Amid strong protests, Major Bloomberg’s third grade promotion policy was approved by the Department of Education’s policy panel last night by a vote of 8 to 5. However, Bloomberg’s success – after a three-month battle since he proposed the policy in January – was marred by the abrupt firing by Mayor Bloomberg and Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro of three panel members who opposed the plan.
The atmosphere of the policy panel meeting last night was fiery. People who opposed the policy, including Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, Council Members Eva Moskowitz, Robert Jackson, Bill Perkins and Margarita Lopez, as well as many education advocates, strongly expressed their outrage. They reemphasized the harm in holding back students based only on their test scores, and accused Bloomberg of trying to better his reelection bid by improving – at all costs – the average test scores for fourth graders citywide.
The anger in the crowd increased when the voting results came out. The sudden firing of three of the 13-person policy panel provoked strong suspicion about the fairness of the voting. The three members, Joan McKeever Thomas, appointed by the Staten Island Borough President and Ramona Hernandez and Susana Torruella Leval, appointed by Bloomberg, were likely to vote against the policy. However, they only sat silently in the audience last night because, they said, they each received an e-mail or voice message that afternoon telling them that their positions on the policy panel had been terminated. Three new members were immediately appointed by Bloomberg; they all voted yes.
David Chang, the only Chinese member on the panel, was in China and participated through a teleconference system to cast his “yes” vote.
With the approval of the policy, the city’s third graders will take the standardized English and math tests next month. Those whose scores are on level one, the lowest level, will be required to attend summer school and to retake the test in August. Those who fail again have to retake third grade. The policy, which will affect as many as 15,000 students, has African-American and Hispanic parents greatly concerned.
For Chinese parents, this new policy is not a black and white issue. “I grew up in China where students are held back from the first grade on if they cannot pass the exams,” said Grace Chang, a mother of a third grader. “To me, this policy is nothing new.” However, the pressure the promotion policy could bring to kids still worried Chang. “As for my own experience, I believe it’s good for kids to have some pressure. But my daughter was born in the United States and has been used to the comparatively free atmosphere in the classroom. I don’t know how she will deal with the pressure of the test.”
Chinese education experts also raised concerns about the test format. The standard test third graders will take this April contains 50 questions that must be answered in a 65-minute period. “A standardized test cannot measure the true reading and writing levels of a kid, because you are only required to choose the answer rather than to come up with the answers on your own,” said Teresa Hsu, the director of Asian American Communications, an education advocacy organization in Chinatown. “I’m worried the test will hold back kids who should be promoted.”
