NY Courts Failing Kids, Again

A court's tragic ruling keeps kids in failing schools: Chancellor Joel Klein reacts to judge's order
The New York Daily News by Joel Klein - July 2, 2010

Last week, the respected research group MDRC published a landmark report which found that the policy of replacing our city's failing schools with new, small high schools has resulted in dramatic improvements in the lives of tens of thousands of our children, including many traditionally disadvantaged students. That is why it was so disappointing yesterday when the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court affirmed the ruling of a lower court, halting the City Department of Education, solely on technical grounds, from replacing 19 failing schools. While I firmly believe that the effect of this ruling - which will force us to admit students to schools that have long failed to graduate more than half their students - is bad for New York City children, we will, of course, follow it. But I want to make clear: The Mayor and I remain steadfast in our commitment to providing New York City's students and families with better schools and more options, and I know we will succeed. The reason is this: With every passing day more people awaken to the reality that we cannot and will not maintain our status as the greatest city and the greatest nation if we do not make the hard choices necessary to provide each child the best education possible. For example, for years the city's teachers have been subjected to a perfunctory system of evaluation that rates them either "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" and pays all teachers as if they were equally effective. That's starting to change.

In the last month alone, our state has mandated that we implement a system of evaluation that actually works for our teachers and gives weight to how well our students are learning. And, just last week, we reached an agreement with the teacher's union on a plan to pay teachers who earn "highly effective" evaluations an additional 30% in their salary if they work in our most challenging schools. So we are making progress in improving the way we evaluate and reward our teachers. We are also making progress in offering our families more high school choices and a more personalized high school experience. As the MDRC report pointed out, students in our new small schools were more likely to be on track to graduation in their first year of high school, and to stay on track, compared to students in other high schools - the graduation rate of small schools is about seven points higher than that of other schools. Perhaps most importantly, our new small schools are particularly successful with students traditionally considered the most disadvantaged, including black and Hispanic students, special education students, students learning English and students entering high school with low proficiency levels. That's why, although we will admit students to the schools covered by the court's decision, we will still go ahead and open the small schools that were going to replace them, which have many students who selected them. It's also why we announced last week a commitment to turning around 34 of our lowest performing schools, some of which will be fully replaced. And it's why we've already begun to receive dozens of applications from educators here and across the country who want to start new schools in New York City next school year. We all wish all our schools would succeed but, unfortunately, that isn't always the case. So, as a last resort - but an essential last resort - we have closed failing schools and will continue to do so. It's been a great school year. But New Yorkers never settle for the status quo. I hear more voices for change than ever before, and we intend to deliver on the promise of change. Klein is chancellor of the New York City public schools.