Another Klein Shakeup - Commentary on Racism at the Top

From Leonie:

I don’t get the headline of the Times article, which is reprinted below ….does the mandated curriculum change? I don’t think so.

Generally, I don’t see this as a big change in the DOE’s laissez-faire attitude, generally allowing principals to run their own schools however they like, including violating the law, as long as test scores go up. Clearly the educrats care not at all about teaching and learning, having eliminated that division entirely.

Clearly, they care not at all about the impression that the bureaucracy at the top and the salaries are increasing while they are threatening massive layoffs to teachers.

The outrageous thing is they are pretending that the following is their rationale for these changes:
“New school governance legislation has increased external oversight. Sustaining our reforms will require us to redouble our commitment to an open public dialogue."

Come on! That’s like justifying the proposal on laying off senior teachers by saying that it give parents more power, when we know quite the opposite is true.

See also http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/outrage_as_school_bigs_boo_bosses_qwwuXKRfUWC9hjkVUHBLEJ and http://www.ny1.com/6-bronx-news-content/news_beats/education/117637/latest-doe-shakeup-comes-at-a-cost/

Excerpt from the NY Times:

The change will bring the number of administrators with the title of deputy chancellor to eight — more than double the current number. Each of the deputies will make at least $192,000 by next February, and raises will cost the city $95,000, said David Cantor, a department spokesman. By adding two extra top administrators to the payroll, the city will most likely be spending nearly $500,000 more, although it is possible other positions will be eliminated. …

Santiago Taveras, who less than a year ago was appointed the deputy chancellor of teaching and learning, will now be in charge of community engagement. Mr. Taveras has been one of only two Hispanic members in Mr. Klein’s cabinet; there are no African-Americans among the department’s top officials, and all of those who received salary increases in the latest change are white. About 70 percent of the system’s students are black and Hispanic.

So much for Joel Klein’s claim to be a great civil rights hero of our time.

In Shake-Up, Principals May Get More Say Over What Is Taught

By JENNIFER MEDINA

Published: April 26, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/nyregion/27tweed.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

The schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, said Monday that he was reshuffling the top jobs at city’s Education Department headquarters and eliminating the division that oversees school curriculum and teacher training programs.

The moves are intended to give principals more power to determine what kind of instruction they use at individual schools, rather than using only suggestions developed in central offices.

The changes underscore a substantial shift that the department has made under Mr. Klein, who early in his tenure focused on centralizing control of the system and developing a uniform citywide curriculum.

The change will bring the number of administrators with the title of deputy chancellor to eight — more than double the current number. Each of the deputies will make at least $192,000 by next February, and raises will cost the city $95,000, said David Cantor, a department spokesman.

By adding two extra top administrators to the payroll, the city will most likely be spending nearly $500,000 more, although it is possible other positions will be eliminated.

Eric Nadelstern, who has worked in the city school system for nearly four decades and is widely seen as a possible successor to Mr. Klein, will become the deputy chancellor for school support and instruction, taking primary responsibility for the city’s 1,500 schools. Santiago Taveras, who less than a year ago was appointed the deputy chancellor of teaching and learning, will now be in charge of community engagement.

Mr. Taveras has been one of only two Hispanic members in Mr. Klein’s cabinet; there are no African-Americans among the department’s top officials, and all of those who received salary increases in the latest change are white. About 70 percent of the system’s students are black and Hispanic.

For the last several years, Mr. Nadelstern has supervised a growing group of high-performing schools that are given more autonomy for both instruction and spending. “The more authority you share, the more influential you become, so that what ends up happening now is that schools seek out our opinion,” he said Monday. “We don’t have the answers to what will work for all 1.1 million children; otherwise, we would have a graduation rate higher than 60 percent.”

But he added that he believed the rising graduation rate was evidence that the philosophy was the right one. “I’ve worked for 13 chancellors, and the needle didn’t move for years,” he said.

Clara Hemphill, a researcher at the New School who is studying the department’s structure, said it was still too soon to tell whether Mr. Nadelstern’s approach was the right one. “Clearly a stifling bureaucracy that treats everybody like soldiers in an army is a bad thing but there’s also need for outside help figuring out what to do,” Ms. Hemphill said. “What’s true is that nobody in the country has tried it and it’s new way to organize.”

In other staff changes announced on Monday, Mr. Klein appointed Sharon Greenberger, the current chief executive officer of the School Construction Authority, as chief operating officer for the department. Ms. Greenberger will oversee each of the divisions in the department, and her primary responsibilities will include laying the groundwork to close schools the department considers failing and replace them with new schools.

The department faced fierce criticism during the process of closing schools last fall, and earlier this year a judge ruled that it did not follow state law throughout the process. The city is now appealing that ruling.

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, criticized the move at a time when the department is openly discussing the possibility of teacher layoffs.

“Do you think that it’s a good idea to be adding to the central payroll at the time of the most severe budget crisis?” he said. “Is that the kind of example you want to be setting?”