Given all the rumors around this selection, I'll believe this when I see it:
Carmen Farina, a Department of Education veteran and a longtime
informal adviser to Bill de Blasio, will be named chancellor Monday
after months of speculation about who would manage the city’s school
system.
De Blasio will name Farina head of the nation's largest
public school system at M.S. 51, the Park Slope middle school his
children attended.
If true, this is the best choice that we are going to get following 12 years of Bloomberg:
Friends and colleagues of Farina and de Blasio say they share a
single educational philosophy,
with a focus on progressive education, a skepticism of standardized
testing and charter schools, and a focus on racially and economically
integrated public schools.
Alas, with the job starting on Thursday and the announcement not even made official yet, hard to see any changes to the system coming in the short term.
An exciting time for New York City children, parents, and teachers! This analysis on Diane Ravitch’s blog http://dianeravitch.net/2013/12/20/tweed-insider-where-the-bloomberg-administration-went-wrong-on-education/
ReplyDeleteconclusively demonstrates that 1) the current DOE organizational structures and funding policies have not been successful in creating an environment necessary for a successful and thriving education system 2)the measures of school and teacher performance currently in use, including the school progress reports and teacher value-add evaluations, are not valid, reliable or fair 3) the policy of closing schools and replacing the closed schools with new schools has not successfully addressed the needs of struggling students and schools 4) a portfolio strategy based on market-choice and charter schools has not improved student outcomes
We'll see. I must admit, I am not as optimistic. But it may be that I have been so beaten down over the past 13 years or so that I wouldn't know a good reason to feel optimistic about something if I fell over it.
Delete