The New York City Department of Education decided to kill John Dewey High School in Brooklyn a few years ago. John Dewey (ironic name, no?) had long been considered one of the city’s best non-selective high schools.
When the city began creating small schools and closing large schools, it had to find a place to dump low-performing students so that the small schools would appear successful. So John Dewey became a dumping ground for students unwanted by the new small high schools, which the Bloomberg administration treated as the jewel in its crown.
The teachers fought to protect the school, but it was a losing battle. In this article, read how the city has stripped the school of AP courses, electives, foreign languages, etc., and the graduation rate dropped. As the school was picked apart, enrollment fell, and teachers were laid off. This is a death spiral created by the NYC Department of Education. This year’s school opening was marked by scheduling confusion, not only at Dewey, but other so-called “turnaround” schools that are locked in a legal battle over when and if they will get the “turnaround” treatment (meaning, will the staff be fired and the school closed).
It is a war of attrition, and the administration will win.
Next time you hear a story about the “success” of New York City’s small high schools, remember John Dewey High School.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I know I have said this before, but how do they get away with it? Where were the parents? This destruction of public schools must be front news all the time.
NYC has a “board” that rubber stamps all decisions made by the Mayor. He wants to close big schools and is now closing small schools opened on his watch. Parents turn out by the thousands to complain at public hearings. No one listens.
They count on the parents being uninvolved.
We all tried. Parents, teachers, students and alumni. It is a crime. Dewey was an amazing place. Check out jdhsarchives.webs.com
Ms. Epstein,
You all need to understand that the most immediate problem at John Dewey High School is the current principal, Kathleen Elvin. Every teacher in the building is miserable and terrified. They are alone in their battle. Many of their most talented and caring teachers have transferred to other schools and more are hoping to leave. The situation is most cruel for the experienced pedagogues who have stayed at Dewey through all of the problems of the previous ten years. They stayed because they loved Dewey and were dedicated to its wonderful students. Now they are leaving. Maybe this was the plan. They feel harassed and micromanaged to the point that there is very little individuality and creativity, what you and your fellow alums loved most about Dewey. There is no respect for the veterans’ experience or gratitude for their perseverance. So do you Dewey alumni with all your nostalgia have any desire to deal with this?
This is the same story with all of the big high schools in Queens.
They win because “journalists” like Kristof, Brooks, Nocera, and Friedman blame the “failure” of a school like John Dewey on “bad teachers” and the union rather than report on the systematic destruction of the school perpetrated by the corporate criminals and data fetishists inhabiting Tweed and masquerading as educators and human beings.
This has been the blueprint for the Duncan “reforms” in Chicago as well and now it is the blueprint of the Obama “reforms” nationwide.
And rather than report honestly on this, corporate journalists (worried about closures of their own news outlets) keep their corporate masters happy (i.e., Murdoch, Bloomberg, Zuckerman, Sulzberger, Comcast, Disney, et al.) by framing this as the fault of the teachers and the unions.
We can fire our way to the top, if only the teachers unions can be busted to engineer this reform – that’s the message from not only the politicians, but also the corporate media.
I teach in Brooklyn, NY. Our budget has been slashed to the bone, teachers excessed, school aides gone, guidance counselor only two days a week. Charter school hawks continually hover around us. And yet we continue to strive and thrive. When are people going to get that “ed reform” will be the end of free, quality education and a parent’s right to choose? I wish the UFT had the strength, sense of right and moral fiber of the CTU!
What, so you could get a few more days off to prance around in the streets?
Seriously ehill?
Yes, especially in the buff!!
Please ehill…get back to work. I am sure your daily job is helping to save society so please don’t waste your time trolling here insulting the lowly teachers. You MUST have more important things to do….prance around your office please.
They did this to my school in Queens. Springfield Gardens HS used to be a good school in the 70’s and 80’s until the demographics changed. In the 90’s we got metal detectors and x-ray machines and the BOE started dumping kids who had been incarcerated. The school was a hell hole and we begged for help. In 2004 Springfield started phasing out and 2 small schools opened up. I had to interview for my job with one of the new small schools which started with about 10 teachers half coming from Springfield. That first year all of the new teachers quit, even the new replacement teachers quit, we went through 8 new teachers. At the same time my friends in the big school were excessed but were able to find jobs because we were one of the first schools to close so they were reabsorbed easily, very few became ATR’s.
