Sep 6, 2007 1:45 PM
For many years the thorn in the side of improving school systems, not only in the city but across the country, has been middle schools. No matter that elementary reading and math scores may go up, high school graduation rates may go up or dropout rates may go down, middle schools always seem to stagnate.
And this has not been for lack of exposure. Over the last 20 years in New York City there have been task forces galore, including, for example, one headed by former Schools Chancellor Nathan Quinones in 1986, or one under then Chancellor Joseph Fernandez and Deputy Chancellor Beverly Hall in 1994, or former mayoral appointee to the Board of Education Ninfa Segarra in 2001. And there have been additional efforts, including an analysis by the Carnegie Foundation in 2000 and a current three-year Middle School Reform Initiative started by former Deputy Chancellor Carmen Fariña.
And still … and still … New York City middle schools have continued to be problems.
But now, perhaps, there is reason to hope that something concrete will finally be accomplished to improve the city’s middle schools so that they can better serve their students. Over the summer the same coalition of public school advocates worked to put the public back into public education and generated the momentum that led to an agreement with the mayor over changes in the school reorganization plan, were part of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s Middle School Task Force. That Task Force proposed a promising set of initiatives and convinced city hall to support many of them, including $5 million in seed money to get the program rolling in the 50 neediest middle schools. Two UFTers with real middle school experience, Vice President Richard Farkas and Special Representative Jackie Bennett, sat on the Task Force.
Many of the details are in our story on page 3, but the main point is that this seems to be a truly serious and reasoned effort to tackle a very tough problem. The Department of Education has created a top administrative post just for middle school initiatives and has named a seasoned educator for that post.
The UFT has long maintained that a major part of the problem is that by focusing almost exclusively on raising math and reading test scores middle schools have eliminated much of the curriculum as well as a variety of support services and after-school clubs and sports that creates the kind of rich, well-rounded educational environment that attract adolescent students and keep them interested in going to school.
The new task force and its sound recommendations may finally begin to lead to the sorely needed improvements that middle school students need and deserve.