NYC Comptroller John Liu: High School Progress Reports Don’t Measure Progress

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Audit Finds that Department of Education’s Revisions to its High School

Grading System Leave Educators, Students Chasing a Moving Target

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New York City Comptroller John C. Liu announced that an audit of the Department of Education’s (DOE) High School Progress reports raised questions about the usefulness of the reports in comparing the yearly progress of schools.

“It’s troubling that a system that is used to decide school closings leaves teachers and students confused about what they need to do to improve,” Comptroller Liu said. “The Department of Education should not leave parents, educators or students in the dark when it’s deciding their fates.”

High School Progress Reports are a DOE accountability tool that assigns schools an annual grade of A through F. The Report grades play a significant role in the DOE’s decisions to reward high performing schools, perhaps with added funds, and restructure or close low-performing schools.

According to the audit, the DOE has revised the complex formula behind the grades every year. The frequent changes the agency has made to its grading and other formulas — without determining the impact of those changes — makes it difficult, if not impossible, to get a true picture of a school’s progress by comparing its grade from one year to the next. As a result, the High School Progress Reports paint an unreliable and confusing picture of a school’s progress or failure over time. Auditors recorded complaints from schools that the DOE’s lack of consistency made it difficult to set goals for students.

The audit focused on 10 high schools representing the five boroughs. It included three schools (Jamaica, Metropolitan Corporate Academy, and Norman Thomas high schools) that the DOE selected in January 2010 for closing.

CHIEF AMONG THE FINDINGS:

1. Inaccurate Picture of Year-to-Year Progress

The DOE’s changes to the formula behind the Progress Report grades make it difficult for parents and educators to measure a school’s performance from one year to the next.

The DOE says the Progress Report grades are meant as “a one-year snapshot” comparing one school against another in a given year, and not as a measure an individual school’s progress over time. Yet, the agency itself uses the formula to track achievement from one year to the next. For example, a school that receives a “C” three years in a row may be targeted for corrective action.

Example:

One school, Metropolitan Corporate Academy High School, which is set to close in 2014, improved its score every year from 2006 to 2010, but because of the DOE’s changing formula Metropolitan never rose above a “C.” In fact, the school fell to a “D” in the 2008-2009 school year even though its numeric score would have earned it a “B” under the 2006-2007 grading formula. It is impossible to tell to what extent Metropolitan’s scores reflect changes in its own performance or DOE’s changes to the grading formula. (See Table)

“The Comptroller’s audit of the High School Progress Reports demonstrates the difficulty of comparing a school’s letter grade over time when a school’s peer group composition and the cut scores for the grades change from one year to the next,” said Professor Aaron Pallas of Teachers College, Columbia University. “The recommendation that the DOE report high school progress report grades using both the old and new criteria would enable stakeholders both inside and outside of the schools to understand trends in school performance more completely.”

Action:

Since the audit, the DOE has posted an advisory on its website regarding year-to-year comparisons of High School Progress Report grades.

2.Lack of Communication

The audit determined that, while DOE met with school principals and others about changes, auditors found no evidence that it actually integrated feedback from them into the Progress Report. In fact, some educators told auditors that they felt as if they were chasing a moving target as they attempted to understand the changes that the DOE made to the grading formula each school year and to prepare students. The audit also found that the DOE did not do enough to inform schools what effect the changes to the grading system were expected to have on Progress Report grades.

“Taken alone, Progress Reports are an unreliable index for determining school closures or related high-stakes decisions,” said Professor David C. Bloomfield, chairman of the education department at the College of Staten Island. “Greater feedback by stakeholders, as recommended by the audit, might help to improve Progress Reports’ utility in this process.”

Action:

The DOE has since published materials summarizing and responding to feedback from educators and others involved in the 2010-2011 review process.

3. Data Reliability

The audit found that the data — student grades, Regents exam scores, and other information — that the DOE used to calculate each year’s Progress Report grades was representative of student data recorded in the DOE’s computer systems and verifiable. However, while the data in a given year was accurately recorded, it was not useful as a measure of an individual school’s progress over time.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

The DOE generally agreed with nine of the audit’s 10 recommendations and has begun to implement a number of them. However, the audit notes that “DOE inappropriately misinterpreted and even exaggerated, many of the audits ‘positive’ conclusions as an endorsement for the progress reports,” while simultaneously discounting its weaknesses.

SCOPE:

The audit was launched in March 2010 using data from the high schools’ 2008-2009 progress reports, the most recent data available at that time. The audit was expanded to include progress reports for the 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2009-2010 school years. In addition, auditors interviewed staff at the high schools in April and May 2010.

BACKGROUND:

High School Progress Reports are a DOE accountability tool that assigns schools an annual grade (A through F) based on a variety of factors, including student performance, student progress, school environment, and comparisons between schools with similar populations. The letter grades were introduced in the 2006-2007 school year.

Comptroller Liu credited Deputy Comptroller for Audit H. Tina Kim and the Audit Bureau for presenting the findings. The full report is available at http://comptroller.nyc.gov/audits.

NY Times Editorial: Child Care Cuts "Real, Unnecessary Crisis for Families"

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Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, made a strong argument for good early childhood care. In a speech in New York City, he argued that the value can be especially high for disadvantaged children with a strong payoff for the economy. These programs can increase high school graduation rates, and graduates earn more, pay more taxes, and rely less on state-provided health care.

We hope Mayor Michael Bloomberg was listening. At present, the city subsidizes child care for 98,000 children. His new budget would end that support for 16,500 of them in September, for a savings of $95 million in the city’s $65.6 billion budget.


Families receiving public assistance or welfare will not be affected. Those losing the subsidies are deemed working poor — with an income of less than 200 percent of the poverty level or $36,620 for a family of three. They pay from $5 to $100 a week for city-sponsored child care. Few will be able to pay the full cost on their own, and, without a safe and educational place for their children, many won’t be able to keep working. Their only option will be welfare.


The Independent Budget Office of New York City has suggested several better ways to save or raise money. Cutting transportation for private school students would save $37 million a year. A 6 cent tax on every plastic bag provided at stores would raise $94 million, almost exactly what is needed to maintain current child care subsidies. Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council talk about budgeting for the future. Cutting child care is not the way to do it.

Jamaica Needs Your Help Again, Please Sign The Petition - Facebook | Message

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I got this message via Facebook from a present student at Jamaica High School...If the kids are fighting to keep their school open, I think we all should help...

