Student math scores at The Math & Science Exploratory School in Brooklyn have tanked 26% since 2018.
The system’s “solution”?
Change the name to The Exploratory School.
That’s right: District 15’s Community Education Council unanimously voted to eliminate MS 447’s STEM-focused moniker, rather than address the reasons why it was failing at its mission.
Because the drop was a direct result of the CEC’s 2018 decision, engineered by the de Blasio administration, to scrap selective middle-school admissions across the district in the name of “equity.”
So a school that once served higher-achievers suddenly faced admission by lottery, and a large influx of kids unprepared for more challenging work.
And the whole district saw an exodus of families from the regular public-school system — to charters and Catholic and other private schools — or out of the district or even the city itself.
Bottom line: Where 95% of MS 447 seventh-graders scored a passing math grade on end-of-year tests in 2018, only 69% did last year.
By the way, teachers and other school staff have moved on, too — or learned to mouth the new regime’s line.
Thus, MS 447 Principal Arin Rusch now contends that the Math & Science identifier is narrow-minded, as the “curriculum has evolved and expanded.”
Oh, Rusch also claims the old name scares off girls.
Apparently sexist stereotypes are OK in the service of woke.
Creating new, high-quality public schools, especially middle and high schools, was a major achievement of Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein, a huge step forward in making New York City again attractive for middle-class families.
Mayor Bill de Blasio set out to destroy that achievement, and District 15 was one place he succeeded.
If Mayor Adams doesn’t want to keep losing middle-class taxpayers, he needs to start undoing de Blasio’s disasters.
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