Save Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education High School

We have a rally on Friday, Jan 8th. Our Public Hearing is on Monday, Jan 11th. We could use your support to keep Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education High School open. Also, please read the below email (and attached letter). Feel free to pass along to anyone.

Nate

Nathaniel Thayer Wight

Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education High School

What: Public hearing regarding proposal by New York City Department of Education to phase-out AES HS

To see the proposal click here

To learn more about AES and the proposal click here

When: Public Hearing: Monday, January 11, 6:00pm

Public Hearing Rally: Friday, Jan 8th, 3:30 - 4:30pm

Where: Rally & Public Hearing will be at Alfred E. Smith CTE High School

333 East 151 Street, Bronx

For directions click here

Subject: Save Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education High School

Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education (CTE) High School is one of the public schools proposed to be phase out by the NYC Department of Education (DOE) due to poor graduation rates. The DOE's Panel for Education Policy (PEP) states that Alfred E. Smith CTE HS will be phased out without replacement. We welcome change, but phasing out our school is not the answer and unacceptable; not having a plan that involves the continued use of the building to educate the economically disadvantaged South Bronx students in pre-engineering, plumbing, carpentry, electrical, HVAC, and automotive mechanics is disgraceful. A phase out would mean no freshman will enter the shop classes in September 2010. The teachers will be released, shop classes will be increasingly underutilized and eventually nonexistent. As a result, plumbers, electricians, HVAC mechanics, carpenters, automotive mechanics and pre-engineers no longer be trained at AES. Phasing out Alfred E. Smith HS and eliminating its unparalleled Career & Technical Education component is unequivocally a mistake and not the solution to the problem, here are quantitative reasons why:

- Alfred E. Smith CTE HS partners with Edward J. Molloy for Initiative for Construction Skills which provides students the unique opportunity to enter NYC Unions upon graduation. Since 2001 Alfred E. Smith CTE HS has repeatedly helped place over 20 percent of each graduating class in high level union jobs, including Con Edison, MTA, Long Island Railroad, Smalls Electrical Construction Inc., and New York City School Construction Authority to name a few. Many others find professional jobs in Plumbing, Electrical Installation and Practice, Carpentry, Auto Mechanics, Heating, Pre-Engineering, as well as in Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC).

- Alfred E. Smith CTE HS has been ranked #2 in the Nation by AYES (Automotive Youth Education Systems) for Automotive Internships, as students are constantly placed in local automotive internships, including: BMW of Manhattan, Mercedes of Manhattan, Riverdale Chrysler, and Lexus of Queens. AES graduates readily fill specialized positions upon graduating high school and instantly become contributing citizens of our communities.

- The DOE Panel on Educational Policy (PEP) has justified phasing out AES is due to poor graduation rates, however, Alfred E. Smith CTE High School's 4-year graduation rate increased 22.2% between 2008 to 2009.

- The DOE claims the Alfred E. Smith CTE HS is not making progress, however, our overall Progress Score has increased from 37.3 (2006-2007) to 52.4 (2008-2009), representing a 40.5 percent overall increase.

- Since the 2006-2007 school year, Alfred E. Smith CTE HS has shown a 93.1% increase in the area of School Environment, 60% increase in Student Performance, and 18% increase in Student Progress as per the DOE's Statistic page online. Here's the data represented in a graph.

- Only 44 percent of Black and Latino students in NYC public schools graduate within six years. Student population at Alfred E. Smith CTE HS is over 95% African-American and Hispanic, yet Alfred E. Smith CTE HS had a much higher graduation rate in 2008 for this same subgroup, even though AES students are required to take 55 credits to graduate, 11 more than what NYC public high schools require.

- Alfred E. Smith CTE HS is situated in The South Bronx, one of the poorest congressional districts in the United States. AES's certified Career and Technical Educational (CTE) programs allows economically disadvantaged students to get unparalleled hand-on instruction in the trades, thereby provide a way out of the poverty cycle. A majority of AES graduates find jobs upon graduation. Phasing out AES would be an act of giving up on the economically disadvantaged.

