The Inconvenient Truth On Why The Renewal School Program Was A Failure

The Renewal Schools program will be discontinued at the end of the school year due to their failure to achieve meaningful student academic improvement.  The question is why did the Renewal Schools fail to significantly improve student academic achievement despite throwing money and additional resources at those schools?  To me, the answer is simple, the additional money and resources did not go into the classroom but ended up with the hiring of additional administrators, consultants, and questionable professional development programs.

I believe that these are the causes for the Renewal School program's failure to improve student academic achievement.

• Large Class Sizes:  Despite various studies that show lower class sizes are strongly correlated to improve academic achievement, most Renewal Schools had class sizes that were at contractual limits. 

• High Teacher Turnover:  Renewal Schools suffer from a higher teacher turnover than the rest of the NYC school system.  This results in an unstable school environment and lower student academic achievement.

• Hiring of inexperienced teachers:  The Renewal Schools were still subject to the DOE's misguided "fair student funding" and hired only untenured or "newbie" teachers to stretch their budget.  In fact then Chancellor Carmen Farina prohibited Renewal Schools to hire ATRs, many of them veteran quality teachers.  Talking about cutting off their nose to spite their face!

• Renewal School's Poor Reputation:  It didn't take long for middle school parents to make sure that their academically achieving students did not include Renewal Schools on their list of high schools to attend.  The result was the Renewal high schools were a "dumping ground" for academically struggling students that nobody else wanted.

•  No Neighborhood Input:  Since the Renewal Schools were subject to citywide open admissions and many of their student body came from other neighborhoods, local input was lacking, both because of neighborhood disinterest and the failure of school administrators to reach out to the community.

•  Poor Leadership:  Schools with strong leadership is a must for schools to improve.  Unfortunately, many, if not all, schools had weak or incompetent leadership.  That includes the Principal and the conflicting and confusing administrative directives from above.  Moreover, many of the administrators were failed principals who found themselves in a position to guide the Renewal Schools principals on how to best run their schools.  What a waste of money and resources. For example having Amiee Horowitz put in charge of the program.

• Cellphones In The Renewal Schools:  The use of cellphones in the Renewal Schools serve as a distraction and hurts student academic achievement.

To truly improve the academically struggling schools, eliminate  citywide open enrollment, by bringing back neighborhood schools and give the community a say in the running of the school,  significantly reduce class sizes, and hire more veteran teachers by allowing academically struggling schools a waiver from Fair Student Funding.

Renewal Schools Program - Rest In Peace.

Mayor Bill de Blasio finally threw in the towel and is terminating the costly and academically questionable school renewal program at the end of the school year.

The Renewal program cost the City $770 million dollars and despite the additional funding, 24% of the 94 schools were forced to close due to continued poor academic performance.  Only 22% of the schools improved enough to escape the Renewal program, while the remaining 54% of the schools did not improve enough to leave the Renewal designation.

Worse, that any school that was designated as a Renewal School was marked as poorly performing and many parents refused to send their academically proficient child to those schools.  Moreover, the Renewal High Schools lost more and more students over the last four years as few middle school students would apply to them due to the stigma associated with them.  Finally, the Renewal Schools suffer from high teacher turnover, large class sizes,  and has an inexperienced staff, not a good situation for academically struggling students.

In addition, the Renewal Schools had poor leadership and an an over abundance of administrators with conflicting and overlapping directives that only confused and dispirited the school staff.  Further,  many of these administrators were removed from their previous school for misconduct or incompetence.

These are some of my past posts on the problems associated with the Renewal Schools.  Here, Here, Here, and Here.  To read all my posts on the Renewal Schools, this is the link on Turnaround Schools.

More Closing Schools And That Means More ATRs.

The De Blasio administration has let it be known that more Renewal Schools will be closed at year's end.  This means more ATRs, especially veteran teachers since school based Fair Student Funding will discourage principals from other schools to pick them up.

How many Renewal Schools will close?  Probably five is a good estimate based upon their lack of students, low test scores, and teacher turnover.  Its possible that an additional Renewal School or two will be merged with other schools making more ATRs. This does not include trying to have teachers  reapplying for their positions like they did at Flushing and DeWitt Clinton High Schools.

Renewal Schools cannot attract academically proficient students simply by being identified as a struggling school and due to Fair Student Funding, quality teachers. Does that matter to the DOE that their own policies is a recipe or failure?  Of course not, best to blame the school for not improving then the DOE's  own failing policies.

What will happen to the remaining academically struggling schools?  I suspect they will eventually close or merge with other schools unless the schools are given specialized programs to attract academically proficient students and recruit veteran teachers, something the DOE has no plans to do,

You can read the entire article about the Renewal Schools and what will happen to them in Chalkbeat.

Is The Renewal Program Working? I Think Not.

When the Renewal program was introduced by Chancellor Carmen Farina and Mayor Bill de Blasio.  There were 94 schools in the program.  All of them academically struggling.  Four years later, as the Renewal program is expected to end at the end of the school year, we see that 25% have escaped the Renewal program as they have improved enough academically.  25% have closed as they have academically failed, and 50% have remained in the Renewal program and their fate will be decided at the end of the school year.

At the high school level, no school has escaped the Renewal program due to academic improvement, while some have closed due to poor performance or lack of students applying.  The reasons for the failure are multiple.

