Does Race Matter?
DOE Targets Only Black Schools For Possible Academic ‘Closure’
By Jessica Ablamsky
Mayor Mike Bloomberg proudly touted the narrowed achievement gap between black and Hispanic students and their white and Asian peers, as he stood beside outgoing Chancellor Joel Klein, who was supposedly instrumental in that change.
But, of the 24 elementary, middle and K-8 schools proposed for closure, every one is populated almost entirely by black and Hispanic students.
Using data from the City Dept. of Education, the Queens Tribune discovered that schools with the lowest scores in 2010 on the English Language Arts and Math tests were, with few exceptions, schools with mostly black and Hispanic students.
Citywide, schools with the most black and Hispanic students had scores that ranged from the best to the worst. In Queens, the range of scores in schools with similar racial and ethnic demographics were much more narrow, with none approaching the heights reached by schools with mostly white and Asian students.
The standard answer, low socioeconomic status, is insufficient to explain the dynamics in Queens. The four non-high schools proposed for closure in the borough are located in relatively affluent black communities in Southeast Queens.
Demographic Dilemma
It is very strange that every proposed closure is from the black and Hispanic community, said State Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica), a former PTA member and school board president, and member of the Senate Education Committee.
“I’m just as baffled as you are,” she said. “That’s saying to us that our kids cannot learn. That’s saying that they are the underachievers based on the fact that they are minority.”
Referring to schools like PS 30 and PS 40, two elementary schools proposed for closure in Queens, Huntley affirmed that they are not sited in poor communities. Among their residents are doctors, lawyers and judges.
One possible answer for the lack of academic success in Southeast Queens is educational migration. Proposed closures in Queens have high levels of zoned students choosing other options, including private school.
• At PS 30, only 60 percent of zoned students attend.
• At PS 40, 57 percent of zoned attend.
• At PS/IS 147, grades K-5 are zoned. Only 54 percent attend.
• At IS 231, only 35 percent of zoned students attend.
When nearly half or more students who are zoned to a school choose other options, the remaining students are probably from the poorest segment of the community, said DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld.
“It’s probably a safe bet that the 35 percent [remaining] has nowhere else to go and no other option,” he said, referring to IS 231. “For us, that means we have no choice but to improve that school.”
Local elected officials offered a very different explanation for what is going on in Southeast Queens, and around the city. They agreed that closing schools is not the answer.
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Schools are a reflection of society, said Councilman James Sanders (D-Laurelton), who acted as president of School Board 27 for seven of the 10 years he served.
“Is it true that it is easier to kick a black population than anyone else?” he asked. “Sadly, that just remains an American truism.”
For Sanders, performance in black and Hispanic schools is a question of school funding – which he said is better in integrated schools – and teacher experience.
Teachers Who Help
Seniority rules allow more experienced teachers to choose where they want to work, a problem Sanders thinks incentive pay could help solve. In the federal model for reforming struggling schools, some teachers receive more pay.
But better educators cannot fix the system, which he said requires “genuine change, top to bottom.”
“Logic dictates that your most experienced teachers should go to the most problematic schools,” Sanders said. “That is not the case here.”
In his explanation for the racial and socioeconomic disparity, Councilman-elect Ruben Wills cited a common criticism – the criteria for closing schools does not make sense.
An Unreliable Standard
Schools were caught unaware when the State Dept. of Education raised standards for Regents tests, Wills said.
The State Dept. of Education raised standards for tests after the close of the school year. Non-high schools came onto the DOE’s closure radar through low progress report grades, which are based mostly on those scores.
As a result of the raised standards, progress report grades plummeted this year, though schools were graded on a curve, according to the DOE.
Closure is based on an overall progress report grade of D or an F in one year, or three Cs in a row. Last year, nearly 90 percent of non-high schools received an A.
A one-year change in the progress report formula left most of those schools immune to closure, since any school that received an A last year could not receive lower than a C this year. DOE staff cited progress as an important measure of success, but some schools that earned an F for progress received a C overall, and vice versa.
The DOE has changed the formula for progress reports every year since they were introduced in 2007, said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, an education advocacy organization.
“The progress reports have never been a reliable measure of success,” she said.
Students would work harder if they had the “whole school experience,” including fringe benefits like art, gym and music, which Huntley said have been lost in favor of test prep.
It Takes A Village
Elected officials agreed that parents have been largely shut out of schools, but schools with strong parental involvement perform better, Huntley said.
“I think that’s missing in a lot of schools today,” she said. “Parents are the people who are volunteers, who are the watchdogs.”
Parents do not get a free pass in Huntley’s book. Even busy parents must make time to get involved in their child’s school, she said.
“You have to make sacrifices,” she said. “You can’t just continue to blame everybody else.”
Elected officials expressed no faith in the DOE’s ability to turn things around. They agreed that answers will come from an active community. For his part, Wills plans to mobilize his district by knocking on doors.
“Just because your school is not proposed for closure this year does not mean it won’t be next year,” he said. “I think that parents as a whole need to take that as an alarm.”
Model For Success
Although the picture painted by the data is not pretty, there is hope. Among the best schools in the city are a handful located in poor neighborhoods in Brooklyn, The Bronx and Manhattan. Their halls are filled with black and Hispanic students who are succeeding. Many, but not all, are charter schools.
An excellent example is the East New York Family Academy in Brooklyn, which is 99 percent black and Hispanic. In 2010, 95 percent of students scored 3 or 4 on Math. At IS 231, only 21 percent managed the same feat.
The schools share nearly the same number of English language learners and those who receive free lunch. The disparity in test scores is shocking, but proof that the public educational system can work for everyone.
As for the DOE, “sometimes I don’t think they think that they have a problem,” Huntley said. “If schools were doing great, why would we be closing schools?”
Asked whether we are condemning an entire generation of black and Hispanic students to a poor education, Huntley said, “That’s the way it looks.”
Reach Reporter Jessica Ablamsky at jablamsky@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 124.