- Alfred E. Smith CTE HS services a large special needs population. More than one out of five students, or 20% of the total student body, has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Smith is one of the last standing schools in this city that provides self contained classes and integrated shop classes for a large IEP population. Many of these IEP students have excelled in their respective trades and have gone on to secure employment, something they would not be able to achieve in a non-CTE school.

- Alfred E. Smith CTE HS is associated with the following professional organizations: New York Electrical Contracting Association, New York Building Congress, New York Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, Building Trades Employers Association, Architectural Construction and Engineering (ACE) Mentoring program

- Alfred E. Smith CTE HS provides free adult classes at night for the community; Smith is not only an educational facility for adolescents, but also for the community.

- Alfred E. Smith CTE HS offers the training to put technical education to the test in regional and National competitions. Year after year Smith students practice what they've learned, compete, and consistently take home trophies from Skills USA and the National Automotive Technology Competition.

- CTE high schools are more successful: CTE students in New York are four times less likely to drop out before graduating than the overall average in New York City.

What Can You Do?

- Submit a public comment to Samuel Sloves (HS.Proposals@schools.nyc.gov, 718-935-4414). TYPE Alfred E. Smith CTE High School in the subject line. Feel free to use any/all of the above reasons, or just simply state you don't want to see AES phased out. Keep resending emails (every day) through January 25th.

- Reach out to politicians: re-send this email to the following people (and whoever else you can think of):

JOtero@council.nyc.gov, GibsonV@assembly.state.ny.us, CastronL@assembly.state.ny.us, CrespoM@assembly.state.ny.us, BenjamM@assembly.state.ny.us, RiveraJ@assembly.state.ny.us, RiveraP@assembly.state.ny.us

- Attend our Public Hearing at Smith on January 11th at 5:30pm (333 East 151st Street, Bronx, NY, 10451). More information on our Google Document. The DOE will visit our school and give those who wish 3 minutes to provide their input regarding why we shouldn't be shut down. Our ability to show how important the school is to the students, parents and community will be considered by the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) when they vote on January 26th. Your attendance would be invaluable.

- Get signatures: printing this petition, collect signatures in your community. Additionally, you can sign this online petition.

-Peruse this Google Document to learn more. Important websites and dates of events that relate to our school and its potential phase out are listed here. Note: this information is constantly changing, and the Google Document will be updated periodically.

NYC High Schools Closed since 1999

Accepted last freshman class in:

1999-2000
John Jay High School (Brooklyn)

2000-2001
South Bronx High School (Bronx)

2001-2002
Martin Luther King High School (Manhattan)
Morris High School (Bronx)

2002-2003
Bushwick High School (Brooklyn)
George Wingate High School (Brooklyn)
Prospect Heights High School (Brooklyn)
Theodore Roosevelt High School (Bronx)
William Howard Taft High School (Bronx)
Park West High School (Manhattan)
Seward Park High School (Manhattan)

2003-2004
Harry Van Arsdale High School (Brooklyn)
Thomas Jefferson High School (Brooklyn)
Springfield Gardens High School (Queens)

2004-2005
Evander Childs High School (Bronx)
Walton High School (Bronx)

2005-2006
Adlai Stevenson High School (Bronx)

2006-2007
Lafayette High School (Brooklyn)
South Shore High School (Brooklyn)
Samuel J. Tilden High School (Brooklyn)

2007-2008
Canarsie High School (Brooklyn)
Far Rockaway High School (Queens)

2008-2009
Bayard Rustin High School (Manhattan)
Louis Brandeis High School (Manhattan)
Franklin K. Lane (Brooklyn)

Chicago Fight Back on School Closings

Media Alert: For Immediate Release

Attention: News Assignment



City Wide Hearing on School Closings & Turnarounds: 10:00 am, Saturday, January 10, 2008, Malcolm X College 1900 W. Van Buren



