Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Boys & Girls High School Future Uncertain After Third Straight Failure

By Paul DeBenedetto | November 13, 2013 3:35pm | Updated on November 14, 2013 1:12pm
  Bed-Stuy's Boys & Girls High School received an F on its 2013 progress report.
Bed-Stuy's Boys & Girls High School received an F on its 2013 progress report.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Victoria Bekiempis

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Bed-Stuy's Boys & Girls High School received an F on its 2013 progress report, the third year in a row the school has failed the city's review, according to stats released by the Department of Education on Wednesday.

Boys & Girls received an overall score of 35.8 out of a possible 100 on the report.

It ranked in the fourth percentile of all city high schools — meaning that 96 percent of public high schools received higher scores.

Public high schools in New York are measured by student progress, student performance, college readiness, school environment and closing the achievement gap.

Boys & Girls' scores dropped in all but the last two categories.

After the school's second failing grade in 2012, department officials considered closing the school. But thanks in part to powerful supporters like Bed-Stuy City Councilman Albert Vann, the school has thus far survived. 

Vann disputed the school's grade on Wednesday.

“I do not believe that the grade assigned on the most recent Progress Report reflects the transformation that is happening at Boys and Girls High School," read an email from the councilman.

"One must visit the school and experience the learning environment that has been created under the leadership of Principal [Bernard] Gassaway to understand that great success, not failure, is Boys and Girls High School’s present and future."

With Vann's impending departure from politics after almost 40 years, the future of the school remains uncertain, and a spokeswoman for the DOE said that decisions on possible school closures will be left to the incoming mayoral administration, which takes over when Bill de Blasio is inaugurated in January.

Gassaway himself has said he may step down as principal of Boys & Girls if a plan to co-locate a third school into the facility passes.

The principal did not respond to requests for comment.