Good afternoon Chairman Jackson and members of the Education +Committee. Thank you for inviting me today to talk about our efforts +to create the kind of public schools that New York City’s students +need and deserve. + +
Deputy Mayor Walcott just described the journey we’ve taken over +the past four-plus years since Mayor Bloomberg took control of, and +responsibility for, New York City’s schools. Last week, as you know, +the Mayor announced our next steps—what we will do to build on the +progress we have made. These reforms, which I will discuss today, will +take our schools and our system to a new, higher level. These steps +are critically important because although we’ve made a great deal of +progress in recent years, although our students are performing at a +substantially higher level now than they were in 2002, we still have a +long way to go before our schools are able to provide all of New York +City’s children with the education they need +and deserve. And while our students and our system have improved a +great deal, we must not accept the current reality, the status quo, as +our maximum potential. + +
Today, I will share with you the details of the next wave of our +Children First school reforms. But before I do that, I would like to +put the reforms in context: everything we do, every reform we +undertake, every initiative we pursue is a means to an end, and that +end is giving every one of our students, regardless of personal +circumstances, a fair chance at a successful, fulfilling, productive +life in a world that increasingly demands unprecedented levels of +knowledge and competence. When we called our reforms “Children First,” +we meant it. + +
Our efforts—the efforts that the Deputy Mayor just described and +the efforts that I will describe in my testimony today—are built +around four simple beliefs. + +
First, I fundamentally reject “incrementalism” as a +strategy. + +
Across America and in New York City, education “reformers” have +been claiming for years that this new initiative or that +new program would fix what’s wrong in our schools. We must be bold. We +cannot afford to be anything but bold when 140,000 of our 16- to +21-year-olds have dropped out of school or are about to, when more +than 60% of our eighth graders are still not reading or doing math at +grade level, and when our average African American and Latino students +perform several grade levels below their peers. + +
Second, I fundamentally reject the notion that the +challenges of urban education are insurmountable in light of failures +endemic to our society or the difficult circumstances surrounding the +lives of many students. + +
That is a common argument. But all it does is breed low +expectations. It allows educators at all levels to say “we did our +job” even if children fail—on the perverse theory that it is +the children who are the problem. It is also flatly incorrect. Many of +you have visited schools in our City that are proving this argument +wrong every day—schools like Bronx Aerospace Academy, the Patrick +F. Daly School in Brooklyn. + +
Third, I fundamentally reject the idea that we should ask +our great educators to succeed with children but deny them the +authority and resources to craft the most effective path to success. + +
A system that spends countless millions “on behalf of” schools +rather than letting educators spend it as they think most +effective cannot succeed. + +
Fourth, I fundamentally reject the notion that education, +unlike every single other domain in American life, is not compatible +with serious and meaningful accountability. + +
Accountability is fundamental in education—just like it is in every +other field. Compensation doesn’t need to be lock-step. Good teaching +is amenable to financial rewards. And, despite our best +attempts, not all poor performing adults are remediable. + +
These principles provide the connective tissue of the Children +First reforms as they have evolved and as they will continue to +evolve. + +
Now, I’d like to describe the next wave of our reforms. The reforms +involve four major changes that the mayor announced last week—plus one +additional critical element that I am announcing today for the first +time. + +
As the mayor announced last week, we will empower all of our +1,400-plus principals to make more decisions about their school’s +budgets, programs, and staffs. Second, we will hold principals +and schools accountable for student results. Third, we will +level the financial playing field so that all schools’ budgets are +based on their student population and so that all schools can be held +to the same high standards. Finally, because we know how +important teachers are to student success, from now on, teacher tenure +will no longer be the default position—we will grant it only to those +educators who prove they are able to help our students make progress. + +
And today, I’d like to announce that we are developing a more +robust and effective mechanism for parents—so they can resolve their +concerns and play an even more hands-on role in their children’s +education. We will also build the capacity of the school system to +support meaningful parent engagement. + +
To do this, we are creating parent offices in each of our 32 +districts. These offices will give parents a neighborhood resource +where they can find answers to questions that cannot be resolved at +the school level. Our new parent offices will also help to train and +provide support to parent coordinators and work with community groups +serving parents to effectively get information out to parents in all +of our communities and to hear their concerns. These parent officers +will report dually to Community Superintendents and to someone who +works directly for me—a new CEO of Parent Engagement. + +
The new CEO will develop a strategy for helping us to effectively +engage and support parents in their efforts to help their children +succeed and to provide accessible and timely information parents need +about the school system. This plan will integrate all DOE +parent-service resources. We envision that it will include a greater +level of collaboration with parents and community groups that serve +them. I believe parents are entitled to a meaningful opportunity for +input into this new parent engagement plan. That’s why I've asked +Advocates for Children, with over 35 years of assisting public school +parents in this City and the parent organization of the +Insideschools.org website, to help us shape our new initiative over +the next few months and to advise on how to bring other groups and +parents into that process. This collaboration demonstrates the serious +nature of my commitment to increase our efforts to engage and assist +our parents. + +
