ALBANYTwenty-five
New York State schools have been named 2002 recipients of The Business Council's
Pathfinder Award, which honors schools that show the most improvement from
one year to the next as measured by their students' scores on standardized
tests.
Each honored school receives its award at a local ceremony. Two winners in Manhattan have already accepted their awards. Other winners will receive their awards at ceremonies around the state to be scheduled in the next few weeks.
The winners are:
- P.S. I.S. 51 (the Elias Howe School) of Community School District 2, Manhattan.
- PS 59 (the Beekman Hill International School) of Community School District 2, Manhattan.
- The Breuckelen School (PS 260) of Community School District 19, Brooklyn.
- The Ida R. Posner School (PS 165) of Community School District 23, Brooklyn.
- PS 12 of the Troy City School District, Troy.
- PS 2 of the Troy City School District, Troy.
- The John F. Kennedy School of the Kingston City School District, Kingston.
- The Colton-Pierrepont Elementary School of the Colton-Pierrepont Central School District, Colton, St. Lawrence County.
- The Brushton Grade School of the Brushton-Moira Central School District, Brushton, Franklin County.
- The Poland Elementary School of the Poland Central School District, Poland, Herkimer County.
- The Stokes School of the Rome City School District, Rome.
- The North Broad Street School of the Oneida City School District, Oneida, Madison County.
- The Schenevus Central School of Schenevus Central School District, Schenevus, Otsego County.
- The Marion Elementary School of the Marion Central School District, Marion, Wayne County.
- School 20 (The Henry Lomb School) of the Rochester City School District, Rochester.
- The Build Academy of the Buffalo City School District, Buffalo.
- PS 33 of the Buffalo City School District, Buffalo.
- The Graham School of the Mount Vernon City School District, Mount Vernon, Westchester County.
- The Edward Williams School of the Mount Vernon City School District, Mount Vernon, Westchester County.
- The Fulton School of the Hempstead School District, Hempstead, Nassau County.
- The Riverside School of the Rockville Centre Union Free School District, Rockville Centre, Nassau County.
- The William Haberle School (P.S.195) of Community School District 29 of Rosedale, Queens County.
- PS 96 of Community School District 27 of Ozone Park, Queens County.
- The Robert J. Christen School (PS 81) of Community School District 10, the Bronx.
- The Joseph R. Drake School of Community School District 8, the Bronx.
Background on the Pathfinder Awards: The Pathfinder Award program is in its second year. The Business Council created the Pathfinder Awards last year to recognize elementary schools that show the most improvement from one year to the next as measured by the state's new academic standards. Last year, 27 schools around the state received the award in the first year.
How award recipients are determined: To be chosen, a school must meet two criteria. First, it must have shown more improvement over its record the previous year than other schools in its region. In addition, at least half of its students must meet or exceed state standards on the fourth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests.
Last year, the awards were based solely on results from the ELA test. This year's awards reflect changes in scores on both ELA and math tests; comparative data on math results were not available when the awards were given last year.
The Business Council gives Pathfinder Awards to two public schools in each of 12 different regions across the state. These regions are the state's judicial districts; awards are being made by those districts because appointments to the state Board of Regents are based on those regions. In some regions, if more than two schools show nearly identical levels of improvement, more than two may be recognized. Schools that win the award receive $1,000 for the school's programs and a trophy in recognition of their achievement.
Donors that have contributed to date to support the Pathfinder Awards include Corning Incorporated, ChevronTexaco, Con Edison, Fleet Bank, State Farm Insurance, the Pike Company, Frontier Communications, the Golub Corporation, KeyBank, and Michael D. Marvin, founder of the MapInfo Corporation.
Background on The Business Council's advocacy for education: The Business Council has long been an active and forceful advocate of policies to strengthen the performance and accountability of the state's public schools, and has long encouraged businesses and business leaders to become active partners with schools in their efforts to improve.
For example, The Public Policy Institute used state data to design the prototype for the state's school report cards. Today school report cards are released annually to give schools, teachers, parents, and students a sense of how their schools are doing compared to schools in similar circumstances and their own performance of the previous year. The Council has also supported the state's new academic standards and based on them to measure the performance of students, teachers, and schools.
In November, The Council's research affiliate, The Public Policy Institute, published a summary of The Council's Sept. 21 panel discussion at which business and school leaders discussed how businesses might help schools improve.
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