Remember Garrison Keillor’s popular radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion”? It was about life in the fictional town of Lake Wobegone, Wisconsin, a place where “men were men, women were women and all the children were above average.”
Well, New York state seems to have become the anti-Lake Wobegone — where all our teachers are officially above average but most of our students are below. Here are the two key numbers related to our state’s public schools that just don’t add up:
- 91.5 percent of the state’ s teachers (excluding New York City) are “highly effective” or “effective,” according to Tuesday’s statewide teachers’ ratings.
- 31 percent of the state’s third-to-eighth graders are proficient in math and reading, according to the latest scores on state tests.