The "top" NYC high schools, with SAT scores, class sizes, and caveats

Check out the NY Post listing on the "top" 50 NYC high schools here: The top 10, 11 - 20, 21 - 40, 41 - 50. The data for all 400 plus high schools, including graduation rates, average SAT scores, etc. is available here.

The Post used the DOE progress reports, plus other relevant outcome data, to calculate this list. Like all such rankings, they have to be taken with a heavy grain of salt. In this case, the salt pile is immense, since so much of the DOE data are either unreliable or incomplete. For example, high school NYC graduation rates are often inflated, because they don't taken into account the numbers of discharged students, a huge loophole that many high schools use to boost their grad rates.

The Post says that the graduation rate in their listings reflects the percent of 9^th graders who end up graduating after four years plus a summer; but that is not true. Many high schools discharge significant numbers of students before they even reach the 12th grade, and many if most of these students end up dropouts, but are never counted as such.

Even in the case of one of top schools on the list (Bard), the reporter notes that “about 20 students in each class transfer out.” In the case of Bard, a highly selective school, they probably enroll in other regular high schools, but for other schools, discharged students often end up in alternative high schools, GED programs or sometimes nowhere at all. The DOE used to make the discharge data by each individual school available in their graduation reports, but no longer does, ever since Jennifer Jennings and I produced a report on the rising discharge figures under Bloomberg and Klein.

[Correction! Updated reports for the classes of 2008 and 2009 do contain discharge data by school, at least for general ed students; see Appendix B at the links above, which reveal egregiously high discharge rates at many schools, with twice the number of official "dropouts" in many cases. What the city no longer seems to report on are discharge rates for D 75 and self-contained students.]

The NY Post's listing does not include any data on the growing practice of credit recovery, which is another manner in which many schools are artificially inflating their grad rates, (see this article by the same Post reporter on the phenomenon.) The DOE refuses to release any data on credit recovery, so it is impossible to know just how widespread this practice is. The class size data are also are not fully reliable; and tend to underestimate the actual size of classes in many high schools, since inclusion (CTT) classes are commonly reported as two separate classes.

I also don't trust the college-going rates in the listings; and the SAT scores don't include information as to what percent of the class actually took the SATs. Finally, the ratings may reflect more than anything else the socio-economic background of the students rather than what the schools actually bring to the table.

Nevertheless, as parents have a right to see this information, I have now posted a spreadsheet with SAT average scores for every school, for 2008 and 2009, as well the schoolwide class size averages for 2009-10 school year, as calculated by the DOE (as opposed to class size averages in each school by grade and subject, that are available here.). Neither of these files are on the DOE website, as far as I know.

The ugly naked face of mayoral control

Tuesday night's marathon session of the Panel for Educational Policy at Brooklyn Tech that lasted till nearly 4 AM was one of the most inspiring and awful events I have ever witnessed.

Inspiring because there were thousands of people there to protest the closing of 19 schools, and hundreds spoke out, for more than eight hours: eloquently, angrily, passionately and intelligently, about why their schools should not be closed and why the administration's blind and reckless policies would hurt our most vulnerable children. These English language learners, special education students, poor and homeless, will likely be excluded from the new small schools and charter schools that will replace their schools, and will undoubtedly be discharged in huge numbers as these schools phase out, never to receive a fair chance at a high school diploma.

Parents, students and teachers cited facts and numbers, personal experience, trenchant analysis and damning evidence of the DOE's malignant neglect and botched statistics.

Though the testimony started at 6 PM and continued until 2:45 AM, it was never boring. Early on, there was even humor from Lisa Donlan and Jane Hirschmann, who put on an inspired puppet show -- excerpts of which are below.

It was inspiring because at long last, Joel Klein got the reception he deserved: booed, jeered, criticized, compared to the Bernie Madoff of educational policy, with his destructive Ponzi scheme of closing schools and shifting around high-needs students; a scheme that will soon collapse, when there is nowhere left for these children to go.

It was awful because nothing that anyone said made any difference in the final vote.

The PEP, which the legislature in their wisdom allowed to continue with its a supermajority of mayoral appointees, was intent on rubberstamping whatever flawed or ridiculous policies put forward by the administration.

Shamefully, there was not a word from the chair, David Chang, or any other mayoral appointee to any of the thousands of people who urged them to think twice. Only the independent members from Manhattan, Bronx, Queens and the Bronx voted no.

When Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan member, asked the mayoral "yes men" if they had anything to say to justify these closings, not one of them felt obligated to explain his or her vote.

