The mayor of New York City announced last week that under his watch, the city’s schools have made progress in reducing violence and improving test scores.
The 1.1 million-student district now has an all-time low of 35 schools identified by the state as failing to meet its academic standards. The number of “schools under registration review” in the city has dropped from 46 in the 2003-04 school year and 58 in 2002-03. In 1997, the city had 104 schools on the state list, according to the mayor’s office.
This year, 16 schools were dropped from the list and seven were added.
Each year since 1989, the state has identified such schools based upon the performance of their students on the grades 4 and 8 English language arts and mathematics assessments, or, at the high school level, on the percentage of students meeting graduation-test requirements in those subjects.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also announced that a school safety initiative launched a year ago this month at 16 “impact” schools has reduced major crime at those schools by 43 percent. As a result, five schools will be removed from the program and six new ones will be added.