Now, I’d like to elaborate on the changes the Mayor described last +week. + +
First, I will discuss empowerment. + +
Last year, 332 principals stepped up to a very simple challenge: In +exchange for agreeing to become accountable for significant gains in +student achievement, they would be given substantially greater +authority over their schools. In essence, we stripped dollars from the +bureaucracy, gave them directly to the schools, and gave principals +the power to make the core decisions about programming, staffing, and +resources that affect their students and their schools. + +
We called these schools “Empowerment Schools,” and I am pleased to +report that they are off to a strong start. + +
Starting in the next school year, ALL of our principals, not just +those leading Empowerment Schools, will be given the power of +choice—the power to select the support system that they believe +will best enable them to succeed for their students. Principals, +working with their teams and consulting with their School Leadership +Teams, will be able to decide among three types of School Support +Organizations. These new support structures will replace the 10 +Regions that we created a few years ago to stabilize the school +system. + +
First, schools can become Empowerment Schools, joining the 332 +schools that have already chosen this more streamlined system of +support. + +
Second, they can choose to partner with a Learning Support +Organization (LSO). Four of our most accomplished Regional +Superintendents—Kathleen Cashin, Judy Chin, Marcia Lyles, and Laura +Rodriguez—will have the funds and the discretion to build these LSOs, +creating options that will be attractive and available to all schools. + +
Lastly, principals can choose to partner with an external +Partnership Support Organization (PSO). We know from our +experience that these groups have much to offer. They are unafraid to +innovate and willing to challenge orthodoxies. So, if principals +believe that bringing in support and expertise from outside the DOE is +the key to their students’ success, they should have that +option. These partner organizations might include any of the +non-profit intermediary organizations that are already working with +many of our schools. They might also include other non-profits or +colleges and universities. + +
Through a Request for Proposal Process, we will screen prospective +partners and develop a menu of DOE authorized Partnership Support +Organizations from which principals may choose. + +
Any school in the City—whether it’s in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten +Island, Queens, or Manhattan—will be able to choose any of these +options. Support will no longer be based on where a school is. It will +be based on what kind of support is best for a school. + +
Under all the support options, the DOE will continue to set +and enforce academic standards, develop rigorous curricula, and hold +schools to a common and demanding set of accountabilities. The DOE +will also continue to make all employment decisions, including whether +to hire or terminate principals. And all collective bargaining +agreements continue to apply. In this new system, the 32 Community +Superintendents will retain all the rights and authority required by +law and will report directly to me. And, of course, all schools must +comply with city, state, and federal law. + +
I will retain the right to intervene in a school, regardless of its +choice of support partner, if things are headed in the wrong +direction. And we will continue to provide the basic systems +(financial, human resources, data and communications) to serve schools +so they don’t have to reinvent their own infrastructure or lose the +advantages of scale. + +
Let me now turn to the second major reform, accountability. + +
Accountability is the natural partner of empowerment. Together, +they have real power to drive student achievement. Just as it is +unfair to hold principals accountable for results without giving them +the authority to deliver them, it is a mistake to give schools broad +discretion and not hold them strictly accountable for results. + +
Our accountability system will enlist parents as partners to help +us make sure that schools succeed. To be effective advocates for their +children, they need good information. By providing new information to +parents, and by making reports to parents more thorough, +comprehensive, and accessible, as well as easier to understand, we +will help parents make better choices and be better advocates for +their children. + +
So, every school will receive a Progress Report with an overall +letter grade (A – F) that compares it both to similar schools and the +City’s best schools. The grades will be based on performance (where a +school stands in absolute terms), progress (whether and how fast a +school’s students are improving) and items related to school +environment (including the results of new surveys of parents, +teachers, and students). With these surveys, we will find out what +parents, teachers, and students think is working—and not working—at +schools and we’ll have real information to help us fix problems and +learn how to build on strengths. + +
In addition, starting this year all schools are receiving on-site +“Quality Reviews,” during which skilled educators observe teaching, +and interview the principal, teachers, parents, and students at each +school. These reviews are summarized in a detailed report that is +available to parents and all New Yorkers online and that schools +should be directly providing to their parents. + +
And, we are offering schools new tools to enable educators to +measure and analyze how well our students are learning and to adjust +instruction accordingly. We are providing all schools with periodic +assessments, which are diagnostic tools used over the course of +the year to help teachers adjust instruction to each student's +individual needs in time to make an immediate difference. Over time, +parents will receive reports on these assessments as well, so they can +track the progress of their children along with teachers. + +
