By Helen Klein
The New York City school chancellor came to Brooklyn to trumpet the latest in a succession of educational triumphs – finalist status in a competition among urban school districts which are deemed to be developing innovative ways of shrinking achievement gaps between people of different ethnicities and economic status. The New York City Department of Education (DOE) is one of five finalists, out of more than 80 urban school districts, for the 2005 Broad Prize for Urban Education, awarded by the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation. The other finalists are the Aldine Independent School District near Houston; Boston Public Schools; Norfolk Public Schools; and the San Francisco Unified School District. Each finalist will be awarded $125,000 in scholarship money to be distributed to students in the school system. The first place finisher will receive $500,000 in scholarship money. The first place prize will be announced on September 20th, in Washington, D.C. “We’re obviously honored to have been selected as one of five finalists,” stressed School Chancellor Joel Klein, addressing a group gathered at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology, 350 67th Street. The city’s finalist status, he added, was, “Based on what is obviously a rigorous evaluation of scores and a very professional analysis and I think it reflects on the hard work going on in our city.” The news of New York’s finalist status came as the results of the 2005 citywide reading tests were announced for grades three, five, six and seven. All of these grades showed progress over the previous year, a statistic that Klein made sure to emphasize as he delivered his good news message. “There are over 40,000 more kids proficient at grade level than before,” Klein stressed. “That’s a powerful statement.” Both the news of the finalist status and the news of the improved scores, said Klein, reflect, “A message we need to constantly build in our city – that public education is going to work for all our kids. Contrary to what many people thought, we can actually make public education in New York City a model for the nation.” Nonetheless, Klein said, better is not good enough. “Obviously,” Klein went on, “we have a lot more work to do.” Even if test scores show that 50 percent of students are at or above grade level, “Fifty percent is by no means the number we believe should be the final number.,” he stressed. “We are on the right track, but it’s a long track.” According to Karen Denne, a spokesperson for the Broad Foundation, the foundation has enunciated three goals for the prize, which was established in 2002 – “To regain America’s confidence in public schools, by spotlighting districts that are making significant gains in student achievement; to create an incentive to dramatically increase student achievement in our nation’s largest urban schools; and, third, to reward public school systems that are successfully using creative, results-driven approaches to better educate children.” The selection process, said Denne, incorporates four steps – First, the foundation identifies eligible districts, based on a variety of criteria. Second, the data of achievement in the districts is analyzed. These results are then presented to a review board, said Denne, which picks five finalists. The next step is a site visit process, involving the five finalists. The site visit process is currently underway. The results of that, as well as the initial data collected, are then presented to a selection jury, which chooses the first-place finisher. “Simply being named as one of five finalists is a tremendous honor, and a real testament to New York’s progress and practices,” stressed Denne. “You really are one of the best urban school districts in the country, and you have every reason to be proud.” Heather Zavatsky, from the National Center for Educational Accountability, elaborated on the process. New York, she said, was compared with other districts in the state that have similar poverty levels. “The New York City Department of Education,” she went on, “did better than expected in reading and math on all grade levels and improved in all areas over the past four years. They also are closing achievement gaps between low-income students and their mid and high-income peers. Also, over the last four years, specifically, math proficiency rates in New York’s elementary schools have increased significantly for African-American and Hispanic students.” The purpose of the site visits, she said, is to, “Breathe life into those numbers, because the next natural question is, what is the system doing?” This is not the DOE’s first involvement with the Broad Foundation. Rather, the foundation has, according to Klein, “supported a number of initiatives, starting with Children First. They have supported the leadership academy, and they have supported the revamping of the human resource department, in what we call Project Home Run. The Broad Foundation,” he added, “supports probably every large school district that’s doing, in their view, innovative school reform.” The foundation’s recognition, Klein added, will help to fuel what he hopes will be a shift in public perceptions about the success of public education in New York City. “Frankly, there’s been a fair amount of skepticism,” he acknowledged. “We are trying to build the consensus. What the Broad Foundation did is one element in saying to the public, we’re moving in the right direction. I hope that the city comes together to support the notion that we will public education work for all our kids.” The ultimate goal? Asked about DOE’s record on special education, Carmen Farina, Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, enunciated, “We expect equity to mean that anyone who graduates from a New York City public high school is going to have a Regents diploma. For too long, we gave out phony pieces of paper that gave kids false hope. There’s no such thing as an IEP diploma. It doesn’t get you into college. It doesn’t get you a good job. We are now saying that we need to strengthen and make all the work more rigorous, regardless of how you come into the system, whether you are an special education system or an ELL student.” “Simply being named as one of five finalists is a tremendous honor, and a real testament to New York’s progress and practices.”
