[Greens-Media] Rees should not fall for Klein’s report card gimmicks

[John Kaye]

Rees should not fall for Klein’s report card gimmicks
 
Media release: 26 November 2008
 
NSW Premier Nathan Rees should not be fooled by smooth talking New York
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and his punitive name-and-shame school
leagues tables, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye
 
Commenting on today’s meeting at Blackwattle Bay High School between
the Chancellor and the Premier, Dr Kaye said: "Learning from New York
would be like adopting the US model for health care.
 
"More than 85 per cent of New York principals say that they are unable
to provide a quality education to their students.
 
"Parents are up in arms after five years of Joel Klein's administration
failed to deliver improvements in class sizes, according to a parents
survey.
 
"Chancellor Klein's name-and-shame league table gimmicks and punitive
school closures are an educational failure.
 
"Test results in New York Schools have not improved and in some cases
they have declined since Joel Klein became Chancellor.
 
"He has resorted to a bizarre form of bracket creep to make his
performance look better than it is. 
 
"Two thirds of increase in the grading of high schools and all of the
improvements in elementary schools appear to be due to reducing the
cut-off.
 
"New York City Department of Education reports reveal that the
thresholds for league table grades was slashed by up to 6.2 per cent
between 2007 and 2008.
 
"By lowering the bar he has admitted that his name-and-shame prejudices
have not worked.
 
"This is the bureaucratic equivalent of fudging his own report card.
 
"In almost one in six elementary schools rated A by Klein's report
card, over half the students failed to reach proficiency in New York
State’s reading test. 
 
"NSW is doing much better than New York without any of the punitive
gimmicks Chancellor Klein has inflicted on his schools," Dr Kaye said. 
 
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455