"We need your help. Please sign the petition to keep Jamaica High School open. School closing season is upon us and our school has been abandoned by the DOE. A strong showing of support can really help Jamaica."

Sign the Petition Now..!

Queens High Schools Still Crowded by Beth Fertig - WNYC

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Queens is always growing and it seems its schools are, too. The United Federation of Teachers says several high schools in the city's second most populous borough seem more crowded than usual this fall.

James Vasquez, the UFT's representative for Queens high schools, says principals are working hard to keep classes from getting too large by reprogramming schedules and adding more teachers. But he says Bayside, Benjamin Cardozo and the new Metropolitan High School are all still crammed with students.

"You have situations in which not only the hallways are crowded but the days are extended," he says. "Because kids are staying later or coming in earlier than they may have before."

The Department of Education confirms that Metropolitan High School, which opened in September, currently has 411 students -- 61 more than the target. Benjamin Cardozo in Flushing has about 40 more kids than expected.

Vasquez attributes the problem to poor planning and says the city should send more students to under-utilized schools. But a Department of Education spokesman says it's too early to make any determinations on class size or enrollment because they're still fluctuating daily. The state gathers final enrollment data on October 31.

Crowded schools don't always correspond with overcrowded classrooms, and vice-versa. Many schools in Queens and throughout the city still have class sizes that are above the contractual limit of 34 in high school subjects and 50 for gym. Vasquez says the Queens High School of Teaching was especially hard hit with dozens of classes above the limit. In early September, the union estimated that 1900 high school classes in Queens were above contractual limits. But that number has since been cut down by more than half. As in previous years, the city resolves many of the disputes just before or during arbitration hearings.

Meanwhile, the union says the situation at Francis Lewis High School - which has more than 4000 students - seems under control. The city and the union went to arbitration hearings over the past few years because of overcrowding. Though it's still packed, the union says no classes are beyond their contractual limits.

Comment by Arthur Goldsten

If the union says Francis Lewis is "under control" that's only because they haven't bothered to consult with anyone who actually works there. Lewis is open 14 periods a day, six sessions, and has classes in trailers with chronically failing heat and AC and half-classrooms that are absolutely unfit for teaching and learning. Our students run around outside in the cold and the dark, and eat lunch at 9 AM.

During peak times, you can barely make it down the hall. 61 more than the target? At Lewis we've been thousands above the target, and for years.

Hardly a "Mission Accomplished" moment by me.

Arthur Goldstein, UFT Chapter Leader
Francis Lewis High School

City Says Strapped Schools Can Go Without Parent Coordinators by Philissa Cramer - GothamSchools

Joining 6,400 teachers on the chopping block are 350 parent coordinators whose schools will no longer be required to employ them, Chancellor Joel Klein announced today.

For the first time since the position was created in 2003, high schools will be allowed to go without a parent coordinator, Klein told principals today, saving up to 350 schools just over $40,000 a year each. Parent coordinators whose jobs are eliminated will be at high risk of layoff, according to Department of Education spokeswoman Ann Forte. Elementary and middle schools are still required to keep a parent coordinator on staff.

The instruction is a stark example of how budget cuts could undo some of Mayor Bloomberg’s most ambitious education initiatives. The creation of the parent coordinator position in January 2003 was a central element of Bloomberg and Klein’s early reforms.

Klein also announced today that the Fair Student Funding formula the city devised to fund schools according to their students’ needs no longer covers some schools’ essential costs. To compensate for the outsized cuts at those schools, the department will redistribute money from schools with less lean budgets. While the shift technically does not deconstruct Fair Student Funding, it effectively makes it moot for the time being.

“No school’s FSF budget will be reduced as a result of the shift, and we are, of course, working to ensure it will have only a minimal impact on your schools,” Klein told principals in an email this afternoon.

Klein said the changes don’t mean the city is backing down from its commitments to parent engagement or to funding schools equitably.

But a spokeswoman for DC 37, the union that represents parent coordinators and other non-teaching school staff, said that’s exactly what allowing parent coordinators to be laid off will mean.

“Just a few months ago, the Mayor was heralding the importance of parent coordinators as a response to critics who were agitating for more parental input into the schools,” said D.C. 37 spokeswoman Zita Allen. “Parent coordinators were then intended to serve this critical function. Now, the Mayor has moved on disregarding the importance of parent coordinators as he indiscriminately slashes budgets.”

Here’s the email that Klein sent to principals today:

Dear Colleagues,

This morning, I testified before the City Council’s Education and Finance Committees about our budget for the coming school year. As I told the Council, our budget situation remains uncertain due to Albany’s failure to pass a budget. In fact, it’s not much clearer than the last time we spoke two weeks ago.

I encourage you to read my full testimony, available here, carefully. In it, I explain a funding change that will affect some of your schools. With the large cuts to Fair Student Funding over the last two years, the FSF budgets for a number of schools-particularly middle schools-are now well below what is needed to cover basic operations with these dollars. While funds from sources other than FSF have helped to sustain schools’ operations during these declining budget times, we must bring all schools’ unrestricted budgets to a basic operating level before we implement another large cut to 2010-2011 budgets. To do this, we plan to shift unrestricted, non-FSF dollars from schools where FSF allocations combined with other unrestricted funds are above a minimum operating threshold, and redirect them to the severely under-funded schools. No school’s FSF budget will be reduced as a result of the shift, and we are, of course, working to ensure it will have only a minimal impact on your schools.

In my testimony, I also describe our enrollment projections for next year. Our most recent estimates predict increases of about 5,000 general education and 7,300 special education students. However, actual enrollment figures could be higher. I understand a potential increase of this magnitude will have a significant impact on your schools, and we are currently determining the best way to factor it into your budgets.

Finally, I want to note that while we believe parent coordinators are critical to our schools’ success, we have decided that at the high school level, principals should be able to consider parent coordinators as they review their overall budgets. As such, a high school principal may decide to excess a parent coordinator to retain a teacher or an after-school program. Parent coordinators, however, remain mandated for all elementary and middle schools.

I know many of you will have questions about what all this will mean for your schools. We still hope to release your budgets by June 1, but our situation is very fluid and some issues remain unresolved. I will schedule another Webcast soon after your budgets are released.

I look forward to talking with you soon. And, as always, thank you for your hard work.

