Nearly all Rochester city schools that have been in receivership are eligible to shed that status by the end of the upcoming school year.
Receivership is a status the state Education Department assigns to low-performing schools. That designation makes the schools eligible for certain grants and specialized attention to aid student progress.
The Rochester City School District has seven schools in receivership — schools 7, 16, 28, and 33; East Lower; Edison Tech High School; and Monroe High School, according to district and state records.
That’s about 15% of all the district's schools. Four of them were designated in 2019. Two others have had the status for a decade. One, School 7, was just placed in receivership last year.
By this time next year, it is possible that just School 7 would remain, but district administrators said that’s not a guarantee.
Dan Hurley, executive director of the district’s Office of School Innovation, said in a recent school board meeting that the process going forward involves district and state-level monitoring of receivership schools, and collaboration with educators in the classrooms.
“We can adjust strategies, provide increased professional learning, or different resources, Central Office supports for those schools,” Hurley said. “Our goal really is sustained, continuous improvement that's going to enable each school to exit receivership successfully.”
Superintendent Eric Rosser said in that school board meeting that during the school year, state officials will be available to provide on-site and virtual assistance to help schools improve their student outcomes and exit receivership.
“I did receive communication ... providing us with assurance of state ed's support as well as their expectations, outlining the reporting requirements that we have with them. But also outlining that they will be available,” Rosser said.
Quarterly reports filed with the state Education Department show that multiple schools in receivership identified a need going forward for more equitable access to grade level content for disabled and multi-lingual students, in particular.
