'Your School, Your Voice'-New Yorkers Speak Up Loud and Clear

Summary

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New York can - and must - do better. You can't forge real change in education if you don't have honest conversations, and that's why I thought we had a golden opportunity when incoming Chancellor Cathie Black recently took over the stewardship of our public schools. To give her a sense of what people are thinking, my office conducted a virtual town hall for three weeks, a unique online forum asking New Yorkers to list their three primary concerns about schools out of 26 choices. The result was "Your School, Your Voice," a 27-page report that touched on everything from class overcrowding and testing policies to arts education and budget cutbacks. More than 1,000 people responded, and Fm delighted Black has asked to discuss these findings with me.

* Other concerns included "curriculum quality and rigor" (26 percent), "school-level supports" (17 percent), "arts education" (14 percent), "testing" (14 percent) and Department of Education management of the schools (9 percent).

Based on our findings, I'm offering DOE the following recommendations: * Establish a Parent/Guardian Engagement Task Force * Reduce class size and school overcrowding through better planning * Protect classrooms from further budget cuts and teacher layoffs * Make a priority out of broadening and strengthening curriculum By working together we can begin a new, constructive dialogue about our schools with DOE.

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'Your School, Your Voice'-New Yorkers Speak Up Loud and Clear

What do parents, teachers and principals think about the condition of New York City's public schools - and how would they improve them? You'd think that local...

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