Some NYC Schools Are Academically Failing

The New York Post had an article with a heading "Over 140 NYC schools had a 90% failure rate on State exams". The article points out the sad state of academics in the largely low income and minority elementary and middle schools in NYC. Moreover, 23 schools reported an entire class that had nobody passing the State exams.  Finally, the DOE actually reported that the 142 school failure rate as an academic improvement since the previous year 193 schools reported a class with a 90% failure rate.

The New York State tests are given to grades 3 to 8 and are given in March and April for English and Math.  Not surprisingly, the highest failure rate are found in high poverty schools that have high percentages of minority students as well as Special Education, English Language Learners, and homeless students.

Here are some of the worst schools based on the State exams.

• At PS/MS 46 Arthur Tappan in ­Harlem, 57 eighth graders sat for the state math exam last year, ­according to state data, and all failed.  Here is a studdnt's account for one of these classes

• At the Academy of Public Relations middle school in The Bronx, 50 students sat for the same eighth-grade math test, and not one was proficient, the numbers show.

• At PS 306 Ethan Allen in Brooklyn — a participant in City Hall’s defunct Renewal Schools program — 47 fifth graders took their state math exams last year and all failed.

• At PS 224 in Brooklyn, a total of 301 kids in grades 6, 7 and 8 took their state math exams and 288 of them flunked — a bleak pass rate of 4 percent, the figures show.

• A total of 57 third-graders at PS 31 William T. Davis on Staten Island took both state exams. Only three passed English and one passed math.

• At the North Bronx School of Empowerment, 186 seventh graders took the state math test and just eight passed.

Many of the old Renewal Schools are found on the failure list.

The demographic breakdown of the State exams are as follows for NYC students:

 In Math, Asians led the way a 74.4% proficiency rate, followed by Whites at 66.6%, Hispanics at 33.2% and Blacks at 28.2%.

Asian kids also scored highest in English with a 67.9% proficiency rate, followed by Whites at 66.6%, Hispanics at 36.5% and Blacks at 35.0%.

The low test scores are correlated with poverty, family, and community and that's the inconvenient truth.