During the Bloomberg years, the city came up with the bright idea, advocated by Bill Gates and then abandoned as not the answer, that closing the large comprehensive schools in poor communities and replacing them will smaller schools will improve student academic achievement. These small schools will show an improved graduation rate and "college and career readiness" rates. Well the graduation rates did improve, thanks to"credit recovery", Principal pressure, student exclusionary practices, and questionable grading policies. However, the "college and career readiness" rates cannot be manipulated and these rates clearly show how much a failure these small schools have been when improving academic achievement.
Lets look at the 2013-14 school year "college and career readiness" scores of the small schools that replaced the large comprehensive schools in Queens. The citywide average is 32% while the average in Queens is 36%.
Andrew Jackson High School Campus:
Business Computer Application and Enterpriseship........4%
Law, Government And Community Service..................9%
Humanities and Arts Magnet School..........................5%
Math, Science Research Technology Magnet..............19%
Franklin K. Lane Campus:
Brooklyn Lab School...............................................11%
Cypress Hills Collegiate Prep....................................11%
Multicultural..........................................................2%
Far Rockaway Complex:
Fredrick Douglas Academy VI....................................7%
Information, Research And Technology........................8%
Academy of Medical Technology................................21%
Springfield Gardens Campus:
Queens Preparatory Academy..................................18%
George Washington Carver......................................30%
Excelsior Preparatory High School............................21%
Preparatory Academy For Writers.............................31%
Since the Beach Channel and Jamaica high schools have closed this year, the small schools that inhabit the campuses are new and were given extra money and allowed to exclude "high needs students" from the schools to ensure that they succeed. Therefore, they were not included in this post until there is a real track record for them.
The relatively high "college and career readiness" scores of the small schools at the Springfield Gardens complex will rapidly drop as the data reflect the last year of the new small school exclusion policy that kept low achieving students from being accepted to the schools which is no longer the case.
For comparison what were the"college and career readiness" rates of the large comprehensive high schools that the Bloomberg administration tried to close but failed to get court approval?
August Martin........................................................6%
Flushing...............................................................20%
Grover Cleveland...................................................17%
John Adams..........................................................12%
Long Island City....................................................29%
Newtown.............................................................14%
Richmond Hill........................................................11%
William Cullen Bryant .............................................33%
...
The average"college and career readiness" scores of the eight large comprehensive Queens high schools, slated for closure but spared by the courts is approximately 18% while the small schools created at the closed large comprehensive high schools averaged only 14%.
If one uses the "college and career readiness" scores, its obvious that the small schools carved out of the closed large comprehensive high schools have not shown any real academic improvements. In fact, that might be even worse once the small schools have a longer track record and cannot exclude "high needs students" as the Campus Magnet schools (Andrew Jackson Campus) have shown..