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If it is supposed to convey that Harlem Success Academy has some kind of unfair advantage. In a way, it could be said that it does. If you look at the scores of the children in Sojourner Truth, they are lower. It would not be because the kids are needy. It may be that http://www.joannejacobs.com/2010/05/education-2010-more-high-poverty-schools/ High poverty schools don’t tend to have highly qualified teachers. And the way I understand it, that’s because unions help better, higher qualified and better paid teachers to avoid these areas.

Why did Kim Gittelson not also consult P.S. 149′s Comprehensive Education Plan, or CEP, which is posted on the DOE website? Written in May 2009, the school’s 2009-10 CEP indicates that its ELL population appears to be growing and accounting for a greater percentage of total enrollment. As of May 2009, 62 ELLs with a variety of home languages — mostly Spanish, but also Arabic, Bengali and several African languages — constituted 14% of the enrollment, not 10% as listed on the 2008-09 register, which takes an attendance snapshot on a single census day (usually Oct. 31, months before the administration of the standardized ELA and math tests). The growth is also apparent in the number of students who took the May 2009 NYSESLAT test: 55 (source: P.S. 149 Comprehensive Information Report; NYSESLAT statistics are separate from the NY State Accountability Report Card, which Gittelson cites).

Significantly, according to the CEP, 18 of P.S. 149′s were enrolled in 2008-09 in the all-important testing grades: third, fourth and fifth. Hence, of the 106 students who took the third-grade, fourth-grade and fifth-grade math exams in 2009-09, 17% were probably ELLs. (I say “probably” because the math test was administered shortly before the CEP was filed.) According to the CEP, 100% of ELLs in those grades scored “proficient” (which I assume means at or above grade level) in math. That is quite an accomplishment.

Unless one looks at the CEP narrative, and not just statistics, one might ignore the apparently earnest efforts being made at P.S. 149 to improve the performance of their diverse and challenging group of ELLs on literacy exams (the ELA and NYSESLAT). The school should be applauded for having two certified ESL teachers who, the CEP says, provide push-in and pull-out services, as well as afterschool and Saturday programs for ELLs and their parents (funded by federal Title III funds, and well-thought-out, as described in the CEP). Also, I noticed that P.S. 149 was one of very few schools to have no compliance issues listed on a recent audit by the New York State Education Department’s Office of Bilingual Education. (See http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/biling/bilinged/2009-10_NYC_Part154-LAPReports.htm ). Notice also that two ELLs enrolled at the school are in self-contained special education classrooms, and that some of the school’s 17 ELLs in Grades 7 and 8 tested at the beginner level on the NYSESLAT, indicating that they are adolescents who arrived in the U.S. with little English, posing particular challenges for the school.

I have no relationship with P.S. 149; I never even heard of it before the Times magazine piece mentioned it. I’m just using information available on the school’s statistics page of the DOE website. But I am clicking on more sources than Gittelson did.

In contrast, what has the Harlem Success Academy done for the Latino, African, and Bengali newcomers in the neighborhood? Brill doesn’t mention a thing in his article.

Kim, I appreciate your response. I did notice you limited your analysis to comparable data to be, you say, fair. But I think it is unfair to write that Harlem Success Academy “dramatically outperforms” P.S. 149 on 3rd grade tests without taking into account that only 39 kids took the third-grade ELA at P.S. 149 last year, of whom probably 10 were ELLs with four different home languages, as stated in the CEP. The high concentration of ELLs in the school’s third grade could explain why P.S. 149 posted better results for Grade 6, which had half the number of ELLs as Grade 3, and in which 86% of students scored at or above grade level. (Again, I realize you couldn’t discuss sixth grade because Harlem Success didn’t have one, but here again, your discussion fails to paint the whole picture.)

Statistics should inspire inquiring minds to look further. What is preventing Gotham Schools from phoning Harlem Success Academy — or, if need be, filing a Freedom of Information request — to ask if any ELLs took the 3rd grade ELA at that school (unlikely, if only 2% of enrollment in all grades was ELL)? Otherwise, we are left with “data sets,” but not an investigation.

Well, Kim. Can you get the attendance figures for the two schools?

Oops apologies – that published too soon. The rate at P.S. 149 is 89%.