Carmen Farina, Chancellor of the New York City public schools, here describes her plans to improve the public schools in a district with 1.1 million students. She wrote this post in response to my request to outline her priorities. The last three Chancellors in Néw York City were non-educators. Many educators were delighted when Mayor Bill de Blasio selected an experienced educator to run the system. It is also welcome to hear the chancellor talk of collaboration, not competition.
“Toward a More Perfect School System
“September has always been my favorite month. I love it because it’s a time of possibilities, when every child can be reached and every parent can be engaged in their child’s education. This September has added meaning for me: it’s my 50th as a New York City public school educator. I’ve seen many changes over the past five decades and I am pleased that one thing hasn’t changed: our most important work still happens in the classroom, with teachers and administrators who are committed to doing whatever it takes to help all our of students realize their dreams.
“I am proud of the strides we have made over the past 20 months, restoring dignity and respect to the craft of teaching and school leadership. We continue to focus our attention on teacher recruitment and retention, providing mentoring and other supports so that our teachers feel valued and continue to grow professionally; every student deserves to learn from an excellent, engaged teacher. We have successfully moved from a system of competition to one of collaboration. Our educators have embraced the new spirit of cooperation that informs all of our work. This summer alone, thousands of teachers, principals, and superintendents attended professional development sessions on topics ranging from STEM and information technology to building a leadership pipeline and creating a college-going culture in schools. This year, we also created a new, streamlined school support structure under the direction of strong, experienced superintendents. The approach, which marries accountability and support with innovation, aims to provide all of our schools with the tools help they need to improve instruction, operations, and student services.
“Now, we are building on that progress. This fall, every four-year-old in the City will have access to free, full-day, high-quality pre-kindergarten. It’s extremely satisfying to know that our youngest learners will have an additional year of rich academic experiences. We are targeting extra supports to our Renewal Schools and we will have 130 new Community Schools, with wrap-around services that meet the whole needs of all of our students. As a former English Language Learner, I am also proud of the 40 new Dual Language Programs we are opening. A multi-lingual, multi-cultural education is crucial for our students, and our nation, to compete in the global economy.
“Finally, we have renewed our commitment to parent engagement, which we know plays a critical role in student achievement. With a new, strong leader overseeing family and community engagement, we will deepen the connection between schools and communities. The 40 minutes schools set aside each week to involve families in their schools will ensure that the entire community puts the interests of students front and center.
“We realize that challenges remain and we won’t rest until all of our students graduate from high school fully prepared to pursue the future they imagine for themselves. This September, I am excited to take up that challenge once more, and I am optimistic because I know that all of our brilliant educators share my mission to create a more perfect school system.”
Fariña is New York City Schools Chancellor.
Let’s see if she walks the walk.
I no longer believe her. She has held to many of the Klein principles. She has not been kind to teachers in general and has made some appointments that were bad choices.
While she writes a promising overview, the devil is in the details. Anyone can use “buzz” words to create hype. We will have to see how the generalities play out in daily practice. While she is fostering a climate of collaboration, she is still compelled to work in a climate of “accountability” which in New York is code word for VAM. VAM is the antithesis of collaboration. It is false accountability, and it seems to be about as accurate as throwing darts at a dartboard. VAM is the destabilization tool of Governor Cuomo. It is no better than a numerical “hit man” as it is designed to destroy while giving the false illusion of objectivity. A healthy, positive, collaborative work environment cannot exist with bogus restraints such a VAM, and a continuation of the test and punish agenda.
In my opinion, the biggest impediment to learning is how to address what happens in the classroom when students are disruptive or are having difficulties learning. In a class of 25 to 34 students, there should be supports for teachers.
All the professional development and technology and data collection won’t help if a teacher is unable to focus on teaching. And there is a fine line between good classroom management and having support to address how to manage a child whose higher needs affect a teacher’s ability to teach content to other students.
It is incomprehensible to me that attempts to improve failing schools with high numbers of at-risk kids don’t include how to address these questions.
