A New Look at Washington Irving

by Tevin Campbell 

It is without a doubt that Washington Irving has been developing into a better school over the past few years. Washington Irving is no longer the old school that no one wanted to be a part of. It has transformed into an exciting, progressive school, on the right track to great success. All the unique changes at Irving have been done under the hand of our hard working principal, Mr. Bernard Ascona.

Several years back Washington Irving was once a school of frail and unsafe, a school that was on the verge of being shut down. Irving was being marked as one of the worst schools in NYC, receiving an “F” two years in a row.

It was time for a change, and Mr. Ascona took the opportunity of taking over Irving. He knew what he was up against; a school that had been damaged for years, and didn’t seem like it was on process of making any future achievements. But that did not stop Ascona from accepting the job of, executive principal. He had high expectations, even in his own words he pleaded, “I saw hope in this school from the beginning”.

Since Mr. Ascona’s arrival over the past several years, Washington Irving has improved in three major areas: school environment, student performance, and student progress.
In his first year as principal, the school made an overall achievement in bettering its environment. The school reduced student suspensions from a high of 305 to an impressively lower number under 100 suspensions.  “We won’t be happy until we get 0 suspensions”, he smirked. Strict rules were enforced, leading to less fights and violence, ensuring the safety of students and staff.

“My job was to turn this school around and take it off the failing list”, he said; and so he has done. Last year the school increased its city grade from an “F” to a “C” average. So far this school year Irving received another “C”- as can be seen o the Department of Education website, http://schools.ny.gov. Not quite what everyone was expecting, but Mr. Ascona explained that the schools were rated in a different manner.   “The rules of the progress report became harder, so what was a “ C” last year was harder to achieve this year.  “A” remains the same, on the other hand, every other grade, “B”, “C”, and “D”, became harder to get. So you had to do more this year to get a better score because the qualifications were increased”, Ascona explained. “But we are almost  there, we are close to getting that “ B”, we just need to work a little bit harder,” he smiled.

Student performance is increasing, but slowly. In the 2007-08 progress report, graduation rate was at a very low 39.9%, leaving our student performance score at a 6.4 out of 25. So far in two years time, graduation and diploma rates went up to 53.0% landing the school performance level at 7.9 out of 25 for the 200-10 school year. “Even thought we have still received low score on our performance, we are glad that it has increased, and are working on improving this situation, making it one of our top priorities to achieve, a high graduation rate”. A big part in making sure performances are on an acceptable level is student progress. 60%, that’s the amount the student progress takes up on the overall score. Students need to get at “least” 10+ credits or more per year in order to be on the right track of “graduating”. “If students are falling behind on credits, there are credit recuperation programs that the school offers, such as: Plato (available only online), and credit make up class programs, (after school classes)”, Ascona announced.

It appears that Mr. Ascona made the right move by adding credit recuperation program’s because scores are improving compared to the time before he was principal. The percentage of students earning 10+ credits in their 1^st year went from barley half, 50.6% to 67.4%. The percentage of the 2^nd year students making that mark increased from 47.7% to 58.6%, all from since he arrived at Irving.

Out of all the improvements, Regents Passing Rates has been the most statistically impressive. Based upon the “2009-10 Progress Report,” all Regents, with the exception of Science, have progressed widely in passing scores. Washington Irving has also made gains relative to the city horizon (all schools): English-70.5%, Math- 75.4%, U.S. History- 102.9%, global- 88.4% and even though science had a failing score ( 61.4%) it was able to make a big jump from 10.7% in 2007-08.

As Washington Irving rebuilds, and improves its scores, where does Mr. Ascona see Irving in five years? “I see Washington Irving as a college readiness school. A school where every kid is prepared for college or professional life after high school that will help them in their lives”, he said boldly. Ascona continues to spill out his brave words” I definitely think Washington Irving will be an, A school, and a well developed school, in five years”.  

Source:      http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2009-10/Progress_Report_2010_HS_M460.pdf