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closings

December 9, 2009

DOE announces 3 more school closures, bringing total to 20

by Philissa Cramer, at 4:24 pm

In the last round of school closure announcements for the year, the Department of Education said today that it intends to close three more high schools starting next year.

The three schools are Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education School, a vocational school in the South Bronx; Monroe Academy for Business/Law, one of five small schools on the Monroe campus in the Bronx; and the School of Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship, located on a Queens campus where two of the other three schools began phasing out this year.

The announcement brings to 20 the number of schools the department plans to close next school year, with high schools making up 15. A DOE spokesman, William Havemann, said the department does not plan to propose any more school closures this year.

Alfred E. Smith is the second career and technical education school the department plans to close this year, after announcing last week that it intends to phase out Brooklyn’s Maxwell High School. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced an initiative to improve career and technical education programs earlier this fall.

The school on the Monroe campus has a graduation rate below 50 percent, but another school in the same building, the Monroe Academy for Visual Arts and Design, has a 4-year graduation rate of just 42 percent, according to its most recent progress report. This school is remaining open.

“We chose schools that we deemed did not have the capacity to turn around,” Havemann said. “The graduation rate is certainly a large part of that equation, but it is not the only part.”

According to the school governance law passed in August, the proposed closures must be given public hearings and approved by the city school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy. The panel has never rejected a DOE policy proposal.

The full list of schools and the city’s bullet-pointed reasoning behind the closure of these schools, taken from an e-mail sent to reporters by DOE spokesman William Havemann, is below:

Phase-out of Alfred E. Smith CTE High School (07X600)

  • The Department of Education is proposing the phase-out of the Alfred E. Smith High School, a Career and Technical Education high school in the Bronx that currently serves students in grades 9-12. Under this proposal, the school would stop accepting new ninth grade classes starting in September 2010.
  • The graduation rate has consistently remained below 50%:
    • In 2007-08, the graduation rate was 37.5%.
    • In 2008-09, the graduation rate was 45.7%.
    • Credit accumulation rates are also low. In 2008-09, only 57% of first-year students accumulated 10 or more credits, up slightly from 55% the preceding year.
  • Average attendance at the school last year was 77.2%.
  • Demand for the school is very low:
    • The 2008-09 enrollment was 1,131 students.
    • This year, the enrollment is 1,103 students.
  • Smith has received a C on its Progress Report for three consecutive years.
  • The school earned a D on the Environment sub-section of the 2008-09 Progress Report.

Phase-out of the School of Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship (29Q496)

  • The Department of Education is proposing the phase-out of the Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School, a Queens high school that currently serves students in grades 9-12. Under this proposal, the school would stop accepting new ninth grade classes starting in September 2010.
  • Graduation rates are low and declining:
    • The 2007-08 graduation rate was 62%.
    • In 2008-09, the graduation rate declined to 57%. The average graduation rate in Queens is 67%.
  • Credit accumulation rates are also very low:
    • In 2007-08, only 41% of students earned ten or more credits.
    • In 2008-09, 51% of students earned ten or more credits.
  • The school’s Progress Report grade has declined every year. It earned a B in 2006-07, a C in 2007-08, and a D in 2008-09, including an F grade on the Progress sub-section and a D on the Environment sub-section in 2008-09.
  • Significant dissatisfaction was indicated by the school’s constituents on the 2009 Learning Environment Survey:
    • Only 58% of students feel that their teachers inspire them to learn, and only 51% of students feel safe at school.
    • Only 60% of parents feel their child is safe at school.
    • Only 52% of teachers feel order and discipline are maintained at the school.

Phase-out of the Monroe Academy for Business/Law (12X690)

  • The Department of Education is proposing the phase-out of the Monroe Academy for Business/Law, Bronx high school that currently serves students in grades 9-12. Under this proposal, the school would stop accepting new ninth grade classes starting in September 2010.
  • The school’s graduation rate is low:
    • In 2007-08 the graduation rate was 48.4%.
    • In 2008-09 the graduation rate was 52.1%.
  • Credit accumulation rates are also low:
    • In 2008-09, only 46% of first-year students earned ten or more credits, a key predictor of future academic success. Only 33.5% of second-year students earned ten or more credits.
    • The large number of students repeating grades is causing enrollment to increase beyond the school’s intended capacity.
  • Monroe earned a C on the 2006-07 Progress Report, a C on the 2007-08 Progress Report, and a D on the 2008-09 Progress report – including D grades on both the Environment and Student Progress sub-sections.

