Some NYC Schools Are Academically Failing

The New York Post had an article with a heading "Over 140 NYC schools had a 90% failure rate on State exams". The article points out the sad state of academics in the largely low income and minority elementary and middle schools in NYC. Moreover, 23 schools reported an entire class that had nobody passing the State exams.  Finally, the DOE actually reported that the 142 school failure rate as an academic improvement since the previous year 193 schools reported a class with a 90% failure rate.

The New York State tests are given to grades 3 to 8 and are given in March and April for English and Math.  Not surprisingly, the highest failure rate are found in high poverty schools that have high percentages of minority students as well as Special Education, English Language Learners, and homeless students.

Here are some of the worst schools based on the State exams.

• At PS/MS 46 Arthur Tappan in ­Harlem, 57 eighth graders sat for the state math exam last year, ­according to state data, and all failed.  Here is a studdnt's account for one of these classes

• At the Academy of Public Relations middle school in The Bronx, 50 students sat for the same eighth-grade math test, and not one was proficient, the numbers show.

• At PS 306 Ethan Allen in Brooklyn — a participant in City Hall’s defunct Renewal Schools program — 47 fifth graders took their state math exams last year and all failed.

• At PS 224 in Brooklyn, a total of 301 kids in grades 6, 7 and 8 took their state math exams and 288 of them flunked — a bleak pass rate of 4 percent, the figures show.

• A total of 57 third-graders at PS 31 William T. Davis on Staten Island took both state exams. Only three passed English and one passed math.

• At the North Bronx School of Empowerment, 186 seventh graders took the state math test and just eight passed.

Many of the old Renewal Schools are found on the failure list.

The demographic breakdown of the State exams are as follows for NYC students:

 In Math, Asians led the way a 74.4% proficiency rate, followed by Whites at 66.6%, Hispanics at 33.2% and Blacks at 28.2%.

Asian kids also scored highest in English with a 67.9% proficiency rate, followed by Whites at 66.6%, Hispanics at 36.5% and Blacks at 35.0%.

The low test scores are correlated with poverty, family, and community and that's the inconvenient truth.

Racism Has No Place In Our Schools

At high performing Beacon High School in Manhattan, where student acceptance is based upon their middle school academics and is, for the most part, color blind, racism has reared it's ugly head.

A White and Jewish girl privately complained to her guidance counselors about being "wait listed" by her university of choice while lower academically performing minorities were accepted.  She rightly felt that is unfair and discriminatory.  The guidance counselors,were apparently Jewish, sympathized with the student and agreed that the University's selection accounted for affirmative action criteria in selecting their student body and hurt her chances to get in.  It's common knowledge that top universities discriminate against East Asian and Jewish high school students when it comes to admissions and this girl was probably a victim of that discrimination as well as the affirmative action requirements.

Unfortunately, a Black student, who was waiting to meet with his counselor, overheard the confidential conversation and barged into the confidential meeting and berated the girl and her counselors and then reported it to his friends.   The same group that staged a sit in at Beacon High School on the school's selection system that limits the integration process because it does not look at race or practice affirmative action to increase Black and Hispanic students. The result was that the White and Jewish girl was subject to cyber bullying and racist rants at school.

Worse, a Black Science teacher identified as Mr. Green has told the group of students that  they should boycott school today and continue until their complaints are met.  This is unacceptable and the teacher should be disciplined since he is encouraging racism.  Moreover,the teacher is accused of inflaming racial tensions, encouraging kids to be insubordinate and violating DOE attendance and safety regulations.  I suspect that either SCI or OSI will be investigating this teacher and deservingly so.

Susan Edelman of the New York Post wrote an article about the situation and is a must read Here.

In a follow up article by Susan Edelman it appears the school's Principal, Ruth Lacey, actually supported the student boycott that has racial overtones rather than putting a stop to it.  No wonder our schools are having racial divides with principals like her who rather support than confront the racial issues associated with the student boycott.

Middle School Murder Suspects Go To A Poorly Performing School

The alleged murder suspects who mugged and killed 18 year old  Tessa Majors attend a poorly performing middle school.  According to the New York Post article. The school demographics for the latest school year (2018-19 ) is 51% Black, 28% Hispanic, 13% White and 3% Asian.  Academically, only 12% were proficient in Math and 26% were proficient in English.  The City average for the State tests are 46% and 51% respectively.

