NYC Schools Report Card - Queens Gets the Most A's

In a new reporting system on NYC public schools (ranking letter grades A-F), Queens got the highest proportion of A's (about 29%) and the lowest proportion of F's (only 0.77%).

What do these numbers mean? It's not strictly performance, but overall improvement that counts. Here's the press release from the Department of Education and the interpretation from the NY Times:

The largest portion of a school’s grade, 55 percent, is based on the improvement of individual students on state tests from one year to the next, a so-called growth model analysis. Thirty percent of the grade is based on overall student achievement on state tests. An additional 15 percent is based on the school’s environment, measured by attendance figures and parent, teacher and student surveys.

So, if a school did well from one year to the next, but didn't show improvement, then it may not have gotten an A.

Here are a few notable stats for Queens:

• District 25 in Queens had the highest average school score in New York City. District 25 is roughly Flushing, Whitestone, Malba, College Point, Kew Gardens Hills, and Bayside Terrace.

• Queens has a higher percentage of "A" elementary and middle schools (32%) than any other borough. Manhattan has the highest percentage of A high schools (26%).

• P.S. 214 Cadwallader Colden School in Flushing has the highest overall score in Queens (86.3), followed by P.S. 21 Edward Hart School (85.9) in North Flushing and P.S. 78 (83.9) in Long Island City, right in the Citylights building on the Queens West waterfront.

• Flushing's Townsend Harris High School received the highest overall score (82.9) in Queens for a high school.

• Woodside's P.S. 151 Mary D. Carter School received the lowest score in Queens (28).

You can search for your school's ratings at the NY Times site (easier) or at the Department of Education (via an Excel spreadsheet).

On a couple Forest Hills blogs, they're talking their local schools: Queens Central and Forest Hills 72. Who else has an insight to neighborhoods schools? And, what do you think about "growth model analysis?"