Media Contact: Wendy Boatman, CORE Member: 773-991-6290, weboats@gmail.com; Kenzo Shibata, CORE Member: 312-296-0124, mrshibata@gmail.com; Corina Pedraza, Education Organizer

Pilsen Alliance, pedrazac@hotmail.com, 312-243-5440;



Over Five-Hundred Attend City-wide Hearing on School Closings



CORE (The Caucus of Rank-and File Educators) held a community meeting at Malcolm X. College on Saturday, January 10, 2009 to discuss the effects of Chicago Public Schools Renaissance 2010 program and to call for a moratorium on school closings and the turnaround program, an initiative that allows the CPS to fire entire faculties, administrations, and staffs of schools they have deemed "failing" due to test scores



The next scheduled event organized by CORE's coalition of community groups will be a protest at the Board of Education after the announcement of the next round of school closings on January 28, 2009 at 3:30 PM.



Displaced teachers, angry parents, union representatives, community leaders and students from affected schools made up the crowd. Four panels of speakers described how Renaissance 2010 sabotages neighborhood schools to make way for charters and contract schools that often do not serve all students, such as special education students and English language learners. The remaining public schools become the home for these students as they are "kicked off the island" of charter schools, as panelist and CORE member Jesse Sharkey described.



Renaissance 2010 is a program inspired by a report by the Commercial Club and is currently touted and implemented by CEO of Chicago Public Schools Arne Duncan as he grooms himself for his new position as Secretary of Education.



One panelist, a former student from Englewood High School, quoted Duncan as calling her school a "cultural failure" before slating the school to be closed. The student mentioned that prior to this program's implementation; the school had no replacement books as many of the school's funds had to be spent on additional security measures after the school accepted additional students from the nearby Calumet High School when it closed.



Many panelists spoke of charter schools, which comprise most of the new schools under Renaissance 2010. Chantelle Allen, former teacher at Perspectives Academy, a charter school, relayed how the entire junior class at that school had no special education teachers. She blew the whistle, writing a letter to the state board and was immediately fired. According to Allen, A teacher who does not have an education degree replaced her.



The concern over charters and special education was echoed by parent Lorenza Ramirez, a former CPS teacher who enrolled her daughter at Noble Street Charter School. She pulled her daughter out of that school after it was clear that her daughter's special needs were not being met at Noble Street, one of Chicago's flagship charter schools.



Organizers of the event were CORE and several community organizations and school groups. The community organizations were: Pilsen Alliance, Blocks Together, P.U.R.E, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, KOCO, Teachers for Social Justice, Substance and Senn's Local School Council. The school organizations are Jaguars for Justice and United Senn Students.








On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 5:42 AM, wrote:

16 Chicago schools to be closed, consolidated or relocated
Thousands of students will be affected by changes

By Carlos Sadovi | Tribune reporter

January 17, 2009

Thousands of city students could be attending new public schools this fall under a district plan to close, consolidate or relocate 16 schools because of declining enrollment or subpar buildings, district officials said today.

As part of the proposal, six other schools—including one high school—will become turnaround schools, a status that requires teachers, administrators and others to reapply for their jobs. Four of those six schools are expected to be run by private groups.

The district is in the second year of a five-year program to deal with dwindling enrollment in the city's schools. Last year, the district closed, phased out or turned around 18 schools.

The school board must approve the plan and could as early as Feb. 25, after public hearings. If approved, the changes would take effect before the start of the 2009-2010 school year.

"In neighborhoods where enrollment is sharply declining and we have several buildings that are more than half-empty, we can't afford to keep all of them open," said Rufus Williams, president of the Chicago Board of Education.

Departing district CEO Arne Duncan has said that up to 50 schools may be shuttered at the end of the five years. Since 2001, enrollment has dropped by more than 40,000 students as gentrification in many neighborhoods pushed families out of the city and into nearby suburbs.

