16 Long Island schools, 13 districts cited by state as needing improvement
Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School in Amityville is one of the schools on the state's needs-improvement list. Credit: Barry Sloan
Thirteen Long Island school districts and 16 individual schools within them are posted on a state needs-improvement list that is the first compiled since the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a suspension of such ratings more than three years ago, a Newsday analysis has found.
The latest state classifications are part of a federal and state "accountability" system that has been revived to cover academic performance for the just-completed 2022-23 school year.
Under federal rules, ratings identify schools and districts falling in the bottom 5% statewide, based on student test scores, high school graduation rates and other criteria such as absenteeism and test participation.
School systems targeted by ratings span the region, from Hempstead in the west to Riverhead and Greenport in the east, but are concentrated in Suffolk County. Overall, the great majority of systems in the Island's educational network — 111 other districts and 624 other schools — remain in good academic standing, according to the state Department of Education.
As it resumes its scrutiny of classroom performance, New York also is providing districts statewide with billions of dollars in additional money meant to help counter learning loss from the pandemic and boost scores. "Accountability is a two-way street," said Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa when she initially announced the restart of ratings in July of last year.
In recent weeks, local school leaders in affected districts have told Newsday they were striving to make improvements, in many cases with the help of additional teachers hired through the expanded state aid. Systems that foresee improvements ahead include Amityville, Central Islip, Longwood, South Country, Valley Stream 24 and William Floyd.
Wyandanch's high school is on the state's list, but the district's middle school recently won an upgrade to good academic standing.
"The state Education Department has been more than supportive of the Wyandanch school district," said Christine Jordan, the district's acting superintendent. "Our administrators and staff will continue to work diligently to ensure that all our schools are in good standing."
Central Islip, like Wyandanch, has one school that is state-listed and another school recently upgraded. Central Islip Superintendent Sharon Dungee said the district would be working with regional and university groups to improve conditions at its Cordello Avenue Elementary School.
"We are extremely confident that we are making progress toward increasing student achievement," Dungee said.
Elsewhere, some educators criticized the state's rating system, contending that it often stigmatized entire districts due to data covering relatively small numbers of students. Under the rules, the term "Target District" applies to any system where at least one group of students in one school gets tagged for poor performance.
"The NYS testing data utilized to determine if a district is a 'target' district is simply unfair and not statistically significant," said Paul Romanelli, the schools chief in West Islip. "A partial representation of students in one student group, and one data point, should in no way determine the overall status of a school district."
West Islip's Manetuck Elementary School is among those targeted by the state. Romanelli said this happened, in part, because many students in one group opted out of state testing, and the group was deemed to not be making appropriate progress based on incomplete numbers for a fraction of the group on one assessment.
In Amityville, Park Avenue school is listed. Joan Lange, the district's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said the designation was fair and that the district appreciated help it was getting from a regional support group in making improvements.
"What is unfair is to expect children whose formal education has been interrupted to meet the benchmarks at the same time as those whose native language is English and who grew up in the United States in homes where English is spoken," Lange said.
Across the nation, classifications of districts and schools are spelled out in the Every Student Succeeds Act, which was passed by Congress in 2015, replacing the No Child Left Behind Act from 2001. In 2020, identifications were temporarily frozen, as educational systems struggled to cope with school closures and class cancellations forced upon them by the pandemic.
New York State's education department sought an extended waiver from accountability requirements in December 2021, partly on grounds that it would be difficult to collect accurate data on student achievement due to the impact of the pandemic. However, the waiver request was rejected by federal reviewers, who ruled that New York had not sufficiently demonstrated "how the request will advance student academic achievement."
In October, the department announced a plan for resuming accountability ratings. But in a departure from past practice, the agency issued no news release detailing which districts and schools had been identified as low performing under federal requirements.
State education leaders have not directly explained the change in procedure. However, Lester W. Young, chancellor of the state Board of Regents, has stated publicly that "for too long, school accountability has served to label and shame." Regents set much of the state's school policy.
Newsday did its own analysis, checking accountability records for more than 700 districts statewide, including 124 on the Island, available on a state website database. After the 13 districts were identified, comments were sought from their representatives, and eight responses were received.
