Students at 94 struggling schools will get an extra hour of classroom instruction under a $150 million plan announced Monday by Mayor de Blasio that includes added training and resources — and three years to achieve results or face closing.
Under the “School Renewal Program,” low-performing schools will be transformed into “community schools” and offer one more hour of instruction every school day.
“I know it may make a lot of students unhappy but there is no better way to get students to learn than putting them in a classroom with a capable teacher and getting down to work,” de Blasio said during a speech in East Harlem.
Each school will also get extra after-school seats and “high quality, academically focused summer programs,” the mayor added.
Each school must develop a school renewal plan by spring 2015.
And if a school doesn’t meet specific academic achievement, attendance and teacher retention benchmarks within three years, it could be restructured or shut down altogether.
“We will move heaven and earth to help them succeed but we will not wait forever,” de Blasio warned. “If we do not see improvement after three years — and after all of these reforms and new resources — we will close any schools that don’t measure up. Not casually, as was too often done in the past, but as a last resort, if necessary.”
The mayor put the initial cost at $150 mllion and said he would ask Albany to “step up” and chip in.
In a rare move against union-protected teachers who aren’t achieving results, the mayor said he’d move to fire those who don;t measure up after additional training.
“We will work with these teachers and help them do better with more resources, including high-performing teachers to serve as mentors,” he said.
“But we will also do more to document the problems of poorly performing teachers, and while respecting their due process rights, we will make changes in the faculty of schools that fail to improve despite these significant new efforts at supporting them. We know this kind of accountability is necessary and we know it’s something most teachers support as strongly as we do.
The new renewal program will be in place for the 2015-16 school year and is already underway in 23 of the 94 schools.
Forty-three of the under-performing schools are in the Bronx, 27 in Brooklyn, 12 each in Manhattan and Queens.