Cheers to us!
Under relentless criticism from his would-be successors, Mayor Bloomberg took a victory lap Monday over the fact that 22 of the 25 top-ranked schools on new state tests are in the city.
The mayor even suggested that his teetotaling Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott toast the results.
“You can have an extra drink tonight, it can be cranberry juice or vodka tonic, anything you want, but you deserve it,” Bloomberg said.
Sixteen of the 22 highly ranked schools have selective admissions, so only top students can get in.
Bloomberg said it was cause for celebration that city schools can compete with “wealthy suburbs."
“In ’01, zero out of the 25 best schools in the state were in New York City. Today, 22 out of the 25 schools,” he said. “I don’t know how you could write anything other than, ‘It is just amazing.’”
Actually the test scores have plummeted during Bloomberg's Reign of Error over the city school system - first in 2010 when the state admitted to test score inflation and city scores fell 26 points in reading and 24 points in math (to 42.4% proficiency in reading, 53% in math), then again in 2013 when the state changed the 3rd-8th grade tests to the so-called Common Core and test scores fell to 26% proficiency in reading, 30% in math.
Bloomberg has hawked tests scores throughout his Reign of Error as proof positive his Children First education reforms are working, so he has had to live and die by the test score numbers.
With scores now lower than they have ever been and with this his final year in office, he has been looking for any way he can to fool people into thinking his Reign of Error over the NYCDOE hasn't been a disaster.
Thus the "Hey, we've got 22 out of the top 25 schools!" bit (even though they've manipulated that by using selective admissions to certain schools.)
It's pathetic, really, and I bet even Walcott, who sort of lives in reality, knows that (I've always suspected Walcott's just in this for the money he will make off Bloomberg when his governmental service is done - Bloomberg is notoriously generous to those who stick by him.)
Bloomberg, however, believes his own b.s., so I have no doubt he really thinks he's done a swell job with the schools, despite having to spin the new Common Core test scores as another Bloombergian victory when they are anything but.
The Mayor of Money surrounds himself with yes men and women like Howard Wolfson and Dennis Walcott who never tell him anything he doesn't want to hear, so he's rarely given the opportunity to have to confront reality as it is rather than reality as he wants to see it.
As NYC Educator noted in a comment on another post I wrote about Bloomberg and his beloved statistics:
What I notice is when scores go up, it's great. When they're proven inflated and static, that's also great. And when they introduce new tests and scores plummet, that's great too.
So I guess when you're Wolfson, you just can't lose.
And indeed, that seems to be the case.
No matter what the stats are, what the test scores are, Bloomberg always wins!
No wonder the drinks are on him.
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