Bryan Smith for New York Daily News
‘City schools have made great strides over the past decade,’ said Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.
City school officials managed to find a few glimmers of good news on
the new tougher state tests that sent math and reading scores plummeting
last week, a city analysis shows.
Of the 25 top-performing schools statewide, 22 are in the city, the Education Department found.
“Ten years ago, there were no New York City schools in the top 25
schools in the state; today, the city has 22,” said Schools Chancellor
Dennis Walcott in a statement, adding that’s up from 19 last year.
City kids’ abysmally low passing rates on this year’s exams — just
under 30% for math and 26% on reading — have presented a challenge for
the Bloomberg administration’s efforts to make the case for the last 12
years of school reforms. Only 31% of state students passed math and
reading.
This latest analysis of the tests for grades 3 to 8 highlights 22
stellar city schools, most of whom have an advantage going into the
exams.
They are designated for gifted students — or select their students
based on a rigorous application process. In most of the state, kids
attend their neighborhood school, though other districts also have
selective schools.
The city, following up on a classroom-by-classroom computer analysis by
the Daily News, ranked schools by averaging the passing rate for both
the math and the reading test across all grades.
At the top school, Manhattan’s Anderson School, an average of 97% of students scored proficient on the tests.
The school is one of five designated for the city’s most gifted
students, who must score on or above the 97th percentile of a placement
exam beginning at age 4.
“Our teachers just work very hard, and so do the kids,” said Anderson principal Jodi Hyde.
“At 4 years old, they don’t come in understanding the Common Core,” the
term for the new tougher standards that require more critical thinking
and analysis.
But critics took issue with the city’s efforts to spin the numbers into good news.
“We don’t believe the test scores are the be-all and end-all; this
administration made them that,” said teachers union president Michael
Mulgrew.
“That’s why it’s mind-boggling how bad they messed up.”
THE SCHOOLS:
1 The Anderson School 97% Manhattan
2 The Christa McAuliffe School\I.S. 187 96% Brooklyn
3 Baccalaureate School for Global Education 95% Queens
4 New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math94% Manhattan
5 P.S. 748 Brooklyn School For Global Scholars 92% Brooklyn
6 P.S. 77 Lower Lab School 90% Manhattan
7 Special Music School 89% Manhattan
8 New York City Lab Middle School for Collaborative Studies 89% Manhattan
9 Success Academy Charter School - Bronx 2 87% Bronx
10 Scholars' Academy 87% Queens
11 The Active Learning Elementary School 87% Queens
12 East Side Middle School 85% Manhattan
13 P.S. 188 Kingsbury 84% Queens
14 M.S. 255 Salk School of Science 84% Manhattan
15 P.S. 203 Oakland Gardens 83% Queens
16 Mark Twain I.S. 239 for the Gifted & Talented 81% Brooklyn
17 Cobbles Elementary School 79% Monroe County
18 Brooklyn School of Inquiry 79% Brooklyn
19 Success Academy Charter School - Bronx 1 79% Bronx
20 TAG Young Scholars 78% Manhattan
21 City Honors School-Fosdick Masten Park in Erie County 77% Erie County
22 Milton School 77% Westchester County
23 P.S. 321 William Penn 77% Brooklyn
24 P.S. 172 Beacon School Of Excellence 76% Brooklyn
25 P.S. 199 Jessie Isador Straus 76% Manhattan
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