NEW YORK, NY September 16, 2008 — The city's elementary and middle schools have received their second annual progress report cards from the Department of Education. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more. REPORTER: The progress reports suggest that the city's schools are doing far better this year, with half as many F's and a big spike in the number of A's and B's. Schools officials said last year's lower grades spurred teachers and students into action. Lena Gates is the principal of P.S. 5 in Bushwick, which went from an F to an A, largely due to better test scores. GATES: And that was one of the key focuses here, because our teachers then saw that the children had to get to a certain level, so they pushed and pushed and pushed to get the children to those levels. REPORTER: But according to Randi Weingarten of the teacher's union, the grades are far too dependent on standardized test scores. Even more critical was the group "Class Size Matters," which said the good grades are nonsensical, and mask the basic problems of large class sizes, and chronically low graduation rates. For WNYC, I'm Arun Venugopal.