Grad rates are high, but Kennedy lags behind

The David A. Stein Riverdale/ Kingsbridge Academy’s graduation rate ranked fourth among local high schools following Bronx Science, the High School of American Studies at Lehman College — both specialized schools — and the Marble Hill School for International Studies.

By Kate Pastor

Fewer than half of the John F. Kennedy High School students who entered school in 2003 graduated in four years, and nearly a quarter dropped out, according to data released recently by the state Department of Education.

Another quarter of the 769 Kennedy students, the data shows, are still enrolled in the mammoth school in Marble Hill, and will have to repeat a grade in hopes of graduating this coming school year.

Kennedy’s dismal graduation rate is in stark contrast to its smaller high school counterparts that share space on what is now called the Kennedy campus. Those schools saw aboveaverage passing rates, according to the state.

Marble Hill High School for International Studies, the first small school to open at Kennedy, graduated students at a rate of more than 95 percent and had a dropout rate of only 1 percent. Other schools there also graduated students at rates above the citywide average, but some had more significant dropout rates.

The Bronx School of Law and Finance, for instance, graduated more than 71 percent of its 85 students and had a dropout rate of 9 percent and the Bronx Theatre High School graduated just over three-fourths of its 72 students, and saw a dropout rate of 7 percent.

The David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, MS/HS 141, which saw 79 of its 95 students leave with diploma in hand in four years, ranked fourth among local high schools in the number of graduates, following the Bronx High School of Science, the High School of American Studies at Lehman College — both specialized city schools with nearly impeccable graduation rates — and the Marble Hill High School in Kennedy.

The IN-Tech Academy, MS/HS 368, had a 71 percent graduation rate, well-above the citywide average of nearly 56 percent, but saw at least six students drop out.

Rose Fairweather-Clunie, principal of MS/HS 368, said the school is working on ensuring that more of its students get a diploma by adding advisory periods to help equip them with tools they need to graduate.

“We continue to build our college office and we expect a much higher percentage next year,” she said, noting that the relatively new school had only graduated two classes and that there was room for improvement. “You can’t reach every child, unfortunately, but we’re trying to do our best.”

Kennedy was the only high school in the Riverdale-Kingsbridge area to score below the citywide graduation rate average of nearly 56 percent, a number hailed by the city as a great feat but which many say amounts to insignificant change.

This year’s graduation rate at Kennedy does not differ much from years past, but shows that efforts to shrink Kennedy’s registers and purge the school of overage, underperforming students have done little to boost the number of students earning degrees.

Kennedy Principal Anthony Rotunno did not return repeated calls for comment.

No surprises

The disparity between small high schools, like the Marble Hill School for International Studies and Kennedy, however, is unlikely to surprise many observers.

The smaller schools — which enjoy additional funds through the New Century High School Initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundations and the Open Society and Carnegie foundations — are dealing with a fraction of the students that Kennedy enrolls.

The difference between graduation rates at Kennedy and smaller schools is just a matter of size, said Evan Schwartz, principal of the Bronx School of Law and Finance. “It’s not the fault of the teachers or the administration at Kennedy.”

Personalized instruction

A spokeswoman for New Visions, the organization that created the specialized programs at Kennedy, said, “The intention was to take these large campuses where the graduation rates have historically been low and to create small schools that would provide personalized instruction, a low student-teacher ratio and a small size that would allow the principal to get to know each and every one of his or her students.” The model, she says, is working and graduation rates are just another confirmation of that.

While the city Department of Education continues to close massive Bronx high schools — like Walton, which shut down this year and Roosevelt, which closed in June 2006 — and replace them with multiple smaller high schools, Kennedy’s fate hangs in the balance.

“As they phase out these mega-super large 4,000 seat high schools [higher graduation rates] was one of the goals,” said Marvin Shelton, president of the District 10 Community Education Council and a PS 24 parent. He added, however, that, comparing local schools to the city average was setting a low standard.

This is part of the August 21, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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