Many of those interviewed were sharply critical of the city’s formula for grading schools on a scale of A through F, and expressed hope that Ms. Black might steer the focus away from standardized tests. Others begged her to do more listening to parents, teachers and principals. One warning sign: several principals said they were afraid to be quoted. “She’s going to be my boss,” one said. “I just found out my Q.R. is at the end of January,” another said, using educrat-ese for the school evaluation process called a Quality Review. “I need her to give me advice.” ELISSA GOOTMAN?
EDWARD TOM, 40, is the founding principal of the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, a 430-student high school that opened in 2005 in the Morrisania section of the South Bronx.
Chancellor Black, you have many innovative, proven leaders who have ideas that they believe can help reform urban education. Many of us are looking for a forum to be able to share those ideas with you. There are so many people, and they get stopped at every door because of the bureaucracy and the politicking. If you want to create a system where it’s about great ideas and proven models, you need to open those doors.
Minimize the budget cuts that filter down to the school level. Look harder and deeper at central staffing to see if there’s more fat to cut, if there are middle-manager positions — assistant directors, deputy directors — that can be phased out.
The biggie is the progress report. You can have a school full of kids not ready for college that gets an A because it’s making progress with low-performing children.
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GREGORY M. HODGE, 57, is the longtime principal of Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, a selective school for grades 6 to 12.
I think it’s so important for the new chancellor to look at the richness of the school system and realize that we really need to address the question of equity. Stuyvesant is a stellar school, Bronx Science is a stellar school, Brooklyn Tech is a stellar school. But the school system is disproportionately minority, and in these schools of eliteness you have an infinitesimal percentage of children of color. There are intelligent black students, intelligent Hispanic students, that deserve the opportunity to go to a great school like Stuyvesant. The kids who are in the middle should have the opportunity to take more A. P. classes.
Another piece of advice I’d be willing to share with the chancellor is that the public school system should be at the forefront of green roofs. The D.O.E. under Ms. Black’s leadership could be on the front end of saying, “We’ve got these great school buildings and we’ve got this tremendous amount of roof space. Let’s create green roofs, green spaces that are going to be used for actual learning.”
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SAMONA JOE TAIT, 42, has been head of school since 2007 at Bronx Preparatory Charter School, which serves 700 children in 5th through 12th grades in the South Bronx.
First, figure out where the work is really being done well, whether it’s a charter school or a traditional public school. It’s the “Where would you want to send your child to school?” question. Then share that, and facilitate everyone connecting to those places. How do we begin to really connect what have been these sort of islands of success? How do we connect them to each other, and how do we connect them to the mainland? We could start by asking folks to self-identify.
What do you think is a practice that is happening in your school community that is highly effective, that is helping us to get great results with young people? Survey Monkey will get you a whole lot of rich information.
The quality of teachers that we put in front of young people is a huge, huge issue. I think one thing to do is certainly to be at the table with the deans of the schools of education and the presidents of universities, and really look at the detail of what it is we’re training people to do. I went to an Ivy League institution, got a master’s degree, and didn’t know the first thing about teaching the 12-year-olds who were sitting in front of me how to read.
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MAXINE NODEL, 47, has been principal since 2004 of Millennium Art Academy, a 500-student high school in the Soundview section of the Bronx.
I would love to see an overhaul of writing across the curriculum. I think she should have a deputy chancellor solely devoted to developmental writing. A huge percentage of our students require remedial writing courses at CUNY. She should ensure that writing is fostered in the early grades and evolved yearly, so that students can eventually handle the rigors of academic college writing. Writing requires thinking skills. If you can’t think you can’t write, and if you can’t write you can’t be successful in college.
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