Committee Scrutinizing Middle School Performance By Carl Glassman It has been almost five years since District 2’s school board sat on the stage of the P.S. 234 auditorium, listening to the pleas of parents. The new middle school, then under construction in Battery Park City, should be for local kids, parents said. But it was no use. In keeping with the district’s policy, the board voted to make I.S. 89 another “choice” school, open to children throughout the district. Now, parents and community leaders are pushing to have another new school, the Millennium High School, zoned for Downtown. As Community Board 1 presses its claim that a zoned District 2 high school would be an important option for the children of Lower Manhattan, it is also beginning to question how I.S. 89 has fared under the district’s 1998 mandate. A disparity in test scores between P.S. 234 and P.S. 89, which are zoned for local children, and I.S. 89 is too wide, they say. And some parents cite those differences as evidence that I.S. 89 would be a stronger school if it gave preference to Downtown students. “When you’re dealing with 30 percentage points difference between fifth graders and sixth and seventh graders, then something is wrong,” said Paul Hovitz, chair of CB1’s Youth and Education Committee and an I.S. 89 parent. Hovitz’s committee is looking into the performance of I.S. 89, its test scores over the past several years, and how children have developed during their three years there. They expect to meet next month with members of the I.S. 89 School Leadership Team to talk about the school. In 2001, 63 percent of students met or exceeded standards on state and city math exams, and 67 percent at least met standards in English. Ellen Foote, the school’s principal, noted that I.S. 89 has the highest scores among “non-screened” middle schools in the district. Scores from students in separate special education classes are factored in, she says. As most educators and parents acknowledge, standardized scores give a limited view of any school. And as the community board looks closely at the school, it is likely to find that the picture is more complex than numbers can show. In interviews last month, I.S. 89 parents described a school that their children love to attend, and that was often chosen over the district’s selective middle schools for its closeness to home, the continuity of friendships, and its sparkling new facilities. There is universal praise for the school’s writing program and many of the teachers are well-regarded, but I.S. 89 gets mixed reviews in other academic areas. For many parents, the school’s inclusive admissions policy and less structured classroom environment engender strong feelings—pro and con. I.S. 89 not only must admit children from around the district but also is mandated to be “heterogeneous.” Unlike selective middle schools, such as Lab or East Side Middle School, it does not have minimum fourth grade test score requirements. And unlike Wagner and Baruch middle schools, it does not have a track for higher performing students. “Tribeca is pretty lily white and it’s pretty privileged and educated,” said Cass Collins, the mother of an I.S. 89 seventh grade girl and a son who graduated from the school. “Well, the whole world isn’t like that and when our kids get into high school they’re confronted with the rest of the world. I don’t think it’s the worst thing if they’re with kids from other backgrounds.” “It would be nice if I.S. 89 was a zoned school,” said another I.S. 89 mother, who asked that her name not be used. “Kids from the neighborhood come from good families. They care about education. Look at the reputation [P.S] 234 has got.” Despite complaints that I.S. 89 is not zoned for Downtown children, Foote said that the “majority, by far” of her students come from P.S. 234 and P.S. 89. Nevertheless, it was her belief in a heterogeneous school that led her to take the job, she said. And she acknowledged that the school is not for everyone. “Parents who expected their children to be in a segregated school by virtue of location, with lots of high-achieving white students, are disappointed,” she said. Those who are happy “are there for the right reasons. They subscribe to their children having experience in a diverse community that reflects New York.” Foote, as well as most parents interviewed for this article, said that those who do best at the school, which generally favors group projects and portfolio assessments over textbooks and tests, are self-motivated and thrive without the structure of a more traditional classroom. Some parents complain that the group work penalizes higher achievers, while others say girls do better with it than boys. Foote insists that, for higher performing students, the heterogeneous setting makes little difference. For lower achievers, “the impact is enormous.” “I.S. 89 represents a certain philosophy, and parents can subscribe to that or not,” she said. “They have lots of places to go.”