The middle school the three suspects attend is called PS 180, a K to 8 school, and the students complain about bullying and staff complain about student discipline issues.  The trust factor is below the City average and the majority of teachers are non-tenured   Here is the Inside School's Snapshot of the school's quality report.

District 28 Parents Object To The DOE Integration Plan

At a public meeting the overflowing crowd of District 28 parents vocally objected to the DOE's proposed integration plan.  Not one parent liked the idea of sending their child from their neighborhood school to be bused from one part of the district to a school that requires parents to take mass transit or an expensive taxi to reach for school meetings or pick up a sick child.

While there is an obvious racial and ethnic components in the opposition, the fact is that the Jamaica section of district 28 have low preforming schools and suffer from student discipline issues, while the Forest Hills schools are high performing and have low student discipline problems.  Moreover, the Jamaica section of District 28 are low income and many families live in poverty, while the Forest Hills section of District 28 is upper and middle class and both cultures are alien to each other.  Having the students adjust to a different culture will only add to the issues of trying to integrate the schools.  Finally, many families buy homes in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens because of the schools.  If you bus these students to Jamaica, these families will flee to District 26 or Long Island.

Based on the public hearing and the intractable issues associated with integrating the District 28 schools.  I see only frustration and failure for the DOE's integration plan.  See my previous post Here.

PS 169 Principal EuJin Tang May Have Exposed 2nd Graders To Adult Nudity

Principal EuJin Tang of Brooklyn's PS 169 decided it was a good idea for her students, who are mostly low income,  recent immigrants, to learn to swim.  While that was a good idea, the problem was that the fitness center apparently did not isolate the students from the adult members and according to the New York Post, the 2nd graders were exposed to nude adults changing in the locker room as they waited to change into their swimsuits.

Some of the 2nd graders told their parents and the parents are very upset and rightly so.  The Principal, who was in charge of the outing should have made sure that the students were isolated from the changing adults but apparently didn't do so.  Moreover, many of the students were required to change in front of other students which upset their parents as well.

The Principal, EuJin Tang has been in the news previously when back in 2014 she banned Thanksgiving and Christmas  and celebrations, as well as the national anthem and made national headlines. Then she was known as EuJin Jaela Kim.  At that time she had one of the lowest teacher approval rating in the City at 32%.. While this has improved, the latest approval rating of 60% is still well below the City average of 86%.  She was made Principal of PS 169 in 2014 despite only having three years of school experience, when Chancellor Carmen Farina required all principals to have a minimum of seven years school experience.  As you can imagine, Ms, Tang is a graduate of the infamous Leadership Academy.


Ms. Tang (still known as Ms. Kim) also threw out nearly new desks  as well as other materials that cost $25,000 and replaced them with tables and was criticized by the media for wasting usable furniture when school budgets were tight.. I wrote a post about EuJin Jaela Kim back in 2015 and you can read it Here.  Furthermore, back in 2015 a petition to remove the Principal of a school that has 1,300 students generated 2,783 supporters but was ignored by the DOE.

Common Core Is Rapidly Losing Favor Nationally

Back in 2010, administrators, politicians, and education reform organizations set up a working group to come up with common national education standards that would allow the Federal Deportment of Education to compare one state with another and compete with other countries.  The Obama administration, led by his basketball playing buddy Arnie Duncan convinced the President to support "Common Core" which included testing and linking student scores to teacher evaluations.

To ensure states would comply with the Federal Department of Education's policies, the Obama administration dangled money at the states in the mist of a recession and states that did not link student growth scores to their teachers would not get the money.  The federal government encouraged states to develop "junk Science", like in New York State, that ended up to be thrown out  by a State judge.  Under governmental pressure. the "Common Core" rollout was a disaster as the major education publishers had no materials or books and teachers were not trained to teach it.  Worse, students were forced to adapt to a different Math program that parents did not understand and could not help their child. Moreover, the reading of non-fiction of boring books rather than reading fiction like "1984" was not good as students disliked the books.. Finally, the emphasis on testing has resulted in parents to "opt out" and in New York State 20% opted out with middle class Long Island having a 52% "opt out" rate.

