January 6, 2009
TECHNOS
TECHNOS QUARTERLY Summer 1996 Vol. 5 No. 2
New York Networks for School Renewal
Sidebar for Interview with Deborah W. Meier
Many of the small public schools in New York City which have succeeded in recent years were created by four organizations: ACORN (New York Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the Center for Educational Innovation, the Fund for New York City Public Education, and the Center for Collaborative Education. In 1994 the Annenberg Foundation asked these organizations to sponsor, collaborate, and form New York Networks for School Renewal to reform the New York City school system. The foundation also provided an Annenberg Challenge grant of $25 million for five years to help fund the project. This reform initiative consists of three levels: the creation of more small schools, the development of networks among these small schools, and the acceptance of these networks into the Learning Zone, a citywide demonstration project.
More small schools. The project builds on more than 80 small schools already working with the four sponsors. These schools include a variety of grade levels, methods of operation and governance, themes, and individual characters.
School themes vary from the School for the Physical City that uses the city's infrastructure as a textbook to the John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy that has created a businesslike environment in which troubled 16- to 20-year-olds attend school throughout the year from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., completing assignments during school hours. Other schools include the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, the Monroe Academy for Business and Law, the School for Writing and Publishing, and the Museum School, which incorporates weekly field trips to local museums and models its curriculum on museum research.
These schools share common principles involving student learning and development, assessment of students and schools, collaboration with parents and community, school-based management, and school choice for students, family, and staff. The flexibility afforded these small schools enables teachers to experiment with teaching techniques and to mix students from different grades, provides students with smaller class sizes, and involves parents and the community in the school's success. Most of these schools' students come from surrounding neighborhoods and are admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Over the next few years, the project will create an additional 50 small schools. Some will be new, and others will result from breaking up and redesigning existing large schools or chronically deficient schools. The resulting body of small schools will eventually serve a diverse student body of at least 50,000—the equivalent of a mid-sized city school system—in a school system projected to have 1.3 million schoolchildren by the year 2000.
Networks of small schools. The development of networks among these small schools is the project's key mechanism for stimulating and spreading innovation among schools and for exploring alternatives to the traditional hierarchy of school control and accountability. The founding 80 schools have formed 20 networks of three to seven related or like-minded schools. Each network reflects a variety of grade levels, locations, philosophies, and operations.
These collaborations provide member schools with mutual support, elicit ideas, and help strengthen school management, student and school assessment, and public accountability. Networks meet regularly and share resources, technology, professional development and curricula, and interschool visits and activities involving staff, students, and families.
The Learning Zone. As the networks develop into functioning collaborations, they will be invited to apply to join the Learning Zone. A review panel of state and city education officials, educators, parents, and community leaders will review applications and assess each network's reliability and credibility.
Schools in the Learning Zone networks will have more direct access to their share of public resources and the power to decide how to use them. They will also shoulder more demanding responsibilities as they are held publicly accountable for their decisions and work.
As a citywide demonstration project, the Learning Zone will test the viability and effectiveness of the project's lessons in how to recast the public school system.
New York Networks for School Renewal's bottom line is to see whether this new form of operation improves student achievement, does so in an equitable fashion, and is fiscally responsible for the use of public funds. Throughout the project, a university-based research team is observing and documenting how participating schools and networks go about their business, with an emphasis on determining how well they educate the full range of students and use the public's money.
Project partners include Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, New York City Board of Education President Carol A. Gresser, Schools Chancellor Rudolph F. Crew, and United Federation of Teachers President Sandra Feldman.
More information is available from New York Networks for School Renewal, 1573 Madison Avenue, Room 318, New York, NY 10029-3899, (212) 369-288, fax (212) 369-0765, online http://www.nynetworks.org.Return to Deborah W. Meier TECHNOS Quarterly Interview.