A Coney Island elementary school where most kids fail standardized tests and miss three weeks of classes a year has gotten so bad that teachers are pushing to shift to career and technical education.
Brooklyn’s PS 188 Michael E. Berdy School is a poster child for the Big Apple’s faltering public school system, with 60% of kids chronically absent and 60% failing standardized math and reading tests.
Educators at the K-5 school now want to radically change how they educate their youngsters — while revealing the school is keeping $2 million in tech equipment in storage through the epidemic of failure, The Post has learned.
“It’s 50-50: I blame the school and the parents,” said PS 188 mom Nicole Beatty, who said she wants to pull her two kids out because they’re getting bullied. “[But] if you are failing in math and reading at such a young age, how are you going to move on? It’s the foundation that you build on.
“We need to know why they are failing,” Beatty said.
Community members are circulating an SOS that’s calling to expand and change the school’s curriculum to K-8 and rebrand as a school for “Innovative Thinking, Career and Technical Education and Project-Based Learning.”
Some believe the shift will better engage children with hands-on education and project-based learning to boost their reading comprehension — and attendance.
The call for change comes as the school’s struggles become increasingly apparent.
There are only 233 students enrolled, but 167 were “chronically absent” last school year — meaning they missed at least 18 days, according to attendance records reviewed by The Post. Some 15% of kids miss classes on any given school day, the data showed.
While absenteeism is a concern throughout the city school system, the average for chronic absences at PS 188 is nearly double the citywide average of 33%, the data shows.
Meanwhile, only 40% of students at the Coney Island school passed the state standardized reading exams last school year and only 42% scored high enough on math exams — lagging far behind the citywide averages of 50.2% and 58%, respectively.
It’s unclear where exactly the school ranks in terms of the city’s worst performers.
Nearly all of the students come from poor and economically disadvantaged households, primarily kids from the nearby Gravesend and Surfside Garden public housing projects. About 52% of the student body is black, and 33% is Hispanic, according to statistics.
City officials thought so little of the school that they even considered turning it into a shelter for immigrants.
“You have to hold the parents accountable,” PS 188 mom Nysheika Gilchrist said, calling the shocking rate of absenteeism “crazy” and “ridiculous.
“They are young children. You are giving up on your child. There is no reason for your child to be absent,” Gilchrist said. “You are subjecting them to failure especially in a minority neighborhood…Saddens me.”
Gilchrist said her own daughter’s grades improved when she got a tutor for her twice a week.
“The teachers are doing their best,” she said. “They only have them for eight hours. The rest of time is in the parents’ hands. I stay on top of my child.”
Another parent with a third grader, Latoya Bryant, agreed that, “it starts at home. You can’t leave it all up to the school. Parents have to work along with the teachers.”
“Go knocking on doors, get social services involved, get answers,” she said. “Why is the kid absent?”
Despite the turmoil at the school, the city Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment from The Post, and PS 188 Principal Leslie King declined comment, as did District 21 Superintendent Erin Lynch-Reyes.
But PS 188’s Comprehensive 2025-2026 Education Plan acknowledged problems with attendance and low math and reading test scores, and vowed to address them.
“Chronic absenteeism is deeply affecting Black students at PS 188, reflecting larger systemic challenges such as inequitable access to transportation, healthcare, or housing stability,” the plan said.
Eighteen students were absent for “59 days in a row,” the plan said.
PS 188 said it implemented a three-tiered intervention system to address chronic absenteeism and hold “Attendance Matters” family workshops.
The school also partners with organizations including the YWCA and Replications to help families facing challenges such as housing.
The Post reported Sunday that the city Department of Education is appointing attendance cops — “school avoidance liaisons”—to reduce chronic absenteeism at all schools.
As for English classes, PS 188 administrators said they would use small group instruction and personalized instruction to help students boost reading comprehension and vocabulary, as well as Parent Literacy Workshops
PS 188 acknowledged that some students struggled with basic math, data and algebra.
The school said it would focus more on helping struggling math learners, including those students who are not fluent in English or have special needs or disabilities.
Jay Brown, chairman of Community Education Council 21 that includes PS 188, said he was not aware of a proposal to convert the school to K-8 but knows of the struggles.
“The test scores over the years have been in the low side,” Brown said. “There’s been a focus to dig into those problems. There’s been improvement. But there’s room for more improvement.”
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