Why Renewal High Schools Continue To Fail.

An admittedly biased study done by the pro-charter group, Families For Excellent Schools. have shown that the Renewal Schools have continued to under preform, despite the massive amount of money that went to the schools.  Moreover, these schools continue to shed students and excess teachers.  Finally, the Renewal Schools have a problem with chronic absenteeism and low student academic achievement.

The DOE tried to limit the influx of "high needs" students by eliminating acceptance of "over-the-counter" students to the Renewal Schools.  However, these schools could not attract academically proficient students either.  The result was that the Renewal High Schools continued to struggle academically and had trouble keeping students from fleeing the schools, when given the chance to leave.

To make matters worse, veteran teachers, the lifeblood of a properly functioning school, didn't want to work in the highly stressful environment of the Renewal School.  despite what Chancellor Carmen Farina claims.  The result is that the Renewal High Schools have a majority of inexperienced teachers who are subject to a steep learning curve to master classroom management and curriculum knowledge, not an optimal educational environment for a struggling student population.   Furthermore, the Renewal High Schools suffer from high teacher turnover, either because the teachers are excessed or use the Open Market Transfer System to escape the school. This makes the Renewal High Schools an unstable educational environment and hurts students academic achievement.

Adding to the already stressful educational environment, the Renewal High Schools are top heavy with both in school and outside administrators,  In fact, the administration of Amiee Horowitz is known to be the dumping grounds for failing or unwanted principals and other out of favor administrators.  This top-heavy and highly paid administrators gobble up the lion's share of the extra funding for the Renewal School program.

The Renewal High Schools have only met 24 of the 102 benchmarks set for them and had a chronic absenteeism rate of 44%, almost half of the students.  Finally, most Renewal High Schools had a "college and career readiness rate" of the teens or less and are considered "diploma mills", graduating students unprepared for college and careers.  Check out the two charts below and the problems stare you in the face.

Renewal High School	Enrollment	Students Chronically Absent
Academy of Urban Planning	227	49%
Long Island City High School	2077	44%
John Adams High School	2386	43%
Richmond Hill High School	1950	38%
August Martin High School	459	51%
Martin Van Buren High School	1544	41%
Flushing High School	1812	39%
Pan American International High School	380	26%
Brooklyn Collegiate: A College Board School	307	40%
Cypress Hills Collegiate Preparatory School	232	42%
Multicultural High School	208	36%
Brooklyn Generation School	234	23%
Frederick Douglass Academy IV Secondary School	77	49%
Boys and Girls High School	383	43%
Automotive High School	372	60%
Foundations Academy	73	70%
Juan Morel Campos Secondary School	622	38%
Peace and Diversity Academy	125	73%
Monroe Academy for Visual Arts & Design	416	64%
DeWitt Clinton High School	1694	45%
Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Techno	410	45%
DreamYard Preparatory School	294	43%
Leadership Institute	180	53%
Bronx High School of Business	309	46%
Bronx Collegiate Academy	395	45%
Herbert H. Lehman High School	1092	50%
Holcombe L. Rucker School of Community Research	193	52%
Banana Kelly High School	234	60%
Foreign Language Academy of Global Studies	105	51%
New Explorers High School	426	60%
High School for Health Careers and Sciences	526	39%
Coalition School for Social Change	232	53%
Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Vis	377	59%
Henry Street School for International Studies	185	52%
All Renewal Schools	20,536	44.45%

Renewal High School	4-Year College Readiness Index
	2015	2016	+/-
Academy of Urban Planning	19%	11%	-8%
Long Island City High School	23%	25%	2%
John Adams High School	20%	22%	2%
Richmond Hill High School	16%	22%	6%
August Martin High School	2%	7%	5%
Martin Van Buren High School	14%	18%	4%
Flushing High School	21%	18%	-3%
Pan American International High School	52%[6]	38%	-13%
Brooklyn Collegiate: A College Board School	18%	16%	-3%
Cypress Hills Collegiate Preparatory School	10%	11%	1%
Multicultural High School	3%	11%	8%
Brooklyn Generation School	17%	16%	-1%
Frederick Douglass Academy IV Secondary School	11%	11%	0%
Boys and Girls High School	10%	7%	-3%
Automotive High School	3%	4%	1%
Foundations Academy	5%	14%	8%
Juan Morel Campos Secondary School	7%	3%	-4%
Peace and Diversity Academy	3%	11%	7%
Monroe Academy for Visual Arts & Design	5%	6%	2%
DeWitt Clinton High School	19%	19%	0%
Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology	6%	6%	0%
DreamYard Preparatory School	3%	10%	7%
Leadership Institute	4%	2%	-2%
Bronx High School of Business	19%	15%	-5%
Bronx Collegiate Academy	12%	14%	2%
Herbert H. Lehman High School	11%	21%	10%
Holcombe L. Rucker School of Community Research	27%	6%	-21%
Banana Kelly High School	17%	7%	-10%
Foreign Language Academy of Global Studies	2%	14%	12%
New Explorers High School	20%	6%	-15%
High School for Health Careersand Sciences	10%	8%	-2%
Coalition School for Social Change	4%	8%	4%
Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Vis	7%	7%	0%
Henry Street School for International Studies	39%	5%	-34%