You are right –reducing disruptions would boost achievement –far more than dragging overstretched parents into school. But sadly the zeitgeist is moving in the opposite direction –louder and louder, we now hear the cry for less discipline, not more (but only in the public schools –Success Academy and its ilk are held to a different standard). Nowadays we see witch hunts for “racist” administrators and school districts who suspend minorities at disproportionally high rates –which burnish the anti-racist bona fides of liberal crusaders, but only serve to exacerbate the strife in the classroom. Bad old discipline is to be replaced by untested, time-intensive innovations like “restorative justice”. Given this zeitgeist, what can Farina propose on this front?
You don’t have to suspend disruptive kids — that’s cheap and it doesn’t work anyway. I should say, it works for charter schools who suspend their kids over and over again until their parents “get the message” and pull them out. But since the goal of public schools is to educate and not to rid themselves of these students, I don’t think suspension is the answer.
My ideal would be places in the school where these students were taught in smaller class sizes, or if that didn’t work, where they just sat and stewed. You make it clear to the student that they are very welcome to return to the classroom if they can be present without being disruptive. Maybe they listen to lessons on the computer and work on-line. For younger students, you work to see what it is that is the issue. Sometimes, a child made to feel misery because he isn’t learning fast enough just acts out. Giving him confidence and a new approach to the material he struggles with can work wonders.
There is a difference between a child who is truly violent, and one who throws a pencil. Restorative justice has been shown to work. But it’s just like the perception of unions. Principals don’t use due process the correct way and just claim “you can’t fire terrible teachers”. And they don’t use restorative justice the right way and instead just leave disruptive kids in the classroom for the teacher to deal with.
What a wonderful vision and what wonderful leadership. If only the rest of our system could embrace a pro-teacher, pro-child platform.
John Inman Ed.D., M.A., Ed.M., DDPE Creating educational solutions where learners develop individual gifts and realize their potential Seattle, WA john@learningexceptionalities.com http://www.learningexceptionalities.com 425-954-7256
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“college-going culture”? What about the 70% or so who aren’t going to college? Why do we assume that college is the only trajectory?
And talking about “cooperation” and “collaboration” and “support” while at the same time still talking about “accountability” is, at best, duplicitous.
The mantra of everyone being “college ready” has led to a shortage of skilled craftsmen and women. There are many good paying opportunities for people that have the talent to work with their hands. We are in need of electricians, plumbers, welders, pipe fitters, and wind turbine technologists. These are viable careers.
Yes, not only viable, but ones that can’t be outsourced to China. Or where ever the cheap labor is these days.
We have our stormy weather here in Wisconsin, but we also have a combined effort of schools, trade unions, and the workforce development board to promote the trades to students. It’s the Trade Up campaign and you would see these posters and promotions in many high schools in south central Wisconsin.
http://wdbscw.org/trade-up/
And they offer something that is woefully lacking in most office jobs: autonomy, creativity and pride in workmanship.
The carpenters, electricians and plumbers that I have interacted with and worked with over the years are some of the smartest, most competent people I have ever known and some of the very best problem solvers, especially when it comes to “thinking on your feet”.
Our society really needs to disabuse itself of the misguided idea that everyone needs to get a college degree and go to work in an office.
The book “Shop class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the value of Work” has some very relevant things to say about this.
I agree. Some people that work with their hands are very clever and resourceful. They are problem solvers. I have renovated a couple of investment properties, and I was impressed with workers’ solutions to problems we encountered.
I reminded many of my students of the need for hands-on services for which many were trained by their parents.
You can go to a Community college when you are ready. College is for the academically motivated and not a good option financially at this point. Own your own service business.
Gates dropped out.
The other thing about tradespeople is that (like teachers), they provide services that are invaluable to our society — without which things would quickly collapse, in fact.
Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the politicians and other VAMbots who claim to be measuring the “value added’ by teachers — which is really quite ironic because these folks provide absolutely nothing of any real value to our society and, indeed, would not know real “value” if it hit them in the head.
