The end of year data shows NYC is one of the safest cities in our nation, Gothamist reports,
New York City is on track to record one of its lowest-ever yearly homicide totals in 2025.
The homicide totals in recent years are drastically lower than those going back to the 1990s, when the city once recorded more than 2,200 people killed in a single year, the highest-ever total.
The Police Department collects data, called Comstat, and sets policy to match the crime data, and as the data/policy has become more detailed the crime rates have continued to fall, see Comstat data by category over time.
The police measure effectiveness by the reduction in crime while the education fiefdom measures success by increases in test scores and graduation rates. The testing data from two sources, the National Assessment of Education Progress, or the acronym, NAEP and the grades 3-8 standardized test, attendance is student and school specific and timely. School Survey responses are also enlightening.
On the state level New York State is about the middle of the states and on the NAEP TUDA (Large Cities) assessment also in the middle of the states with slight declines recently.
The New York State response is to eliminate Regents Exams and replace with yet to be decided “project-based” assessments.
The New York City response was to mandate a phonics-based reading program, the phonics folks have won the latest battle in the Reading Wars; however, if you speak with teachers they remind us that children are different, teachers adapt the instruction to the needs of the child, I wrote a lengthy discussion, read here.
Just as Comstat tracks crime data the Department tracks kids with below grade level scores and the kids who fail to graduate in four years and the one common factor is chronic absenteeism
Are there commonalities among schools who despite these factors are succeeding?
Does the school data indicate that collaborative schools, as measured by school Surveys, have lower chronic absenteeism?
Should schools use data to drive policy?
The reality: electeds use data to drive election strategy, for example during the mayoral campaign mayoral control was unpopular among the educational cognoscenti so candidate Mamdani, as soon as he won the election, opposed mayoral control. As mayor there can only be one message, the possibility of a chancellor NOT selected by the mayor may set the chancellor and mayor at odds. Unacceptable. The chancellor has to be on the same track as the mayor, the track selected by the mayor.
The current Department of Education collects reams of data, including teacher, parent and secondary school surveys. The highly regarded Center for Assessment suggests,
Over the past several years, state and local education leaders have faced an increasingly complex set of challenges: persistent chronic absenteeism, widening opportunity gaps, increasing student stress, and concerns about the impact of technology on students’ learning and well-being. Often overlooked amid these pressures is a powerful yet low-cost tool that can help leaders understand and improve students’ experiences: survey-based measurement of school and classroom climate.
A detailed Rand report strongly supports the use of surveys,
Research confirms the widespread belief that student learning is influenced by features of the school and classroom environments in which instruction takes place. These qualities of the learning environment, often referred to as school and classroom climate, are associated with higher student achievement, improved attendance and graduation rates, and lower rates of suspension. To support strategies that are focused on creating positive, safe, and inclusive school and classroom climate, educators need to be able to define the specific features of the learning environment on which to focus.
The Survey data is readily available: how does the Department use the data? Has the Department asked the Research Alliance for NYC Schools to determine the qualities of schools that result in better academic outcomes? Why not?
New Visions for Public Schools, a not-for-profit that supports schools, many in the Affinity District, avers,
Chronic absenteeism is a crisis undermining student success in NYC and nationwide. The American Enterprise Institute reports that “Chronic absenteeism rates improved more slowly in 2024 than they did in 2023, raising the very real possibility that absenteeism rates might never return to pre-pandemic levels.” New Visions is working closely with educators to tackle this challenge head-on. Our work is driven by the core belief that every absence warrants a human response and that consistent 1:1 check-ins between students and trusted adults are essential.
The Department has NOT ignored chronic absenteeism, every district has an Attendance Compliance Director, every school an attendance plan and an on-site attendance team, and tools that track daily student attendance.
In an interview with the new chancellor a mention of absenteeism appeared as an afterthought.
Without kids in schools chances of increasing test scores and graduation rates is remote.
Maybe in a back room the chancellor’s staff is working on a plan, probably still putting together a staff, one of Chancellor Banks first moves was to ask superintendents to reapply for their jobs, btw, rapidly rescinded by the mayor.
I fear the mayor’s brain trust is telling him to spend all his energy on “freeze the rent,” “fast and free buses,” and “free childcare “ and fears if he stumbles his supporters may move on.
It’s only been a few weeks; however, tempus fugit
Teachers, to quote myself, are writers, producers, directors, actors and critics of a daily play, unless you/we get the audience, the kids, in their seats the system will continue to stumble.
Fingers crossed, let’s hope city leadership can multitask.
Ed in the Apple: Blogging on the Intersection of Education and Politics Title 