The Great Escape

Defending School Report Cards, Over a Chorus of Boos
By JENNIFER MEDINA, from the nytimes

an excerpt:

After Mr. Liebman finished speaking, several parents gathered outside of the council chambers with boxes filled with protest petitions containing nearly 7,000 signatures, hoping to present them to Mr. Liebman in front of the television cameras. But Mr. Liebman, whose title is chief accountability officer of the Education Department, ducked out a side door, leaving parents to chase him out the back of City Hall to behind the Education Department’s headquarters at Tweed Courthouse.

There, several education officials ran in circles for several minutes to avoid Jane Hirschmann, the director of Time Out From Testing, an advocacy group, as well as parents and reporters.

Later, in a telephone interview, Mr. Liebman said he had not deliberately avoided the parents and had followed the direction of his staff in leaving the building. By the time Ms. Hirschmann and others were outside, he said, “it didn’t look to me like it was going to be a productive conversation.”

Ms. Hirschmann said she was “completely in shock” by Mr. Liebman’s behavior. “I think it shows total distain for all our concerns,” she said.