News

NEW YORK, NY November 01, 2007 —City principals will get their grades next week. The Education Department is handing out it’s first-ever progress reports. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

REPORTER: The reports will have A through F letter grades for each school. They factor in the school's environment, its test scores, and whether there was any increase in student achievement. Chancellor Klein says this last part is critical.

KLEIN: We are underscoring our core belief that the most important measure of a school is how well its students are actually learning.

REPORTER: Schools that make huge progress could receive better grades than schools with higher test scores. Some principal’s worry there could be mistakes with the data. Klein acknowledges there were a few problems, but says they've been fixed.

The reports are part of a new 80 million dollar computer system for tracking achievement and helping schools identify struggling students. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.