Soon, the eighth graders will be selecting their high school and hopefully get their first choice. However, for many parents and students who are bombarded with school fairs, testimonials, and visiting school staff with why the students should apply to their high school. The problem is what is the truth about which school is successful?
First, and foremost, ask the students of the school you are interested in applying about the school. Most students have no vested interest in selling their high school. They will tell you the truth about the high school, good or bad.
Second, check to see what academic courses and electives the school provides. How many Advanced Placement courses? What electives are there? Does more than one teacher teach a subject in case you and the teacher do mot see "eye to eye"?
Third, does the high school provide adequate extracurricular activities and clubs for a total high school experience? Many of the small schools suffer from lack of a gym and have poor physical education programs for example.
Fourth, does the school have a stable and supportive teaching staff with a collaborative administration?
Finally, check to see what the "career and college readiness rates" are for the school in their snapshot?
In Queens, successful schools like Forest Hills and Francis Lewis, with high "career and college readiness rates" which demonstrates an academically achieving student body. Both schools are large comprehensive high schools with loads of Advanced Placement courses, electives, and extracurricular activities. Furthermore, both schools have a stable teaching staff, with experienced teachers, and the students have the ability to move from one teacher to another if there are any issues between a teacher and a student. Just ask students about the successful schools and they will tell you how their academic and social life revolves around these schools. Is it any wonder that these schools are over subscribed?
By contrast, far too many schools are like Queens Preparatory Academy, a failed Bloomberg small school. They have low and dropping "career and college readiness" scores. Limited courses, few electives, and a low achieving student body. While they are part of a campus and have adequate extracurricular activities but have few clubs. In fact, in the 2014-15 school year, to have enough students for the school, they had to take over-the-counter students to fill their 115 vacancies, many of them level one students, the lowest academic level. I suspect similar numbers occurred this school year.
Ask the students of the school how they feel about the school and you would probably receive a negative reaction. Moreover, ask them how they ended up at the school and they may claim they don't know since they ranked the school below their top three choices. Yet, they are at the school anyway. Unlike the successful schools, Queens Preparatory Academy lost fourteen teachers of their small school staff this school year. Moreover, I was told by a teacher there the school had a 0% passing rate in Regents Chemistry. Yet these very same students are being forced to take the more difficult Regents Physics this school year with one of the courses being Advanced Placement Physics, go figure the logic to this? Is it any wonder that the Principal had a 24% trust factor in the latest snapshot?
Unfortunately, in New York City there are more schools like Queens Preparatory Academy than Forest Hills, thanks to Michael Bloomberg's education policies, we have a bogus graduation rate while our "career and college readiness" rates are unacceptable low. For students who are selecting a Queens high school just look at the chart that compares the ratio of the two metrics for each unscreened high school.
Eighth grades choose your school carefully.
13 comments:
As bad as Queens may be, the Bronx has got to be the absolute worse. I would work 3 jobs or home school my children before sending them to these dangerous warehouses to waste their time. NY Post do an exposé on Bronx schools, the public has no idea!
One factor you forgot is that the demographics around Forest Hills HS are vastly different than those of places like Campus Maggot. Oh yeah, students can bus all over to school, but the vast majority of Forest Hills students are from the immediate neighborhood, which is well-to-do and has parents very interested in their kids being academically successful. Forest Hills does come complete with a totally corrupt administration well known for massaging grades and divesting itself of teachers who grade honestly, at no extra charge. It also manages to "lose" applications from students considered sub-par and therefore threatening to its grade stats. So when you are able to recruit your majority of students from mostly stable homes with involved parents, that is an advantage most NYC high schools don't have, and thus demands much less talent and technique from administrators and teachers to have good passing statistics.
The principal of Queens Prepatory is the reason for this second exodus. The atmosphere is like North Korea with the stupid bitch abusing the P.A. making asinine announcements such as " the scholars will be entering the class now, teachers will implement the threshold procedures."These re-education camp style announcements are made numerous times during the day. She walks around with a permanent scowl etched on her stupid evil face. The fact that she put the school in the toilet during her eight year dictatorship serves the wishes of the system which is to destroy public education. I wouldn't hire her to mop floors. The woman is a sadist and a sociopath. The fish stinks from the head. Preparation for what? The "education in that place renders the students unfit for janitorial deployment or handling baggage at nearby JFK. Any teacher who didn't flee made a grave error in judgement.
Avoid working for this pig.
Sincerely
Angry Nog
5:41 is so correct. Bronx high schools are in total disarray. Chaz, look at the data which shows the #1 factor of how great a high school is and the direction it's going based on its College Ready Scores. 9 out of 10 schools are below 50%. The lowest I found was some school called Bronxdale high school which boasts a 4% College Ready Rate for June of 2016. Can you believe a 4% rate? However, they have a perfect score (4 out of 4) for Rigorous Instruction. But Bronx Science has a 3 out of 4 for Rigorous Instruction with a 100% College Ready Rate. What's going on with these "Snapshots" Chaz? How can the data be so mismatched for the parents? The DOE really getting over and no one is calling them out.
Richmond Hill High School that you spoke about Chazblog very neatly fits the category of the less stable schools in Queens. The principal Neil Ganesh is not to be trusted and a large percentage of the students are either not graduating on time or are graduating but are completely unprepared for college. Neil Ganesh has proven himself to be an extremely weak an ineffective leader, and despite what appears on paper, has not moved the school forward at all. No one should apply there for any reason.
As an Atr I Rotated into queens prep which is located in the Springfield Gardens Campus last year. The place is a mess and the other schools like Exclesior are the same. The kids are out of control. I would call them students but the term doesn't seem to apply in this case. The principals of both schools love pd and treat the staff like crap. I covered many classes and had to constantly call the deans. Was cursed out many times for suggesting the students sit down and complete the assignment. That's right Ed notes guy you fool. Stopping making excuses for the students bad behavior and stop blaming hard working teachers. Stay away from this campus, far rock, beach channel, flushing, campus magnet, August martin and too many to mention. I loved my profession now I just tolerate my job!!!
ATRs, other issues such as horrible admin staffs, horrible kids, clueless principals and on and on are all becoming irrelevant. We really need to be focusing on our livelihoods as a whole in that we really need to become ONE again and stop pitting against one another. In a trump education world ALL of us are ATRs and right now any colleague who walks around and actually thinks that they are better than an ATR better re-think their state of mind. I say this because now the game has changed and EVERYONE needs to band together and forget all the petty shit as we really need to have our A game on for the upcoming battle against the wicked witch of the education world whether it be moskowitch or rhee or whomever..this social injustice to us all here as educators is a real slap in the face as we all know that its the kids that occupy our schools that come from families that do not value education or have poverty issues that cause us to look bad and not the "union" like the bastard reformies like to say.....
@1:51, you are on point. Problem is, our union doesn't feel like you do. Additionally you cannot mobilize anyone except for a few here and there so truthfully, no one can band together. No one is taking any of your truthfully serious points to heart (yet). I'm just really happy for this upcoming holiday weekend and then a few weeks till X-mas break. It will be new semester real quick. Just buying time.
Go to Bryant High School where everybody is a newbie, because the principal there pushed out everybody that was doing their job.
Hey Chaz are Atrs still eligible for sabbaticals? Thanks
Chaz, waiting on your input about the new US Secretary. School choice for parents? So what's up for NYC? Looks like a mess coming, then again what can really happen here? This system is way to huge to start blowing it up.
11:11 yes but the deadline for spring has passed
Ok thanks looking at next fall
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