BiPolar Disorder: The Empowerment Schools Initiative

Joel and company kicked off their new “Empowerment Schools” initiative (formerly known as the Autonomy Zone) at Rose Hall in the Time Warner building on Saturday; each principal attendee received a ticket to a Broadway show.

Joel and his new friends, Sir Michael Barber, Tony Blair’s former education advisor, Jim Seidman, an attorney and the designer of the new accountability program and Eric Nadelstern, the head of the new Empowerment Schools, rolled out plans, and recruited principals to volunteer their schools.

Carmen Farina reminisced about her career in the BOE/DOE and opined that her attempts to improve instruction were “misinterpreted,” but not by classroom teachers. Perhaps Farina’s message was “misinterpreted” by her underlings, for the last three years too many local instructional superintendents have been obsessed with bulletin boards and seating arrangements.

If Klein had begun his reign with this presentation I would have been excited, now I’m wary. He is expanding the Autonomy Zone from the current forty eight, mostly small high schools, to two hundred schools and wants to convert the entire system within a few years. No more LIS, no more RIS, no more IS … networks of about a dozen schools with a Network Facilitator to coordinate/respond to the needs of the schools. The dollars saved would be driven down to the schools who can “buy” services either from within the DOE or from external vendors. All educational decisions would be school/network based.

All Collective Bargaining Agreements would remain in place but a range of DOE regulations would be “loosened” to allow schools maximum flexibility and access to pupil achievement data.

On the flip side a new school accountability system will be put in place that both allows schools to access this wide range of data in a user friendly format and “rates” schools in an “A” through “F” format .

The “official” description and the application are online and due back by May 17^th … the application is simple; answering four broad questions, the process of consultation with staff and parents is one of the questions.

So, let me get this straight, we are moving from a top-down “command and control” system to a bottom-up site-based decision-making system … in the blink of an eye!

Are we seeing a dramatic movement toward trusting and honoring parents, teachers and supervisors within individual schools or a Mao-like Cultural Revolution?

I would be considerably more sanguine if the plan was the product of a planning team that included all the stakeholders, instead of faceless consultants in a back room.

We know that “command and control” was a dismal failure that alienated everyone, from the kids, to the parents and teachers. Changing clothes without taking a bath doesn’t change the smell. Glossy pamphlets and tickets to Broadway show don’t convince us that the overlords have “seen the light.”

I don’t think a ticket to a Broadway show will substitute for a contract for CSA members.

On the other hand, I’m a “glass half full” guy, but to quote Ronald Reagan, “trust, but verify.” The question for the principals and teachers will be: what’s worse, the current frying pan or the uncertain fires of a new untried accountability system.

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