Librado Romero/The New York Times
Students at a Bronx high school run by Green Dot Public Schools since 2008.
By FERNANDA SANTOS
Published: March 8, 2011
The Bloomberg administration’s signature strategy for low-performing schools has been to shut them down, a drastic move that often incites anger and protests from teachers, parents and neighborhood officials. Since the beginning of the mayor’s first term, more than 110 schools have been shuttered or are in the process of closing.
The administration is now thinking of testing another approach at two schools in the Bronx: replacing the principals and at least half of the teachers, but keeping the schools and all of their programs running — a strategy known as a turnaround.
The plan would bring together unlikely partners: the New York City Department of Education, the teachers’ union and the founder of a charter school network who is best known for turning around one of the toughest high schools in Los Angeles.
There are benefits and risks for each side. The city would be departing from its philosophy of closing large schools and opening smaller ones in their space. But it could cause less political blowback.
Union leaders might be seen by their rank and file as acquiescing to the replacement of teachers, though those teachers would be entitled to their full salaries and jobs elsewhere in the system. But if those schools were closed, they could be replaced with charter schools, which tend not to be unionized.
For the charter network, Green Dot America, the plan is an attempt to turn its model into a national commodity of sorts. But Green Dot would also be inheriting some of the city’s most challenging students.
“This notion that some kids can make it and some kids can’t, I don’t buy that,” Steve Barr, who founded the network, said in an interview. “I’m of the belief that all kids can be college-ready if you give them a chance.”
The plan involves a middle school and a high school in the South Bronx; the schools were not named because their staffs had not been notified. The schools would be controlled by the Education Department, managed by Green Dot and staffed by unionized teachers, as is the norm in the 17 charter schools run by Green Dot Public Schools, a separate organization that Mr. Barr founded. Among those schools is a high school in the South Bronx that opened in 2008.
Mr. Barr has been in the business of turning around schools for more than a decade, but his work gained prominence in 2007, when the Los Angeles Unified School District refused to give him control of Alain Leroy Locke Senior High School, in the city’s rough Watts neighborhood. But he took control anyway. He put a school board member on his payroll, managed to infiltrate the school building even after he was banned from it and persuaded half of Locke’s teachers to vote to split from the district. The district relented, allowing him to turn the school into a charter.
Mr. Barr is proposing a more conciliatory tack in New York City, going door to door to garner support among parents, while weaving political alliances to avoid fighting — though, he said, he would not shy away from more aggressive tactics if that was what it took.
“We’re going to do it one way or the other, no matter who resists,” said Mr. Barr, whose management expenses are largely covered by private philanthropies, chiefly the Ford Foundation.
Turnarounds, among the four school-improvement strategies that qualify for federal assistance, have not been tried in New York City before, but they have run into obstacles elsewhere, as some districts have had trouble finding qualified principals ready to replace the ones being forced out.
The plan would also involve forcing all teachers to reapply for their jobs and using a committee of teachers, school administrators and parents to pick who got to stay.
The teachers’ contract would give them some measure of job protection, but it would be easier to fire them. The teachers also would work under more flexible rules, including longer hours in exchange for higher pay.
“It’s about, what do we need to get this staff in order for them to meet the needs of the children and stop with this one-size-fits-all stuff?” said Michael Mulgrew, the president of the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers.
Mr. Mulgrew has been waging a very public war with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg over the mayor’s push to eliminate rules that protect the most senior teachers in the event of layoffs, but the union chief has been quietly lobbying for the turnaround plan behind the scenes. He met with Schools Chancellor Cathleen P. Black in January and sounded conciliatory when asked about potential roadblocks, saying, “We are committed to getting this idea for these schools moving.”
City education officials have been receptive to the proposal, but say it is still early in the process. They are also contemplating using the turnaround model in schools other than those Green Dot would run.
“We’re always ready to work with organizations that are interested in doing the hard work of reforming public education,” said Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Education Department.
