The percentage of New York City students passing their state English tests spiked nearly eight points this year and math pass rates also improved, giving city officials reason to celebrate. It’s worth noting, however, that the average proficiency scores on both exams still hovered below 40 percent.
In the lists below, we take a closer look at which schools are at the top or bottom of city rankings when it comes to proficiency on the two tests. We also break out which schools have seen the largest changes in performance (both positive and negative) since last year, measured by the percent change in their average scaled score.
Top city schools in English proficiency:
- P.S. 77 Lower Lab School (98.3 percent proficient)
- Success Academy Crown Heights, Brooklyn 7 (98.2)
- Baccalaureate School for Global Education (96.8)
- Success Academy Charter School – Bed-Stuy 1 (95.6)
- The Christa McAuliffe School/I.S. 187 (95.5)
- The Anderson School (95.3)
- Tag Young Scholars (94.1)
- Special Music School (94.0)
- Concourse Village Elementary School (93.8)
- New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math High School (93.6)
Nearly all the top schools on this list have selective admissions. Four of them are citywide gifted and talented programs, while Concourse Village will start a district-wide gifted and talented program this year. Though the Success Academy network uses a lottery rather than selective admissions, the two schools listed above have English language learner populations of less than 5 percent, while ELLs comprise 14 percent of the population in non-charter schools.
Bottom city schools in English proficiency:
- Academy for New Americans (1.1 percent proficient)
- New Directions Secondary School (2.3)
- P.S. 174 Dumont (2.5)
- The School for the Urban Environment (3.3)
- Harbor Heights (4.2)
- South Bronx Early College Academy Charter School (4.5)
- Essence School (4.8)
- Red Hook Neighborhood School (4.9)
- Entrada Academy (5.0)
- M.S. 301 Paul L. Dunbar (5.1)
All the lowest-scoring schools serve high-need populations. Three — Essence, Entrada and M.S. 301 Paul L. Dunbar — are in the city’s Renewal program for struggling schools. New Directions serves overage students who are off-track in middle school, while Harbor Heights and the Academy for New Americans enroll newly arrived immigrants who may have limited prior schooling. Unlike last year, no school had a zero percent pass rate in 2016. Three of the worst-performing schools — School for the Urban Environment, Harbor Heights, and Essence — were also on last year’s list. P.S. 174 is being phased out, and Urban Environment closed at the end of this year.
Top city schools in math proficiency:
- Success Academy Crown Heights, Brooklyn 7 (100 percent proficient)
- Success Academy Fort Greene, Brooklyn 5 (100)
- Success Academy Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan 2 (100)
- Success Academy Charter School – Bed-Stuy 1 (99.5)
- Success Academy Charter School – Bronx 1 (99.3)
- Baccalaureate School for Global Education (99.1)
- Concourse Academy Village Elementary School (98.8)
- Success Academy Union Square, Manhattan 1 (98.8)
- Success Academy Prospect Heights, Brooklyn 6 (98.1)
- P.S. 172 Beacon School of Excellence (98.0)
Success Academy charter schools are known for high test scores, particularly in math, but they dominated this year’s list, taking seven out of 10 of the top slots. That’s even better than last year, when they took five out of 10.
Bottom city schools in math proficiency:
- Orchard Collegiate Academy (0 percent proficient)
- Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing Arts (0)
- New Directions Secondary School (0)
- P.S. 174 Dumont (0)
- Kappa IV (0.7)
- Brownsville Collaborative Middle School (1.1)
- Performance School (1.8)
- Lyons Community School (2.0)
- M.S. 328 Manhattan Middle School for Scientific Inquiry (2.3)
- East Fordham Academy for the Arts (2.3)
Three schools on this list were also on last year’s list of low performers — New Directions Secondary School, East Fordham Academy for the Arts and Lyons Community School, which Chalkbeat wrote about in 2014. M.S. 328 will absorb a school that shares the same building. Performance School closed this year, and P.S. 174 Dumont is being phased out.