CORRECTED: This story has been updated to include the correct graduation rate for the Monroe Academy for Visual Arts and Design.

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  • Close down Tweed

    They are ruthless…..students are more than data and all it looks like is Klein and Bloomberg blaming schools for Tweed’s mismanagement and lack of funding and assistance for schools.  Charter schools are not the answer and once the economy picks up, few people will opt for low paying, high stress teaching jobs in NYC–especially with these clown running the show!

  • http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/ Sharon

    As a reader from the west coast, I am so sorry to witness the incredible havoc being wrecked upon you by the Bloomberg/Klein storm. With such a destructive, disruptive pair working in tandem, you guys don’t even need a Katrina to become converted into a district of charter schools.

  • Charles

    I don’t get the logic behind closing a school. instead of providing the necessary resources a school needs in order to be successful, the mayor and klein close the school and rename it. Doen’t it dawn on anyone that closng a school doesn’t fix the educational problems our children face? That’s like putting a band-aid on a crack in Hover Damn.

  • EFM

    Sad. The more high schools that close, the more pressure is put on the remaining schools. Even the best performing schools can only take on so much.

  • Pogue

    Wow, Klein and Bloomberg’s failure rate is continually mounting.  Large schools, small schools, they don’t care.  Chaos is their mantra.  Students, parents, teachers, even administrators now.  There must be a united front against this annihilation of a public school education.  Mulgrew, Steiner, Tisch, Patterson, the City Council, and Legislature must take note.

  • I noticed that…

    Everyone must attend these hearings that will be held at these soon-to-close schools. Tweed closes schools based on data. Then the public must show that the DoE’s data is inaccuratefalse, inflated, arbitary, and distorted and that the public should demand accountability from everyone at Tweed starting with Klein.

    Bloomberg and Klein failed in provide resources to the schools for students with the greatest needs. They failed in providing reducing class size so that teachers can reach each child in his/her class. They failed in providing solutions to overcrowded schools. They failed in providing assistance to schools who constantly asked those in Tweed for help. They failed in providing schools with pedagogical programs that are research-based to work. They failed to provide special needs students with the services they are entitled to under the law. They failed in allowing teachers to teach to the content but demanded that teachers teach to the test. They failed in funding schools with monies that are supposed to go to the arts and music (Project Arts). They failed in providing safety in and around schools. They failed in providing schools with experienced administrators who have more than 15 years of teaching. They failed to force principals to hire the ATRs, and to expedite the teachers in the Rubber Room their due process.

    The bottom line is that Bloomberg and Klein have failed a thousand times over and yet they have NOT been removed.

  • reality-based educator

    22 this year, more next year…this is just going to accelerate until they shut down every public school in the city, reopen them as charters (once the cap is lifted), bust the UFT and hire twenty-something McTeachers they can burn out and then run out in a couple of years (saves tons on benefits and pensions.)

    Secretary Arne was smiling as Bloomberg kicked the current leg of this strategy off the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. And why wouldn’t he be smiling? He helped kill off Chicago public schools with the same strategy and wants to bring the strategy national with Obama’s Race to the Top jive.

    Obama, Bloomberg, Klein, and Duncan…helping to privatize every public school in the nation so that their hedge fund cronies can run their own tax-payer funded schools.

    I wonder when Treasury Timmeh gets his charter?

  • Mike

    I wasn’t a keen observer of William Bratton’s tenure as police commissioner, but from what I remember, the contrast between him and Klein seems pretty striking. I don’t recall Bratton ever blaming cops for the high crime rates or trying to eliminate their tenure. He focused on improving the management of the police department and if the precincts weren’t well managed, it was understood that it was his responsibility to fix the problems. I’m sure he tried to fudge the numbers, just like Klein does, but I always had the sense that he and his people were accountable to the public and weren’t looking for scapegoats.

