New York Graduation Rate Inches Up

NEW YORK
Friday, December 19, 2014 | A5
www.TheEpochTimes.com
New York Graduation Rate Inches Up
Cuomo administration promises
‘aggressive legislative package’ to
improve public education
By Carolyn Thompson
BUFFALO, N.Y.—New York’s high
school graduation rate improved
slightly to 76.4 percent last year, even
with higher learning standards,
education officials said Thursday,
but Gov. Andrew
Cuomo’s administration made
clear it is far from
satisfied with the
state of schools.
Despite a 1.5
percent gain in
the overall graduation rate, the
percentage of students earning the
top college-readylevel diploma held
at 31 percent.
The numbers also reflected perennial problems of high-needs districts
being outperformed by more welloff suburban peers, and double-digit
gaps between the graduation rates of
white and minority students.
Cuomo’s director of state operations on Thursday sent a letter
The percentage
of students
earning the
top college-readylevel diploma held
at 31 percent.
to Education Commissioner John
King Jr. and the head of the policysetting board of regents promising
“an aggressive legislative package to
improve public education” and seeking input on topics from the credibility of teacher evaluations that
give nearly everyone high marks to
fixes for failing schools that have the
potential to harm children for life.
“Tackling these questions with
bold policy and leadership could
truly transform public education
and finally have it focus on the
student as opposed to the bureaucracy,” Jim Malatras wrote.
Students graduating last year
were the first who entered high
school after the adoption of a 2010
set of reforms that included the
Common Core Learning Standards
intended to better prepare graduates for college or jobs.
“While the increased graduation
rates are encouraging, nearly one in
four students is not graduating after
four years,” King said. “It is imperative
that we continue to support districts
as they fully implement the higher
expectations the board of regents has
set for students and educators.”
SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES
Students at the Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, N.Y., on Aug. 29.
Four of the so-called Big Five
districts—New York City, Syracuse, Yonkers, and Rochester—
made gains, the biggest coming in
New York City, which posted a 64.2
percent graduation rate, compared
with 61.3 percent the previous year.
Rochester had the lowest rate of the
group with 43.4 percent, compared
with 43 percent a year earlier. Buf-
falo saw its rate drop from 53.4 percent to 52.8 percent.
Acting Buffalo Superintendent
Donald Ogilvie said the city’s rates
would be helped by alternative
career and technical graduation
pathways being developed by the
district and state, along with programs that extend learning time
and address language and cultural
deficits in the growing immigrant
population.
The district was singled out in the
letter from Malatras, who called its
conditions “deplorable.”
“I think we’ve instituted many
programs that will steadily result
in better outcomes,” Ogilvie said.
From The Associated Press
Police Bust Brooklyn Rapper Gang, Seize Firearms
By Shannon Liao
Epoch Times Staff
NEW YORK—Fifteen gang
members, part of a subsection of
the famed Crips, were arrested
and indicted on 69 counts,
police announced Thursday.
City police also seized 21 guns
as part of the investigation.
The 15 were part of the “GS9,”
also referred to as “G Stone Crips,”
based in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Members of the gang typically ranged from ages 18 to 25.
After numerous shootings
in public places between GS9
and rival gangs in the city and
in Miami, Fla., police finally
caught the 15, in an investigation that involved “all these little facts stitched together,” said
Bridget Brennan, special narcotics prosecutor.
Early Wednesday morning,
police arrested eight members
outside Quad Recording Studios, where several of the gang
recorded their music as rappers.
Five others were arrested at the
same time in other parts of the
city, and two others were taken
into custody outside of New York.
Several of the members had
also been part of a rap group
under the name GS9, including Ackquille Pollard, who performs as “Bobby Shmurda” and
is also known as “Chewy,” and
Chad Marshall, who went by
the name “Rowdy Rebel.”
The gang had operated
around East 95th Street from
Kings Highway to East New
York Avenue in East Flatbush.
They bought guns with money
obtained through crack cocaine
sales. As violence with rival
gangs surged, members had
been plotting to shoot them in
retaliation, including members
of a gang that went by the acronym “BMW,” which stands for
Brooklyn’s Most Wanted.
The 69 indictment counts
include charges of conspiracy, murder, attempted murPHOTO BY SCOTT ROTH/INVISION/AP
“Bobby Shmurda” at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Oct. 30. Shmurda,
whose real name is Ackquille Pollard, has been arrested in New York
City in a gun and narcotics investigation.
der, assault, criminal use of a
firearm, and narcotics sales,
among others.
Shootings
In looking to arrest the GS9
members, police pinpointed two
particularly violent incidents.
On Feb. 8 last year, a 19-yearold member of Brooklyn’s Most
Wanted was shot dead allegedly
by Rashid Derissant, a GS9 member, inside a bodega. Derissant
was accompanied by another
GS9 member, Alex Crandon, and
both face charges of unplanned
murder and attempted murder.
The murder was the culmination of a series of violent clashes
between the two gangs, including a shooting outside the Kings
County Supreme Court Building in Brooklyn.
In a separate incident, on July
12 this year, a 22-year-old female
bystander was caught between
the two gangs and shot in the
neck in Brooklyn by a bullet
meant for the rival BMW gang.
Derissant also accidentally shot
Crandon in the shoulder.
“Talk about a gang that
couldn’t shoot straight,” said
New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton.
Police Work
Bratton said it was a “difficult
investigation put together and
woven together.” It involved a lot
of police work to interview witnesses, review surveillance videos, compare DNA test results,
and conduct ballistics tests.
In one instance, two members
participated in a car shooting
and then performed as rappers at
Barclays Center right after while
BENJAMIN CHASTEEN/EPOCH TIMES
James Essig, chief of NYPD Brooklyn North Patrol, at a press conference at police headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday announcing the arrest of 15 gang members on gun and drug charges,
wearing the same clothes. Police
were then able to identify the suspects through video footage.
Ironically, Bobby Shmurda
had documented the gang’s
crimes and exploits in his rap
song, said police.
Although the music had not
served as court evidence, “it definitely pointed us in the right
direction,” said Chief James
Essig, of Brooklyn North Patrol.
“He chronicled what they were
doing on the street.”
Bratton said that the whole
case “points out the very insidi-
ous nature” of rap music. Those
who purchase and listen to rap
are celebrating the lifestyle of
gangsters, he added.
“Shame on us, shame on
them,” he said. “These are bad
people ... mindless thugs. Life
has no meaning to them.”

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