By Bernard Gassaway,
Commentary
Published in Times Union, Tuesday, January 5, 2016
I examined Gov. Andrew Cuomo's
five State of the State addresses, focusing specifically on his education
policy. To his credit, he was consistent when speaking about the need for
school reform. However, Cuomo's tone was different in his 2015 address.
Last year, Cuomo ramped up his criticism of teacher performance
and acknowledged state government did little to reform public education,
particularly schools that poor children attend. According to Cuomo, "Over
the last 10 years, 250,000 children went through those failing schools while
New York state did nothing."
Although Cuomo declared this would end in 2015, it has not ended.
Unfortunately, Cuomo's repetitive education policy speeches have done little to
reform public urban schools, because he failed to deliver on his promises.
Cuomo's current education agenda includes evaluating teachers,
removing ineffective teachers, transforming failing schools and districts,
extending mayoral control over education in New York City, expanding charter
schools and passing an education tax-credit law.
One year after Cuomo characterized the teacher-evaluation system
as "baloney," he has signaled that he is prepared to accept the
recommendation of his Common Core panel to delay tying student test scores to
teacher evaluations until 2018-2019. The Board of Regents has proposed a delay
until 2019-2020. This delay will affect Cuomo's pledge to make it easier for
school leaders to expeditiously remove ineffective teachers.
Another of Cuomo's decisions — to place failing districts under a
state-led receivership — is not grounded in research. There is no evidence of
this approach being successfully implemented anywhere. In fact, the state Education
Department is not prepared to support or implement Cuomo's turnaround
design.
Cuomo and state legislators approved extending mayoral control
over education in New York City for a year. Cuomo says he will study mayoral
control for one year, to determine whether other urban school districts should
replicate this approach. Yet there is no evidence that Mayor Bill
de Blasio has a comprehensive, research-based plan to improve the
city's failing schools under his control.
Cuomo has failed to convince the Legislature to pass his
controversial education tax-credit plan. He also failed to significantly expand
charter schools. These initiatives were major pillars of his education agenda.
As a public school teacher, assistant principal, principal and
superintendent who worked in New York City's deprived and struggling schools
for more than 20 years, I offer Cuomo the following suggestions to aid his
reform efforts:
• Learn from existing research about teacher recruitment and
retention. Recruit and train the top 5 percent of the graduating classes
from the top colleges and universities to replace the 30 to 40 percent who are
expected to leave teaching within the next five years. It is clear that new
teachers are not prepared nor trained to handle the most difficult assignments,
where they are often placed.
• Focus on system reform, not school reform. Current efforts
to improve schools are futile at best unless reforms are made to the system
that is failing to support the schools. To this end, Cuomo should first
overhaul the state Education Department. Second, he should examine school
districts in the state that do work well. Scarsdale's might be a great place to
start. Yes, that community is wealthy; however, what makes Scarsdale work is
its sound principles and practices, adopted by a community that values
education.
• Study the 12 years of former New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg's mayoral control. Glean best practices and revise policies
to achieve community buy-in. Know that, regardless of the laws in place,
control in the hands of the wrong mayor would be a disaster.
• Attempt to reframe the charter school debate. The current
debate is divisive. It is not enough to simply focus on charter school
expansion. If Cuomo were to improve all public schools, there would be no
charter school debate, nor any need for education tax credits. Charter schools,
vouchers and education tax credits are remedies to redress public school
failure and educational inequity and inequality.
As Cuomo acknowledged in his 2015 State of the State address, real
and meaningful reform will not be easy. It will take a tremendous amount of
care and courage to do the right thing.
Cuomo's failure so far to reform urban education in New York will
likely widen the achievement gap between the state's rich and poor children.
Cuomo's actions vis-a-vis education indicate that he may not be
the education governor New York needs to reform the dysfunctional school system
that he strongly criticized in each of his State of the State addresses.
What can Cuomo say in 2016 that will be different and believable,
given his willingness to retreat from past pledges and promises?
We know that sustainable school system reform will take more than
a series of passionate speeches. It will take vision, courage and leadership.
WRONG APPROACH: I currently teach in one of NYC's highest-need public schools and although I agree Cuomo has failed miserably to help improve education in the state, the solutions mentioned are barking up the wrong tree. Scarsdale is a fantastic district, but it's not possible to divorce their academic success from their economic circumstances. The assumption that we could pay all teachers six figures is a non-starter, and the idea that we can get impoverished families to value education by just saying so is not realistic. The idea that we can attract the top echelon graduates to work in struggling schools is not realistic either.
ReplyDeleteTo my eyes, we need an approach more integrated into basic economic fairness as we see in Scandinavia. JOBS make families less dysfunctional - that should be first and foremost. But to deal with the current generation of test-averse students, we need whole child solutions. Start with wraparound services - social-emotional coaches, clinicians and therapists. It's not possible for teachers to effectively manage whole classes when disruptive students are slowing or stopping progress. But the students are also lacking physical education, arts instruction and afterschool programs. In fact, the funding for arts was cut over 80% under Bloomberg, with impoverished schools hit hardest.
Then, teachers need more autonomy which means LESS interference from distant bureaucrats and less unfunded mandates. Teachers should be well trained, but then trusted to do their jobs as professionals, accountable to stakeholders - parents, school boards, local taxpayers and their supervisors. Forget test-based growth scores and junk science the architects won't even reveal publicly. Fund schools according to the CFE settlement and undo the sweetheart tax breaks we've seen during the advent of Reaganomics, where rich folks hire lobbyists to rig the tax code, suppress wages, defund schools and social services, and sabotage public education so they can swoop in with market-based solutions.
I find a lot to agree with in your response. However, I maintain that we can learn from best practices, regardless of their origins.
DeleteAs you can argue that Scarsdale is not a good example, I could argue that the demographics of Scandinavia or Finland are vastly different from those in NYC. But, I agree with your point about jobs. I would add healthcare, housing, and education to the list of areas to help to make families less dysfunctional.
As you know, the challenges that you and I have faced in teaching and leading in the highest-need public schools can be daunting. I applaude you for what you.
Like sports and religion, education is a lightning rod for agreement and disagreement. I think if we engaging in productive solution seeking, our children, families and communities will benefit.