posted: March 22, 2004.

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• Explosion of Excellence | HTML | PDF | VIDEO

ALBANY, N.Y. March 22, 2004 - Excellence in New York's public education system is significantly deeper and more geographically and demographically widespread than is often portrayed to the public, a new study by New York State United Teachers contends.

This rapidly spreading, broad-based rise in excellence - represented on state tests and in Regents diplomas, Advanced Placement exams, SAT scores, college enrollment and other measures - is the clearest sign yet that New York's decade-long investment in higher standards is beginning to bear fruit, the 500,000-member union said in its report.

"There is a clear explosion of excellence in public education that has been largely ignored," said NYSUT First Vice President Antonia Cortese. "We're all focusing so intently on improving the poorest-performing schools and helping the lowest-achieving students - and those students certainly need more help - but, we also shouldn't miss the obvious. The vast majority of public schools are succeeding and many more are achieving excellence than in the past."

"The focus on what's wrong with public education shouldn't blind us to all that's right with public education," Cortese added. "The glass isn't half empty, it's more than half full."

The NYSUT report, Explosion of Excellence: The education revolution no one is talking about, argues that New York has one of the best public education systems in the nation. The report acknowledges that excellence is not yet everywhere in New York State.

"We don't want to sugar-coat the deep problems that are barriers to a sound education for some children," Cortese said. "While many, many public schools have indeed made remarkable progress, some are still not yet meeting high expectations. Excellence for all is a long, difficult journey. It's going to take more hard work and a continued investment by the state and local school districts to lift all children and all public schools into the grasp of excellence."

Cortese said NYSUT, the state's largest union, undertook the six-month "excellence" project as a means of restoring context and perspective to the public education policy discussion. Most New Yorkers, she noted, believe their local schools are doing a good job yet don't know how public education in New York stacks up to the rest of the nation.

Here are some of the report's major findings:

• The excellence gap between affluent suburban districts and other districts is rapidly narrowing. More than 90 percent of students exceeded the Regents standards on state tests in nearly 300 school districts in 2003, more than double the 135 in 1998-99. Many more rural and small city schools are demonstrating excellence on state tests than in the past.[link]
• New York is a national leader in participation in the Advanced Placement program. The number of New York students taking AP courses has risen by 50 percent since 1997. Low-income, African-American and Latino students in New York take far more AP exams than in other states. The number of minority students taking AP courses has tripled since 1990. [link]
• New York students are exposed to rigor in science and math not generally found in other states, where advanced science and math courses are optional. New York has stiffer math and science graduation requirements than most other states. [link]
• Newsweek's list of the top 100 public high schools in America included 28 from New York, more than any other state. Its list of the top 4 percent of all public high schools in the United States includes 125 from New York, second only to California. [link]
• Eighty-one percent of New York's high school graduates enrolled in college in 2002, well above the national average of 66 percent. [link]
• Enrollment at SUNY and CUNY is up dramatically, and both institutions are attracting highly qualified students.[link]
• New York's teachers are among the best trained, most knowledgeable in the nation. New York is only one of seven states that require teachers to earn a master's degree to be permanently certified. New York is also among only a handful of states that require teachers to pass state tests and complete an induction program to become permanently certified. [link]
• New York's BOCES is the most comprehensive and effective in the nation.[link]

NYSUT said the report's findings should force a re-examination of some widely held assumptions about student achievement and school performance. "The discussion about how to further improve public education must continue," Cortese said. "But it must continue with a more balanced view of how far New York's public schools have come. Excellence in public education is all around us, and we should be recognizing it, acknowledging it and celebrating it."

NYSUT, the largest union in New York State, represents more than 500,000 classroom teachers and other school employees and retirees; academic and professional faculty at the state's community colleges, State University of New York and City University of New York; and other education and health professionals. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.

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