Stevenson High School in the Bronx used to operate as one high school with more than 3,000 students. As one high school, only 30 percent of its students graduated. According to the New York Times, Stevenson High School saw marked improvements after being closed, along with 22 other high schools in the Bronx, as part of Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s education reform strategy.
Stevenson High School was replaced by nine smaller schools. The New York Times reports that smaller schools opened to replace underperforming ones, including Stevenson, boast better programs and student achievement:
The graduation rate for schools in the building has nearly doubled, to 57.3 percent at the five traditional four-year schools with graduating classes in 2011, according to statistics from the city’s Education Department. Attendance at Stevenson has gone from 75 percent a decade ago to 81 percent across the nine schools this year.
Marc Sternberg, a deputy education chancellor, discussed the ongoing reform occurring at Stevenson High School:
“The work that is happening at the Stevenson campus is dramatically better today, without question, than it was in 2004. And we have a long way to go.
What we care about are student outcomes, not being right all the time. When we see that we haven’t gotten it right, we intervene.”
