February 13, 2012 · www.gothamgazette.com

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A new approach to government accountability -- officially called "performance assessment" but more colloquially, compstatmania -- compiles, analyzes and interprets statistics in order to spot trends, gaps and overlaps in city services. It's not magic -- it's hard work, and requires lots of attention to detail and follow-up. On this page, Gotham Gazette looks at this approach to improving city services.
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Who's Rating City Services
A guide to government agencies and private groups that measure New York's performance in heath, education, crime fighting and more.

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Reports:

The 2009 Mayor's Management Report
Published twice a year, the Mayor's Management Report charts the progress of various city agencies and trends their performance. (10/07/2009)

Charter Schools and Student Achievement
Students who attend charter schools are likely to narrow the "achievement gap" between city school students and those in wealthy suburbs, and are more likely to earn Regents high school diplomas than their counterparts in standard public schools, according to the New York City Charter Schools Evaluation Project. Its report found that students at charters, while poorer and more likely to be black than city students as a whole, "would close about 86 percent of the 'Scarsdale-Harlem achievement gap' in math and 66 percent of the achievement gap in English." The report attributes the gains to a number of factors including the longer school day and emphasis on academic performance at charter schools. (09/23/2009)

Grading the School for Principals
A new study by NYU's education school finds that graduates of the city's Leadership Academy to train principals did as well if not better than other new principals who did not attend the program. The study concluded that principals trained at the academy went on to run schools that were lower performing than city schools as a whole. Adjusting for that, the report concludes that test scores in English in schools with Leadership Academy principals were higher than those at comparable schools, while math scores were about the same. (08/26/2009)

Small vs. Large High Schools
The Bloomberg administration's drive to create smaller high schools and increase school choice has fueled an overall increase in the citywide graduation rate since 2002, according to a new report on city public high schools by the Center for New York City Affairs. However, the report found the small school initiative placed additional pressure on the large high schools that most city teens attend, creating crowding and leaving the schools to deal with an influx of challenging students. The report also identified what it saw as flaws in the high school admissions process. (06/24/2009)

No-Bid Education Contracts
Between July 2005 and June 2008, the city Department of Education gave out a total of $342.5 million in no-bid contracts of $100,000 or more, according to an audit by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The review, requested by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, said the department did not always document why the contract did not go out for competitive bidding and cited one case where the department did not advertise a $16.5 million contract in the City Record until 25 days after it was awarded. The report concluded that the department "“needs to improve its procurement requirements." (05/20/2009)

Stop and Frisks Increase
The Police Department stopped and interrogated more innocent people during the first three months of 2009 than during any three-month period since the department began collecting data on so-called "stop and frisks," according to a new report by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The report reveals a 22 percent increase from the 140,151 stops conducted during the last three months of 2008. (05/14/2009)

Tech Industry Remains Vital to New York Economy
New York state has the third largest high-tech industry, employing 304,200 people with a total payroll of $25.9 billion. The industry experienced a net gain of 2,700 jobs in 2007, the most current year for which state data are available. (05/07/2009)

'Discharged' from High School
The number of high school students "discharged" from city public schools has increased recently, according to a report released by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. Discharged students have left the school system entirely -- some moved away, for example -- and so are not counted as dropouts or graduates. Critics of the school system, though, say principals may try to push problem students out so they do not later drop out. The increase in the discharge number was fueled largely by a sharp rise in ninth graders leaving the system. (05/04/2009)

Environmental Reviews Should Include Climate Change
New York should require an environmental reviews of land use, energy, industrial, transportation and other projects that includes climate change implications, according to a new report by the Municipal Art Society. The review proposed would incorporate the disclosure of the projects' potential greenhouse gas emissions and an exploration of how to mitigate those emissions. It would also include the consideration of how climate change will impact the projects and what could be done to prepare for that. (04/24/2009)

The State's Health Spending
In a survey of 19 states, New York is tied for the highest rate of health spending as a percentage of gross state product, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government. The state also spends more than any of those states on Medicaid, both in terms of total dollars and per-capita spending, the study showed. (02/27/2009)

Preliminary Mayor's Management Report
Findings in the preliminary report include a drop in traffic fatalities, a jump in construction injuries and improvements in Housing Authority elevator maintenance. Syphilis is up, lead poisoning down. And, classrooms are accommodating more students at almost every grade level. (02/18/2009)