Now there are 4 schools in the building who don’t talk to one another and the kids come from all over the city instead of the neighborhood. What Bloomberg did was to take the failing population of students and thinly spread them across many small schools to make things look better. The kids are the same low performing ones but now they are spread out. Our school looks good because all the new teachers pass the kids, they are took afraid not to. I could go on and on but I’ll save it for another day.
What an irony. Yet I understand that Finland has reached the top of performance on the international scale by putting John Dewey (reviled by many in this country) into practice. I would like to hear more about Dewey’s influence on Finland. Not only that but Rahm Emanuel’s kids attend the school Dewey founded.
Harold, right now at Dewey, the teachers are micromanaged and overworked. The principal, Kathleen Elvin, has decimated any sense of spirit they once had. She is the problem.
Ms. Ravitch,
the demise of John
Dewey High School is not there yet but it will be this year after the DOE and this new principal, Kathleen Elvin, get through with the school. It is very obvious to the Dewey staff, students and parents that the sole purpose of appointing this principal is to finish off the school.
First, the students. School started 2 weeks ago this Wednesday. The majority of the students have incorrect classes due to an incompetent new programmer (even though there was already an assistant principal of programming at Dewey) coupled with the principal’s directive to 4 assistant principals of supervision to create “houses” that would encapsulate her educational reform. These assistant principals were poor to the task and failed to check student records in creating an ambitious house structure that resulted in placing week students in advanced placement classes , forcing students into houses not of their choice, and giving third year language classes to students that had never taken the language before. Rumor has it that another programmer was brought in to correct the mess but the few guidance counselors are not finished making corrections. So more time is wasted. Also, there are classes created to dump students into them under the guise of “elective”. The principal’s edicts to improve fall flat when the reality sets is examined.
Second, where are the parents? The DOE knows parental participation in NYC is weak at best.
Third, the faculty is united against their hatred of Elvin but very afraid to comment due to her vindictiveness and unprofessional behavior on an average day. She insults people openly and pushes buttons that have nothing to do with improving the school but are aimed at the faculty, professionally and personally. She produced a handbook which included reasonable expectations and unreasonable madnesses such as requiring a staff member’s name on the dashboard of the car for identification even though there are Dewey numbered stickers on all cars in the parking lot. The handbook has been published online. a
And, why her insistence that most of the teachers teach out of license? ESL teachers teaching Social Studies and Phys Ed teacher doing a Science class?
Why bring in a former staff member of hers at another school as an assistant principal with no clear job designation who sits all day and barely teaches a couple of classes?
And on and on.
The demise of John Dewey High School is really the demise of the NYC school system under the Bloomberg administration.
But , it is also a question of abuse. Abuse of students, parents and staff. The Chancellor of NYCDOE has regulations against child abuse. These accusations investigated fiercely.
Well, this one needs to be investigated and stopped.
The school is finished. Kathleen Elvin is making her staff miserable. Many great teachers have left and more might leave. They all loved Dewey, but not with her as principal.
Karen and Dewey,
Sharing your stories is important because it helps others, even far away, to see the pieces of the larger puzzle. It takes energy to tell it but the details of your situation are appreciated. Sorry for the madness.
Didn’t Spike Lee attend Dewey?
Yes he did, but he wants nothing to do with the school as I heard. He called everyone there a racist
Lee finds racism in anything and everything!! His movies aren’t even good (most of them are flops aka box office bombs) and they always somehow lead to racism.
Actually in an interview with NY Mag, he said he had gotten a good education in NYC public schools, including Dewey.
What a shame what he is doing to the public school system. I as being a Dewey alumni is saddened at what has become of the school!! Only hope is when this man is outta of office, unless he decides to change the law again to run for a 4th term, then we are all in trouble!!! The nanny state under Bloomberg is nothing shy of a dictatorship. When every decision making body in the city has a majority of mayorial appointed members, how will the people ever get their points across. Not matter how much they protest and such, the mayor gets what he wants no matter!!!! Sad sad world here in NYC.
Yes, Spike Lee attended Dewey and so did Ray Suarez and many other famous people. Spike wants nothing to do with the school.
