Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimoPort Richmond High School Principal Timothy Gannon is chagrined by slip to "C" grade. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The results are in, and grades for the borough's high schools mostly held steady, with six As, three Bs and a C. But two schools saw their scores drop on this year's city progress reports, and none improved....
Port Richmond High School Principal Timothy Gannon is chagrined by slip to "C" grade.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The results are in, and grades for the borough's high schools mostly held steady, with six As, three Bs and a C. But two schools saw their scores drop on this year's city progress reports, and none improved.
The C was posted by Port Richmond High School, which was down from a B the year before.
"It's disheartening, because I know how hard people are working here, and I take it personally," said Principal Timothy Gannon. "I know I have to do a better job."
The progress reports grade schools in three main areas: Student progress, student performance and school environment. To make progress, students need to earn at least 10 credits a year and pass certain Regents exams. The performance grade is based on how many students graduate in four or six years, and what kinds of diplomas they earn. School environment includes attendance and other factors.
Of the 10 borough high schools that were graded, eight earned the same grade in 2010-11 as they did in 2009-10. The Ralph R. McKee Career and Technical High School saw its grade slip from an A to a B.
Among those earning an A was Concord High School, which is graded by slightly different criteria as a transfer school. Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning Center, which opened in 2008, did not receive a grade because it has yet to graduate a class.
At Port Richmond, Gannon said students whose scores ranked in the lowest third citywide did not improve as much as the school had hoped.
"We took some hits with our most at-risk students. We didn't do a good job last year with our lowest third," he said. "Part of that was, as we reorganized into smaller learning communities, we weren't able to focus on them as we have in the past."
The small learning communities were launched last year. It may take a few years to see the academic benefit of the change, he said. "But I'm not a patient guy, and I expected to see more gains," Gannon said.
Gannon said the school has taken steps he think will help for this school year -- including hiring a new English as a Second Language coordinator, who will also teach, and naming an assistant principal for special education. And while Port Richmond earned a C for progress, based on course credits and Regents scores, the school's passing rates for the math and English Regents were over 90 percent when weighted in comparison to the schools in its peer group.
At Susan Wagner High School, the grade was an A for the second consecutive year.
"It's all a reflection of the students and staff, everybody just working really hard," Principal Gary Giordano said. "Doing the best they can in the classrooms, building effective instruction on behalf of the teachers. And we have a great student body. The kids are really terrific."
Giordano said the difference between earning an A and a B can be both small and confusing -- three years ago, Wagner earned a B, but their number grade that year was higher than the prior year's A.
For the first time this year, the progress reports included data about college-readiness, but it won't be counted toward school grades until next year.The city measured the percentage of students hitting benchmarks that show they are ready for college, like scoring highly on AP or International Baccalaureate exams, earning a C or better in a college credit course, or scoring above a 65 on select Regents exams.
The city is also measuring the college-readiness index of a school -- the percentage of students whose Regents, SAT or class scores would allow them to pass out of remedial course work at a City University of New York College -- and the college enrollment rate -- the percentage of students who actually enrolled in a two- or four-year degree program after graduation.
Though it won't count until next year, schools are already thinking about the college-readiness data. Gannon said Port Richmond has a partnership with Wagner College designed to show high schoolers that college is within reach. He said the school is also going to work to collect better data about how many students go on to college.
"Some of the numbers we thought would be different," he said.
Giordano said comparing a school's grade to its past grades can be hard when criteria change frequently.
"And of course, the college-readiness piece will change next year," he said.