The recommendations are among the more controversial that Duncan will make before he joins President-elect Barack Obama's administration as U.S. Department of Education secretary.

At a briefing before Friday's news conference to announce the changes, school officials said they are making the moves to better serve the public.

David Pickens, the district's director of external affairs, could not say how much the district stands to save by closing the underutilized schools, but he said the district would recoup savings by not staffing or maintaining buildings that it could end up selling.

The district's practice is that schools at less than 50 percent of a building's capacity get on the list. The schools targeted for closure this fall are using less than 40 percent of their capacity, Pickens said.

Students who would normally go to the five schools targeted for closure instead will go to other nearby schools. Another five schools on the list will be consolidated with other schools. That means the students and many of the teachers will continue together in different buildings. The district also wants to phase out four other elementary schools and a high school, meaning the schools will not accept new students and will not close until after the current students graduate.

Among the more controversial moves is the district's attempt to turn around failing schools. To land on that list, schools must be on academic probation and be among the district's lowest performing schools in all subjects over several years. While the students will stay in these schools, all of the faculty and staff members—including principals—must reapply for their jobs. About 193 staff members will be affected at the six turnaround schools on this year's list.

"When we are emptying out buildings, it's for efficiency. And in the schools we are turning around and nobody is moving, it's for performance," Pickens said.

But at many of the affected schools and during public hearings, some teachers and parents have accused the district of pushing families and teachers out of the schools to then reopen them as Renaissance 2010 schools under private control. They claim the district also is trying to get rid of union teachers.

The district said 24 of the 75 new schools that have opened under Renaissance 2010 have Chicago Teachers Union teachers.

At Peabody Elementary School in the West Town community, teachers and parents vowed to fight to get the school off of the closing list.

Amy Sherwood, a Peabody teacher and union delegate, said she has taught at the school for about 20 years and acknowledged the school, along with others, has seen enrollment declines. The district said the school at 1444 W. Augusta Blvd. is at only 35 percent of its capacity. The school has 265 students, though the building has the capacity for 750 students.

But Sherwood also said the school has made academic gains and being closed should not be its reward.

"This is a school whose parents are dedicated, as well as the teachers and administrators. We have given extra time, energy and our blood for years so these children can get what they deserve out of life," Sherwood said. "We will fight to keep it open."

Even though Perry Moore's children attend Holmes Elementary School in Englewood—which is on the turnaround list—she is a supporter of the school and the teachers. Moore attended the school when she was a student and has many nephews and nieces in the school. Moore said she would pull her children out of the school and said her relatives may follow if the board votes to get rid of the teachers.

"It's a real sad situation. I can honestly say that they are a dedicated bunch of people. I can see teachers coming in at 6:45 in the morning and sometimes they don't get out of there until 6:30 at night," Moore said. "It's not about the check for them, it's about the love for those children."

csadovi@tribune.com



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Report Cards Spell Closings

BY ELIZABETH GREEN - Staff Reporter of the Sun

November 6, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/65895

Principals could be fired and operations shut down altogether at the nearly 150 public schools to which the city gave D and F grades yesterday, and students at the 50 F schools are getting a green light to transfer into a new school as soon as September, school officials said yesterday.

The city schools chancellor, Joel Klein, said school closures, the process where the city phases schools out of existence, dissolving all leadership and teaching positions and sending students elsewhere, could come at a rate unmatched in the last five years. Between 5 and 15 phaseouts have been announced during each year Mayor Bloomberg has held control of the schools.

"Is this a wake-up call for the people that work there? You bet. That's what we're trying to do," Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday, announcing the grades, letters A to F, that are the result of a complicated formula taking into account a school's standardized test scores, graduation rates, and a few other measures.

A careful scouring of information on failing principals — their track record, the number of years they have spent at a school, their school's test score history — is already under way, Mr. Klein said. Meanwhile, as considerations about employment and school closure are mulled, he said schools that received failing grades are also being helped.

