staff should return after 5 days as long as their symptoms are minor is NOT aligned with the CDC. 

Omicron is spreading like wildfire, and in response several urban and suburban districts are keeping their schools closed or going remote next week, either for the full week or part of it, including Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta and Newark.  In NY state, among the districts that are going remote are Yonkers, New Rochelle,  Mount Vernon, and according to reliable sources, Ossining, Westbury and Freeport.

In NYC, the citywide seven-day positivity rate is an incredible 32%.  [update 1/3/22: now 33.5%.] In some neighborhoods, the rate is as high as 40%. Yet instead of  going remote, the DOE has made an agreement with the UFT they will increase the weekly random Covid screening to 20% of all students and staff who have consented, and will be providing teachers with testing kits and K95 masks each week.  

Students will only get testing kits if they're exposed, and no masks -- very unfortunate especially given that they are less likely to be fully vaccinated and thus presumably more vulnerable if they do get infected. 

In addition, DOE has updated their screening process.  Here is the new form students, staff and visitors have to fill out daily, which is confusing.  

First of all, it suggests that if you were exposed to a Covid case out of school and not fully vaccinated, you need to quarantine for at least seven days, but if exposed in school, not to quarantine at all unless you test positive, despite the fact that it is impossible for most people to distinguish the source of their infection and unclear why it should make a difference.  

Secondly, the new screening requires infected teachers to return to school after five days even if they are still symptomatic as long as their  symptoms are not serious and they wear a K95 mask.  This is aligned with the new CDC guidance, but still seems excessively risky. awho log in wwho ti klienho wwho havwhowho://twitter.com/jasonwhwhoiiimartinez81/status/1477417610920693762?s=20

Also, a message widely tweeted by teachers today appears to say that the DOE Situation Room is no longer even going to attempt to track transmission within schools, but is leaving this critical task up to overburdened school administrators and teachers.  

If this message was distributed to your school and/or I've misinterpreted it, please let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me at info@classsizematters.org.  Thanks! 

See also the chart with reasonable precautions and protocols that Jay Brown, a member of CEC District 21, put together and that Nina Kulkarni, a teacher and parent,14776 alonlkarni_ninastatus//94823670980610?s=20 has recommended on twitter.

We won in court today to keep PS 25 open -- probably for at least another year!

See also my open letter to Chancellor Carranza in today's Washington Post Answer Sheet , urging him to revoke the decision of the previous Chancellor to close PS 25, and an article in the CSA News.  The NY Post , Politico, and Bklyner also wrote about our win in court.

Today in court, we won our temporary restraining order to keep PS 25 open! 

Judge Katherine Levine of the Kings County Supreme Court issued a decision from the bench that unless she has an epiphany in the next two weeks, the school will remain open next year and she will decide the complex legal merits of the case more carefully over the next few months.

She seemed impressed with our research showing how all the other 33 schools DOE offered these students to apply to 1- all had far lower positive impact ratings 2- many of them were miles away, 19 of the schools in Staten Island alone 3- 25 were overcrowded, and 4- none had class sizes as small as PS 25.  And the DOE has not offered to provide busing for the students.

In short, she was impressed that in most every other proposal to close schools, the DOE had promised higher performing schools that students could apply to, but they didn’t in this case, because according to DOE's own estimation, there are only three other public elementary schools as good as PS 25 in the entire city and they are full.  

In fact, the City itself admitted in their response papers to the lawsuit that according to the school performance dashboard, PS 25 is the "second best public elementary school in Brooklyn and the fourth best in the City, and that PS 25 outperforms charter school other than Success Academy Bronx 2 in its positive impact on student achievement and attendance."

The Judge was also interested in the zoning issue, and that the CEC hadn’t voted to approve the closing of a zoned school.  The City argued instead that they hadn't changed any zoning lines, but that they had just eliminated the zoned school, which is absurd.  As the  PS 25 plaintiffs' memo of law points out, argued by Laura Barbieri, the pro bono attorney from Advocates for Justice who argued the case:

“Entirely eliminating a zoned school and without replacing it with another zoned school, leaving the families in this neighborhood without any zoned school that their children have the right to attend, as occurred in this instance, is the most radical change in zoning lines that can be conceived.”

The Judge was concerned that there was little case law on this subject, but Laura explained the precedent of the Grinage case, in which in 2009, the NYCLU sued the DOE to block the proposal to close three zoned schools without a vote of the CECs.  Chancellor Klein, not a risk averse attorney himself, promptly withdrew these proposals just two weeks after the lawsuit was filed.  Yet incredibly, today in court, the City's attorney claimed that nine years later, Grinage was "still pending."

The Judge asked if the CEC hadn’t voted to approve this, what public input was there?  The DOE explained there were public meetings, etc. where parents expressed their concerns.  The Judge said but you don’t have to listen them, right? Is that the DOE’s  position?  

