With the threat of a potential eviction looming overhead, students at Middle Village Preparatory Charter School (MVP) are eager to start school on Monday, Aug. 28, after learning their state test scores were among the best in the district in math and English language arts (ELA).
According to scores released by the New York State Education Department on Tuesday, Aug. 22, MVP’s English language arts proficiency has grown from 37 percent in 2015 to 56 percent in 2017, while students’ mathematics proficiency has improved to 60 percent, which is up slightly from 58 percent in 2015.
MVP’s 2017 ELA scores are for grades 6-8. The 2017 District 24 numbers show 43 percent proficiency in those grades versus MVP’s 56 percent.
MVP’s math scores are only for grades 6-7, since the charter school’s eighth-graders take the New York State Algebra 1 Regents exam, where 85 percent passed the exam this year. District 24’s proficiency in math for grades 6-7 was at 40 percent versus MVP’s 60 percent.
“These scores are the result of hard work by our students and excellent instruction by our teachers, in an overall environment that fosters learning and high character,” said Josephine Lume, MVP’s board chair. “All our students, their parents and our staff can feel good about these results – knowing full well they are just part of what makes MVP a great school. That said, there’s more work we as school leaders can do so our students can continue to rise.”
To see the citywide data, visit the Department of Education website.
The test scores come at a time when parents, teachers and students anxiously await a judge’s decision in the lawsuit brought forth by the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens against Christ the King High School (CTK) — where MVP is located — charging that the secular charter school breaches an agreement the diocese and high school made in 1976.
If the diocese wins its case, then MVP would most like be forced to close its doors and send its 400 middle school students into the already overcrowded District 24 system.
Parents and students have held meetings and rallies to try and get the diocese to drop the lawsuit and allow MVP to remain open.
