NYC Middle Schools Fail To Impress

A study by the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, an organization of parent advocacy groups, was released today, asserting that [the city’s middle schools are being neglected], staffed with inferior teachers and receiving unequal resources and course offerings. Further, the report says that Bloomberg’s education reforms just plum ignore middle schools, contributing to a crisis marked by falling test scores, high dropout rates in high schools and increased violence. The article in the [New York Post](http://www.nypost.com/seven/01162007/news/regionalnews/shortchanged_regionalnews_david_andreatta.htm) reads:

“Citing city and state data, the report found that teachers in middle schools are more likely to be teaching courses outside of their license areas and have less experience than those in elementary schools.”

Well, duh. I mean elementary school requires learning the alphabet and adding two plus two. Of course more teachers have experience doing that than, say, multiplication and social studies, which—hello—they don’t learn until way later. (Remember social studies? Sigh of nostalgia.)