Two quick points:
1. We disappointingly didn’t hear the voices of the children and their parents involved with the program. Do they feel any impact?
2. NYC public schools are already the most expensive per student rates in the country.
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If the parents are not going to be the leader in the educational process the chances of success is slim. The kids parents are welfare kids themselves. The left created this mess.
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The point that the Times' Education coverage routinely misses is that NYC schools have been systematically underfunded for DECADES.
It is well over a decade ago that the Campaign for Fiscal Equity sued the state when George Pataki was governor, charging that state aid systematically favored affluent districts on Long Island and in Westchester, to the detriment of urban schools, not only in NYC, but Yonkers and Buffalo, too. CFE won its suit, and was awarded a judgement of $4 Billion. The state SETTLED, agreeing to pay 50 cents on the dollar, a $2 Billion settlement. From the end of the Pataki Administration, through the administrations of Elliot Spitzer, David Paterson and now Andy Cuomo, the state has not paid out a single dime on the settlement *to which it agreed.*
Perhaps the CFE should return to court and demand the full $4B judgement be paid...
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Don’t we all wish that our students come from two-parent homes, and I infer you mean male-female parents! Well a goodly number of them don’t. Shall we pass a law that says that single women cannot have children, that divorces are outlawed as well? What’s your solution to that issue. You don’t say. A good sound bite in the culture wars.
As for an aspirational peer group, poof, let’s just create them, eh? How do you do that? Church, community center? One in seven NYC students are deemed “homeless.” Where do they find that aspirational peer group? The fact that a Girl Scout troop for “homeless” children was created became a media story. How many such aspirational groups do we need? A good sound bite in the culture wars.
Mayor DeBlasio has created early childhood intervention programs on a citywide basis. A start to be sure, but not the total solution.
What exactly does your recommendation of shoving all such children into “vocational training” mean? There are a lot of students who would do well in career and technical education, which also includes academic education, to be sure, but there are as many, with the right opportunities, who would achieve great academic success as well.
A single visit to a suburban elementary school and a subsequent visit to one of the renewal schools would be a good way to realize the tremendous advantages that city schoolchildren lack. Your recommendations make for good sound bites but for lousy educational progress for our city’s schoolchildren.
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Although important, suggestions for curriculum, teacher training and evaluation, educational intervention or parental home engagement pale in value when teachers are confronted with contractual class sizes of 32 students. It's the defining difference between charter, private or even Westchester district schools. All commenters with "easy to identify" correctional educational solutions should first spend a few days alone teaching an elementary aged class of 32 kids. NYC teachers teach their hearts out.
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As a former elected school board member and the son of two educators, I know this: the solution lies in early childhood intervention, a two-parent nuclear family and an aspirational peer group.
Until Mayor De Blasio develops the guts and willpower to buck politically correct taboos, it's all money better spent on vocational training.
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Whatever money is spent, it usually comes down to a few things;
How motivated the PARENTS are in parenting their children, reading to them, teaching them manners, teaching them how to listen and show respect.
Teenagers having children,, who themselves dropped out of school usually are not great at parenting the next generation of students.
Until parents of school aged children start educating themselves on how to be better parents, nothing changes if nothing changes.
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And , when yet another 'throw money at it' liberal plan fails, as they always do, ask the teachers unions how to fix it. And whatever happens, don't get rid of any teacher, regardless of how poor their history in taking care of the children. After all, they are an afterthought, right?
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Give the mayor a chance, NYC public schools are far better off today than they were in 1978 when I arrived in NYC. All that Mr Bloomberg really accomplished was to close schools in poorer neighborhoods and force those children into charter schools. I don't see how privatizing public schools improves academic outcomes. In my neighborhood and other Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods I am aware of, outcomes improved when parents were engaged as stakeholders in the process. It is the way public education thrives in the suburbs and certain other cities throughout the US. Stop blaming the teachers and start taking ownership of the educational outcomes of children in your neighborhood.
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Everything you said! People think changes come in a year or two. It takes a deep dive conducted with love and patience and with everyone pulling in the same direction. It takes time to get those things right for the change to begin.
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I thought he was going to follow the Baltimore program which runs in conjunction with John Hopkins?? Also, this really didn't start 4 years ago. It was announced 4 years ago. When it did start, the principals were not given any real direction. You really have to plan out a plan before you implement it.
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Of far more utility would be an accounting of how the money is spent; where does it end up? One suspects that the neediest never see a dime, but rather, that those with clout in the community, who can then become the mayor's allies come election time, are seeing the lion's share. Isn't there a way to force them (the officials, not the students) to open the books?
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Agree that money is being wasted. Just as in the past, some students do well, and some do not. We used to speak of "failing students' rather than of "failing schools." Wonder what the next rhetorical embellishment will be...
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When so many teachers do not have the education and skills to teach the students, the outcome should be obvious. Based on their proficiency scores, over 20% of union teachers cannot pass eighth grade level tests in math and English.
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...and you think it is better in charter schools? The teachers there do not have to pass any test so we just do not know. But blame the teachers. The overwhelming number of teachers are dedicated and do the best job possible.
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Charter schools do not operate under the same rules as NYC schools. Specifically, charter schools can "coach" a student out of their schools for poor performance and being a behavioral problem. (Coaching a student out of school is a subtle way of expelling a student.) The day charter schools are able to keep their weaker academic students and maintain high test scores is when I will become impressed with what they do. Until then, well, the charter school propaganda lives on.
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Not to mention the fact that charters cherry pick their students in the first place. When I see a charter taking limited English proficiency students, over the counter students, homeless students and all the students that bring down the test scores of many of the so called failing schools, I ill be impressed. Until then its all a charade.
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Sadly the usual:
Taxpayer money wasted
Teachers unions paid off
Student trapped in failing schools
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...and are you blaming the teachers? Do you think the teachers in these schools deliberately sabotage the students?
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I am blaming the teachers unions for advocating for this failed policy versus Mayor Bloomberg's better solution of closing these failed schools.
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@JEFF S
I am blaming the teachers unions who support this policy of wasting money on failing schools versus closing them. The teachers who support the teachers unions are therefore culpable as well for putting their interests ahead of the students they are responsible for educating.
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