Chalkbeat Takes On The Elimination Of SOAR & Mini-School Programs At PS 139

Chalkbeat offered a great followup last week to our initial report about the SOAR and mini-school programs coming to an end at PS 139.

Using thoughts from a number of local parents and education experts and statements from Principal Mary McDonald, reporter Sarah Darville takes a closer look at changes to NYC public schools throughout the Bloomberg years into the beginning of the de Blasio administration. To add to previous discussion of the matter, Darville says:

On Thursday night, McDonald told a group of parents that the school’s current enrollment policies for those programs have created inequity. Both programs have a heavy overrepresentation of students living above the poverty line, a disparity that has been growing each year, she said.

Of the 12 or 13 percent of the school’s current kindergarten class that does not qualify for free or reduced price lunch, just one student is not in one of the school’s special programs, according to McDonald.

McDonald filled a presentation to parents on Thursday with quotes from researchers showing that tracking students by ability level provides negligible academic benefits and significant social drawbacks. “We need to do less assuming that students aren’t aware of the stigma of being placed in ability groups,” she said.

If you’re a current or former PS 139 parent–or were considering sending your child–what have these recent developments done to reaffirm that you made the right decision–or to make you change your mind? Are you satisfied with elimination of SOAR and mini-schools, and what about how the change and announcement was handled? Have any parents who were previously upset about the change heard Principal’s McDonald’s views on the matter, and reconsidered?