Renewal schools’ ‘F’ on grad rates
Just 25 percent of high schools in Mayor de Blasio’s cash-guzzling Renewal program are hitting their graduation-rate benchmarks, city data show.
In an October interview, schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said all high schools in the program for struggling campuses had a 67 percent graduation-rate requirement.
“Every [Renewal] school has a set of benchmarks,” Fariña told Errol Louis of NY1. “For example, in the high schools, you need to graduate at least 67 percent of your students. So, how far away you are from that benchmark, we give you a certain amount of time. So, that’s where if you’re too far low, we close. Because there is no way you are going to do that benchmark in three years.”
According to the most recent Department of Education data available, 24 of 32 Renewal high schools failed to reach that mark in the 2015-2016 school year.
While eight of those were in striking distance — notching graduation rates between 63 and 66 percent — another 16 foundered with rates of 58 percent or lower.
Six Renewal high schools had graduation rates below 50 percent, according to DOE data.
The department announced in January that it would close five Renewal schools that failed to meet expectations.
That hit list included two Bronx high schools: Leadership Institute, which had a 52 percent graduation rate, and Monroe Academy, which had the lowest graduation rate of all Renewal high schools at 38 percent.
In addition, the DOE announced last month that staffers at Flushing HS in Queens and DeWitt Clinton HS in The Bronx would have to reapply for their jobs next year in an effort to jolt the schools back to life.
Justin Perez, 16 a student at DeWitt, said Wednesday that the school was marred by apathy and resignation.
“A lot of people drop out,” he said. “They stop coming to school . . . Freshmen that come in now don’t go to class. They just walk the hallways.” wa
Flushing had a 63 percent graduation rate in 2016 while DeWitt Clinton was near the bottom of the list at 48 percent.
Considered a pillar of Mayor de Blasio’s education platform, the Renewal program has been generously infused with money and consultants while bringing meager returns.
Critics have argued that many schools in the program are unsalvageable money drains and should be shuttered.
The DOE has pointed to scattered signs of life and called for patience in assessing the program’s ultimate worth.
A department spokesman argued Wednesday that graduation rates were just one of many factors taken into consideration when weighing a Renewal school’s trajectory and ultimate fate.
“We don’t make serious decisions about any school based on a single data point, it’s as simple as that,” said Michael Aciman. “As part of our thorough evaluation of Renewal schools, we look at a range of factors including enrollment, state test scores, attendance, instruction and school climate.”