April 8th, 2011
Rudy Crew, President
The Toughest Job Around – What Cathleen Black’s brief tenure as New York’s school chancellor says about running the city’s education department.
The New York Times Room for Debate
Rudy Crew served as chancellor of New York City Schools from 1995 to 1999 and superintendent of Miami-Dade County Schools from 2004 to 2008. He is a professor at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education and president of Global Partnership Schools.
As I said when Cathie Black was appointed, running a large urban school district is much more than a matter of managing time, money, and people. Ms. Black failed in what was known to be her weakest suit — namely, she knew nothing about running a school system. She quickly became a leader with few followers among the ranks of principals, teachers, and parents, thus unable to create or sustain a vision for the system.
In fairness, Ms. Black is only one-half of the miscalculation. The other half is a growing set of assumptions — now dominating everything from the selection of chancellors and superintendents to the national discourse about public schools — which led to her appointment in the first place.
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March 31st, 2011
Teacher Training to improve educational standards in developing countries
GEMS Education, the world’s largest kindergarten to grade 12 education provider, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), have entered into a teacher training partnership agreement to raise the standards of teaching in the developing world.
Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO said: “The shortage of quality teachers globally is one the biggest challenges we face in achieving the goal of Education for All. Without quality teachers for all, there is no education for all. Under this new partnership with GEMS Education, which has over 50 years of experience, we will be aiming to take a giant leap towards closing the gap in the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom.”
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February 25th, 2011
Garrison Middle School 6th grade math teacher Mr. Rommel Soriano, right, hands a smart board marker to 6th grader Imani Johnson during class on Feb. 24. Last summer, the management of Garrison Middle School was taken over by Global Partnership Schools, a private company charged with turning the formerly underperforming school around. Mr. Soriano was one of the teachers who, after reapplying for his job, got it back.
—Matt Roth for Education Week
Some of the nation’s largest and best-known charter-management organizations have not jumped at the opportunity to “restart” schools with federal economic-stimulus money, but a wide range of smaller charter operators, private for-profit companies, and nonprofit groups have filled the gap.
Only about 5 percent of schools receiving “school improvement grants” as part of the federal economic-stimulus package chose to turn around schools with the widely touted restart model, the only option out of four that enables school districts to turn schools over to charter operators as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s $3.5 billion grant competition.
The small proportion of restarts is an indication that most school districts don’t want to take on the political and implementation challenges of shutting down low-performing schools and starting over, said Todd Ziebarth, the vice president for state advocacy and support for the Washington-based National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “Charter schools in and of themselves are controversial in a number of places. Now you add to that, ‘We’re going to take a school that’s been here for 40 years that’s struggling and shut it down and turn it over to a charter-management organization,’ and you are amping up the controversy surrounding it.”
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February 17th, 2011
AASA National Conference
AASA Conference Daily
“Some research says turnarounds don’t work, but we believe in the research that says they can work because we’ve experienced it,” said Manny Rivera, chief executive officer of Global Partnership Schools, during a Thursday session titled “Year One of School Turnarounds.”
Rivera’s company, which he started with another former National Superintendent of the Year Rudy Crew, has provided strategies for improving achievement in low-performing schools in Baltimore, Bridgeport, Conn., and Pueblo Colo.
While too early to provide hard data on the impact on student outcomes — Global Partnership Schools formed only 2½ years ago and is only in its first year of transforming schools — the group passed along anecdotal keys to success based on efforts thus far.
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February 16th, 2011
Manny Rivera, AASA National Conference
Denver Post Guest Commentary: Engaging families as part of education reform
By Manuel Rivera
Geoffrey Canada, founder and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, has demonstrated the power of community improvement. Embracing the African proverb of “it takes a village to raise a child,” Canada has challenged the school’s surrounding community to take collective ownership of the futures of its children and the well being of the community.
This week, school superintendents and educational leaders representing 35,000 K-12 public schools across the country will gather in Denver for the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) National Conference on Education. We anticipate the workshops and guest lectures to center around accountability issues, budget shortfalls, and the rising number of low-performing schools. Yet, we hope there will be just as much attention directed at the necessity of engaging parents in the school turnaround process.
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February 12th, 2011
By Andrew Brownstein
The flood of federal economic-stimulus money into the nation’s public schools has dramatically increased the demand for education consultants, leaving some stimulus recipients struggling to find seasoned advisers and others uneasy about the pitches they are getting.
The frenzy was caused by the unprecedented size and scope of the nearly $100 billion federal effort, which began two years ago with passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That infusion has stirred great expectations among policymakers and the public. Faced with nerve-racking timelines, their own bold promises, and a dearth of in-house expertise, states and school districts have anxiously sought advice on how to demonstrate progress and avoid missteps.
“Some are calling it ‘No Consultant Left Behind,’” said Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank based in Washington.
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February 12th, 2011
Harding High School principal Kevin Walston greets students entering the building
BRIDGEPORT — Long before lunch hour begins, the cafeteria at Harding High School fills with students sitting idly around tables. Some chat on cell phones. Others slump in chairs. Not a book in sight.
Most are chronic class-skippers, rounded up by hallway monitors working for a private New York City-based consulting firm charged with trying to turn around one of Connecticut’s worst high schools.
Whether a private company can do what local officials have failed to do is uncertain, but the experiment to rescue Harding – backed by $2.2 million in federal stimulus money – will be watched closely by officials from Hartford to Washington, D.C.
Harding—plagued by high dropout rates, disciplinary problems and academic failure—is one of 14 struggling Connecticut schools to receive U.S. Department of Education School Improvement Grants.
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January 31st, 2011
Superintendent Ramos and Rudy Crew
with the Harding Team
In August, Global Partnership Schools and the Warren J. Harding High School Community embarked on a journey together, and as the new semester begins on January 31, 2011, the Harding community is celebrating a renewed focus. Teachers, Administrators, and Staff prepared for the new beginning by moving into the smaller learning communities, organizing, and painting [photos here]. Real change is evident when you enter the school‘s doors and excitement permeates the classroom and halls.
“The work has been challenging and at times daunting,” said Principal Kevin Walston, “but as Dr. Martin Luther King once said, ‘Only in the darkness can you see the stars.’ We have many bright lights among us, and with this new semester comes a new beginning. We have much to celebrate as we continue on our quest to improve student outcomes at Warren Harding High School.”
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January 16th, 2011
Bridgeport Public Schools
BRIDGEPORT — Faced with the likelihood that the district will be given the same $215.8 million operating budget for the fourth straight year, Schools Superintendent John Ramos is planning a community forum to let the public know how that may affect the district.
“Designing Schooling for the Times We Live In,” will start Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers, 45 Lyon Terrace. It is free and open to the public.
Joining Ramos will be Rudy Crew, former chancellor of the New York City and Miami Dade County School districts who now runs Global Partnership, a consulting firm working to improve Warren Harding High School.
Ramos said he has been probing the issue of how to deliver 21st century learning in a “fiscally hemorrhaging environment” for the last couple of years.
“Every year, we need more money, but get less,” he said. With no more “edges” to cut, he said the district needs to come up with a different model for delivering education services.
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