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Chicago Redux: "No Curriculum Diversity," Decrees New York Businessman Mayor

NOTE: Is that Harold McGraw applauding in the wings?

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will propose today that every low-performing school in the city use a single uniform curriculum, officials said yesterday.

Though Mr. Bloomberg and his handpicked chancellor, Joel I. Klein, have announced many changes to the Department of Education since Mr. Klein started work in August, few have directly affected teaching and learning. Mr. Bloomberg, who has made education the top priority of his mayoralty, is said to be feeling pressure to turn to instructional issues now, a year into his term.

For the last six months, Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein have focused on taming the system's infamous bureaucracy. They have streamlined the agency responsible for school construction, laid off dozens of administrators at department headquarters and created a corporate-style bonus system for superintendents who raise test scores.

In a speech today, Mr. Bloomberg is expected to discuss the curriculum for low-performing schools as he talks for the first time about improving instruction throughout the school system. Only 46 percent of the city's fourth graders met state standards in reading last year; in math, 52 percent met standards.

Last week, officials said that the Education Department planned to regroup many of New York City's 1,200 schools into small clusters, all but wiping out the districts that schools have been assigned to, based on their neighborhoods, for three decades. The idea has raised hackles in the State Legislature, whose New York City members have a powerful hand in their local school districts.

Since the districts have had considerable control over their schools' curriculums, the system has become a patchwork of educational philosophies and priorities in recent decades. At least 75 different mathematics curriculums and 35 literacy curriculums are in use, according to Mr. Klein's staff.

Rudy Crew, the chancellor from 1995 to 1999, imposed a uniform curriculum on a small group of schools with long histories of failure. Those 40 schools, known collectively as the Chancellor's District, are the only ones in the city that have been required to use a single, highly structured curriculum in reading and math. Many educators view the Chancellor's District as a success, since test scores at many of its schools have climbed steadily since the district was created in 1996.

The new uniform curriculum will be imposed on many more schools than are in the Chancellor's District, officials said. The move would affect well over 100 schools. But some low-performing schools that have shown significant improvement may be allowed to choose their own program. Mr. Klein has talked repeatedly about giving more autonomy to schools that do a good job.

The uniform curriculum may be especially beneficial to the many students who switch schools two or three times a year. Teachers, too, often move from school to school, so having the same curriculum in every low-performing school may also improve the quality of instruction.

Mr. Bloomberg may also shed light today on his plans for replacing the 32 elected community school boards. The boards have lost many of their powers in recent years, and when the Legislature gave Mr. Bloomberg control of the school system, it agreed to phase them out completely by this June. The Legislature is supposed to come up with a new form of parental and community involvement in the schools, but Mr. Bloomberg clearly wants a hand in the decision.

He is also expected to announce plans to close the 32 community school district offices. Officials said yesterday that up to 2,000 of the roughly 4,000 jobs in those offices could be eliminated, but that many of those administrators might be reassigned elsewhere in the school system rather than laid off.

Officials said that Mr. Bloomberg would also propose creating smaller high schools and more charter schools, which are public but are supposed to operate largely free of state and local regulations. The city has a disproportionately small number of the roughly 2,700 charter schools nationwide: there are 18, out of about 40 in New York State.

Many people who oppose voucher programs view charter schools as a palatable alternative, saying that they, too, can stimulate public schools to be more competitive.

— Abby Goodnough
All Schools Doing Poorly Would Get One Curriculum
New York Times
Jan. 15, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/15/education/15SCHO.html

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