NEW YORK—Over 50 parents and advocates assembled in front of City Hall on Wednesday to voice their support for the creation of a bill that would save schools on the verge of closure. The bill would establish a School Transformation Zone for low performance schools where parents and teachers will work together to increase the quality of education.
“We think that we can come up with the ideas like the school transformation zone, like the extended day, ensuring that every child gets individualized, differentiated instruction that meets their needs, and this is what is going to turn the schools around,” said Daniel Dromm, city councilman and former city public school teacher.
If the bill is approved, schools in the transformation zone program will have three years to improve their performance through federal grants and funds. In the zone, teaching and learning will be redesigned to improve student achievement. Buildings that are normally closed down at the end of the school day will operate longer to provide extended pay for teachers and learning time for children.
The city’s Department of Education did not return a request for comment on school transformation zones.
Speaker Anita Gomez-Palacio of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators said she was concerned with how the schools end up on the closing list and what role the superintendents of the schools played to try and avoid it.
“Where is the process that [Department of Education] is using? It is not obvious to us how these schools got on the list to begin with,” she said.
Among the advocates stood parents from the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) who spoke of the consequences their family and their children face after a school shuts down.
Carol Boyd, a parent leader with CEJ and mother of three, was able to transfer her children from a school under registration review in their neighborhood into better schools. Others, she said, are not so lucky.
“I am outraged because the child who lives next door to me, the child who lives above me, the child who lives below me or across the street—they don’t have those opportunities. They are the ones stuck in all those school that are on that closing list.”
In a letter to Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein, over 70 advocates, allies of CEJ and 14 city council members have signed to support the school transformation zone bill.
“We think that we can come up with the ideas like the school transformation zone, like the extended day, ensuring that every child gets individualized, differentiated instruction that meets their needs, and this is what is going to turn the schools around,” said Daniel Dromm, city councilman and former city public school teacher.
If the bill is approved, schools in the transformation zone program will have three years to improve their performance through federal grants and funds. In the zone, teaching and learning will be redesigned to improve student achievement. Buildings that are normally closed down at the end of the school day will operate longer to provide extended pay for teachers and learning time for children.
The city’s Department of Education did not return a request for comment on school transformation zones.
Speaker Anita Gomez-Palacio of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators said she was concerned with how the schools end up on the closing list and what role the superintendents of the schools played to try and avoid it.
“Where is the process that [Department of Education] is using? It is not obvious to us how these schools got on the list to begin with,” she said.
Among the advocates stood parents from the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) who spoke of the consequences their family and their children face after a school shuts down.
Carol Boyd, a parent leader with CEJ and mother of three, was able to transfer her children from a school under registration review in their neighborhood into better schools. Others, she said, are not so lucky.
“I am outraged because the child who lives next door to me, the child who lives above me, the child who lives below me or across the street—they don’t have those opportunities. They are the ones stuck in all those school that are on that closing list.”
In a letter to Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein, over 70 advocates, allies of CEJ and 14 city council members have signed to support the school transformation zone bill.
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