  • anonymous

    22. out of 1500 schools that is just over 1.5 percent.  do we really thiing htat 98.5% of our current schools are good enough to stay open. ask yourself if you would put your kids there… I can think of 10 that I would put my kids in… 

  • Pogue

    Winning by a narrow margin will not humble or slow Bloomberg in his quest to destroy then privatize our NYC school system.  If Mulgrew or Eterno have to fight this Mayor, tooth and nail, for the next four years, then so be it.  A chance was missed to send him packing, now it’s time to fight this.  Teachers, parents, and alumni of the city system must make a stand.

  • Jeff S

    Let me ask everybody out there one simple question. If the news schools that replace the large schools being closed were forced to take in the same students, does anybody think results would be better? Of course what’s happening as they close the so called “failing” schools, the troubled students, a vast minority in a school of course but a destabilizing factor nonetheless, go on to other schools, they brfing those other schools down. And the cycle continues. We’ve seen it in Brooklyn. They closed Jefferson, Erasmus, Wingate, Tilden, South Shore, Canarsie, Robeson…whgat happened to all the trouble making students from these schools? And of course both Jeff and Erasmus are on what, their 4th or 5th re-organization.. And have the overall statistics improved? This has become a farce. As we’ve said previously, the big advantage of a large comprehensive high school is that a greater variety of courses can be offered. Extra curricular activities can be offered. Proper department supervision can be done by subject area specialists which we no longer have; replaced b y “coaches” few of whom have the proper supervisory skills. Klein and Bloomberg have done so much to destroy the NYC school systtem and people just don’t see or comprehend what’s going on.

  • Michael M.

    Please see my comment under Dec 10 “Rise and Shine” re Klein — with no PEP approval — repeating Duncan’s FAILED school closure strategy from Chicago, which he then renounced in 2006 in favor of a turn-around approach.

    Turn ‘em — don’t burn ‘em!

  • Michael M.

    anonymous makes a great case for… replacing the Chancellor.

    How many years in, and your solution is to close 98.5%… less 0.7%?

  • A Disgusted Educator in NYC

    Here’s what gets me…

    Monroe was one of the first big high schools closed in the Bronx and have mini schools open on the “Monroe campus.” Those schools were given attention, money and got to screen the students they enrolled. Bloomberg & Klein touted this as the new better way to educate. As time went on and the next “campuses” were opened, the newer mini schools got the attention, money and student selection ability. Then the schools on the Monroe campus, like Monroe Academy for Business Law, lost their newness. They lost the benefits of newness in the Bloomberg/Klein House of Cards and they started to have their budget cut and got the lowest percentile students dumped on them. And now here we are… What was once the best new thing is closing for poor performance. This whole damned thing is just SMOKE & MIRRORS so these selfish people (I’m trying to be nice)can tout statistics and get press for political purposes while NO ONE is really addressing the needs of the lowest percentile students. Instead these poor miserable children are being moved from failing school to failing school so the DoE can open new schools somewhere else and claim success. Why can’t we stop these megalomaniac racists? I don’t understand why the press and governments (state, federal) can’t see through all this smoke, like we can. Having money, apparently, makes one an expert. We, who made serving students our life’s work, can’t know what we’re talking about. But folks who drop in on our profession, before moving on to their life’s work, are the true experts, to be taken seriously. Give me a break.

  • Jeff S

    Look, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. What makes good schools are good students. Teachers are dispersed all over the place and all schools have some top notch teachers, some average teachers and yes some poor teachers. But if you switch the faculties of say the Bronx High School of Science with say Jamaica High School, do you think the results will be any different? All these so called “failing” schools at one time were considered great schools. They provided a variety of courses, a variety of extra-curricular activities, a variety of experiences for kids. They provided chess clubs, band, choral groups and things kids loved doing. But as the trouble makers came into these schools,, and the performance suffered, these stabilizing kids looked for and were given ways out so the BOE used these schools to dump kids. And once school A was destroyed, school B found itself getting a lot of these schools and it was only a matter of time before School B went and then Schol C suffered the same fate.

    None of these small schools, if they had to take the same kids as the “failing” schools they replaced would do one bit better. And what are we left with? Klein, a man who is inept and unqualified to hold the position he has, has done more damage to the school system that will be difficult to undo. Yet we continue to heart from the p[ress about school reform and how Klein has done a wonderful job! Give me a bfreak.

