The number of public elementary and middle schools that could face closure or other major overhauls has nearly doubled since last year, to 217, based on A-through-F letter grades released by the city yesterday.
The surge was largely fueled by the number of schools that got a C for the third straight year.
The Department of Education considers schools with three C grades or a single D or F grade for closure or other significant interventions.
Despite the increase, the overall distribution of ratings for the nearly 1,200 schools changed little since 2011 — with 60 percent of them receiving A or B grades and 9 percent receiving a D or an F.
School grades are based largely on whether students improve on state math and reading tests from year to year.
Attendance, surveys of students and parents, and — for the first time this year — middle-school course grades also factored into the ratings.
Among the biggest surprises in 2012 was the poor performance of one of the city’s top districts — Manhattan’s District 2, which includes the high-income TriBeCa and Greenwich Village neighborhoods.
District 2 went from fourth among the city’s 32 districts in 2011 to 12th this year — by far the biggest drop of any district.
Of its 44 schools, 17 got lower grades than last year — including the popular and overcrowded PS 234 in TriBeCa, which dropped from an A to a C — while only three schools managed to up their marks this year.
But the disappointing results only fueled critics who say the city’s over-reliance on year-to-year performance gains — which make up 60 percent of a school’s score — wrongly penalizes high-performing schools.
“When that much weight is based on kids moving up their standardized test scores from last year over this year, it doesn’t surprise me that District 2 isn’t doing so well,” said Shino Tanikawa, a member of the district’s Community Education Council.
“From the perspective of whether the students are doing well, it doesn’t concern me,” she added. “But it concerns me a great deal because the city is going to use [the results] to implement misguided policies.”
The grading spread also showed charter schools earning higher marks than their district counterparts — led in large part by the A grades earned by all the schools managed by Democracy Prep Public Schools or Success Academy Charter Schools.
More than 45 percent of charter schools earned an A grade, compared with 25 percent of schools citywide.
“These schools deserve the continued support and autonomy necessary to keep the progress going,” said James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center.
Just 6 percent of charters were given D’s, and 1 percent earned F’s.
Overall in the city this year, 304 schools got an A, 421 received a B, and 365 received a C.
At the other end, 80 schools got a D and 23 got an F.