The Disconnect Between The Graduation Rate And The College Readiness Rate - 2018

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High schools that have a ratio less than "1.2" are in blue and giving their students a world class education while high schools with ratios greater than "1.5" are listed in red and yellow and are simply diploma mills. Parents should make sure their academically achieving students should stay away from them.  This year's metric was lowered since the CUNY college readiness metric was lowered and the Algebra Regents rubric and cut scores were made easier to achieve higher grades and the English Regents was found also to be easier than previous years.  It appears the "college ready" scores went up  again by an average of fifteen points, primarily due to the lower cut scores in Math and an easier test in English.

We all know that principals can and do manipulate the graduation rate.   Credit recovery, grade changing, administration pressure on teachers, and school scholarship requirements (80% or more passing per class) or a combination of them all.  The result is an artificially bogus graduation rate as far too many schools graduate students unprepared for the real world.  Therefore, to determine if  unscreened Queens high schools are really diploma mills or truly giving their students a real world class education, I have developed the annual metric for the 2017-18 school year that takes the graduation rate and divides it by the college readiness percentage.

The list is based on the 2017-18 school year.

School...........................Graduation Rate.....College Ready

Cambria Heights Academy........83%....................39% 
Academy of Medical Tech..........73%....................27% 
Fredrick Douglas Academy VI....43%....................11%
Epic HS South...........................67%....................32%
Benjamin Franklin.....................80%....................44%
QIRT........................................82%....................50%
Rockaway Park.........................67%....................36%
Humanities and Arts.................80%....................43%
August Martin...........................72%....................28% 
Rockaway Collegiate.................67%....................26% 
Martin Van Buren......................72%....................28%
 Flushing..................................62%....................32%
Pathways College.......'.............69%....................28%
Hillside Arts & Letters...............88%....................52%
Law Enforcement.....................79%....................38%
Science, Research, and Tech.....71%....................47%
Excelsior Prep..........................81%....................52% 
 George Washington Carver.......75%...................39%
 John Adams............................72%....................42%
Queens Prep............................67%....................39% 
Grover Cleveland.....................63%....................40%  
Epic HS North..........................88%....................57%
Richmond Hill..........................71%....................42%
Long Island City......................76% ...................46%
Applied Communications..........87%....................56%
 Hillcrest.................................71%....................44%
 Queens HS of Teaching............91%....................53%
 Community Leadership...........91%....................47%
Queens Collegiate...................88%....................56%
 William Cullen Bryant..............71%....................52%
 Newtown...............................73%.....................57%
 Robert  H. Goddard.................97%....................71%
 Robert Wagner.......................91%....................65%
John Bowne............................77%....................55%
Channel View..........................97%....................76%
Writers Academy....................89%.....................62%
Information & Technology.......79%.....................60%
Robert F. Kennedy..................80%.....................60% 
Robert Wagner.......................91%.....................66% 
Arts & Business......................94%....................79%
World Journalism....................97%....................75%
Queens Vocational..................86%....................70%
TV & Media.............................98%....................73%
Metropolitan HS......................91%....................84% 
Middle College HS....................91%...................77%
Civic Leadership......................92%...................82% 
Maspeth HS............................98%....................86%
Forest Hills.............................91%....................81%
Bayside..................................99%....................87%
East-West..............................93%....................81%
Cardozo.................................89%....................74%
Thomas Edison.......................92%....................82%
Francis Lewis.........................88%....................80%
Finance & Enterprise...............97%....................84% 


 The citywide "college ready" average is 53%. "college and career readiness rate"  as defined by New York City  The more stringent New York State rates are lower.

 Obviously, the lowest rated schools are "diploma mills" and for the most part, are located in Southeast Queens or are "Renewal schools".  By contrast the best schools are located in two areas  Northeast Queens and the Long Island City/Astoria area.  The Bloomberg small schools in the Far Rockaway and Beach Channel campuses inhabit most of the top positions with the worst matrices on the list, while the worst school metric is by Fredrick Douglas Academy VI with a metric of 3.9.. By contrast, the best two schools Bayside and Francis Lewis, when it comes to the metric.

The takeaway is that all the high schools in the Far Rockaway, Beach Channel, and Campus Magnet campuses are academic failures and the Springfield Gardens campus is not far behind.  Moreover, the Jamaica Educational Complex is showing gradual deterioration with two school already failing and the one of the other unscreened school showing a significant drop.

While my metric is not perfect it serves as a useful guide for parents who want the right Queens high school for their academically proficient student. You can see the metrics for the last three years  Here, Here and Here.