Fiscal Brief
New York City Independent Budget Office
Clickhere for demographic, performance, and resource data on each school proposed for closing @www.ibo.nyc.ny.us
January 2011
Demographics, Performance, Resources:
Schools Proposed for ClosingCompared With Other City Schools
Nw Yk Cty
Independent Budget OfceRonnie Lowenstein, Director110 William St., 14th oor
Nw Yk, NY 10038Tl. (212) 442-0632Fx (212) 442-0350
Summary
The CiTY’s DeparTmeNT oF eDuCaTioN
has proposed closing 25 schools beginning in the 2011-2012 school year, which starts in September. The list includes 14 high schools and 12 elementaryand middle schools that enrolled more tha 17,700 students last year. The closings would occur over time, with no new students entering the schools and each grade phasing out as the current studentsare promoted. The Panel for Education Policy is scheduled to vote on the proposed school closings on
Fby 1 nd Fby 3.
Schools proposed for closing are judged by the Department of Education to be low performing. This judgment presumes that the education department can accurately measure the effect that a schoolhas on student performance separate from other factors that also inuence student outcomes.IBO has compared the schools slated for closure with other schools across the city. The comparisonsinclude factors such as students’ race, poverty level, English language and other special needs status;outcome measures such as test scores, attendance rates, and for high schools, graduation rates; andresource measures such as levels of teacher experience and training and school overcrowding. Basedon these comparisons, IBO has found;
•
The schools the education department has targeted for closing are all schools with below averagestudent performance.
•
The schools proposed for closing generally have been serving students with greater needscompared with other schools and the share of their enrollment in some high needs categories,such as the share of students in special education, has been increasing in recent years.The report also notes that nearly a third of the schools proposed for closing are schools that had beenopened as new small schools—the replacement model that the education department has favored forschools that have previously been closed. While the eight new small schools proposed for closing is just a small share of the number that have been opened, their inclusion on the list is a reminder that there is no guarantee that a closing school will be replaced by a more successful one.In addition to the summary statistics provided in this report, our Web site includes tables that presentall the demographic, outcome, and resource measures we have reviewed for each of the schoolson the closing list. The report also summarizes the plans for using the space that comes available if these schools are closed.
Schools Brief
2
Introduction
The Department of Education (DOE) has released a list of 25public schools targeted for closing beginning with the 2011-2012 school year. Final decisions will come after a mandatedpublic hearing and vote of the Panel for Educational Policy.The list is longer than in past years because a court decisionprevented DOE from closing 19 schools last year, and 15of those schools were carried over to this year’s proposedclosing list. The complete list of schools on the closure list(both those held over from last year and those newly added)and the four schools for which DOE reversed last year’sclosure recommendation is on page 3.There are 12 schools on the closing list that serveelementary and middle school grades and 14 that servehigh school grades. One school, New Day Academy,spans grades 6-12 and since DOE proposes to closeboth its middle and high school grades, it is included asboth a middle school and a high school when we reportseparately on each type of school.The 25 schools that are on this year’s proposed closing list were identied due to their low performance on keymeasures. DOE describes the process for identifying schools for the closure list as follows. First, thedepartment generates a list of schools to consider forclosure based on summary outcomes for the schools.The list includes any school receiving a D or F on themost recent school progress report, a school receiving three consecutive C grades and schools rated as “belowprocient” on their most recent Quality Review. This broad
lt tn wnnwd dwn tg t ddtnl
steps. In step one, elementary and middle schools withEnglish language arts (ELA) and math scores above theirdistrict average are removed from the list of possibleclosures. Similarly, high schools with graduation ratesabove the city average are also removed. Also, anyschool with a Quality Review score of “well developed”is removed as is any school that has just received itsrst ever Progress Report grade. In the second step,additional data is gathered and including data ondemand for the school through the school choice process,data on the “talent prole” of the school, an assessmentof potential replacement schools, and an assessmentof community needs. In the third step, school andcommunity representatives meet with superintendents,network leaders, or both. After this process, the nallist of schools to be closed is presented to the Panel onEducational Policy for a vote after public hearings.
