Score one for the teachers union in its battle against kids: Though Bronx Prep Charter School students have chalked up terrific academic results, state officials nonetheless put the school on probation yesterday.
Why? Because a few of its teachers are technically “uncertified.” Brilliant.
Talk about missing the forest for the trees. Bronx Prep, which serves 5th- through 12th-graders from predominately poor, minority homes, is a model for city public schools.
And if having a few “uncertified” teachers on board is part of its winning formula, well, how about en couraging other schools to hire a few “uncertifieds,” too?
Bronx Prep’s accomplishments certainly speak well of its faculty:
* Last year, its four-year graduation rate beat the district’s, 73 percent to 55 percent.
* The percentage of its 5th- through 8th-graders who meet standards was 22 points higher than district-wide.
* Its 11th-graders scored better, on average, on last year’s SATs than kids at every other public high school in the borough, save Bronx Science.
Impressive? For sure.
And get this: 100 percent of Prep’s 11th-graders sat for the SAT.
This is clearly one successful school. Yet now, it’s officially on “probation,” its charter in danger of revocation.
Obviously, no one wants schools to employ unqualified teachers; there need to be some standards.
But certification is also a club used by advocates of the status quo to beat down competition.
That is to say, yesterday’s spectacle basically amounted to New York’s education cartel attempting to rid itself of an embarrassing example of its own very visible failure in The Bronx.
Yesterday, it moved a step closer toward its goal.
Don’t forget: If Bronx Prep’s charter is revoked or even if its successful staff is shaken up the kids will suffer.
But it’ll be teachers-union honcho Randi Weingarten who’ll be smiling.