This event should never have been allowed to occur in a city and a nation that calls itself a democracy; with all the power in the hands of one man to make the decisions for thousands of other people's children, but this is the ugly naked face of mayoral control.

See also City Panel Backs Closing of 19 Schools (NY Times), Public sentiment has turned against Mayor Bloomberg's dictatorial school reforms (Daily News); The School Closing Marathon (Gotham Gazette); School Vote Scene Report: Joel Klein Called "Racist," (Village Voice); City's reasoning for wanting to close Jamaica HS based on faulty statistics (YourNabe.com); Parents Battle for a Say in Educational Policy (Gabe Pressman, NBC); Panel Decides to Shutter 19 NYC Public Schools (NBC New York) NYC school officials vote to close 19 underperforming schools (7Online.com); Rage as 19 schools get the axe (New York Post); “Attack” on Brooklyn high schools (YourNabe.com.)

Why the administration should not close these schools!

Class Size Matters submitted comments on Friday on the proposed closings of 22 schools; check them out on our website here.

We point out how DOE’s Educational Impact Statements are profoundly flawed, with incomplete or inaccurate graduation rate data, and how DOE officials have refused to follow their own accountability standards in proposing these closings.

There is strong evidence that large numbers of students will drop out and/or be discharged in high numbers as these schools phase out, with no chance to graduate with a high school diploma, as has occurred in the past.

The NY Times just published a piece implying otherwise, about Columbus high school:

“… [DOE officials] say they make the closing process as painless as
possible. For the closing school, it is a gradual death, with current
students allowed to graduate if they do not fall behind, but no new classes
admitted. As space opens up, the new schools come to life, adding a grade each
year.”

"New schools come to life"? A "painless" process? A "gradual death"? "...current students allowed to graduate if they do not fall behind"?

Sounds very humane, like someone putting a dying animal out of its misery. Unfortunately, the reality is quite the reverse.

The fact is that most students at Columbus and the other high schools slated for closure are already "falling behind" in that they are not slated to graduate in four years. Many of them require special education services and/or are English language learners, and take up to five or six years to graduate. And as these schools phase out, it becomes more and more difficult for students to gain the necessary credits, as their schools no longer offer all the necessary courses.

Indeed, low four-year graduation rates are the prime reason the DOE cites in proposing to close these schools, and there is no plan provided to ensure that the majority of students currently in these buildings will ever have a chance to earn a high school diploma.

See this chart, from the discharge report I co-authored with Jennifer Jennings, showing how discharge rates skyrocket for students at NYC high schools - to up to 30% or more of the students in each graduating class for last two years before they phased out. These students are forced to leave for GED programs, or sometimes simply disappear off the rolls, never even counted as dropouts.

The schools targeted for closure have been flooded with the most vulnerable students in recent years, including disproportionate numbers who are homeless. Closing them will doom these students to failure.

Other problems with the impact statements include: the DOE has failed to acknowledge how these closings will likely lead to even worse overcrowding elsewhere, with several thousand high school seats lost the first year alone.

There is no mention of the fiscal impact these closings will have in an era of contracting budgets, with up to a thousand teachers put on Absent Teacher Reserve, and millions of dollars in start-up costs for the new small schools and charter schools.

Indeed, mass school closings are poor educational policy; and will likely lead to high numbers of dropouts and/or discharged students, more overcrowding, and higher class sizes at a time enrollment is increasing, and school budgets have been slashed to the bone. There is no evidence that the administration has made any efforts to improve these schools before closing them.

We are calling for a moratorium until the Independent Budget Office can prepare an analysis of the considerable fiscal impact of these proposals, their effect on class size and overcrowding, and what’s likely to happen to dropout and discharge rates at these schools as they phase out, as well as other issues insufficiently (or inaccurately) addressed in the Educational Impact Statements.

Finally, the DOE should consider developing a genuine turn-around strategy, implementing targeted improvements, including reducing class size and a host of other reforms proven to raise student achievement, boost graduation rates, and enhance the learning environment.

Please send in your own comments today to the members of the Panel for Educational Policy, and to the DOE. The PEP members’ contact information is on the right hand side of the blog. The DOE contact information is on the public notice page here; for high school closings, send them to HS.Proposals@schools.nyc.gov

All comments sent are supposed to be summarized, posted and presented to the PEP before the vote. And hope to see you tomorrow night at Brooklyn Tech High school; come at 5:30 PM to sign up to speak.