The city released its 2010 Progress Reports for elementary and middle schools, giving each school a grade of “A” to “F,” based mostly on how children did on standardized tests compared to schools with similar demographics. The city has a tougher grading system than last year, and more than 700 schools saw their grades decline from 2009.

Our advice: take these grades with a very large grain of salt. There is a lot of year-to-year fluctuation in test scores, and the city has been changing its formula for grading schools each year. Schools that focus on improving tests scores on reading and math may get a higher grade than schools that have broader goals – such teaching kids science and history, or encouraging them to write well and speak clearly. A report by the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, released in June, called the Progress Reports “seriously flawed.”

Still, if you dig deep into the reports, you can find some interesting data. For example, each school gets a grade for “environment” based on things like whether kids feel safe in school, or whether teachers feel their opinions are valued. Take a look at your school’s Learning Environment Survey to see how it stacks up.  Lots of red means teachers and parents are unhappy with their school; lots of green means they are happy.<!--more-->

New this year: the city released Progress Reports for some District 75 schools (for children with disabilities) and for many charter schools. Also new this year: the city graded schools on a curve, deciding ahead of time how many would get “As” and how many would get “Fs.”  It also changed the way it measures progress. Last year 97% of the schools got "As" and "Bs", leading many critics to charge that grades were inflated.

For a critique of the Progress Reports, see "Managing by the Numbers," including an article on two very different schools with similar grades and a look at schools in the South Bronx.

Read the  Chancellor's announcement on the release of the Progress Reports here.

What do you think? Are this year's Progress Reports more on target....or still missing the mark?