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Top grades: School report card creator Liebman leaves system much improved

on Jul 10, 2009 by NY Daily News
The least known person who has had the greatest impact on the education of the city's 1.1 million public school children is closing out his service. Jim Liebman departs as a man of great accomplishment.

It was Liebman who brought the Education Department into the information age by creating a system for tracking student performance - and using the data to gauge how well teachers and principals do their jobs.

The report cards that grade schools based on pupil progress, as well as on the ratings of students, parents and teachers, are his revolutionary handiwork. They give principals a powerful incentive to raise achievement and deny them the ability to make endless excuses for failure.

Hiding behind poverty while cheating kids out of the education they deserve is impossible because the report cards compare the performance of schools with similar student bodies.

Those that teach their children well get As and Bs, and the possibility of bonuses for particularly good work. Those that don't get Ds and Fs - and the threat of closure.

Liebman joined the department on leave from his post as a professor at Columbia University Law School. His three-year break is up. He can return to his campus knowing he did the city's public school children an enormous service.

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Categories: Education News OP-ED