The renewed classifications, like those used in the past, are heavy on terminology.
Schools where one group of students fails to meet testing goals — say, those who are economically disadvantaged — are classified as Targeted Support and Improvement, or TSI. Schools where problems are more widespread are Comprehensive Support and Improvement, or CSI. Schools identified in other categories before 2018-19 and with a history of low performance are Additional Targeted Support and Improvement, or ATSI.
Any district with at least one school rated as TSI, ATSI or CSI is called a Target District. In addition, schools with satisfactory achievement now are known by a new title, which is Local Support and Improvement, or LSI. That is roughly equivalent to "good academic standing," the term used in the past.
State education officials said a new group of TSI schools for 2023-24 would be posted later this school year. Officials added that a new group of CSI and ATSI schools would not be named until 2025-26, in compliance with federal rules requiring identifications for a minimum of every three years.
Statewide, 107 districts are listed as targeted, and 392 schools are listed as CSI, TSI or ATSI. Another 611 districts and 4,266 schools are listed as LSI, in good standing.
The state's 2022-23 roster for the Island includes both districts and schools that have been identified in past years along with a smaller number that are new to the list. Revival of the accountability system has resulted, moreover, in removal of dozens of districts and schools from the list and their upgrading to LSI status.
Hempstead High School, for example, won an upgrade in March, and the district held a news conference to celebrate the event. In the Roosevelt district, both the high school and middle school were removed from the needs-improvement list — a development marked by special performances by a band, orchestra and chorus.
Roosevelt schools Superintendent Deborah Wortham said the fact that all five district schools now are in good standing reflects the successful completion of a long-range improvement plan developed with the help of about 100 staffers and community members. She added that high school graduation rates have increased from 70% in 2018-19 to 86% in 2021-22.
"I'm so excited, because we absolutely put in place what high-performing schools do," Wortham said.
Thirteen Long Island school districts and 16 individual schools within them are posted on a state needs-improvement list that is the first compiled since the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a suspension of such ratings more than three years ago, a Newsday analysis has found.
The latest state classifications are part of a federal and state "accountability" system that has been revived to cover academic performance for the just-completed 2022-23 school year.
Under federal rules, ratings identify schools and districts falling in the bottom 5% statewide, based on student test scores, high school graduation rates and other criteria such as absenteeism and test participation.
School systems targeted by ratings span the region, from Hempstead in the west to Riverhead and Greenport in the east, but are concentrated in Suffolk County. Overall, the great majority of systems in the Island's educational network — 111 other districts and 624 other schools — remain in good academic standing, according to the state Department of Education.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Thirteen Long Island school districts and 16 schools within them are posted on a state needs-improvement list. The ratings were suspended three years ago amid the COVID pandemic.
- School systems cited by ratings span the region, but are concentrated in Suffolk County. The great majority of systems in the Island's educational network remain in good academic standing.
- Some educators criticized the state's rating system, contending that it often stigmatized entire districts due to data covering relatively small numbers of students.
As it resumes its scrutiny of classroom performance, New York also is providing districts statewide with billions of dollars in additional money meant to help counter learning loss from the pandemic and boost scores. "Accountability is a two-way street," said Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa when she initially announced the restart of ratings in July of last year.
In recent weeks, local school leaders in affected districts have told Newsday they were striving to make improvements, in many cases with the help of additional teachers hired through the expanded state aid. Systems that foresee improvements ahead include Amityville, Central Islip, Longwood, South Country, Valley Stream 24 and William Floyd.
Wyandanch's high school is on the state's list, but the district's middle school recently won an upgrade to good academic standing.
"The state Education Department has been more than supportive of the Wyandanch school district," said Christine Jordan, the district's acting superintendent. "Our administrators and staff will continue to work diligently to ensure that all our schools are in good standing."
Christine Jordan, the Wyandanch district's acting superintendent, praised the state for its support of the district. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Central Islip, like Wyandanch, has one school that is state-listed and another school recently upgraded. Central Islip Superintendent Sharon Dungee said the district would be working with regional and university groups to improve conditions at its Cordello Avenue Elementary School.
"We are extremely confident that we are making progress toward increasing student achievement," Dungee said.
