Yesterday the Department of Education announced its  intention to close four schools it considers failing:  Maxwell High School for Career and Technical Education in Brooklyn,  the Academy of Environmental Science Secondary High School  in East Harlem,  KAPPA II in Harlem, and the Frederick Douglass Academy III in the Bronx.

Today the DOE added four more schools to the list: PS 332, a K-8 school in Bushwick;  the Academy of  Collaborative Education, a middle school in Harlem that opened in 2006;  and two high schools:   Jamaica High School in Queens, and theSchool for Community Research and Learning which opened in 2003 in the Bronx.

The Panel on Educational Policy must approve the school closings, and, according to state law, there must be a 45-day period of public comment before the closings become official.<!--more-->

The announcements came the week that high school applications are due. All  four high schools are listed as options in the high school directory.  The DOE cited "declining demand" for those schools as well as low graduation rates, hovering at, or below, 50%.

It had long been rumored that the two large high schools, Maxwell and Jamaica, would be closing, although Maxwell's teachers received performance  bonuses this year.

Most of these schools have had a troubled history and the proposed closings are not a surprise. When Insideschools visited KAPPA II last year, we found that the environment "was one of the most dysfunctional we have seen," with "out of control classrooms and screaming students." The DOE said the school"persistently failed to help students make progress."

Both Kappa II and FDA III were designed to replicate other high-performing schools of the same name. FDA III has an selective admissions process but its state tests scores lagged below other non-selective schools in the district.

The proposed phase-out of more schools will be announced in the coming weeks, according to the DOE press office. After the 45-day public comment period, the Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the proposal at its Jan.26 meeting.