(2003-10-17) Barrett On Nyc School Reform

Wayne Barrett on the best 10 of Mike Bloomberg's Educating Kids In Nyc School Reform-s. The first NYC mayor to adopt education reform as his most urgent mission, Bloomberg wants to make the city's 1,200 schools accountable to a community of two - Joel Klein and himself. Note: 1200 schools, 1185 parent coordinators, 1200 principals, 3000 assistant principals, 10 regional and 113 local subdivisions replacing the old 32 community districts, 10 regional superintendents, 113 local instructional superintendents, 6 regional operating centers, 45 parent support staff, 20% of students changing schools each year, 50% of the Middle School teachers change schools every 2 years. Note also the resistence of both the UFT and CSA Labor Union-s.

• following week: 10 worst reforms. One aside: Klein's press office selected Murray Bergtraum High School in Manhattan for a Voice visit, yet teachers and administrators there expressed concern about the first book they were required to read aloud to ninth graders, Monster. Ignoring that book, are you telling me that teachers are reading out loud to 9th graders?!?!?!

Also: Robert Kolker on the process of giving more power to principals. "It took me years to get this place right," says Lombardi. "I used the system of rules to my advantage. You have to be able to work within the parameters of a broken managerial system - or what was broken." (ref to Marc Tucker's Principal Challenge ISBN:0787964476 ) Of course, empowering principals doesn't necessarily endear you to the head of the principals' Labor Union (CSA); if they become managers, they're no longer labor. (analogy of William Bratton's Comp Stat police computer system) One study compared state reading scores with three different variables of city school students: kids who spoke English as a second language, who received federal Title I money for school lunches (meaning they were poor), and who were in special education. There was an 83 percent correlation between the lists. "I looked at this, and I was heartbroken," Harold Levy says. "It means we only have 17 percent of the kids' reading scores to play with."... Now she's (Randi Weingarten, president of the UFT) filed close to 9,000 grievances against the Department Of Education and a lawsuit to get a Referen Dum on the ballot for smaller class sizes... "AnthonyLombardi runs his school like a tyrant," she says, seething... What would Lombardi really need to be the boss of his school? He dreams of having a way to grade teachers with more than just an S or a U. He'd also like a full review of tenure. "The labor force needs some protection - there should be checks and balances to make sure a principal is fair," he says. "But the contract shouldn't allow poor practices to go on in classrooms."... (Bloomberg said) "But if you get a bunch of teachers who want to collectively make a difference, they're not going to listen to the contract. They're going to do it because they want to."