Bloomberg's latest education reform proposals

[B-Fly]

With a few years left in his third and almost certainly final term as NYC Mayor, Bloomberg is hoping to cement his legacy with respect to public school reform. Obviously, whether his reforms have been good or bad is the subject of intense public debate, but some of the proposals announced in today's "State of the City" address are pretty significant. Namely these three:

1. The City will repay student loans for college grads in the top quartile of their class who teach in our schools, at the rate of $5,000/year for five years up to $25,000.

2. Teachers rated "highly effective" (the highest of four rating options) for two consecutive years under the newly proposed teacher evaluation system would get raises of $20,000 per year.

3. Absent agreement from the teachers' union on the proposed new teacher evaluation system, the administration will act under a provision of the existing contract to form school-based committees to evaluate teachers based on their classroom performance and replace up to 50% of a school's teachers in the process.

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/12/bloomberg-unveils-ambitious-proposals-for-schools/

[chancellor]

Wow...item 3 is harsh even for my often cold-blooded standards. I can see that for a school that has multiple failures to meet standards, but any school?

[B-Fly]

Wow...item 3 is harsh even for my often cold-blooded standards. I can see that for a school that has multiple failures to meet standards, but any school?

We're only proposing to use this approach at 33 federal turnaround schools (out of 1,700 schools in the NYC school district). At this point, the lack of agreement with the teachers' union on a new teacher evaluation system has cost us $58 million in federal School Improvement Grants.

[bryanbutler]

2. Teachers rated "highly effective" (the highest of four rating options) for two consecutive years under the newly proposed teacher evaluation system would get raises of $20,000 per year.

while great in principle, i just don't see how this is sustainable year-after-year. or is it a one-time deal? even for a one-time deal, that's potentially a big budget hit.

[chancellor]

We're only proposing to use this approach at 33 federal turnaround schools (out of 1,700 schools in the NYC school district). At this point, the lack of agreement with the teachers' union on a new teacher evaluation system has cost us $58 million in federal School Improvement Grants.

OK - that wasn't clear in the article. It appeared that any school could fall under that analysis system.