P.S. 244Q School Profile

 Public School 244Q is The Active Learning Elementary School also known as TALES. The school is located at 137-20 Franklin Avenue, Queen New York. The school is fairly new it opened on September 2008 with a focus in health, nutrition, physical education and social development.  This Early Childhood School belongs to Community District 25 which is in Flushing Queens. The school state accountability report in 2010-2011 status reads in good standing.

The community that the school is located in is predominately Asian. The school teaches grades pre-kindergarten thru third grade and has 359 students. 188 girls and 171 boys, classes start at 8:37a.m and end at 2:57p.m., but on certain days class start at 8:00 to help students with special needs. This is not a zonal school you just have to apply and if it has more applicants than seats then it becomes a lottery. The school student population is broken into five ethnic groups 42 Hispanic students which is 11.70%, 2 American Indian / Alaskan Native  which is .56%, 298 Asian students 83.01%, 12 white  students 3.34% and 5 black students 1.39%. There are 163 students in the English Language Learners (ELL) classes which is 45% of the student’s population. 332 students are in general education and the balances of students are in Special Education. The student’s average in Mathematics and English was B grade. The attendance rate for this year to date is 96.5% students are present which is great.

Nutrition being of the vocal points of the school focused on nutrition engaged a relationship with fan4kids, a nonprofit group out of Hoboken, NJ that fights childhood obesity. They visit the school once a week and do five classes a day. The student program is very hands-on, with food tasting as part of the lessons healthy choices and eating in moderation are the key messages. They send home recipes and updated with the students. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation has awarded TALES its Bronze Medal Award for the school's work around health and nutrition education.  They are only one of 9 New York State schools (4 in New York City) to receive this prestigious honor.

Mr. Apple is the school mascot was founded on the belief that every student should grow healthy as well as get an excellent education.  The students have movement classes at least twice a week for 45 minutes and recess every day for at least 25 minutes.  The school offers breakfast from 7:45- 8:30 and serves lunch. They eat delicious vegetarian lunches at least once a week, thanks to the NY Coalition for Healthy School Food.  The school has banned soda, chocolate milk, and junk food from its cafeteria.  Chocolate milk, for those who don't know, has almost as much sugar as soda, and is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.  This incredible discovery was made by the students who showed the principal.  The school has many clubs of parents and children to keep them active.

The Principal is Robert Gruff who started as an assistant principal in 2008 and was promoted in 2011. The budget for the school $ 2,547,948 he has staff of about 35 people, 23 are teachers and 7 paraprofessionals. In reading the recent surveys reports the parents feel that the school challenges their children with high expectations and believe the students are getting taught what they need to know. Also the parents feel the school responds to their concerns quickly.  The survey states that 83% of parents of are involved with the student’s education. From the survey the only downside I saw was the computer skills and technology classes was only offered to 26% of the students.

Public School 244qQ did well on the comprehensive needs assessment test these results are based on May/June 2011 DRA  96% (96 out of 100) general education kindergarten students are scoring at or above level 3. 76% scored at 4 or above. Over 37% scored at 6 or above. 25% of our general education kindergarten students are reading at level 10 or above.

• 100% of general education, ell students scored at 2 or above
• 95% (42 out of 44) of general education, non-ell students scored at 3 or above (80% at 4 or above)
• 66% (6 out of 9) of Special education scored at 2 or above.

For first grade, 92% (69 out of 75) of ALL students scored at level 14 or above or made 1.25 years’ worth of growth. 95% of all students that attended TALES since Kindergarten attained this level of growth.

To further breakdown statistics:

• 95% (41 out of 43) of general education, non-ell students scored at 14 or above or made at least 1.25 years of growth.
• 92% (33 out of 36) of general education, ELL students scored at 14 or above.

For second grade, 89% (57 out of 64) general education students scored at or above level 24. 81% (17 out of 21) of ELL students scored at or above level 24. 55% of second grade special education students (6 out of 11) scored at level 24 or above or made 1.25 years’ worth of growth.

For third grade, 100% of our students passed the NY State ELA with either a 3 or a 4.  40% of students scored at level 4 and 60% of students scored at a level 3. 

Through the analysis of our assessments, the school believes these gains to be directly attributed to a stronger focus on comprehension and a strong intervention program for ELL students.  They  have seen the importance of continuinusly building comprehension strategies and language development in 2011-2012. The school recognizes that their students need extended services in the areas of language development as many are very recent arrivals to the United States. The school will continue with strong intervention and support for its ELL population as it is those supports that the school believes has allowed for excellent growth with the student population over the past three years.