Sincerely,

Joel I. Klein

Queens City Council Members Petition Klein to Save Schools by Maura Walz - GothamSchools

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City Councilman David Weprin (right) signs a petition urging the DOE not to close 20 city schools. Councilman Eric Ulrich (left) plans to deliver the petition to Chancellor Joel Klein's office this afternoon.

Members of the Queens City Council delegation called on Chancellor Joel Klein to abandon plans to close 20 city schools today.

Standing on the steps of Tweed Courthouse and joined by colleagues representing other boroughs, Queens Council members accused the Department of Education of threatening to close schools without first trying to improve them or seeking community input.

City Councilman Eric Ulrich, who represents Rockaway Beach, said the DOE did not notify his office before announcing its proposal to close Beach Channel High School.

Ulrich is circulating a petition signed by nearly all of the Queens Council members calling on the DOE to abandon its plans to close the borough’s schools.

Ulrich said he intended to deliver the petition to Chancellor Joel Klein’s office this afternoon. (He jokingly said he might nail it to the doors of Tweed.)

Many of the 11 Council members and members-elect who attended the news meeting called for discussions with parents, community leaders, and the teachers union about how to improve struggling schools before resorting to closure.

“The Chancellor is turning his back on these students and these schools,” Queens Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley said. “That is unacceptable.”

Three of the 20 schools the DOE has marked for closure this year are in Queens and two of the three — Jamaica and Beach Channel — are large high schools. Critics of the DOE’s plans to shutter the schools worry that the closures would displace students from eastern Queens, crowding them into already crowded schools such as Francis Lewis High School.

In Queens, Nation’s Only High School Cricket League Thrives by Regina Galea - The Columbia Journalist

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When the spring sports season began last year at John Adams High School in Ozone Park, Queens, Thakur Singh, then a junior, was planning to join the baseball team. Singh, who had lived in Guyana and Antigua until the age of eight, already played in two local cricket leagues and wanted to branch out.

Then one day Alex Navarrete, one of John Adams High’s coaches, stopped Singh in the hallway and told him about the cricket team being formed at the school. “He told me, ‘You’re going to be my captain,’ ” Singh recalled.

The John Adams Spartans were one of the first 14 teams to participate in the Public School Athletic League’s (PSAL) 2008 varsity cricket program, the only one of its kind in the nation. The PSAL, which organizes competitive sports in the New York public school system, just completed its second full cricket season with 23 teams made up of approximately 400 students, mostly from immigrant families, from across New York City.

The Spartans qualified for the league finals two years in row. With 227 runs and 19 wickets, Singh won this year’s Windgate Award as the top high school cricket player in the city. The 18-year-old said the experience of leading his high school team gave him new motivation. “It changed my lifestyle a lot to have responsibility.”

Cricket has a long, but largely forgotten, history in the United States. American colonials played cricket before it fully caught on in England, and George Washington is said to have played the game with his troops during the Revolutionary War.

In the early 18th century, the British introduced cricket to their imperial colonies on the Indian subcontinent and in the West Indies, and the sport has had a strong following there ever since. But by the mid-19th century in the United States, baseball had eclipsed the popularity of cricket, which had no professional league and was seen as an elitist pastime of the leisure class.

Since 1965, the United States has had a national team that competes, with mixed success, against Commonwealth countries like India and Australia, where cricket is part of the national identity. But at the local level in New York, the sport enjoys a growing revival as transplants from South Asia and the Caribbean make their homes in the U.S.

Far from elitist, cricket in New York exists almost exclusively in the working-class neighborhoods of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island. John Adams High School is located in one such neighborhood. Nearly a third of the high school’s more than 3,000 students identify as ethnic Asians, and Ozone Park is sometimes known as “Little Guyana” for its thriving West Indian community.

At least seven youth and adult cricket leagues operate in the New York metropolitan area, and the Department of Parks and Recreation just opened a new cricket field at Canarsie Park in Brooklyn for a total of 14 within the city limits.

The inclusion of cricket in the public schools represents a major leap forward in the mainstreaming of the sport, according to John L. Aaron, Secretary of the USA Cricket Association.

“Cricket doesn’t enjoy the same benefits as other sports,” Aaron said, citing the lack of adequate cricket fields outside of New York. “That is changing and certainly PSAL has been a driving force in that process.”

The varsity cricket program in New York is the invention of Lorna Austin, a native of Barbados and a PSAL administrator. Austin pushed for a cricket league when she noticed South Asian students were not participating much in team sports like basketball, baseball and football.

The project stalled at first due to lack of funding but, when it finally launched in 2008, schools across New York City signed on. According to the PSAL’s assistant commissioner for cricket, Ricky Kissoon, several schools have petitioned for entrance to the league next year. Any public school is eligible to compete as long as enough students are interested in joining the team.

Kissoon emigrated from Guyana as a teenager 20 years ago and understands first-hand how sports can embody cultural identity. At the time of his arrival, cricket had relatively little presence in New York. He looked for opportunities to play cricket but had to settle for volleyball at Adlai Stevenson High School in the Bronx.

“If you notice, most of the players are from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Guyana,” Kissoon said. “Who knows if they would have played any sports in high school? It’s a cultural thing. Most kids—their parents or uncles played some form of cricket.”

The writer Joseph O’Neill explored this tradition in his novel Netherland, which features the Staten Island Cricket Club in post-9/11 New York. In a New York Times profile, O’Neill, who was born in Ireland and grew up in the Netherlands, called the game of cricket his “athletic mother tongue,” saying that to take up a new sport would be akin to learning a foreign language.

This connection between sport, country and family is true for Randy Nurse, batsman for John Adams High. The high school senior remembers playing cricket in an organized league in his village in Guyana from the age of 10. He moved to the United States two years later.

Nurse’s mother Shirley is herself an avid cricket fan, and she encouraged her son’s interest in the game. "I got all the cricket books, and Randy read them, since he was a very little boy in Guyana,” she said, seated in the bleachers at the final match of the season.

John Adams’ coach Alex Navarrete, originally from Uruguay, heads the swimming and soccer programs, but had no background in cricket before he was put in charge of the team. The league plays a faster-paced form of cricket called Twenty20, which can be completed in under four hours instead of five days, the length of a full test match.

But, even Twenty20 is a complex game, and the coach had much to learn in a world of overs, googlies and silly mid-offs. Navarrete said he taught the team about discipline and cooperation and the team taught him about cricket. “When I had a question,” Navarrete said, “they would tell me. They mentored me.”

