ESSA Goes After NY Community High Schools

There are 51 of them in New York City, and they serve transfer students whose circumstances made it impossible to work through a regular high school.  Students receive counseling, career guidance, and other social services that allow students to actually learn while finish high school at a decelerated pace.

Now those schools are under threat from ESSA, which could have never passed without the support of corporate reform protection units of NEA, AFT, NPE, and FairTest:

The schools are small, and many of them work with community-based organizations to offer counseling, college and career advising, and internships. They have a significantly better track record than other high schools in graduating students who are two or more years behind. But because students often enter transfer schools with few credits, it can take them six, seven or even eight years in total to graduate.

Now advocates and city education officials fear the schools may be in danger. On Monday, the State Education Department is expected to present the Board of Regents with regulations to conform with the Every Student Succeeds Act, the successor to No Child Left Behind. Under the expected regulations, the vast majority of the city’s transfer schools would be designated as “in need of improvement” and could be at risk of being closed.

Under the regulations, schools that fall short of a six-year graduation rate of 67 percent would be put on a list to receive “comprehensive support and improvement.” Only four of the city’s 51 transfer schools currently meet, or are on track to meet, that benchmark.