Fewer top scores on more robust high school progress reports

Nearly half of students who started ninth grade in 2006 are enrolled in college right now, but only a quarter of them were ready for it, city data shows.

The numbers were revealed today when the Department of Education released high school progress reports for last year. For the first time, the reports include data about each school’s course offerings and college enrollment rate, although that information will not be factored into schools’ grades until next year.

Schools that receive a grade of F or D, or get three C grades in a row, could face closure. This year, 41 schools received D’s or F’s, an increase over last year, while fewer high schools received A grades than in any year since the progress reports were created in 2007.

Speaking to reporters this morning, Shael Polakow-Suransky, the chief academic officer, attributed those changes to a tougher set of requirements around student performance on state tests, credit accumulation, and documentation for student discharges.

“I think we’re tightening things up and we’ve gotten a more precise result,” he said.

Ninety-three recently-opened schools received progress reports without grades because they have not yet graduated a class. The DOE is witholding grades from seven schools and placing them under investigation for problems with their data.

Only one quarter of students who entered high school four years ago are graduating “college ready,” based on the city’s newly-adopted standards for college readiness that were devised by officials at the City University of New York, where close to 60 percent of the city’s public school graduates attend college.

“Just over 50 percent of our kids that enter CUNY have to take some kind of remedial coursework, and that fact is of serious concern to us because a lot of those kids are set up at a disadvantage,” Polakow-Suransky said.