Management By The Numbers In New York City Schools

[Jonathan Siegel <jmsiegel@yahoo.com>]

The New York Times had a follow-up article today on
the effects of managing-by-the-numbers on New York
City Schools. Yesterday's article pointed out that
high school principles were meeting their
four-year-graduation goalss by simply forcing problem
children to leave, and assigning them classification
codes (such as moved to another city or transfered to
alternative program) which would not count them as
dropouts.  

Sample quotes from today's article:

"Experts say the pressure to produce good results
inevitably forces principals to find ways to unload
students who may not graduate on time."

"'Ten years ago, you could focus on the kids, said Don
Freeman, who retired last year as principal of Fannie
Lou Hamer Freedom High School in the Bronx. 'The
pressures were not the same, and you could take some
risks. Now you're supposed to focus on the numbers.'"

Deming reminded us not to be so hard on those
involved. Principals who find themselves sweeping
children under the rug in order to make their numbers
look good, just as he reminded us not to blame
inspectors who passed defective parts in order to meet
their quotas. Numbers will be made to look good, one
way or the other, when the system requires it. It is
part of the nature of people to try to survive. 

It is senior management -- the people who divised the
system of numerical goals -- who are responsible for
its inevitable consquences. 

Jonathan Siegel