It has become increasingly clear that the DOE only cares about one thing the, graduation rate! It appears that all other metrics are ignored by the DOE and they want everybody to buy into the fiction that the New York City Public High Schools are producing "college and career ready" students. A case in point, as brought out by the New York Post, is Bronxdale High School, a Bloomberg small school carved out of the old Christopher Columbus High School. This school has a graduation rate of 76% but a "college and career readiness" rate of 4%. That's right, of the 430 students in the school only 17 are ready for post secondary education or a professional career. According to my metric that's a ratio of 19.0 and it ranks with the worst numbers in the City high schools. For Queens high schools you can find their numbers Here.
Bronxdale High School was given a perfect 4 out of 4 for rigorous instruction by a clearly delusional DOE bureaucrat , despite the school's abysmal "college and career readiness" scores. Maybe the DOE evaluator should be evaluated? Insideschools stated that there is a lack of instruction and too much student-based project work as a negative downside to the school. No wonder the dismal metric of 19.0. Moreover, the majority of teachers have less than four years of experience and two thirds are untenured. Furthermore, the school suffers from high teacher turnover and while 57% of the students go on to some sort of post secondary education most end up in a two year community college, taking no-credit remedial courses. You can find the school's snapshot Here.
Bronxdale High School has been in the news before when a Leadership Academy Principal, John Chase Jr, was charged with sexual misconduct and harassment of his "newbie" female teaching staff and retained his position by then Chancellor Dennis Walcott and Tweed until the public outrage forced the DOE to change their mind. You can read my post Here and how the Mayor and Chancellor tried to protect the Principal.
The legacy of the Bloomberg/Klein era of bogus graduation rates and academic fraud continues under Mayor Bill de Blasio and his Chancellor, Carmen Farina. When will the City and the DOE be held accountable for their failure to graduate students who are prepared for the adult world? In my book its educational malfeasance.
26 comments:
I was in Bronxdale HS as an ATR. The principal, secretary and the teachers were great. The teachers there work incredibly hard. I've been in dozens of far, far worse schools. I'd actually be happy if I was placed there, The other schools have to fudging their numbers big time. At 4% college readiness Bronxdale is one of the BEST high schools in the Bronx. How scary is that?
My question is , do you think ALL students are college material ? If so what's the answer ? Cause I understand as a teacher , college isn't for everyone . Plus the graduation recruitments today in Ny compared to the 90's is a one size fits all scam . Designed for schools to Fail and close schools . Further To bust the teachers union . this almost looks like you are blaming HS teachers for students not college ready . This starts a LONG TIME BEFORE THEY GET to HS .
Same thing is happening in W.C. Bryant High Schools students that are not ready are being passed. The fraud is protected, and the UFT does not protect the teachers that report wrongdoing.
Create more vocational schools!!!!
April 16, 2016 the Lead Reviewer for Brinxdale HS was a woman named Daisy Concepcion. Hmmmmmm, Luuuucyyyy you got sum splainin' to doooo!!!!!
I graduated from Thomas Jefferson HS in 1962. Many if not most of the members of my very large graduating class did not go to college or would have been considered college material or even wanted to go to college. There were 3 diplomas -- academic, commercial and general. It was the ed deform movement that declared everyone had to go to college even as it was being pointed out that there would be jobs for less than 30% of college grads and that there were many other areas of work that non-college grads could be doing. Robots and artificial intelligence aren't just replacing factory workers but jobs like bank tellers and guys who pump gas and very soon teachers.
The world still needs plumbers and electricians. I been saying this for years and years. You send kids to college, especially the ones who aren't ready and you're just continuing the debt ridden society. That being said, not everyone who is "college ready" is ready for college. It can be done though, but in a traditional high school it's very hard. Better to establish a culture earlier.
exactly. We are facing technological unemployment. Please read Raising the Floor by Stern. We should be focusing on the big picture and having robust discussions. Pretending this is not happening will not help the situation.
I worked at a CTE school in the bronx - alfred e smith hs. Several years ago bloomberg and his people walked into our school and said they were closing our school which had programs such as electrical, plumbing, auto mechanics carpentry and HVAC. Bloomberg said he wants all kids to go to college and that is why they are closing our school. So, i was excessed and alfred e smith hs is not a shell of what it once was - a great trade school.
Let's also mention how unfair it is to tell all young people that going to college is the right/best path. Imagine the anxiety, frustration, and sense of failure that comes with it.
AI , by the way, will also be replacing many college-grad jobs , such as accountants, radiologists, doctors, lawyers, and more. I have read that computers exist today that are already capable of reading X-rays and scans and can detect cancer before it's visible to the human eye.
So another reason why they are scrambling to return jobs to the US.
Hey Chaz,
How do you know how many teachers are untenured & their levels of experience? Is there a site where this information is provided? I'd be interested in seeing this info for other schools too.
Anon 4:03
In the school's snapshot they give you the percentage of teachers who have 4 years or more experience. Since tenure cannot be given until the end of the third year and most don't get it until the end of their 4th or 5th year, the numbers of untenured teachers would be slightly higher than the snapshot number.
