Over the years I’ve probably been in countless schools, sort of a participant observer, and have been appalled by the lack of leadership. Too many school leaders spend most of their time in their office, never teaching a class, chancellors, we’ve had six in the twelve years, more interested in spinning dud magic bullets.
Too many 200K plus Tweed occupants who rarely enter schools, and, heaven forbid, teach a class. One Tweed habitue makes $304,000 …
Scattered across the city there are high poverty schools with impressive academic outcomes.
Why? Why are schools with similar data doing better than others?
The Department has an enormous database: standardized test outcomes, attendance, student mobility, teacher mobility, teacher experience, students in shelters, immigrants, students with limited English, students with disabilities and survey questionnaire data, every year parents, teachers and secondary school students have the opportunity to fill out surveys.
The Research Alliance for NYC Schools would be the perfect organization to connect the research, if the Department asked.
Unfortunately the Department seems more concerned with emphasizing externally imposed reading and math approaches.
In my journey as a union representative I’ve been in schools with highly engaged staff and others, too many others, plodding along, cultures of indifference.
Research consistently shows that teacher collaboration can significantly improve student outcomes when it is structured, goal‑oriented, and supported by a collaborative school culture.
In the waning years of the Bloomberg regency the Department reconfigured the school system from the traditional geographic districts to Affinity Districts, with network leaders, schools chose which leaders they wanted to join – sort of speed dating.
Norm Frucher, in a must read three part examination explores the creation and impact, sadly ended by de Blasio, with six chancellors in twelve years, with the exception of the 150 schools continuing to function under the Affinity model
NYC Affinity District: What Is It? (Part 1) https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/news/new-york-citys-affinity-district-part-1-what-it
NYC Affinity District: The Origins (Part 2) https:/(/steinhardt.nyu.edu/news/new-york-citys-affinity-district-part-2-origins
NYC Affinity District (Part 3) Decentralization and Governance https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/news/new-york-citys-affinity-district-part-3-decentralization-and-governance-context-nyc-schools
The legislature has finally approved the budget, with many non budgetary items, including a two year extension of mayoral control, two years to explore what is working, why is it working, and, how can we redesign the system and embedding what works.
I’m not asking for a commission, I’m asking for you to create a working group in your office, maybe led by Elle Bisgaard Church, and begin by sitting down with a few highly successful and thoughtful people, Shael Polakow- Suransky, currently President of Bank Street College, Mark Dunetz, President of New Visions for Public Schools, Eric Nadelstein, formerly # 2 at the Department and Professor of Practice at Columbia University, see a paper here, Ashleigh Thompson, the University Dean of Education at CUNY, John Liu, the chair of the NYC Education Committee in the Senate and Mary Vaccaro, the UFT Vice President for Education.
The just posted substack re potential scandal may involve our new chancellor, never a slow day in the Apple.
The literature re: Autonomy and Accountability is vast, a literature ignored by the NYC School System.
To a great extent, accountability serves as a counterbalance to the greater autonomy granted to schools. Nonetheless, the relationship between autonomy and accountability is multidirectional and very often generates tensions and contradictions. In this sense, accountability and supervision do not simply respond to increased autonomy; rather, accountability frameworks require certain levels of organizational autonomy to function effectively. Indeed, for accountability pressures to drive improvement, schools must have the autonomy to make meaningful decisions in pedagogical, managerial, and organizational domains. The rationale is straightforward: it would be unjust to hold schools accountable for results if they lack the necessary decision-making capacity to address their specific challenges. Needless to say, over time, SAWA (School Autonomy with Accountability) analysts have come to recognize the limits of school autonomy when it comes to triggering school improvement. More than autonomy alone, what many schools, particularly underperforming ones and those operating in disadvantaged contexts, need is more external support, stronger networks, and increased collaboration (Quilabert et al., Citation2024).
We can do better, we owe it to the families we serve and the colleagues with whom we work. Let’s get together in “the room where it matters” and craft a school system that balances autonomy and accountability, a system that we all feel proud of ….,
Ed in the Apple: Blogging on the Intersection of Education and Politics Title 