The Common Core saw the Republican Tea Party and the Left wing of the Democratic party both come out against it.  In addition, most teacher unions soon realized that the extra funding the federal government provided never trickled down to the classroom but instead was used to pay high priced consultants , develop tests, and even pay for office furniture!    The Common Core is rapidly losing favor since there is no longer funding attached to it.  With  politicians like President Trump and most of the Democratic Presidential contenders are against the Common Core, the future of the program does not look bright.

The Common Core, combined with the Obama administration's support for charter schools who, for the most part did unrelenting test prep that emphasized English and Math while Social Studies and Science were given  little time since they did not have a Common Core requirement.  Savvy principals in the traditional public schools saw that and many students got a double period of English and Math while Social Studies and Science were taught every other day and even less.  The result was an incomplete education for the students..

The New York Times has an interesting article about Common Core but seems to slant it favorably  for Common Core and did not mention the linkage between student growth and teacher evaluations so read it with a grain of salt and look at my posts about NYS teacher evaluations. 

What Is The College Graduation Rate For NYC Students?

With the high school graduation rate increasing yearly (75.9%) and more students attending college, has the college graduation rate improved?  The answer is a disappointing not really.  Based on the latest 2017 data he college graduation rate for NYC high school graduates is 22% for CUNY and 26% for SUNY.  For two year associates degree from community college the graduation rate is a disappointing 32%.

The reason for the disappointing college graduation rate is that colleges try to maintain high standards and unlike high school, there is no such thing as " credit recovery", scholarship requirements by principals to ensure more students graduate and administrative pressure to pass undeserving students.  Just look at my academic fraud posts.

The bottom line is that less than one out of every four students who enter college will achieve a four year college degree and that is disappointing.

The Venezuela Education System Is In Collapse

 Venezuela was once the richest country in Latin America and had an education system that was one of the best in the Western Hemisphere.  However, the price of oil dropped from $100 a barrel to $30 a barrel in 2013 and Hugo Chavez died.  He was replaced by Nicolas Maduro who mismanaged his country and saw the collapse of the education system.

Most of the middle class of the country fled and teacher salaries were cut drastically to near minimum wage of $8 monthly.  The low pay and lack of students and resources have seen the majorly of teachers in the country leave the country and or the profession have not returned to the classroom in September.  The lack of students was a result of schools not providing meals because of a lack of funding by the government.  Some schools have less than 10% of their enrollment.

The New York Times has an excellent article on Venezuela's education travesty under the Socialist government.

Here is a Frontline timeline of Venezuela's economic collapse.

Annual GoldenTurkey Award 2019

The annual golden turkey award goes to two people.  Chancellor Richard Carranza for his ill-advised integration policy that is simply a joke and his bumbling administration who can't seem to get it right when it comes to the New York City public schools.  The second person is Mayor Bill de Blasio who ran and failed to even garner 1% of voters for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Chancellor Carranza has some good qualities, like he is not anti-teacher and is trying to get ATRs permanent positions.  However, he has failed to eliminate the ATR pool, refused to eliminate fair student funding and reduce class sizes. He also resorts to the old trick to claim that an increased graduation rate means academic improvement.

Furthermore, his racial favoritism has resulted in lawsuits by white females against his administration and for the most part, his integration policy for schools is a failure.

Mayor Bill de Blasio failure to garner support for President and his refusal to eliminate many of the Bloomberg era education policies make him a worthy recipient of the golden turkey award. Large class sizes, unenforced student misconduct issues, and lack of a full school funding has not been resolved,

Chalkbeat Ignores Some Of Bloomberg's Education Legacy

I read Chalkbeat's article on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's educational legacy and felt it did not adequately identify the negatives associated with his policies on the New York City public schools.

For example, Chalkbeat did not identify school based fair student funding that discriminated against senior teachers or his creation of the ATR pool that cost the DOE over 150 million dollars annually. In addition, Bloomberg's policies also resulted in the destruction of neighborhood schools by closing many of the large comprehensive high schools and allowing principals to artificially raise graduation rates by allowing failing students to take loads of "credit recovery" courses that had no academic value.  Let's not forget how he supported charter schools by giving rhem school space and funds while starving the public schools of resources.

Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg the racial/income academic achievement gap actually widened! and how he refused to give teachers a raise that he gave most everybody else as he igbored the City's collective bargaining policy.