Meeting Regents Requirements
The NYC Coalition for Educational Justice released a new report detailing the challenges New York City students face trying to meet state Regents requirements. Only 37 percent of New York City high school students graduate with a Regents diploma. Only 28 and 26 percent of black and Latino students, respectively, graduate with a Regents diploma. The report, titled "Looming Crisis or Historic Opportunity? Meeting the Challenge of the New Regents Diploma Requirements," recommends the city and state form an emergency working group to tackle the inequalities in high school education. (02/10/2009)

City and State Salaries Now Searchable
How much does Joel Klein make? Or your fellow city employee? Find out through the Empire Center for New York State Policy's new online tool, SeeThroughNY. Search the database to find salaries, names and titles for over 786,000 people employed by the city and state. A searchable database for city and state contracts, as well as legislative expenditures is also in the works. (01/07/2009)

Children's Health Survey
According to a new survey by the Commission on the Public's Health System, 93 percent of the city's children have health care and 80 percent are able to get regular check-ups. But families that don't speak English faced challenges. Nearly one-third of such families could not find a doctor that spoke their language and the same amount were not provided translators. In Staten Island, 63 percent of non-English speaking families had no translator. (12/18/2008)

Getting Around New York
Rides on mass transit and bicycle commuting increased during New York's boom of 2003 to 2007, but vehicle traffic remained unchanged. This was the first time since World War II when a growth in car traffic did not accompany increases in the other areas, according to "Sustainable Streets Index," a study by the city Department of Transportation. Overall, transit ridership increased by 9 percent over the period studied by the report. (12/17/2008)

Immigrants' Housing Squeeze
Immigrants living in New York City are faced with more housing problems than natives in most every respect, according to a new report by the Pratt Center for Community Development and the New York Immigrant Housing Collaborative. They put more of their income towards rent, are more likely to live in overcrowded and illegal dwellings, and have less access to affordable housing. (12/04/2008)

Back to Work
The city's Back to Work program, which is designed to connect welfare recipients to long-term employment, has not met its goals, according to a new report by Community Voices Heard. The city estimated that a quarter of those enrolled in the program would find jobs, but the report found that only 9 percent of them have. Three-quarters of those who do find jobs lose them within six months, according to the study. (11/14/2008)

City Bus Performance
The slowest bus in the city is the M96 crosstown and the most unreliable bus is the M101/2/3, according to an annual report by NYPIRG and Transportation Alternatives. (11/13/2008)

When Schools Fail
When New York City began issuing report cards with letter grades for all public schools, some experts feared that giving a school an "F" would have a demoralizing effect, further undermining education. In a new report, Marcus Winters of the Manhattan Institute found no such effect, instead concluding students in schools that got an F grade made overall improvements in math the following year and that the F grade seemed to have no effect on achievement in English. The report does not attempt to determine the accuracy of the report cards. (11/12/2008)

Missing School
About one in five New York City elementary school students missed a month's worth of classes last school year, according to "Strengthening Schools by Strengthening Families," a new report from the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School. The report attributes some of the problem to family instability and outlines steps the school system can take to reduce the absentee rate. (10/21/2008)

State's Financial Condition
State spending increased by 19 percent over the last four years to $116 billion, according to the 2008 Financial Condition Report. Inflation over that period rose 13 percent. This report, published annually by the state comptroller, covers the financial condition of state government for the last fiscal year, written in a format meant for the general public. (10/10/2008)

Primary Care Initiative Community Health Assessment
A Primary Care Initiative Community Health Assessment released by the City Council, the Health and Hospitals Corp. and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene highlights 11 communities in the city that face the most significant shortages of primary care services and pinpoints healthcare services that need improvement. (09/23/2008)

Mayor's Management Report
Mayor's Management Report for 2008 is an annual review of city agencies' performance and includes comprehensive data on everything from foster care placements to the average wait for a taxi medallion driver’s license. (09/18/2008)

Job Growth Ranked by ZIP Code
In a ranking of job growth by ZIP code, the Center for an Urban Future has found that the outer boroughs had the largest percentage job gains while lower Manhattan performed the worst. Fifteen of the 40 ZIP codes with the largest gains were located in Queens. Four of the five ZIP codes with the worst job losses were in lower Manhattan. (09/04/2008)

