Date:
NYACK
With the high stakes established
for schools and districts by the nation’s No Child Left Behind
legislation, the accuracy of data submitted by districts is of paramount
importance.
In the current case of Nyack Public
Schools, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) plans to shortly
publish data in its State Report Cards, which it knows is wrong. Furthermore, NYSED is aware that the District
filed its corrected data on time, and followed every procedure for submission
outlined by the State and the Southern Westchester BOCES Lower Hudson Regional
Information Center (LHRIC). In response to this injustice, the Nyack Board of Education has directed
its legal counsel to file for papers seeking an injunction requiring NYSED to
correct the data in the State Report Cards.
The decision is the culmination of
six months of communication among the District, NYSED the Rockland Board of
Cooperative Education Services (BOCES), and the LHRIC. The situation began in September, 2003 with
NYSED’s notification to the District that it did not make the Adequate Yearly
Progress (AYP) status for High School English, since the sub –group, students
with disabilities, did not achieve its acceptable performance index.
The District realized, upon review
of the original data it submitted, that several students had been misidentified
as students with disabilities.
Recalculation with the corrections brought the performance index 10
points above the required objective. The
corrected data was reported, before the NYSED September deadline, to the LHRIC
as required by the State.
It was not until November, when
NYSED again reported Nyack’s status, that the District discovered that its AYP
was still incorrect. Thus began four
months of inquiry, protest, and appeals (see enclosure) to the NYSED, and
LHRIC. In January, the State wrote that
they would accept a revised data file at that time only if LHRIC accepted
responsibility for the file not being submitted. Finally, in February, the LHRIC accepted full
responsibility for not sending the corrected data in on time.
The bottom line is that the
correction has not been accepted and Nyack’s status remains the same. According to a February 26 statement by NYSED
Deputy Commissioner James Kademus, in correspondence to Nyack’s legal counsel,
“To accept revised files at this late date would constitute an undue
administrative burden and jeopardize the timely release of the State report
cards. Moreover, doing so would jeopardize
preparation for the next reporting cycle.”
Nyack’s Assistant Superintendent
for Instruction, Walter Woodhouse, says the Nyack issue raises fundamental
credibility issues about the School Report Cards. He questions, “How many schools and
districts have been and or will be identified as Schools or Districts in need
of improvement based on wrong information?”
The seriousness of the issue led
the Board to take the strong stand of taking legal action. “The Board believes it must voice its
deeply felt objections to the unfair and harmful decision of the NYSED,” says
Board President Don Hammond. “We have
followed all the right procedures and reached all yearly progress goals, yet
the State says too bad, we are reporting incorrect
data. There is far too much at risk for
our students and community to allow this to happen.”
Adds Superintendent of Schools, Roberta Zampolin, “It is unconscionable that the NYSED would insist on publishing school accountability data knowing that it is inaccurate.” The implications of this problem go way beyond New York State. If State data is inaccurate, the integrity of the No Child Left Behind educational policy is seriously compromised.”