Mayor plans to revamp city's schools

By Erin Arnold
Staff Writer

Education reform has long since been a concern for parents and politicians alike. As of late, Mayor Bloomberg has been focusing on a revamped education system for New York City, in an effort to allocate funding where everyone agrees it should be – in the classroom directly impacting our children.

However, there are varying opinions on just how that should be accomplished. Mayor Bloomberg recently announced his plan for helping students succeed. Bloomberg’s plan calls for a reorganization of the Department of Education’s management structure; more specifically, a new streamlined organizational system which would eliminate administrative positions in an effort to free up more funding to be used inside the classroom. As part of this new plan, educators will develop a city-wide curriculum for teaching reading, writing, and math, with plans to implement this new system across the board this September. Finally, he intends to institute a parent support system to bring parents and children in partnership with the schools in hopes that the students will be more successful.

C.E.S. 73 Principal Mary Simone is optimistic about the new plan and hopes to see the new initiatives work. “We need to establish standards and nurture our children at the same time,” she said.

In partnership with New York City Chancellor, Joel Klein, the mayor has high hopes for his educational program. Already they have developed the “Children First” effort in an attempt to improve the quality of education and provide effective teaching and learning. Chancellor Klein holds periodic outreach meetings, inviting parents, teacher, principals, corporations, foundations, public officials, etc. to come and share their ideas.

But critics of the new system are pointing to the elimination of the 32 Community School Districts as a step in the wrong direction. Bloomberg’s new plan would replace these districts with 10 Instructional Divisions led by 10 Regional Superintendents, grouping schools together in clusters of 10-12 under the new leadership. Not only that, but in June, the Community School Board’s will be disbanded, giving the mayor more power to appoint officials to key positions such as Superintendent.

This loss of power at the community level dates back as early as 1997, when the 32 Community School Board’s of the city were stripped of their power to directly select a Superintendent for their area. Instead, that duty was given to the Chancellor, who picked a candidate from a slate approved by the school board. In June of 2002, the law changed again when that power was transferred directly to the Chancellor, allowing him to make that decision without any outside input. Those in favor of the new system argue that this helps to streamline the chain of command and bring accountability back into the schools.

But the question remains: Is this further removing parent’s from the educational process?

New York City isn’t alone in this new debate. Across the country, roughly 23 states have passed similar laws, allowing state and city takeovers in the schools. Cities like Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore, and Philadelphia have ceded local control to centralized offices.

One of the main reasons for the push to standardize teaching practices is due to the poor performances on state and local tests. Federal and State testing are showing more failures and there is pressure at all levels to improve student performance.

In District 9, C.E.S. 11 and C.E.S. 73 are just two examples of schools with failing test scores. In 2002, The State ELA and City-CTB Reading Test results for grades three and four at C.E.S. 11 revealed that 26.7% of students are performing at Level 1 out of 4; in other words, they are categorized as “Not Proficient” in reading at their grade level. Similarly, in grades three through five at C.E.S. 73, roughly 23.7% of the students are performing at Level 1. This is compared to only 3.7% performing at Level 4, or “Advanced” for their level. In the Math category, only 32.1% of students at C.E.S. 11 and 23.3% of students at C.E.S. 73 are performing at Level 3, achieving “Proficient” marks.

As part of Mayor Bloomberg’s plan, the new standardized teaching system for reading, writing, and math is aimed at making sure that students receive competent instruction in these areas.

Ms. Simone noted that her school district already instituted the 135 minutes per day spent on reading so when that becomes part of the new curriculum in September it won’t be anything new for them. She thinks that unifying the reading, writing, and math curriculums will benefit students in the long run. “We are giving it our full support,” she said.

The parent support system is designed to enlist more parental involvement in the schools and a full-time Parent Coordinator will be employed for each district. In addition, a Parent Support Office will be open to supplement the Parent Coordinator’s duties. Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein also want parental involvement to be a part of the criteria for evaluating school success. Ms. Simone hopes that parental involvement will continue to increase. “We have a good Parent’s Association at our school and we will continue to promote it. The PA sponsors workshops, holds informational meetings, and presents programs for parents. We encourage them to get involved,” she explained.

The new changes will be in effect by next September, when students arrive for the start of a new school year. Until then, Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein are working hard to iron out the details of this new system so that it benefits the students. Mayor Bloomberg summed up his concerns in his address on Education at New York Urban League’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium “In an information age global economy as we have today, all of our students must learn to read proficiently and critically…write fluently and persuasively . . . understand and employ mathematical concepts and analytical reasoning…and perform effectively in the collaborative settings that have become the new workplace norm.”