One of the unanswered questions is where the money would come from to finance the flexible compensation plan for teachers — federal grants, philanthropic donations or a combination of both, said Gideon Stein, the president of Green Dot America.
One of the criticisms of Green Dot’s work at Locke has been that it costs far more per student than at traditional schools.
If New York City’s Education Department signs off on the proposal, the schools would begin the new model in the fall of next year.
The plan would bring together unlikely partners: the New York City Department of Education, the teachers’ union and the founder of a charter school network who is best known for turning around one of the toughest high schools in Los Angeles.
There are benefits and risks for each side. The city would be departing from its philosophy of closing large schools and opening smaller ones in their space. But it could cause less political blowback.
Union leaders might be seen by their rank and file as acquiescing to the replacement of teachers, though those teachers would be entitled to their full salaries and jobs elsewhere in the system. But if those schools were closed, they could be replaced with charter schools, which tend not to be unionized.
For the charter network, Green Dot America, the plan is an attempt to turn its model into a national commodity of sorts. But Green Dot would also be inheriting some of the city’s most challenging students.
“This notion that some kids can make it and some kids can’t, I don’t buy that,” Steve Barr, who founded the network, said in an interview. “I’m of the belief that all kids can be college-ready if you give them a chance.”
The plan involves a middle school and a high school in the South Bronx; the schools were not named because their staffs had not been notified. The schools would be controlled by the Education Department, managed by Green Dot and staffed by unionized teachers, as is the norm in the 17 charter schools run by Green Dot Public Schools, a separate organization that Mr. Barr founded. Among those schools is a high school in the South Bronx that opened in 2008.
Mr. Barr has been in the business of turning around schools for more than a decade, but his work gained prominence in 2007, when the Los Angeles Unified School District refused to give him control of Alain Leroy Locke Senior High School, in the city’s rough Watts neighborhood. But he took control anyway. He put a school board member on his payroll, managed to infiltrate the school building even after he was banned from it and persuaded half of Locke’s teachers to vote to split from the district. The district relented, allowing him to turn the school into a charter.
Mr. Barr is proposing a more conciliatory tack in New York City, going door to door to garner support among parents, while weaving political alliances to avoid fighting — though, he said, he would not shy away from more aggressive tactics if that was what it took.
“We’re going to do it one way or the other, no matter who resists,” said Mr. Barr, whose management expenses are largely covered by private philanthropies, chiefly the Ford Foundation.
Turnarounds, among the four school-improvement strategies that qualify for federal assistance, have not been tried in New York City before, but they have run into obstacles elsewhere, as some districts have had trouble finding qualified principals ready to replace the ones being forced out.
The plan would also involve forcing all teachers to reapply for their jobs and using a committee of teachers, school administrators and parents to pick who got to stay.
The teachers’ contract would give them some measure of job protection, but it would be easier to fire them. The teachers also would work under more flexible rules, including longer hours in exchange for higher pay.
“It’s about, what do we need to get this staff in order for them to meet the needs of the children and stop with this one-size-fits-all stuff?” said Michael Mulgrew, the president of the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers.
Mr. Mulgrew has been waging a very public war with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg over the mayor’s push to eliminate rules that protect the most senior teachers in the event of layoffs, but the union chief has been quietly lobbying for the turnaround plan behind the scenes. He met with Schools Chancellor Cathleen P. Black in January and sounded conciliatory when asked about potential roadblocks, saying, “We are committed to getting this idea for these schools moving.”
City education officials have been receptive to the proposal, but say it is still early in the process. They are also contemplating using the turnaround model in schools other than those Green Dot would run.
“We’re always ready to work with organizations that are interested in doing the hard work of reforming public education,” said Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Education Department.
One of the unanswered questions is where the money would come from to finance the flexible compensation plan for teachers — federal grants, philanthropic donations or a combination of both, said Gideon Stein, the president of Green Dot America.
One of the criticisms of Green Dot’s work at Locke has been that it costs far more per student than at traditional schools.
If New York City’s Education Department signs off on the proposal, the schools would begin the new model in the fall of next year.
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