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Parent Empowerment: StudentsFirstNY Alerts Parents at 100 Poorest Performing Schools

New York, NY –StudentsFirstNY announced today the completion of a massive citywide grassroots effort across New York City’s 100 lowest performing schools. The goal: alert parents in each of the 100 poorest performing schools in New York City as measured by proficiency on the New York state math and ELA tests. All of these schools had proficiency rates below 10%, meaning that at least nine out of ten students failed to pass the tests.

Many of these 100 schools are part of Mayor de Blasio’s Renewal and Community schools that did not show sufficient progress last year. This comprehensive action is the latest effort by the leading education reform organization StudentsFirstNY to empower parents in traditional public schools to speak up, take action and advocate for improving school quality and expanding parent choice.

“Parents in these failing district schools deserve to know that Mayor de Blasio’s school agenda is not helping their kids fast enough,” said Tenicka Boyd, Director of Organizing for StudentsFirstNY. “Our organizers have spoken to parents from the Bronx to Brooklyn who are fed up. The students in these schools deserve action now and frankly, the mayor’s recently announced programs are just not enough. They do nothing to improve the quality of teachers in the classrooms and nothing to give families access to better school choices.”

The interactive map has photos of the StudentsFirstNY organizing team talking to parents at each of the 100 sites. StudentsFirstNY listened to concerns and offered parents an opportunity to get involved in advocating for better schools.

“When I was told that my school was one of the 100 worst, I was sad but not surprised. What I am surprised about is that there’s not more action from Mayor de Blasio to improve my school.  The quality of teachers at P.S. 298 is inconsistent and I should be able to send my son to school every year knowing that there will be a good teacher in his room,” said Lorieann Panariello, parent of P.S. 298 third grade student.

"As a graduate of JHS 162, I was very disappointed to learn that my former school is among the worst in New York City. Now my daughter is attending this school and I'm worried that she will not get the education she deserves. How can I have confidence when I just found out only 3% of kids here can pass the state math tests?," said Rubnelia Agostini, parent of an eighth grade student at JHS 162 Lola Rodriguez de Tio.

“When the mayor included my child’s school in his Renewal program, I thought it would finally turn around this failing school. But now that I know the results, it looks like Mayor de Blasio can’t deliver on his promises to turn around this school. When only 3 out of every 100 kids here is being taught to read or do math, how can I keep my faith that my son will have the bright future he deserves?,” said Nakeia Porter, parent of P.S. 305 Dr. Peter Ray second grade student.

For a link and images of the schools visited by StudentsFirstNY, click here.

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