I watched several young charter and private school teachers interview at the school I've been assigned to since before Christmas. One of them told me she had never been to Bronx before, but carries her mace and did I think she needed it school(?). I'm an ATR with many years of experience and have never received an unsatisfactory. The kids like me and I would have liked to have been asked for at least an interview. The principal and AP avoid me like the plague. I wouldn't embarrass myself by asking them, especially when I was politely asked to leave the room they were about to have their Christmas party in. Asher has his work cut out for him, and there's no way we are going back in the classroom unless he send downs a strong directive to the principals.
Unfortunately they are going to need the ATRS because a shortage is just around the corner.
Sorry to hear that @ 518
That's pretty much how I feel as an ATR. I have a lot to give and it's just being wasted now.
It is called age discrimination. Only a class action lawsuit will take care of these discriminatory practices.
Dwarka got rid of all the experienced teachers. Now nobody wants to work there. Just a disaster.
As longest Fariña is happy, everything is acceptable.
Hey Chaz! Have you ever been to Bronxdale High School? Have you sat in on a class? Talked with a teacher, parent, or past or current students? Because it sounds to me like you read a "study", googled some past information, and decided it would be a good idea to agree with it all based on the reputation of past NYC High Schools. Are you from NY? Do you honestly believe that the SAT, ACT and Regents scores are the sole identifier of college readiness? I'm going to assume you went to college. Besides grad school entry exams, you must know that most college exams do not resemble those tests, that most majors don't even require math past freshmen year, and that critical thinking, efficient note taking, and the ability to stay awake for an almost 3 hour lecture class are much more important college preparation skills than being a good state test taker. I'm not going to delve into the "life skills" that this generation seems to be missing because that is an entirely different conversation and is not specific to Bronxdale. What is specific to Bronxdale is what they are all about so I would suggest you read their mission statement that talks about their teaching model then maybe you can have a better understanding of why I think your article is annoying. Their mission statement is not just there for googlers (if that's a word). They actually implement it! There is so much more I could tell you about Bronxdale and why you choosing to agree with that ridiculous article and call Bronxdale a Diploma Mill School is at best uninformed; but alas, it is late. FYI- I am a Bronxdale parent and I ACTUALLY know what is going on there.
Ms. Sims
The fact is the low "college and career readiness" scores mean remedial courses for your graduates in college. The high teacher turnover and the lack of direct instruction are also warning signs of a a school that has academic issues.
You can tell me how the school's mission is but the reality is that your school is simply a failed diploma mill school.
Ms. Sims:
In schools that have high non-tenured teachers and high teacher turnover are schools that most parents in the know stay away from those schools and Bronxdale fits that type of school.
Mrs Sims
I have a Masters degree and 30 college level education credits and have been a classroom teacher for over 20 years. Furthermore, I have been in enough schools like Bronxdale in Queens with high graduation rates and low college readiness rates and have not found any of the schools academically sound. Moreover, I WOULD NEVER SEND MY CHILD TO THEM!
Delude yourself that the school is sound but I ask you how many of the graduates actually received a college degree? That will give you your answer.
Chaz, I am a person who believes when a person is right, they are right and you need to give credit where credit is due. There is a serious problem of kids graduating that are not ready for college in this entire country. My point to you and the others who responded to me is not that this isn't a problem but that this was a bogus premature study on a school that actually IS preparing the students for college. I think as a person who has been teaching for 20 years you have seen alot and know alot about how students learn. The fact is you didn't do your homework on researching Bronxdale specifically. Which is the unfortunate general way reporting is done these days. Bronxdale (not Christopher Columbus) is a young high school that has only had 2 GRADUATING CLASSES! That's right. So the answer to your question about how many received a college degree is none because they would only be sophomores!!! I think if you knew this fact and considered yourself a person with "journalistic integrity" you would not have been so quick to call it a diploma mill school. You would have done what the NY Post failed to do and that is at least see how well or not well the graduates have done in college first. How can you or anyone say they are not "college ready" when none of them are even old enough to be college graduates. This study should have been done when there have been at least 5 years worth of "college graduates" to assess. But this is only point #1. Bronxdale does not teach to test. The classes are college lecture style and discussion based which is EXACTLY the preparation needed to succeed at the next level. The problem here is that you, others, and the NY Post took "A" problem, and decided to make it a Bronxdale problem with no valid measurable evidence of ACTUAL college readiness because that evidence doesn't exist yet.
Mrs. Simms
That still does not explain the abysmally low college and career readiness rates of the two graduating classes. This means your scholars are forced to take no-credit remediable courses.
Moreover, you haven't explained the continuous high teacher turnover at the school When the majority of teachers have less than 3 years of experience this is a major sign of a troubled school.
Finally, even the well respected ZInsideschools found the lack of direct instruction a negative.
When a school has been open for 6 years I don't think an argument can be made that untenured teachers and turn over can be established yet. Further, please consider current data. That is no longer accurate.
Metropolitan Diploma Plus High School in Brownsville Brooklyn is one of these diploma mill schools. The principal Meri Yallowitz encourages easy passing and cheating. New teachers are pressured to cheat and told if they say anything about or go to the union they will lose their jobs. The turnover rate is near 80%. The only teachers that stay are the ones who cheat. The school posts high regents rates but none of the students are prepared for college. Teachers literally have a review of the test before students sit down to take them. Then teachers go room to room with cheat sheets and proctor their own regents while giving students answers. The school was in the paper in 2011 yet nothing was done and the corruption continues to happen at the school.
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