New School Progress Reports Could Mean School Closures

Elementary and middle school report cards were released on Monday, and 150 schools earned only mediocre results for the third straight year, prompting many to believe that more schools could be closed soon.

According to the New York Times, a quarter of the schools received A grades, while nine percent of schools got slapped with D and F grades. Education Department officials announced that in addition to the D and F schools, they will also look into “triple-C” schools, or schools that haven’t earned better than a C grade in the past three years. According to the paper, the number of these triple-C schools jumped from 5 last year to 114 this year.

In all, 304 schools received A’s, 421 received B’s, 365 received C’s, 80 received D’s and 23 received F’s, which, according to the paper was on par with last year’s results.

At Park Slope schools, grades were mostly high, except for one "D" and two "NA." See the list below to see how the public schools in the neighborhood are doing and click the hyperlink to see the actual report.

• P.S. 107 John W. Kimball received an A
• P.S. 39 The Henry Bristow Landmark School received a B
• P.S. 124 Silas B. Dutcher received an A
• P.S. 133 William A. Butler School received a B
• P.S. 282 Park Slope received a B
• P.S. 321 William Penn received a B
• M.S. 51 William Alexander received a B
• M.S. K266 Park Place Community Middle School received a D
• Secondary School for Journalism received a NA
• Secondary School for Law received a NA

Shael Polakow-Suransky, chief academic officer for the Education Department, called the new assessment practices for schools “richer,” as well as tougher and more balanced.

The Times says that officials will finalize a list of schools marked for “early engagement” by next week – meaning schools that may close, have a principal replaced, or other stringent measures. Including high schools, 40 schools were on that list last year.