When the city’s hotly debated teacher ratings were released last month, among the reams of data a mystery emerged.
Two Bronx schools — just three miles apart — serve similar kinds of kids: most from poor families, some needing special-ed, and many immigrants learning English. Both schools are huge, bursting at the seams, and squeeze up to 33 kids into each classroom.
But the two schools showed starkly opposite results on the “teacher data reports,” which estimate how well fourth- to eighth-grade instructors improved student tests scores in math and English.
PS 89, the Williamsbridge Middle School, had 10 teachers score in the bottom 10%, the worst in the city. Just 12% of the teachers rated “above average” or “high” in math, and 0% in English.
PS 86, the Kingsbridge Heights School, had 13 teachers score in the top 10% — more than any other school. Also much better than the city average, 50% rated “above average” or “high” in math, 51% in English.
The United Federation of Teachers and other critics argue that the teacher ratings are flawed. But they aren’t the only yardstick that shows the dichotomy. PS 89 is graded C on its latest Department of Education progress report, and teachers and parents say the school has struggled for years to rise above malaise and mediocrity. PS 86, meanwhile, earned an A for the past five years — and long shined as a gem.
Both schools face similar challenges.
PS 89, housed in a 92-year-old brick building on Mace Avenue, serves 1,360 kids — and new enrollees from Yemen, Kosovo, Croatia and other faraway lands arrive year-round, staffers say.
In all, 76.5% come from families poor enough to qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch, 19.9% have individual special-ed plans, and 20.2% do not speak English as their first language.
The more successful school, PS 86, across the street from the Kingsbridge Armory, crams nearly 1,800 kids into the main building — with just one bathroom per gender on each floor — and a satellite. Here, 82.4% get a free or reduced-price lunch, 19.4% are in special-ed and a whopping 32% are English-learning immigrants.
Despite the similar demographics, only 31.5% of students passed state tests in English and 48.2 % in math at PS 89, but 38.2% passed English and 66.6% math at PS 86.
So why does one school falter and another thrive?
LESSON 1:
DON’T MIX MIDDLE SCHOOL WITH TOTS
One major factor is a no-brainer, experts say: PS 86 only goes to sixth grade, while PS 89 also serves seventh and eighth grades — with more than 400 hormone-crazed pre-adolescent and teens, ages 12 to 14, thrown in with the small fries.
“Middle-school kids are harder to teach — you have more discipline problems,” said Pamel Wheaton, managing editor of InsideSchools.org., a watchdog group.
Eight years ago, PS 89 was a K-5 school. The city then added the middle school, because it needed more seats in The Bronx for those grades. The result?
“Chaos — kids all over, doing whatever,” recalled a PS 89 safety agent.
“Behavior problems — students roaming the halls, running, yelling,” said a teacher.
Some parents complained of bullying by older kids.
PS 89 tallied far more safety problems in 2009-10, the latest school year with data posted by the state Education Department. It racked up three sex offenses, one assault with a weapon, four weapon possessions — knives and box cutters — 25 “minor altercations” such as fights and 20 “other disruptive” incidents.
PS 86 reported just one assault without a weapon, one weapon possessions — a BB gun — and no altercations or disruptions.
The DOE’s rating for “environment” — based on surveys of parents, staff and students on “academic expectations,” “safety and respect,” and “communication and engagement” — rates PS 89 a D. PS 86 gets an A.
Sheldon Benardo, who recently retired after 20 years as principal of PS 86, told The Post he led a bitter fight last year when the DOE tried to make PS 86 a K-8 school as well.
“The thought of 14-year-old kids in the same bathroom with 5- or 7-year -old kids — it was so wrong,” he said. “K to 8 brings significant issues that are detrimental to children and make it much more difficult for staff.”
He orchestrated a raucous turnout of hundreds to protest the change and publicly blasted the bureaucrats for a “plantation mentality,” saying, “they thought they knew better and could impose their will — the hell with the black and brown people who live here.”
He won.
Which leads to the next difference . . .
LESSON 2:
HIRE A GOOD PRINCIPAL
“Leadership is key,” said Kathleen Cashin, a former Brooklyn superintendent and now member of the state Board of Regents.
“I’ve seen schools that could have done much, much better, but the principal wasn’t pushing them,” she said. “On the other hand, I’ve seen poverty-ridden schools excel with a principal who exudes rigor — but also leads with kindness, gets people to work together and has a good organizational underpinning.”
Sheldon Benardo was one of those great principals.
Benardo, a Sephardic Jew, grew up in the neighborhood and attended PS 86 himself. He worked for the DOE 18 years as a teacher and assistant principal before returning to his alma mater in 1991 as principal — and remained until retiring in December.
“The school was chaotic and poorly run. I had to use some muscle to change things,” he said.
Fluent in Spanish, he spoke directly with parents — about 80% of them Hispanic — and put them at ease. He later offered night classes for parents, many undocumented, seeking citizenship or GEDs.
“It made the school a place where they want to come. They felt comfortable walking into the school with a complaint.”
With 1,800 students to oversee, Benardo had zero tolerance for misconduct or disrespect — but takes pride that he rarely suspended kids. Missing class work “wasn’t productive,” he said. Instead, he’d take away gym, recess or cafeteria. “They’d have to eat lunch with me.”
Benardo also pushed to make a PS 86 education something special.
