Here is the key portion of the report on resources:
The following findings are based on information ascertained from various
stakeholders including parents, teachers, students, administrators as well
as school and district documents:
- No honors or advance placement classes are offered to students
- The school no longer offers calculus, chemistry or physics
- Only three electives are offered to students: Law, Accounting and Latin American Literature. Prior to the implementation of the phase out model, elective courses offered to students were: African American Literature, Film, Geography, Forensics, Sociology, Psychology, Computer classes (Word, Excel, visual basic, PowerPoint) and Creative Writing
- Offtrack classes, which were offered to students not meeting Regents requirements, are no longer available
- Students are not able to complete specialty programs: Business, Computer Science, Engineering and Finance Institutes, or Art Institutes Students are not offered SAT prep courses
- Two teachers, who are not certified in special education, are teaching students with disabilities.
What will the state do about this? We can hope the answer is not the usual nothing.
You can read the entire report for yourself.
For the NY1 story, click here.
PS Thanks to Norm Scott for his coverage of the AFT Convention.
5 comments:
You can hope the answer is not the usual nothing, but I would not hold my breath. The fact that a report had to be issued is mind boggling, just walk in an look. I do not work at Jamaica, but I would not have to even step in the building to know this. Go ahead Mr. King & Ms. Tisch, I dare you to come out and if nothing else publicly lambaste the egomaniac that runs the school system. You won't because you guys do not give a damn about these kids. They do not fit your agendas, either.
The school was treated like a real estate property. Bloomberg didn't care about the students at JHS. He only cares about adding a bunch of new mini schools that offer nothing to new students.
The school received very little, if any, resources prior to the phase out. This virtually set the school up for failure.
Sure seems like in the report the DOE says "hey, all good, already fixed everything!".
It's a shame the specialty programs can't be completed. They could have offered a window of opportunity to use real-life skills in the business world.
By: Pedro Nicolas Payano
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