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Process of elimination

October 3, 2012

Dozens of elementary and middle schools told they might close

by Philissa Cramer, at 4:58 pm

J.H.S. 166 in Brooklyn is one of 36 elementary and middle schools that the Department of Education has put on notice because of poor performance.

Three dozen schools that received low grades from the Department of Education on Monday are already getting notice that the city is gravely worried about their performance.

Department of Education officials have identified 36 schools — including 15 middle schools and 25 schools in Brooklyn and the Bronx — for an “early engagement” process that could lead either to closure or another lease on life.

This is the third year that the city, eager to stem some of the public outcry over school closures, has held conversations with low-performing schools before announcing which schools it plans to close. This year’s closures will be the last of the Bloomberg administration.

The potential closure list is nearly twice as long as last year’s, when the city held early engagement meetings at 20 elementary and middle schools and ultimately moved to close 10 of them. It is culled from 217 schools whose progress report scores put them at risk of closure, according to the city’s rules.

This year’s list includes several schools that have already had closure scares. Two schools, M.S. 142 in the Bronx and Brooklyn’s General D. Chappie James Middle School of Science, went through early engagement last year. (Chappie’s sister elementary school is now in the process of closing.) M.S. 142 and another school, J.H.S. 166 in Brooklyn, were also slated to undergo a different closure process called “turnaround” last year until the city was forced to abandon those plans.

The list also includes two charter schools that the city allowed to open, Bronx Community Charter School and Mott Haven Academy Charter School, which serves students in the foster care system. Both of the schools are up for renewal this year.

Department officials compiled the shortlist by looking at schools’ progress report grades, their Quality Reviews, the results of state evaluations, and the efforts they’ve already undertaken to improve.

But in starting early engagement, which includes communication with parent leaders and public meetings at each school, the department hopes to learn why the schools are struggling and whether other efforts could help them, according to Marc Sternberg, the department’s deputy chancellor in charge of school closures.

“These are difficult conversations, but it’s important to have this dialogue and hold our schools to the highest of standards,” Sternberg said in a statement. “We’ll take the feedback that we receive from the school and community into consideration as we explore options to improve performance and support student success.”

Fifteen of the schools are middle schools, signaling where the department could start making room for some of the 25 new middle schools it has vowed to open next year.

The city has vowed to open at least 50 new schools next year, including 25 middle schools.

The schools represent only a small fraction of those with progress report scores low enough to put them on the chopping block. Schools that receive an F, D, or three consecutive C’s or below — this year, 217 schools — can be closed, according to the department’s guidelines.

Seven of the schools landed on the list after drawing three straight C grades from the city. Five of the schools earned B’s two years ago, when many city schools saw their grades plummet because of changes to the way state tests were scored.

A teacher at J.H.S. 166 in Brooklyn, reached before the city announced that the school was on the early engagement list, said she thought she school was improving after a rocky year under the specter of turnaround.

“The students are working towards something this year. It’s a very positive tone,” said the teacher, who asked to remain anonymous because she was not authorized to speak about the school. Principal Maria Ortega, who narrowly avoided losing her job under turnaround, declined to comment.

The teacher did warn that teachers started the year with very little time to plan after many had left for the summer expecting not to return, something the city could hold against the school when assessing its likeliness to improve.

The department has not yet turned its attention toward high schools, whose progress reports will come out later this month.

Officials from both the teachers and principals union decried the early engagement process as being too little, too late for the long-struggling schools.

“We are troubled by the DOE’s statement that it is beginning conversations with these schools now to gain a better understanding of what is happening,” said principals union president Ernest Logan in a statement. “These conversations should have occurred before these schools ever arrived at this point.”

“Tweed’s measurement system depends almost completely on standardized tests, and its ‘engagement’ process does little or nothing to help struggling schools improve,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew, also in a statement. “Unfortunately, closing schools — rather than fixing them — remains the centerpiece of Mayor Bloomberg’s education strategy.”

The schools undergoing early engagement:

J.H.S. Jackie Robinson, Manhattan
M.S. 45/STARS Prep Academy, Manhattan
P.S. 133 Fred R Moore, Manhattan
P.S. 132 Juan Pablo Duarte, Manhattan
P.S. 154 Jonathan D Hyatt, Bronx
M.S. 203, Bronx
Young Leaders Elementary School, Bronx
Performance School, Bronx
J.H.S. 125 Henry Hudson, Bronx
Bronx Mathematics Preparatory School, Bronx
P.S. 64 Pura Belpre, Bronx
P.S. 132 Garret Morgan, Bronx
P.S. 230 Roland Patterson, Bronx
M.S. 142 John Philip Sousa, Bronx
Globe School for Environmental Research, Bronx
P.S. 6 West Farms, Bronx
P.S. 50, Bronx
The School of Science and Applied Learning, Bronx
P.S. 67 Charles Dorsey, Brooklyn
P.S. 167 The Parkway, Brooklyn
Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence, Brooklyn
J.H.S. 166 George Gershwin, Brooklyn
P.S. 174 Dumont, Brooklyn
P.S. 224 Hale Woodruff, Brooklyn
J.H.S. 291 Roland Hayes, Brooklyn
J.H.S. 302 Rafael Cordero, Brooklyn
I.S. 349 Math, Science, and Technology, Brooklyn
P.S. 73 Thomas Boyland, Brooklyn
P.S. 165 Ida Posner, Brooklyn
General D. Chappie James Middle School of Science, Brooklyn
J.H.S. 8 Richard Grossley, Queens
P.S. 140 Edward Ellington, Queens
I.S. 59 Springfield Gardens, Queens
P.S. 156 Laurelton, Queens
Mott Haven Academy Charter School, Bronx
Bronx Community Charter School, Bronx

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  • Anonymous

    …And so, it begins again. The NYCDOE knows that these annual school letter grades are corrupt. Schools that had A’s last year have C’s this year. This is evidently another excuse for the NYCDOE to wrongly close schools.

