Struggling School Plans for Change

Labelled a failing school by the New York City Department of Education, Manhattan’s Renaissance Leadership Academy is caught in transition as it struggles to improve its standardized test scores in time to avoid closure.

In Nov. 2007, RLA, a middle school officially known as I.S. M286 and located on W. 129th Street, was among several city schools to receive an F on progress reports issued by the New York City Department of Education. The school has been added to the New York State Department of Education’s list of Schools Under Registration Review, State Education Commissioner Richard Mills announced last week, meaning that it must improve its test scores by 2010 or close its doors.

The SURR list identifies low-performing schools and allots state-funded support for up to three years. When schools improve, they can be removed from the list, but those that fail to meet standards after the three years are either closed or redesigned. About 66 percent, or 204 of the 308 schools identified by SURR since 1989, have been removed from the list because of improved academic performance.

Fewer schools across the state were added to the list in 2007 than in other recent years. “The small number of schools this year reflects in part the significant improvement of many schools in grade 3-8 English and math,” Mills wrote in a press release.

But some schools, like RLA, continue to struggle.

With only 210 students, RLA is what Principal Qadir Dixon calls “a small learning community.” Dixon took his position in July of last year and said he came with big plans to turn the school around. This school year started off with a name change for RLA, which used to be called Renaissance Military Leadership Academy. Although the school’s initial association with the military ended after just a year, the name stuck, and Dixon suggested that some people saw the school as a place to send students with behavior issues.

“Our focus is now on leadership,” he said of his students. “They really take ownership of the building.” The students wear new uniforms this year and have just finished repainting the entire school. With pride, Dixon described their eagerness to represent their school at the recent middle school fairs across the city. “The school is a totally different place now,” he said. “And it’s turned around so quickly because our expectation is excellence.”

But the DOE progress reports deemed RLA’s math and English language arts scores to be “in need of improvement” and requiring “corrective action,” a designation reserved for schools that fail to make sufficient progress after two years. Fewer than 40 percent of students in any given grade at RLA scored at a Level 3 out of 4 or above on their math, English language arts, or science tests.

Compared to its peer schools, RLA’s average change in student proficiency in English language arts ranked in the bottom 0.4 percent. In mathematics, RLA’s change in proficiency was a full 40.9 percentage points below all of its peers. A 2006 DOE report stated that “this year is the first that the school has had all of its teachers certified in their subject area, at least for part of the year,” adding that the school needed to work on its ability to monitor and improve student performance over time.

According to Mills’ press release, the State Education Department will work with RLA and other new SURR schools to “help them raise student achievement.” The department has not yet been involved at RLA, but internal efforts for support are already in place—the school has an accelerated reader program, incentive games for learning math, and provides training for teachers.

But Dixon said that the RLA’s failing score on the progress reports reflect past difficulties and expressed confidence that things would turn around. “When everyone said it’s a failing school, I said no,” he explained. “That ‘F’ stands for foundation. We are building from scratch.”

alicia.outing@columbiaspectator.com