District 16: Superintendent Calls Troubled District A Success
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Weeks into our investigation of Brooklyn's School District 16, the superintendent finally agrees to speak with NY1 but denies anything is wrong. NY1's Lindsey Christ filed the following report. NY1's Lindsey Christ filed the following exclusive report.Nicole Alford has raised her family in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and since last year, she's been on the local education council for District 16. She admits that the problems with this school district are nothing new.
Since Alford is one of just two members on what's supposed to be a 12 person council, no official business gets done. Nobody can account for what the council's administrative assistant does all day, and NY1's cameras were illegally kept out of a public meeting.
When NY1 tried to call the district office, none of the phone numbers worked. Superintendent Evelyn Santiago later admitted the phone lines have a tendency to go down. And after refusing to talk with us for several weeks, she wouldn't talk about the council or parental involvement, focusing on the positive.
"I believe the schools here in District 16 have done a remarkable job in increasing the level of engagement with children," Santiago said.
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein was more candid, admitting the district still has some serious problems.
"Look, it's a challenged district. It's long been a challenged district. But it's a district making progress, it's got a lot more to make," Klein said.
Klein focused on new schools with better results than those they replaced, and even improvements in the attendance rate, although it's still the lowest in the city. He also pointed to higher elementary school test scores.
But data suggests the longer students are in District 16, the farther behind they fall. Third graders had the same or better scores than 13 other districts on the state math test last year, but by eighth grade, the math scores in District 16 are the lowest in the city. More than half of eighth graders are below standards in English and almost 40 percent in math, all of which leads to a 39 percent graduation rate, the city's second worst.
Despite some progress with the elementary schools, the schools in District 16 are still in need of major improvements. But that's hard when the phones don't work, the council can't hold a vote, administrative assistants report to no one, and the public isn't included.