School reform is not so simple: experts
Three experts weigh in on Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña's goals for education, from maintaining the pre-K expansion to getting second-graders reading at grade level.
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| SUSAN WATTS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSZakiyah Ansari is advocacy director for the Alliance for Quality Education. |
We’ve been waiting for real school reform like this for over a decade. Universal pre-K, after-school for middle-schoolers, community schools and respect for parents and teachers is a formula that will help students succeed.
Fundamentally all of this will not work if we don’t get increased school aid from the state to avoid classroom cuts and expand programs that work.
Parents, students and teachers need to hear a comprehensive vision for this plan that we can all understand and get behind.
David Bloomfield, education professor at the CUNY Graduate Center and Brooklyn College:
Without clear strategies and resources to teach reading to a mobile, linguistically diverse population of widely varying abilities, the laudable goal of having all second-graders reading on-level will be difficult to reach.
Delivering on the promise of pre-K would be a great accomplishment but it’s just the beginning. Continued funding isn’t assured. Program quality, enrollment, teacher preparation, and space all need constant attention. Pre-K is only successful if there is follow-through in kindergarten and beyond.
MARK BONIFACIO/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSDavid Bloomfield is an education professor at the CUNY Graduate Center and Brooklyn College.
Jeremiah Kittredge is CEO of Families for Excellent Schools.
Teacher retention is not just a problem of morale. And morale is not just about respect. Pay, class size, an orderly environment, and other concrete factors contribute to teachers’ longevity.
Jeremiah Kittredge, CEO of Families for Excellent Schools:
Fariña should acknowledge we have a crisis of failing schools. More than 140,000 kids are trapped in persistently failing schools.
To be successful, Fariña will need bold, transformational change. We need to raise standards, improve accountability and help excellent teachers thrive.
She should find the best schools and create more of them. There are strong charter and district schools where kids from the most underserved neighborhoods are thriving — let’s work to replicate them.School reform is not so simple: experts - NY Daily News: