New York City Progress Report Grades: An Overview
How does a school earn Additional Credit?
To increase their total score, schools can receive Additional Credit for helping their high-needs students make exemplary gains. There are five high-needs student groups:
- English language learners
- Special education students
- Hispanic students who perform in the lowest third citywide
- Black students who perform in the lowest third citywide
- Other students who perform in the lowest third citywide
Do all criteria count equally toward the Grade?
The School Environment Score contributes 15% to the total score, the Student Performance Score counts for 30% of the total score, and the Student Progress Score garners 55% of the total score. Since Additional Credit is added after these three criteria are totaled, the gains of high-needs students count more than any of the other three criteria.
The school's score in each of these categories is compared to all schools in the city and to Peer Schools. How a school performs compared to Peer Schools counts twice as much as how it performs compared to the citywide results. Therefore, schools that score higher than similar schools are awarded more points toward a higher grade.
What are Peer Schools?
Peer Schools are schools with similar characteristics, which are determined by a set of ranked lists. Elementary schools are ranked by the percentage of students eligible for free lunch, student demographics, the percentage of special education students, and the percentage of English language learners. Middle schools are ranked by the scores their students received when they took the NYSA English language arts and math test in grade 4. High schools are ranked by grade 8 results. The 20 schools above and the 20 schools below each school in the ranked list are a school's Peer Schools. Specialized High Schools are an exception to this rule and serve as their own peer group. A small number of schools do not have peer groups and will therefore not have any peer group calculations.
Do schools know what targets they should aim to meet?
Benchmarks have been set based on results for the school years of 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07. These reference points will remain the same for several years, so that progress can be measured against a fixed target.
