Hold the wailing. The city’s announcement that 21,000 students are headed for summer school should not be confused with bad news. It is instead a welcome sign that standards are being raised.
The scandal isn’t that the summer-school population will be more than double last year’s. The scandal is that so many kids have been promoted when they clearly weren’t ready.
Six years after Mayor Bloomberg supposedly ended social promotion, the brakes are just now being slammed on the insidious practice. No more phony test results where answering as few as seven questions correctly out of 39 rates a passing grade on state standardized exams.
It took so long to begin facing facts because educrats and pols, while insisting they really wanted kids to learn, couldn’t handle the truth that many weren’t. They covered their failure to teach by passing kids who failed to learn.
This malpractice is the educational version of the subprime-mortgage debacle, where nobody heard the word “no” because everybody profited from saying “yes.” It’s a scam that works — until it crashes and burns.
So it has been for New York students, many of whom never recover the lost years and end up on society’s ash heap.
Consider that of the 2008 graduating class, 74 percent of those who went to city community colleges needed remediation in math or reading or both. That is an outrage.
Kids must be allowed to fail so they can understand what it takes to succeed. As many adults know, a fear of failure is the best motivator.
To be sure, the fix is tentative and not nearly bold enough. Now 20 correct answers, instead of seven, out of 39 questions are the minimum needed to pass the sixth-grade reading test.
Twenty correct answers out of 49 questions, instead of just 14, are needed to pass the sixth-grade math test. The changes affect about 335,000 students in grades 3 through 8.
By raising the so-called cut scores, the city is acknowledging that the state set the bar too low. But officials didn’t act completely voluntarily.
Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch told me last year she was determined to “restore the integrity” of the state tests. With new Education Commissioner David Steiner, that’s what she’s doing.
Steiner replaced Richard Mills, the man most responsible for dumbing down the standards and making many diplomas a sick joke.
Anticipating where the state will set the new cut scores, the city used raw test data and recommended summer school for those who didn’t make the cut.
Notice I said recommended. The city doesn’t require summer school, only that students pass a new test in August to be promoted.
There is a second scandal that grows out of the test-grade inflation. Many principals and teachers got large bonuses on the basis of the phony scores, and the bonuses boosted pensions of those retiring, meaning taxpayers will be paying for the rip-off for years.
Here’s an idea: How about a clawback provision of the kind banks are imposing on their bonus babies? If deals that helped determine bonuses turn sour, top employees have to give back some of their bonuses.
It’s designed to keep the bankers honest and make sure their compensation reflects the true success of their company. Given the far more important work teachers and principals do, they ought to meet the same standard.
Now watch the wailing begin on that one!
Dems in Congress must ‘Stand with Israel’
As the White House continues to turn the screws on Israel, some in Congress finally are saying, “Stop!” Unfortunately, none is a Democrat.
Rep. Pete King, a Long Island Republican, aims to put America squarely on the side of our beleaguered ally. That King sees the need to do it through binding legislation tells you how far President Obama has careened off course.
The America Stands with Israel Act is direct and, at five pages, refreshingly concise. Noting that Hamas is a terrorist organization that aims to destroy Israel, the bill would require the US to withdraw from the loony UN Council on Human Rights, which, predictably, condemned Israel after the Gaza flotilla incident. The bill also would prohibit the use of American funds to investigate Israel.
About 40 Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors, but not a single Democrat has. Given the stakes and clarity, it seems fair to conclude all Dems agree with Obama that Israel is the obstacle to peace, or they are guilty of putting party loyalty ahead of Israel’s survival.
Either way, they are wrong.
“Barack Obama’s view of the world is that there is too much belligerency coming from the United States and Israel,” King told me. “He looks at the plight of the Palestinians and blames Israel. Not Arafat, not Abbas and not the Arab countries that have let the Palestinians live in squalor for 60 years.”
One result of that warped view is a White House push for Israel to drop its Gaza embargo. Why stop there? Why not just save time and demand that Israel arm Hamas directly?
Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard lawyer, captured the moral imbalance. As quoted by Michael Medved in Commentary magazine, Dershowitz put it this way:
“If the Palestinians put down their weapons, there would be peace tomorrow. If the Israelis put down their weapons, there would be genocide tomorrow.”
Is it possible Obama doesn’t understand that?
Move it, pedal head!
The midday scene on West 57th Street and Ninth Avenue in Manhattan: Traffic crawls as cars and trucks dangerously weave around a barely moving pedicab. Its driver is yakking on a cellphone — no doubt practicing to be a real cabdriver.
Obama’s ‘get mad’ fad
One of the most remarkable things about President Obama’s tenure is that he hasn’t listened to the public, acting as though his election was a blank check. Until now.
His sea legs swept away by the gusher of Gulf oil, the president’s claims that he’s been on top of the situation since “Day One” haven’t fooled anyone. So he suddenly seems to have adopted a policy of responding instantly and directly to public criticism. It’s almost as though he’s following orders to regain lost credibility.
His three trips to the Gulf came after broadsides that he hadn’t done and cared enough. Just last week, after more criticism, he finally met with families of the 11 men lost in the explosion back on April 20.
Encouraged to show anger, he immediately vowed to “kick ass.” And only after reports surfaced that he had never talked with the head of BP did he invite company officials to the White House for a meeting this week.
Seen through rose-colored glasses, the moves could be a sign that he’s learning. On the other hand, it’s frightening that he needs to be instructed in such basic tenets of leadership.
See no more evil
Rocked by scandal and tanking public approval, Democrats in Congress have hit on an idea: Fire the watchdogs. The agency that Dems put in place to prove they were serious about fighting corruption, the Office of Congressional Ethics, is apparently too successful at finding it.
The push to end it makes perfect Washington sense. See, if there’s no watchdog, there’s no barking. And if there’s no barking, voters will go back to sleep. Brilliant.