The principal of the city school rated lowest in report cards released yesterday said new initiatives have started to turn things around for P.S. 47, the American Sign Language School, which integrates hearing-impaired students with children who are not deaf.

“Last year was not a great year. There were some fights, and some kids have a low tolerance for one another. But those kids that had problems are no longer in the school; six or seven have been transferred to other schools,” the principal, Martin Florsheim, who is deaf, said through an interpreter.

Mr. Florsheim, who has held the position for 12 years, said he began the push for change by using new funds to hire a dean and two assistant deans in September. He said he also no longer allows students to leave during lunch hours; he has thrown out hallway lockers to reduce idle time, and he has implemented a dress code.

The middle school, located in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan, got an F on its report card, from an overall score that was the lowest in the city, –0.4 points on a scale of zero to 100.

A parent of two non-deaf students, Gloria Moriarty, who is deaf, said her children have had a positive experience at the school.

“A couple of things happen and it makes the school seem worse than it actually is,” Ms. Moriarty said using sign language.

Ms. Moriarty said her two children, Apollonia, 15, and Giovanni, 13, who commute from Queens, love the school and have shown strong academic improvement.

The school’s report card shows that its rock-bottom grade is a result of students on average showing poor results on state reading and math tests. Students’ scores on average dropped on both tests between the 2005–06 and 2006–07 school years.