How NYC failing schools are fixed...poof, they're fixed.

Failing schools escape takeover despite no improvement

By Susan Edelman

March 13, 2016 | 1:20am

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From left to right: Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Aimee Horowitz, Executive Superintendent for Renewal Schools, tour Automotive High School. Photo: Pool

Last July, the state’s new education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, named 62 “struggling” and “persistently struggling” New York City schools that would face a takeover if they did not improve.

Just six school months later, 31 of those have suddenly had the labels lifted — and are out of danger.

Removed from the list of the most serious “persistently struggling” schools are Automotive HS in Brooklyn, JHS 80 The Mosholu Parkway in The Bronx, and PS 328 Phyllis Wheatley in Brooklyn.

What did they do to get better? Very little, it turns out:

• Automotive remains among the lowest-performing 5 percent of high schools statewide — the cutoff for the “struggling” stamp, state officials said. But only high schools with a graduation rate under 60 percent for three consecutive years are considered “struggling.” Automotive had a 63 percent graduation rate in 2011, the first of three years the state counted. So even though its graduation rate was 45 percent the following year and 51 percent the next, it didn’t meet the definition. Last year, its graduation rate was 47 percent.

In justifying Automotive’s removal, the state also cited a slight improvement in scores on Regents exams last year, though only 3 percent of grads scored high enough to be deemed college-ready.

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• Also spared, JHS 80 remains in the bottom 5 percent. Most students failed state exams with scores at the lowest Level 1. But they did a bit better than other failing students statewide who got the same scores the year before, officials said.
• PS 328 is off the list because it performed slightly above the statewide cutoff of the lowest 5 percent. Most of its students still scored Level 1 on the state exams.

Critics blasted the state for letting lagging schools off the hook.

“Nothing has changed. They’re still failing,” said NYC Parents Union President Mona Davids.

David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center education professor, said, “They didn’t meet the technical definition, but they’re still struggling in the common sense.”

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña had no comment.

State officials came up with a new list of 188 “priority” schools, including 90 in the city, to meet a March 1 deadline under the federal No Child Left Behind Act — or risk consequences such as a loss of funds. The feds give the state more than $1 billion a year.

The state calls schools on the “priority” list for three years “struggling” and those in trouble years longer “persistently struggling.”

Only four schools, all in The Bronx, remain “persistently struggling”: JHS 162 Lola Rodriguez de Tio, JHS 22 Jordan L. Mott, IS 117 Joseph H. Wade, and PS 64 Pura Belpre.

Under the Education Transformation Act, a new state law pushed by Gov. Cuomo last year, if those schools don’t show improvement this year, they will be run by an outside person or nonprofit group in 2016-2017.