Harlem School Facing Closure Gets “B” on DOE Progress Report
The Choir Academy of Harlem, singled out for poor performance last week, has now received a “B” from the DOE.
A Harlem high school that was slated for closure last year and singled out again for bad performance by the Education Department last week has now received a “B” on the city’s most recent progress report.
The Choir Academy of Harlem, one of seven Manhattan schools the DOE recently said was facing closure, is now among the 29 percent of the city’s public high schools that received a “B” grade on the 2009-2010 High School Progress Report.
Overall, 40 percent of New York public high schools earned A’s, 21 percent earned C’s and 10 percent earned D’s and F’s, according to the reports.
New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein addressed the discrepancy at a press conference Wednesday morning, following the release of the new reports, though he declined to say specifically whether the school would be closed.
“We announced those schools based on the information we had then,” Klein explained. “Obviously the score that they got this year will be involved in the evaluation.”
The Choir Academy of Harlem, which was founded as a partnership between the Boys Choir of Harlem and the Department of Education, had previously been selected for closure in December 2009. But the school narrowly avoided this fate when, in March of this year, a judge ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by the United Federation of Teachers and the N.A.A.C.P. preventing the city from closing a group of low-performing schools, including Choir Academy.
None of the other six Manhattan schools that were singled out in October received grades higher than a “C” on Wednesday’s reports.