I grew up and was educated in the New York City public schools and eventually became a public school teacher. During my days as a student and the beginning of my teaching career, the one constant was that the Principal was a long-term classroom teacher and generally respected for their experience and understanding of the classroom issues.
While not all these principals were great leaders, they were knowledgeable and had an institutional memory of how things worked. Principals were expected to slowly rise up through the teaching ranks, become an Assistant Principal and maybe after a minimum of ten years gets a shot at being the school leader. However, things changed for the worst when Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed a non-educator as Chancellor and the Chancellor. The Chancellor, Joel Klein, in-turn founded the infamous "Leadership Academy".
The "Leadership Academy" accepted potential administrators with a minimum of three years of experience in the education field and no classroom experience was required. The result was that many of the newly minted "Leadership Academy" principals were not even tenured teachers! The Bloomberg/Klein philosophy was that schools could be better run as a business and principals were the "Chief Operating Officers" of their schools and long-term education credentials were not necessary to be a Principal. The Bloomberg Administration closed over 164 schools and replacing them with 634 new schools, all needing principals. The result was that many of the new "Bloomberg small schools" ending up with these "Leadership Academy" principals that presently make up approximately 20% of all New York City principals.
One of the biggest problems with the "Leadership Academy" principals is that they are trained to be top down managers rather the collaborative leaders. Many of these "Leadership Academy" principals hire inexpensive and untenured teachers and will not hire highly experienced teachers due to both their higher salary and more importantly, their institutional memory on how successful schools are run. For the "Leadership Academy" principal its about the school report card and constant test prep than what's best for the academic achievement of the students.
If the quality of principals doesn't improve and the current Chancellor leaves the "Leadership Academy" principles in place, then don't look for any real academic improvements despite the rhetoric coming out of the DOE. The schools are only as good as their leader and in too many cases the leader is from the "Leadership Academy" and that's not encouraging for student academic outcomes.
13 comments:
Perfect description of what has happened in my school over the years that I've been teaching. I can't even begin to describe some of the "teachers" we hire. They're new, clueless and have no work ethic. But they're cheap, so I guess that's the bottom line.
BTW- that drawing bears an uncanny resemblance to my AP.
Yes. It's at the heart of the problem. Each one of these "principals" should be treated as the vampires they are. Exposure to the light and a termination letter staked through their hearts. A new Hammer film in the making, "Carmen Farina - Leadership Academy Huntress". I'd love to see it with a bag of popcorn during staff development!
Enough already! Stop acting like a victim and find another career outside the disgusting DOE! I too experienced the horrors of the rubber room and 3020a - and I decided to do something about it. I now work in private industry making over $200 k per year. Instead of whining and crying, go do something else with your life that makes you truly happy!
Enough already chaz. Stop blaming principals, politicians, and the system. Its not them and its not teachers or even the students fault. This is our society now and i blame the parents.
Westchester schools are not better because the have better teachers or administration. They are better because the parents make education a priority over cell phones and the latest jordan's.
Families are now the ones playing victims and strangely enough feel entitled to everything without doing anything. Stop with the blame, stop with the whining. Want to blame someone? Blame society and blame minority parents who keep pushing out kids without any accountability or sense of priority
To 4:30,
Hey dude, who do you think you're fooling? That exactly what the city and Mike want. Are you with the DOE or UFT?
I know lots of teachers trying to leave to become sanitation workers and cops (at a salary decrease). There's no ex- teacher making 200K, unless its with the union. What exactly do you do and who are you? Don't worry about anonymity, your out, right? I personally would not be able to look myself in the mirror if I let you and your bosses push me out of my career. That's not victimization, that's standing your ground.
Sorry Chaz.
Anon 5:56 nailed it. I live in Westchester and the amount of time that is given by the parents to the schools are so evident. I see volunteering. I see giving back to the community. I see parents forming classroom and school social groups. The teachers are good, but no "better" than the teachers I work with at my school in the Bronx. I believe I'm good myself. It's not the teachers. It is basically the parents. The media, administrators, political powers, and anyone else can spin however they like, however, the bottom line and the truth is ........ when you reorganize "zoning" you DESTROY neighborhoods. That's it! Do a freakin story in reality Chaz. Do a story on the destruction of neighborhoods due to rezoning. When you have zoned schools, you have power. You can organize parents and close the gap with involvement. In Westchester, you go to your zoned school, that's it. It actually works. The only system that doesn't in Westchester is the "worst system" which is Yonkers.
It's the truth. You must zone schools to be truly successful. If the nay Sayers get upset and ask "What about the kids who are all grouped in the bad neighborhood?" You can then say, tell their parents to get a fukking job and move to a better neighborhood!
I'm not fooling anybody. I don't work for the DOE or UFT. Part of the problem is with your thinking - why would somebody with a Master's degree aspire to be a cop or a garbage man? It's exactly that type of self-deprecating mindset that keeps you (and other teachers) stuck in the rut you're in. Unfortunately, many teachers aren't smart enough to succeed in private industry, but for those who are, the sky is the limit. I happen to work for a large company as a training manager. It took me years to get to where I am and I've never looked back. I also know plenty of other teachers who've followed similar paths. Part of your problem is that you're so focused on "bosses pushing you out of your career." Instead of worrying about some idiot principal, why not focus on your own happiness? The reality is that many teachers are enjoying huge paydays in other fields. You happen to be basing your perceptions on your own insecurities. Just because you don't think you can do it, doesn't make it so.
My three daughters graduated from Scarsdale H.S. and my three grand daughters are currently enrolled in the town's schools--which makes my opinion expert. The difference between them and us is strictly class which means parents with surplus capital and all the attendant 1 percent cultural benefits. Switch Scarsdale's teachers with, say, the faculty of Automotive and you wouldn't see much difference in the grad rate. But if you switched the parents, Automotive would match Brooklyn Latin in a few years. Of course, everybody knows this. Excuse me for stating the too obvious.
To 11:43,
You're correct. You're not fooling anyone.
Anonymous 4:30 PM and 11:43 can eat a dick.
Mr. Nobile's comment illustrates another major problem with the city schools. Teachers and administrators who live outside the city and don't use the schools for their own kids. If every NYC employee needed to live in NYC, you'd see the quality of schools shoot up. We should have the same residency laws as other cities. If people want to live in Nassau or Westchester or NJ, that's their choice, but don't' expect to work here.
Anon 9:29 - While I agree that having our children in NYC schools would help, I doubt that it would have grand effect of improving the quality of NYC schools that much. The effect would be like a few drops of water in a large pond. As for forcing residency requirements upon public sector workers, I ask you...why? Aren't we entitled to the same freedom of choice that private sector workers enjoy?
I was a graduate from the leadership academy. We are not all bad. Actually, I turned around a school, brought my learning environment up from low morale to high morale and with that our students were making significant gains. I agree the Leadership Academy was not what I thought. My school went from failing to proficient and because I did not conform to the politics of the superintendent, network leader and cluster It was all over. These people have such a strong hold and so many ties to each other going back years and years that a person/ or principal that wants to make a change is fighting an army. Unfortunately many people do not stand up with you and you lose everything you have worked your whole life for. My teachers were amazing people who worked day in and day out to move our school in the right direction even with all the obstacles that the DOE kept throwing at us. I never got to give them a proper goodbye, but I was truly blessed to work with so many wonderful teachers and staff. So keep up the fight, but it goes deeper than principals, it is our supervisors that pull the strings and have the power. I used to live in the city then moved out, I gave my life to the children of NYCDOE and those that live in the city my supervisors they had their own agendas. You know what though they send their children to private schools or the best public schools, not the ones like the one I fought to keep open.
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