State targets RCSD for intervention

The
Rochester school district has been flagged as one of 70 “Focus School Districts”
by the New York State Education Department. Twenty-two of Rochester’s schools
have been identified as “Focus Schools” by the SED, and 30 described as
“Priority Schools.”

The full SED
report was released today.

The designation
means that a team of education specialists — a State Education Integrated Intervention Team — will come to Rochester “to assist
the district and its schools in developing and implementing improvement plans,”
the report says.

Districts are
identified as Focus Districts because of persistently low performance and lack
of progress in English language arts and math, or low graduation rates for one
or more of what the state calls “accountability groups.” That refers to racial
and ethnic groups, low-income students, English language learners, and students
with disabilities.

Districts are
also classified as Focus Districts if they have multiple Priority Schools. Those
are schools with ELA and math scores among the lowest 5 percent in the state, and
are failing to make progress. They are also schools with graduation rates below
60 percent for several years.

Schools in a
Focus District will receive intense intervention and support to improve student
performance.

The new
classifications replace earlier classifications imposed by the federal
government’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The Priority
School list is particularly troubling because it includes many of the district’s
new high schools which opened to replace low-performing schools.

One local
charter school, Rochester Academy Charter School, has been identified as a
Focus School, and only a handful of Rochester schools are described as in “Good
Standing.”

There are
250 schools identified by the SED as “Reward Schools” for exceptional
performance.

This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 4, 2012.