City and State is a wonderful source of local and state news, every morning brief summaries with links pop up, flip through, links into what you’re interested in, for a news nerd like me a nice way to begin the day, City and State also runs what they call summits, the leading voices in a range of fields discussing the issue of the day in an in-person setting.
The middle of August, the CityState Education Summit, you know the opening of school cannot be far behind. With hundreds in the audience at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at the Battery. overlooking the harbor, I catch up with friends, chat with new friends, maybe query an “important-ish” person.
The keynote speakers were Betty Rosa, the NYS Commissioner of Education and Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the NYC Schools Chancellor.
Read summaries of their speeches here.
Commissioner Rosa emphasized the importance of digital literacy, the new skills required for our changing world and the phase-in of the graduation measures, the phaseout of required Regents Examinations and the phase-in of performance-based-assessments.
Chancellor Aviles-Ramos, beginning her second year, lauded the close working relationship with UFT President Mulgrew in the extensive teacher support initiatives resulting in the increases in Reading and Math scores on the spring standardized tests.
Ed Trust, a highly regarded advocacy organization asked,
STATEMENT: EdTrust-New York welcomes NYSED’s release of preliminary 2024–25 Grades 3–8 ELA, Math, and Grades 5 & 8 Science assessment data — but the numbers raise more questions than answers.
Statewide proficiency gains — ELA (+7%), math (+3%), science (+9%) — look encouraging, but with exam changes for four years in a row, it’s unclear if these reflect true progress or shifts in the test itself. We urge NYSED to clarify changes, commit to stabilizing exams, and ensure data is meaningful and reliable.
Districts like NYC are making measurable progress by aligning instruction with the science of reading — but districts shouldn’t have to rely solely on local exams. As federal oversight erodes, reliable state data is more critical than ever to support educators, families, and students. https://loom.ly/DYyuvr0
Suspicion over rising test scores in not new, in 2010, after years of rising scores the Board of Regents, under the leadership of Merryl Tisch asked Harvard professor Daniel Koretz to exam the state testing process, he found the process deeply flawed, and Ed Trust has doubts over the year-to-year progress especially when chronic absenteeism is endemic.
After the keynote addresses by the commissioner and the chancellor three panels followed, the Higher Education panel acknowledged the impact of the cuts in federal funding and the need for school districts and colleges to work together, our K-12 system must become a closely aligned K-16 system. In the Q & A that followed each session an unanswerable and vexing question: How will the mayoral election impact schools? The answer: we’ll have to wait and see.
As I listened to the school leaders I mused,
Will the current state and city initiatives lead to a more educated and literate, critical thinking populace, or are our educational leaders, once again, spinning wheels?
The road to school reform is littered with the detritus of failed reforms, Tinkering Towards Utopia: A Century of Public School Reforms, an exhaustive examination of school reform efforts,
“We do not suggest some radical Phoenix will arise from the ashes of the current system … We suggest that reformers take a broader view of the aims that should guide public education and focus on ways to improve instruction from inside rather than the top down.To bring about improvement at the heart of education classroom instruction has proven to be the most difficult kind of reform and it will result more from internal changes created by the knowledge and expertise of teachers than from decisions of external policy makers
Better schools will result in the future – as it has in the past and does now – come chiefly from the steady reflective efforts of practitioners who work in schools and from the contribution of parents (while they criticize) public education.
The “answer,” the new thing, the Common Core, New Generation Standards, Phonics-Based Reading Instruction, the list goes on and on, all of the “new things” fail to address: Has classroom instruction changed?
Mike Schmoker, in Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Improve Student Learning argues for changes at the school and classroom level,
What We Teach: This simply means a decent, coherent curriculum , with topics and standards collectively selected by a team of teachers from the school or district – that is actually taught
How We Teach: The pivotal feature of effective lessons is the conscientious effort, throughout the lesson, to assure that all students are learning each segment of the lesson before moving on to the next one.
Authentic Literacy: Authentic literacy to both what and how we teach, It is the spine that holds everything together in all subject areas .: .. Authentic literacy simply means purposeful – and usually argumentative – reading, writing and talking.:
Tyack/Cuban and Schmoker define school reform as schools or clusters of schools in which the school community, collaboratively, creates a curriculum including topics and standards and critically, an instructional methodology with frequent tests for understanding built in lessons.
We need school leaders who are not obsessed with whether you’re on the right page in the Teacher Guide, we need school leaders who understand leaders should be the Principal Teacher not the overseer of a factory, once again, we are not tightening the bolts on an assembly line, we are seeking the right tool to facilitate outcomes for the issue confronting our students.
There are shining stars, schools and clusters of schools that are learning communities, too few and too often struggling to to survive under the yoke of ineffective leadership.
Will a new mayor seek to rebuild our school system or continue to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic?
Ed in the Apple: Blogging on the Intersection of Education and Politics Title 