The relatively poor performance of students in urban districts has prompted a flurry of reforms. In several cities, reformers have concluded that the key to improvement is to turn the leadership of the school system over to the mayor, who presumably will act promptly to install successful programs and bold innovations.

Nowhere has this particular experiment in school reform advanced more rapidly than in New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg persuaded the State Legislature in 2002 to abolish the independent Board of Education and give him complete control of the school system. Under Mayor Bloomberg, the New York City Board of Education became the New York City Department of Education, with all its employees answerable only to the Mayor.

Diane Ravitch, Brookings scholar and historian of education at New York University, will assess the progress and problems of the reorganization of the city school system from 2002 to the present. What has changed because of the reforms? What lessons can school reformers learn from the New York experience? Ravitch's analysis and the panel discussion that follows should be useful for everyone who is concerned about the politics of urban schooling.

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Presentation:
DIANE RAVITCH
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Research Professor of Education, New York University
View the Presention by Diane Ravitch

Moderator:
TOM LOVELESS
Director, Brown Center on Education Policy Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

Panelists:
ANNE BRYANT
Executive Director, National School Boards Association
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FREDERICK M. HESS
Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
View the Presention by Frederick M. Hess

ROBERT P. STRAUSS
Professor of Economics & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
View the Presention by Robert P. Strauss

RSVP by May 31: Alice Henriques, 202-797-6469 or ahenriques@brookings.edu