Biggest positive change in English scale scores (not proficiency):
- P.S 5 Dr. Ronald McNair (+14.7%)
- P.S. 191 Paul Robeson (+11.6%)
- Fairmont Neighborhood School (+10.8%)
- P.S. 147 Isaac Remsen (+10.1%)
- The Walton Avenue School (+8.7%)
- Bronx Charter School for Children (+8.1%)
- P.S. 120 Carlos Tapia (+7.8%)
- P.S. 15 Patrick F. Daly (+7.5%)
- Academy for Young Writers (+7.2%)
- M.S. 596 Peace Academy (+7.0%)
Overall, schools saw bigger improvements this year compared to last. The pass rate at P.S. 5 Dr. Ronald McNair shot up from around 9 percent last year to 57.7 percent this year. But that school’s enrollment has also been falling continuously — 163 students took the test in 2013, but only 71 did this year. M.S. 596 Peace Academy, which posted a solid 7-point gain, is a Renewal school that closed at the end of the year.
Biggest negative change in English scale scores (not proficiency):
- Central Park East I (-7.5%)
- Institute for Collaborative Education (-2.8%)
- P.S. 73 Thomas S. Boyland (-2.5%)
- P.S. 230 Dr. Roland N. Patterson (-2.4%)
- P.S. 174 Dumont (-2.2%)
- P.S. 308 Clara Cardwell (-2.1%)
- P.S. 346 Abe Stark (-2.0%)
- The School for the Urban Environment (-1.8%)
- P.S. 167 The Parkway (-1.7%)
- P.S. 36 Unionport (-1.6%)
The declining performance of Central Park East 1, on both English and math scores, will no doubt fuel criticism of the school’s new principal, Monika Garg, who was appointed last summer. Some parents and staffers argue that she’s making the school less progressive and more traditional in its approach. Most of the other drops were relatively modest compared to last year. Two of the other schools on this list — P.S. 73 Thomas S. Boyland and P.S. 230 Dr. Roland N. Patterson — recently closed, and P.S. 174 Dumont is being phased out.
Biggest positive change in math scale scores (not proficiency):
- P.S. 5 Dr. Ronald McNair (+14.7%)
- M.S. 267 Math, Science & Technology (+8.9%)
- P.S. 191 Paul Robeson (+8.4%)
- Imagine Me Leadership Charter School (+8.2%)
- Bronx Charter School for Children (+8.0%)
- Staten Island Community Charter School (+7.2%)
- P.S. 64 Pura Belpré (+6.2%)
- South Bronx Charter School for International Culture and the Arts (+6.1%)
- P.S. 15 Patrick F. Daly (+6.0%)
- American Dream Charter School (+6.0%)
Once again, P.S. 5 Dr. Ronald McNair tops the list of most improved schools, despite the fact that its numbers have dwindled. In 2015, Chalkbeat wrote that test scores at some charter schools, including Imagine Me Leadership Charter School, may benefit from the departure of lower performing students, who often return to district schools in the middle of the year. Another school on this list, P.S. 64 Pura Belpré, is being phased out.
Biggest negative change in math scale scores (not proficiency):
- Central Park East I (-8.1%)
- Teachers Preparatory High School (-7.8%)
- New Directions Secondary School (-6.4%)
- P.S. 44 Marcus Garvey (-5.5%)
- P.S. 56 Lewis H. Latimer (-5.5%)
- P.S. 346 Abe Stark (-5.4%)
- P.S./I.S. 224 (-5.3%)
- Bronx Dance Academy School (-5.3%)
- School of the Future Brooklyn (-5.3%)
- Fahari Academy Charter School (-5.1%)
Central Park East I also topped the list for biggest negative change in math as the school’s principal faces pushback. P.S. 56 Lewis H. Latimer’s enrollment has been on the decline, from more than 400 in 2006 to 200 in 2016. The city moved to close Fahari Academy in 2015, but the school pushed back and remained open this year. In May, it once again seemed set to close.
Editor’s note: For the bottom four categories, we chose to look at scale scores, rather than proficiency rates, when looking for big changes this year in order to capture shifts that might not have pushed students across the threshold between levels 2 and 3, but are still notable.