New York has a mad crush on test scores. It’s been this way for many years. But it has never been as crazy as now.
The state commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, hates opting out. She wants all students to have scores.
About 20% of theeligible students didn’t take the state tests and that made Elia very, very angry.
She decided to get even by punishing schools where students didn’t take the tests.
They disobeyed!
Here is a letter that a principal wrote to the parents of his school, trying to explain how their school, with scores higher than the city average, ranked in the bottom two 2% statewide!
The school had sinned! 80% of the students did not take the tests because their parents said no.
Commissioner Elia can’t figure out how to punish the students and the parents, so she is punishing their school!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I like the word problem in the letter sent to parents. Basically, if a teacher has a class of 10 students and gives a quiz, and 2 students in the class get a 90 and 70 and 8 students are in the bus that broke down and aren’t there for the quiz, is the class average 80% or 16%?
By the way, the answer depends on whether the school is a public or charter school. Because this is often the “high performing” charter school scenario: The teacher has 10 students in the class, 5 of them get between 70 and 90 and the other 5 have been humiliated and punished into leaving the school altogether, or “retained” and sent to a lower grade where students are not old enough to take state tests and where they will remain for as many years as necessary until their performance improves or their parents get the message that their 9 year old will remain in 2nd grade unless they do something to get the kid on grade level when the poorly trained teachers who know only one rote way of teaching are incapable of teaching him. (i.e., they should move him to another school)
Let’s not forget this:
“New York taps new education commissioner — a superintendent fired in Florida.
In December 2014, MaryEllen Elia, who led the public schools in Florida’s Hillsborough County, was named state Superintendent of the Year for 2015.
The next month, she was fired.”
First, it is allegedly obvious to me that she was named state superintendent of the year for 2015, because she was doing the job her masters wanted her to do: destroy the public schools in that district.
Hillsborough School Board votes to oust Elia
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/the-hillsborough-county-school-board-could-act-today-on-elia/2214290
What a cool principal! Those teachers are lucky to work with him.