Parents have been outraged by the New York City Department of Education’s policy of closing schools as a “reform” strategy. They were especially outraged by the decision to close PS 25 in Brooklyn. The DOE says it is “under enrolled,” which it is, but it is one of the most successful elementary schools in the city. Since it is doing such a good job, why not recruit more students instead of closing it? One answer: closing it would allow Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter school to take over the entire building.
Leonie Haimson led an effort to save PS 25. She got a lawyer to sue the DOE pro bono, and yesterday her group won a temporary restraining order which will likely save PS 25 for at least another year. If the DOE comes to its senses, it may save the school, period.
The judge ” seemed impressed with our research showing how all the other 33 schools DOE offered these students to apply to 1- all had far lower positive impact ratings 2- many of them were miles away, 19 of the schools in Staten Island alone 3- 25 were overcrowded, and 4- none had class sizes as small as PS 25. And the DOE has not offered to provide busing for the students.
“In short, she was impressed that in most every other proposal to close schools, the DOE had promised higher performing schools that students could apply to, but they didn’t in this case, because according to DOE’s own estimation, there are only three other public elementary schools as good as PS 25 in the entire city and they are full.
“In fact, the City itself admitted in their response papers to the lawsuit that according to the school performance dashboard, PS 25 is the “second best public elementary school in Brooklyn and the fourth best in the City, and that PS 25 outperforms charter school other than Success Academy Bronx 2 in its positive impact on student achievement and attendance.”
Why in the world should the city close one of its highest performing schools? The Bloomberg administration closed scores of schools, routinely, without a second thought.
Good work, Leonie!
PS: The annual dinner of Leonie Haimson’s organization, Class Size Matters, will hold its annual fundraising dinner on June 19. All are invited to attend. The price is modest, as these dinners go. Invitation to follow.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
YEAH! Public Schools FIRST!
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Finally, some good news. And thank you Leonie Haimson for your tireless efforts to induce the New York City Department of Education to, you know, conduct itself sensibly.
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Really the best news about this story is that creepy success charter school magot Eva moskowitch does. not take over the entire building. This is so disturbing and it continues as moskowitch receives millions of dollars in donations and then goes and takes money from our NYC public school kids.
In a time of such corrupt shady crap, this is really the pt Barnum of our time. I mean this moskowitch crook takes in millions of dollars and then cries to the city of New York that she wants space in our schools. The creep even goes on to spend millions of dollars advertising how great her fake schools are but refuses to [pay for rent….These are the times we are living in. Seems surreal in the fact that they are literally stealing money from our kids but it seems to just go unnoticed. Anyway great job Leonie sticking it to the creep.
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Wonder how much the DOE will be willing to spend to continue to fight the lawsuit in the courts?
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“Why in the world should the city close one of its highest performing schools?”
“Highest performing schools”. What are they on top of Mt. Everest? “Performing” in what?
The whole concept of ranking schools with some being the lowest (what in the Mariannas Trench?) and others the “highest” (on what?) is just more of the edudeformer and privateer language and modus operandi. A truer bogus manner of describing what the teaching and learning process, what the students learn, etc. . . can’t be found.
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I read this in the one of the papers Leonie submitted to the judge:
“P.S. 25 has class sizes of 10-18, with an average of 14.7 students per class. In the view of many experts, class sizes of 15 are ideal, especially for high-needs students. According to DOE data, fewer than 2.5 percent of elementary school students are in class sizes this small, and 18.8 percent are in classes of 30 or more.”
I feel as if that point is getting lost in the attacks on the Mayor’s decision as simply him wanting to close a high performing school.
And one reason it is getting lost is because defenders seem to be saying two completely contradictory things:
This school is working because it has such small class sizes.
The DOE didn’t give parents enough chance to choose this school and it will attract many more students if the DOE had done its job and then it won’t be as small. (Which means back to larger class sizes).
