New York City Shuts Down Underperforming Schools
By: Lindita Camaj
How would you feel if your school was being closed down forever and you were the last graduating class? Would you be sad, happy, angry? Would you even care? Well there are more and more schools being added to the list of closing schools every year due to low performance and attendance. According to Independent Budget Office of the City of New York, there is a higher number of schools being closed down in The Bronx than any other borough in New York. Many teachers, students, parents and staff members have fought and resisted against closing these schools down.
Eight of these 25 schools that are being closed down are smaller schools that were created a few years ago to raise educational standards through smaller school sizes. Naira Hassan, 16, who is currently attending Global Enterprise High School, a small school established at Christopher Columbus High School, shares this sentiment. "It's wrong. They shouldn't close down the school because it is pretty new," Hassan said. "We haven't been given a second chance. It's been open for only seven years." She feels that recently the school has been improving.
The schools will be closed after all the students have graduated. Among the 2011 list of schools to be phased out is Christopher Columbus High School whose official last school year will be 2014, city officials stated. Sixteen-year-old Jesse Joseph who attends Columbus says that he is not affected by this because by the time Columbus closes down he will already be in college. Joseph commented, "I do feel bad for the people that have to switch schools in order to graduate." Students who don't receive all their credits by 2014 have to switch schools in order to get their diploma. Joseph also believes that it will take some time for graduation rates to go up in the city.
So what is the difference between charter schools and public school? Sarita Subramanian of the Independent Budget Office of the City of New York explained that charter schools are publicly funded and their curricula does not apply to the Department of Education (DOE) standards. They also have to renew their charters every few years in order to meet the standards set by the DOE. This means that the charter schools can make their own rules and run the school the way they want as long as the school meets the standards set by the DOE. If this does not happen then the schools will be closed down, Subramanian stated.
Statistics show that the number of students meeting the English and math citywide standards are decreasing every year. According to the NYCCEJ Coalition for Educational Services, 42 percent of students met the English Language Arts (ELA) citywide standards this year compared to 69 percent last year in 2010. Furthermore, the percentage of students meeting the math citywide standards dropped from 82 percent last year to 54 percent this year. Finally, only three percent of students scored at a level one – the lowest grade possible -- on the ELA last year compared to 15% this year.
These decreasing numbers have given Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and Mayor Michael Bloomberg reasons to close down schools and create new smaller charter schools in the city. This however does not please everyone and raises a few questions about the changes made to the school system in New York including the new charter schools that are replacing public schools.
Caitlin Ervin an education advocate who works with young people, responded in an email with the following: "I am not convinced that there is a connection between the economy and closing schools, because the Bloomberg Administration has been closing low-performing high schools since 2002, long before the economic crisis. In fact, according to the Alliance for Quality Education there is a significant cost to closing schools and opening new ones in their place."
She went on to say that the majority of schools that are failing have high populations of poor students including black and Latino students, English language learners, and special education students. Historically, Ervin states that these groups of people have been marginalized and oppressed.
Mathew Mittenthal of the Department of Education said, "we would only propose phasing out schools that have not demonstrated a capacity to improve. At the beginning of the process last year, we identified 55 struggling schools, and proposed phasing out 24 of them." The rest will receive a range of supports, leadership changes, resources to implement new teaching strategies, and so on, responded Mathew. "Phase-out is by no means our only strategy; it is only one of many. But it is the most effective turnaround strategy for our lowest-performing schools." Mittenthal said.
"So I think that sadly, a lot of why schools are failing comes down to racism and classism, and the willingness on the part of some to neglect the needs of urban students," Ervin states.
