Keep Consistent

It comes as little surprise to this paper that the effort to railroad 19 schools – including Jamaica High School – into closure was, at best, contrived. According to a report issued this week by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, the DOE’s standards for closing were not met, and even if they had been, the standards are lacking just that – a consistent measurable standard.

Perhaps the schools would know what their goals were if the standards by which they are measured wouldn’t continuously fluctuate.

It seems that the data used for measuring success keeps changing, and it is merely at the whim of the Chancellor that schools are opened, closed, re-sited or co-located.

Yes, overall some numbers that track performance have gone up, but the standards of performance keep changing so, again, we have no way of knowing the true performance of a school on a year-to-year basis.

When the Chancellor threw out all the old curriculums used throughout the city and replaced them with a single set eight years ago, the idea was that we could compare apples to apples to see which schools and districts truly needed the most help.

It would seem today that the same should happen for the standards for closing to which a school is held. Before the DOE heads down the road toward attempting again to close Jamaica High School, they should reveal a consistent data set to show the actual need rather than manufacturing the numbers to suit their own needs.