Among low-scoring schools, familiar names and dashed hopes

Yesterday’s high school progress reports release put 60 schools on existential notice.

Fourteen high schools got failing grades, 28 received D’s, and another 14 have scored at a C or lower since at least 2009 — making them eligible for closure under Department of Education policy.

In the coming weeks, the city will winnow the list of schools to those it considers beyond repair. After officials release a shortlist of schools under consideration for closure, they will hold “early engagement” meetings to find out more about what has gone wrong. City officials said they would look at the schools’ Quality Reviews, state evaluations, and past improvement efforts before recommending some for closure. Last month, they said they were considering closure for just 20 of the 128 elementary and middle schools that received low progress report grades.

The at-risk high schools are spread over every borough except for Staten Island and include many of the comprehensive high schools that are still open in the Bronx, including DeWitt Clinton High School and Lehman High School, which until recently were considered good options for many students. They also include two of the five small schools on the Erasmus Campus in Brooklyn and two of the three  small schools that have long occupied the John Jay High School building in Park Slope. (A fourth school, which is selective, opened at John Jay this year.)

They include several of the schools that received “executive principals” who got hefty bonuses to turn conditions around. Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers, Washington Irving High School, and Lehman all got executive principals between 2008 and 2010. The city’s first executive principal was plucked from Wadleigh Secondary School for Performing Arts, which is also on the list of low-scoring schools.

Some of the schools have been to the brink of closure before. Just before the Panel for Educational Policy was slated to vote — and, presumably, approve the phaseout of Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School, the DOE changed course and pared the school down instead. John Dewey High School and Sheepshead Bay High School, both in Brooklyn, were among the first schools where the DOE held early engagement meetings a year ago but ultimately did not wind up on the chopping block. And students at Samuel Gompers Career and Technical Education High School in the Bronx have been worrying aloud for years that their school could be the next to close.

A dozen of the schools are among the 33 citywide that are receiving federal funds to undergo the “transformation” or “restart” overhaul processes, including two that began transformation last year. But just because a school is undergoing transformation or restart doesn’t mean it can’t be closed, said a DOE spokesman, Matthew Mittenthal. The city is already using federal turnaround funds to support new schools that open when low-performing schools began to close.

The full list of low-scoring schools:

Academy For College Preparation and Career Exploration: A College Board School (Brooklyn): D Academy For Scholarship And Entrepreneurship: A College Board School (Bronx): D Alfred E. Smith Career And Technical Education High School (Bronx): 3 C’s Aspirations Diploma Plus High School (Brooklyn): D August Martin High School (Queens): D Banana Kelly High School (Bronx): 3 C’s Boys And Girls High School (Brooklyn): F Bread & Roses Integrated Arts High School (Manhattan): D Brooklyn Bridge Academy (Brooklyn): 3 C’s Business, Computer Applications, and Entrepreneurship High School (Queens): 3 C’s Coalition School For Social Change (Manhattan): 3 C’s Cypress Hills Collegiate Preparatory School (Queens): D Dewitt Clinton High School (Bronx): F Dreamyard Preparatory School (Bronx): D EBC High School For Public Service (Brooklyn): F Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders (Brooklyn): D Flushing High School (Queens): D Fordham Leadership Academy For Business and Technology (Bronx): D Frederick Douglass Academy II Secondary School (Manhattan): 3 C’s Frederick Douglass Academy (Manhattan): 3 C’s Freedom Academy High School (Brooklyn): F Gateway School For Environmental Research and Technology (Bronx): D George Westinghouse Career And Technical Education High School (Brooklyn): D Gotham Professional Arts Academy (Brooklyn): F Grace Dodge Career And Technical Education High School (Bronx): F Herbert H. Lehman High School (Bronx): F High School For Health Careers and Sciences (Manhattan): D High School For Youth And Community Development at Erasmus (Brooklyn): 3 C’s High School Of Graphic Communication Arts (Manhattan): F Holcombe L. Rucker School Of Community Research (Bronx): D Independence High School (Manhattan): 3 C’s International Arts Business School (Brooklyn): F Jane Addams High School For Academic Careers (Bronx): F John Dewey High School (Brooklyn): 3 C’s Juan Morel Campos Secondary School (Brooklyn): 3 C’s Landmark High School (Manhattan): D Law, Government And Community Service High School (Queens): D Legacy School For Integrated Studies (Manhattan): F Manhattan Theatre Lab High School (Manhattan): F Martin Van Buren High School (Queens): D Mathematics, Science Research and Technology High School (Queens): 3 C’s Murry Bergtraum High School For Business Careers (Manhattan): D Newtown High School (Queens): 3 C’s Pan American International High School (Queens): D Park Slope Collegiate (Brooklyn): D Peace And Diversity Academy (Bronx): 3 C’s Richmond Hill High School (Queens): D Samuel Gompers Career And Technical Education High School (Bronx): F School For Democracy And Leadership (Brooklyn): D School For Legal Studies (Brooklyn): D Secondary School For Law (Brooklyn): 3 C’s Sheepshead Bay High School (Brooklyn): D The High School For Global Citizenship (Brooklyn): 3 C’s University Neighborhood High School (Manhattan): 3 C’s Urban Assembly High School Of Music and Art (Brooklyn): D Urban Assembly School For The Performing Arts (Manhattan): D W.E.B. Dubois Academic High School, D Wadleigh Secondary School For Performing Arts (Manhattan): D Washington Irving High School (Manhattan): F Williamsburg Charter High School (Brooklyn): 3 C’s