Diane, thanks for the accuracy of your piece on Dewey; just to add to the comments- this new Manager uses attendance as a “hammer” on staff, putting out a “fear and loathing” approach in which she dictates that she finds more than 5 absences- for whatever reason- EXCESSIVE!!! One would say: what about the 10 days guaranteed in the UFT contract? Well, like all else, this administrator IGNORES the contract, and abuses union members in a way that would make Rahm Emannuel proud. Its been a Reign of Terror from the moment she emerged,and our freedoms and our “perks” have been whittled away by the day, as already mentioned. By the way, I’ve learned that she excessed a very fine and dedicated teacher from the Math Dept- which she totally destroyed at the very time when our students need excellent math and science teachers the most, replacing most of the dept with ATR’s and out-of-license staff members- and this teacher had PERFECT attendance! So she lies through her teeth, while rewarding a small “cabal” she controls with Skinnerian-style “rewards and punishments”! On top of all this, she sent a couple of investigators from the DOE’s Office of Special Investigations, to the home of a teacher who had just retired, who just happened to be fearless in defending his, and other, teachers’ rights, and this was done to intimidate him, and, at the same time, US, since his supposed crime was the “unauthorized absences” he took (2 days!) on the tail end of the Easter break to visit his terminally ill father in Europe! Do you think the CSA would have an issue with her mania? It doesn’t make them look too good, especially after their united and ultimately successful effort to put the city on hold by joining forces with their traditional enemy, the UFT!
Diane Ravitch, Thanks for the accuracy of your piece on John Dewey; I’ve taught there for over 2 decades, but never saw a more hostile takeover than this one, at a moment in the national, let alone New York City, scene, when the need to fight back against these corporate carpetbaggers has never been greater. The way this principal treats veteran staff at the school, as already detailed, would make Rahm Emmanuel proud: she totally ignores our union contract, has a one-to-one “conference” with you if you dare to take off a day, has methodically destroyed the Math Dept in the building by excessing 9 teachers, brings in “newbies” who she proceeds to intimidate while using a Skinnerian behavior mod/reward and punish tactic on the rest of us- it is a school run on fear and loathing, hardly recognizable as “Dewey”! I wonder what the CSA would think,if they knew how she operates…?
Take a moment, Martin, to read what is starting to show up on this blog. All must be told. I feel for you guys as a teacher myself. You can do it. It will take a relentless barrage of truth,; it can start off slowly and anonymously. As you feel more secure, you will do more. Every school in the city going through what you are going through must do the same. Then Dewey can regain its spirit and be the leader that it once was.
I am currently a student at the school. Many people don’t realize how hurt we really are, we lack so many things. Our budget is dry, insufficient equipment, low enrollment, slashed programs and classes, new inexperienced teachers replacing traditionally great ones that have been their for DECADES before I was even born! We’re turning into a typical high school. A conventional one at that, and that’s not a good thing. There’s no such thing as bands or cycles anymore. Where is the liberty we used to have of changing our schedules to fit our own needs academically? Where is the freedom of being metal detector free (even though many high schools throughout NYC are implementing metal detectors anyway) and where are all the students on the campus?
It’s exasperating. We did not deserve this. I personally try my best to make a number higher in that school, my 92 average is for the school, and for my family. Not necessarily for me. I want to turn that 62% graduation rate into a 63, and I want my classmates to want the same thing. I don’t want Dewey to be another school on the list that reads “Closed Schools Due to Poor Performance” and I certainly do not want Dewey to be restructured into small schools with a sugar coated name. I also do not want another Insideschools page that reads “This school was closed in due to poor performance.” in the header. And no, I hope the administration doesn’t win this time. They’ve closed enough schools, far too many, and this is the breaking point!
Can’t anyone volunteer to be a principal? One who actually cares about the school? Not Elvin and her inexperienced crew. Shockingly, some of the new appointed AP’s have never taught/are not teaching any classes. The DOE knows the demise of Dewey, but they’re purposefully ignoring it. And they can get away with it, like the corporate rats because the people are sheep. A herd of sheep. They would rather kiss *** than to speak up for themselves. It’s sad. This is not like me, I don’t even know how I managed to type this much. Just know this proves my anger, as a Dewey student. This will not be the end for us. Trust me, we’re in this too deep and we’ve fought too much to go down now. The DOE picked the wrong school to mess with. The worst part is that this corruption is not only happening in NYC, but also in Chicago, and other cities.
My sister attended Dewey in the 1970s when it was a choice school. As I recall, the school day was 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. with free periods and the sports were only intra-mural, in the spirit of de-emphasizing competition and just playing for the fun of it. What a shame that the city has destroyed this alternative, choice high school.