The Rochester City School District’s graduation rate for 2018 continued its trend of slowly inching upward, according to a State Education Department report yesterday. The graduation rate for students who entered the district as freshmen in 2014 and graduated last June went up from 51.9 percent to 53.5 percent. When students who graduated last August […]
Rochester graduation rates
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Report on city schools is expected today
After several months of anticipation, a report on the Rochester City School District by Distinguished Educator Jaime Aquino is expected to be released today. State education Commissioner MaryElllen Elia, Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa, and Aquino will be holding a press conference at 1:30 p.m. Aquino was appointed by several months ago to observe the district’s operations, […]
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State ed sends a distinguished educator to city school district
State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia appointed Jaime Aquino as a distinguished educator for the Rochester City School District. Aquino, who starts on August 18, has over 30 years of educational experience, including serving in senior positions in the Los Angeles, Denver, and Hartford public school districts, according to a statement from Elia. “The Rochester City School District […]
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Focus intensifies on RCSD’s special education
The Rochester school district got some good news last week in the form of rising graduation rates. But concerns over the district’s special education program continues.
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RCSD grad rate improves despite inequities
The Rochester City School District’s graduation rate jumped to 51.9 percent in June 2017, according Wednesday’s press release from State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia. That’s a 4.2 percent increase from the 47.7 percent graduation rate in June 2016, the second-highest increase of New York’s Big Five school districts. If the students who graduated in August are […]
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UR envisions smaller, more robust East High
After six months of planning, yesterday the University of Rochester presented the Rochester school board with a sweeping proposal to transform its low-performing East High School into a highly successful learning environment. If the proposal is approved by both the school board and the State Education Department, it will clear the way for the UR […]
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Replacing schools comes with a hidden price
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas has been pretty clear that he doesn’t like phasing out low-performing schools in favor of new schools as a way to improve academic achievement. The model is one of the options the State Education Department allows school districts with failing or so-called priority schools to use to turn around low […]
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School district, City Hall step up truancy reduction efforts
Many Rochesterians strongly supported mayoral control. They didn’t get it, but in an odd turn of events, they may have received something better: a strong working relationship between City Hall and the city school district. That point couldn’t have been clearer at a press conference earlier today. Vargas, flanked by Mayor Tom Richards and United […]
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Rochester’s grad rate dips
Slightly more than 43 percent of city students who entered ninth grade in 2008 graduated with a Regents diploma in June 2012, according to a statement released yesterday by the New York State Education Department. Often referred to as the four-year cohort, the city schools’ graduation rate dropped about 1 percent from the prior year. […]
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Clock ticking for RCSD?
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s warning in his recent State of our Schools speech that the community faces its “last chance” to turn around the city’s troubled district left many people wondering what, exactly, he meant. In an interview after the event, Vargas said he wasn’t trying to be provocative when he made the comment. […]
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RCSD adopting ‘common core’ curriculum
For much of the last decade, graduation rates for most of New York State’s Big Five school districts have been around 50 percent. But the numbers have gradually improved for the New York City and Yonkers districts, which have graduation rates over 60 percent. Rochester’s graduation rates continue to hover around 50 percent, however, with […]
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Vargas makes no promises
After nearly a year-and-a-half leading Rochester’s schools, Superintendent Bolgen Vargas has yet to set the usual benchmarks. He’s instead downplayed expectations and has not promised to raise graduation rates. This is a different superintendent from his predecessors. For instance, Vargas hardly reacts to whatever the latest report says about Rochester’s low student achievement. But he […]
