By Omar Lopez, DFER Policy Analyst
Regarding Stephanie Banchero’s article, “New York Teams up with IBM to Reboot a High School” (Wall Street Journal, New York, August 1): P-Tech High School is an innovative new school that will provide an exciting opportunity for many students. However, this inventive school is only possible because of the city’s decision to close the persistently failing Paul Robeson High School, which P-Tech is replacing. As any computer user knows, there comes a point when tinkering with settings is not enough and the entire operating system must be replaced. That is what happened with Paul Robeson.
According to “Managing by Numbers,” a report by the Center for New York City Affairs, during the 2007-2008 school year, 43 percent of students at Paul Robeson reported skipping more than two months of classes. By 2009, graduation rates plummeted to 46.4 percent, 21.7 percentage points below the city average.