SDP, I could not agree more with everything you’ve said lately regarding the trades, but with one major caveat: whether it is one-man shops, huge private firms, or unionized agencies like New York City Transit, access for minorities is a significant issue, even assuming equal abilities and training. The racism and segregation we see in society at large is just as prevalent, if not more so.
Sadly, everyone is so geared to “college readiness” that a student can no longer get a high school diploma without learning more math, science and history than a student needed to attend an Ivy League university 35 years ago. Or at least, being expected to learn that material and pass an exam on it.
Do you know that a student can attend a so-called “elite” private high school in NYC, get into a 2nd tier private college – now SAT optional! – and graduate magna cum laude with a humanities degree and a very few required “Rocks for Jocks” type science classes? And never have to prove any competency in math. But a public school student going to a community college? They must prove their competency in advanced Algebra and Geometry via a placement test and then take spend time in college taking remedial Algebra or Trig courses they will never need. You can only get away with knowing little math by going to a private university these days!
It’s true that not everyone will go to college, but do parents want to be told that? When do you decide a child isn’t going to college? In at least one European country that I know of it is done in 4th grade. That would not fly in the US. The parents I speak to agree college isn’t for everyone, but it is definitely for their kids.
The key is not to force children and young adults into a mold but to provide them with the opportunity to explore other avenues before they reach high school graduation age.
It is actually quite possible to give students the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in college in courses that are actually geared toward trades. After all, it’s all problem solving.
In fact, i would argue that, for many students, it is actually easier to do that in shop (hands on) oriented classes than in more traditional courses that the students may have no interest in.
This past summer, i helped teach a boat building class. All of the students had a learning disability of some type and many had never used a tape measure, drill or saw, but by the end of the class, they had all learned how and used these skills to actually build several sea- (or at least lake) worthy canoes.
When given the chance to measure and lay out, cut and then assemble (screw and epoxy) something with their own hands, these students were very successful (some of them perhaps for the first time in their lives)
High schools used to provide these sorts of opportunities, but most don’t any more. Shop classes were the first to go when money got tight. A very big mistake, in my opinion. Reassembling shops with experienced teachers after they are gone is far more difficult — and expensive — than keeping them going to begin with.
the devil is in the details
It bothers me that “Stem” is in the first rained priority in his material.
I wrote back to the AAUW on their Stem questionnaire that I thought they should not be caught up in the marketing hype around “science/t.e.m” as their most important gender issue….. it bothers me when the marketing hype takes over — and where it is coming from also bothers me….
I try to be less angry when I know that “deus ex machina” has always been a theatrical device; but I know the politicians on both sides of the aisle are caught up in this …. so they grab at the “STEM” to be the top of the list priorities — without considering the issues thoroughly. Plus it makes a good bumper sticker I guess and it gives the appearance of doing something about the issues.
This looks more like an exercise in public relations then a substantial answer to the question Dr. Ravitch asked. I confess I am at best agnostic about the chancellor’s plans, but I can tell you, as a New York City school teacher, that the dignity of and respect for the teaching profession is far from restored–which stipulates that it existed in the first place in the 13 years I have served as a teacher here.
So, I remain skeptical.
I was waiting for such a comment. I am not a New Yorker, so I was waiting for some native input. Frankly, her “speech” sounded like every other “rally the troops,” beginning of the school year speech countless administrators have given. I learned to watch the reaction of the veteran teachers. If you wanted to know how much to trust the administrator in question, they were the bellwether.
Jeez, thanks for your kind words…I really appreciate them. This chancellor, in my not especially humble opinion, has been a disappointment.
Not in NYC but…”The 40 minutes schools set aside each week to involve families in their schools will ensure that the entire community puts the interests of students front and center.”
This sound to me like cuts in instructional time to find that healthy chunk of time, on top of the cuts from excessive testing.
I am trying to envision how this works, especially for single parent families (estimates at 43 to 46% in NYC) and among these families many parents struggling to get and keep a job, manage all of the issues that go with food, clothing, shelter, getting kids to and from school safely.
I do not doubt the need for community support and parental support.
