The only information out of the school progress reports that I would trust is the list of schools that got an “F” for environment, based predominantly on extremely low ratings from parents and teachers on the learning environment surveys, and in the case of middle and high schools, from students as well.
Here is a chart of the schools that received the lowest scores and an “F” for environment.
All of these schools should get intensive intervention from DOE, and probably a new principal, though it’s likely they won’t, because all DOE really cares about is test scores.
And since only 15% of the overall school grade comes from the environment score (10% from survey results, and 5% from attendance) most of these schools got progress report grades of B or C. (Here is more info on these surveys, including citywide results.)
There are schools on the list in Districts 3, 6-13, 16-19, 23-24, 28-29, 31, 75 and 85 (charters) The districts that had the most of these schools were D7, D29 and D31 (three in each), D12 (four), and D75 (five) .
Though I am aware of how survey results can be skewed because some principals put pressure on parents and teachers to give positive marks to the school or otherwise DOE will close the school down, these are schools in which these pressures didn’t work, and parents and teachers are extremely unhappy.
And Ross Global Charter had the lowest environment score of all; see this account from Mariama Sanoh, a parent at the school.
If anyone has anything good or bad to say about these schools or their principals, please leave a comment!
