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Slow and steady was the theme for an update on the transition of East Lower and Upper schools back to the Rochester City School District portfolio.
“We remain steadfast in making sure that we transition East schools back to the district portfolio, that we do so with grace, ease, and integrity,” said Demario Strickland, RCSD interim superintendent, at a Jan. 23 meeting.
“I appreciate that you understand that doing too much, too quickly, will tip the boat over,” added Marlene Blocker, Educational Partnership Organization superintendent at East Lower and Upper schools.
After East in early 2015 was placed into receivership, a designation given to schools with continually poor academic performance, it decided to establish an EPO with the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education and Human Development.
Under the EPO, the Lower and Upper schools had greater independence from the existing district structure, with their own superintendent, curriculum and community partnerships. While graduation rates and overall performance improved at East, some RCSD leaders were concerned about the control and costs at the school. Last year, the board decided to not extend the EPO, choosing to bring the schools back into alignment with the rest of RSCD.
With a core transition team of 10 members from East, RCSD, and the University of Rochester, more details about the changes have come into focus, particularly along the lines of curriculum, special education, bilingual learning, and enrollment.
“The Rochester City School District has invested millions of dollars into this curriculum and it was extremely important that they are able to sustain some of those curricula as we continue to move forward,” Strickland said of the East curriculum.
Not only has the RCSD superintendent approved it for the 2025-26 school year, but a curriculum analysis comparing East and the district is set to get underway. The analysis team has four RCSD members and four from East schools. It will meet on a monthly basis starting this month. The group will begin with social studies-specific content. The end result of the analysis is to determine the best approach for the 2026-27 school year, combining frameworks where appropriate.
“The goal is not simply to say one is better or different than the other,” said Blocker. “It is to make it possible so that every single RSCD scholar, regardless of what school they’re at, has the same opportunity to thrive.”
Special education will expand next year, with resource and consultant teachers as well as self-contained and New York State Alternate Assessment 12-to-1 classrooms added to both schools.
A bilingual language program option will also be available next year starting with 7th graders at East Lower school. The Upper school will also have Transitional Bilingual options and Spanish Heritage Language offerings for Native Language Arts.
“All of our scholars coming from elementary schools will no longer have their switch turned off once they attend 7th grade,” Blocker said.
Currently, 13.8 percent of students at both East schools are designated as English Language Learners. This is lower than the RSCD average of 16 percent and lower than pre-EPO levels (22 percent in the 2014-15 school year.)
The proportion of students with disabilities is similarly lower than the rest of the district: 15.5 percent at East compared with 22 percent districtwide. (Pre-EPO levels at East were 18.7 percent in the 2014-15 school year.)
The share of East students from economically disadvantaged families has not drastically changed, however. This year, 86 percent of students fell into that category, compared with 82.3 percent in the 2012-13 school year.
Still, some of these differences could potentially be explained by overall enrollment being down for both East Lower and Upper schools. This was a concern mentioned by RCSD board vice president Amy Maloy at the transition presentation.
“When we look at the building capacities across our district, and we go to potentially close other schools because of capacity, my worry is that East has been under capacity big time,” said Maloy.
Blocker confirmed that East campus’ capacity is about 2,500 students, well below the current enrollment of 1,144.
At the same time as the EPO’s creation, enrollment dropped from an average of about 1,600 students to its current level. Most of that shrinkage came from the 9th and 8th grade levels, which have fallen by 56 and 49 percent, respectively.
According to state Department of Education data, the closest East ever got to an enrollment of 2,500 was in the 2002-03 school year, when there were 2,139 students enrolled.
The transition plan calls for a gradual increase of enrollment, aiming for about 50 new freshmen students each year. Blocker said they will work to get back to an enrollment of 1,600 with this plan.
“I would just caution that if we (reach) 2,500 students in one place, we could go back to those same results with a 29 percent graduation rate,” she added.
Strickland said he pushed for greater inclusion and student growth, including the Special Education 12-to-1 option, but supported the transition plan as “a growing model.”
“It would behoove us not to just say, ‘Hey, you’re an 11th grader and we have 50 open spots at East, so now you go there,’ rather than bringing them in in the 9th grade, at those natural transition points,” he remarked.
“I agree there’s more room,” Blocker said. “But I don’t want the boat to sink completely.”
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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Please publish the per pupil funding at East vs the other MS and HS per pupil funding during the EPO years. Also the student/adult ratios at East vs the other RCSD MS and HS ratios. This information needs to be included in every article about the EPO years. Thank you for this reporting.
Blocker keeps referencing ‘scholars’ which reinforces the focus East EPO had on its top priority = ‘educating the students’. I challenge Interim Superintendent Strickland to continue that priority and the results it has had. East EPO was different – it was not about control or money ! It was because the Staff focused on ‘the scholars’ they had responsibility to educate! Get it? When you look at a student as a scholar, you think differently about your approach and differently in the expected results! That’s the reason for the change after 2015 receivership.
So, I ask=== Superintendent Strickland = “do you take the challenge?
1) Will you delivery the results?
2) Will you focus on educating these ‘scholars?
3) OR will it be business in the usual style of the RCSD?
Note: I appreciate the comparison and chart of graduation rates but RCSD and NYS have developed creative ways of ‘doing the math’ making the real numbers impossible to validate.
Last point= did you notice in the article, the focus is on ‘how many students’ are at East. Wow- is that a priority really? let’s double the size of the student body???? How about improving the graduation rate first!
It seems to me that EAST providing far better results than BOTH the RCSD AND it’s former performance is proof enough that their EPO based curricula is better. Instead of wasting time on a “committee” made up of equal parts RCSD and East – with ties probably broken by RCSD – they should just adopt the East methods and continue to partner with the University on ALL curricula. Anything else punishes BOTH East students AND their RCSD counterparts. The problem with RCSD is that they keep doing the same thing and hoping it will change. It won’t.
If the following statistics don’t convince you that RCSD should just adopt the East EPO method wholesale I don’t know what would. You can literally see graduation rates increase as students not exposed to the program for it’s entire period graduate out, and those exposed to it continue on to being seniors.
Here’s how the graduation rates at EAST fared since the EPO was established:
Year Graduation Rate (%)
2015 33
2016 19 (projected)
2017 40
2018 50
2019 60
2020 70
2021 75
2022 80
2023 82
2024 85
2025 87
Meanwhile RCSD graduation rates have stayed the same during that same period
Year RCSD Graduation Rate (%)
2015 63
2016 65
2017 67
2018 68
2019 70
2020 65.4
2021 66
2022 67
2023 68
2024 69
2025 70