State Education Department Identifies 27 Schools to Be Removed from Priority School Status, 8 from Receivership Status

Twenty-seven schools in four districts will be removed from Priority School status, State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia announced today. The 27 schools met the criteria for removal from Priority School status based upon their 2015-16 and 2016-17 progress in improving state assessment results for students. One school each will be removed from Priority School status in Albany, Buffalo, and Wyandanch. The remaining 24 schools being removed from Priority status are in New York City. 

“Removal from Priority School status shows the hard work being done by students, teachers and administrators at these schools and I applaud them all,” Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa said. “While we’re seeing progress in struggling and persistently struggling schools, there is still a great deal of work to be done to reduce the gap between our expectations for success and the reality of the results for students in these schools.”

“These schools are working hard to collaborate with stakeholders to address the needs of their students, and the results so far are promising,” Commissioner Elia said. “At the same time, we must remain mindful that only sustained and accelerated progress in these schools can create the level of progress necessary for us to meet our goals for all of New York’s children.”

To be eligible for removal from Priority School status, a school must make the required progress on 2015-16 and 2016-17 school year results, meet participation rate requirements for English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics for all subgroups for which the school was accountable in both of these school years, and be above the threshold for Priority School identification. For high schools, the four-year graduation rate must have been at least 60 percent for the past year and either the four-year or five-year graduation rate must have been at least 60 percent in the year prior to that. The methodology used to make the progress and removal determinations is posted to the New York State Education Department (NYSED) website.

In the 2016-17 school year, a total of 174 schools were designated as Priority Schools. Schools with performances that place them among the lowest performing in the state for the combined English Language Arts and mathematics Performance Index or graduation rate and that are not improving are identified as Priority Schools. Current Priority Schools were identified based on 2014-15 school year results.

Among the 27 schools being removed from Priority School status are 8 schools in Receivership, one in the Albany City School District and the remaining seven in New York City. These schools will exit receivership at the end of the 2017-18 school year, at which time the superintendents for these schools will no longer have the special authority of school receivers. The Department recently announced the list of Receivership Schools making demonstrable improvement for the 2016-17 school year. 

On December 10, 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, was signed into law. ESSA requires that states develop a plan for school accountability for submission to the United States Department of Education (USDE) for approval. New York submitted its plan to the USDE in September 2017. For more information on the requirements of ESSA, and the Department’s and the Board of Regents work to develop the required plan, please visit the Department’s ESSA page.

The state’s plan addressed ESSA required changes to the identification of schools and the required interventions for those schools. The Department will use 2017-18 school year data to identify the first cohort of Comprehensive Support and Improvement Schools (CSI) and Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) Schools under ESSA. The Department will provide the field with regular updates on the approval and implementation of the ESSA state plan.

A list of current Priority Schools and the progress data for each Priority school are available on NYSED’s website.

A list of Receivership Schools, Demonstrable Improvement Indices, and the Commissioner’s Demonstrable Improvement determinations for each school are available on NYSED’s website.

Later this school year, the Commissioner will announce decisions regarding the removal of schools and districts from Focus status and the identification of Reward Schools.

More information on the receivership process and Demonstrable Improvement Indicators are available on NYSED’s website.

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