Finally, she asked the attorneys as regards the temporary restraining order: what’s the balance of harm?  What the worst that happens if I leave the TRO in place?  The PS 25 students have the benefit of an excellent school for another year?  

The City attorney tried to argue this would hold up assignments for all other 3000 kids at closing schools, but as the Judge responded, that was a "ridiculous" argument.  All those transfers and assignments can go through, this will only affect the students at PS 25. (Actually there aren’t 3000 kids in closing schools –  instead there are about 2000 kids in all and 661 in elementary schools, but none of them will be affected but the students at PS 25, whose parents want them to stay).

We were all whooping it up inside the courtroom when the Judge issued her decision from the bench, including PTA Vice President Crystal Williams, one of the plaintiffs.  Afterward, we all hugged and expressed huge relief. Above is a photo after the  hearings of PS 25 parents, supporters and our attorney Laura Barbieri, in front of the Kings County court house.  I just heard from Darcy Griffin, the PTA president, that the parents at PS 25 were all thrilled when they picked up their kids and heard the news.

Let's hope that the Chancellor withdraws the proposal to close this terrific school, as I urged him to do in today's Washington Post; which not only would serve the case of justice, preserve this excellent school, save the parents, teachers, and students at PS 25 much anxiety, and city taxpayer money.

This is how I closed today's open letter in the Washington Post Answer Sheet:

Chancellor Carranza:  On Tuesday in hearings before the New York City Council, you spoke eloquently about how the city should be celebrating our successful public schools, rather than allowing others to denigrate them. In particular, you noted that you had seen some great teaching in Bed-Stuy schools. If you are serious about this, you should rescind the decision to close this school and instead celebrate its accomplishments.] 

The negative impact on PS 25 families would be severe if this closure is allowed to go forward, especially for the large number of homeless students, because the school is a sanctuary of stability in their lives. As Mark Cannizaro, the president of the CSA, the New York City principals’ union, has said, “the students, families and educators of PS 25 deserve better.”  Instead of closing this exceptional school, we urge you to honor PS 25’s achievements, emulate and expand it — and enable more NYC schools and students to have the same chance to succeed.

Congrats to the parents, students and teachers at this amazing school, to Laura Barbieri, our wonderful pro bono attorney, and my research assistant, Sebastian Spitz, who did much of the data and factual analysis for the case. Here are some of the legal briefs filed in the case, opposing the PS 25 closure:  

Memorandum of Law in Support of Preliminary Injunction to Stop the Closure of PS 25 
The memo of law explains the legal basis for why the DOE must keep PS 25 Eubie Blake open until the court is able to make a final decision on the legal merits, including the irreparable harm to its students if the school closes this year and they have to transfer to lesser schools.

Parents' Legal Petition Against the Closure of PS 25 This verified petition explains the background of the case, including PS 25's high quality, and the legal argument for why the DOE does not have the right to close the school.

Affidavit of Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters My affidavit explaining the research showing the importance of class size, and how PS 25's small class sizes are a critical reason for the school's success.

Appendix to Leonie Haimson's Affidavit: Summary of Class Size Reduction Research on the proven benefits, in the short term and long term, of small class sizes, especially disadvantaged children who make up the overwhelming majority of PS 25 student population.

Affidavit of Crystal Williams  Crystal Williams, parent of two students at PS 25 and the Vice President of the PS PTA, explains how PS 25 has helped her children and why she and other parents oppose its closure.

Order to Show Cause and Request for Temporary Restraining Order to Stop the Closure of PS 25 This document requests that the court prevent the DOE from taking any further steps to close PS 25 until the court decides on its legality. 

Here are the response documents filed by the City:

Verified Answer of DOE in PS 25 Case  The DOE explains why they want to close PS 25 – though they admit on p. 3 that according to their school performance dashboard,  it is the 2^nd best public elementary school in Brooklyn and the fourth best n the city and outperforms all other charter schools than Success Academy Bronx 2 in its positive impact on student achievement and attendance.

Analysis of Public Comments on the Closure of PS 25 This document summarizes the various public hearings, etc. held about the school's proposed closure, revealing widespread public opposition to the plan. 

DOE's Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Temporary Injunction and Show Cause
The Department of Education's argument explaining why they should have the right to close PS 25 before the court makes a final decision on the merits of the case. 

 

The egregious failure of DOE's Renewal program - and the likely illegal proposal to close JHS 145

Since Sunday, the NY Post has run an excellent series on DOE’s Renewal program for struggling schools,  describing the stunning lack of services provided students and instead, millions spent  on consultants, bureaucracy and other unspecified programs   Here is Part I,  Part II is here, here, here and here, followed by Part III and Part IV.  

