The New York State Education Department recently released its annual list of "schools in need of improvement" throughout New York State, and two schools in Woodside are found to be on it. This list is developed according to standards set out by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), otherwise known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
The two local schools on the list are I.S. 125 and P.S. 229. I.S. 125 is also known as the Thomas J. McCann school, located at 46-02 47th Avenue Woodside, NY 11377. P.S. 229 is known as the Emanuel Kaplan school and is located at 67-25 51st Road Woodside, NY 11377. Both schools have shown up on the list for the first time, and the subject they're in need of having to improve upon the most is Elementary-Middle Level English Language Arts.
According to this NYSED report, 1,325 elementary, middle and high schools and 123 districts throughout NY state have been identified as being in need of improvement this year. From that statewide total, the number of schools in need of improvement within NYC alone is 640 and the number of districts identified is 31. The number of schools and districts identified this year is a major increase from last year, when only 102 schools and 4 districts were cited as needing improvement.
Schools that find themselves on this list are compelled to either provide extra tutoring sessions to their students, or permit pupils to transfer out. If the state finds certain schools to be showing up too frequently on the list, they are eventually forced to shut down.
Interestingly enough the city disputes the state's findings, with Mayor Bloomberg saying the state's highest ranking education official was "misinformed". About 180 of the schools that the state cited as being low-performing had received high scores on their progress reports from the city. The city claims that the state list fails to take into account the schools that, while still struggling, are slowly changing for the better.
Since the standards used currently by the state to determine school performance are based upon the NCLB act, NYS Education Commissioner John King is looking to apply for school accountability waivers that would eliminate ineffective mandates. This may help to reduce the discrepancies found between city and state reports regarding school progress.
Here is a link to the complete list of city schools cited by the state as being in need of improvement.
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