In one of my entries last week, Diane Ravitch on Mayoral Control of the Schools, I highlighted Ravitch’s New York Times Op-Ed piece on school governance.
This week, the chancellor of the New York City public schools, Joel I. Klein, responded with a letter to the editor:
New York Schools: The Chancellor’s Report Card
“The national tests she cites are not the measure of federal
accountability, are given only to a small sample of schools, and are
not aligned with New York State standards and therefore with what we
teach in our classrooms. (That said, our fourth-grade scores on those
tests are strong.)”
If you’re into education policy, which I hope you are, because it has more to do with arts education and our future than most people realize, I suggest you visit Debbie Meier’s post to Diane Ravitch, on a regular blog they conduct to each other on Ed Week.
Debbie Meier, in case you’re wondering, is considered by many to be the mother of the small schools movement, alongside many accomplishments in K-12 education.
As a recently retired Professor and Dean of Graduate Studies at SUNY Downstate Medical Center I am very concerned about national science literacy. I have a plan to improve HS science teaching in NYC and now have the time to volunteer my services to implement such a plan. I have contacted Denise McNamara, as you suggested, and have written to Mayor Bloomberg at City Hall. Thomas Friedman (April 21, NYT Op Ed) understands the problem: “…in the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment that measured the applied learning and problem-solving skills of 15-year-olds in 30 industrialized countries, the U.S. ranked 25th out of the 30 in math and 24th in science…putting our average youth on par with those from Portugal and the Slovak Republic. I would like to discuss my proposal with you; th NY Academy of Sciences would be willing to host such a discussion. Currently, there are 172 science PhDs who would be interested in teaching science and math in NYC HS. Thank you for your consideration.