Just two F's amid nearly straight A's on 2009 progress reports

Just two schools got F’s on their progress reports this year, bearing out reports that Schools Chancellor Joel Klein would tout high scores when he released this year’s grades today.

Eighty-four percent of elementary and middle schools earned A’s, up from 38 percent last year, promising to stir up questions about how useful the progress reports are for parents and principals.

A few other highlights: Of the lowest-performing schools, most opened under Klein’s watch. Nearly 5 percent of schools earned so much extra credit for helping their neediest students that their scores exceeded 100 percent. And the schools that the city tried to close last year before being thwarted by a lawsuit all earned A grades.

Klein is offering his interpretation to reporters right now at a press conference, and we’ll bring updates from there later in the day. For now, take a look at the complete list of progress report grades and add your observations to mine:

  • Ten of the 12 schools with the lowest raw scores opened since Klein became chancellor in 2002. The two schools that received F’s are Washington Heights Academy, which opened in 2004, and Harlem Link Charter School, which opened in 2005. This was the first year the schools had enough test results to give them progress reports.
  • PS 8, the popular school in Brooklyn Heights that made news last year when it received an F on its progress report, not only got an A this year but was one of the most improved schools in the city, with a score that rose by more than 70 points over last year.
  • The largest score drop in the city happened at the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy Charter School, which got 90.6 points on last year’s progress report but earned just 56.5 points on this year’s report, giving it a B.
  • The three schools that the UFT and parent leaders sued to keep open saw their scores rise by an average of 54 points. PS 194 and PS 241 in Harlem both went from D’s to A’s, and PS 150 in Brooklyn got an A after receiving an F last year.
  • Nearly 50 schools scored more than 100 points according to the progress reports formula, which awards extra credit to schools where especially needy students get higher scores on the state tests.
  • PS 123, the Harlem school that’s embroiled in a battle with the Harlem Success Academy charter school over space, received an A on the report. It received a B last year. Harlem Success did not get a progress report grade because last year was the first time its students took state tests.
  • KIPP AMP, the charter school where teachers voted to unionize last year, received the lowest score of any of the city’s four KIPP schools. It was the 65th-lowest-scoring city school, more than 600 places behind the next-lowest-scoring KIPP school, KIPP STAR.

Here’s the spreadsheet with each school’s scores from this year and last year. (Download an Excel file with the grades here.)