Updates on Student Privacy, Class Size Data, and Upcoming CEC Presentations

Nov. 19, 2019

1.On Nov. 5, the Wall Street Journal published an excellent article about the College Board’s egregious practice of selling student data, showing that an important reason colleges purchase the data is to increase their rejection rates, which then boosts their reputation for selectivity. Though the article is now behind the paywall, here is a WSJ podcast on this subject and a summary of the article. Last week, WCBS news also ran a segment on how the College Board routinely violates student privacy through their “Student Search” program in this manner.

Most NY districts contract with the College Board to give the PSAT, SAT and AP exams. If you haven’t already, please sign our petition asking Attorney General Tish James to investigate this illegal practice, since NY state law prohibits the selling of student data by any school vendor.

2. This year’s class size data was released and shows that average class sizes actually increased in Kindergarten and 7^th grade this year.

In other  grades, the class size held steady or declined by only insignificant amounts.

We are providing a detailed analysis of class size trends and what should be done to counteract  the sharp increases that have occurred since 2007 at three CEC meetings this week. We will also discuss school overcrowding and the findings of our charter facilities report, including how millions are missing from the matching funds the DOE was supposed to provide public schools co-located with charter schools for facility upgrades, and the $100 million a year the city spends on renting private space for charter schools, including in some cases, where the charter management organization owns the building.

• Wed. Nov. 20 at  6 PM at CEC 1 (Anna Silver School, PS 20, 166 Essex St.)
• Wed. Nov. 20 at 6:30 PM at CEC 5 (PS 36, 123 Morningside Drive @ 122nd St Unit 2 Room 228)
• Thurs. Nov. 21 at 6:30 PM at CEC 6 (at PS 178, The Professor Juan Bosch School at 12-18 Ellwood Street)

Please come – or invite us to your CEC or other community group. Our lawsuit against the city for refusing to lower class size as required by the Contracts for Excellence law will be heard by the Appellate Court in January.

3. I also have written blog posts on the following topics that you might like to check out:

• Is it accurate to say that charter schools are the “boogeymen” of progressive Democrats, as Cory Booker and some reporters claim?
  

• What’s really behind the city, state and national drop in NAEP (national) test scores?

thanks, Leonie

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-529-3539

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