To help make all of this new information available in a timely way, +we are launching a powerful new achievement data system called the +Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS). This will put +critical information at the fingertips of principals, teachers, and +parents. + +
As I’ve said, all schools will be graded based on their success +with students. Those with the top ratings will receive bonuses for +serving as demonstration sites for others. Top schools will be +eligible as well for additional funds for struggling students they +choose to accept from poor performing schools. And those schools +identified as the poorest performers face leadership changes and +ultimately restructuring or closure. + +
Now, I would like to discuss the third major reform: building a +funding system that is fairer, clearer, and better at helping kids +achieve. + +
Despite real improvements over the last four years, today we still +have a funding system that falls short of those goals. Today, we send +money to schools according to 90 separate funding formulas. What’s +worse, the biggest pots of money follow the weakest logic. They are +distributed largely based on historical patterns. They carry forward +decisions made long ago, based on political deals, not the current +needs of our kids. + +
This means two schools with similar enrollments can receive +completely different amounts of money. For example, one school in our +city with about 550 kids and a poverty rate of more than 80% receives +$5,500 per student in general education tax dollars. Another school +with the same number and mix of students receives $3,500 per +student. That means one school gets $1 million more in general tax +dollars than the other. + +
This is not about rich versus poor, one borough versus +another. This is about senseless disadvantages that strike every +community and every corner of our City. + +
Instead of proliferating an unjust and unfair status quo, we +propose a simple reform called Fair Student Funding. From here on out, +we’re going to fund the people who matter most—the kids. + +
At every school, every student will carry a base level of tax levy +funding based on grade level. Then, on top of that, we’ll offer +additional funds to kids who cost more to educate based on their +unique characteristics: because they are poor, learning English, +performing poorly, or in certain specialized schools, like our testing +high schools. + +
Under this plan, two schools with the same mixes of kids will get +the same amounts of City tax dollars. (In addition, they’ll also +continue to get federal and state categorical dollars, like Title I, +as they had before.) It is so simple that we’ll eventually be able to +explain to principals most of their budgets on one clean page. + +
And we are going to move forward with the benefit of the views of +parents, teachers, and other stakeholders. We are engaging in an +extensive schedule of community engagement through which I have no +doubt that this initiative will be refined and improved. + +
Now, I’d like to turn to the final of the four reforms the mayor +announced: improving the quality of our most important asset, our +teachers. + +
I know and you know how fundamental good teachers are to our +students’ success. Research convincingly shows that effective teaching +is the single most important factor separating student success and +failure. The vast majority of the 80,000 teachers in our schools are +hard-working, talented, and committed. Our challenge is to make sure +that all students are taught by successful teachers. + +
We’ve already taken a number of steps to attract and retain good +teachers and to create incentives to reward our best teachers. Since +the Mayor took office, we’ve increased the starting teacher salary by +43%, making it easier to attract and retain high-quality educators for +our children. With the United Federation of Teachers, we ended the +practice of “bumping,” and “force-placing,” which previously required +principals to hire teachers even if they weren’t qualified or a good +fit for their school. We also created a $15,000 housing bonus to help +recruit teachers in shortage areas such as math, science and special +education. And we created a Lead Teacher program, which allows us to +reward teachers with an additional $10,000 a year to mentor and coach +other teachers while also teaching students. + +
But we must do even more if our schools are to be empowered to +build the best team possible to educate our children. We are taking a +major step in this direction. + +
We intend to make tenure a well-deserved honor, not a routine +right. Today tenure is nearly automatic. About 99% of teachers who +serve for three years in our system receive tenure as a matter of +course. This is the default position. We want as many teachers as +possible to become tenured, but we want them to earn it. This is so +important because once a teacher has tenure, he or she basically has +life-time job security. + +
Accordingly, principals will receive a new set of supports and +tools to ensure that this incredibly important decision is made in a +rigorous, thoughtful, and fact-based manner. We look forward to +working with the UFT in this effort. And because an affirmative tenure +decision affects not only an individual school but the entire system, +we will also insist that a principal’s recommendation be reviewed by +appropriate personnel outside the school, notably the Community +Superintendent. Indeed, so critical is the tenure decision that Mayor +Bloomberg will meet annually with each group of newly tenured teachers +to celebrate their accomplishment. + +
I’d like to conclude with an obvious point: The changes that we are +discussing today will not be easy. They will not be painless. And they +will not be without controversy. + +
But they are necessary for our kids, our city, and our nation. The +stakes are too high for timidity or tinkering. I look forward to +working with you as we move forward together. + +
Thank you. We would be pleased to answer any questions. + +