SCHOOLS ARE OPEN
More than 1 million children streamed back into city schools on Wednesday, September 9. In Queens, students found some brand new schools – eight of them to be exact. All of them found a vastly improved school system.
The city schools have improved dramatically according to the third annual public schools Progress Reports released by Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein a week before the first day of school.
The reports evaluate the elementary, middle and K-8 schools and focus on students’ academic performance (25 percent of grade), progress (60 percent of grade) and learning environments based on attendance and parent, teacher and students surveys (15 percent of A to F grade). The schools are then compared to other schools with similar populations for 75 percent of the final Progress Reports, with the remaining 25 percent coming from a comparison of a school with all citywide schools that serve the same grade levels.
Two-hundred and thirty Queens schools were included in the evaluations with 203 earning A; 23 received a B and two got a C and two were too new to be graded. Every school in the northeast Queens 25th school district received an A.
The best news in the report was the fact that among third to eighth graders, 27,000 made at least a year’s worth of progress in reading compared to last year and 24,000 students did the same amount of progress in math.
Continued success in our schools is the responsibility of all parents. Parents must get involved with their children’s homework, test preparations and attendance. Your children will want to do their best if they are sure that it really matters to you. Congratulate them for good grades and exam results.
HAPPY HOLIDAY
We wish our readers of the Jewish faith a happy Rosh Hashanah beginning at sundown on Saturday, September 19 through Sunday, September 20. Rabbi Yossi Blesofsky of the Chabad of Northeast Queens explained that Rosh Hashanah is the “anniversary of the creation of man” and described it as being a coronation day.
“Every year at this time humankind is supposed to come together and recognize the sovereignty of God,” he said. “It’s really the coronation day.”