I have been watching the Renewal program with special attention, especially since the DOE has repeatedly promised the state to focus its class size reduction obligations under the Contract for Excellence law on these schools, but has failed to do so. In May 2015, I wrote about how the DOE’s insistence in co-locating  charter schools in Renewal school buildings would undermine their progress – and make it more difficult for them to have sufficient space to reduce class size or be provided with wrap-around services.  

In November 2015 I testified at City Council hearings about the failure of DOE to reduce class size in these schools.  This fall, I again  blogged about how two of the most persistently struggling Renewal schools in the Bronx, JHS 162 and IS 117, have been on the city's priority list for class size reduction since 2007, when the Contract for Excellence law was first passed; JHS 22 since 2009.  Yet neither when Bloomberg was mayor nor  now under Bill de Blasio has the DOE ever bothered to cap class sizes in these three schools at levels that would guarantee their students a better chance to learn.  

I have also repeatedly critiqued expensive Renewal contracts for problematic CBO’s and consultants for professional development ,  including here and here.  One of the most egregious contracts was awarded retroactively to Scholastic in December 2016, to hold “family workshops” at Renewal schools -- at a cost of $2,291 per hour. 

Now the DOE has announced its intention to close six renewal schools and merge six others – a year before the three years they were promised.  Here are the schools they intend to close, which include JHS 162 and five others:

• J.H.S. 145 Arturo Toscanini, District 9, Bronx
• Leadership Institute, District 9 high school, Bronx
• Monroe Academy for Visual Arts and Design, District 12 high school, Bronx
• M.S. 584, District 16, Brooklyn
• Essence School, District 19 middle school, Brooklyn
• J.H.S. 162 Lola Rodriguez de Tio, District 7, Bronx

Here is a list of meetings on the proposed closures at these schools.  The Panel on Educational Policy will vote on the proposals at its March 22 meeting.  

Of the six schools slated for closure, only JHS 145 in District 9 is a zoned school.  Because JHS 145 is a zoned school, it is not clear to me how the DOE can close it without a vote of Community Education Council in District 9, which has not occurred.

A little history first: In February 2009, then-Chancellor Joel Klein announced he would close three zoned elementary schools:  PS 194 and PS 241 in District 3 and PS 150 in District 23, and put charters in their place.  Eva Moskowitz had asked Klein the year before to give her the two D3 buildings in Harlem for her Success Academy charter chain.

The following month, the NYCLU/UFT sued DOE, on behalf on CEC 3 and CEC 23 as well as parents at these schools, pointing out that the decision to close a zoned school must first be put to a vote of the CEC because it involves changing (or eliminating) zoning lines. Joining as plaintiffs were Randi Weingarten, president of the UFT, and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.  The legal complaint is posted here.  Less than two weeks later, Chancellor Klein dropped his plans to close these schools.

In 2012, then-Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg and the office of Portfolio Planning tried to persuade CECs throughout the city to eliminate their school zoning lines, presumably so he could close more of them and put charter schools in their place.   I wrote a memo on this at the time, warning CEC District 6 and others against allowing DOE to take away the only legally recognized power they had. (See:  Article 52-A - § 2590-E Powers and Duties of Community District Education Council)  Only CEC 7 and CEC 23 agreed to eliminate their zoning lines – but not District 9.  (District 1 had removed its zoning lines years before.)  

Sternberg departed DOE the next year, at the end of Bloomberg’s last term in office,  shortly after announcing  23 proposals to open new charter schools and co-locate new and existing charter schools in public school buildings.  He left to become Education Program director at the pro-privatization Walton Family Foundation, where he has funded many of the charter schools and pro-charter advocacy  organizations in NYC and throughout the country.  

There are many reasons to challenge the closure of JHS 145 and other Renewal schools.  As early as December 2014, DOE promised to focus its class size reduction efforts according to the Contract for Excellence law on these schools, writing: “To better align with the Chancellor’s priorities, C4E’s class size reduction plan will now focus on the 94 schools in the School Renewal program.”  

DOE repeated that promise in the 2015-16 Contract for Excellence plan and again in the C4E plan for this school year, while closing several of these schools without reducing class size.  Indeed, there are still classes as large as 30 at JHS 145 as well as at about 40% of the Renewal elementary and middle schools, and nearly all the Renewal high schools.  

According to our analysis, about 40% of the elementary and middle schools and nearly one third of the high schools in the Renewal program did not decrease schoolwide average class size one iota between 2014-2016. Only two or 3.5% of the elementary and middle schools capped class sizes at 20 students per class in grades K-3 and 23 students or less in grades 4-8, the goals of the city’s original C4E plan. Only one of the Renewal high schools (Orchard Collegiate Academy) has capped class sizes at the C4E HS goal of 25 students per class.  

