SYRACUSE -- On Thursday New York State's Department of Education identified Syracuse's Nottingham, Henninger and Corcoran high schools as being "persistently lowest achieving." Grant Middle School on the city's north side was also put on the list. The designation makes each school eligible for up to $2 million in federal grants but with conditions. Those conditions seem to be aimed squarely at the teachers and administrators unions.
In order to get the money, the school district has to agree to either a defined "turnaround", "restart" or "transformation" plan for each of the schools. The models are consistent with the federal government's race to the top educational program.
The turnaround model would involve replacing the principal and at least 50% of the staff. The restart model would re-open the school as a charter school. The transformation model would put much stricter teacher evaluation standards in place and the ability to remove underperforming teachers
The president of the Syracuse Teachers Association said it was a tough bargain and unfairly targeted urban school districts but Kevin Ahern didn't think the city could afford to say no.
"We're happy to get that money but on the other hand this is $2 million for schools that have been singled out and punished in a district where we are facing an enormous budget shortfall," said Ahern.
"The bigger number is how we get all teachers and administrators to that highly effective category?" said Superintendent Dan Lowengard "That is what they're struggling with on the state level and the federal level and they haven't solved it and we're going to have to solve it ourselves in Syracuse."
Three city schools - Delaware, Hughes and Fowler- were put on the persistently lowest achieving list last year. The district and the union agreed to the tough teacher evaluation standards for those schools in order to get the $2 million per school. On Thursday Superintendent Lowengard said he believes that will be the approach with the four schools just identified as persistently lowest achieving.
Click here to read the full list of schools.
