Dist. 30 Schools Rank A To F
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein released the first-ever progress reports on the city's public schools last week, giving each school a letter grade. But it's not as simple as "A", "B", "C", or even "D" and "F".

Under the Department of Education's $80 million, five-year contract with IBM, the DOE has used its new Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS) to compile statistics on 1,224 schools based on environment, performance and progress. ARIS also identifies schools similar to one another for comparison.

Five schools in District 30 serve as an example of the complexity behind the mere letter grade they have received in their progress reports.

P.S. 11, P.S. 152, P.S. 85, P.S. 166 and P.S. 151, all within the same school district, ran the gamut from "A" to "F".

P.S. 11 received an "A" on its progress report while P.S. 152, P.S. 85, P.S. 166 and P.S. 151 followed with letter grades "B", "C", "D", and "F" respectively, on their progress reports.

The progress report measures student year-toyear progress. Schools earn additional credit when their high-need students make gains of at least one-half of a proficiency level during the year. It also measures student performance based on English Language Arts and math standardized test results and school environment based on surveys and other data.

For its "A", P.S. 11, located at 54-25 Skillman Ave., had a total score of 64.2, placing it at the 78.6 percentile of all elementary schools. That means that 21.4 percent of other schools scored higher than P.S. 11 citywide.

Only 21.7 percent of all schools received an "A". Next year, P.S. 11 has a target score of 76.7. Schools scoring between 64 and 97.3 received an "A".

P.S. 152, located at 33-52 62nd St., received a "B", with a total score of 52.16. That's at the 45th percentile (55 percent of schools scoring higher). 38.4 percent of all schools received a "B" (Scores between 49.9 and 64 got a "B"). The target score for P.S. 152 next year is 64 (an "A")

At an overall score of 43.3, at the 23.1 percentile, P.S. 85 got a "C". With almost 77 percent of schools scoring higher, P.S. 85, located at 23-70 31st St., has a target score of 58.3 to get to the next level grade. 26.7 percent of all schools scored between 38.8 and 49.9, getting a grade of "C".

P.S. 166, located at 33-09 35th Ave., had an overall score of 36.9, placing it at the 10.7 percentile, with 89.3 percent of schools scoring higher. The target score, 54.5, would take them beyond a "C" to a "B". 8.8 percent of all schools scored between 30.9 and 38.8, receiving a "D".

Only 4.3 percent of all schools received an "F", P.S. 151 being one. Located at 50-05 31st Ave., P.S. 151 had an overall score of 28, placing it at the 2.9 percentile; 97.1 percent of schools scoring higher. Their target score for next year is 48 and the school is in need of improvement (year 1) by state standards.

Schools that get "As" and "Bs" are eligible for rewards, while schools with "Ds", "Fs" or three "Cs" in a row, face consequences, according to the DOE.