I believe that the refusal of the DOE to follow through on these promises will doom many of these schools to failure, as I said to the NY Post .  It is especially unconscionable given the high-needs student population at the schools on the Renewal list. 

According to Marilyn Espada, President of CEC 9, the JHS 145 student population is composed of 53 percent English Language Learners, 20 percent students with special needs, and 53 students in temporary housing. Yet there was no ESL Teacher last year, and only one ESL Teacher for 140 ELL students this year. There are no bilingual teachers for the 7^th and 8^th graders.

In addition, many of the extra services and resources the school was promised as part of the Renewal program never happened. The health clinic built for the school has yet to open, and instead of gaining more space,  17 or 18 classrooms were given over to a  Success Academy charter school one year into the Renewal process,  “scattering students across 3 floors of a building,”  and causing the school to lose its computer room.  There is no science lab, no textbooks last year, and nearly 14 percent of teachers were teaching subjects last year in which they were not trained or certified.

The lack of bilingual services is especially disappointing and appears to violate the NYSED consent decree signed by Chancellor Farina in November 2014.  Here is an excerpt from this consent decree:

NYSED followed up in 2015 with a Parent Bill of Rights, which, among other things, states that parents have the right to have their children “in a Bilingual Education (BE) program when there are 20 or more grade-level students that speak the same home/primary language.”  This statement was footnoted with the fact that in NYC schools, a bilingual program is required for students in grades K-8 if 15 or more grade-level students speak the same language in two contiguous grades. 

JHS 145 is not the only Renewal school deprived of funds and the necessary support.  Check out the NY Post story describing how another Renewal school, the Coalition School for Social Change. lacks certified teachers and copy paper, while the principal redecorated her office and pushed out struggling students:

The high school’s classrooms are starved for supplies and qualified teachers, with unlicensed interns leading one class and the kids in others left to learn from videos, sources said.

Meanwhile, the dean who dealt with discipline problems was replaced with a “business manager” described by staffers as a close friend of the school’s new principal, Geralda Valcin, who arrived in March 2016.

Rather than provide the necessary resources and class sizes to this and other Renewal schools,  the DOE has spent millions on more bureaucracy and consultants, , some  with questionable records and backgrounds.  

Here, for example, is the 2007 investigative report from the Special Investigator Richard Condon explaining why he recommended the firing of Frederick Douglass Academy principal Gregory Hodge, a recommendation ignored by DOE.  This was apparently the sixth investigation into Hodge’s activities– the fifth was in 2001 and concerned allegations that he had fixed the grades of basketball players at the school.  A former teacher described Hodge’s leadership style in a harrowing account in the Indypendent in 2010:

The worst part of working at FDA was the principal, whose management style was described by the district United Federation of Teachers representative as “abrasive.” In my experience, shouting was the norm, often peppered with derogatory words and phrases. Neither children nor teachers were spared the kind of verbal abuse one expects from a drill sergeant, not a school principal. But seeing most of my colleagues cowed or resigned to it, I rolled along, until he threatened me one day — saying, “teachers are gonna get their throats cut” — shortly after I and a couple other teachers had called the city and the state to complain about the lack of a certified special education teacher for the sixth grade.

Yet in 2015, Hodge was assigned as the “Leadership coach” at two Bronx Renewal schools.  For his services, DOE is paying $660 per day.  One of the two schools he was assigned to, the Young Scholars Academy, is now being merged with another school, the North Bronx School of Empowerment for failing to “show meaningful progress,” according to the DOE.

Here is the NY Post analysis of the entire Renewal budget, which is far from transparent:   

The annual cost of the program has risen to $186.5 million this school year, with total spending through the 2018-2019 year estimated at $754.2 million, according to the latest figures from the Independent Budget Office.  The Department of Education will not say where all the money goes. The Post has learned that $8.5 million is paid to 72 Office of Renewal Schools “directors” and “instructional coaches.” Since last school year, another $3.7 million went to “leadership coaches,” including many retired principals, each making $660 to $1,400 a day.

Given all the lack of resources and support at JHS 145– from overly large class sizes, lack of ESL and bilingual teachers, to missing science and computer rooms and even books, the students at the school have done surprisingly well, according to this account by three teachers:

Despite years of neglect, our students have won the Thurgood Marshall Junior Mock Trial Competition 8 times, more than any other school in the citywide tournament.

Our students have won the BronxWRITeS Poetry Slam more than any other school in the city, recently sharing the stage with Mayor De Blasio and Ambassador Caroline Kennedy in an exhibition at Goldman Sachs. 

Surely, the students at this school and other Renewal schools deserve a better chance to excel, by providing them with smaller classes, sufficient bilingual and ESL teachers, and all the other services and programs that all children need and deserve, but especially students with such disadvantaged backgrounds – instead of the DOE continuing to spend millions on an army of overpaid consultants and bureaucrats.