Nov. 10 NYC Education Reform Retrospective agenda

I got forwarded two different items from two different third parties, including an invitation and the agenda for the Gates-funded NYC Ed Reform retrospective conference next week (see below for the agenda).

The invitation claimed (once again) that “The list of invitees includes researchers, practitioners, state policy makers and other stakeholders, both inside and outside NYC.”

The only NYC public school parents who are allowed to attend this invitation-only event are the five borough appointees on the Panel for Education Policy, originally with the excuse that there was no room for any others. For more on this, see our blog here.

[NOV. 9 UPDATE: I have learned that two parents from CEJ have been recently added to the guest list, perhaps in response to criticism here and elsewhere.]

Yet they have now extended the RSVP date several times, and also the invitations to a wider group as too few on the original list of invitees apparently signed up. They are also apparently inviting some reporters but excluding others.

I especially like the title of one of the papers: "Improving Instruction in NYC Schools: An Evolving Strategy." That's certainly one way to put it!

Also see this: “Parent and Community Engagement in New York City and the Sustainability Challenge for Urban Education Reform.”

What parent and community engagement? Parent and community engagement has been consistently discouraged by this administration from the beginning, so I don’t see how there’s anything to sustain. Even DOE's office of family engagement has now taken out the word "engagement" out of its title, in recognition of this fact.

James Kemple, will be presenting a paper on student outcomes. Kemple was chosen as the head of the much-ballyhooed “Research Alliance” (originally called the Research Partnership) in October 2008 , which is supposed to be a repository for student data that could be made available to independent researchers.

The Alliance was also supposed to produce its own reports, but as far as I know this paper will be the very first released since Kemple was appointed – more than two years ago.

Meanwhile, though this event is happening on Nov. 10, the papers won't be made available to the public until Nov. 15 -- according to its website.

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New York City Education Reform Retrospective:

The Children First Initiative, 2002 - 2010

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

New York Marriott Downtown, 85 West Street at Albany Street

New York, NY 10016

3^rd Floor – Grand Ballroom A&B

Agenda

8:00 – 9:00 AM Registration; Light breakfast

9:00 – 9:30 AM Introductory Remarks

9:45 – 11:45 AM Paper Sessions

Due to space limitations, please attend the session you registered for.

Session A: Governance, Leadership, and Finance

Grand Ballroom A&B

Leadership and Governance in New York City School Reform, presented by Paul T. Hill, University of Washington

Parent and Community Engagement in New York City and the Sustainability Challenge for Urban Education Reform, presented by Jeffrey R. Henig, Teachers College, Columbia University

Financing K-12 Education in the Bloomberg Years, 2002-2008, presented by Leanna Stiefel, New York University

Session B: Teaching and Learning

Grand Ballroom C

Managing for Results at the New York City Department of Education, presented by Monica Higgins, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Improving Instruction in New York City Schools: An Evolving Strategy, presented by Jennifer A. O’Day, American Institutes for Research

Collaborative Inquiry to Expand Student Success in New York City Schools, presented by Joan E. Talbert, Stanford University

11:45 – 12:30 Lunch

12:45 – 2:45 Paper Sessions

Due to space limitations, please attend the session you registered for.

Session C: High School Reform

Grand Ballroom A&B

Changing Contexts and the Challenge of High School Reform in New York City, presented by Leslie Santee Siskin, New York University

School Choice and Competition in the New York City Schools, presented by Sean P. Corcoran, New York University

How Students’ Views Predict Graduation Outcomes and Reveal Instructional Disparities Under Children First Reforms, presented by Ronald F. Ferguson, Harvard University

Session D: Teachers and Student Outcomes

Grand Ballroom C

Recruiting, Evaluating and Retaining Teachers: The Children First Strategy to Improve New York City’s Teachers, presented by Jim Wyckoff, University of Virginia

New York City Education Reform Retrospective—Children First and Student Outcomes: 2003-2010, presented by James Kemple, Research Alliance for New York City Schools, New York University

3:00 – 4:00 Panel Discussion: Reflections and Take-Aways from the NYC Education Reform Retrospective

4:00 – 4:30 Plenary Session: Chancellor Joel Klein

4:30 – 5:00 Concluding Remarks

Gates-funded project leaves parents off the list of key stakeholders, once again

The research organization AIR was funded by the Gates Foundation to commission a series of papers on the Bloomberg/Klein education reforms, and to “convene a working conference….to inform future educational improvement efforts in the city.”

Reportedly, the papers will be published in a collection by Harvard University Press.

On November 10, they are holding an “invitation-only” forum at the downtown Hyatt hotel to discuss the results of their findings in what has been described as “an opportunity for dialogue and conversation among NYC stakeholders, DOE staff, and researchers…” (see invitation below.)

Yet the only NYC public school parents who have been invited to participate in this “dialogue and conversation” of stakeholders are the five borough-appointed members of the Panel for Educational Policy.

This exclusion of parents is reminiscent of the definition of stakeholders put forward by Secretary Arne Duncan and Joanne Weiss, when she ran the federal “Race to the Top” program (both of them former Gates grantees as well).

In their list of “key stakeholders”, they included education administrators, the teachers union, the business community and charter school operators, but not public school parents, as those groups that states were supposed to elicit support for their proposals. (They put in parents in afterwards, and only pro forma, after receiving negative feedback.)

Here is what Patrick Sullivan wrote in his comments to the US Education Department at the time:

One factor considered in awarding the grants to each state is the extent to which support and commitment of key stakeholders is enlisted (Overall Selection Criteria E3). While the administration has a long list of stakeholders, parents are not on it. Charter schools, teachers unions and foundations are deemed to be important stakeholders but not parents.

For this conference, once again, the concept of stakeholders appears to exclude public school parents and their children, who have been most affected and disenfranchised by the policies of this administration.

Parents aren’t even at the bottom of the list. In fact, they don’t exist at all.

On Oct 26, 2010, at 4:00 PM, nycretrospective <nycretrospective@air.org> wrote:

Dear all,

I just wanted to remind you of the conference invitation attached. The meeting will take place in two weeks (November 10th) and will be an opportunity for dialogue and conversation among NYC stakeholders, DOE staff, and researchers from inside and outside NYC about the findings of the NYC Education Reform Retrospective project. This is an invitation only conference and has been designed to offer an intimate venue for sharing ideas and considering implications for reform efforts in NYC and elsewhere. You have been invited based on your involvement in the NYC education reforms or your relevant research or practical experience. We hope that you will be able to join us and contribute to this discussion.

We have extended the RSVP and registration date to November 1st.

If you plan to attend, please fill out the attached registration form and e-mail it back to nycretrospective@air.org by November 1st.

If you are unable to join us, please reply to nycretrospective@air.org by November 1st to say you will not be attending.

We look forward to seeing you in NYC on the 10th!

Jennifer O'Day, Project Director for the New York City Education Reform Retrospective