The best-ranked schools in the city, those that received As and a high rating on a second qualitative review by outside consultants, are being asked to become "demonstration schools" that can use extra funding to set up sites where they will share ideas and strategies with schools around the city.

Principals are also being urged to log into a new citywide data system, known as ARIS, where they can search out schools that have produced better results with similar kinds of students. For instance, a comparison chart drawn up by school officials highlights schools a TriBeCa middle school, I.S. 289, could look to for ideas on how to raise its D next year. The chart shows 11 other middle schools with high-scoring students that were able to win A's and B's by helping more students, especially low performers, make progress on math and reading tests.

Messrs. Bloomberg and Klein said yesterday that they were prepared for complaints, which they said would come from schools just as they do from students, and they did come quickly.

A parent advocate who has long argued against standardized tests, Jane Hirschmann, stood up during yesterday's press conference to complain about the report cards' heavy emphasis on test scores, which contribute 85% of each grade.

Hours later, the president of the city principals' union, Ernest Logan, sent an e-mail message to principals saying that he is holding off support of the report cards for now. "The ramifications are too great, especially for students in schools that may be mislabeled and the people whose jobs may be on the line," he said.

The president of the teachers' union, Randi Weingarten, also criticized the report cards, saying data in schools is fine — but only as long as it is used to help schools improve, not to punish them.

Behind the complaints was a confusion over how many schools beloved by parents and with solid, longstanding reputations for excellence had received poor marks.

An author of guides to the city's public schools, Clara Hemphill, said she chose not to include the high school that topped the city's ratings, Manhattan Bridges, in her guide of the city's best because of its low attendance rate, 75%. While several schools in Hemphill's guide were rated high, others got poor marks. P.S. 89 in Battery Park City received a C although more than 90% of its students passed a math test last year, and P.S. 3 in Staten Island got an F though more than 98% of students passed the math test.

Ms. Hemphill said parents would be better off relying on their own judgments. "My advice to parents is: Trust your own knowledge," she said. "Staring at a computer screen and trying to figure out what's going on in the school is not all that useful."

Some grades also contradicted state assessments of which schools are failing, or conflicted with quality reports written by outside reviewers last year.

The discrepancies have to do in part with a deliberate twist in how the grades are calculated. While state assessments are based on the number of students who reach proficiency on state exams, the city reports follow what is called a "growth model," with the amount of progress students show from year to year making up 55% of a school's grade. They also focus heavily on whether low performers show gains.

The executive director of a lobbying group, Democrats for Education Reform, Joseph Williams, said parents should take low grades seriously. "It's more productive, instead of being defensive about it, to talk about how you get it to a B and then to an A," he said.

Mr. Williams said the success of the grades will hinge on whether Mr. Bloomberg follows through on the grades with tough consequences.
Mr. Williams said that at his son's Manhattan elementary school, P.S. 11 on 21st Street, a C grade was appropriate — and probably higher than the school would have gotten two years ago, before the arrival of a new principal.

Some principals are already using the report cards as inspiration for change. At the city's elite exam high schools, which were compared against each other in the report cards, principals have begun meeting regularly to share ideas. An early product of their sessions is a conference scheduled for today where teachers will convene for workshops and discussions, the principal at the Bronx High School of Science, Valerie Ready, said.

John Galvin, the assistant principal at a popular Brooklyn middle, I.S. 318, said his school's leadership met to discuss their new grade, a B, but decided not to make any changes. Moving to an A, he said, would require spending many hours on small improvements, moving students who are already passing tests to get just one or two more questions right on a standardized test.

He said test prep would leave students bored, not stronger learners. "We're not going to give up doing art, music, chess, robotics — all the great programs we have during the day that gifted kids are interested in — just to make sure they get a better or equal score than they got the year before," he said. "We do care about the test, but not enough to sacrifice."