The Story of PS161: The Crown School & How to Fail/Fix NYC Public Schools
by Fred Baptiste, PTA Vice-President of PS 161
As a parent of children at PS 161 – The Crown School, a resident of Crown Heights, and a taxpayer, I am strongly against the proposal to truncate of the 6-8th grades at the Crown School and the policy of school closures in general, because it hasn’t shown be a policy that improves student outcomes. As parents and taxpayers we are entitled to access to a quality education right here in our community. I believe as many other parents do, that PS 161 is a good school and that given the appropriate resources our children can achieve and the school can give them the education they need to succeed. This is an issue not specific to just the Crown School.
For many years, PS 161 was considered the ‘Jewel of Crown Heights’ and was a top-rated school. But in recent years there has been a steady decline in test scores. The question that has to be asked is why did the school fall so precipitously? The DOE has presented data to rationalize its decision but to truly understand what is at work, we must take a holistic look at how the school came to this position. It is only by looking at this big