Shouldn’t the debate about class size be front and center in this? Because it is getting lost. What happens if the DOE keeps it open and puts in twice as many students and class sizes go up to 27 like at other public schools? Will the parents be happy? Will it still have top test scores? Is that what Leonie wants?
Isn’t the truth that this school works BECAUSE it has small class size? And by its defenders insisting that teachers and administrators at “inferior” schools with lower test scores visit and see what miracles this school is doing, they are simply using tactics as dishonest as Eva Moskowitz uses.
You don’t need to visit to see how it works when you have under 15 students in your class room. Just like you don’t need to visit to see how it works when a charter school simply kicks out the kids it doesn’t want to teach. By pretending this school’s teachers have something special they should be teaching the inept teachers at those other failing public schools that Leonie insists are so inferior to PS 25, isn’t that playing into the same idea?
The discussion should be whether we can afford classes of 15 or less for at-risk kids in public schools. Period. The Mayor made this decision because he did not believe NYC could afford it — not because he did not WANT that. And if he is wrong and we can afford it, then that means keeping class sizes small at PS 25 even if it has double the enrollment. And then the question is whether other students deserve this, too, and how to get it.
I just feel as if we are having the completely wrong debate in the rush to deem PS 25 superior without making it very clear that the way to keep it superior is to LIMIT the students who can attend instead of marketing to them to allow more to come without doubling the teaching staff and spending more per pupil at PS 25 than at most other public schools. And while I support that, it should be given to other public schools as well.
Class size matters. That is what I believe PS 25 demonstrates. Not better getting or better administration. But small class size. And the question is how we decide which students get this.
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Trying to bring REALITY into the game: “What happens if the DOE keeps it open and puts in twice as many students and class sizes go up to 27 like at other public schools? Will the parents be happy? Will it still have top test scores?” The “test score best schools” game relies heavily upon socially standardized students responding in socially standardized ways: what happens when classrooms are filled not only with more students, but with a diverse set of students….maybe a few not speaking English well, a few homeless, some hungry, some living with lack of parental care, a few without special needs help: using “standardized” testing in diverse classrooms and calling the results useful ONLY means that the results are useful for bashing and denigrating non-selective schools.
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“Why in the world should the city close one of its highest performing schools?”
So VAM and test scores are reliable now?? What happened to the American Statistical Association, junk science, more than a score, etc?
Operating a 95-student school in an 80% empty building in a densely populated neighborhood makes it impossible to accept the proposition that the NYC DOE is starved of resources.
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Tim, I got it. Eva wants the whole building.
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Tim,
What you mean is that Mayor de Blasio is being forced to close this school because Eva Moskowitz in all her wisdom has told politicians that her schools absolutely prove without a shadow of a doubt that all at-risk public school kids can become high performing scholars in large class sizes and spending money on small class sizes is something she absolutely will fight against just as much as she fought against universal pre-k. In both cases, Moskowitz insisted that spending money to give kids universal pre-k or small class sizes is a waste of money that poor kids did not deserve to have spent on them.
Since politicians — and Moskowitz’ biggest fan Tim who posts on here often — believe Eva Moskowitz never lies, Tim should be celebrating the Moskowitz victory! large class sizes! Maybe de Blasio will listen to Moskowitz and get rid of universal pre-k, too, just like she wanted when she said it was just as much a waste of money as small class sizes.
After all, if you can’t trust the word of the person who endorsed Betsy DeVos with all her heart, then you can you trust?
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Hmmm…the city has money to keep the rubber room open, but no plans to keep a high-performing school viable and open?
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Cheers for Leonie!
We are so lucky to have her fight to save public edcuation!
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What you said, Susan.
And–thank G-d no one had to go on a hunger strike, as Jitu Brown & other parents had to do to save Dyett H.S. in Chicago (U. Of I. recent study named it “most corrupt city in the nation”; same study names ILL-Annoy “3rd most corrupt state.”)
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