Top 60 Schools In NYC

Wednesday, the Daily News ran an article highlighting the 60 best high schools in NYC.  Read close and don't be too happy even if your school is mentioned, or even if it is in the top half.

Baruch College Campus Magnet is school number 19.  It boasts of a 99% graduation rate but only has a 47.1% college readiness index.  The school shows 96% of their students go on to post high school programs but there is no indication of what percent of this 96% actually succeed.  Francis Lewis High School just makes the cut off for the top half at number 30.  It boasts of an 86% graduation rate but only has 38.5% of their graduates college ready.  While 77% go on to some sort of post secondary education, you have to wonder how many spend years in remediation and how many others just never finish.  No one bothers with these stats.  Once the kids are out the door, the high schools are finished.

I taught high school for over 30 years.  The school I started in had a low graduation rate, but the students who graduated and went on the college succeeded.   They got a real education, passing when they deserved to pass and failing and repeating when they didn't.  The school offered alternative programs and no one got a free ride.  While many did not go on to college, they learned the importance of working for what they received.   Things are not the same now.  High school education has become a joke.  Kids pass because teachers are afraid to fail them.  There is credit recovery and after school programs where credits are given for showing up a few times.I've even heard of APs encouraging special education teachers to coach their students while taking exams and APs translating questions into native languages but actually doing a lot more than just translating.

I teach at a local community college.  Last night, during an exam,  boy from one of these schools came up to me and said, "Professor, I don't know how to do this problem.  Can you just give me the answer."  He wasn't kidding.  A former teacher from his school told me I shouldn't have been surprised.  That is what happened there.  Colleagues were talking about remedial classes where students don't do homework, don't buy books and sleep or text constantly in class.  These kids are what made the best high schools what they are.  These kids are not going to be successful.  The whole thing is a sham and our kids are the biggest losers.

If the Daily News and other media really care about investigative reporting, they should look closer into what  the statistics they posted actually mean.

What Farina Needs To Do

Instead of raising the graduation rates of NYC high schoolers, Farina and De Blasio should improve education.  What good is a 70% graduation rate if the majority of the graduates can barely read, write and do arithmetic?  What does a 70% graduation rate mean when the majority of college freshman must take remedial classes and many do not make it through?

If Farina and De Blasio are really serious about improving education in the city, the graduation rate will fall and only those who have earned the diploma and are ready to go on to college or careers will be getting them.  They will do away with phony online courses, boot camps and administrators who brow beat their teachers into giving answers during exams.

I predict this won't happen over night (or at all.)  This country is too hung up on numbers and no one will stop to look at what the lower statistic means in terms of a real education.

The Little Boy Grew Up





I got to know John really well because he was in my class 4 consecutive terms.  The first term I felt sorry for him.  He was a nice kid that didn't seem to have much on the ball when it came to academics.  I quickly recommended him for a double period the second term, figuring the extra time would compensate for his lack of ability.  This term I got to know him, and his two buddies really well.  I learned that their goals in life were to play baseball and to own a surf shop on the beach. I also saw they were bright, just unmotivated.   Math did not come into play in either of  their areas of interest.  But, in spite of this, I still adored John and often went to watch him play ball, taking my own son along to enjoy the game.  The third and fourth terms were not much different.  He muddled along, passing, but barely.

John graduated from Packemin and went on to a two year community college.  In the middle of his third year he decided he wanted to be a teacher and came back to Packemin for observations.  His professor even okayed him observing my class although history was going to be his field.  Four years after entering the two year college, he graduated.   Seven years after his high school graduation, John completed his BA, got his teaching certification and began teaching in a Queens high school.  I was so happy for him I even sent him a graduation check.  (John's mom worked with me.  She told me he framed it and hung it on his wall.)  John is now a wonderful teacher and baseball coach, loved and respected by all.

I was reminded of John's story while talking to an old friend this afternoon.  John was certainly not college ready when he graduated from Packemin or even in his first few years at college, but he ended up doing well.  Kids will become college ready when and if they are ready, and not before.  No testing needed. 

When John came back to observe me and tell me he wanted to teach in my image I was flattered.  Maybe I could have done more for him in the math department but I probably more than made up for it with inspiration, something no tests will ever measure.  I am proud of John and proud of me for what I accomplished with him and countless others.

