The de Blasio Mandate for Education
The election of Bill de Blasio represents a major national setback for the agenda shared not only by Mayor Bloomberg, but by George W. Bush, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange), the Koch brothers and many others. What they had in common was that they had the gall to call themselves “reformers” as they determined to replace public education with a choice system that gave preference to privatized management over democratic governance.
Make no mistake: In New York City, the drive to privatize public education has ground to a halt with de Blasio’s election.
Bill de Blasio now has the opportunity to provide national leadership to the growing movement to rebuild and strengthen public education as a fundamental institution in our democratic society. He can make clear that the past decade of relying on testing and punishment has failed and that wise policy can restore the public schools as agencies of social progress.
De Blasio understands the failure of the Bloomberg education policies. Not only were his own children students in New York City’s public schools (one is now in high school, the other in college), but he was a member of a local school board. He knows better than most, how authoritarian the mayor was, and how indifferent he was to the concerns of parents and communities. De Blasio understands that decisions about the fate of schools should not be made arbitrarily and capriciously by one man, but only after the most earnest deliberation with those most directly affected: students, parents, educators, and the local community.
De Blasio must restore trust in public education in New York City, which Bloomberg eroded. The public school system enrolls 1.1 million students, and New Yorkers made clear in this election that they want a mayor who intends to make it work better for all children, not demean and destroy it. For a dozen years, we have had a mayor whose main message was that charter schools—the schools outside his control—were far, far superior to the schools for which he was directly responsible. He looked down on the public schools that enrolled 94% of all students, and by word and deed, sought to undermine public confidence in them.
Bloomberg did his best to destroy neighborhood schools and turn all schools into schools of choice. De Blasio must reverse that policy. He should restore neighborhood schools and the sense of community that builds strong schools and strong communities. Where Bloomberg sought to eliminate the school system and make every school into an autonomous unit, responsible for nothing more than test score data, de Blasio must rebuild the school system so that every school has competent oversight and supervision.
How does a new mayor go about rebuilding a school system that has gone through a dozen years of being the target of a wrecking ball?
First, he must restore the contiguous community school districts, each of which has a superintendent to oversee the condition and progress of the schools. In a de Blasio administration, there should be neighborhood elementary schools, neighborhood middle schools, and neighborhood high schools. There should be a district office where parents can go and get an answer if they have problems, rather than trying to penetrate the secluded, indifferent, and distant bureaucracy that Bloomberg created.
Second, the restoration of neighborhood schools would eliminate the byzantine “choice” process that Bloomberg initiated, whereby parents of children applying to middle school and high school visited schools, listed a dozen choices, and hoped for the best. Choosing a middle school should not be as difficult and complicated as applying to college. Every parent should be able to count on admission to a neighborhood school. At the same time, de Blasio should retain the specialized high schools that students want to attend, even if they must leave their neighborhood. In a city as big as New York City, there is room for both neighborhood schools and a limited number of schools that students choose, like the Bronx High School of Science, Stuyvesant High School, and Brooklyn Tech (where de Blasio’s son Dante is a student).
Third, de Blasio should assemble a team of expert educators—recruited from the ranks of the city’s most respected retired educators—who will take on a double assignment. First, they should review the quality of every principal in the system because many who were appointed by Bloomberg had minimal experience as educators. Second, his council of expert evaluators should create a regular inspection process to visit every struggling school and devise an action plan to provide the help it needs for the children it serves.
Fourth, de Blasio should follow through on his campaign promise to set higher expectations for the city’s charter sector. The policy of co-location does not work. Instead, it has created a system of separate and unequal schools housed in the same building. Charter schools that are munificently funded (and that pay their executives munificent salaries, far more than the chancellor of the entire city school system) should pay rent for using public space, as the law requires. Charter schools should be expected to enroll the same population as neighborhood schools, with the same proportions of students who are English learners and the same proportions of students with disabilities (accepting students with all kinds of disabilities, not just those with the least challenging ones, as they now do). Charters should be expected to collaborate, not compete, with the city’s public schools.
Fifth, and far from last, the new mayor should de-emphasize testing and accountability. We have learned again and again that students with the greatest needs get the lowest test scores. The mayor should eliminate Bloomberg’s flawed accountability system, whose sole purpose seems to be to set up schools for closure and privatization. Most testing should be done by teachers, who know what they have taught and can use test results to learn quickly what students need and how to give them support. It would be a breath of fresh air if the mayor announced a three-year moratorium on Common Core testing while the city is restoring integrity to a badly damaged school system.
