To our new Schools Chancellor, Carmen Farina: Welcome to the toughest job in America.
The new chancellor arrives at a key moment in the history of school reform. Today New York City schools are significantly better than they were before Mayor Bloomberg took office 12 years ago. The reforms promoted and achieved during the Bloomberg years — from mayoral control to school choice to enhanced accountability — have made this city a leader in education reform. But there is much more hard work to be done.
Ultimately, Chancellor Farina will be judged by whether student achievement continues to improve. That in turn will depend in no small part on how she tackles these pressing challenges:
The first challenge is improving the teachers contract. Good teachers certainly deserve higher salaries but the United Federation of Teachers cannot simply be given a blank check. If Farina is serious about putting schoolchildren ahead of special interests, she will use contract negotiations as an opportunity to reduce the achievement gap. An improved teachers contract would:
- Allow effective teachers to move up the pay scale, while getting rid of automatic raises that are not related to excellence on the job.
- End the union-mandated Last In/First Out policy that drives young, talented teachers out of the profession regardless of job performance.
- Put a time limit on the Absent Teacher Reserve pool, which would free up $144 million per year.
- Increase transparency by ensuring that meetings between the chancellor and the UFT are announced ahead of time and open to the public, which would allow parents to attend and participate.
The second challenge is creating a culture of high standards and rigor. Farina has a high level of respect amongst teachers, and she will be in a position to use her authority here to create and foster a culture of high standards. Yes, joy is a key element of quality schools, but the fulfillment that comes from mastering a difficult problem cannot be underestimated. The Common Core has established new standards that give educators tremendous leeway to come up with thought-provoking lessons that help students develop skills the 21st century economy will demand of them. Intellectual rigor must be a hallmark of New York City schools.
The third challenge is ensuring no child is trapped in a failing school. Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has made clear he values community and parent involvement in addressing failing schools. But we cannot allow schools to fail endlessly. If interventions don’t succeed in turning a failing school around, Farina must be willing to take more dramatic steps on behalf of the students the school is meant to serve. This includes closing down a failing school notwithstanding the push-back from adults who don’t want to be inconvenienced.
The fourth challenge is maintaining a focus on teacher quality. As Farina knows well, and demonstrated as leader of P.S. 6 when she counseled out low performing teachers, a highly effective teacher is the most important determinant of a child’s success. The new teacher evaluation system should be used as a tool to reward excellence, improve performance, and remove those who don’t improve.
The fifth challenge is to let parent choice continue to thrive in New York City. There are now 50,000 students on waiting lists for charter schools. Every one of them deserves better access to high-quality schools. Farina was right to say: “We let ourselves kind of fall into complacency when we were the only game in town.” In that spirit, Farina must protect and expand charter schools that are doing well and continue to maximize limited resources through co-location. She would also be well advised to take what’s working in high performing charter schools and expand those programs to traditional schools.
The final challenge is not to allow anti-testing rhetoric to rule the day. It is critical to know whether children are reading, writing and doing math at grade level. We know today that most children cannot. The answer is not to do away with the tests or the stakes associated with them. The answer is to improve teaching and learning so all children master the content on these tests.
These are all immense challenges, but our new chancellor will not have to face them alone. There are concerned New Yorkers ready to help. We are among them, and we look forward to working with her in the months ahead to build on our students’ progress and continue to work for a public education system that gives all New York City schoolchildren the chance to realize their dreams.
Jenny Sedlis is executive director of StudentsFirstNY.