‘Bloomberg Holds His Nose’

Re: “Bloomberg Holds His Nose Regarding Fulani, Will Voters?” Andrew Wolf, New York, May 31, 2005. Andrew Wolf has said what others have said before: There is this presumption that the 60,000 votes Bloomberg received on the Independence Party line in 2001 enabled him to win.

On the other hand, perhaps it was the 686,000 votes he gathered on the Republican line that allowed Independence Party candidate Michael Bloomberg to win.

EVAN EDWARDS
Republican State Committeeman
69th Assembly District, Upper West Side
Manhattan

‘House Panel Inquires’

I commend The New York Sun for being the only local New York City newspaper giving solid coverage to the congressional hearings about the financial practices of “nonprofit” area hospitals [“House Panel Inquires Into City Hospital,” Luiza Ch. Savage, Page 1, June 3, 2005]. But there’s one key point in need of clarification.

Your article describes the tax supported funds available for covering patient bills and then quotes the president of New York-Presbyterian as saying that his hospital provides nearly $70 million in charity care each year.

Given that the hospitals have a dozen different rate cards depending on the patient’s medical coverage, and can charge as much as a 500% difference for the exact same procedure, phrases like this have about as much solidity as an airline’s listed ticket price.

It’s obfuscatory and misleading language of this sort that just cries out for independent audits.

DANNY BURSTEIN
Manhattan

‘Disposition Emerges’

“‘Disposition’ Emerges as Issue at Brooklyn College” [Jacob Gershman, Page 1, May 31, 2005] criticizes the college’s School of Education and, by extension, CUNY for its compliance with the working principles established by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) to evaluate student performance. NCATE, a national accrediting body authorized by the United States Department of Education, requires that aspiring teachers be “guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice.” NCATE determines which schools, colleges, and departments of education meet rigorous national standards in preparing teachers for the classroom. Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Queens College, and hundreds of institutions nationally comply with NCATE.

ROBERTA S. MATTHEWS
Provost and Vice President For Academic Affairs
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn

The Brooklyn College School of Education equips teachers with competencies such as mastering academic content, developing a curriculum, employing technology, and managing a classroom. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education requires all participating schools to offer opportunities (known as dispositions) to develop and refine student pedagogical expertise. Schools of education, working with their partnered schools, are given wide latitude in designing their respective dispositions. Those used at Brooklyn College assess qualities such as a student’s – and future teacher’s – ability to listen and collaborate with others; empathy and professionalism; and academic integrity, fairness, and compassion.

“Dispositions” have no bearing upon recent incidents of plagiarism in the School of Education. The accused students had a meeting with the instructor and the dean of undergraduate studies, in the course of which they admitted having copied, without attribution, material they had found on the Web. At their request, the students were permitted to rewrite and resubmit their plagiarized papers. Their final grades were lowered to reflect their admitted plagiarism.

Under the university’s Academic Integrity Policy, students have the right to appeal the grade assigned by an instructor to the department’s Academic Integrity Committee and then to the college’s Academic Integrity Committee.

Preparing future educators means ensuring that teachers rigorously implement a rich curriculum and provide and promote full access to an equal knowledge base, maintain high standards and expectations, and respect the children and families they serve. We are confident that all New Yorkers will agree that these are reasonable and responsible standards that support academic excellence, to the benefit of public school students in this city and beyond.

Brooklyn College and the Brooklyn College School of Education are committed to achieving the highest possible academic quality.

DEBORAH A. SHANLEY
Dean of School of Education
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn

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