Parents trying to judge the quality of a public school need information.
asserted
Parents → try → information
Test scores aren’t everything, but they count for something — particularly when the tests in question are nationally administered Advanced Placement exams designed to measure whether students can handle college-level work.
asserted
students → count → work
That makes the New York State Education Department’s decision involving AP data and U.S. News & World Report worth examining closely.
asserted
decision → make → data
For years, AP performance helped U.S. News compile its widely followed Best High Schools rankings.
asserted
News → help → rankings
This year, New York declined to authorize the College Board to provide certain AP data used by U.S. News.
asserted
York → decline → News
The decision to withhold what should clearly be public information about the manifest failure of taxpayer-supported public schools wasn’t something New York school officials came up with out of the blue.
asserted
officials → withhold → blue
According to a Sept. 21 editorial in the Washington Post: “(T)he New York State United Teachers Union rallied again last week to pressure Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) to reverse her decision to opt into a federal tax credit scholarship program that would benefit students.
uncertain
that → accord → students
Union bosses fear it would boost enrollment in religious and private schools, where it’s harder for unions to collect dues.
asserted
unions → fear → dues
Just as was true earlier this year when New York lawmakers copied an Oregon law written for the specific purpose of limiting the Freedom Foundation’s outreach programs in that state, the latest action is simply a case of labor leaders suppressing an inconvenient truth by calling in markers from leftist politicians who owe their office to union campaign contributions.
asserted
who → copy → contributions
The state says its latest decision is about protecting student privacy and complying with New York law, not concealing school performance.
asserted
decision → say → performance
It also argues that extensive education data, including AP participation information, remains publicly available.
asserted
data → argue → information
U.S. News says it was seeking aggregate information rather than personally identifiable student scores.
asserted
it → say → scores
That distinction matters: School-level statistics can tell parents something important about academic performance without publishing the names or scores of individual children.
asserted
statistics → matter → children
The consequences of the missing information were significant.
asserted
consequences → miss → information
At Success Academy’s High School of the Liberal Arts in Harlem, for example, the statewide U.S. News ranking fell from 11th to 196th.
asserted
ranking → fall → 196th
Success Academy says the dramatic change wasn’t evidence of an equally dramatic decline in student achievement.
asserted
change → say → achievement
Instead, AP-based measures that previously contributed heavily to the rankings weren’t available.
asserted
that → base → rankings
College readiness and college curriculum breadth together account for roughly 40% of the U.S. News methodology.
asserted
readiness → account → methodology
Success Academy has now sued New York Education Commissioner Betty Rosa in federal court, arguing the state’s decision improperly prevents the charter network from communicating independently verified information about its students’ performance.
asserted
decision → sue → performance
But the controversy raises a broader question extending beyond one charter network or one magazine’s rankings: Why shouldn’t state residents have a right to see objective data about the schools their tax dollars are paying for?
asserted
dollars → raise → schools
Transparency works in every direction.
asserted
Transparency → work → direction
Publicly available results can reveal schools that excel, schools that struggle, and schools that improve.
asserted
that → reveal → schools
They can help parents ask better questions and allow researchers and journalists to test claims made by education officials, charter operators, and school districts alike.
uncertain
researchers → help → officials
New York’s legitimate responsibility to protect individual student privacy, therefore, exists alongside another important public interest: allowing families to evaluate publicly funded schools using meaningful academic information.
asserted
families → protect → information
The debate shouldn’t require choosing between those principles.
asserted
debate → require → principles
The harder — and more useful — question is whether New York can protect individual students while still making aggregate academic performance transparent enough for the public to understand how its schools are doing.
asserted
schools → protect → students
The Washington Post editorial concludes, “The unions that represent teachers clearly care more about their members than students.”
Maybe, but don’t kid yourself.
asserted
that → conclude → yourself
In organized labor’s playbook, the No. 1 objective is growing union power and influence, followed closely by advancing a radical leftist political agenda.
asserted
objective → grow → agenda
The welfare of its members actually ranks dead last on any teacher’s union list of priorities, but only because student outcomes rate no consideration at all.
asserted
outcomes → rank → consideration
The Aporia
