For those of you who don't call New York City home, it is a rather remarkable thing to see when 1.1 million public school kids return to the classroom for the first day of school. Traffic patterns change, the sounds of morning in many neighborhoods change, etc. It is no small undertaking as moms and dads begin anew their schoolday rituals with their kids.
I'll get the scoop from my kids later, but my fourth grader's experience is proving to be an interesting barometer of change in some NYC schools. He is attending what feels like a vastly improved elementary school since my older son went through the same school in Chelsea a few years ago. Some of it seems to be tied closely to the larger citywide changes in the system, others seem to have to do with a parent-UFT uprising a few years ago where we collectively helped get a "promotion" for the former principal (which he didn't want). We ended up with a great new principal who came out of the city's Leadership Academy and the quality of the teachers has been progressively on the rise in the time since. The good ones now seem happy enough to stay, the klunkers have left for more klunker-friendly locales, and the newbies not only seem inspired, they seem to be welcomed into a team of experienced educators who are ready to help them out.
Note: The UFT is reportedly running radio ads highlighting the importance of teacher voice at the school site in the newly decentralized school system. There are a lot of back-and-forths with the union over various issues here, but on this point they are absolutely correct. The principals who seem able to make the most of the contributions of teachers, parents, students, and the larger community will no doubt be the ones where we start to see even greater things.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Joel Klein, starting his sixth year at the helm of the NYC schools, gets today's DFER "Quote of the Day."