Yet Again, The Independent Budget Office Shows That Closing Schools Have A Greater Percentage Of "High Needs" Students.

For the fourth time in as many years the City's Independent Budget Office (IBO) found that the DOE closing schools had a greater percentage of "high needs" students, defined as Special Education, English Language Learners, and low performing students.  In all cases these closing schools are primarily filled with a poor black student population living in poverty.

The large percentage of "high needs" students in these schools slated to close has even caught the eye of the State Department Of Education and Commissioner John King who complained that the DOE's enrollment policies created the unacceptably large percentage of "high needs" students in these schools.  His statement that criticized the DOE can be found here. Of course, the DOE put its own spin on the IBO report by claiming that they have provided additional resources to these schools but they failed anyway when compared to schools with similar student populations.  However, a NY1 analysis showed the DOE statement to be false, that  almost every elementary and middle school that have large percentage of students living in poverty and have large populations of "high needs" students fared poorly on both the State and National tests.  Only 6% of the "high needs" schools actually showed English and Math scores above the citywide average. I guess the spin never stops at the DOE.


The entire IBO report can be found at Gotham Schools and puts to rest the DOE's claim that poverty is not an indication of poor academic performance.  It's "children last"....always at the DOE.  Especially when it comes to poor black and needy students.