    It is also wrong to close a school just because it received three consecutive C’s.

    These schools are purposefully given low letter grades so the NYCDOE can justify the closure of each and every school, and then replace the schools with smaller ones that can occupy only a fraction of the previous school population.

    What happens with the kids left over?

    As aforementioned, since the new “better” schools (in reality are just the same, with new illustrious names and cherry picked kids) are small (Bloomberg loves small schools and wants to abolish every large NYC school) and they can only occupy a fraction of the population, the “leftovers” (which is what the NYCDOE calls kids who do not “qualify” for the new schools) are sent to other nearby, highly-sought, and/or decent schools. Then those schools become overcrowded, underfunded, and the scores begin to go down. Finally, those schools that took in the influx of kids wrongly receive a low grade.

    …And so, it begins again. The vicious cycle of the NYCDOE continues.

  • I noticed that…

    Pack the town hall with protesters, Fa la la la la la la la la.
    Tis the season to go through school closings, Fa la la la la la la la la.
    Now that the bogus ratings are out
    and there are more C’s and D’s than A’s and B’s
    Fa la la la la la la la la.
    There’s no escape from the mayor’s intention
    Fa la la la la la la la la.
    All we can do is fight, fight,fight
    Fa la la la la la la la la.

  • http://twitter.com/leoniehaimson leonie haimson

    1.  How many of these are zoned schools? Is the DOE planning on simply opening up a new zoned school in the building?
    2.  You write” But in starting early engagement, which includes communication with
    parent leaders and public meetings at each school, the department hopes
    to learn why the schools are struggling and whether other efforts could
    help them”  What has the DOE done in the past to  actually help a school improve?,

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002397245457 Mary Conway-Spiegel

    “These are difficult conversations, but it’s important to have this dialogue and hold our schools to the highest of standards,” Sternberg said in a statement.  
    There is no dialogue – ever.  It’s insulting after over 10 years of obvious incompetence that any adult/parent at this late stage in the game would even utter those words (Mr. Sternberg) or believe them (a Parent/Guardian). 
    “We’ll take the feedback that we receive from the school and community into consideration as we explore options to improve performance and support student success.”  

    Parents Of Students in “C” Schools Are Not Stupid.

  • Michael M. (parent still)

    Re “deputy chancellor in charge of school closures.”

    Now THAT’s a job title.

  • Michael M. (parent still)

    Re “…the department hopes to learn why the schools are struggling and whether other efforts could help them.”  

    I’d like to repeat, and expand one, a challenge I’ve made in prior years:  
    1) Can the DOE identify what schools whose grades have gone UP are doing RIGHT?
    2) Can the DOE identify what schools whose grades have gone DOWN are doing WRONG?  
    3) More to the point:  Can the DOE identify what any given school has done DIFFERENTLY one year to the next if its grade moved by more than one letter?

    It’s a random letter generator.   The data plots prove it, nominal “stability” newly touted notwithstanding.

  • Michael M. (parent still)

    Three turtle doves, two schools in every building, and a charter school in every pear tree.

  • michael

    Amen

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002397245457 Mary Conway-Spiegel

    Two…?  Three in a building is awful enough in the real world, but we’re up to Five or Six!  Two schools in a building is so five years ago…along with eating lunch at noon and having gym.

  • Michael M. (parent still)

    As they say in baseball… you just smacked that hanging curve over the fence.

    Speaking of which… cutting back on sports, and busting up large high schools is sure to reduce the number of baseball stars NYC will be producing in the future.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Wow, GS, the DOE is “gravely worried” about the performance of these schools? That’s a good one.

    Given their behavior over the past ten years, it would be more accurate to say it is salivating or champing at the bit at the thought of closing them. After all, these people seem to live to destroy neighborhood public schools.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Wow, GS, the DOE is “gravely worried” about the performance of these schools? That’s a good one.

    Given their behavior over the past ten years, it would be more accurate to say it is salivating or champing at the bit at the thought of closing them. After all, these people seem to live to destroy neighborhood public schools.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Wow, GS, the DOE is “gravely worried” about the performance of these schools? That’s a good one.

    Given their behavior over the past ten years, it would be more accurate to say it is salivating or champing at the bit at the thought of closing them. After all, these people seem to live to destroy neighborhood public schools.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Wow, GS, the DOE is “gravely worried” about the performance of these schools? That’s a good one.

    Given their behavior over the past ten years, it would be more accurate to say it is salivating or champing at the bit at the thought of closing them. After all, these people seem to live to destroy neighborhood public schools.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Wow, GS, the DOE is “gravely worried” about the performance of these schools? That’s a good one.

    Given their behavior over the past ten years, it would be more accurate to say it is salivating or champing at the bit at the thought of closing them. After all, these people seem to live to destroy neighborhood public schools.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Wow, GS, the DOE is “gravely worried” about the performance of these schools? That’s a good one.

    Given their behavior over the past ten years, it would be more accurate to say it is salivating or champing at the bit at the thought of closing them. After all, these people seem to live to destroy neighborhood public schools.

  • I noticed that…

    Another salary-bloated educrat from Tweed.  Hopefully, once the mayor4life is out of office, there will be new types of ATRs – ADCR (Absent Deputy Chancellor Regrets).

  • http://twitter.com/MyInspirationIs My Inspiration Is

    This is truly saddening!!

    We are looking to speak with teachers, parents and administrators at some of the at risk middle schools in the Bronx.
    myinspirationis.org or facebook.com/MyInspirationIs

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