Each year, about 30 students and 20 teacher chaperones, including Benardo, embark on two adventures — one abroad (such as England, Finland, Germany, France) and one to a national park (like Yosemite and Yellowstone).
Benardo worked on getting DOE approval, while teachers planned every detail of the journey. Fund-raising and grants covered most of the costs, with parents paying $200 to $400. Benardo lobbied groups and companies for the money.
Lessons revolved around the trips beforehand and projects afterward. In 2009, for instance, fifth-graders toured the Dachau concentration camp to study WWII death camps — a topic typically not tackled until high school. In Tokyo, sixth-graders slept in a Zen temple, ate a rice breakfast sitting cross-legged and watched sumo wrestlers train.
“In all those trips, not one kid did anything to embarrass us or something foolish or dangerous,” he said.
Benardo recommended his friend and assistant principal, Fiona Tyson, also a PS 86 veteran, to succeed him — and says he stays in touch. She declined to be interviewed.
LESSON 3:
ABILITY TO HIRE GOOD TEACHERS, FIRE BAD ONES
Of course, an activist principal can only do so much without skilled teachers.
A key change enacted by former Chancellor Joel Klein gave principals the power to hire their own staffs. Benardo chose carefully.
“I’m looking for work ethic, intelligence and people willing to be held accountable. If I find those things in teachers, I support them in every way.”
Benardo regularly hired a crop of bright young recruits from Teach for America, a nonprofit group that sends recent college grads into inner-city schools. About 30 — a fourth of PS 86’s teaching staff — came via Teach for America. Every year, the group trains about 100 recruits in PS 86’s summer school, so Bernardo hand-picked the most promising to stay on.
One Teach for America alum and former PS 86 teacher, who had high marks in the ratings, credited the mentoring she received from a senior teacher. “She had a lot of useful ideas to make sure our kids understood math concepts,” she said. “It wasn’t an emphasis on test prep.”
“Teachers were given a lot of autonomy,” the ex-rookie added. “There were clear expectations, but at the same time you were in charge of your classroom and could make decisions based on what you felt your students needed to succeed.”
Just as important is getting rid of teachers who fall short — not an easy task with the UFT fighting every firing. “Sometimes people aren’t cut out for the profession,” Benardo said. “Either you counsel them out or you take a more aggressive approach. You have to understand who your first constituents are — the kids in the classroom.”
Benardo won two grueling battles to fire tenured teachers at the school when he arrived — blitzing their files with letters and building evidence of incompetence.
“I wasn’t liked by the UFT, because I was willing to do what was necessary,” he said. “But I don’t think I ever suffered a lack of respect from the staff because I went after someone who wasn’t doing his or her job. They don’t want someone like that in their midst.”
PTA co-president Ray Wilson — who attended PS 86 as a child and now has his own two kids enrolled — raves.
“If you walk into any classroom, you could tell the teachers know how to teach the kids,” he says. “They figure out ways to make it fun and interesting. Every kid adores their teacher. Everybody loves to come to school.”
HOW TO SAVE PS 89
Most PS 89 parents who spoke to The Post were dismayed but not surprised by the school’s low ratings.
“I don’t find the education bad, but I don’t find the setting good,” said Aberdean Bygrave, 43, a nurse’s aide and the mom of a fourth-grader. “My daughter is an honor-roll student but says only a few teachers are nice. The rest are snapping at her. She doesn’t like to come here. I’m trying to get her out.”
But others see things improving under the enthusiastic new principal, Ralph Martinez, who took over last year and vows to lift a lackluster performance. He’s getting high marks so far.
“He’s trying very hard, and everybody’s working with him,” said teacher Maria Castillo, a 13-year veteran of PS 89. “It’s a different environment.”
Martinez welcomed reporters inside. The school was clean and bright, with neat displays of student writing and artwork covering the walls. Middle-schoolers switched classes quickly, clearing the halls.
“It’s the best I’ve seen it in nine years,” a safety agent said.
Martinez describes his strategy with the older kids: “Give them a choice and a voice. You have to tell kids, ‘We respect you.’ ’’
He launched two middle-school “academies” to break up the older kids into more manageable, close-knit groups. Students choose either Arts and Humanities or S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering, math). Each academy has its own logo, printed on pennants hung in the halls and on uniforms, burgundy or green shirts.
Kids also get to vote on sports, activities and clubs.
Marquise Adeleye, a 6-foot-6 center on the Panthers basketball team, “shocked” Martinez with his request: crochet.
“I have an anger problem. It relaxes me,” said Marquise, who knits hats and slippers for relatives. The Crochet Club was born.
Martinez painted the formerly dingy halls and stairwells. He bought new tables and chairs that seat students in small groups rather than in rows facing front.
He’s also poured nearly $1 million from the school budget into technology. Every teacher has an Apple laptop, every classroom a Smart Board, an interactive whiteboard with touch screens.
Six of the lowest-scoring teachers now are gone, Martinez notes, though he won’t discuss how. He said he spends 15% of his budget on teacher training and opened three “teacher resource rooms,” where instructors meet to share ideas and coordinate curriculum. “I once found a student who had read the same book three times.”
The school is reaching higher. Starting this April, a select group of middle-schoolers will take part in DREAM, a rigorous 22-month program to prepare low-income minorities for the admittance exam for the city’s elite specialized high schools, such as Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. Martinez is optimistic. The next time the DOE ranks teachers and schools, he says, PS 89 will have even more in common with PS 86 — high marks.