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School officials outlined a plan to change the way city schools serve students with disabilities at a closed-door meeting this morning with special education advocates.

The plan’s first step: Telling schools they have to accept, and “embrace,” students with special needs.

“For too long, educating students with disabilities has meant separating them from their general education peers,” Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said in a statement. “Today we are building on the premise that every school must be able to educate the vast majority of these children.”

That premise represents a badly needed advance for the city schools, according to special education advocates.

“The principles in [the plan] are wonderful, but they’ve been law forever,” said Maggie Moroff, who coordinates the ARISE Coalition but was not speaking on the coalition’s behalf. “The overarching goals are exactly what they ought to be, it’s just that in my mind they’re not so novel.” (more…)

Special education advocates are giving early praise to recommendations released today that would transform schools’ approach to students with special needs. The recommendations, which Chancellor Joel Klein endorsed, center on integrating students with special needs into the city’s ongoing school reforms.

Garth Harries, a department official who is starting a new job in New Haven, Conn., on Monday, authored the recommendations following a months-long review of the city’s special education offerings conducted by

Actually implementing the plans will be left to a new top-level administrator who will be responsible for nearly a quarter of the system’s students. Laura Rodriguez, a longtime Bronx educator who currently heads one of the support organizations that principals can choose to join, will become the city’s first Chief Achievement Officer for Special Education and English Language Learners.

Rodriguez will be one of only seven people reporting directly to the chancellor, making the needs of nearly 250,000 disabled students and ELLs “visible and transparent at the cabinet level” for the first time, Klein said. (more…)

Joel Klein is wasting no time: A day after being rehired as chancellor, he is announcing the creation of a new position to supervise education for some of the city’s neediest students.

The new administrator will focus on two groups of students whose performance has barely budged in recent years: students with special needs and those who are just learning English. The city’s most recent top special education official, Linda Wernikoff, retired at the end of June, and her replacement has been the source of considerable anxiety among advocates.

Also today, the education department is releasing the findings of a months-long evaluation of the city’s special education offerings. The big reveal is coming just in time: The person who headed the study, Garth Harries, is set to start a new job in New Haven on Monday.

When I last checked in on the process, just before the school governance madness entered its final surprising weeks, officials were signaling that the department would not dismantle District 75, the school district that serves the city’s most disabled students, as many advocates feared. Instead, the officials suggested, the department would work to encourage teachers from that district to share their expertise with teachers at other schools.

Just months after adjusting to the news that a schools official with no special education experience would be reviewing the city’s special education offerings, advocates for children with disabilities are now reeling from another shakeup: The news that the official, Garth Harries, is leaving the city.

The announcement today came after a months-long “listening tour” intended to teach Harries about the issues facing teachers and families of children with special needs. On the tour, Harries heard from anxious parents who explained from their point of view the nuances of an extremely complicated system.

“The special education community has invested a lot of time in bringing Garth up to speed,” said Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York (where I used to work). “I hope all that time will not be lost.” (more…)

Chancellor Joel Klein. (GothamSchools via our Creative Commons Flickr)

A string of departures by top school officials is fueling speculation that Chancellor Joel Klein could be the next to go. But in an interview today, Klein laughed off the possibility. He said the departures — four since January — are actually evidence that his prescription for changing urban schools is catching on.

The latest official to leave is Garth Harries, the management guru who is in the middle of restructuring the city’s special education offerings. Harries announced today that he has accepted a job at the New Haven school system starting in July.

A teachers union vice president, Carmen Alvarez, said the exodus signals that even bigger changes could be brewing at the top. ”Read the tea leaves,” she said in an interview today. “People don’t leave like that unless there’s another change in the air.”

Some have speculated that Klein’s departure could be part of a deal that preserves the mayor’s control of the city schools: The head of the unpopular-amongst-elected-officials schools chancellor in exchange for continued power for the mayor. (more…)

Garth Harries

The city official who is in the middle of reviewing the city’s special education programs will leave New York at the end of the month to take a top job at a Connecticut school system.

Garth Harries, a former McKinsey consultant who has worked with Chancellor Joel Klein since 2003, is scheduled to be appointed assistant superintendent by the New Haven Board of Education at a meeting tonight. The mayor of New Haven, John DeStefano, has said he wants to improve the city’s public schools in similar ways to Mayor Bloomberg in New York City. Harries’ job is to flesh out the specific of how to transform the schools — and implement them, according to the New Haven Register.

