NYC To Close, Merge 19 Struggling Schools Next Year

NEW YORK, NY — The New York City Department of Education plans to close or merge 19 schools next year, including several that have struggled to make gains despite a yearslong effort to improve them, officials announced Monday.

Among the planned closures are nine of the city's most troubled schools that have failed to improve after three years in the so-called Renewal Schools program, which gives struggling schools extra funding and resources to help them turn around.

Education officials determined the 3,300 students in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx would be better off at higher-performing schools as their graduation rates and test scores slipped or made only slight gains despite their three years in the Renewal program.

Five other Renewal schools will be merged with other schools. One, the Wadleigh Secondary School for The Performing Visual Arts, in Harlem will cut its middle school grades in an effort to improve the high school arts curriculum, officials said.

The changes would take effect at the end of the school year in summer 2018 if they're approved by the city's Panel for Education Policy in March.

The city also wants to close five struggling schools that aren't in the Renewal program, including the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in the Bronx. That's where 18-year-old Abel Cedeno stabbed two other students during a history class in September, killing one and critically wounding the other.

Education officials visited the school frequently, helped implement more safety measures and provided extra training following the stabbing, the Department of Education said. But "there continues to be instability for students and staff, and the Chancellor has determined that Wildlife students will be better served at another school."

The moves mark the third round of closures and mergers since Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña established the Renewal program in November 2014 with 94 schools. The $150 million program aimed to save the city's worst schools from closure. There were 78 at the beginning of the current academic year.

The program has made some strides — the Department of Education says 21 schools have shown enough progress to transition out of their Renewal status.

Collectively, the schools have increased their graduation rate by 20 percentage points, their state English test passing rate by 15.5 points and their math passing rate by 10 points, the DOE said. At the end of the school year they'll be designated "Rise Schools" and will have to follow a two-year plan to meet new, higher academic goals, officials said.

Those schools will get new computer science, algebra and college-level Advanced Placement courses provided by broader city initiatives. The elementary schools in the Rise program will also get dedicated reading coaches, while middle and high schools will get more resources to help students prepare for college.

Test scores and graduation rates at many of the closing Renewal schools showed initial improvement after the program's first year, but saw the numbers grow slowly or decline after that.

For instance, 8 percent of students at the Urban Science Academy in the Bronx passed the state English test in 2016, up from 5 percent in 2015. But that figure dropped 6 percent this year, and the proportion of students passing the state math test never budged from 3 percent.

Here's the full list of schools set to be closed or merged, according to the DOE.

Renewal Schools Proposed For Closure

PS 050 Vito Marcantonio

Coalition School for Social Change

High School for Health Careers and Sciences

New Explorers High School

Urban Science Academy

PS 92 Bronx School

Brooklyn Collegiate: A College Board School

PS/MS 42 R. Vernam

MS 53 Brian Piccolo

Renewal Schools Proposed For Merger

Holcombe L. Rucker School of Community and Longwood Preparatory Academy. Longwood Preparatory Academy will be the prevailing school. Both schools are Renewal Schools, both schools are in the same building, and the merged school will remain in the Renewal program next year.

Accion Academy and Entrada Academy. Accion Academy, which is not in the Renewal program, will be the prevailing school.

East Flatbush Community and Research School and Middle School of Marketing and Legal Studies. East Flatbush Community and Research School, a Rise school, will be the prevailing school. Both schools are in the same building.

Middle school grades of Gregory Jocko Jackson School and Brownsville Collaborative Middle School. Brownsville Collaborative Middle School, which is not in the Renewal program, will absorb the middle school grades of Gregory Jocko Jackson School. The elementary school grades at Gregory Jocko Jackson School will remain in the Renewal program.

Closing Schools Not In The Renewal Program

KAPPA IV

Academy for Social Action

Felisa Rincon de Gautier Institute

Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation

Eubie Blake School

(Lead image: The Urban Science Academy in the Bronx is one of 19 schools the New York City Department of Education plans to close or merge next year. Image from Google Maps)