Fourteen city schools land on state review list

Fourteen New York City schools landed on the state’s list of “schools under registration review,” the state education department announced today.

That’s down four from last year, after three city schools were added to the list this year but seven schools were removed. Schools are placed on the SURR list if their English and math scores on state exams are farthest from a state-set standard, prompting the threat of closure if the schools do not improve.

The three schools added to the list this year are all high schools, Washington Irving High School, the School for Global Studies and the Grace H. Dodge Career and Technology High School. All seven of the city schools removed from the list are elementary and middle schools.

“The SURR process has served New York well, particularly in terms of improving English and math results in the lowest performing elementary and middle schools,” State Education Commissioner David Steiner said in a statement. “Now we must align SURR with the process we’ve created for identifying and helping the Persistently Lowest Achieving schools. Doing so will focus greater attention on those schools that have had unacceptably low graduation rates for many years.”

The state’s list of “persistently lowest achieving” schools, which it announced in January, singled out the bottom 5 percent of schools to target for replacement or closure. Nearly 60 schools statewide — primarily high schools with low graduation rates — landed on that list, including 34 New York City schools.

The SURR list is much smaller, and includes a higher percentage of low-performing elementary and middle schools. Currently, 29 schools throughout the state have SURR status, the lowest number since the program began in 1989.

Beginning next year, state education officials said, schools will be given SURR status if their combined reading and math scores place them among the lowest in the state. Graduation rates will also be added as a factor in determining SURR status for high schools.

State education officials said those changes would likely mean a large increase in the number of schools placed on the SURR list next year.

Of the 14 city schools currently on the SURR list, four are in the process of closing. Three schools that would have been newly placed on the SURR list this year — Robeson, Columbus and Maxwell High Schools — were omitted because of the city’s recent decision to phase them out.

Several of the city schools that remain on the SURR list have recently performed well on the city’s accountability measurements. Three of the schools, P.S. 230, P.S. 12 and the West Bronx Academy for the Future, all received A’s on their most recent progress report cards. P.S. 230 received a $165,000 bonus and P.S. 12 received a $135,000 bonus based on their scores.

Chancellor Joel Klein praised the city for reducing its number of schools on the SURR list from 77 when Mayor Michael Bloomberg assumed control of the school system, and he attributed that drop to the mayor’s policies.

“Due to the dramatic actions we’ve taken – including phasing out failing schools and replacing them with high quality schools that students want to attend – we now have fewer SURR schools in New York City than ever before,” Klein said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is yet another sign of the tremendous progress we’re making to prepare students for college and the workplace.”

Here are the New York City schools currently on the SURR list. The complete list of schools in the state and the list of schools removed from the SURR list this year are available here.