The most immediate goal of Mayor Bill de Blasio is to select a chancellor who agrees with his vision of rebuilding the New York City public school system. This should be an experienced educator who shares the mayor’s view that the needs of children really do come first and that data are far less important than the restoration of respect for learning, respect for educators, and the realization that a new day has dawned for public education in New York City.
I volunteer for suggestion number three.
Great post Diane. I hope the new mayor leads the way.
“Make no mistake: In New York City, the drive to privatize public education has ground to a halt with de Blasio’s election.”
I sure do hope that’s true. There’s just something about him that reminds me a lot of Obama and I’m just afraid he’s going to turn out to be like Obama – campaign one way, govern another. Obama had some mighty-fine anti-NCLB stump speeches, but then his education policy was NCLB on steroids. I’m not going to hold out a lot of hope – maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Better that then getting disappointed again.
I second that
Not sure what you were listening to, but I didn’t hear too many mighty-fine anti-NCLB stump speeches from Obama. What I heard was high praise for Michelle Rhee at one of his presidential debates with McCain. I also heard constant praise for charter schools, with little substance about the issues that mattered to students, parents and teachers. I think generally, a lot of constituencies pinned their hopes on his transcending candidacy without really listening to him. By and large, Obama is exactly the center-right moderate he said he was going to be, if one was really listening to his platform, instead of daydreaming about what they wanted it to be.
I sure hope DeBlasio is different, and there are some clearly stated platforms that are student-centered. But there are a lot of generalities and unaddressed issues there also. “Staying true to his campaign,” as Phyllis Bowman-Cash hopes, could mean a lot of things.
Fingers crossed he’s not the next Obama.
The outlined mandates give Mayor de Blasio the opportunity to be a transformational leader.
So glad to hear of New York’s good fortune! It’s a start in this mess of “charter schools
are the answer” and “high-stakes testing must be used for accountability purposes.” I wonder who our leader in Colorado will be — and when that person will come to our rescue.
Sandra L. Wickham
Hear, hear, Diane!
Across this great nation, we all hope that Mayor de Blasio will provide the needed leadership for public schools and follow closely the details of your mandate. And, like Dienne, I do hope that he stays true to his campaign.
This is good news for NYC and I sure hope De Blasio begins what is necessary to restore the “public” in public education for NYC public school students . I am wondering your thoughts on how this might have an impact on a national level (there are many of us who are beholden to the tests, data and all the nonsense) who are not residents of NYC or NY State and who have state leadership that supports the nonsense.
I concur this is good news. I don’t see what the next chancellor can honestly do other than put a halt to co-locations/charge rent though. He could also TRY to pull NYC out of inBloom.
The teacher’s evaluation plan is codified in state law. Even if he can negotiate a contract that has different terms that they agree to that are less harsh than John King’s (and that IF is huge given the question of retroactive pay and fairness among ALL unions – not just the UFT).
Certain parts of it can’t be abolished though.
Similarly, the schools are still held to the National Sword of Damocles of NCLB/RTTT (pick your poison) at the behest of Arne Duncan.
Can a new chancellor even stem the bleeding given the state/national attitude at the moment?
I didn’t add my radical wish list. Maybe I will make another post with those hopes. I would like to see the Mayor announce that we will not cooperate with inBloom. I would like to see him announce a moratorium on state testing for at least three years. I would like to see him suspend the teacher evaluation imposed by the state on grounds that it is unproven and invalid. Will anyone dare to punish a mayor elected by nearly three-quarters of the people? Let them try!
Did not Cuomo already prove he’s willing to punish whoever he has to in order to get this evaluation system in place? Our system can ill afford to forego millions of dollars more (though that is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions spent on consultants and the networks).
The other issue is what kind of promised punishments will be handed down to the students if they don’t comply with the testing. I’m encouraged by the opt-out movement – but thus far it seems like it’s being promulgated largely by the wealthy and the well-to-do in the suburbs who have the money, time, and education to fight back.
It seems like we need another recipe for the urban schools though because we simply don’t mobilize parents that easily and with that much power. I know I’m being the eternal pessimist in the light of what is a HUGE development – it is another chink in the armor.
What would be encouraging to me would be to see some major chinks at the state level (and to me the state senators bashing King was pretty promising too).
Diane,
I really don’t agree with your contention in general. Did not De Blasio recently meet with Rahm Emanuel and declare him, at a press conference, to be a “great mayor”.
I loathe Mr. Bloomberg, but I will believe the virtues of Bill De Blasio when I see them, if I see them . . . . .
Do you mean a moratorium on basing personnel decisions and school closings in part on the results of state tests, or a moratorium on administering the tests, period?
