High school with 76% grad rate only prepped 4% for college
Bronxdale HS graduated 76 percent of its students last year — but just 4 percent met CUNY college-readiness standards, The Post has learned.
Critics blasted the discrepancy, arguing that administrators are sacrificing instruction quality for attractive graduation rates.
CUNY assesses a variety of student test scores to determine if kids are ready for basic math and English collegiate course work.
Grads are deemed prepared if they post minimum scores on their SAT, ACT or Regents.
But at Bronxdale — home to 430 students — just 4 percent of its sizeable graduating class managed to post qualifying scores on those exams. The rest would have to complete remedial course work at CUNY to catch up with their peers.
“At some point, learning has to become as important — or more important — than just getting them to graduate,” one teacher at The Bronx school told The Post.
A male junior at the school agreed, lamenting, “Mentally, I don’t feel prepared, because they don’t teach us anything at all.”
Bronxdale’s graduation rate was higher than the borough average of 66 percent and comfortably beat the city average of 72 percent.
Yet a total 25 percent of Bronx kids and 37 percent of city students met the CUNY standards, according to DOE data.
“There’s a sharp disconnect in results based on graduation, proficiency and rigor,” CUNY Graduate Center Professor David Bloomfield said of the school. “No wonder the public gets dizzy with spin. Until these match up, accountability will be lacking.”
Despite the troubling college- readiness numbers, Bronxdale managed to score an “excellent” rating in the DOE’s “rigorous instruction” category.
The school received a perfect 4 out of 4 score, which even surpassed Bronx Science’s grade in the same category, which was 3 out of 4 — even though the elite school had 100 percent of its kids college-ready last year, according to the DOE.
Bronxdale’s curious “rigorous instruction” score was determined by “an experienced educator who visited and evaluated the school on April 12, 2016,” as well as internal school surveys, according to the DOE’s School Quality Snapshot report.
A DOE rep said the school was making strides and cautioned that the CUNY readiness measure was only one of many collegiate-preparedness metrics.
He noted that 58 percent of Bronxdale graduates were enrolled in postsecondary schools within six months of graduating last year and that 17 percent successfully completed college-prep classes and assessments.
“This school offers rigorous course work and support for its students and is progressing on a number of key measures, and we’ll continue to work to strengthen college readiness at this and all schools,” spokesman Will Mantell said.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment