NEW YORK, NY July 09, 2009 —The architect of the controversial A through F grading system for city schools is stepping down. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

REPORTER: James Liebman is a civil rights lawyer who was hired by Chancellor Klein three years ago to build an $80 million computer network called ARIS for tracking student achievement. That data was used to give schools A through F letter grades based on whether their students made progress from one year to the next.

Some parents complained that so-called good schools got bad marks under this formula. But some educators at low performing schools felt the grades finally rewarded their efforts. Liebman says he believes the new system got educators to focus on helping every child improve, and led to higher test scores.

He had taken a partial leave of absence from Columbia Law School, and will go back to teaching there full time while working on special projects for the city schools. His position will be filled temporarily by Shael Polakow Suransky, a 15 year veteran of the schools. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.