They mentored well. John Adams’ Spartans were undefeated until the final match on June 14, at which Newcomers’ High School Lions of Long Island City won the championship, 111 to 105.

Coach Navarrete and John Adams’ principal Grace Zwillenberg were both quick to point out the role of sports in students’ overall performance in school. But cricket has a long way to go before it becomes a bridge to higher education, like basketball, football or even fencing.

Players of more mainstream sports are eligible for athletic scholarships and are courted by college programs. Cricket, however, is not represented in the NCAA, and only one college—Haverford in Pennsylvania— currently offers the sport at a varsity level. Most other college cricketers play in clubs like the ones Thakur Singh belonged to before PSAL opened its league.

Singh said he has no immediate plans to attend college. He said he’ll wait to make that decision with his parents. “That’s what makes me happy,” Singh said, “to bring pride to my family.”

Queens - John Adams High School Kid In a Gun Jam by Larry Celona - New York Post

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A 14-year-old student was arrested at a Queens high school yesterday after a .380 handgun was found in his backpack, authorities said.

He was entering John Adams HS in Ozone Park just after 8 a.m. when the .380 Beretta in his backpack set off a metal detector.

He started to run away, but was grabbed by school officials, authorities said.

He was charged with criminal weapon possession.

Why Vote? - Youth Vote Project...

Dominick Carter of NY1 Inside City Hall interviewed four of the teen aged students behind this motivational video...Youth Vote Project...

Queens Library to Support New High School by Ivan Pereira - Times-Ledger

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Queens's newest public high school will be getting a major boost from the borough's oldest learning system.

The Queens Public Library will provide curriculum support for the Queens High School for Information, Research and Technology, which opens in Far Rockaway this fall. The school, located at 821 Beach 25th St., will be provided with supplementary programing in information literacy and research skills through grants from the library.

"Queens Library's core business is enriching lives with education and information. Supporting the new high school is a natural extension of our mission," said Maureen O'Connor, the director of library services, in a statement.

The high school will focus on giving new students skills pertinent to information fluency, science and communication, according to the Queens Library. In addition to its academic curriculum, which includes year-long service projects, the school will have numerous extracurricular activities such as art, music and an assortment of athletics.

"Our society is rich in information. The ability to find, authenticate, interpret and use information are competencies that will continue to be much in demand as life skills and by the world of work," O'Conner said.

The school was created with the assistance of New Visions for Public Schools, a non-profit education reform group.

"We are committed to creating schools with rigorous academic standards to give our students the skills they'll need to succeed as lifelong learners. There's no better partner in this endeavor than the Queens Library, with its comprehensive resources and dedication to the missions of literacy and learning," New Visons President Robert Hughes said in a statement.

State Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D-Rockaway Beach) also applauded the 101-year-old institution for lending a helping hand to her district's new school.

"New educational opportunities are always exciting," Pheffer said in a statement. "I look forward to working closely with the Queens High School for Information, Research and Technology and the Queens Library to ensure quality education for the students in Far Rockaway."

Parents who are interested in enrolling their children in the school for the fall can enter school code Q06A on their high school applications or e-mail QHS@queenslibrary.org for more information.

So Why is This Principal Smiling? by Yoav Gonen - New York Post

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CLASS ACT: Principal Jeffrey Scherr (above), of Francis Lewis HS in Queens, successfully handles...overcrowding with dance class in the hallway...early-morning lunches and...lively music to keep throngs of kids moving between periods

March 10, 2008 -- When you're in charge of the city's biggest high school - with nearly 4,500 students jammed into a building meant for 2,600 - it takes some flexibility to make it work.

Judging by the performance of Francis Lewis HS in Fresh Meadows, Queens - including a remarkable 80 percent graduation rate, a more than 90 percent attendance rate, and 13 student applications for every open seat - fifth-year principal Jeffrey Scherr has been doing his stretching.

His space-saving tricks - by necessity, he argues - include holding the first lunch period at 9 a.m., allowing cheerleaders and dancers to practice in a hallway nook by the cafeteria, and holding so-called "Polar Bear Gym" outside unless the temperature falls below 35.

"There's nothing wrong with teenagers in athletic suits running track or playing handball" when it's cold, said Scherr, who has worked with the Department of Education for more than 35 years. "I just don't want to be in a position where I have to play 'Polar Bear English.' "

With the student population at more than 170 percent of the building's intended capacity, there aren't many space-saving measures left to be tried.

Walls have been added to divide classrooms in half; the teachers' lounge and woodshop have been converted into classrooms; and eight student-filled trailers are parked out back.

But the administration and staff still look for ways to make things more manageable.

During the infamous human traffic jams that crawl through hallways in between periods, Scherr pipes music over the school's public-address system to keep things moving.

Teachers and staff also encourage students to take advantage of the benefits of being at such an enormous school - including classes in 10 foreign languages and more than 30 sports teams and dozens of student-led clubs.

"There's something for everyone - which I think makes everyone more positive," said Trinel Torian, 18, a senior and editor of the school's newspaper. "I have no problem with the larger class sizes."

Many students said they also relish the school's diversity - which is nearly 50 percent Asian with a mix of white, black and Hispanic kids.

"I have friends of almost every ethnicity," said sophomore Marc McDonald, 15, who listed Egyptian, Irish, Chinese and Korean students among them.

"With so many people, you make so many friends," added sophomore Ayman Ghanim, 16. "There's really nothing bad about it."

While the trend under Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has been to close large, failing high schools and carve them into smaller, more manageable schools, there is no indication that Francis Lewis HS has any reason to fear a similar fate.

And that's fine with Scherr, whose school earned a "B" grade in October on its first-ever report card.

"There's no need to break up a school like this. It would be a tragedy," said the principal. "Some teenagers pick a big college, some pick a small college. I think it's nice that they can have a choice [in high school]."

yoav.gonen@nypost.com

Queens Getting 6 New High Schools By Jess Wisloski- NY Daily News

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More spin by School Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Michael Bloomberg - as noted below these 6 new schools will share existing buildings...NYC needs new school buildings, not breaking up over-crowded schools into 4 or 5 schools within the existing structures...

Students in Queens weighing their options about where to start high school this fall will have more choices this year.

The city recently announced that 25 new small schools will open in September. But a Feb. 25 deadline for interested applicants leaves no time to dillydally.

"They have a month," said Education Department spokeswoman Melody Meyer, who noted that most students had already picked schools they learned about from high school fairs last October.