Rating Playgrounds, Courts and Fields
The city's playgrounds are in generally satisfactory shape, with little broken glass and their surfaces in acceptable condition, according to a new report by New Yorkers for Parks on city outdoor recreational facilities. The city's athletic fields did not fare as well with many "locked to the public without explanation." Many courts suffered from cracks and did not have the needed nets. (08/04/2008)

Grading the Subways
The Straphangers Campaign's annual state of the subways report released yesterday found a "weak showing for subway service." Cars broke down more frequently in 2007 than in 2006 and subway car announcements deteriorated, while train cleanliness remained unchanged. The report, which includes records for individual subway lines, expressed particular concern about the breakdowns calling them "a troubling trend, raising questions about the condition and maintenance of the aging transit fleet." (07/30/2008)

CouncilStat
In this press release, the City Council offered its first accounting of CouncilStat data collected through its new database of constituent complaints and inquiries. Since CouncilStat's inception last fall, the council's release said, the database has logged 24,000 complaints and inquiries on 280 issues. The charts accompanying the release -- on the subject of the general subjects of the complaints and inquiries -- cover only June. In that month, the most frequent topics for requests were housing and buildings, and transportation issues. (07/10/2008)

Student Test Scores Rise
The city Department of Education has released its report on how city students scored on state standardized language arts and math tests this academic year. The report shows a rise in test scores and says the city is faring well when compared with the rest of the state. Critics, though, have noted that scores this year rose sharply throughout the state and have questioned the validity of the results. (06/24/2008)

Punishing Doctors
New York is sanctioning fewer doctors, despite an increase in physicians and complaints against them, according to a report by several consumer groups. “Strengthening New York State’s Oversight of Doctors: The Case for Reforms” found the number of doctors punished in 2007 was the lowest since 1996. The groups urged the state to strengthen its oversight of doctors. (05/28/2008)

Marijuana Arrests
The number of people arrested and jailed for possessing small amounts of marijuana in New York City increased sharply during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, according to a study released yesterday by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The group found more than 350,000 people were arrested on misdemeanor marijuana charges between 1997 and 2007, compared to 30,000 during the previous decade. Of those arrested over the last 10 years, more than half were black, even though only about 25 percent of the city's population is black. Whites, who make up 35 percent of the city's population, accounted for only 15 percent of the arrests. (04/30/2008)

Mapping Poverty
The 1.4 million New Yorkers living in poverty are concentrated in certain neighborhoods, according to "Mapping Poverty in New York City," a report by the Community Service Society and the United Way. Half the city’s poor people live in neighborhoods where the poverty rate is at least 24.8 percent (compared to a citywide rate of 19.2 percent), and one quarter live in neighborhoods -- all in Upper Manhattan, the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn -- where more than a third of the households have incomes below the poverty level. Using maps, the report looks at how poverty rates correlate with other factors, such as rent costs and educational attainment. (04/14/2008)

Increase in Homelessness
More than 9,000 homeless families went to shelters each night in 2007, making it the worst year for family homelessness in recent history, according to the 2007 State of the Homeless Report by the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group. The report also found that 102,187 different New Yorkers slept in homeless shelters at some point during fiscal years 2007, a 5.8 increase from the previous year and a 23.4 percent increase since FY 2002. The group blamed rising housing costs, the worsening economy and some city policies for the increase. (03/31/2008)

Obesity and Diabetes Rise
Adults in the city gained a collective 10 million pounds between 2002 and 2004, according to a new Health Department report. Obesity and diabetes rates both jumped 17 percent over that time period, the report also showed. Nationally, the obesity rate rose six percent while diabetes diagnoses remained flat. Health Department researchers found the consumption of sugar-sweetened soda to a be a major contributor to the rise. (03/27/2008)

Shmutz on the Subways
The L Train has the city's cleanest subway cars and the E and Q Trains the dirtiest, according to a survey by the Straphangers Campaign. The advocacy group's annual "subway shmutz" survey found the number of clean cars in the system as a whole inched up slightly, from 47 percent in 2005 to 50 percent last year. The group found huge disparities between lines, with 88 percent of L Train cars considered clean, compared to just 29 percent of cars on the E and Q. (03/26/2008)

