Nearly two dozen Long Island schools are flunking state standards, according to a fresh New York Education Department review.
Two particularly flailing local schools — one in Hempstead and the other in Riverhead — landed among the bottom 5% in the state, the Department of Education found, according to Newsday.
The state determination involves numerous factors, including student attendance, high-school graduation rates, grades and the performance of the schools’ English language learners.
New York education officials said their annual review found that 23 schools in 16 districts on Long Island needed improvement.
The number of schools on the latest needs-improvement list went down from the 29 schools during the previous school year. But it was a higher than the 11 on the list two years ago, Newsday reported.
Overall, there are 124 districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Districts with the unenviable distinction of landing on the list must submit improvement plans to the state.
Leaders of districts with schools on the list argued that their designation involved a small group of English language learners.
“This designation does not reflect our students’ academic abilities as a whole, and we are proud of the progress made by our students in this subgroup as well as our staff and their continued dedication to making continuous strides in instruction,” Rocky Point School District Superintendent Scott O’Brien told Newsday.
West Islip Union Free School District chief Paul Romanelli derided the state’s report as “flawed” and stressed that his district’s English language learners saw a jump in grades by high school.
“We feel that our program is a strong one,” he told the newspaper. “By the time that they graduate our high school, they’re achieving high school diplomas. They’re doing well on Regents exams.”
David Paterson Elementary School was flagged by the state after “attendance really went downhill” because of increased immigration enforcement in the area and chatter about the school shuttering, said Hempstead Union Free School District Superintendent Gary Rush, according to the newspaper.
A state education rep defended the formula for identifying schools that need improvement, including the focus on a small group of struggling pupils.
“We understand and respect that educators work incredibly hard every day to support their students, and that no single designation can fully capture the full story of a school community including its culture, relationships, or the progress happening in classrooms,” the representative said in a statement to Newsday.
