State removes four Renewal schools from its watch lists

Four schools in the city’s “Renewal” turnaround program saw enough progress on their state test scores or graduation rates over the last two years to be removed from state watch lists this month, but will remain in the program.

In total, 14 low-performing city schools are no longer designated by the state as among its worst-ranked, making it off of its lists of “priority” and “focus” schools. The four in the Renewal program are Long Island City High School, Renaissance School of the Arts in East Harlem, and Brooklyn’s J.H.S. 50 John D Wells and Frederick Douglass Academy IV Secondary School.

In a move that illustrates just how many competing labels for low-performing schools have been created by New York state, John Ericsson M.S. 126 was also removed from the state list. The city recently announced that that school, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, will be receiving Renewal-like services and resources from the city because it fell into the category of “persistently failing” created by a new, separate state law that allows control of struggling schools to be turned over to receivers with additional powers.

The schools first received the state designations in 2012 after New York received a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law to assess schools based on their students’ progress instead of simply their performance. The state bases its list on different criteria than the city used when choosing the schools for its Renewal program, a city spokeswoman said, and the the schools will still receive the resources and face the deadlines for improvement that come with the program.

“The Chancellor believes schools will be ‘renewed’ not just when improvements are made, but when they are sustained, which is why Renewal is a three-year program,” Devora Kaye said.

The other schools to move off the state’s lists:

  • University Neighborhood Middle School
  • Global Neighborhood Secondary School
  • Community Health Academy of the Heights
  • P.S/I.S. 224 in the Bronx
  • P.S. 107 in the Bronx
  • P.S. 230, Dr. Roland N Patterson
  • School of Science & Applied Learning in the Bronx
  • I.S. 136 Charles O Dewey
  • High School for Youth and Community Development in Brooklyn