The legacy of the Bloomberg education policy resulted in the DOE and classroom teachers treated each other as the enemy and his disrespect for public school teachers is legendary.

Michael Bloomberg Officialy Joins The Democratic Presidential Race

After weeks of speculation, Michael Bloomberg has officially joined the Democratic Presidential race.  By announcing his candidacy, it shows the Michael Bloomberg is quite unhappy with the present candidates, especially Joe Biden.

Obviously, Michael Bloomberg was dissatisfied with the sharp left turn by the Democratic party and saw even the moderates shifting to the left and felt none of the top contenders will beat his hated foe, Donald Trump.  

Just to remind my readers that Michael Bloomberg is anti-public school teacher and is a strong supporter of charter schools.  The present ATR pool was the result of Michael Bloomberg and he was responsible for closing 162 schools and eliminated the high school teacher cafeterias.  Finally it was under Michael Bloomberg that fair studxent funding was introduced that discrimanates against senior teachers and shortchanged school budgets.

Look at my posts on Michael Bloomberg Here.

Comparing Tier VI To Tier IV Pension

New Action, a UFT caucus has started a petition to improve Tier VI and I hope they succeed. Here is my post comparing Tier IV to Tier VI pensions.

Pity The Tier VI Teacher.

A new school year has started in September and approximately 5,000 "newbie" teachers will be under the Tier VI pension plan.   These newbies are replacing retiring Tier IV teachers, with their more generous pension plan.  The question is how long will these newbies  last?  With Charlotte Dainelson, inept administration, and lax student discipline rules, many of these "newbies" will end up quitting.  At best, maybe 50% of the "newbies" will be still in the classroom.  Moreover, 80% will no longer be teaching in the school they started in.  Finally, only 33% will make it to vesting for a pension and less to receive retiree health benefits.

Below summarizes the comparison between the two tiers.

Tier IV.
Vesting for a pension, between 5 to 10 years.
Teacher contribution 3% first 10 years , then 0% beyond ten years.
Highest three consecutive years for determining the pension.
Five to ten years to receive retiree health benefits.
Multiplier, 1.67% per year for less than 20 years,  2% between 20 to 30 years.
1.5% per year for years beyond 30 years of service.
Age Reduction Factor, 0.73 to 0.94 from 55 to 61.

Tier VI.
Vesting for a pension, ten years.
Teacher contribution 4.5% to 6%, depending on salary. 
Highest five consecutive years for determining pension.
Fifteen years to receive retiree health benefits.
Multiplier, 1.67% per year for the first 20 years. 2% for 20 years or more.
Age reduction factor, 0.48 to 0.94% from 55 to 62.  

To show how unlikely these Tier VI teachers will make it to full retirement, please play my Tier VI retirement game Here

Senior Teachers Still Targeted

Chancellor Richard Carranza is the first Chancellor since Rudy Crew that is not antagonistic toward teachers.  However, despite substantiate changes at the DOE, the majority at Tweed are still holdovers from the Bloomberg years and are responsible for the policies that still govern the schools.

While some people believe that the Chancellor has indicated that he wants to make things better for teachers, just look how the DOE targets senior teachers. As Chancellor he could instantly eliminate the policies that encourage the targeting of senior teachers.  School based fair student funding that discriminates against senior teachers and having DOE Central responsible for teacher salaries and not the schools..   He can also penalize principals who refuse to hire from the ATR pool before being allowed to hire "newbies".

Time will tell if the Chancellor will use his authority to eliminate the Bloomberg ideology that still permeates throughout the DOE ans have the DOE collaborate with teachers rather than viewed as the enemy as they are presently.

Suspensions Drop In NYC Schools But They Are As Unsafe As Ever

The suspension rate has dropped lasr year, primarily due to the De Blasio administrator making it more difficult for principals to suspend misbehaving students and s reduction in arrests for drug possession and other low level criminal activity.

Last school year there were 32,801 suspensions, a 39% decrease from the previous five years.  However, it was not because students were better behaved but mostly because it became more difficult for principals to suspend students. In fact, principals are limited to a 20 day suspension!

While there are significantly less suspensions, the schools are still as unsafe as ever as otherwise suspended students are given a slap on the wrist and will continue to disrupt classes and cause chaos in the schools.

