New York City’s public schools are dramatically better today than they were eight years ago, in large part thanks to the tireless work of Chancellor Joel Klein. But there’s still a long way to go, and the city needs its next chancellor, Cathie Black, to chart a clear path forward, and quickly.
If Black wants to finish what Chancellor Klein started, she must work to make parents, teachers and the public feel invested in the process.
Chicago’s Renaissance 2010 plan is an excellent example of this: It let the city’s leaders explain to Chicogoans exactly what they hoped to accomplish, and then frame each reform, like closing schools, in the broader effort to improve the system. Mayor Cory Booker is starting a similar process in Newark.
But the key to Black’s success — and to school reform — is how she addresses the five major challenges facing New York City’s schools:
* Tame the beast that is the United Federation of Teachers contract.
Black must look beyond doing away with the “last in, first out” policy and other abuses — vital though that is — and consider reforms that will truly restore sanity to city schools. We need a contract that emphasizes excellent teaching and stops subsidizing failure.
Ultimately, great teachers are what make great students. When we can finally start truly rewarding effective teachers and removing ineffective teachers from the classroom is when our students will finally have a real chance at success.
* Shift even more power to schools from administrators at the department’s Tweed Courthouse headquarters.
Tweed should be about helping principals and teachers succeed. No one in the system should have to spend time worrying about how to satisfy the central administration.
The department should learn from charters that accountability is about results — outputs — not inputs, and that Black needs to make sure her team at
Tweed is helping schools get those results.
The city must remain “tight on the goals, but loose on how you get there.” Innovation has to be allowed to flourish, as we see it flourishing in charters.
* Show charter schools “tough love.”
No one advocates for charter schools more than those of us at Democrats for Education Reform — but not all charter schools are succesful, and charters aren’t a cure-all for everything that ails the system.
While Black should give the city’s best charters space to grow and continue serving their students, it’s imperative that she not allocate valuable resources to charters that continue to fail to provide our kids with quality educations.
* Scrap the School Report Cards as they now exist, or at least stop presenting them to the public as an important tool for parents.
Parents don’t care if a poor school is making progress — they want to know which schools are bad. And when a school is bad, it shouldn’t be allowed to exist without a major overhaul.
* Listen to the concerns about testing from teachers and parents, decide which of these complaints are valid (some are) and then implement school/classroom evaluations using data as a factor in a way that addresses the valid concerns.
Testing is critical. But it’s equally clear that how we evaluate it, use it and act on the results can be improved.
There is no denying that New York City’s students have access to better schools and greater educational opportunity today than when Chancellor Klein took office eight years ago. If Black builds on Klein’s important reforms and implements the measures outlined above, the city will continue to see massive improvements to its public schools, moving toward a future where we can ensure that every child gets a top-flight education.
If Chancellor Black can deliver on even part of that goal, then we’re lucky to have her.
Joe Williams is the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform.