NJ Education Report

Graduation rates fell or stagnated last year at 10 of the low-performing city high schools targeted for “renewal” by Mayor de Blasio, data reveal. 

The city Department of Education has pumped millions of dollars into programs to turn around these academic laggards instead of shutting them down, which was the policy of the Bloomberg administration. 

But results show the graduation rate dropped at August Martin HS in Queens from 39.2 percent in the 2013-14 school year to 25.9 percent in the last school year, and at Lehman HS in The Bronx from 53.3 percent to 40.8 percent. 

The rate also plunged at the Bronx Leadership Institute from 42 percent to 28.6 percent, Education Department records show. Automotive HS in Brooklyn, which de Blasio visited last spring, saw its rate fall from 50.8 percent to 46.9 percent.

The New York Post adds that graduation rates did improve  by 2% at about two-thirds of the city’s “Renewal Schools.” The de Blasio Administration is spending $149 million over three years to save 94 long-failing schools from closure. The average graduation rate at the 34 Renewal high schools this past year was 54.5%.