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January 15, 2013

Quinn says city schools need collaboration, not competition

by Emma Sokoloff-Rubin, at 5:45 pm

City Council Speaker and mayoral frontrunner Christine Quinn visited a school with UFT President Michael Mulgrew at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year.

In her first major education policy address, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn signaled that she would depart in significant ways from Mayor Bloomberg’s approach to running the city’s schools.

Instead of pitting schools against each other, as Bloomberg’s policies have, Quinn said she would push them to collaborate. Instead of directing funds to pricey consultants, she said she would look for solutions within the system. And where Bloomberg spurred rapid growth in the city’s charter school sector, Quinn said she would keep the sector at its current size.

But on other issues, Quinn suggested that she would take a cue from the Bloomberg administration. For example, she said she would improve “customer service” to help families resolve problems but said only that she would “engage parents in relevant decisions and keep them in the loop.” One of Bloomberg’s first school policy changes, back in 2002, was to add parent coordinators to each school. But he has drawn sharp criticism for excluding parents from policy decisions.

Quinn’s ambitious list of education proposals includes extending school days, coordinating city services to provide comprehensive health and social services in schools, boosting literacy instruction, slashing some state testing, and buying a million tablets to replace textbooks.

Quinn put the price tag for her proposals at about $300 million, which she said could mostly be covered by redirecting resources from elsewhere in the education budget. The tablet shopping spree, for example, could be covered using the $100 million that the city spends annually on textbooks, she said.

In an effort to redirect ideas as well as resources, Quinn said she would assess what individual schools are doing well and figure out how to replicate their success elsewhere. She said she has already recruited Columbia University to head the “Systemwide Success Study,” which would look at both district and charter schools. If more schools copied programs in place at Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx, she said, fewer large high schools would need to close.

“There’s nothing wrong with New York City schools that can’t be fixed with what’s right about our schools,” Quinn said.

Quinn’s promise to treat school closure only “as a last resort when all else has failed” was welcome news for the teachers union, which has fought vehemently to keep schools open. ”I want to applaud Speaker Quinn for a speech that was full of great ideas,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.

Quinn’s proposal to create “community schools” that offer social services to their students is another union priority. All of the Democratic candidates for mayor joined UFT officials to tour community schools in Cincinnati last year, and Quinn spoke glowingly of her visit to a school where students could get a dental exam, have their eyes checked, or receiving counseling on site.

Some of Quinn’s proposals are already in place in other forms: the Parent University she proposed has a lot in common with Parent Academy, which Bloomberg launched in November, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has already launched a push to extend the school day. Quinn said she would start the longer days at the 100 schools with the highest percentage of poor students.

And two proposals Quinn said would reduce schools’ focus on testing wouldn’t actually be up to her, if she were mayor. She said she would eliminate “field testing” of state test questions and increase the number of schools where students create portfolios instead of taking Regents exams to graduate, but those decisions are up to the state. Quinn said after her speech that she had begun talking to state education officials about expanding the number of portfolio schools.

David Bloomfield, a professor of education policy, said he thought Quinn had taken substantial steps to distance herself from Bloomberg on education. “Her veiled criticism of the failure of the Bloomberg administration to coordinate city services was important,” he said.

Claire Sylvan, the executive director of the Internationals Network for Public Schools, which runs 17 schools, mostly in the city, said she liked the idea of spreading schools’ best practices but thought it would be hard to execute.

“We went from three schools to 17. I know how hard it is,” she said, adding that she hopes that educators, not just researchers, would help conduct the Systemwide Success Study.

Quinn said she supports charter schools as “laboratories of innovation” but would not seek to grow the charter school sector. “I think the level we’re at is a good level,” she said, a shift from her position last year. But Quinn she would not charge charter schools rent, which some have proposed. “If you make charter schools pay rent, that’s the end of charter schools,” she said.

James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center, said he did not think Quinn would actually stand in the way of charter school growth. “We’re pretty confident that anyone who becomes mayor will come to understand that it isn’t about the particular size of charter schools sector or district schools,” he said. “You want to expand the kinds of schools that are working.”

Kim Sweet, the director of Advocates for Children of New York, which represents students with special needs, said she was disappointed but not surprised that Quinn did not mention special education once. “It doesn’t tend to be something that mayoral candidates jump into right out of the box,” she said, noting that Quinn has spoken out on behalf of students with disabilities in the past.

But, Sweet said, “I was really happy about her emphasis on collaboration and coordination. I think we’ve had a system focused on competition and there’s a lot to be gained by an administration that focuses on bringing people together.”

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  • Emangiolimercad

    Can someone tell Ms Quinn that her statement about “saving” large high schools is too late! Yes, Truman still exists in Bronx but mostly all the large high schools are gone. It’s too late honey! The destruction can never be fixed.
    She’s smart to Dump consultants, Networks, and other useless crap.

