Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Schools Chancellor David Banks outlined his vision for the nation’s largest school system, vowing to cut back on bureaucracy and deliver better results for kids.
“We spend $38 billion every year to get the outcomes that we get, where 65% of Black and Brown children never achieve proficiency. It’s a betrayal,” Banks said.
He's removing a layer of middle management from the department
“I am eliminating the position of executive superintendents in the New York City public schools, and the reason I am doing that is we have not gotten the level of value added that is needed for our schools that is needed for having that position,” Banks said.
There are eight executive superintendents around the city, each with their own offices and staff. The position was a highly-paid layer of management between the DOE’s headquarters and the city’s 46 district superintendents.
Banks said he’ll give more power to those 46 superintendents.
And he outlined plans to improve literacy and make schools safer in his first major address
Speaking with reporters after the speech, he outlined other plans, including the launch of a Virtual Academy next fall for children who want to learn remotely.
And, citing the 120,000 students who have left the system over the last five years, he said he wants to better share the system's successes and expand programs like gifted and talented to more schools.
New York City public school retention rates generally improved during COVID
A new report released by the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) showed how school retention rates for students generally increased in during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Student retention is determined by how many students return to school in the following year, as well as how many new students enroll. While the overall decline in enrollment during the peak of the pandemic was reported nationally, IBO found in the report released March. 1, that enrollment and retention rates weren’t quite as dramatic as reported.
“Basically there were reports and news articles about the fact that there were students who were leaving the public school system and we wanted to look at our numbers to see whether or not that really was happening,” said Sarita Subramanian, the Assistant Director of Education at IBO in an interview with amNew York Metro on Wednesday. “So when we looked initially, as the report showed, we looked at the share of students who attended school in the 2019-2020 year and then returned in what we call the COVID-19 school year, 2020-2021 and we actually found that there was a slight increase in the retention rate overall.”
In the report the IBO examined the citywide retention rate during the pandemic, using a number of methodologies to determine the retention rates of children pre-k to 11th grade (excluding data from the 12th grade as it is expected these students will graduate or otherwise leave the school system).
I like him so far. He's calling out the bureaucracy that's been devastating NYC public schools for a long time. He's on the right path. But he has to be given the power to cut the fat. I think that will require a combination of mayoral, city council, and even state assembly involvement to empower him to make the necessary changes.
And should we not do what we can to improve those students who are underperforming?
Introduce Sushi Mondays!! That should help.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
