Middle school to phase out after low scores

Come June 2013, middle school students will still be arriving at the huge brick school building on 133rd Street—they just won’t be headed into Roberto Clemente Middle School.

That’s when the New York City Department of Education plans to close the West Harlem public school after years of struggling to meet academic standards—a decision that has caused equal parts worry and relief in the neighborhood.

Beginning this fall, Roberto Clemente, which currently serves 400 students, will begin phasing out of the building it shares with KIPP Infinity Charter School.  The phase-out plan, which involves gradually replacing Roberto Clemente with a new middle school and expanding the KIPP charters, was approved on Feb. 1.

A DOE report said Roberto Clemente was “unable to turnaround and cannot provide a high-quality education to its students.” But some of its teachers still feel like the school wasn’t given a fair shot.

LOW SCORES
In making its decision, The DOE cited the school’s poor attendance, low enrollment, disciplinary issues, and declining test scores relative to other city schools. 

According to a DOE statement released in January, only 13 percent of Roberto Clemente students were on grade level in reading and only 17 percent were on grade level for math in 2009-10, placing the school in the bottom 10 percent of middle schools citywide.

Cindy Millan, who has a student enrolled at KIPP Infinity and used to work in the school’s Beacon after-school program, said that while she’s concerned about the displaced students, the phase-out will provide welcome space for KIPP.

“I’m not happy about the phase-out because it does displace kids, and it’s hard to get into the charter schools here,” she said.  “They deserve an education, and the schools that they’ll be going to in the future will be more crowded.  But I am relieved because we will have more space here.”

Millan said she’s also relieved because there have been discipline problems with I.S. 195 students in the past.

“I was, and am, still concerned about the I.S. 195 kids because they’re out of control,” she said.  “I used to work here in the Beacon after-school program, and the [I.S. 195] kids roamed the halls and picked a lot of fights with KIPP kids.”

The DOE did cite safety problems in its assessment of the school, noting that 74 percent of teachers reported that discipline and order are not maintained at the school, in the 2009-10 School Survey.

'NO SURPRISE'
To Gloria Pimentes, who teaches at Roberto Clemente, the phase-out was expected. The school has jumped on and off of the DOE’s failure list and received a “D” on its most recent progress report.
“We heard about the phase-out the same way that the public did, in December or January,” Pimentes said.

The school’s less-than-stellar statistics are more of a reflection of the school’s high percentage of non-English speaking students than poor achievement, she said.

“A lot of these kids are newcomers,” she said, noting that Roberto Clemente has not been able to offer special programs like English as a Second Language tutoring.  “They don’t speak the language here.  And the administration expects them to pass the tests in English and get high scores.”

The DOE recognized this problem in its last quality review of Roberto Clemente, stating specifically that “There is little instructional differentiation and insufficient support for English Language Learners in many classrooms.”

The school also struggles to support students with special needs, Pimentes continued.

“We have kids from families with emotional problems, kids who are adopted, kids who have been raped,” she said.  “We also have special-ed kids who need more support.  The difference with the KIPP charter schools is that when kids don’t do well there, then they end up at I.S. 195.” 

The school’s principal, Rosarie Jean, said she could not comment on the phase-out.

Though Pimentes said the school wasn’t getting the support it needed, DOE reports show that the school received $290,000 in grant funds in the last few years. The DOE cited other efforts, including additional principal and teacher training and specialized partnerships with General Electric and Teachers College.

A BETTER FUTURE?
Now that the plans to phase out the school have been finalized, the future of I.S. 195’s special-needs students is at stake, said an I.S. 195 teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the school’s administration asked teachers not to speak to the media.

“They’re saying that the area is still going to service the same kids, but if we’re leaving the building, how can we service the same kids?” the teacher said. “I’ve been working here for four years and I’m a tenured teacher, but that doesn’t matter because everyone’s gotta go either way.”

With teacher vacancies being announced in April and the phase-out looming on the horizon, the coming months will be a challenge for I.S. 195, the teacher continued.

“Because of the phase-out, there’s more stress so it’s bothering everyone,” the teacher said.  “It’s impacting me, and it is a concern.” 

The DOE has said that it will continue to work with the school during the transition to a school that would “better serve the students in the community.”

“We do plan to incorporate community feedback as we continue to support current I.S. 195 students working toward promotion and as we develop plans to replace I.S. 195 with another school,” the report said.

Still, the change was news to some parents.

Victor Wagner, a parent of a Roberto Clemente student, said he wasn’t aware of the phase-out. “What’s going to happen to the children?” he asked.

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