Principals Face Review in Education Overhaul; Like Students, City Schools Will Be Graded; PRINCIPAL PRAISES NEW 'QUALITY' CONTROL

This is REALLY important -- dare I even say revolutionary.  The largest school system in the country (covering roughly 2% of our nation's children) is launching an initiative to measure in a sophisticated way EVERY school and assign each one a simple-to-understand letter grade.  THIS is the type of thing that can drive the changes to the SYSTEM that are, ultimately, the most critical element of addressing the current crisis.  If successful, this program will not only impact principals, but teachers, parents and politicians.

 

The very first step to fixing ANY problem is to measure it and confront it openly, which is the opposite of what typically happens today.  Right now, a chronically failing school can (and usually does) endure, year in and year out, condemning most of the children forced to attend it to lives of misery and hopelessness, and nobody does anything about it.  But branding such a school with the scarlet "F" -- THAT is something that will attract attention, from parents, the media, politicians, etc.

 

The first two articles describe the plan and the third one profiles a principal who, correctly, has embraced this type of program.

-------------------------

The New York Times

April 12, 2006

Principals Face Review in Education Overhaul

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/12/education/12klein.html?_r=1&oref=slogin\

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

 

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein yesterday accelerated his drive to hold educators accountable for student achievement, announcing that New York City's more than 1,400 schools will be graded each year just like students, from A to F. Principals whose schools persistently fail could be removed, he said.

 

Mr. Klein said schools' grades would be determined largely by a more sophisticated analysis of annual standardized test scores. In addition, officials would look at a new set of satisfaction surveys, to be completed by parents, teachers and students.

 

Any effort to remove principals based on the new grades could require changes in their contract, according to their union. Under their current contract, principals are rated satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and critics say even poor principals are rarely penalized....

----------------------------------

 The New York Sun

Like Students, City Schools Will Be Graded

BY DEBORAH KOLBEN
April 12, 2006
http://www.nysun.com/article/30830

 

New York City schools that have long sent out report cards will soon be getting a grade of their own.

 

Starting next year, city schools will be awarded an A, B, C, D, or F based in part on how students progress from one year to the next, the city's schools chancellor, Joel Klein, announced yesterday.

 

The grade will be part of an annual report card issued to each school as part of the Department of Education's push to monitor improvements at individual schools.

 

"This system holds promise for real transformation of the way we do business in public education," Mr. Klein said at a news conference at Tweed Courthouse yesterday. He said that he hoped that the city's new system would become the "national model."  

--------------------------------

The New York Post

PRINCIPAL PRAISES NEW 'QUALITY' CONTROL

By DAVID ANDREATTA

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/66887.htm     

 

April 12, 2006 -- When Bob Lubetsky, principal of City-As-School HS in Manhattan, was offered a chance to have the "quality" of his school evaluated by a private firm, he opened his doors.

The evaluators judged Lubetsky's leadership skills, monitored parent involvement and rated the school's teaching goals as part of a city Education Department pilot project.

 

"Having outsiders who appear to be very skilled and had experience at looking at schools come into my school was intriguing to me," said Lubetsky, one of dozens of public-school principals who volunteered for the pilot this spring.

 

The "quality review" operation will go citywide this fall, and be complemented in 2007 with a "progress report" that will result in schools earning letter grades of A, B, C, D and F. In the future, the evaluators will be Education Department staffers.

 

So what did Lubetsky get out of it? Besides a top grade of +, he said the evaluators told him what he already knew - the school is engaging students, but it can improve the way it interprets student data.

 

"One way to look at it is what they found was what we found, but it's very helpful to get affirmation from outsiders who are not immersed in our school," Lubetsky said...