"If they see something they like, they can resubmit their application," she added.

Six new schools will open at various locations in Queens, but high schoolers may attend school in any borough.

In addition to offering the requisite high school curriculum, the Academy for Careers in Television and Film, which does not have a location yet, is set to offer unique courses such as introductions to screenwriting and directing.

Another school, the Queens High School for Information, Research and Technology in Far Rockaway, will train students in Web design and scientific research techniques.

The new schools are part of a continuing push by the Bloomberg administration to transform unwieldy and sometimes dangerous large public high schools into boutique "small schools" with student populations capped at 525.

Since 2002, schools Chancellor Joel Klein has opened 278 small high schools in the city, and credits the model with nearly doubling graduation rates in many schools.

But some critics call the push for smaller schools inequitable, and say the effort is a catalyst for overcrowding.

"Every kid, no matter where they go to school, should get the benefit of smaller classes," said Leonie Haimson, president of educational advocacy group Class Size Matters. "Instead, some kids are getting better opportunities but at the cost of other kids, who are getting shafted."

Many of the new schools - like Queens Collegiate, which will open on the campus of Jamaica High School - share space at existing schools. As the small school grows one grade per year, the larger school often struggles to accommodate everyone, Haimson said.

"They should be creating more facilities," said Haimson. "Instead they keep squeezing more and more small schools into already overcrowded schools."

jwisloski@nydailynews.com

NY Post: Race-Bias Flap in Elite High School Test Prep By Chuck Bennett...

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July 16, 2007

A free course offered by the city Department of Education to train students to ace admissions tests at elite public high schools like Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech has been quietly enforcing separate standards for blacks and Latinos compared with whites and Asians for the past decade, The Post has learned.

Asian and white students had to be "free-or reduced-lunch eligible" to qualify, according to department guidelines - meaning a white or Asian student from a family of four with an annual income above $37,000 was too rich for the program.

Black and Latino students had no such family-income requirements.

Stanley Ng said his Chinese-American daughter was denied an application for the 16-month program two years ago, when she was 11. Ng's income was over the threshold, but he said race scuttled his daughter's chance to apply.

"I was told that the Specialized High School Institute was already overrepresented with Chinese," Ng said, citing a conversation with an Education Department official last year.

"There is no way they could have found out about my [financial] status until I filled out an application."

Blacks and Latinos, combined, make up just 6 percent of Stuyvesant students and 25 percent of Brooklyn Tech kids, while Asians account for 56 percent of students at Stuyvesant and 49 percent at Brooklyn Tech.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling - saying race can't be used to decide which public schools kids attend - could wind up changing the rules for the institute.

"The [institute] was created to help prepare low-income and underrepresented minority students for the specialized-high-school entrance exam. In light of the recent Supreme Court decision, we are reviewing the eligibility criteria," said Education Department spokeswoman Melody Meyer.

cbennett@nypost.com

NY Times: Small Schools Are Ahead in Graduation by Julie Bosman...

Graduation rates at 47 new small public high schools that have opened since 2002 are substantially higher than the citywide average, an indication that the Bloomberg administration’s decision to break up many large failing high schools has achieved some early success.


Smaller School, Higher Graduation Rates Chart (left)

Most of the schools have made considerable advances over the low-performing large high schools they replaced. Eight schools out of the 47 small schools graduated more than 90 percent of their students. One campus of small schools at the old Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, for example, reported a 92 percent four-year graduation rate this month. In 2002, 40 percent of its students graduated.

The announcement appeared to solidify the first signs of progress in the city’s new small schools that came last year when a group of 15 schools that opened in 2002 graduated their first senior classes.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has made small schools a centerpiece of his efforts to overhaul the public education system in the belief that a more close-knit environment — and schools with themes like health, diversity, arts or architecture — will serve students more effectively than the large and often chaotic high schools they replaced.

On average, the 47 small schools reported 73 percent of their students graduating this June, compared with the city’s calculations of an overall 60 percent graduation rate in 2006, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced yesterday.

The city and the state have traditionally disagreed about New York City’s graduation rate, and the state calculated last year’s graduation rate at 50 percent, below what the city reported. Still, both say that there have been jumps in performance. Mr. Klein said that using the state’s method of calculation, the 47 small schools had a slightly lower average graduation rate of 71 percent.

New York City’s results are closely watched because of the size of its experiment. Marie Groark, a spokeswoman for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has put millions of dollars into small schools, said the foundation was encouraged by the data released yesterday.

“I think it demonstrates that this problem is solvable,” she said. “Schools that New York City has taken leadership in developing are a critical element in any city’s strategy in improving high school graduation rates.”

To publicize the results, Mr. Klein went to the Evander Childs High School campus in the Bronx, long one of the city’s most dangerous and dysfunctional schools. It once housed 3,300 students, and in 2002, the four-year graduation rate was just 31 percent. This year, Mr. Klein said that three new small schools in the building graduated 80 percent of their seniors.

Mr. Klein, speaking in the library of Evander Childs, where, he added, his mother was a student 60 years ago, said that while there is much more work to be done, the data showed that the schools are working. “All indications are that we are making enormous progress,” he said. “I believe we’re going to see more and more students graduate.”

Others were more skeptical, pointing out that the small schools enroll few special education students or students with limited English proficiency, who typically drag down graduation rates.

David C. Bloomfield, the president of the citywide parent council on high schools and an education professor at Brooklyn College, said he was reluctant to draw conclusions from the small schools’ graduation data. “These schools are artificial environments,” Mr. Bloomfield said in an interview. Mr. Bloomfield filed a complaint with the United States Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights last year about the policy of allowing small schools to exclude some students during their early years.

Mr. Klein acknowledged that the small schools have fewer students with disabilities and limited English. But he said that in other ways the schools were serving an educationally disadvantaged population. He said that more than 90 percent of the students attending the small schools are either black or Hispanic, compared with the citywide average of 72 percent, and that more of the students in small schools come from poor backgrounds.

Ron Chaluisan, the vice president for programs at New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit group that has helped create more than 30 schools in New York City, said the special education students enrolled in the small schools have had a high rate of success.

“I think that the classes do take on many of the challenges that face high schools,” he said.

The first batch of small schools, which began opening in 2002, were funded by the New Century High Schools project, a $30 million collaboration among the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and the Open Society Institute. The Gates Foundation has pumped more than $100 million into city schools.

Last June, the Department of Education announced results from the first graduating class of those 15 new small high schools that opened in 2002. Those schools posted an average 73 percent graduation rate, with a handful reporting high graduation rates and others having low rates. The graduation rate at those 15 schools was largely unchanged this year, the education department said.

Even as they were cheering the results yesterday, some experts wondered if a high school diploma is enough. The Carnegie Corporation announced at the news conference a $10 million grant to help high school students prepare for college, with the goal of doubling the number of students who enter college.

Michele Cahill, a director at the Carnegie Corporation who had previously been a senior aide to Mr. Klein, said part of the grant will be devoted to tracking graduates for the first two years after high school to see how well they perform.

“We want them not to stop, but to go on to the next phase,” said Vartan Gregorian, the president of the Carnegie Corporation.

NY Post: Small Schools Ride High at Graduation by Chuck Bennett...

June 30, 2007 -- New York City's growing crop of small high schools racked up a 73 percent graduation rate in 2007 - 18 points higher than traditional schools and the second straight year they have outpaced them, the Department of Education said yesterday.

And once August graduates are factored in, that number could climb to 77 percent, according to city estimates.

"We've got to tell everyone in the country to throw away excuses and throw away low expectations," Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said at a press conference at the Evander Childs Educational Campus School in The Bronx.

That school, which Klein's mother attended half a century ago, saw its graduation rates surge from 31 percent in 2002 to an estimated 80 percent this year.

Evander Childs is being phased out as a traditional high school, and will graduate its last traditional class in 2008. After that, the campus will house only six small schools: the Bronx Aerospace Academy, HS for Contemporary Arts, Bronx HS for Writing and Communication Arts, Bronx Lab School, HS of Computers and Technology, and Bronx Academy of Health Careers.

"You are not counted as a number, you are counted as an individual," said Health Careers graduate Joshua Sukhlall, who is bound for SUNY Albany in the fall. He credited the school's health focus with putting him on track for a career as a pharmacist.

Citywide, high schools had a 55 percent graduation rate last year, according to the most recent data from the Department of Education.

The city began creating small schools in 2002 with a focus on turning around dismal graduation rates. Thirty of the schools were placed in failing high schools that were previously marked for closure.

This year, 47 of those 200 small schools had graduating classes.

Just over 90 percent of students in these new schools are black or Latino, two groups that have historically struggled in comparison to white and Asian students.

"It's really quite amazing, and it says that if you really make changes, these kids can be educated. And for so many years, the conventional wisdom was, 'Oh, they're minorities, they can't be educated,' and I think that is such an outrage," Mayor Bloomberg said on weekly WABC radio show.

Klein also said special-education and English-language-learner students are not being left out. This year, 64 percent of 12th-grade special-ed students attending a new school graduated. And of the freshman class in the 2006-2007 school year, 13 percent were English-language learners, compared to 11 percent citywide.

The Carnegie Corp. also announced a $10 million grant to improve small schools by making sure students are put on a path to higher education. A pilot program will track students during their first two years of college to make sure they have the support needed to graduate.

cbennett@nypost.com

NY Post: Queens High Highest On Students' Lists by Angela Montefinise...

Meet the city's hottest high school.

Academic powerhouse Townsend Harris HS in Queens is the most popular public high school, with more eighth-graders listing it as their first choice than any other school in the five boroughs.

An impressive 3,452 students heading to high school next fall picked Townsend Harris as their first choice, according to Department of Education stats.

Midwood HS ranked Second, with 2,705 students naming it as their first choice.

Rounding out the top five were Benjamin N. Cardozo HS in Queens, Herbert Lehman HS in The Bronx and Edward Murrow HS in Brooklyn.

The city's nine specialized schools, such as Stuyvesant, which require a test for admittance, are not included in the list. About 27,000 students took the test to get into those schools, with about 5,500 available seats.

All of the most popular schools are traditional, older and larger - a good sign, according to David Cohen, principal of 65-year-old Midwood HS, which offers two honors programs and focuses on science.

"It's nice to hear that larger schools are at the top, because recently, there's been a shift toward smaller, specialized schools," he said. "Comprehensive high schools are being phased out somewhat. But we're examples that when it's done right, it can work."

It has worked so well that all five top schools are way over capacity.

"I think that's just another potential pitfall that we have overcome," said Cohen, whose school is operating at 176 percent capacity.

On the other side of the popularity scale, most of the high schools with under 100 first-choice requests are small, newer schools without many seats or established reputations.

For example, Multicultural HS and Pan American International HS - both set to open in September to mostly immigrant populations - had the fewest first choice requests at five.

An exception is Jamaica HS in Queens, a larger, established school that had only 95 first-choice requests.

The Department of Education changed its high-school admissions process for the 2004 school year, eliminating traditional zoning and making all high schools open to the entire city. Now, high-school-bound students rank their top 12 schools.

The schools, in turn, rank the students, who are then matched with the highest-ranking school that ranked them.

For the 2007-08 school year, 88,320 students applied to enter public high school, and 83 percent were matched to one of their top five choices, according to the department. Almost half received their top choice.

SCHOOL APPLICANTS

Townsend Harris HS - 3452
Midwood HS - 2705
Benjamin Cardozo HS - 2548
Herbert H. Lehman HS - 2219
Deward R. Murrow HS - 1858
James Madison HS - 1752
Tottenville HS - 1686
Forest Hills High School - 1635
Dewitt Clinton HS - 1547
Francis Lewis HS - 1357
Thomas A. Edison HS - 1320
Leon M. Goldstein HS for the Sciences - 1295
Beacon High School - 1223
Fort Hamilton HS - 1176
Bayside High School - 1102
Susan E. Wagner HS - 1088
Manhattan Center for Science and Math Res. - 1029
Benjamin Banneker Academy - 989
M. Bergtraum HS Buisness Careers - 946
Baruch College Campus HS - 933
Bard High School - 891
HS of Telecommunication, Arts and Tech. - 870
HS of Art and Design - 867
A. Philip Randolph Campus H - 842
Aviation HS - 811
Fashion Industries HS - 801
Michael J. Petrides - 728
Clara Barton HS - 687
Curtis HS - 685
Bronx School for Law and Government - 618
Frank Sinatra HS - 611
Food and Finance - 570
Abraham Lincoln HS - 565
HS Healh Professions and Human Services - 554
HS for Enviornmental Studies - 535
Transit Tech HS - 529
New Utrecht HS - 529
Talent Unlimited HS - 511
Richmond Hill HS - 505
Professional Performing Arts School - 505
HS of Economics and Finance - 495
Millenium HS - 479
Hostos_Lincoln Academy - 450
Young Women's Leadership - 435
New Dorp HS - 435
Eleanor Roosevelt HS - 434
Frederick Douglass Academy - 429
Automotive HS - 428
John Adams HS - 423
Port Richmond HS - 413
Long Island City HS - 412
Queens Gateway - 402
HS of Teaching, Liberal Arts & Sciences - 398
Alfred E. Smith HS - 398
Queens Vocational and Technical - 387
Grace H. Dodge HS - 386
Brooklyn College Academy - 372
Bronx Leadership Academy - 369
HS for Information Tech. - 364
HS Construction Trades, Engineering - 364
Hillcrest HS - 362
Harry S. Truman HS - 359
Boys and Girls HS - 356
Franklin D. Roosevelt HS - 348
CSI HS for Interntational Studies - 335
EBC HS for Public Service (Bushwick) - 332
Brooklyn HS of the Arts - 329
Middle College HS - 328
Upper Lab - 326
Norman Thomas HS - 314
John Dewey HS - 313
HS for Health Career and Science - 310
Flushing HS - 306
Pace Academy HS - 304
Glover Cleveland HS - 304
Bronx Center for Science and Math - 302
Academy of American Studies - 302
Jane Adams HS - 292
Martin Van Buren HS - 278
HS of Intl. Buisness and Finance - 274
Beach Channel High School - 267
Bedford Academy HS - 266
Middle College HS @ Medgar Evers - 260
Thurgood Marshall - 245
HS Enterprise, Buisness and Tech. - 242
Christopher Columbus HS - 241
Brooklyn Studio Secondary School - 239
JFK HS - 234
Academy for Careers in Sports - 234
Marie Curie HS for Nursing - 231
HS of Law and Public Service - 231
HS of Legal Studies - 230
Graphic Communication Arts - 230
William H. Maxwell - 228
International HS - 216
Progress HS - 215
Man/Hunter College HS of Science - 213
Newtown HS - 210
Arts and Buisness HS - 210
Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy - 209
William C. Bryant HS - 205
Eagle Academy for Young Men HS - 203
Washington Irving HS - 198
HS of Media Communications - 197
Raplh McKee HS - 194
Bronx HS for the Visual Arts - 193
Franklin K. Lane HS - 192
Academy of Finance and Enterprise - 192
HS for Law Enforcement - 191
Canarsie HS - 191
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis HS - 190
Health Opportuities HS - 188
Wings Academy - 186
Sheepshead Bay HS - 186
Manhattan Village Academy - 186
John Bowne HS - 186
Samuel Gompers HS - 182
US Law and Justice - 181
School of the Future - 177
Bronx Aerospace Academy - 170
William E. Grady HS - 166
Bronx HS of Letters - 165
Cypress Hills Collegiate Prep - 164
Bronx Academy of Health Careers - 162
Louis D. Brandeis HS - 157
Chelsea HS - 157
Celia Cruz HS of Music - 157
Life Sciences Secondary School - 155
RFK Community HS - 150
Baccalaureate School for Global - 147
Bread and Roses Integrated Arts - 141
HS of Computers/Tech - 136
Banana Kelly High School - 136
HS of Teaching - 135
George Westinghouse HS - 135
Pelham Prep Academy High - 134
Bronx Engineering and Tech Academy - 134
HS of Arts and Tech at MLK - 133
Acorn Community HS - 130
Landmark HS - 127
Foreign Language Academy - 127
The Heritage School - 123
August Martin Education Complex - 123
In-Tech HS - 121
HS for Medical Sciences - 121
South Bronx Prep - 120
East Bronx Academy for the Future - 120
Bayrad Rustin HS for Humanities - 120
Fannie Lou Hamer HS - 119
Collegiate Institute of Math and Science - 118
East Side Community School - 117
University Heights HS - 116
Secondary School for Law - 116
Brooklyn Int. HS - 115
Sports Professions HS - 113
Bronx HS for Law and Community Service - 113
Academy Enviornmental Science - 113
Williamsburg Prep - 112
Fordham Leadership Academy - 111
MLK Law, Advocacy and Comm Justice - 110
Marble Hill HS for Intl Studies - 109
Far Rockaway HS - 109
Channel View School for Research. - 109
Science Skills CTR - 108
Bronx Theatre HS - 105
World Journalism Prep - 104
Fordham HS for the Arts - 101
Theatre Arts Production Company - 100
Paul Robeson HS - 100
All City Leadership Secondary School - 100
Dr. Susan McKinney Secondary School - 99
Robert F. Wagner Sch of Arts and Tech - 97
BX HS for Perform and Stagecraft - 97
Brooklyn Collegiate - 97
Bronx HS of Business - 97
Nest+M - 96
Astor Collegiate - 96
Monroe Academy Buisness and Law - 95
Manhattan Bridges HS - 95
Jamaica HS - 95
Int. School of Liberal Arts - 95
Academy for Young Writers - 95
Urban Assembly Sch for Applied Math/Science - 94
Vanguard HS - 93
NY Harbor HS - 93
Bushwick HS for Social Justice - 93
Teachers Prep HS - 92
E. NY Family Academy - 91
Mott Hall HS - 90
Essex Street Academy - 89
Bronx Lab HS - 89
Renaissance HS of Music, Theater and Tech - 88
Bushwick Leaders HS Acad. Ex. - 88
Scholars Academy HS - 87
HS for Leadership and Public Service - 87
Humanities and the Arts Magnet - 86
Millenium Art Academy - 85
FDNY GHS for Fire and Life Safety - 85
Manhattan International HS - 83
Frederick Douglass Academy 7 - 83
HS for Public Service - 82
Buisness, Computer Applica. & Entre - .81
Institute for Collaborative Ed - 80
HS for Teaching and the Professional - 80
Urban Assembly Sch of Design - 79
The New York City Musum School - 77
Flushing International - 77
The Academy of Urban Planning - 76
Brooklyn Community HS - 76
Validus Prep Academy - 74
Wadleigh Sec. School for the Perf - 73
The Urban Assembly School of Music/Art - 72
Academy for Scholarship and Entr. - 72
New Design HS - 71
Discovery HS - 71
Monroe Acad Visual Arts and Design - 70
EBC HS for Public Safety and Law - 70
Bronx International Academy - 70
Bronx HS for Writing and Comm. - 70
Mott Hall Bronx HS - 69
Law, Govt and Community Service - 69
Knowedge an Power Prep. - 69
Int. Arts Buisness HS - 69
Freedom Academy HS - 69
Mott Haven Village Prep HS - 68
Frederick Douglass Academy III - 68
GW Carver HS for the Sciences - 67
Brooklyn HS for Music and Theater - 67
Performing Arts and Tech HS - 66
Humanitites Prep Academy - 66
Hospitality Management - 66
Marta Valle Secondary School - 65
Lower Manhattan Arts Academy - 64
Frederick Douglass Academy II - 64
Caolition School for Socail Change - 63
Belmont Prep HS - 63
Acorn HS for Social Justice - 62
US Academy of Gov and Law - 61
The Bronx Guild HS - 61
Bronx Health Sciences - 61
Bronx Coalition Community School - 60
Int. HS at Prospect Heights - 59
Juan Morel Campos - 58
Excelsior Prep HS - 57
Brooklyn HS for Science and the Enviorn. - 57
Secondary School for Journalism - 56
Bronx Leadership Academy II - 56
Frederick Douglass Academy 6 - 54
Bronx School of Law and Finance - 54
University Neighborhood HS - 53
UA School of Buisness for Young Women - 52
HS of Sports Management - 52
West Bronx Academy for the Future - 51
HS of Applied Communication - 51
HS for Violin and Dance - 51
Henry Street School for International - 51
FDA IV - 50
The Brooklyn School for Global Studies - 49
Park East HS - 49
BKLYN S. for Collab. Studies - 49
Morris Academy for Collab - 48
47 Amer Sign Lang - 48
Math, Science Research & Tech - 47
Science, Tech and Research HS - 46
Choir Academy of Harlem - 45
Bronx Latin HS - 45
Global Enterprise Academy - 43
Cobble Hill HS - 41
School for Excellence - 40
Academy of Social Action - 40
Foundations Academy - 39
HS of Arts Imagination and Inquiry - 38
HS for Civil Rights - 38
East-West School of International - 38
Brooklyn Prep. HS - 38
The School for International Studies - 37
Public School Repertory Company - 37
Metro Corporate Academy - 37
Jonathan Levin HS - 37
Eximus College Prep ACAD - 37
Dual Lang. & Asian Studies HS - 37
Urban Assembly School for the Pe - 36
The Facing History School - 36
Community HS Social Justice - 36
Academy/College Prep/Career EXPL - 36
Queens Prep Acad - 35
Urban Assembly for Media Studies - 34
HS for Contemporary Art - 34
Gateway Enviornmental Research - 34
Central Park East Secondary - 34
Secondary School for Research - 33
Dreamyard Prep. School - 33
New Day Academy - 32
James Baldwin HS of Expedition - 32
Explorations Academy - 32
El Puente Academy for Peace - 32
The Felisa Rincon de Gautier Institute - 31
BX Expeditionary Learning HS - 31
School for Community Development - 30
Metro HS - 30
HS for Human Rights - 30
HS Democracy and Leadership - 30
Manhattan Theater Lab - 29
Kingsbridge Int. HS - 29
New World HS - 28
HS for Global Citizenship - 28
Service and Learning - 26
Brooklyn Generation School+A28 - 26
New Explorers - 25
Legacy School for Integrated Studies - 25
Academy of Hospitality and Tourism - 25
Academy for Enviornmental Leadership - 25
World Advocacy for Total Comm - 24
Leadership Institute - 23
Academy for Language and Techno. - 22
Pathways College Prep - 21
Urban Assembly for History and Citiz - 20
Pablo Neruda Academy for Architecture - 20
Green SCH/Academy/Enviornmental - 20
School for Community Research - 18
Peace Diversity Acad HS - 18
Victory Collegiate HS - 17
Prep/Acad Writers - 17
Rachel Carson School of Coastal Studies - 16
Life Academy High School for Film - 16
Arts & Media Prep Academy - 16
Lyons Community School - 12
Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning - 12
Gotham Professional Art Academy - 12
Brooklyn Theatre Arts HS - 12
Int. Community HS - 11
Agnes Y. Humphrey School for Lead. - 9
It Takes a Village Academy - 8
Expeditionary Learning School - 8
Holcombe L. Rucker School - 7
Unity HS - 6
Pan American Int. HS - 5
Multicultural HS - 5

