Schools Report Cards Released
Perhaps the kerfuffle over Brooklyn Heights’ PS8 will be mollified by the other news about New York City schools: lots of ’em earned A’s. Nine of those A’s came from schools that had been marred by F’s the last time around, the NY Times reported, including Clinton Hill’s PS270, which the Post reported rose to…
Perhaps the kerfuffle over Brooklyn Heights’ PS8 will be mollified by the other news about New York City schools: lots of ’em earned A’s. Nine of those A’s came from schools that had been marred by F’s the last time around, the NY Times reported, including Clinton Hill’s PS270, which the Post reported rose to sixth place overall. We poked around ourselves on the New York City schools’ Web site, where you can scour the records of your neighborhood school. Here’s what we found:
· Park Slope’s much hyped PS 321 received a B: A for school environment, C for student progress and B for student performance;
· Boerum Hill’s PS 261 earned a C: C for student progress, and B’s for environment and performance;
· The Slope’s PS 107, home to “Readings on the Fourth Floor,” earned a solid A in all categories;
· Clinton Hill’s PS 11 earned a B: a C in environment and progress and an A in performance;
· Cobble Hill’s PS 29 earned a C, with a D in student progress, and A in environment and a B in performance.
More New York Schools Get A’s [NY Times]
Clinton Hill School Goes from F to A [NY Post]
Photo by bitchcakesny.
“I see absolutely nothing wrong in challenging troubled schools and making them more attractive by giving them high grades when their their test scores improve among their peers.”
I completely agree. And I also agree that PS 8 has some work to do. However, there is also nothing wrong with understanding how the city comes up with these grades so that you can take them for what they are worth.
So people who don’t want to send their kids to “snooty, 98%-white private schools” move to Park Slope so that they can live in a snooty, 98%-white neighborhood?
reading the comments, i think what i thought before when many posted negative assessments about the grading system – some are trying to deny that there are decent schools outside of brownstone brooklyn. this year as last, 31, 34, 132 and even 17 did really really well out of district 14. and, insideschools.org agrees.
every time i try to point out any of these schools as good options for buyers with children, I am shot down because supposedly the DOE’s ratings are worthless.
well, good luck with all that. i think that you’ll see the DOE’s ratings are right on in many cases, and that there are options to parents.
I see absolutely nothing wrong in challenging troubled schools and making them more attractive by giving them high grades when their their test scores improve among their peers.
PS 8 was supposed to be a “great” school, that is why its peers are all nice schools. Did it wish to be judged against the worst schools in poor districts? It’s in Brooklyn Heights! Sure there are some kids that go there from the projects, maybe a C would have been acceptable. But an F?
One can spin it anyway one wants, but this is bad for the kids in PS 8 and it is definitely bad for Brooklyn Heights. Today other attractive neighborhoods have more to offer young parents who don’t want to send their kids to a snooty, 98%-white private school.
As the happy parent of two PS107 kids I can report two hard earned facts —
1) The teachers, staff and PTA of 107 have worked hard to earn a good grade. For example, last year the school finally got a library built (the first one for the school in 105 years!).
2) Even in “A” schools the quality of education for your child depends almost entirely on the quality of the teacher in your classroom. It doesn’t matter what grade the school gets if your teacher sucks the school sucks.
As far as grades are concerned I think Architerrorist has it pretty much right.
Sam, any argument you had about the validity of these tests lost all weight when you tried to use these them as a tool to pump Park Slope real estate and bash Brooklyn Heights. (I live in neither of these neighborhoods)
Here are a few interesting bits of information taken from the NY Times article about these test scores. 30% of the schools deemed failures by the federal government got an “A” from the city. In over 60 of the schools that received an “A” from the city more than half the students failed to reach proficiency on the state’s reading test. Two of the schools that received A’s were added to the state’s most recent list of failing schools. Schools are graded by comparing them to their “peer schools” (schools that have similar demographics–race, poverty, special education and students still learning English)
Architerrorist, great conspiracy theory. Love it!
Sam, your tears at PS 8’s demise are wasted. Better let them drip on sub-par schools that were given As.
PS 8’s principal had a cardiac event last spring, and the school is still very much in transition. So many wonderful and positive things have happened there, it is cruel and stupid indeed to rain on it. I’m sure as principals consider their options they will think twice about taking on a school that needs as much reform as PS 8 did.
sam, I’m going to stop posting on the subject after this too. I’m sure PS8 has room for improvement, and I don’t deny there surely are some lessons to be learned and steps needed to be taken to ensure the school is doing the best job it possibly can. But schools do not fluctuate from year to year nearly as much as one might believe from these letter grades and I think this grading system is doing all schools and students a disservice by breaking it down like this. There might be valuable insight published behind the letter grades, but most people won’t bother to look at that. If one really thinks a child will do better at virtually every school other than PS8, I think one is incredibly misguided and misinformed.
“The BOE reallly needs to address the problem at PS 8 and first, it needs to address the depth of denial of the parents. Everyone I have spoken with is blaming the chancellor and the administration for an unfair evaluation of their ‘excellent’ school.”
But what is the so-called ‘problem’ at PS 8? This ranking doesn’t mean that the school is doing a bad job at teaching, just that the school didn’t progress as much as other schools did last year on the test results. Rewarding “progress” in and of itself (as does the DOE’s ranking) doesn’t say anything about what levels you started and ended up at. Progress is nice but I’m more interested in the actual level of results (to the extent standarized testing can even do that). On that count, PS 8 was penalized because the DOE shifted its peer group this year. It performed above the city average in math and English (not that it’s something to brag about, but hey, it’s better than an ‘F’) but it still ended up with a D in that area because of its ranking within the peer group. The report card lists the peer group but it’s meaningless because we don’t know how or why those schools ended up on the list, or why DOE decided to change the group this year.
I honestly do not know what the problem is at PS 8, I understand that the principal, though young, has bad health issues and was absent for many weeks. I think it may also be overcrowding -the “F” may solve the latter problem. If the school had recived a C I would shrug it off. tests are not perfect, that is very true. but to be among the 2 percent (2 percent!) of all schools to get an F. That is cause for concern.
I’m not writing any more about PS 8. As a Park Slope home owner, I believe this cements further the Slope’s ascension as the premier Brooklyn neighborhood. But I used to live in the Heights and have many friends there. I feel sorry to see it going down the drain -being left behind is, perhaps, a better way to phrase it.