DOE Ignores Academic Fraud

Councilman Robert Holden has asked the federal government to investigate the ramped grade fraud at the New York City schools.  The clearly frustrated Councilman has tried to convince DOE officials, including Chancellor Richard Carranza to seriously investigate the academic fraud but was ignored.  I have written many posts on the widespread academic fraud and you can find those posts under "academic fraud". 

Why doesn't the DOE investigate or punish schools for academic fraud?   Simple, the DOE rather have a higher graduation rate and an illusion that academic progress is being made when the truth is far different. The DOE allows schools to cheat by ignoring the use of easy credits, blended learning, and allowing principals to require that teachers pass as much as 85% of their students.

Will the Federal government investigate the academic fraud?  I doubt it but if they do, it will be easy to prove.  Read James Eterno's ICEUFT blog for the actual letter to the U.S. Attorney..

Time For Charter Schools To Dump Unwanted Students

On October 31st, school funding for the year is based on student enrollment as of that date.  Once November sets in, the school funding is set.  Its in November that charter schools will start to expel unwanted students and dump them into the public school system since the money is already allocated to the school..

Because of a quirk in how schools are funded, charter schools will do everything possible to retain all their students up to October 31st to get their funding.  However, after that date, charter schools will start to push out misbehaving and or academically challenged students to the public schools.  That also includes Special Education and English Language Learners who need extra services.

Obviously, New York State's school funding must be changed so as to discourage student dumping that the charter school get away with and still retain the funding as if that student is still in the charter school.. 

The New York Post's Misleading Editorial

The New York Post has an editorial that blames the De Blasio administration for keeping alleged misbehaving teachers on the payroll indefinitely.  The problem is that some of those teachers cited in the article were put in their predicament by ex Chancellor Joel Klein, a decade before Bill de Blasio became Mayor of New York City, but don't let the facts get in the way of an editorial.

Furthermore, the statistics used in the editorial is like comparing apples with oranges. The 2012-13 school year showed that 13% of educators charged under 3020-a were terminated.  While only 6% were terminated in the 2018-19 school year.  The problem with the comparison is that the 3020-a hearings take six months or longer for the arbitrator to write up the decision.  Therefore, many of the 2018-19 3020-a cases have not been completed until this year and are not included in the 2018-19 statistics.

Finally, with a more teacher friendly Chancellor in Richard Carranza, the DOE has been more careful in charging teachers under 3020-a (227 compared to 443 in 2012-13) and that is the reason why there are fewer (47%)  educators charged under 3020-a from the last year of the Bloomberg era..

Highlights Of The Chicago Teachers Contract

The Chicago teachers will average a 3.2% raise for five years with the first three years getting a 3% raise and the last two year gettingg a 3.5% raise.  Moreover, for teachers who have 14 or more years in service, they will be getting a bump in their pay s cale which can average another 3% raise.

There will be hard class size caps and all schools will have a school nurse and social worker.

There are more improvements, like more sick days that can be banked and frozen health insurance premiums.  The contract summary can be found in the article Here

Warren Leads As Biden Fades In Tight Iowa Race

It appears that Joseph Biden's money troubles and the negative press due to his son has seen him drop to fourth in the tight Iowa poll for the Democratic Presidential elections.

By contrast, Elizabeth Warren leads at 22%, followed closely by Bernie Sanders at 19%, Peter Buttigieg at 18%, and Joseph Biden at 17%.  The rest of the Democratic field is polling at 4% of less and it looks like a four person race to be Donald Trump's opponent in the Presidential primary.

The New York Times has has an article that fully explains the Iowa poll and can be found-in today's paper.

One Out Of 10 NYC Students Are Homeless

The amount of homeless in NTC schools stayed stubbornly high at 114,000.  This is nearly the same as the previous year with 85% of the homeless students are either Black or Hispanic and that indicates that Mayor De Blasio's homeless policy has failed to put a dent in the homelessness.. Here is what the Mayor said about it.

It's common knowledge that homeless students have lower academic performance, higher absentees, and are more likely to be associated with behavioral problems.  Moreover, the lak of a permanent home usually results in the student to move from school to school and cannot establish a stable social structure which also negatively affects academic achievement.  Finally, many homeless students lack financial support and am involved faster which is associated with academic success.

Reducing the student homeless population is essential to improve student academic performance, especially in many of the Bronx and Brooklyn schools.