MCSM Gets Its Report Card from the DOE

This year marked the first time the NYC Department of Education evaluated its schools under the proposed new "report card" system. Each school is placed in a group of about forty schools, called a "peer group," chosen by having similar types of student populations according to their middle school scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. Each school is then evaluated in a number of different categories by how it compares to the rest of the schools in its peer group.

Much to MCSM's credit, it belongs to a peer group with many of NYC's highest performing schools, ranging from Lab, Baruch, Beacon, School of the Future, Eleanor Roosevelt, Millenium, Pace HS, Laguardia HS, and NEST+M in Manhattan to Midwood and Edward R. Murrow in Brooklyn, and Cardozo, Bayside, and Francis Lewis High Schools in Queens. Parents should feel proud that MCSM has been grouped with such exclusive company -- this fact alone speaks volume about MCSM's academic standing in New York City.

All schools are evaluated according to daily attendance, graduation rates, percentage of 11th and 12th graders taking the PSAT and SAT, percentage of students earning 10 or more credits each year, and Regents exam pass rates. Next year, results from parent, student, and teacher surveys will also be included. This year's Report Card was not really official, but it gave each school a chance to see how it would have done. Next year, for the first time, the DOE will include all of the planned components of the evaluation and assign each school a grade from A to F, just like students receive. To get an A, a school must get a score of at least 85, meaning that it is doing well enough to be in the top 15% of its peer group.

So how did MCSM do this year, based on last year's information? Even though we did not receive a letter grade, we received a score of 84.5. That means we missed getting what would be an A grade next year by just 0.5!! According to Principal Corinne Vinal, our huge improvement in daily attendance alone this year (up from last year's 89.9% to about 93%) would likely put MCSM's score high enough to get an A.

The message? MCSM is likely to be an A-rated school in what is probably the strongest peer group of high schools in New York City. We should all be proud of our school, its teachers, and our students, and we should all do whatever we can to encourage our kids to continue working hard and attending school EVERY day, even rainy Fridays and days when Spiderman movies are opening. In addition, we should all do whatever we can to support our school and its teachers. Let's work together to make MCSM #1 in the City's best peer group!!