Sunday, June 23, 2013

NY TIMES FINALLY DISCOVERS REGENTS SCORING MESS

I am nowhere near the Regents scoring sites this weekend but the problems apparently are not yet resolved.  At last the NY Times has discovered that there is something wrong. This is from the Times piece:

"Erin Hughes, a spokeswoman for the city's Education Department, said the city would hire extra teachers for the weekend so that exams could be graded before the school year ends on Wednesday.  She said that the problem affected fewer than 3 percent of the roughly 57,000 seniors and that each year there was a relatively small number of students who received their scores, and their diplomas, after graduation ceremonies."

Is the DOE serious?  Can anyone remember scoring of Regents being delayed until after graduation?

In past years I recall the guidance people urging us as soon as exams ended for the scores of the seniors. Those tests could be pulled to score first to make sure graduation was not imperiled.  If someone did not pass, he/she was called in as soon as possible so that families could be informed in a timely manner.

Unfortunately now that we have people running the school system who have no idea what it is like to run a school, the students invariably lose out.  If we give the DOE the benefit of the doubt and say that it is not 3% but only 2% of students who are impacted by this snafu, that means 1,140 young people have been waiting around to find out if they graduated because of scoring delays.  In addition, spokeswoman Hughes is now pushing back the completion date of the grading until Wednesday.  I thought they said it would be done by Monday.

Comptroller John Liu is the only mayoral candidate that I know of who has called for a solution:

"It is unconscionable that students, families and schools should suffer through fake graduations because their Regents grades are unknown," Liu said.  "The more than $3 million paid to McGraw Hill should be returned to the city immediately, the grades students received on their regular final exams in these subject areas should be substituted for the Regents, and normal graduations should go on starting today and through the rest of the school year."


The quote is taken from a Gotham Schools piece on the scoring problems.  Gotham has been on this extensively throughout the week.

We agree with Liu as students should not have to pay the price for adult errors.

7 comments:

NYC Educator said...

I agree with most of what you wrote, until you went and referred to the Tweedies as "adults."

Anonymous said...

Two percent, three percent, ten percent, no problem: the kids are just numbers to these people.

Somehow, I imagine if it was their child who hadn't received their scores and whose graduation was imperiled - nearly impossible, since these Ivy League know-nothings are either 25 years old without children, or wouldn't 't dream of sending their own kids to public school - they'd take it a little more seriously.

Chaz said...

I could have not ststed it better myself.

Anonymous said...

I can only imagine if there was no confidentiality agreement for 3-8 Math/ELA

mike said...

"people running the school system "
I agree with NYC Educator, I need ICE to prove there are really "people" running the school system.

Anonymous said...

i think erin hughes should have to wait a really really really long time before she ever gets another job - after her you know what gets dumped by the next administration - what a tool

Anonymous said...

She will get another job with some charter chain and make a lot more money than a lowly teacher.