About the Schools
The schools on the closing list are located in every boroughexcept Staten Island. The map on page 4 shows that theBronx has more schools on the list than any other borough.The breakdown of the closing schools by borough is given
n t tbl n t g. a dtnt f t
students who would be affected is in the Bronx. Across thecity, 17,740 students were enrolled in schools last year thatwould be affected by the closings.Three schools on the proposed closing list are on campuseswhere a large high school was previously phased out andclosed. The rst is the School for Community Researchand Learning, one of seven schools located on the Adlai E.Stevenson campus, which began phasing out in the 2005-2006 school year. Second is the Urban Assembly Academy forHistory and Citizenship for Young Men, located on the WilliamHoward Taft campus, which was established after Taft beganphasing out in 2002-2003. The third is the Monroe Academyfor Business & Law, located on the James Monroe campus; the original school was phased out in 1994.Eight of the 25 schools proposed for closing (about a third)are “new small schools.” Two of these schools opened for the 2002-2003 school year, ve opened in 2003-2004,and one opened in 2005-2006. Five of these “new”schools now being closed are in the Bronx, where theprogram of closing large high schools and opening smallhigh schools rst began in 2002-2003.
How the Study is Organized
The policy of school closures is partly premised on thenotion that DOE can accurately measure the impact that a
Number ofStudentsShare ofStudents inClosingSchoolsShare of allCityStudents
Brooklyn3,28819%30%Bronx6,70738%21%Manhattan3,46119%15%Queens4,28424%28%Staten Island00%6%
TOTAL
17,7401,038,741
Distribution of Students in Closing Schools in2009-2010
SOURCES: IBO; Department of Education: 2009-2010Enrollment Capacity Utilization (Blue Book) and J-form citywideaudited October 31st Register.
3
school has on the performance of its students, overand above the impact of nonschool factors. Because the closure of a school creates disruptions to both thestudents and school staff, it is important that the selectionof schools for closure be based on reasonable criteriaapplied consistently. In this report, IBO poses a set of questions and provides answers about the schools on the closure list and how those schools compare to otherschools in the city. This information can help in assessing the choices made by the education department.First, we will consider the student population of the 25closing schools in terms of key demographics of students’race; poverty level; and English language, immigrant, andspecial needs status. For high schools on the closure list,we will also look at the academic level of the studentsprior to their entry to high school, measured by their eighthgrade test scores. These demographic characteristics arecritical to the question of fairness, because it is widelyunderstood that individual schools serve students whoarrive at school with varying levels of need, and the stated
BoroughSchool NameSchool TypeGrades Served
ManhattanNorman Thomas High SchoolHigh School9-12ManhattanAcademy of Environmental ScienceSecondary High SchoolSecondary School8-12ManhattanI.S. 195 Roberto ClementeMiddle School6-8ManhattanKappa IIMiddle School6-8ManhattanAcademy of Collaborative EducationMiddle School6-8BronxSchool for Community Research and LearningHigh School9-12BronxThe Urban Assembly Academy for History andCitizenship for Young MenHigh School9-12BronxFrederick Douglass Academy IIISecondary SchoolSecondary School6-12BronxJohn F. Kennedy High SchoolHigh School9-12BronxChristopher Columbus High SchoolHigh School9-12BronxGlobal Enterprise High SchoolHigh School9-12BronxP.S. 102 Joseph O. LoretanElementaryPK-5BronxNew Day AcademySecondary School6-12BronxPerformance Conservatory High SchoolHigh School9-12BronxMonroe Academy for Business & LawHigh School9-12BrooklynM.S. 571Middle School6-8BrooklynMetropolitan Corporate Academy High SchoolHigh School9-12BrooklynPaul Robeson High SchoolHigh School9-12BrooklynP.S. 114 Ryder ElementaryElementaryPK-5BrooklynP.S. 260 BreuckelenElementaryPK-6BrooklynP.S. 332 Charles H. HoustonK-8PK-8QueensBeach Channel High SchoolHigh school9-12QueensP.S. 30 QueensElementaryPK-5QueensJamaica High SchoolHigh School9-12QueensI.S. 231 Magnetech 2000Middle School6-8
Schools Dropped From 2010-2011 Closing List
ManhattanChoir Academy of HarlemSecondary School6-12BrooklynMiddle School for Academicand Social ExcellenceMiddle School6-8BrooklynW. H. Maxwell Career and TechnicalEducation High SchoolHigh School9-12QueensBusiness, Computer Applications &Entrepreneurship High SchoolHigh School9-12
Schools Proposed for Closing 2011-2012
SOURCES: IBO; Department of Education
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
JAN 2011: Schools Proposed for Closing Compared With Other City Schools- New York City Independent Budget Office
January 2011
Demographics, Performance, Resources:
Schools Proposed for Closing
Compared With Other City Schools
Demographics, Performance, Resources:
Schools Proposed for Closing
Compared With Other City Schools
86
Reads
0
Readcasts
0
Embed Views
More From This User
Notes
Load more
