Imposing a three-year moratorium on closures and adding social services to 5% of schools will not bring about the kind of scalable, system-wide changes parents and advocates are desperately hoping for.
Social Services for 5% of schools, restoring learning time taken away by new UFT contract for some, doesn't address crisis
Imposing a three-year moratorium on closures and adding social services to 5% of schools will not bring about the kind of scalable, system-wide changes parents and advocates are desperately hoping for. When 70% of children are not meeting standards, any effort that does not include changes to leadership, staffing and work rules is woefully inadequate. Yet again we're hearing feel-good rhetoric, vague goals, and delay tactics. Meanwhile, there are children trapped in failing schools who don't have three years to wait.
Background:
-
Kids can't wait three years: Goals for school turnarounds span three years, with no plan to take bold action until 2017.
-
Year One ('14-'15): Each school must develop a school renewal plan
-
Year Two ('15-'16): Each school must meet unspecified "concrete milestones" and improve attendance and teacher retention
-
Year Three ('16-'17): Each school must demonstrate improvement in academic achievement, and only then may they face leadership and faculty changes
-
-
The School Renewal Program is largely a repackaging of small-scale existing initiatives or limited givebacks of what was previously in place:
-
It will include 94 schools, including the 23 schools in the School Achievement Initiative announced in September.
-
The Department will put $150 million towards these schools, $52 million of which was already announced as part of the community schools initiative.
-
Additional money will help fund an hour of extended school day, giving back to these 94 schools the instructional time taken away from all schools by new UFT contract.
-
-
Mayor de Blasio failed to mention specific structural changesthat would ensure "no bad schools" like Boys and Girls High School and Automotive High School, despite the availability of a research-backed blueprint for successful school turnaround.
-
Principals will not be able to choose his assistant principals without interference from the principals union.
-
Principals will not have freedom to reconstitute the teaching staff, which would allow for a fresh start and a new culture.
-
Principals are unable to offer pay incentives to recruit highly effective teachers.
-
