Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein today announced the start of the second full year of Quality Reviews for New York City’s public schools. Quality Reviews assess how well a school is organized to help raise student achievement, with a focus on how effectively the school uses data to identify and meet students’ individual needs and how well schools adjust to evidence of success or failure in improving student learning. All schools were reviewed once between March 2006 and June 2007 and will participate in another review this school year. Chancellor Klein also announced several improvements to this year’s Quality Review process based on feedback from schools, including a more precise rating scale that makes scores easier to interpret.

    “Every organization can benefit significantly from a second pair of eyes, and that’s exactly what Quality Reviews give our schools,” Chancellor Klein said. “Quality Reviews give schools a chance to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and receive constructive suggestions from an experienced educator. Principals told us they learned a lot from their first Quality Reviews and also had plenty of ideas for making the reviews even more effective, which we’ve incorporated into this year’s review process.”

    Quality Reviews are conducted by experienced educators who visit schools and meet with principals, teachers, parents, and students. Reviewers also observe classes, attend meetings and planning sessions, and draw on the self-evaluations schools complete prior to their reviews. At the end of the review, schools receive a report that details their strengths as well as the specific areas in which they can improve. Each school also receives an overall quality score, which appears on the Quality Review report as well as on the school’s Progress Report, alongside its letter grade.

    In response to feedback from schools, the Quality Review rating scale expanded from three possible scores last year to five possible scores this year—Outstanding, Well Developed, Proficient, Underdeveloped with Proficient Features, and Underdeveloped. This more precise scale will make the overall score easier for schools and parents to interpret. Last year, using the three-point scale, 33.4% of schools received the top rating of Well Developed, 57.5% were Proficient, and 9.1% were Undeveloped. Given schools’ success last year in meeting basic standards, reviewers this year will emphasize the importance of increasing rigor in how well schools monitor and improve student outcomes through the strategic use of data, curriculum, leadership development, budgeting, and other available tools.

    Additionally, this year’s Quality Reviews will, for the first time, assess whether schools integrate the arts sufficiently into their curriculum and evaluate how effectively schools support their new teachers. Reviewers will also examine how well schools are using the new periodic assessment tools they selected to monitor student progress and help adjust instructional strategies throughout the year. Many of the other review criteria were revised based on schools’ feedback.

    Quality Reviews will be conducted throughout the school year, and the reports will be posted on the Department of Education’s Web site as they are completed. Instructions for accessing these reports are available at http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/QualityReviews/. All of last year’s reports are already online. Parents who want a hard copy of their school’s report or who need a translated copy of the report should call their parent coordinator.

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Contact: David Cantor / Andrew Jacob (212) 374-5141