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Rich Hill elementary tops for Latino pupils

Rich Hill elementary tops for Latino pupils
Photo by Christina Santucci
By Rich Bockmann

Richmond Hill’s Jackie Kennedy-Onassis school was named one of the best elementary schools in the state for helping Latino, low-income and English-language learners get a leg up, according to a recent analysis of New York’s 4,000-plus public schools by a nonprofit educational-advocacy group.

The school landed on three Top 10 lists for the 2010-11 school year compiled by the New York Campaign for Achievement Now, which ranked schools across the state where at least 40 percent of the student bodies were composed of students in a particular at-risk group.

Using state Education Department data, the nonprofit, which is the New York-branch of a national coalition of groups advocating for research-based education reform, assigned a letter grade to every school in the state on how well students performed in reading and math.

The rankings also measured how particular subsets of at-risk students performed and how well schools closed the achievement gap.

“While states certainly collect this data and share it in a variety of forms, it’s usually not in a user-friendly way, so parents and people in the community can use it as an informed snapshot of their schools,” NYCAN Executive Director Julie Marlette said.

In addition to the report cards for the state’s schools, the nonprofit’s website, nycan.org/report-cards, shows Top 10 lists of elementary and middle schools with high populations of ELL, black, Latino and low-income students.

“Part of what we try to do is learn from the examples of these schools where these students are learning well so other schools can look toward them as examples and foster cooperation with their leadership,” Marlette said.

PS 60 in Woodhaven and PS 254 in Richmond Hill made the elementary school Top 10 lists for Latino student performance.

Astoria’s Young Women’s Leadership School was in the Top 10 among state schools in Latino student performance.

Oakland Gardens’ Alley Pond School and Little Neck’s PS 46 were in a three-way tie with a Westchester school for the No. 1 elementary school in the state helping ELL students.

Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.