After School Program Evaluation
A recently implemented after school initiative has been meeting its goals, according to a second year evaluation released last week by the Department of Youth and Community Development. Among its reported achievements, the Out-of-School Time initiative: served a third more school-age children in its second year; 80 percent of parents were satisfied with the programs; and 85 percent of children enrolled were high-needs students. (02/28/2008)

Surveying Parents
A majority of parents selected reducing class size as the one thing the city could do that would best improve the schools, according to a survey released by the advocacy group Class Size Matters. The report provides results from a telephone poll of a random sample of about 600 and responses from more than 1,000 other parents who voluntarily filled out the survey on-line. The report found differences of opinion between those who responded and the Bloomberg administration on a number of issues, including mayoral control and use of standardized tests. (02/19/2008)

Preliminary Mayor's Management Report
An interim look at the performance of various city agencies was released yesterday in a report called the Preliminary Mayor's Management Report. Published annually, it takes a look at the city's performance in the first four months of the fiscal year and forecasts performance expectations. Much of the information can be broken down by individual agency, issue, or community. Some significant highlights were: Sewer back up complaints jumped by 23 percent; the average response time to heat complaints rose by 50 percent (although stays within the goal of seven hours); and major felony crimes in schools were nearly a third lower than the same quarter last year. (02/15/2008)

Middle School Achievement
Despite the Bloomberg administration's focus on education, student performance in middle schools has shown modest improvement at best, and the gap between white students and black and Latino students remains wide, according to a report by the Coalition for Educational Justice. The report, "Our Children Can't Wait," finds only 30 percent of black and Latino eighth-graders meet state standards in reading and writing, compared to about 60 percent of white students. It also cites a gap in teacher quality between schools in high-poverty areas and other schools. The report includes a number of recommendations. (01/22/2008)

City Still Nation's Safest
New York retains the title as the safest of the nation's 25 largest cities for the first six months of 2007, according to the FBI's Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report. Of the 241 cities with a population over 100,000, New York is safer than 227. Dallas ranks as the most dangerous of the top ten largest cities. (01/09/2008)

Public Advocate's Report
The Office of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum has released its 2007 annual report on complaints received by the office's Ombudsman Unit. The office received almost 11,000 complaints last fiscal year. The largest number came from New Yorkers having problems getting social services such as food stamps and Medicaid. (11/07/2007)

City Schools Get Grades
More than 1,200 schools received letter grades from A through F yesterday in the city's first-ever report cards, which were released by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. The report shows of the 1,224 schools that were evaluated, 23 percent earned an A, 38 percent received a B, 25 percent earned a C, 8 percent received a D and 4 percent earned an F. Bloomberg said the 50 schools with failing grades could close. Queens had the highest percentage of A elementary and middle schools, while Manhattan had the highest percentage of A high schools. The grades were based on three factors: school environment, student performance and student progress. Student progress was given the most weight of the three. Schools that received a D or an F will be required to submit plans that detail improvement proposals. (11/06/2007)

Minority Health Shows Progress, But Not Enough
A report by the state Department of Health shows progress in reducing health problems in minority groups, but disparities still remain when compared with the entire population. Comparing data from between 2003 and 2004 and figures from a decade earlier, the study found reduced fatality rates for minorities in HIV/AIDS, asthma, cerebrovascular disease, heart disease, male colorectal cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer. But the report also found higher rates of childhood obesity among white, black and Hispanic populations and an increase in low birthrate births for all groups except Hispanics. (10/01/2007)

Hospitalization, Death Rates Rise in Poor Areas
The rate of hospitalization and death from heart disease, cancer, and diabetes has risen substantially quicker in poor neighborhoods than it has in more affluent ones, according to a new report by the city comptroller. Diabetes has proven worst for disadvantaged neighborhoods, more than doubling in five poor areas while the city wide rate increased 82 percent. But while childhood asthma remains very high for poor neighborhoods, it has plummeted dramatically there. (09/28/2007)

