Graduation Rates in City Set Record

The four-year graduation rate in New York City rose to a record 65% in 2010, Mayor Bloomberg announced Tuesday, touting the numbers as a sign his administration's reforms have boosted student success.

"This really is a great day for us to be happy with what we've accomplished," the mayor said at a news conference in Brooklyn.

The enthusiasm was damped somewhat by the state Department of Education, which pointed out that most of the graduates weren't ready for college. In New York City, only 35% of those who graduated were deemed prepared for college. The state defines college readiness as achieving a score of 80 or better on the state math Regents exam and 75 or better on the English Regents exam.

Last year, students needed at least a 65 on three Regents exams and a 55 on two exams in order to graduate. Those standards are now growing more stringent.

The state's emphasis on college readiness is "not intended to diminish the [city's] hard work and efforts," said Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch.

"This is about making a case for the next decade. We owe it to our parents and to our youngsters and to our taxpayers to tell them what they're buying for the money they are putting in," Ms. Tisch said. "High-school graduation should mean more than high-school completion."

The mayor emphasized that the city's graduation rate has increased 40% since 2005, far outpacing the 14% gain made in the state's four other major urban school districts of Buffalo, Syracuse, Yonkers and Rochester.

Mr. Bloomberg said that despite the low college-ready numbers, getting a diploma is in itself an important achievement. "Is it adequate? No," he said, but "getting a high-school diploma is a very big deal."

The mayor said the steady growth in the graduation rate—from about 50% when the mayor first took control of the schools in 2002—helps validate overhauls such as closing failing schools and opening new ones in their place, often with a different administration and a new crop of teachers. The city has closed more than 90 schools and opened more than 470 new ones, including more than 100 charter schools, since 2002.

As the backdrop for Tuesday's news conference, Mr. Bloomberg chose a building where three new, smaller high schools replaced Harry Van Arsdale High School, which had a graduation rate in 2002 of 45%. The three new high schools averaged a graduation rate of 83% last year.

The mayor's strategy, however, has met with vociferous opposition. Last month, the United Federation of Teachers, along with the NAACP, sued the city to stop plans to shut down a couple of dozen underperforming schools. The UFT maintains that the administration should try to help schools perform better, rather than shut them down. A similar lawsuit from the UFT last year was successful in keeping the city from shuttering schools.
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India's best students who became CEOs

As a boy, Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy was someone who could easily go unnoticed in a crowd. He was short, but sharp. Often, his seniors in school came to him for solving Science problems.

Murthy came from a lower middle class, Brahmin family from Mysore. His father, a school teacher, was fond of English literature. And like all the boys of his class, he too had dreams of going to IIT. So he worked hard, studied in the shade of boulders close to Chamundi hills, and helped many in his class to prepare for the entrance exam.

Murthy wasn’t surprised when he got through. When he broke the news of his success to his father, it is said his words were: ‘Anna, I have passed the exam…I want to join IIT.” Proud he was of his son’s achievement but he couldn’t afford the fees and so Murthy had to relinquish his IIT dreams. Murthy stayed back in Mysore. When asked about his decision to stay back, he said to his friends, "It is not the institution but you alone who can change your life with hard work".

He lived up to his own words. Several years afterwards, Narayana Murthy revolutionised India’s software industry by founding Infosys. And this has made him the icon of middle class dreams. He redefined India in the eyes world. India was no longer a third world country, but a fast developing nation. In the process, he promoted thousands of young, creative Indian minds to the world and made Infosys and India a hub of talent.

It is known to the world that he founded Infosys along with six others with just a few thousand rupees which his wife, Sudha Murthy gave. It was an incredible risk to take, but Murthy knew it was going to work, just as he knew he would get through IIT. Which he did, eventually. After Murthy graduated from the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, he joined IIT, Kanpur.

Thanks to IT and its development, the little known romance of Murthy and Sudha Kulkarni is talked about everywhere. It is hard to believe reading from Sudha’s account of an introvert, quiet Murthy, that he is the same person to have revolutionised the IT industry.

When Murthy was asked by Sudha’s father about his ambitions, he said he wanted to become a politician in the communist party and wanted to open an orphanage.

While he has opened several orphanages since, his dream of becoming a politician still remains unfulfilled. After retiring from Infosys, Murthy was hoping to become President of India after the term of Dr. Abdul Kalam. Even though he denied having political ambitions, his supporters would like to see him on the throne.

Our Mysore Murthy is, no doubt, a visionary who has ignited millions of young minds.
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