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When Mr. de Blasio announced the program in November 2014, he outlined a vision in stark contrast to the policies of his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg. Where Mr. Bloomberg closed schools that had performed poorly, opening hundreds of new, smaller schools in their place, Mr. de Blasio said that troubled schools would be wrapped in supports. He promised “fast, intense progress.”
Each school in the program has had an additional hour added to its school day. Teachers receive extra instruction in how to teach. Schools are paired with community-based organizations to address the needs of students and their families outside the classroom, like mental health counseling, dental care and help making sure students come to school. By the end of this school year, the city will have spent $582 million on Renewal.
The New York Times analyzed Renewal test scores by comparing their progress to growth of the city’s scores overall. Most schools failed to narrow the gap between their test scores and the city average.
This not -all- DeBlasio's fault. He doesn't even shoulder the majority of the burden. The problem is the UFT has gotten so strong that it's impossible to fire teachers that suck. In a garage, if you break parts you're fired. In a store, if customers keep saying you're rude you're fired. On a bus route, if you take people to the wrong place you're fired. Somehow... this concept does not apply to teachers...
This not -all- DeBlasio's fault. He doesn't even shoulder the majority of the burden. The problem is the UFT has gotten so strong that it's impossible to fire teachers that suck. In a garage, if you break parts you're fired. In a store, if customers keep saying you're rude you're fired. On a bus route, if you take people to the wrong place you're fired. Somehow... this concept does not apply to teachers...
Of course teachers in NYC have to deal with a huge percentage of English Language Learners whose parents may not even be able to help the kids with their homeworker, not to mention the fact that the parents maybe in jail and so the kids are being raised by other people, etc. All the social problems among the NYC public school student body and you want to put the blame on the teachers and fire them because they can't wave a magic wand and turn the student body into dream prep students going off to the Ivy League?
There was another post of where a student beat the principal up. It can even be dangerous at times to work in education, yet armchair people like Blake rant about all fixes that need to happen to education without ever having worked in a classroom.
armchair people like Blake rant about all fixes that need to happen to education without ever having worked in a classroom.
I don't have to be a city employee, I have kids in the public system and I spend a lot of time there along with my wife who is heavily involved in school activities. Bloomberg had a plan to close failed schools and open new ones with completely different staffing. DeBozo thought he knew better and tried to bandaid the problem and kept these failures going. 600 million bucks later and we are right where we started from
I grew up on NYC Public Education, I had terrible teachers in elementary and junior high and some should be fired but doesn't matter. It all depends on the family and how they influence your ambitions. Kids who are ambitious will thrive in any school systems as long as the family is there to support them. Kids who grew up with bad parenting won't succeed easily regardless of education system or opportunity.
I grew up on NYC Public Education, I had terrible teachers in elementary and junior high and some should be fired but doesn't matter. It all depends on the family and how they influence your ambitions. Kids who are ambitious will thrive in any school systems as long as the family is there to support them. Kids who grew up with bad parenting won't succeed easily regardless of education system or opportunity.
Ambition is taught at home not in school.
yep, the parents are the biggest problem with failing kids. And those kids disrupt and ruin it for everybody else
This not -all- DeBlasio's fault. He doesn't even shoulder the majority of the burden. The problem is the UFT has gotten so strong that it's impossible to fire teachers that suck. In a garage, if you break parts you're fired. In a store, if customers keep saying you're rude you're fired. On a bus route, if you take people to the wrong place you're fired. Somehow... this concept does not apply to teachers...
DeBlasio has been a major facilitator of UFT stranglehold on the NYC public school system. He continues to deny charter schools (with no UFT teachers) both space and cooperation despite the successes of NYC charter schools with minority students in all accountable measures of progress - like ELA and Math results. He's just sticking with the UFT plan regardless of the results for minority children. Don't pretend his hands are tied by the big-money lobbying of the UFT. That's a pretense - he willingly signed up and is onboard with it since the beginning of his tenure. Its dogma over anything else for him. he's determined there's only one way to fix things - the way the UFT says. Unfortunately for NYC students, He's still conflating teacher's employment and benefit interests with the student's best interests. Needless to say, they are not coterminous. Not at all.
Well, my point wasn't so much about DeBlasio, so much as it was that even if the UFT -didn't- have an enabler for a mayor, they would still be largely impervious to anything similar to standards...
I do also agree that the parents got a job to do as well. There are some parents out there that don't or can't teach anything because they don't know much and, then have the arrogance to call out teachers for saying a particular kid can't keep up.
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