More Reform at NYC Schools

Posted by Sheila Redick on April 08, 2006

Relaxing centralization and giving principals a freer hand are now the focus for New York schools chancellor Joel Klein. According to The New York Times, Klein's new team is "evaluating everything from how textbooks and paper are bought to how teacher training programs are chosen to how students, teachers and principals are judged." The plan is to reallocate $200 million in administrative costs to schools.

New team member Chris Cerf, former president of Edison Schools who is exploring the question of what services schools need or want from the administration, calls the effort "entire system reform," but even some of Klein's supporters wonder if the effort is futile, given federal and state mandates and union contract constraints (familiar problems to all school districts).

The team's most "immediate mission is to create a framework for expanding the 'autonomy zone,' a pilot group of 42 schools whose principals were largely cut free of administration after agreeing to meet performance targets." This fall 150 more schools will enter the zone.

Cerf asserts that "this is the most important and urgent thing going on in American public education today" and, if done right, "will be a national pace car for change."