I think this 40 minutes of ear-marked time could become part of the problem, especially in the districts known to be marked by entrenched poverty and dysfunctions of the kind mapped ( literally) at CCCNewYork. According to data at CCCNewYork, including an interactive map of school districts, there are seven community districts in deep deep trouble, Eleven more are classified as moderate to high risk. Some districts have a 59% poverty rate against a city-wide average of 30%. Risk indicators for child well-being are not the same for every district. As others have said, this looks like another administrative mandate, perhaps well-intentioned, but dangerously arbitrary and simplistic.
You have made an astute observation, even if you aren’t inside NYC DOE schools.
The 40 minutes of Tuesday afternoon parent engagement time, as well as 80 minutes of PD on Mondays, was taken directly from students who had been getting 4 day/week, 37.5 min per day small-class-size (no more than 5:1 for ELLs/SWDs; 10:1 for gen ed) tutoring.
Yes, this time was occasionally used for test prep. Yes, some kids didn’t show up. Yes, logistics sometimes meant that kids didn’t get the full 37.5 minutes. Despite all that, it was working well at many schools — not PS 6 or PS 29, to be sure — with large numbers of kids who need extra attention.
Few will admit it publicly, but it is widely understood that the parent engagement and PD sessions are a joke. Most NYC DOE parents are working on Tuesday afternoons! And if Scott Stringer wants to audit something, he should audit Monday PD sessions at NYC DOE schools. The findings would be interesting.
Pre-K has been a big accomplishment, but it has come at a cost to K-12 and it is absurd to assume that all new programs are “high quality”. Not much else is different now than it was under Kleincott, except that schools can rest easy knowing that only the state will close them down, not the DOE.
Due to working schedules of parents of ESL parents, my district had a once a month meeting on a Sunday afternoon after mass. The ESL teachers came in without pay to give or attend workshops or meet families informally. The district give us the space, and the department paid for refreshments. Not all ESL teachers were present all the time, but some of us did attend as we felt it was important to meet parents during their one non-stressed time of the week. It built us a lot of respect and trust with parents. The union never hassled us about it as might have been case in some districts.
Laura, I’m glad you brought this up. Dragooning poor parents into school service is a wretched idea. Where is the evidence that this helps? Of course there could be a CORRELATION between parent involvement and achievement, but how often do we have to reteach education “experts” that correlation is not causation? I’ve actually seen a study that suggested a negative correlation between parent involvement and achievement –parents of kids who struggle or misbehave want to be on campus to intervene –often fruitlessly. If there’s a positive correlation, it’s probably socioeconomic advantage in disguise. In East Asia, parents are intensively involved in kids’ academics –AT HOME. They do not come to school. To me this initiative indicates that Farina is grasping at straws. It reveals a bankruptcy of ideas. She does not know what works. Her fifty years’ experience hasn’t taught her. Sometime experience isn’t enough. You need a valid theoretical model. What is certain is that this initiative will negatively impact the lives of overworked, underpaid poor parents.
I think you misunderstood what the parent engagement piece is all about. It isn’t “dragooning poor parents into school service”. It is giving teachers time to interact with them. Writing e-mails, sending letters, making phone calls. Try doing that for 32 or 34 students each day. And, if parents are available, there is time to meet.
As much as I miss those 37.5 minutes, and would like them back, I also see why this idea was in place. Teachers were being expected to get results fast, and learn an entirely new common core curriculum and have their students all be above proficient in a year. So the professional development and parent engagement was, I assume, a way to give them some extra time that didn’t cost additional money. I wish the money had been there, but of course, there’s never money for anything except designing new tests for our students to fail.
I turned the car radio on when I left our yearly first day Superintendent conference day meeting at about 11:00 AM this morning. I caught the end of an interview with Carmen Farina. I was not at all impressed with what I heard. What she was saying did not sound anything like what she wrote here. She is all about rigor, teacher accountability and standardized testing. Here is a link to the pod-cast if anyone is interested.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/chancellor-farina-new-school-year/