Parents Get Testy Over Philadelphia’s New School Report Cards is a new article about parents and the more and more discredited idea of giving grades to schools.

Here’s an excerpt:

“We’re using consultants to grade schools instead of spending more time fixing them,” said school activist Helen Gym.
Several saw the report card as little more than a thinly veiled effort to use consultants to justify closing more schools or turning them over to charter operators.

“They rely on our schools closing,” one man shouted angrily from the back.

Other parents expressed concern about report card data being manipulated for political ends. One noted a recent story about the Indiana education secretary ordering the overhaul of the state’s report card to raise the grade of a charter school operated by a major Republican campaign contributor.

And for more info on the grading school “racket,” check out The Grading Game at The National Education Policy Center.