Real Answers to City’s Failing Schools Crisis Found in 46 High-Performing, High-Poverty District and Charter Schools–Not $150M “Renewal Schools” Gamble
New York, NY – On Tuesday morning, Families for Excellent Schools called for Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Fariña to visit the 46 high-poverty (Title I), majority of-color schools where students are achieving high levels of proficiency — before rushing forward with an untested, $150 million Renewal Schools program.
In New York City, 46 schools with high-poverty, majority of-color student populations are proving that disadvantaged students can succeed. This small group of schools, comprised of 23 district and 23 public charter schools, is leading the way in closing the city’s achievement gap and passing a majority of students in state proficiency exams. Yet Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Fariña have only visited a fraction of them.
Almost none of the 46 successful New York City schools are “community schools,” the linchpin of the Mayor’s Renewal Schools program. The community schools model has existed in New York City for two decades and failed to turn around a single school–more than a dozen existing community schools are still failing. In New York City, 143,000 students are trapped in failing schools where nine out of ten students are failing, and ending the failing schools crisis will require bold, structural change that expands access to excellent schools akin to these 46.
Parents Say Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Fariña Should Invest in Schools that Work, not Prop Up a Failing Bureaucracy
“My child attended a school were one child a year passed the state test, and choosing a new school was the only thing that saved him,” said Takisha Willis, a Brooklyn Parent. “Why is Mayor de Blasio more interested in a failing bureaucracy than visiting schools that actually work?”
“Parents like me won’t wait for bad to turn to worse when there are great schools that prove what’s possible for our sons and daughters,” said Kesha McEwan, a Brooklyn Parent. “Why isn’t Mayor de Blasio doing the same?
“If Mayor de Blasio wants to fix the city’s failing schools crisis, he should visit every one of these schools,” said Jeremiah Kittredge, CEO of Families for Excellent Schools. “Instead of relying on a failed bureaucracy that has never worked, the Mayor and Chancellor should be scaling the handful of schools closing the achievement gap.”
“Within five minutes walking distance from PS106x, my first grade son’s failing community school, are both Carl Icahn Charter School and Bronx Charter School for Excellence that are serving the same Title I student population with drastically different successful results,” said Mona Davids, PS106x Title I PAC Chair and President, NYC Parents Union. “Almost 80% of PS106x students are not reading, writing and doing math at grade level. Instead of replicating the failed community school model, Mayor de Blasio should replicate the best practices of high performing Title I schools at my son’s school and others throughout the city.”
As of late Tuesday evening, the city Department of Education (DOE) had not responded to The Bronx Chronicle’s request for comment. The DOE was asked whether or not the Department had plans to disseminate the “best practices” from those 46 high-performing schools.
New York City’s High-Performing, High-Poverty, and Majority of-Color Schools:
Of the 923 schools that are Title I (high-poverty) eligible, with majority of-color students, and have at least one testing grade, only 46 have an average proficiency rate in English and Math of above 50%. Fully half—23—of these schools are public charter schools. Nine of the schools –all of them charter schools– are in the Bronx.
Echoing Families for Excellent Schools, Ms. Davids urged Mayor de Blasio to abandon the failed community school model and instead replicate the best practices of high performing Title I schools at schools across the Bronx like PS 106X. “We should not continue failed methods. Our children’s futures are at stake.”
| SCHOOL | Average Math/ELA Proficiency | Poverty Rate | % Minority Students |
| SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL-BEDFORD STUYVESANT 1 | 90.0% | 75% | 95% |
| PS 172 BEACON SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE | 84.9% | 95% | 85% |
| BRONX SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL 2 | 84.4% | 85% | 98% |
| HARLEM SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL 3 | 81.9% | 76% | 95% |
| HARLEM SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL 5 | 81.8% | 82% | 96% |
| BRONX SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL 1 | 76.7% | 84% | 95% |
| HARLEM SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL 4 | 76.4% | 75% | 93% |
| HARLEM SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL | 76.0% | 81% | 96% |
| HARLEM SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL 2 | 75.9% | 76% | 97% |
| QUEENS GATEWAY TO HEALTH SCIENCES SECONDARY SCHOOL | 75.1% | 78% | 62% |
| SOUTH BRONX CLASSICAL CHARTER SCHOOL | 70.7% | 85% | 94% |
| ICAHN CHARTER SCHOOL 5 | 70.0% | 65% | 87% |
| MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL | 69.7% | 73% | 97% |
| ROBERT F WAGNER JR SECONDARY SCHOOL-ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY | 68.5% | 69% | 65% |
| BALLET TECH/NYC PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR DANCE | 67.7% | 62% | 55% |
| LEADERSHIP PREPARATORY OCEAN HILL CHARTER SCHOOL | 66.4% | 90% | 92% |
| ALL CITY LEADERSHIP SECONDARY SCHOOL | 66.3% | 89% | 93% |
| PS 31 SAMUEL F DUPONT | 64.2% | 72% | 52% |
| EXCELLENCE GIRLS CHARTER SCHOOL | 63.7% | 73% | 98% |
| ICAHN CHARTER SCHOOL 4 | 63.6% | 80% | 97% |
| ICAHN CHARTER SCHOOL 2 | 63.3% | 72% | 94% |
| BRONX CHARTER SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE | 60.0% | 75% | 84% |
| PS 33 CHELSEA PREP | 59.1% | 67% | 53% |
| MOTT HALL II | 58.6% | 62% | 75% |
| IS 392 | 58.6% | 74% | 94% |
| ICAHN CHARTER SCHOOL 6 | 58.0% | 93% | 99% |
| ROSA PARKS SCHOOL (THE) | 57.4% | 91% | 78% |
| PS 132K THE CONSELYEA SCHOOL | 57.3% | 100% | 59% |
| BRONX CHARTER SCHOOL FOR BETTER LEARNING | 56.4% | 77% | 98% |
| PS 235 LENOX SCHOOL | 55.5% | 79% | 97% |
| PS 11 PURVIS J BEHAN | 55.3% | 63% | 84% |
| LEADERSHIP PREPARATORY BEDFORD STUYVESANT CHARTER SCHOOL | 55.0% | 73% | 98% |
| VOICE CHARTER SCHOOL OF NEW YORK | 54.7% | 71% | 62% |
| PS 304 EARLY CHILDHOOD SCHOOL | 53.7% | 68% | 54% |
| MOTT HALL SCHOOL (THE) | 53.7% | 86% | 93% |
| PS 249 THE CATON | 52.6% | 100% | 92% |
| IS 227 LOUIS ARMSTRONG | 51.9% | 78% | 57% |
| PS 129 PATRICIA LARKIN | 51.2% | 75% | 53% |
| YORK EARLY COLLEGE ACADEMY | 50.6% | 83% | 71% |
| CENTRAL QUEENS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL | 50.6% | 87% | 72% |
| CENTRAL PARK EAST II | 50.4% | 100% | 66% |
| PS 9 TEUNIS G BERGEN | 50.3% | 71% | 71% |
| WILLIAMSBURG COLLEGIATE CHARTER SCHOOL | 50.1% | 85% | 98% |
| ACHIEVEMENT FIRST BUSHWICK CHARTER SCHOOL | 49.7% | 84% | 99% |
| PS 176 CAMBRIA HEIGHTS | 49.6% | 70% | 95% |
| HELLENIC CLASSICAL CHARTER SCHOOL | 49.537% | 66% | 73% |
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