Sean Davenport has a provocative piece in Chalkbeat about his journey from disaffected student to teacher at (now closed) Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx. On his first day there in his 10th grade English and Speech class, he told the students to take turns reading aloud from a text. He recounts this exchange… Continue reading “He Couldn’t Read”: A Teacher Confronts Illiteracy
When Mayor Mike Bloomberg hired Joel Klein as his School Chancellor in 2002, one of their first initiatives, Klein recalls in Lessons of Hope: How to Fix Our Schools, was to dismantle the “sclerotic, politically-controlled bureaucracy” at the Department of Education’s central office, which Bloomberg labeled a “rinky-dink candy store” and a “disgrace.” Klein quickly… Continue reading Retro is Chic in NYC: De Blasio’s School Budget Privileges Bureaucracy Over Kids
In January 2013, just before Bill de Blasio was sworn in for his first term as New York City’s mayor, a reporter asked him what he wanted his legacy to be. He replied that he wanted to be known as “the education mayor.” Three years into his first term he might ask, as Ed Koch… Continue reading How’s Hizzoner’s School Improvement Plan Doing? An Interim Report
Today in the Daily Beast former NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Louisiana Superintendent John White make the “urgent moral” case that “the most appropriate response to dramatic failure” for persistently failing schools” is “dramatic intervention.” In doing so, they posit an entirely different approach than the tweaks exercised by current NYC Mayor Bill de… Continue reading Politics vs. Policy: The “Urgent Moral” Case for Dramatic School Intervention
Here’s what New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said upon the news, released Friday, that the percentage of students who passes state assessments in reading jumped to 38%, almost 8 points higher than last year: These results represent important progress and outline real improvements across each borough of our city. We congratulate our students,… Continue reading About That Uptick in NYC Test Scores, I Hope De Blasio Sends a Thank You Note to Mike Bloomberg