  • JOEL

    Okay, let me get this straight. Under the current rules, a school can be shut down if it recieves a three straight C’s , a D or an F on its PROGRESS REPORT. A school is phased out and another school is phased in. The new school gets to select its population for a couple years and not accept students from the failing school. The new school must select 50% of the faculty from the old school. HMMMM. This sounds like a good idea WHY?
    By the way. the cut score from last years progress report to this years progress report was changed so that schools with C’s last year would recieve D’s this year if their schools did not significantly improve.
    15% of the grade is based on how students, teachers and Parents feel about their schools. Whether you are disgruntled student, parent or teacher can negatively impact on your score. 25% is based on 4 year and 6 year graduation rates. 60% is based how many students are accumulating their credits and a weighed regents score. Under this system, parents, teachers and students should be told to be positive on the surveys because it will be used against you. Teachers should find ways to pass even the most disruptive students and and especially those in your lowest third * you get bonus points for that). And Hold back those students who you know will fail the regents until their junior year and hopefully they will pass then. With all this manipulation, you can assure your school stays in business. My school was honest and now we are being phased out. This is not a system educational integrity. It is a system of quarterly reports. Make sure your profits are up.

  • Holly

    I have spent 8 years as a school board member, 15 years as an educator, 18 years as a parent and 30 years as a tax payer. The system is broken folks. Look at the facts: New York spending on education is the highest in the country. http://www.ppinys.org/reports/jtf/pupilspending.htm Are New York residents getting their money’s worth? According to the American Legislative Exchange Council, while NYS ranks #1 in employee pay and compensation, it ranks #34 in educational results. http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/ReportCard08.pdf (p.9) How are the educational dollars being spent if the children are not seeing the benefits? Why are New Yorkers spending so much on education with such abysmal results? Is it any wonder that New Yorkers have out-of-control taxes that are the highest in the country?
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123940286075109617.html
    Charter schools are not perfect but they are a step in the right direction.

  • insiderknowledge

    Holly I would argue that a reason for the middling ranking in results has to do with the fact that NY unlinke other states has a heterogeneous population as compared to say Iowa which is ranked higher. Part of spending also has to factor in cost of living.. You need to pay teachers more here because its the most expensive place to live. We also see a larger influx of non english speaking immigrants then some other states.. They on average a take a little longer to graduate. So simply basing your opinion on a state rank without asking “why” is a pretty cynical view point.

  • Holly

    InsiderKnowledge,
    NY’s ranking #34 is hardly “middle ranking.” 65% of the states rank higher. PLease look at http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/ReportCard08.pdf p.148 and you will see that 10 states have the same or greater minority populations. These states spend CONSIDERABLY less per student. Maryland for example, is ranked #20 (14 positions higher than NY) has a minority pop. of 51.4% (NY’s minority pop. is 47.3%) and spends $10,670 per student while NY spends $14,884 (40% more).

    Obviously, whatever problem NY is having, money is not fixing. Why not give Charter schools a chance? Can it really get any worse? As an educator, I say these teachers/admin. should RISE to the Charter school challenge, as a taxpayer and a parent I think NYS has had plenty of time to fix the problem and I don’t want to see any more of my tax dollars going up in smoke. Lets embrace the Race -To-The-Top Challenge and MOVE FORWARD!

  • insiderknowledge

    Well as i said.. You must also factor in cost of living.. You can’t pay teachers here what they pay them in florida andd expect to find anyone willing to go to school for 4 years plus pay for a masters to earn 40,000 a yr. That goes into you stat of per pupil spending.. If you factored in cost of living I bet NY spends no more then any other state.. Bottom line 14,000 here is the equivalent of spending 12,000 somewhere else.

  • Holly

    Insider Knowledge,
    I looked high and low to find Cost of Living by state and the most I can find is Cost of Living by city. You obviously found a source to say that $12,000somewhere is = $14,000 here in NY. Please share your source as I am sure you consulted a source to come up w/those figures.

  • insiderknowledge

    You want my source Holly? How about Logic.. geez.. you don’t need hard evidence to tell you that its both cheaper to live and operate in Iowa then it is in NY.. You can google cost of living calculator and once you find one plug some numbers in.. For instance.. I typed in 14000 for NYC manhatten and compared with Iowa city.. It said I could take a 58% cut and still have the same standard of living.. Now using logic wouldn’t it also stand to reason that a teacher in Iowa does not have to make the same for doing the same job as a teacher in NY? Also as you know teacher salery is the largest cost to schools.. SO while I can’t wow you with some fancy numbers likek teh DOE often does I feeel pretty safe in my infallable logic.

