The bungled "turnaround" strategy of Long Island City HS: Who really is responsible for this mess?
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| Panel for Educational Policy meeting, April 26, 2012 |
Last Thursday, April 26, in another long, highly emotional meeting that stretched late into the evening, the Panel for Educational Policy voted to close 24 schools and put them in “turnaround” mode, one of the federal models for school “improvement” in which the entire teaching staff is fired and is forced to reapply for their jobs. The city is doing this, despite the fact that the state may deny them the federal funds that are supposed to be the “reward” for this model.
In defending his decision to close these schools in general, and in particular to close Long Island City, as compared to Grover Cleveland HS, which was taken off the “turnaround” list at the last minute, Chief Academic Officer Shael Suransky explained:
… that the schools post some very different data points. At Long Island City, for example, only 11 percent of parents responding to a city survey said the school is doing well, he said. (Long Island City had a massive scheduling debacle earlier this year, and the department is replacing the principal it installed just last year.)
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| Long Island City students, arriving at school |
He didn’t mention that Grover Cleveland HS is also the alma mater of NYS Assembly Education Chair of Cathy Nolan, a fierce critic of these proposals.