Grading Beaches
New Yorkers for Parks has issued a report card on the seven Department of Parks and Recreation beaches. The advocacy group rated them in four areas – bathrooms, drinking fountains, pathways and shoreline – and concluded, “Overall, beach performance is poor.” Midland Park on Staten Island got the highest grades, while, under the report’s ratings, Coney Island/Brighton Beach and Wolfe’s Pond scored worst. (07/18/2007)

Library Funding: Subsidies Rebound, Disparities Remain
Over the last seven years, the inflation-adjusted value of the city’s subsidy to the three public library systems — Brooklyn, New York, and Queens — fell by 8.4 percent. The subsidy has now been restored to the 2000 level, but this report from the Independent Budget Office finds that there are disparities in the allocation of the subsidy among the three library systems. (07/17/2007)

New York Has Highest Housing Closing Costs in Nation
For the third year in a row, New York has the most expensive mortgage origination and closing fees in the country, according to Bankrate.com's annual survey. A resident of New York City getting a $200,000 mortgage would pay an average $3,830 in origination, title and closing costs, according to Bankrate's survey of lenders. (07/13/2007)

New York City Childhood Fatality Report
This report from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene takes a five-year retrospective look at intentional and unintentional injury deaths among city children, with a particular focus on the single largest contributor: motor vehicle related deaths. Although child motor vehicle-related deaths in the city are lower than the national average and have declined during the past decade, rates are still disconcertingly high and each death is preventable. Most motor vehicle-related deaths were among child pedestrians struck by moving vehicles; nearly 60 children were fatally struck on local streets in the past 5 years, many of whom were playing in or near streets, especially during warm weather evening hours. (06/15/2007)

Grading Neighborhood Parks
New Yorkers for Parks has released its yearly report card on the neighborhood parks around the city, considering such park features as playgrounds, bathrooms and pathways. The report is designed to focus on these local, often small parks, which are entirely dependent on public funding and do not receive as much attention as some of the city’s larger park areas. (05/10/2007)

City's Air Quality
A report by the American Lung Association shows New York City's air is even more polluted than it was last year. Last year, New York City was ranked the 15th-worst region in the country for daily particle pollution. Pollution levels are even worse this year, according to the report. (05/02/2007)

Manhattan Vacant Housing Survey
A survey by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer finds that there are a significant number of vacant apartment buildings and empty lots in the borough that could support affordable housing and generate additional tax revenue for the city. The report found 1,723 buildings with vacancies and 505 empty lots, most of which are located above 96th Street in Northern Manhattan. (04/24/2007)

State of the City's Housing and Neighborhoods
This annual report from the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy looks at the quality of life in New York City's neighborhoods, drawing upon more than 1,800 types of data, from more than a dozen different government sources. Among the key findings is that less than five percent of home sales are affordable to New Yorkers earning the city's median income. (04/13/2007)

Counting Greenhouse Gas Emissions
An inventory of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, released yesterday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, finds that the city’s emissions in 2005 accounted for approximately 1 percent of the U.S. total. While per capita emissions were far lower here than in the United States as whole, they have been increasing in recent years, the inventory found. The figures on the emissions, which are considered largely responsible for global warming, will serve as the benchmark for reducing such pollution by 30 percent between now and 2030, a target the mayor set late last year. (04/11/2007)

Traffic and Health Problems
Over two million New Yorkers live within 500 feet of a major roadway, putting them at risk for pollution-related health problems, according to this report by Environmental Defense. "All Choked Up: Heavy Traffic, Dirty Air, and the Risk to New Yorkers" sums up the science of these risks, and suggests some solutions. (03/29/2007)

Fewer Female Smokers in NYC
Smoking is down sharply among New York City women, according to data released by the Health Department. The number of female smokers has fallen by 123,000 in New York City, down from 20 percent in 2002 to 16 percent in 2005. The decline in female smoking was greatest among women who are white, 18 to 24 years old, and living in Manhattan. The information is from the 2005 Community Health Survey, a survey of 10,000 adults in all five boroughs. (03/23/2007)

Schools Needing Improvment
The New York State Department of Education yesterday announced it had placed 35 more schools, nine of them in New York City, on its list of failing schools, known as Schools Under Registration Review. At the same time, state education commissioner Richard Mills announced he was removing six city schools from the list. This brings the total number of schools in the state on the list to 65, with 35 of them in the city. (03/16/2007)

