Event Summary
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.
View the Event Introduction
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
View the Presention by Anne Bryant
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