1. Lack of academically proficient students. 
2. High teacher turnover.
3. Inexperienced teachers.
4. Low staff morale.

Is the Renewal program working?  Not at the high school level.  Read the Chalkbeat article.

Teacher Turnover Is Higher At The Renewal Schools Than For The Rest Of The City.

A union investigation of teacher turnover rates for the two year period between October 2014 and October 2016 shows a much higher teacher turnover rates at the Renewal Schools than for the New York City Public Schools teacher turnover rate

The UFT report found that for the 78 Renewal Schools investigated, the average teacher turnover rate for the two years was 40%, compared to a 23% for all public schools.  The report was summarized in Chalkbeat and found the following factors that contributed to the high teacher turnover rates at the Renewal Schools.

• Difficult;t teaching conditions
• Intense pressure to show academic achievement.
• Unstable and poor school administrative leadership.
• Sagging enrollment.
• Low teacher morale
• Poor academic performance.of the mostly level 1 student body.

Here are just two examples.  The first being August Martin High School that saw 90% of the teachers at the school in 2014 are gone by 2016.  Most of the teachers left or weren't rehired when the school was forced to have their teaching staff reapply for their positions at the school.  The second example is Flushing High School that had seven, yes seven principals in eight years?  Talk about an unstable and poorly performing administration. This Spring both Flushing High School and DeWitt Clinton High School will join 8 other Renewal Schools who are forcing their teaching staff to reapply for their jobs.

Of the 73 Renewal Schools investigated, 50 of the schools had a two year teacher turnover rate of 33% or greater  Add that to a mostly "newbie" teaching staff. who have a steep learning curve to become a quality teacher, the mostly level 1 student body, and  you have a recipe for failure, the Renewal Schools!

For ATRs, there is one bright spot in the Renewal School saga.  The Chancellor, Carmen Farina, has ordered the DOE not to "force place" ATRs in the Renewal Schools, what a lucky break for us.

Queens Renewal High Schools Keep Losing Students.

In my last post I listed the "dirty dozen" high schools in Queens that had the highest student vacancies after the first round of high school selection in 2017 and prominently on that list were the Renewal Schools.  In fact, the top two schools were Renewal Schools.  They were Long Island City High School with 570 student vacancies and John Adams with 500 student vacancies.  In the top five was another two Renewal Schools, Flushing (230 vacancies) and August Martin (200 vacancies) High Schools.  The large amount of student vacancies at the Renewal Schools demonstrates that fewer and fewer students are applying for these academically struggling schools with an inexperienced teaching staff.

To show that the Renewal high schools have failed to attract students to their building I used the last three years of data (2015-17) of the student vacancies associated with the second round of high school choice associated with these struggling high schools.

................................Student.Vacancies
High School...............2015...2016...2017

Long Island City..........373.....406.....570
John Adams................530.....411.....500
August Martin..............454.....303.....200
Flushing......................194.....200.....230
Martin Van Buren.........239.....129.....175
Pan American...............40......126.....110
Richmond Hill...............31.......62.......75

Interestingly, most of the Renewal high schools have seen their, already high student vacancy rate increase over the last three years.  Long Island City, Flushing, John Adams, Pan American, and Richmond Hill  shows an overall increase in student vacancies between 2015 and 2017.  Both August Martin and Martin Van Buren were downsized in the last two years and that accounts for their reduction in student vacancies since they are now a much smaller school in 2017 than they were in 2015.

It appears as the poor reputation of the Renewal High Schools has spread throughout the Borough of Queens, more parents and students are excluding these schools from their high school choice list and this forces the schools to either excess teachers or take the "over-the-counter-students" who are usually "high needs" with academic, behavior, or language issues.  The very type of student that the struggling Renewal schools that made them what they are today.

Chancellor Carmen Farina may claim that she sees the light at the end of the tunnel for the turnaround of the Renewal high schools but the light really is the oncoming locomotive about to destroy the Renewal School program as the schools continue to shed students and teachers.

The Renewal Schools Continue To Be An Academic Mine Field.

The Renewal Schools continue to shed students and must take over-the-counter students just to kept student numbers from falling over the cliff.  Despite Chancellor Carmen Farina's commitment to eliminate the Renewal Schools reliance on over-the-counter students, the fact is that the percentage of over-the-counter students has remained virtually unchanged since Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina formed the Renewal School program due to the loss of so many potential students.   Moreover, these schools puts greater accountability on teachers  and few veteran teachers apply to work in these hard to staff schools.  Therefore, quite a few teachers are inexperienced and these Renewal Schools suffer from high teacher turnover.  Finally, few academically proficient students apply to the Renewal Schools as parents refuse to allow their child to go to a school with a poor academic reputation.

 Chalkbeat published an article that shows how the Renewal Schools want the over-the-counter students so that they don't need to excess staff and lose badly needed funds.  This shows up in the 2016-17 school year as Renewal Schools had basically the same amount of over-the-counter students as the previous year.    Despite the Chancellor's commitment, to the Renewal Schools to reduce the over-the counter students.  The Renewal Schools averages 19% of the student body compared to 15% for the average school.  Since most over-the-counter students are academically behind because of their previous academic performance, coming from a different country with an inferior educational systems, or lack English skills,  Putting them in already academically struggling schools like the Renewal Schools is a recipe for disaster.

The bottom line is that the Renewal Schools continue to lose student, cannot recruit experienced quality teachers, and have a disproportionate percentage  of "high needs students"and expecting significant academic improvement from these schools is just wishful thinking.

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%