  • Ellen

    “One of Bloomberg’s first school policy changes, back in 2002, was to add
    parent coordinators to each school. But he has drawn sharp criticism
    for excluding them from policy decisions”
    Please get your facts right.  This Mayor has been criticized for excluding PARENTS!  Parent Coordinators, good people that they are, are NOT the voice of parents. They are a vehicle for informing parents of changes already made by administration.  They were never meant to be part of the discussion of policy.
    The Mayor and Chancellor Walcott and the PEP consistently ignore the voice of parents and community members.  The Mayor has notoriously said that parents don’t know what they are doing/talking about/schools.  The Mayor has also ignored the input of the local Education Councils, except when there is an issue of zoning when he must collaborate and seek approval.  I believe this galls the heck out of him and his acolytes.

  • KitchenSink

    Why stop growing charters?  If they are working, keep growing.

  • Former Turnaround Teacher

    Uh oh…Will Quinn throw the UFT enough “bones” that they foolishly endorse her? Unless she says she will put a moratorium on school closings and charter co locations or end mayoral control, we cannot support “bloomberg lite”.

  • YallAreLaughable

    Beware of politicians looking to be elected to discuss just how easy it is to fix the schools.

    The sheer arrogance is disgusting.  Bloomberg has set a poor precedent for whoever follows him by suggesting that mayors with no educational background can determine educational policy.  Quinn is merely projecting a future that will not happen instead of relegating such responsibilities to a qualified leader.

  • Flerp

    “buying a million tablets to replace textbooks.”

    Oh, for God’s sake. 

  • Former Turnaround Teacher

    Seriously…I mean what about the cost of all the software/books that would need to be loaded? Will students be able to bring this home to do homework? (If not it would make reading very limited, if yes what happens when they get stolen on the train?) If a 2nd grader breaks the tablet who pays to replace it? What will prevent students from checking websites when they should be reading…

    As said below these quick easy fixes are never thought out.

  • Seeker

    Because charter schools suck money away from already underfunded public schools. And please don’t say that charter schools are “public schools”. They can choose who they allow to attend, they can kick out whoever they want, whenever they want, for any reason.

  • Flerp

    i don’t know what pedagogical or other (the dreaded “digital divide,” perhaps?) justifications have been offered over the years for this kind of thing.  but i can’t think of any reason why students need access to any modern computer technology other than for computer sciences.  replacing textbooks with tablets seems like a terrible idea in terms of the user experience necessary for learning.  as for the expense, my kneejerk reaction is that it would be hugely expensive, although textbooks are also hugely expensive.  in any event, think of what five-year old technology is like.  and in five years, five-year-old technology will seem as old as ten-year-old technology does today.  

  • Ellen

     no…it’s for Mc Graw Hill’s sake!
    Can you imagine what the cost of those books will be?  Why it’s enough to dig every publisher out of a hole. 

  • old unionist

    Perhaps Mulgrew and Quinn can find binders of women to assist in running the schools system. Mulgrew should carefully gage the reaction by members if he endorses the politican who allowed the third term, which by the way has accelerated the closure of more schools than the previous two terms combined. No doubt Randi is preparing for the endorsement of Quinn, who has the blood on her hands for the third term travesty.

  • Clay

    Let them grow in space that they’ve found and paid for on their own.

    And, they’re not all working.

  • TeachmyclassMrMayor

    Stop closing schools? No additional charters? Where is mini-Bloomberg and what have you done with her? Oh, this is about say whatever you can to be elected.  Sorry…not exactly a surprise.

  • A.S.Neill

    “In a speech at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs, the
    Democratic mayoral hopeful [Quinn] outlined an education outlook that adopts
    most of Bloomberg’s policies on charters and school closures, but with a
    more cautious, communicative approach” SchoolBook WNYC
    http://www.schoolbook.org/2013/01/15/quinn-calls-for-less-testing-more-community-input/

    The “communicative” Bloomberg. Wow, how exciting.

  • yankeefan

    Beware politicians bearing promises. Remember – this is the same woman who handed Bloomberg his illegal 3rd term.

  • Gu

    Edith Croissant said Manhattan has more queers than straights

  • DCJ

    This is not a quick fix, it is an inevitable change. All the problems you refer too are legitimate, but the time has come to at least start looking at how we are going to integrate readily available technology into the classroom. You know what’s funny? I spent some time in Sierra Leone with a friend teaching out there, and the country that is ranked 180 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index had classrooms and textbooks that look exactly the same as ours. That says to me that any kind of natural evolution that almost all sectors of business and government go through is being stifled. We won’t have tablets in the classrooms next year, but we need to start thinking about these types of changes sooner rather than later.

  • DCJ

    This is not a quick fix, it is an inevitable change. All the problems you refer too are legitimate, but the time has come to at least start looking at how we are going to integrate readily available technology into the classroom. You know what’s funny? I spent some time in Sierra Leone with a friend teaching out there, and the country that is ranked 180 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index had classrooms and textbooks that look exactly the same as ours. That says to me that any kind of natural evolution that almost all sectors of business and government go through is being stifled. We won’t have tablets in the classrooms next year, but we need to start thinking about these types of changes sooner rather than later.A

  • DCJ

    This is not a quick fix, it is an inevitable change. All the problems you refer too are legitimate, but the time has come to at least start looking at how we are going to integrate readily available technology into the classroom. You know what’s funny? I spent some time in Sierra Leone with a friend teaching out there, and the country that is ranked 180 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index had classrooms and textbooks that look exactly the same as ours. That says to me that any kind of natural evolution that almost all sectors of business and government go through is being stifled. We won’t have tablets in the classrooms next year, but we need to start thinking about these types of changes sooner rather than later.

  • DCJ

    Not even remotely true. Schools are funded on a per pupil basis. If what you said made any sense then expansion of regular public schools would also “suck” funding away from current schools. The arguments gainst charters are pure rhetoric.

  • Nyr683

    Ms Quinn is proposing tablets noting that 100 million for textbooks currently spend will pay for the new tablets….Well, math teachers where are you all…..lets say 1 million students in NYC schools…each tablet cost average of $400…well thats 400 x 1 million totals 400 million dollars!!!!  Ms. Quinn needs to speak to a math teacher….even a low rated math teacher can figure this one out. 

  • Genne52

    OK the cost is now 400 millon..how about the additional costs of downloading the etext books,,,that will cost even more…so how is it that quinn is figuring 100 million?? da

  • Nyr683

    flerp, quinn noted that the cost would be 100 million dollars….how do you get that dollar amount with  1million nyc students at approx. 3-4 hundred a tablet??

  • Soulassasins102

    What we need is a mayor who will completely abolish mayoral control. What are the chances of a education mayor taking over office slim to non. Most of these candidates arent even really educators. There was nothing wrong with the old system. Even in bloomberg’s control the graduation rate of schools hasnt changed. To be quite honest if you really look at the top schools take a look at their students these schools dont house the ELL’s and students with special needs. We need to get rid of mayoral control and just leave the panel of educators intact.

  • Johhny22

    Why is it that the media has not mentioned anything that any other mayoral candidate said during yesterdays mayoral conference in Harlem with Mr. Sharpton.  The press is only saying that Quinn wants tablets to replace text books BUT HOW IS IT THAT NO OTHER CANDIDATE WAS MENTIONED…….THE PRESS IS VERY TRICKY AND ITS APPEARS AS THOUGH QUINN WAS THE ONLY ONE TALKING BUT ALL THE CANDIDATES WERE THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WHY IS THE PRESS ONLY TALKING ABOUT QUINN…..PEOPLE OF NYC BETTER GET SMART QUICK OTHERWISE BLOOMY IN YOUR PANTS

  • Johhny22

    Why is it that the media has not mentioned anything that any other mayoral candidate said during yesterdays mayoral conference in Harlem with Mr. Sharpton.  The press is only saying that Quinn wants tablets to replace text books BUT HOW IS IT THAT NO OTHER CANDIDATE WAS MENTIONED…….THE PRESS IS VERY TRICKY AND ITS APPEARS AS THOUGH QUINN WAS THE ONLY ONE TALKING BUT ALL THE CANDIDATES WERE THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WHY IS THE PRESS ONLY TALKING ABOUT QUINN…..PEOPLE OF NYC BETTER GET SMART QUICK OTHERWISE BLOOMY IN YOUR PANTS

  • Johhny22

    Thousands of teaches sitting around not in the classrooms….hundreds of school guidance counselors, social workers, school psychologist all sitting around because bloomterd policies…..people of nyc do not know how dangerous this man is…..say what you want, but the school bus driver strike fiasco would not be here if it werent for this ridiculous out of touch, old cruddy, should be wearing glasses person….how is it that a person in their 70s is not wearing glasses…..he is a fake over and over……kids are suffering under this bloomdoe administration…believe me i know,,,,,right in the middle of things…..paying excellent teachers and counselors to go from school to school on a weekly basis and do basically nothing or maybe file for some one….bloomdoe has no clue…he mentioned on gambling radio show that teachers get raises every year through the step process,,take another look bloomy, wrong againk,,,uhh i can keep writing for days about this piece of s***

  • Lynn3265

    imagine getting stuck with this old cruddy person who thinks he is in touch and a pioneer of a thinker….the man is old and in his 70s i agree he is so out of touch but has the power vested in him through mayoral control…..i also agree that the atr situation is chaos and is purely another bloomberg stubbornness….NEW MAYOR, PUT THE ATR PEOPLE BACK INTO THE SCHOOLS WHERE THEY CAN HELP PEOPLE 

  • David C. Bloomfield

    On the issue of rent for co-located charters, this should be on the table.  See my column on the Comptroller’s role in demanding this as a contract term: http://gothamschools.org/2010/03/04/can-the-comptroller-end-the-space-wars/.  Quinn is wrong when she says this would be the end of charters since many charters are already in space they rent or own.  The NYS Charter School Law does not provide for public funding of these expenses because of the drain on district resources this additional subsidy necessitates.  The Legislature understood this was within the ability of charters to identify outside donors for these purposes, thus expanding the education pie rather than promoting fights over finite resources.

  • Lynn3265

    If we elect a woman, gay woman at that, to become mayor of nyc then its time people to move on and move out of this crud filled jam packed city which no longer in the real nyc….its becoming a town filled with immigrants with their hands out and receiving

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