The state tests are given to kids in Grades 3-8 to comply with NCLB. The city and state would lose billions of dollars if the federal government withheld Title I and other federal funding. This would have catastrophic effects at the classroom level.
I guess the lost funds could be made up with a massive tax increase, but New York City residents already have the highest tax burden of anyplace in the United States (and not all of us are in the 1%).
Opting the city out would indeed be radical, but I’m not sure it’d be the good kind of radical.
I too am extremely upset with de Blasio’s praise for Emanuel. And would add that I now have concerns for our new Public Advocate as well. I see DFER may be moving in quickly. And if we are, as ICE as coined it, “punked” again, we need to take action right away!!
She or he can remind parents that they still have a say in their children’s education. As we saw in Castle Bridge School, parents were able to cancel a test they felt was inappropriate for their children. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/parents-opt-city-test-article-1.1492127
Hopefully our new mayor and chancellor will banish the sense of fear and dread that so many school children and families feel. State law or not, how can you evaluate teachers on tests that children refuse to take?
Same way they do everything else when they have partial information – adjust the VAM formula to compensate and claim it’s scientific and fair.
I hope he’s listening, Ms. Ravitch.
That is a lot too hope from Mayor elect de Blasio. One must remember the private sector has finally succeeded at getting their teeth into the $$$$ of education. The right wing media will bash him at every move he makes, especially if he tries to take the money back. Best of luck to the new Mayor!
I don’t support how conservative states are trying to run abortion clinics out of business via out-of-bounds regulation, but perhaps they provide a model for how to deal with charters. Give these right-wingers a taste of their own medicine.
With all my heart I want to believe that Bill dI Blasio will lead us from these dark days we’ve endured during the horrible reign of Mayor Bloomberg. In my 20 years as a NYC Public School teacher I’ve never seen teacher morale so low. Teachers throughout this city, even the younger teachers, have become so discouraged by what has been happening under Bloomberg that they constantly talk about what other profession they might be able to go into where they won’t feel so “beaten up”, overworked, disrespected and fearful. The new teacher evaluation and reliance on high-stakes tests to “judge” teachers’ effectiveness has added another layer to this already dismal situation. Many of us know first-hand how the Bloomberg adminstration has been able to manipulate data to “prove” that some schools are failing even when anyone who visits these schools knows that that’s just not true. They use complex and convoluted formulas that nobody can understand to arrive at outcomes that were already predetermined.
Several weeks ago, at our Delegate Assembly, UFT President Michael Mulgrew explained that we needed to insure that our call for a moratorium on attaching high- stake consquences to the State’s new common core tests wouldn’t be turned around by the local (Bloomberg-controlled) press as “Teachers don’t care about kids”. After the meeting I went up to Mulgrew and told him that while I understand his sensitivity to the press, I think it’s ridiculous to not fight back and do what’s best for students and teachers because of what the NY Post and Daily News might publish. I love my students. Nearly every teacher I’ve know in my 20-year career entered this profession because they care about children and want to help every student in their class grow and succeed. That doesn’t mean that we don’t also care about our jobs. We spent years preparing for this profession. We’ve attended countless hours of professional development. We are constantly struggling to find new ways to reach our students and deliver the highest quality of instruction… BUT (big BUT) we also have families to raise, mortgages or rent to pay, and lives to live. Caring about our students and concern about our livelihoods are not mutually exclusive.
Everything I’ve heard Bill di Blasio say and things I’ve witnessed first hand (including hearing him speak out against closing schools during a “rubber stamp” PEP meeting several years ago) makes me hopeful.
I ask … implore … no, I BEG Mr. di Blasio, please do the right thing for the 1.1 million NYC public school children, their parents, their teachers, their adminstrators and other school personel who are vital to our school communities. Help us make all NYC public schools great schools. Help all of our teachers become the best they can be without living in constant fear of losing their jobs for no good reason. Help us to raise the level of student success without the overemphasis on standardized tests and without ridiculous mandates that bury teachers and administrators under mountains of paperwork without translating into a better learning outcomes for our students. We are all in this together and it will take all of us, to accomplish our goals.
NYC Public School Teacher
Mary,
If we have to implore or beg our elected representatives to do the right thing, we’ve already lost.
I think the new mayor should be given the benefit of the doubt as he takes office. Nevertheless, he will be under tremendous pressure from many people with money and influence to pull an Obama on us.
We can’t beg these people to do what’s right for public education, given the forces arrayed against it against it; we must compel them, through all democratic methods at our disposal, to do so.
“. . . to pull an Obama on us.” or “to pull a Clinton on us”
The current crop of dims are the reps of the 60’s.