Keeping The Myth Alive

Dear Math Teachers,

Please disregard everything I said all year about how you should only pass students who have learned something and have passed exams and the regents and pass everyone who came to class and sat for the regents.  We all know they didn't have a shot in hell of passing, but that does not matter.  We have to perpetuate the myth that they will graduate and be college ready.  I know many of you know these students are not even ready for high school math, but we have to keep our A rating and keep our school looking good.  The colleges will make them take remedial math, but that is not our problem, it is the problem of the college, something I care nothing about.   Once the kids leave our school, they are not our responsibility anymore.

I want to thank everyone for all the time they spent tutoring students.  But, please do not let this go to your head.  The slightest little thing you do that displeases me will cause my memory to go blank on these good deeds.  I will not hesitate to throw you under the bus.  For those of you who are new, just ask some of the older teachers about how I handled Ms. Pissed Off.  She always did everything and more than I could ever want from a teacher, but, when she disagreed with me, well, you don't want to know what I did and what I tried to do.

You have no idea how grateful I am to be surrounded by people who are afraid of their own shadows and do everything I ask

Thought On AP Classes



I just finished reading this article about AP classes and, for once, found myself in total agreement with something in the media.

AP classes are something I feel qualified to write about.  I began teaching AP calculus at Packemin in 1995 and did so until the day I retired.  I attended week long workshops and day long seminars whenever I could.  While I am not the brightest person around, teaching AP made me a better teacher.  Over the years, I learned how to get my students to not only learn the material, pass the exam but to apply these thinking skills to other academic areas and to real life.

Here are a few things from the article I feel pertinent that I would like to comment on.

If math teacher Jaime Escalante could lead low-income Los Angeles students to AP calculus glory in the story that became the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver," why not others?

This is a sentence I have been saying for years.  True, none of us are going to dedicate our lives like Mr. Escalante did, but we can succeed with more if work with an adminstration ready and willing to help.  Mr. Escante was able to weed out students who were not motivated and did not belong.  Another problem is that we don't start early enough with our students.  I always felt  ninth graders should be nurtured, especially when they come to high school showing some ability to succeed. At Packemin, too many minority students are relegated to four term (slow) algebra classes.  Too many are branded early on because of a placement test that does not accurately show their ability.  Because of this sequence, they never have time to move up to AP level.  These classes are riddled with kids who have behavior problems and severe academic issues.  There are too many kids in classes like these who are held back.  With the proper help they could make it too.

Passing an AP exam means demonstrating college-level skill, so a high failure rate isn't necessarily surprising or alarming. Many educators insist the AP coursework preceding those exams is valuable regardless.

I have to agree with this one as well.  Former students who did not do well in AP have written to me about their success in college calculus and pre-calculus and credit the AP class they took in high school for their success.  They got "A's" easily and watched classmates who had not taken AP struggle and fail.  The AP class gave them a much needed foundation and prepared them for college, something their other courses failed to do.  So, while the failure rate demonstrates that students are not performing at college level, the course has more than succeeded in preparing them for college level which is, after all, the job of high school.  One teacher wrote that taking AP kept his students out of remedial classes in college.

Sean Martin, who helped start an AP literature program at Heritage High School in Baltimore before moving this year to another school, said some of his AP students read at a seventh-grade level.
"I knew for a lot of them ... it was going to be very difficult to get them even to the level of a 2," he said. Still, he said, simply putting students who want to push themselves together in a class with a goal is valuable.
"We set a higher bar and we could do things a little differently, and really have meaningful class discussions," he said. Classes "take on a different feel when every student in the room is success-oriented."

My sentiments exactly and one of the reasons I fought so hard to let kids who wanted to take the class in, even if their grades were not up to Mr. AP's standards.

"It's kind of an easy reform — plunk in an AP course," said University of Northern Colorado scholar Kristin Klopfenstein, who edited a recent collection of studies on the AP program. But without accompanying steps, it's not clear AP does much good, especially for students scoring 1s and 2s. "What I've observed in a lot of cases is AP programs being helicopter-dropped in with the hope that the high standards themselves would generate results."

Another valid point.  Without the proper background and support system, AP classes are useless.

For many years, Newsweek Magazine used the number of AP exams a school takes as the basis of judging the best American  high schools.  A new formula counts these exams 40 percent for this category.  It costs the schools lots of money to offer AP classes.  Packemin restricted the number of kids eligible to take math because of money.  But, every kid is required to take government and English so it cost nothing to put students in AP classes in these areas whether they were prepared or not and these classes became dumping grounds.

AP classes will help many, but not all.  Kids who can't multiply or can't write a coherent sentence belong in high school readiness classes, not AP classes.  Standards are needed and more kids need access but this alone will not solve the problems many high school graduates are facing today.

Good luck to all students taking AP exams now.  I know their teachers will breath a sigh of relief now that they are over. 

Another College Supervisor Speaks

I got this in answer to e-mail I sent supervisor #2.

Mr AP's email was very interesting.  I assume that he realizes that students need to complete three years of regents level math through Integrated Intermediate Algebra and Trigonometry in addition to getting an 80 on one of the three regent exams.

He seems to think an 80 on one regents is enough.  It is only enough to help him.

Gone But Still Sickened

As I have written before, several of my colleagues have been forwarding me Mr. AP's memos.  While they have no affect on my life, they still sicken me.  Take this line, for example:

 

CUNY does not consider a student College Ready unless they scored 80 or higher on at least one of the Math Regents exams while they take in high school.  Therefore, students who scored a grade lower than 80 on MXRE or MXRG have been notified to retake the Regents exam. 

A child studying on his own will only score higher than an 80 if they have intensive help.  It is common knowledge that the longer the students are away from a subject, the more they forget.  teacher  The 80 DOES NOT MEAN the work has been mastered, only that the test has.  I have watched tests being looked over and seen points magically pulled from the air to give kids these points, points which help the school but do nothing for the student.  Mr. AP claims he doesn't want kids to have to take remedial math because he doesn't want them to pay for it but these kids need that extra term.  I've seen the kids who walk into the college math class ill prepared because all they ever did in high school was learn to pass an exam and they don't succeed.  It is far better to let them take one term of remedial math than to watch them fail term after term and eventually drop out.

Please do your best to convince them to retake the MXRE.  If they score higher than 80, their chances of passing MR21/MR22 increase drastically.  Provided, they have been working with algebra in MR21, there is no reason why they will not score over 80 in MXRE, particularly if  they are passing.

An 80 on the regents is the equivalent of a 63.75%.  The colleges are working hard to keep standards and help students.  They can't do this when kids come out of high school knowing so little.  The 80 he is looking for will help the school, and especially the math department look better but will do nothing for the students.  If anyone is really interested in using data, perhaps the kids who got these inflated 80's should be followed and their success rate should be noted.

More Than A Step Behind



A group of low-level freshman heard me talking about calculator use being forbidden in the college classes I teach.  He heard this as he was handing his ID card in to get a calculator for the days lesson.  I heard him say, "Mr., why do you make us use calculators when we won't be able to use them in college?"  The boy was clearly disturbed about the caliber of education he was receiving.

I left before I heard the teachers answer so I don't know how he justified calculator use to this student but I do know the AP of the department is demanding that all classes use a calculator daily.  Education and college readiness is not a step behind statistics, it is the being on the first step of the staircase  leading to the top of the Empire State Building behind.

Tools

It is no surprise that kids graduating high school today are not ready for college.  But, when  Clara Hemphill of The New School's Insideschools.org. compares Bloomberg's new schools to the older ones, you've got to wonder what clueless imbeciles are actually working inside these schools today.

 "Those diplomas are probably not worth very much, but it's better than dropping out with a sixth-grade education, which is what was happening before."

There is no denying the drop out rate was higher years ago but there is also no denying that earning a high school diploma meant kids were ready to face the world, be it as a college student or a worker. A diploma meant the acquisition of skills needed for life.  It wasn't a gift.  What is the point of awarding a diploma without any worth? Even the drop outs of yesterday were better off than many of the graduates of today.  These kids learned that life wasn't a free ride and they had to work for what they wanted.  They couldn't get high end jobs but they could get jobs,  support themselves and their families and be productive members of society.  Now, these would be drop outs have the unearned piece of paper and believe life should be full of the same entitlements.

People like Hemphill are tools of the Bloomberg administration.  They are the ones destroying the youth of today and insuring a disastrous future for all.