New York City: City schools with more black and Hispanic students are more likely to earn low grades on the Education Department’s high-stakes school report cards, a new study shows

An Independent Budget Office report on the city’s school progress reports shows that schools with a higher percentage of black and Hispanic students were likely to have lower overall scores than other schools. According to the report, for every 10 percentage point increase in the proportion of black and Hispanic students, a school’s overall score dropped one point for elementary schools and two points for middle schools. Since 2007 the Education Department has issued annual progress reports for nearly all of the city’s public schools. The schools are graded on a scale of A to F depending on how students perform on state tests and how the Department rates the environment of the school. The grades are one of the city’s fundamental tools for judging the performance of schools and are used in decisions to close schools and award bonuses to principals. Education Department officials said that eliminating the achievement gap between white and minority students is the core goal of the city’s reform strategy, but as long as it exists it will show up in the reports.