Queens High Schools That Parents And Students Avoid.

Last month the DOE published a list of student vacancies for all the City high schools in the second round.   This year's numbers are similar to those of the last two years (2016 and 2015).  That means that these schools where not listed on the 12 high schools that the eighth grade students want to attend.  Not surprisingly  the schools with the most vacancies in the second round were high schools that are Renewal Schools, the old Turnaround Schools, and the many Bloomberg small schools in the Southeast Queens Campuses.

The schools with the most vacancies in the second round this year are listed below:

School..............................................Vacancies

Long Island City..................................480
Grover Cleveland.................................415
John Adams.........................................410
Flushing...............................................220
Newtown.............................................195
August Martin......................................190
Humanities & Arts...............................185
Hillcrest...............................................185
Martin Van Buren.................................175
Rockaway Park....................................130
William Cullen Bryant..........................120
Math, Science & Technology................110
Fredrick Douglas VI.............................110
George Washington Carver...................95
QIRT.....................................................95
Campus Magnet Health Professions......90
Richmond Hill.......................................75
Queens Preparatory.............................75
Rockaway Collegiate............................70
Excelsior..............................................70
Benjamin Franklin................................60

Unfortunately not one of the schools listed above has a favorable academic metric between their graduation rate and the "college and career readiness rate".  You can find the metrics Here. .

Some of the number of vacancies can be misleading as the small schools (425 student body) only recruit 125-150 students yearly while the large comprehensive schools like Long Island City (2,100 student body) must recruit up to 700 students annually.  Still, good schools with favorable academic metrics, like Francis Lewis and Forest Hills, have few, if any, vacancies while schools with bad administration, an unruly student body, and poor academic achievement most rely on picking up the leftovers and over-the-counter students.

If you notice, all the Queens Renewal Schools, August Martin, Flushing, John Adams, Martin Van Buren, and Richmond Hill  have multiple vacancies and unlike the other schools, cannot fill them with over-the-counter students,  or so Chancellor Carmen Farina claimed.  The problem then becomes how do these schools fill the many vacancies without this cohort?  The answer is they can't and these Renewal Schools will continue to lose students and staff going forward.

Many of the other schools with multiple vacancies are clustered in Southeast Queens, specifically the Bloomberg small schools of the Beach Channel, Far Rockaway, Campus Magnet, and Springfield Gardens campuses. Add the old Turnaround Schools of Grover Cleveland, Long Island City, Newtown, and William Cullen Bryant and these three groups, the Renewal Schools, Turnaround Schools, and the Southeast Queens campus Bloomberg small schools and these are the schools parents and students avoid at all costs.

Interestingly. the Campus Magnet schools had a combined shortfall of 445 students which strongly suggests that the entire campus is failing to get students to go to the four schools. I guess, in this case the magnet repeals rather than attract students.

To parents whose child was not selected by a school in the first round, your chances of getting into an academically proficient school is slim and none since none of the above schools where vacancies exist are schools worthy of getting the academically proficient student.