Oh, and I think Diane Ravitch would make a WONDERFUL NYC School Chancellor! 🙂
NYC Public School Teacher
@Mary, you beat me to the punch. I’m not sure anyone would want the job who deserves to have it, but I think giving Diane Ravitch some sort of major say in the rebuilding process would be an enormous boost of confidence to teachers, parents, students, and other stakeholders.
Mary, this is certainly true. But Diane Ravitch is needed for the work that she is doing. She is leading a national movement.
God bless you, Diane!! You are a bright light in the tunnel of darkness that has set in to our profession!!! I have been teaching for 25 years. I absolutely love my students and work so hard each day to deliver the best possible experience that I can. I teach in a high poverty area. Their scores are low, but their hearts are giant-sized. They will succeed!!! The fact that American public education can be bought and sold is so offensive! How many more billions of dollars do these people need before they are happy? They have already destroyed the middle class. Leave our kids alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations to Bill DeBlasio!! Bring on the change!
Ditto that Mary. Diane are you up for the job.
NYC Public School Teacher
Well stated and a big fan! If only you were commissioner of education. You are in my book
Diane Ravitch for Chancellor!!
Diane Ravitch for President of the United States . . . . . !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ditto
Congratulations New York. I hope you have the mayor you deserve, one who serves all the people and not just the moneyed ones. I hope Los Angeles can follow you in directing your attention back to public education. Even if the new mayor doesn’t do everything, if he believes in public education that’s a big deal.
Go, Bill de Blasio! With the right type of leadership, NYC could be the new model for other cities and states looking to truly improve education here in America. Having Dr. Ravitch to serve as NYC Chancellor would not hurt, either!
As a current NYC educator who grew up in the old community based system I welcome the return of a community focused school system. I have always been staunchly proud of the education i received growing up in Brooklyn. I remember fondly the many civic outreach programs and community events I was involved with as a student which helped shape me into the dynamic person I am today.
Also, Ms. Ravitch I must say that I admire your willingness to adjust and evolve your views in a very public way. There are too few people in positions of influence who will be honest when an idea or ideology did not work as expected and must be re-evaluated. I thank you for your continued dedication to the betterment of education in the public sphere.
I just hope that de Blasio would do the right thing for the revival of public education–not the continuation of Bloomberg nightmare in Bronx. That means closure of failing charter schools, replacing an irresponsible superintendent, abandoning standardized testing mandate and false accountability system, upgrading state education board, and strict regulations on school funding.
Whoops. ‘Abandoning.’ I meant it ‘abolishing.’
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! My elementary public school has had budget slashed, programs cut and staff dismissed. We are tired of testing and recording data that does not allow us to be better teachers for our students. We are weary of the constant threat of co-location, closing and how we are resposible for the ills of all that is wrong with society. I hope the mayor elect reads your words.
REFRESHING !!!!!!!!
Diane Ravitch’s comments are a well-thought-out starting point for Mayor DeBlasio to use as a foundation to rebuild our public school system.
It’s inspiring to watch DeBalsio from afar and will be interesting to see how things develop in NYC. Boston had it’s only little victory on Tuesday, electing Marty Walsh over John Connolly, a candidate endorsed and supported by corporate ed reform groups such as STAND for Children and Democrats for Ed Reform. Though Walsh isn’t perfect on ed reform, many of us have hope that he’ll see the light.
One thought about point #1: Here in Boston, having gone through a recent year long review of how our students are assigned to schools, many of us would question the movement towards a neighborhood schools approach. Here, a neighborhood schools model would do two things: (1) limit access for poor and black and latino families to the highest performing schools in the city; and (2) further limit racial and socio-economic integration, one of the most powerful ways to affect the achievement of underserved children. A strong coalition of parents and community groups fought hard to avoid a neighborhood schools model in order to continue access to the best schools for all kids and we ended up with a hybrid model that assigns children a ‘basket’ of choice based on their home address, adjusting for both proximity and quality. The decades ago fight in Boston and elsewhere to integrate our schools certainly didn’t develop perfectly, but to go back to a neighborhood schools model in our city would mean a return to the schools that have (in the form of strong neighborhood infrastructure, strong parent involvement, a mix of student population) and the schools that have not.
First, we must all recognize that Mayor elect de Blasio is still an advocate of Mayoral control of schools. He is not talking about “community control.” He wishes to be the single person in control which is one of the worse elements of the current “reform” movement. Having that much power can corrupt even the “nicest” elected official. Next, NYC needs a visionary chancellor not merely a caretaker. It has been so long since New York has had a chancellor capable of articulating a progressive and unifying vision that most have forgotten what that can be like. The current crop of chancellor candidates generally leave much to be desired. Education in New York City sorely needs leadership and that begins with a chancellor who is hired not because he/she can work with the Mayor or do what he/she is told, but because that person is a professional educator grounded in quality collaborative work in communities of color.
