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Volume XVIII • Number 29 • June 23 - 29, 2011 •
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State shocker: Only 27% of RKA seniors ready for college By MIAWLING LAM Many students who graduate from the Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy are ill-prepared to tackle the rigors of even a community college or kick-start their careers. New data released by the New York State Education Department reveals just 27 percent of graduates from the Class of 2010 at M.S/H.S 141 were prepared for life after high school. Education officials released the college-readiness data alongside their annual release of graduation rates on June 14. Figures show that while RKA’s graduation rates are on the rise, less than a third of their graduates possess the necessary skills to succeed on campus or in the workforce. A total of 89.6 percent of RKA students who started high school in 2006 graduated on time, up from 78.7 percent in 2001—the fourth highest percentage in the district. Citywide, the graduation rate was 61 percent. Statewide, it was 73 percent. However, the true meaning of graduation requirements can be understood only by examining the NYSED’s Aspirational Performance Measure, or college-readiness figures. Of the 101 high schools in Bronx County whose re-
sults have been published, RKA students were declared the eighth-most college-ready cohort. Within District 10, which includes Riverdale, the school was ranked fourth and was beaten by the specialized Bronx High School of Science and High School of American Studies as well as by the Marble Hill High School of International Studies. RKA’s performance also lags behind schools in similar well-to-do areas of Manhattan. Millennium High School (65 percent) in the Financial District, NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies (56 percent) in Chelsea and Eleanor Roosevelt High School (81 percent) on the Upper East Side all boast significantly higher numbers of college-ready students. Councilman G. Oliver Koppell said he was concerned about RKA’ college-readiness data. “It’s a citywide issue. It’s clearly an issue, and that’s a very low percentage, certainly,” he said. “One hundred percent [of kids] should be collegeready if they’re graduating from high school.” Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch also expressed disappointment in the city’s numbers. She believed the dismal performance was a reflection
of the job ahead for those in education. “High school graduation should mean more than high-school completion,” she said. “[The] data makes clear that we have tremendous work to do to reduce the dropout rate, close a stubbornly persistent racial achievement gap and ensure that more of our graduates are prepared for college and the workforce. “This data underscores the urgency of our efforts to continue to raise standards, improve assessments and support the highest quality teaching in all of our classrooms.” Tisch conceded that although the figures were confronting, it was important to be honest with both parents and students. “This is talking about useful truths,” she said. ‘We are all aware that this is very challenging, and the tenacity of the achievement gap is undeniable. “But the only way to correct the problem is to find something that allows you to state clearly where you are, and that’s what this is.” According to state officials, students are deemed college- and career-ready if they earn a grade of 80 or above on a math Regents exam and 75 or above on the Continued on Page 19
Waste not, want not: Schervier community garden creates compost By PAULETTE SCHENEIDER On a gorgeous Thursday morning at the Schervier Community Garden, a relaxed but driven group of gardeners sat in folding chairs on either side of a giant flat sieve balanced across two tables. Clumps of uprooted vegetation rested on top of the wire mesh while loose soil and decomposing matter dropped through and landed on a tarp below. With clippers in one hand and fistfuls of wilted greens in the other, they set about their task—to reduce the clump size of the weeds, fallen leaves and stray roots they’d culled from the surrounding garden some time ago and had tossed onto an ever-growing heap of potential compost forming inside a thoughtfully constructed wooden bin. The community garden is funded by a grant from the Bon Secours Mission Fund and is meant to benefit a diverse population from Riverdale and Marble Hill. Around 40 gardeners, mainly seniors, pair up to share the garden’s ten-foot squares. They plant, tend, harvest and discuss the variety of vegetables they grow, some of which they donate to a local food pantry. In keeping with the mission, Schervier community garden
coordinator Barbara Denson has tended the land during the past few years with teen interns from Riverdale Neighborhood House, and she occasionally engages in horticultural therapy with developmentally disabled youngsters from an occupational training center. Denson also runs a garden club for Schervier nursing home residents. She’s arranged for club members to get their hands into the soil in their own backyard on a weekly basis this summer. “I’ve ordered wheelchair-height planters that will allow them to grow flowers and vegetables,” she said. The garden is blessed not only with a 305-gallon rainwater conservation tank and another one on the way, but also with a well-functioning garden-waste composting system and a new food-waste composting system in the making. In fact, the Schervier Community Garden is already designated as one of 26 Bronx communitybased composting sites featured on nyc.gov and is well on its way to achieving demo-site status. “This has been several years in the making,” Denson said, acknowledging the composting setup. “It started out as literally a pile.”
As the gardeners weed their plots, they place the pulled-up material into old-fashioned red wagons, wheel it over to the compost bin and add it to the pile. From time to time, to hasten
the decomposition process, they convene to “chop and sift.” To accomplish this, they each take a wagonload of coarse material from the bin, wheel it over to that improvised sieve table,
cut it into smaller pieces, wheel the more refined product back to the pile and toss it on. It’s all good exercise. On hand to monitor the Continued on Page 19
Neighbors working in the Schervier Community Garden, processing garden waste for composting. Standing from left to right: Erenia Pena, Chong Kong, Mary Lynch, Rita Freed, Sandra Deane. Seated: Cecilia Santos, Idonia Burrell.