Before the city released the 2008-2009 school progress reports Wednesday, the New York Post braced us for shockingly high results. But after the release, the Post had to update its statistics -- quite a bit. A whopping 97% of the city's elementary and middle schools received As and Bs, even higher than the 85% first reported. Just 27 schools citywide received Cs, Ds, or Fs.

Chancellor Klein wants to clarify what the good grades mean, according to The New York Times. To be sure, he says, they do not indicate that schools are stellar. Rather, the grades indicate that schools met their "progress target." And the grading system mainly defines progress by how much student test scores improve from one year to the next.

But with state tests' soaring scores already under fire, should we put any stock in a grading system guided by those scores? We're not the first to ask that question.<!--more-->

Progress reports have sparked criticism since their 2007 debut. Last year's reports attracted a string of complaints, especially in light of a popular Brooklyn Heights school's failing grade.

And now, with Klein making a point to stress that a school acing its progress report does not indicate that it's an overall success, the report seems to defeat the purpose of using letter grades to let parents know the quality of their child's school -- particularly since most of the city's "persistently dangerous schools" received top marks, too.

And so, Klein continues to defend the system,principals are split on the merit of  progress reports, and critics clamor on.

Even the Department of Education seems conflicted. On Wednesday, when asked if the grading system, which gave nearly all schools top marks, was flawed, the Times quoted Klein saying, “If you’re asking whether I would rather see less A’s,” he said, “the answer is no.” But today the Times reports that the grading system will be readjusted for next year. According to DOE accountability chief Shael Polakow-Suransky, the city plans to "raise the bar" so that there will be a wider distribution of grades.

What do you think? Do you find the progress reports to be clear or counter-intuitive?

UPDATE 9/9: Diane Ravitch, well-known NYU education historian, calls progress reports "bogus"  in aDaily News op-ed today.