angela.montefinise@nypost.com

My New Heroes - Presidential Scholars Confront the President (Various Sources)...

View video...KEITH OLBERMANN SAYS THESE GUYS ARE HIS HEROES!

View video...NBC-News...WASHINGTON -- President Bush was presented with a letter Monday signed by 50 high school seniors in the Presidential Scholars program urging a halt to "violations of the human rights" of terror suspects held by the United States.

View Video...CNN - An interview with some of the high school students who demanded the United States stop torturing. (more)

View video...President Bush was accosted by a group of Presidential Scholars before a speech in the East Room of the White House. They presented him with a letter signed by 50 of the Scholars asking that the prisoners at Guantanamo and elsewhere be treated humanely.

WASHINGTON - President Bush was presented with a letter Monday signed by 50 high school seniors in the Presidential Scholars program urging a halt to "violations of the human rights" of terror suspects held by the United States.

The White House said Bush had not expected the letter but took a moment to read it and talk with a young woman who handed it to him.

"The president enjoyed a visit with the students, accepted the letter and upon reading it let the student know that the United States does not torture and that we value human rights," deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

The students had been invited to the East Room to hear the president speak about his effort to win congressional reauthorization of his education law known as No Child Left Behind.

The handwritten letter said the students "believe we have a responsibility to voice our convictions."

"We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants," the letter said.

The designation as a Presidential Scholar is one of the nation's highest honors for graduating high school students. Each year the program selects one male and one female student from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Americans living abroad, 15 at-large students, and up to 20 students in the arts on the basis of outstanding scholarship, service, leadership and creativity.

"I know all of you worked hard to reach this day," Bush told the students in his education speech. "Your families are proud of your effort, and we welcome your family members here. Your teachers are proud of your effort, and we welcome your teachers. And our entire nation is proud to call you Presidential Scholar."

The scholars travel to Washington each June for seminars, lectures and workshops with government officials, elected representatives and others.