Harries’s new position appears to be similar to the one he held in New York before he took over a review of special education, down to its title, “assistant superintendent for portfolio and performance management.” Until January, he headed the DOE’s Office of Portfolio Development, where he led efforts to create new schools.

Harries called the news “bittersweet” in an e-mail message he sent to special education advocates this morning. He said that New Haven began recruiting him just six weeks ago and said his decision was based in part on the proximity of the job to his wife’s farm in Connecticut.

Harries has been preparing for some time to take on added responsibilities in school leadership. (more…)

The head of the city’s special education division has announced that she is stepping down at the end of the school year, a surprise move that comes at a time when a top-to-bottom review of special education is underway.

Linda Wernikoff said her decision to retire is not related to the review or the changes its conclusion could bring to her department. “I think I’ve had a wonderful 35-year career here and I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done,” she told me. “Now I think it’s time that I need to try new things.”

Under Wernikoff’s leadership, the Department of Education has focused on reducing the proportion of children who are in special education-only classes, and the graduation rate for students with special needs has inched up, although it still remains quite low. Wernikoff, who began her career in 1974 as a speech teacher, told me she had no specific plans yet for her future, but she said, “Whatever I do will continue to be advocating for students with special needs.”

People that I spoke to today said Wernikoff’s departure will be a blow for the special education community. (more…)

Weeks after I reported that a Department of Education official steeped in management skills would be evaluating the city’s special education system, parents and advocates remain concerned that he isn’t telling the whole truth about his intentions.

Last night, Garth Harries, the official tasked with reforming special education, traveled deep into Queens to explain his new role at the DOE to hundreds of parents and teachers at a meeting of the citywide parent council for District 75, which serves the city’s most disabled children. Many District 75 parents and teachers worry that the district is at risk because it is expensive and unusual in its structure.

At the beginning of the meeting, Harries confronted the parents’ fears, saying:

I know that there are and have been rumors about my purpose. I just want to be really clear about it: No one has asked me to reorganize District 75. No one has asked me to cost cut.  That’s important for all of you to understand. The lens for this work is improve services for students so that our kids can do better.

Despite Harries’ reassurances, parent after parent gave impassioned defenses of the district, often in tears, saying their children had made strides in District 75 programs that they had been told elsewhere would be impossible. They also questioned Harries’ ability to make smart decisions about special education because he lacks experience in the field.

They seemed more reassured after District 75 Superintendent Bonnie Brown explained that she wouldn’t allow Harries to make substantive decisions about instruction without her consent. “If you don’t trust him, at least most of you have some level of trust in me,” she said. “I’m not going to let him screw around with us.”

Watch this video to see Brown, who appeared with Harries before the council, explain how she sees Harries fitting into the DOE’s special education leadership team:

A reader informed me this week that Michelle Rhee, the indomitable D.C. schools chancellor, is speaking at Pace University tonight. “What a hot tip!” I replied. “How did you find out?” “I think I found this on GothamSchools…” my Deep Throat said.

Moral: Do not forget about our excellent calendar, which updates itself based on your event tips! Tonight not only is Rhee speaking at Pace, but the Citywide Council on Special Education is having an open meeting about the coming special ed overhaul — featuring Garth Harries, the school official who will lead the changes, and Marcia Lyles, the deputy chancellor for teaching and learning.

Just days into Harries’ assignment on the special education beat, advocates have already criticized Chancellor Joel Klein for choosing him, complaining that Harries lacks any experience with special education. Tonight, Harries will have a chance to explain his plans.

Garth Harries

The top Department of Education official who is set to review the city’s special education system is adding another job to his plate: He’s joining a national program designed to produce top-notch urban superintendents.

Garth Harries, who until the end of this month is the chief executive of the DOE’s portfolio department, is one of 12 people accepted into this year’s Broad Superintendents Academy class. The academy, which is based on business executive training programs, is run by the Broad Foundation, which also gives out the annual Broad Prize for Urban Education. New York City won the Broad Prize in 2007.

As a Broad fellow, Harries will stay on at the DOE but will leave the city for six multi-day retreats throughout the year. He’ll also have regular homework assignments. (Already, Helen Zelon at Insideschools has chimed in with concern about just how much Harries can cram into his calendar.) We asked Harries for a statement, and got this response from Chancellor Joel Klein instead:

Garth’s selection reflects the extraordinary work he’s done in New York and his potential to be a great superintendent in the future.

The Broad Academy says it expects its graduates to seek superintendencies, but of the DOE officials who have gone through the program, most still work in the city. (more…)