I just went to Bill di Blasio’s transition team website and suggested that he hire Diane Ravitch as NYC Schools Chancellor. Granted, she may not be interested in the job but maybe she could be persuaded to at least head a transition team at the DOE. I suggest anyone else who has this or other suggestions go to the transition team website at http://transition2013.com/#
NYC Public School Teacher
“If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” Sadly, I must agree with Robert Rendo, schoolgal & Dienne up there. After all, what’s the story with the LAUSD Board? I, however, love nothing more than to be proven wrong in such cases.
I fervently hope that’s the case in this situation, for the population of NYC is just too big to have to suffer any longer.
It’s inspiring to watch De Blasio from afar and will be interesting to see how things develop on NYC. Boston had it’s own little victory on Tuesday, electing Marty Walsh over John Connolly, a candidate endorsed and supported by corporate ed reform groups such as STAND for Children and Democrats for Ed Reform. Though Walsh isn’t perfect on ed reform, many of us have hope that he’ll see the light.
One thought about point #1: Here in Boston, having gone through a recent year long review of how our students are assigned to schools, many of us would question the movement towards a neighborhood schools approach. Here, a neighborhood schools model would do two things: (1) limit access for poor and black and latino families to the highest performing schools in the city; and (2) further limit racial and socio-economic integration, one of the most powerful ways to affect the achievement of underserved children. A strong coalition of parents and community groups fought hard to avoid a neighborhood schools model in order to continue access to the best schools for all kids and we ended up with a hybrid model that assigns children a ‘basket’ of choice based on their home address, adjusting for both proximity and quality. The decades ago fight in Boston and elsewhere to integrate our schools certainly didn’t develop perfectly, but to go back to a neighborhood schools model in our city would mean a return to the schools that have (in the form of strong neighborhood infrastructure, strong parent involvement, a mix of student population) and the schools that have not.
As a retired deputy supt in Bronx h.s. I agree with ms. Ravitch. When borough hs supts were eliminated students and admin suffered. Call me for details.
your words have the ring of sanity…
You have been my hero for 26 years. I have been a middle school teacher for 26 years. Sorry, but we still need you. If I could, I would humbly and gladly nurse you back to health. The task God assigned to you is not done just yet. Best wishes.
A good starting plan. There’s much more that needs attention, but this is a good place to begin. Thank you. Ms. Ravitch.
Diane,
Agree with your first five recommendations/mandates. Here’s five more of mine.
Sixth, Mayor-elect deBlasio must oversee radical revision if not elimination of the school-grading system which has confused parents and badly skewed administrators’ behaviors regarding test results, parent surveys, graduation rates, etc. There is nothing inherently wrong with measuring, but the results should guide efforts at improvement, not serve as bonus-triggering carrots or job-threatening sticks.
Seventh, the new Mayor should work to radically overhaul the Panel for Education Policy so that it no longer acts as a pointless rubber stamp of a single official’s educational whims. With that overhaul must come either substantial upgrading of CEC’s or new vehicles for ensuring that parent/community input becomes part of the education policy-making and decision process, just as it is for every suburb in the NYC area.
Eighth, the Mayor must select a schools chancellor who is (a) an educator, (b) a communicator, (c ) open-minded, (d) sympathetic to the needs of local parent communities, (e) genuinely concerned about the education of the whole child, not just the parts of the child measured by NYSED, and (f) more desirous of helping struggling school succeed than shutting them down.
Ninth, de Blasio should mandate a policy goal to provide adequate classroom space (including gyms, art/music rooms, libraries, etc.) for all students in all schools and reduce class sizes to more educationally beneficial levels.
Tenth, the Mayor and his new Chancellor must bring back into the school system educational commitment to physical education, the arts, and civics, thereby returning schools to the joyful, rounded, multi-cultured (and multi-cultural) learning environments they used to be before Bloomberg turned them into joyless test factories.
If de Basio was smart, he would make Diane Ravitch the news school’s Chancellor. That is thinking out of the box
Diane Ravitch would make an excellent Chancellor as would Carmen Farina.
As a retired teacher, I recall testing students in the beginning of the year to determine which skills needed increased direct instruction. Later in the year, we tested to determine if the students had mastered the skills. That should be the purpose of testing ..to diagnose and teach to mastery.