A tale of 2 schools in Bx. bldg.
Success & failure
Before becoming a Renewal school, PS 154 in the South Bronx “was in a state of chaos,” officials say, noting how “the teachers had become deeply demoralized, student misbehavior was out of control, the hallways were a mess, and test scores had fallen to rock bottom.”
A Department of Education online video credits Principal Alison Coviello (inset) with imposing order, shaking up the faculty and boosting test scores.
But some parents disagree with that conclusion.
Doris Colon, 30, has a 10-year-old son in fourth grade at PS 154, but sent her 5-year-old daughter to kindergarten at the South Bronx Classical Charter School II that opened on the top floor of the same building in 2013.
Recent Common Core testing shows PS 154 lags far behind Classical II, with 25 percent of the students showing proficiency or better in math, compared with 79 percent of the charter students. The disparity in English scores was even more striking, with 27 percent of PS 154 kids proficient or above, compared with 93 percent at Classical II.
“The charter school is a lot of work, in a good way ... My daughter has a spelling test every week. They push her to know the words,” Colon said. “In my son’s school, the teachers don’t care and the students don’t care.”
Nathalie Aurora, 27, said her 5-year-old son, a PS 154 kindergartner, learned more in day care “compared to the class he is in now.”
“They had him busy, always doing something creative. Now, I ask him whether he does any writing and he says he just plays and has story time,” she said.
Coviello declined to comment.