E D U C AT I O N
A VISION FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
100 DAYS IN, SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR CARMEN FARIÑA LOOKS AHEAD
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city & state — April 21, 2014
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fter 100 days of running the city school system, New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña took stock earlier this month, repeating her commitment to making teachers and principals feel respected and previewing changes to the Bloomberg-era system of school accountability. She also unveiled new initiatives aimed at the city’s more vulnerable students, including a new science and technology program for English Language Learners and the doubling of programs meant to curb summer learning loss for low-income students. Her remarks, delivered April 12 at Teachers College, rarely departed from the themes she has focused on since Mayor Bill de Blasio chose her as chancellor. She championed a number of what she called “amazingly simple” solutions centered on forcing people to solve problems by talking to one another. “We don’t need to cook up some secret sauce for success,” Fariña said. Looking ahead, Fariña offered some specifics about how the Department
of Education will enact de Blasio’s campaign promise to eliminate the city’s system of assigning letter grades to schools. She twice said the current system can be “arbitrary,” citing the 75 schools that earned a C, D or F on their progress report despite their students scoring above average on state exams. Those reports weigh student progress more heavily than overall achievement, and were a centerpiece of the Bloomberg era of school accountability. That system was designed to more equitably measure the success of both typically highachieving and low-achieving schools, but it also often distressed schools where students do well but don’t meet the city’s progress targets. In her speech Fariña promised the grades will be replaced by a report that includes “qualitative measures,” something even the architects of the existing system acknowledged was necessary last year. “Accountability must occur in a way that’s conducive to achieving results, because you don’t reach historic
heights for kids when morale in our system has plummeted to all-time lows,” Fariña said. The most visible education initiative in Fariña’s first 100 days has been the mayor’s own push to secure funding for an ambitious prekindergarten expansion, which has been largely directed by City Hall. Fariña praised the pre-K effort, pointing to one classroom she visited where fouryear-olds were tackling the word “carnivorous.” “But make no mistake: Our efforts to provide every child with an excellent education do not stop here,” she added. That begins with making sure that what teachers are doing is aligned with the Common Core learning standards, she said, which will improve student achievement. For all of her alignment with the mayor’s pre-K vision, Fariña’s speech revealed one continuing distinction from her boss: She refuses to say the school system she runs is “falling short” or “failing.” De Blasio has been much more
Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña joined Mayor Bill de Blasio on a visit to a prekindergarten class this month. Fariña refuses to say the school system she runs is “falling short.”
direct in saying he believes the city’s schools aren’t up to par. “We need to be able to say that despite the good efforts of so many, the school system is still broken in so many ways,” the mayor said in his own education speech three weeks earlier, just one block from Teachers College. Fariña spent little time addressing the charter school space controversy that had led to de Blasio’s speech, though she noted that the city was committed to working with all of its students. “Space sharing has often been distorted as an us-versus-them battle, particularly between district and charter schools,” Fariña said. “We seek progress by getting out of headquarters, inside schools and to the bottom of problems.” The chancellor announced that she was working with universities in the city to forge partnerships with district schools, though she didn’t say what those partnerships would provide. To help low-income students, the city is looking to double the number of spots available in Summer Quest, a program designed to keep kids reading. (Last year that program was not shown to have an impact on summer learning loss, however.) Fariña also announced that the department’s Division of Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners will be renamed the Division of Specialized Instruction and Student Support, and that the city would be launching a new science, technology, engineering and math initiative specifically for bilingual students. “These are the types of programs that will help level the playing field,” Fariña said.
Chalkbeat New York is a nonprofit news organization covering educational change efforts in the communities where improvement matters most. The Chalkbeat network has bureaus in New York, Colorado, Indiana and Tennessee. Its mission is to inform the decisions and actions that lead to better outcomes for children and families by providing deep, local coverage of education policy and practice. Visit ny.chalkbeat.org for more information. cityandstateny.com
ROB BENNETT/OFFICE OF MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO
By SARAH DARVILLE from CHALKBEAT NEW YORK