Empty ‘Renewal’ Gains

Mayor de Blasio is bragging that collegereadiness rates at Renewal schools nearly doubled from last year. Too bad it likely has more to do with lowered standards than with the success of his signature school-turnaround effort.

Yes, the average City University collegereadiness rate for Renewal schools rose to 23.6 percent from 12.3 percent in 2015-2016.

But CUNY, the destination of many city high-school grads, this year eased its readiness standards by dropping the algebra requirement.

By another measure, overall college readiness at the 29 Renewal high schools jumped to 28 percent from just 17 percent last year. But some of the credit there goes to the state educrats who’ve been watering down the Regents exams and other tests.

Yes, the millions spent on Renewal schools has likely made some difference — though enrollment continues to plummet and the city has had to close many of them.

And some hard-working kids have surely managed to triumph despite being trapped in these bad schools — with the help of some hard-working teachers.

But none of that justifies keeping failure factories open just to avoid upsetting school staff with more radical reform.

Nor does it change the grim bigger picture: Citywide, more than half of graduates still don’t rate as college-ready by CUNY standards.

This isn’t success — it’s putting a happy face on failure.