Over 140 NYC schools have grades with 90 percent state exam failure rate
More than 140 New York City elementary and middle schools had at least one grade where more than 90 percent of kids flunked their state exams last academic year, according to a Post analysis.
A total of 23 schools had at least one entire class where not a single student passed a math or English proficiency test given annually to kids in grades 3 to 8.
“Behind these figures are individuals,” said Yiatin Chu, a member of Manhattan’s Community Education Council 1, a parental advisory panel. “These are families who count on our schools to educate their children. This is depressing and it’s shocking.”
With many of the city’s lowest-performing schools spending in excess of $30,000 annually per student, Chu called for urgent scrutiny of the Department of Education.
“What exactly is being taught in these classrooms?” she asked. “These kids are spending 35 hours a week or so in class. What is that time being used for? What is the curriculum?”
There were 142 schools across the boroughs where more than 90 percent of students failed math or English tests.At PS/MS 46 Arthur Tappan in Harlem, 57 eighth graders sat for the state math exam last year, according to state data, and all failed.
At the Academy of Public Relations middle school in The Bronx, 50 students sat for the same eighth-grade math test, and not one was proficient, the numbers show.
At PS 306 Ethan Allen in Brooklyn — a participant in City Hall’s defunct Renewal Schools program — 47 fifth graders took their state math exams last year and all failed.
At PS 224 in Brooklyn, a total of 301 kids in grades 6, 7 and 8 took their state math exams and 288 of them flunked — a bleak pass rate of 4 percent, the figures show.
A total of 57 third-graders at PS 31 William T. Davis on Staten Island took both state exams. Only three passed English and one passed math.
At the North Bronx School of Empowerment, 186 seventh graders took the state math test and just eight passed.
A total of 19 schools that had at least one class with a higher than 90-percent failure rate were part of the Renewal Schools program that poured millions of dollars into struggling schools in a last-ditch attempt to turn them around.
DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson said the department is making progress and that the 142-school figure is an improvement over the 193 that the previous year had at least one grade with failure rates over 90 percent.
“We are laser-focused on strengthening instruction, and we’re making gains on more accurate and consistent measures of progress — with record-high high school graduations and college enrollment,” she said.
“We’re also making progress on state assessments, as New York City students outperformed their state peers on English exams for the fourth year in a row and we continue to close the gap with the rest of the state on math year after year.”
Last academic year, the city’s overall English proficiency rate inched up by 0.7 percentage points from the prior year and math scores rose 2.9 percentage points, the numbers show.
Critics have questioned the general reliability of state exam trends in recent years given frequent format and standards changes.
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