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SOUND UP AND UNDER: kids laughing, talking, yelling
NARR: It's eight o'clock on a Wednesday morning at PS 34. Ten of Liz MAY-er's students come in for the early morning session and walk upstairs to the classroom.
FADE TO QUIET CLASSROOM
NARR: Mayer stands near the chalkboard and begins a reading and writing lesson as her fourth-grade students sit on a carpet around her.
MAYER: Yesterday we talked about the word react. What does this word mean?
SOUND OF WRITING ON THE CHALKBOARD
NARR: This early-morning session is new this year, courtesy of a contract the city negotiated with the teachers' union last fall. It's one of a number of extra-help programs the mayor has implemented since 2002 - Saturday school; after-school; tutoring, summer school. He beefed up existing programs and extended school days - all in an effort to improve the city's education system.
STUDENT: If you see a car accident and you have a reaction to it…
MAYER: Ok, you gave me an example, can you define it?
NARR: The other fifteen students haven't arrived yet. This 37-minute session is for the children who have failed at least one standardized test this year - tests they need in order to advance to the next grade. The English Language Arts test was in January and at the end of March, they took the last of this year's tests - the three-day state math exam. Liz Mayer says it was tough on the kids.
LIZ MAYER: I had tears on every day of testing. And some from very diligent students who are often very upset. They do place a lot of pressure on themselves. So, there's a lot of nervousness. I had kids sick to their stomach during and after the test because of anxiety and stress. And it's also just a lot of time to be sitting there, focused, for someone who is nine years old.
NARR: Ironically, the city doesn't mandate that kids in fourth grade pass standardized tests to move to the next grade. That requirement is for students in third, fifth and seventh grades. But students take at least one standardized test every year: some years it's a city exam, some years it's from the state. Liz Mayer's school and many others use the yearly tests as the main factor for promotion, even though that's not required. The students know it. One of Mayer's fourth graders, nine-year old Shirley, says she was so nervous about the math test that she couldn't concentrate on test day.
SHIRLEY: Officially, when the time was up, I didn't get to finish // I always get 3s and 4s and I always pay attention // And if I fail the test and I get left back, it's not fair because I'm always good.
NARR: Shirley's threes and fours are good grades - a four is the top grade on a scale. She points out two of the main criticisms of high-stakes tests - that they put too much pressure on kids, and that they can prevent otherwise successful students from going on to the next grade. Students can appeal if they fail the test, but teachers say it's often difficult.
SOUND UP: Kids talking.
MAYER: OK, get your books and go to your desk for reading period.
SOUND UNDER, FADE TO FLANDRO'S QUIET CLASSROOM
NARR: Across the hall, another fourth grade teacher, Jennifer Flandro, is preparing her lessons for the day. Flandro says the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has had a big effect on the culture of schools in New York. That law mandates testing, but does not require schools to retain children in their current grade if they flunk the tests. That requirement was Mayor Bloomberg's innovation. Flandro says the pressure from the city and the state to get the test scores up has changed the way she teaches.
JENNIFER FLANDRO: At the beginning of the year, probably about two months into the year I was thinking, I don't really like these kids. In the past I felt like I'd really connected. And I thought about it more and I thought, well, I don't know them. I could tell you what level they read at. I could tell you their test scores last year. I could tell you what math skills they have. And I realized that they way I was teaching, I wasn't teaching people, I was just teaching these little mathematicians and readers, but not real people.
NARR: Flandro says she's not opposed high-stakes testing in principal, but the weight of the exams in New York is forcing other elements of good education to the wayside. She sees this in the example of one girl who came to her class in the fall with a low reading score.
JENNIFER FLANDRO: I was reading with her the other day and she was reading about a girl who did something with a daisy. And she didn't know what a daisy was. And I realized she can't understand this because she doesn't have the vocabulary. And then I think, well what are we doing to give her the vocabulary? Well, we're telling her to go to summer school instead of playing outside, going to camp, going somewhere where she might realize, see for herself what a daisy is.
NARR: The city argues that the new emphasis on reading and math, with revamped summer school and extra tutoring -- is exactly what kids need to catch up. And there's a lot of catching up to do. Perhaps the most damning statistic is that New York State has been graduating only 61 percent of its high school students in recent years. New York City's number is similar. That places the state in the bottom quarter of the nation in terms of graduation rate. Andrew Jacob, a spokesperson for the city's Department of Education, says that this fact was one of mayor Bloomberg's main concerns.
ANDREW JACOB: There were a lot of kids in the upper grades, middle school and even high school who just hadn't learned basic reading and math skills. And as a result they just weren't prepared to succeed in the later grades. And they had just been pushed through the grades even though it was clear that they hadn't mastered the basic skills they need // (to succeed in the later grades.)
WALTER HANEY: Introducing a new testing program is a fairly cheap political ploy.
NARR: That's Walter Haney (HAY-knee), an education professor at Boston College and senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Educational Policy.
WALTER HANEY: You introduce a new testing program, people don't know much about it. And so the initial results are poor, initially. After a few years, the results tend to improve just because people are learning about the specifics of the testing program. // So a politician, without having to actually invest in paying teachers, can introduce a new testing program, the results are bad, they say see, we've got a problem. And people learn over a period of three or four years the tradition of the test the results tend to improve and the politician can say, not only did I identify the problem, we're doing something to improve it.
NARR: But Department of Ed spokesman Andrew Jacob argues they are doing something to improve the schools. For example, in 2001, the year before Mayor Bloomberg got control of the schools, about 21 percent of all New York City students in grades three through eight failed the state literacy test. By 2005, that number had dropped to 12 percent. Jacob says those gains are meaningful because the tests are tied to the state standards.
ANDREW JACOB: So when they do well on tests that are tied to standards, sure some people are going to say, they did better on the test, but what does that mean?
It means they learned what they needed to learn to do well on those tests. So it shows that they've got the skills they need, they've got the skills they needed to learn in that grade.
NARR: With the New York public schools in such bad shape, many educational theorists are competing for the right to fix the problem. In 2009, the law that gives the mayor control over the city's school system will expire. There's already a cadre of education advocates lining up to oppose extending it. It's a group called "Task Force 2009" and one of their goals is to eliminate high-stakes tests. They're going to spend the next three years gathering support to do just that. Elsa Heidorn, Columbia Radio News.