Discontent with the city’s troubled middle school system, parents are taking matters into their own hands to get Brooklyn schools back on track.
The Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ), an alliance of parent organizations, has come up with a plan to improve the city’s junior high schools, where students often struggle academically.
The plan was unveiled at a meeting of the New York City Middle Grade Task Force, which the City Council created in response to the release of data suggesting that student achievement declines once children reach junior high school.
On the 2006 state English Language Arts (ELA) exams, the number of students who met or exceeded standards by scoring in the top two levels on the tests steadily dropped from grades three to eight. Citywide, 61.5 percent of third-graders excelled on the ELA exam but in the eighth grade, just 36.6 percent of students placed in the highest brackets.
There were similar results for last year’s math exams. Approximately 75.3 percent of the city’s third-graders scored in Levels 3 and 4. Of the city’s eighth-graders, just 38.9 percent met or exceeded standards.
Earlier this year, CEJ released its own report on middle schools.
Based on data from the city and state Education departments, the report found that the majority of the city’s eighth-graders cannot read at required state levels.
Also, students attending schools in low-income areas are more than twice as likely to be unable to read at the state standard than their wealthier counterparts.
And, when kids get to high school, only 25 percent of African-American and Hispanic students graduate with a Regents diploma.
Even schools Chancellor Joel Klein has acknowledged that junior high schools need “some work.”
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