Spin Cycle

A segment from today's ny1.com's news on the release of a new list of failing schools in nyc. Afterwards the reporters dispense with the tweed spin, "We had more kids tested, there were more ELL's included on tests this year." True, but so did the rest of the state and I wonder how true is the claim that the city has the greatest percentage of ELL's and if so, to what degree? The suburbs have an ever increasing ELL population. Here's nyceducator's take on it

Nonetheless, here is how the Daily News characterized the story:
The report is a sting to Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who have trumpeted improvements in test scores and graduation rates as proof that their sweeping school reforms are working. Many of the schools the state judged to be failing did well on the city's new and controversial school grading system.Of the 65 schools added to the list, nine earned an A from the city, 21 earned B's and only four earned an F. Anybody notice a trend when it comes to these statistics?When Bloomberg and Klein control the lists, the stats, the report cards and/or the testing methodologies, the city does wonderfully and Bloomberg's education reforms are helping kids make progress. Yet when the state judges the same schools that Bloomberg and Klein handed "A's" and "B's" to, many of them are listed as failing. And when the feds released the NAEP tests, the results show the city has made little-to-no progress on test scores since Bloomberg took office (as opposed to the state tests which show "great progress" for city students according to Bloomberg and Klein.) And then there are the graduation rate accounting methods Bloomberg and Klein use - simply don't count the kids who don't graduate and the city graduation rates skyrocket! Hmmm- looks like Bloomberg and Klein brought their own Houston Miracle to New York City.