New York City Department of Education:

1
New York CityDepartment of Education

• Reforming the Citys Schools

2
Children First School Reforms

• Goal Transform system that has failed NYC kids
  for decades create 1,400-plus successful schools
  able to help students learn so they can
• Go to college
• Get good jobs
• Lead successful lives
• Why Children First? Children First means putting
  kids interests first ahead of bureaucrats and
  special interests and creating a school system
  designed to serve students and families.

3
DOE Five Years of Progress

• Academic gains. Helped students at all grade
  levels achieve record gains in math and reading.
  Increased the graduation rate to the highest
  level in 20-plus years.
• Parent engagement. Created new parent supports
  with a parent coordinator in each school.
• Safer schools. Reduced major crimes by 11.6
  between 2002 and 2006, and reduced other by
  10.6.
• Smaller class sizes. Reduced class size at all
  grade levels and launched a 13 billion effort to
  create less-crowded, state-of-the-art classrooms.
• Attracting teachers. Increased teacher pay by 43
  and gave principals more power to build their
  teams.
• Cutting bureaucracy. Cut more than 270 million
  from bureaucracy and sent it to schools where it
  can directly affect students.

4
Principles of Change
LeadershipAn organization needs great leaders at
all levels to be successful. But while its
crucial to have strong leaders at all levels of
an organization, in education, principals have
the most critical leadership position. They are
the key school-based decision makers and they
must be empowered to make informed decisions and
take smart risks.
Accountability Empowerment and accountability
are mutually reinforcing principles. Principals
need decision-making power and they need to be
responsible for results. By fall 2007, schools
will receive progress reports with grades
(A-F). This year, schools are receiving on-site
quality reviews. And the DOE is creating a
powerful data system to track individual student
progress.
Empowerment When we say empowerment we mean
giving the people best equipped to make decisions
the freedom they need to decide and the tools
they need to make informed decisions. The mayor
and the chancellor want to give principals these
critical resourcesand then hold them accountable
for helping each student make progress.
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Children First 2007 Major Reforms

• Give educators tools to help kids learn.
• Public School Empowerment Give schools the
  authority and resources to build the right
  educational program for every single child.
• Teacher Quality Do everything in our power to
  make sure every student has a high-quality
  teacher.
• Fair Student Funding Level the financial
  playing field so all students get their fair
  share of education funding and all principals can
  be held to the same high standards.
• Accountability Hold everyone from teachers and
  principals to the Mayor and the Chancellor
  accountable for student success.

6
Public School Empowerment

• School-Based Decisions. Decisions are best for
  kids when theyre happening close to kids at the
  school level. Starting in 2007-08, rather than
  being told what to do by distant bureaucrats,
  principals will have decision-making power and
  theyll be held accountable for results.
• Individualized Support Options. Principals used
  to get support from Regions. Now, they will be
  able to choose whats best for their kids and
  schools.
• Schools will also have
• More power over things like budgets and programs.
• Access to more money with which they can hire new
  teachers and guidance counselors

School Support Organizations
Learning Support Organizations
Partnership Support Organizations
Empowerment Support Organization
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Focus On Support and Supervision
Central Department of Education The DOE will
continue to provide vital, system-wide services,
including academic standard-setting, student
placement, school funding, and teacher
recruitment. The Chancellor will maintain
responsibility for ensuring that schools and SSOs
are meeting high standards and that all relevant
laws, regulations, and requirements are met.
Community District and High School
Superintendents These superintendents will
perform all statutory duties, including the
evaluation of principals. They will supervise
schools and will work to ensure that schools meet
accountability targets.
New York City Public Schools
School Support Organizations 14 internal and
external organizations will offer packages of
differentiated instructional supports that
schools will purchase with new funds. They will
help schools achieve accountability targets,
provide professional development support, design
programs for high-needs populations, and attract
and support high quality teachers. (The three
types of SSO are described on the following
slide.)
Integrated Service Centers Each borough will have
an ISC, which will offer schools one-stop
assistance with mandated and operational services
related to HR, payroll, budget and procurement,
transportation, food services, facilities and
extended use, grant management, technology,
health and safety, student suspensions, youth
development, and some elements of special
education.
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Focus On School Support Organizations
School Support Organizations Fourteen internal
and external organizations will offer packages of
differentiated instructional supports that each
school will purchase with new funds. Schools will
pay for these services out of funds devolved from
the streamlining of the DOE administration.
Empowerment Support Organization The ESO grows
out of a pilot program that started three school
years ago. Empowerment Schools form into
networks of 20 like-minded schools. They hire
network teams that provide them with support
services.
Learning Support Organizations The four LSOs will
be led by some of the DOEs most accomplished
senior educators. These internal organizations
will provide a variety of comprehensive,
theme-based support services.
Partnership Support Organizations The nine PSOs
will be led by universities, as well as
community, research, and educational groups that
were selected by the DOE through a rigorous
competitive process. These organizations will
provide a variety of support services.
9
Whats ahead SSO Selection Milestones
10
Accountability More Information to Create Better
Results

• Progress Reports
• School Environment Parent Surveys
• Performance
• Progress
• A-F Grades
• Quality Reviews
• Tools for Educators and Parents
• ARIS Tracking information, sharing knowledge
• Periodic Assessments

11
Fair Student Funding

• Today, not all NYC students get a fair share of
  education funds. Some schools with almost
  identical compositions get very different amounts
  of money.

School A receives 1,461,000 more than School B.
12
Teacher Excellence

• Goal Teachers are the most important resource we
  have. Good teachers have real power to help
  children learn. The DOE wants to ensure that all
  students in our City have access to high-quality
  teachers.
• DOE will make sure that tenure means something.
• Today 99 of teachers who stay for 3 years get
  lifetime tenure.
• Starting 2007-08, tenure will be an affirmative
  decision (based on data and other factors), and
  only good teachers will receive it.

13
Children First Mission

• Our mission over the next four years will be
  To createfrom pre-school through high schoola
  public education system second to none. We will
  strengthen the three pillars of our school
  reform Leadership, Accountability, and
  Empowerment, putting resources and authority
  where they belong in the schools of our city.
  And because the eyes of the nation are on our
  efforts, our successes hold the promise of hope
  for schools across the land. What a wonderful
  gift for New York to share with the rest of our
  country.
• - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, January 1, 2006