Intermediate schools tabbed as the new frontier; 50 sites to open
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott wants middle school students to improve resultsSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- While other city students have made progress, middle schoolers have struggled -- and yesterday, Chancellor Dennis Walcott unveiled a plan to help them catch up and excel that includes the opening of 50 new schools citywide.
In his first policy speech, delivered at New York University, Walcott touted the city's success in increasing the high school graduation rate -- but said the process must start earlier.
"The time has come to take what we have learned and apply it to an area of our system that needs more attention," he said. "Time and time again, in conversations with parents and educators all across the city, one thing constantly comes up: Our middle schools."
While students in grades three to five have made steady progress on state math and English tests each year since 2006, seventh- and eighth-graders have regressed in English.
'MOVE THE MIDDLE'
Walcott's plan "to move the middle," as he called it, focuses on creating schools, recruiting talented leaders, turning around or closing poor-performing schools and funneling resources and attention to schools that have shown progress but need help.
"Today, I am committing to opening at least 50 new middle schools across the city in the next two years," Walcott said. That number, said the chancellor, would include charter middle schools, which he said have "substantially outperformed traditional middle schools citywide."
UFT TAKES ISSUE
UFT President Michael Mulgrew took issue with the inclusion of new charter schools in Walcott's plan.
"Even charter proponents now admit that charters don't have the same level of needy students," he said in a statement. "Where are these tough-to-educate kids going to go if the local middle school is replaced by a charter that finds a way to keep them out?"
Crucial to middle schools' success, Walcott said, are strong principals, assistant principals and teachers -- who often avoid middle schools.
To help, Walcott said he will work with the Leadership Academy and other city partners to attract administrators to middle schools. To attract teachers, he will devote a class of the New York Teaching Fellows Program to middle schools.
At Bernstein Intermediate School in Huguenot, Principal Dr. Nora DeRosa Karby said she adores adolescents -- but not every educator does. A desire to work with pre-teens is something she looks for when she hires teachers.
She asks prospective teachers to describe the adolescent child. If the answer focuses on rolling eyes and clicking teeth, "then maybe you're not the right teacher," Dr. Karby said.
Dr. Karby highlighted some of the same points Walcott emphasized -- a strong focus on literacy, strong standards and discipline, encouraging leadership training for her teachers, and engaging families -- as some of the reasons for her school's success. But she said it's also important not to get too caught up in the numbers or letters on standardized tests and school report cards. The focus, she said, should be on the children's educational growth.
For schools that have shown promise "but are not quite getting it right," Walcott said he would offer them new resources.
To tackle poorly performing schools, Walcott turned to the city's model of phasing out large struggling high schools and opening smaller ones in their place. He said it's time to apply the same standards to middle schools.
"If a school is failing its students, we will take action and phase it out," he said.
The city will also make use of "an aggressive federal model" called "Turnaround," Walcott said. In that model, the students stay at the school but ineffective staff are replaced by teams of teachers that work together, with up to $30 million in federal funds.
Walcott said he plans to apply for the federal money for five schools next year and another five the year after that. To be eligible, a middle school would have to be on the state's list of persistently low-performing schools. No Island schools are on the most recent list, from 2010.