Criticism for ratings system
Elsewhere, some educators criticized the state's rating system, contending that it often stigmatized entire districts due to data covering relatively small numbers of students. Under the rules, the term "Target District" applies to any system where at least one group of students in one school gets tagged for poor performance.
"The NYS testing data utilized to determine if a district is a 'target' district is simply unfair and not statistically significant," said Paul Romanelli, the schools chief in West Islip. "A partial representation of students in one student group, and one data point, should in no way determine the overall status of a school district."
West Islip's Manetuck Elementary School is among those targeted by the state. Romanelli said this happened, in part, because many students in one group opted out of state testing, and the group was deemed to not be making appropriate progress based on incomplete numbers for a fraction of the group on one assessment.
West Islip's Manetuck Elementary School is also on the state's list. Credit: Erin Geismar
In Amityville, Park Avenue school is listed. Joan Lange, the district's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said the designation was fair and that the district appreciated help it was getting from a regional support group in making improvements.
"What is unfair is to expect children whose formal education has been interrupted to meet the benchmarks at the same time as those whose native language is English and who grew up in the United States in homes where English is spoken," Lange said.
Across the nation, classifications of districts and schools are spelled out in the Every Student Succeeds Act, which was passed by Congress in 2015, replacing the No Child Left Behind Act from 2001. In 2020, identifications were temporarily frozen, as educational systems struggled to cope with school closures and class cancellations forced upon them by the pandemic.
New York State's education department sought an extended waiver from accountability requirements in December 2021, partly on grounds that it would be difficult to collect accurate data on student achievement due to the impact of the pandemic. However, the waiver request was rejected by federal reviewers, who ruled that New York had not sufficiently demonstrated "how the request will advance student academic achievement."
In October, the department announced a plan for resuming accountability ratings. But in a departure from past practice, the agency issued no news release detailing which districts and schools had been identified as low performing under federal requirements.
State education leaders have not directly explained the change in procedure. However, Lester W. Young, chancellor of the state Board of Regents, has stated publicly that "for too long, school accountability has served to label and shame." Regents set much of the state's school policy.
State Board of Regents Chancellor Lester Young in 2022. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Ratings heavy on terminology
Newsday did its own analysis, checking accountability records for more than 700 districts statewide, including 124 on the Island, available on a state website database. After the 13 districts were identified, comments were sought from their representatives, and eight responses were received.
The renewed classifications, like those used in the past, are heavy on terminology.
Schools where one group of students fails to meet testing goals — say, those who are economically disadvantaged — are classified as Targeted Support and Improvement, or TSI. Schools where problems are more widespread are Comprehensive Support and Improvement, or CSI. Schools identified in other categories before 2018-19 and with a history of low performance are Additional Targeted Support and Improvement, or ATSI.
Any district with at least one school rated as TSI, ATSI or CSI is called a Target District. In addition, schools with satisfactory achievement now are known by a new title, which is Local Support and Improvement, or LSI. That is roughly equivalent to "good academic standing," the term used in the past.
State education officials said a new group of TSI schools for 2023-24 would be posted later this school year. Officials added that a new group of CSI and ATSI schools would not be named until 2025-26, in compliance with federal rules requiring identifications for a minimum of every three years.
Statewide, 107 districts are listed as targeted, and 392 schools are listed as CSI, TSI or ATSI. Another 611 districts and 4,266 schools are listed as LSI, in good standing.
The state's 2022-23 roster for the Island includes both districts and schools that have been identified in past years along with a smaller number that are new to the list. Revival of the accountability system has resulted, moreover, in removal of dozens of districts and schools from the list and their upgrading to LSI status.
Hempstead High School, for example, won an upgrade in March, and the district held a news conference to celebrate the event. In the Roosevelt district, both the high school and middle school were removed from the needs-improvement list — a development marked by special performances by a band, orchestra and chorus.
Roosevelt schools Superintendent Deborah Wortham said the fact that all five district schools now are in good standing reflects the successful completion of a long-range improvement plan developed with the help of about 100 staffers and community members. She added that high school graduation rates have increased from 70% in 2018-19 to 86% in 2021-22.
"I'm so excited, because we absolutely put in place what high-performing schools do," Wortham said.
