16 AUGUST 29, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
BACK TO SCHOOL
These Queens schools excelled on math & ELA tests
Here are new schools & extensions opening in Qns. next week
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
With more than 1.1 million
students heading back to
public schools on opening
day on Thursday, Sept. 5, the most
excited pupils can be found along the
Jackson Heights/Woodside border —
where P.S. 398 opens its doors for the
fi rst time.
The $62 million state-of-the-art,
five-story building features 476
seats for pre-K through fifth grade
in Community School District 30,
the second-most overcrowded
school district in Queens.
Councilman Daniel Dromm, a
former New York City public school
teacher for more than 20 years at
P.S. 199 in Sunnyside, became an
advocate for class size reduction
after teaching in one of the most
overcrowded schools in the city,
he said.
“They had to make space in closets,
locker rooms, dressing rooms and
elsewhere,” Dromm said. “Class
size reduction will help teachers
provide instructional class lessons
and the city has never tried class
size reduction. With 34 kids in
a classroom, they can’t spend as
much time with each child. The
Department of Education doesn’t
take into account new developments
in the city and the inf lux of
immigrants to the community, such
as Jackson Heights, Elmhurst and
Astoria.”
The school is located at 69-01
34th Ave. along the Brooklyn-
Queens Expressway, on what
was once White Castle’s regional
headquarters. A developer once
planned to build an apartment
complex at the location, but
Dromm was able to get the School
Construction Authority to step in
and by the land for $6.3 million in
2015 in order to build the 65,000-
square-foot school that includes a
rooftop playground.
Elsewhere, P.S. 303 in Forest
Hills will cut the ribbon on its $66
million addition that will allow
the school, known as the Academy
for Excellence Through the Arts,
to add grades 4 and 5 to existing
grades pre-K through 3. The new
facility includes a two-story gym,
science rooms, a reading library
and special education rooms at
108-55 69th Ave.
Also in Forest Hills, there is a
$52.4 million four-story addition
set to open at P.S. 144, the Colonel
Jeromus Remsen elementary school.
The new construction added 26 new
classrooms with a new entrance
lobby and seats for 590 students.
P.S. 66, The Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis school in Richmond Hill,
which first opened its doors in 1893
at 85-11 102nd St., also opens its new
addition with six new classrooms
for 124 news seats with a cafeteria,
exercise room and new office space
for school administrators.
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
CMOHAMED@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
New York City elementary and
middle school students are doing
better academically, according to
the new English language arts (ELA)
and math test results released Aug.
22 by the New York State Education
Department.
Citywide, 45.6 percent of New
York City students were proficient in
statewide math tests given in grades
3 through 8 in 2019, according to
the state Education Department.
This shows a 2.9 percentage point
increase from tests given in 2018,
when 42 percent of students were
proficient.
Students in grades 3 through 8
also improved on the ELA exam,
which showed 47.4 percent of
students were proficient in 2019, up
0.7 percentage points from the 46.7
percent result in 2018.
“During my tenure with the New
York State Education Department, I’m
proud of the progress we have made
in terms of reducing gaps in student
achievement,” said MaryEllen Elia,
state education commissioner. “As
I’ve consistently said, assessments
are a part of the larger picture
that we look at when we examine
performance levels across the state.
This year’s test scores are a positive
sign that we are making progress
and I believe the deliberative and
thoughtful approach outlined in
our State’s ESSA plan will continue
to benefit the students of New York
state.”
Students in Syracuse and most of
New York’s other big cities did better
this year, but still lagged behind the
state average. About 16 percent of
students declined to take the test,
according to the Department of
Education.
This year, in Queens, a total
of 126,088 students were tested,
resulting in an overall proficiency
rate of 65,774 (52 percent); compared
to 2018, where 126,678 students were
tested with a proficiency rate of
66,009 (52 percent), according to data
by the Education Department.
Charter schools in Queens
received an overall proficiency rate
of 3,039 (58 percent), with a total
number of 5,203 students tested for
the ELA and math exams.
According to data, 52 third grade
students who took the ELA exam at
the Success Academy Charter School
in South Jamaica in School District
28, scored a proficiency level of 100
percent. Other schools that topped
the chart included The Academy
for Excellence Through The Arts in
Forest Hills, the Success Academy
Charter School in Rosedale and the
Baccalaureate School For Global
Education in Astoria — where third,
seventh and eighth grade students
scored a proficiency level of 100
percent in ELA and math.
In Queens School District 30,
students in grades 6, 7 and 8 at P.S. 122
in Astoria, The 30th Avenue School
(for gifted and talented children
in Astoria) and P.S. 98 Douglaston
School scored a proficiency level
of 98 percent on the ELA and math
exams.
Bell Academy students in Bayside
scored a proficiency level of 74.5
percent on the ELA exam and 65.5
percent on the math. Schools in Far
Rockaway such as P.S./M.S. 114 Belle
Harbor scored 77.2 percent (ELA),
65.5 percent (math); Goldie Maple
Academy 47.4 percent (ELA), 27.8
percent (math); and The Academy
of Medical Technology (A College
Board School) 31.4 percent (ELA),
15.1 percent (math). P.S. 111 Jacob
Blackwell in Long Island City scored a
lower proficiency rate of 17.5 percent
on the ELA and 11.9 percent on the
math exam, and The Academy for
New Americans in Astoria scored 4.7
percent on the ELA followed by 10.5
percent on the math exam.
A worker at P.S. 398 in Jackson
Heights. Courtesy of SCA
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