NYC Hospital Admissions
Although non-residents of New York City account for a small share of all hospital admissions in the city, they represent a significant portion of admissions for some clinical conditions (cancer, orthopedics, neurosurgery, and cardiac procedures) and at some hospitals. Moreover, because non-residents are often admitted for more favorably reimbursed tertiary care procedures, they represent a significant source of revenues at several of New York City's hospitals. (03/15/2007)

Is The City Ending Chronic Homelessness?
The number of homeless families living in shelters reached a record high last month despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s high-profile campaign to reduce chronic homelessness, according to this report by advocacy group Coalition for the Homeless. 9,287 families stayed in shelters in February, the highest number since records began being kept in 1979, and a 17.6 percent rise from February 2005. (03/08/2007)

Delivering City Services
The administration has released its 2007 preliminary Mayor’s Management Report, which provides statistics on the delivery of city services during the first four months of the fiscal year. According to the mayor, the figures “demonstrate that we are continuing to build on five years of successful policies and are moving the city in the right direction." Among the findings: homicides decreased slightly; streets are cleaner than ever; calls to the city’s 311 hot lines for non-emergencies increased by 7 percent; and the number of families entering the homeless shelter system rose. Most press accounts, however, focused on the 21 percent increase in major felonies in public schools. Much of that rise was in thefts of valuable items, such as laptop computers. (02/16/2007)

Crime in Parks
New Yorkers for Parks issued crime data for the city's 20 largest parks. The most number of felony crime complaints between April and September of last year were at Flushing Meadows Park (35), followed by Prospect Park (25), which included a murder. (01/22/2007)

Fiscal Picture in NYC Brightens
"The city's short term-fiscal picture appears even brighter than the Mayor's most recent projection," writes the Independent Budget Office in its most recent annual assessment of the city government's finances. The report predicts a surplus of $2.1 billion this year and a $688 million surplus in 2008. It attributes the windfall to strong performances by Wall Street and the real estate market. (01/11/2007)

High Schools' Annual Report
The Citywide Council on High Schools’ Annual Report recognizes the efforts of the New York City Department of Education in focusing on student achievement, accountability, and additional facilities but, in a detailed analysis of the education department's graduation and class size data, finds “a cloud of legitimacy over these numbers.” In the case of the department's graduation rate methodologies, the report concludes that they “differ from other reputable methods and... result in the most favorable statistic possible.” (11/20/2006)

City's Economy Slows in 2nd Quarter of 2006
New York City's economy is showing signs of slowdown but a recession is unlikely, this report from the city's comptroller's office finds. The slowing growth is due largely to a cooling real estate market, it argues. The report also focuses on the tourism industry as a sector of the economy that is performing well. (11/02/2006)

Health Profiles Of 42 NYC Neighborhoods
The New York City Department of Health And Mental Hygiene has released its "2006 New York City Community Health Profiles," which offers a look at the health of 42 neighborhoods, accessible by zip code, by borough, and by 10 major health issues. For example, the neighborhood with the largest percentage of obese residents is East New York, Brooklyn (31 percent); the small percentage of obese residents is on the Upper East Side and Gramercy (eight percent). Greenwich Village, Soho and Tribeca (which are grouped together) have among the lowest annual death rates in the city (a rate that decreased 20 percent over the past decade), but the highest rate of child lead poisoning in the city, and residents of these three neighborhoods were more than 60 percent more likely to engage in binge drinking in any given month than New Yorkers overall. (10/31/2006)

Rating New York
The M14A, which crosses Manhattan via 14th Street, is the city’s slowest bus, traveling at about 3.9 miles per our, or just a little faster than many people walk, according to a report by the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives. In addition to rating the slowest buses, the report looks at the reliability of bus service, particularly whether the route has bunches and gaps and in services. The M1, which goes through Manhattan on Madison an Fifth Avenues, was rated the least reliable. (10/25/2006)

Math Scores
The longer New York City students stay in school the worse they do in math, according to scores on last academic year’s standardized math tests released last week. While more than three-quarters of third graders met state standards for math, only about 39 percent of eighth graders did. Students across the state had a similar decline, from 80.5 percent meeting state standards in third grade, to about 54 percent achieving that level by the end of middle school. (10/18/2006)


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