  • Holly

    Yes, I guess if you compare Iowa city to Manhattan there is probably a drastic cost of living difference but there is a LOT more to the state of NY than just NYC. To make a blanket statement ASSUMING a certain ratio for the entire state and then using that blanket assumption to lead to the conclusion you have drawn is erroneous. There are lots of areas in New York that are well below the national average for cost of living.
    http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-living-calculator.aspx

    Check the following comparisons:

    Rochester, NY -> Hartford, CT (Hartford, CT more expensive)
    Plattsburgh, NY -> Burlington, Vt (Burlington, VT is more expensive)
    Syracuse, NY -> Tacoma, Wa (Tacoma, WA more expensive)
    Watertown, NY -> Raleigh, NC (Raleigh, NC is more expensive)

    My points are:
    1. Throwing money at the problem has not worked (based upon data)
    2. The tax payers and more importantly, the children are NOT getting their money’s worth (based upon data)
    3. http://www.empirecenter.org/pb/2009/10/empirestateexodus102709.cfm
    If we are to stop the outflow of educated/affluent folks from this great state of ours, we need to fix the problems of education and taxes and charter schools MAY work toward BOTH of those goals. Give them (Charter schools) a chance. (NYS ranks LAST in migration)

    Below is a direct quote from the last link:
    Conclusion

    What accounts for New York’s chronic inability to attract and retain more Americans than it loses every year? Any attempt to answer that question must begin with New York’s state and local tax burden, perennially ranked among the heaviest in the country.5 Taxes aside, likely explanations differ regionally. Downstate residents face high taxes and housing costs rated among the most “severely unaffordable” in the world.6 Land-use regulations in downstate New York also tend to inhibit growth.7 In upstate New York, housing is relatively inexpensive but even more heavily taxed, and new economic opportunities have been scarce.

    Weather, on the other hand, seems less compelling as an explanation. After all, while the Sunbelt’s climate has long attracted northerners, cold winters haven’t stopped New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Minnesota from adding population while upstate New York has been shrinking.

    This much is clear: with New York now facing the most serious fiscal and economic crisis in its modern history, government policies should be aimed at slowing down and ultimately reversing the state’s population drain.

  • Invictus

    Holly, NYC parents “not getting their money’s worth” in NYC schools system is a ridiculous assertion.  Unlike people who live in the outerlimits of NYC, like Westchester County or Long Island, we do not have those ridiculous RE taxes that are to say the least, punishing.  

    Yes, there are folks in Manhattan that live in very expensive accomodations and are taxed to death by NYC taxing of their RE and also consider that everything else in Manhattan is more expensive.  
    Perhaps these parents do not see the public schools as “worth” their large tax assessments but if they are able to afford that sort of living expenses, most of them are able to send their children to private schools and some really really good PS.  

    This issue with NYC Public schools not being worth the money is really nit picking the fact that something that comes “built in” to a package is not being used enough and thus described as “not worth it.”  Should I claim that the AC that comes as a package in a car I purchase is “not worth the money” because I do not use it?

    Lets forget about this comparison, as car options are not the same as schools, but you get the idea.

    Moreover, one cannot expect to pay the same salaries to teachers in NYC as teachers in other states because of the expense of living in NYC.  No teacher in a teacher’s salary can really afford to purchase RE because the middle income or affordable RE, for a 70 years old attached or detached house in one of the boroughs outside of Manhattan still easily cost 450-500K, even after the bubble has pop.

    RE in other large metropolitan areas in the South are MUCH cheaper than NYC.  

  • Brian

    Problem is Holly all the data you point to , and all the data associated can be and has most likly been fudged in order to look better or worse for those who deem it nessecary.

    Just look at the last published NYS crime statistics on that one.
    The bigest concern with the way the current administration operates under this blanket of fear approach is that any schools who fear they might be failing will then become number fudgers themselves.Graduate as many kids as they can, give passing grades when the child has so obviously not passed, this is the true injustice to the children.

    Privitization of schools is not the answer, support from thier local govenment is.
    Its about time Education Boards listen to thier staff as opposed to basing all thier decisions on fixed statistics.

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