New York City’s Strategy for Improving High Schools

Author: Alliance for Excellent Education
Publisher: Alliance for Excellent Education
Publication Date: 2009
Publication City: Washington
Publication State: DC

Resources

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• New York City’s Strategy for Improving High Schools(.pdf 0.8MB)
  

Description (written by WestEd)

This brief outlines the New York City Department of Education’s (NYCDOE) strategy that led to a rise in high school student performance as measured by graduation rates, state assessments, college admissions, and other criteria. During this period, the number of schools "under registration review" (i.e., furthest from meeting standards) declined by more than two-thirds. The report outlines Mayor Bloomberg’s vision for change, which includes the following components:

1. Bring coherence to the system.


2. Shift decision making to the school level.


3. Develop and support effective teachers and leaders.


4. Hold educators accountable for their performance.

Sidebars detail the NYCDOE’s tools to support coherent data-driven school improvement; its strategies for recruitment, retention, and rewarding effective teachers and leaders; and its strategies for establishing accountability and incentives for results.
This brief is the first in a series of three publications exploring New York City’s efforts to improve high school outcomes and identify recommendations for federal policy that emerge from that experience.