School Administration – Improvement Matters
LEADERSHIP MATTERS: A MODEL SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION The NY Times has an absolutely fabulous article on PS 172, a school in the city that works fabulously well. The principal, Jack Spatola, has been the principal there since 1984 and his AP has been there for more than twenty years. School administration continuity matters. He also has […]
New District Structures
Chalkbeat has a wonderful post about city council members asking the Department of Education how the new system of local superintendents and 7 Regional Support Organizations was going to work. The DOE people kept saying everyone was going to get along just fine. I caught myself talking to my computer more than once, saying “yeah, […]
Arne Duncan and What Went Wrong
There’s a fascinating piece on Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, in Politico, of all places. http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/09/arne-duncan-education-profile-000231 What Duncan Does Well There are some things that Duncan does really well, coming from the article. It is clear that he is all about his perception of what kids need. He has integrity. Second, he maintains an […]
The Curse of Testing: Narrow Curriculum
Your Week in Education 8/31 By Danielle Bonnici What should we teach? An interesting Op-Ed in the New York Times discussed the curse of standardized testing this week. Natalie Wexler reports that tests are blamed for narrowing curriculum to focus only on reading and math. The problem is so grave that Congress is considering making changes […]
New Chicago Grading System
Chicago’s school history is a testimony to the lack of difference that different reform movements have made; Chicago has tried them all to little avail. Chicago is now trying something else to get its high school graduation rate above 50% (that’s right, 50%). There are two core pieces to this effort, described in this article from […]
Regional Support Centers in NYC
Chalkbeat has a nice piece on the philosophy behind Chancellor Farina’s reorganization of support services. The goal of creating consistency across the city is crucial, but really difficult. I have two short comments. First, the support centers which will have over 200 schools which they support (except for the Staten Island one) AND have one […]
NYC Satisfaction Survey
NYC surveyed parents and teachers about their satisfaction. Full story on the satisfaction survey here. I was struck by three things. First, 95% of all parents are satisfied with their children’s education. That number makes me feel…weird. Given all the problems, given the incredible percentage who go through remedial education at a community college level, […]
Cuomo’s Misguided Teacher Evaluation Plan
Nicholas Tampio is an associate professor of political science at Fordham University in the Bronx. In a complex task like mentoring and rating teachers, there is no one-size-fits-all model. Best practice seems to require administrators to monitor starting teachers, give professional development, and fire them if the superintendent determines that the teacher will not likely […]
