NY & Chicago Teachers- Have things improved since the mayor took over the schools?

Great question!

No!!!!

I teach in NYC. The result of the mayor dissolving the Board of Ed and taking control has been horrible. He hired Joel Klein as Chancellor, and gave him, essentially, supreme power. Klein has no education background or experience.

The problem is that they are taking away power from schools and teachers. The city micromanages every classroom, and forces teachers to teach a particular curriculum in a particular way, without any flexibility. When I say "micromanage," it doesn't even capture the extent of it. As a teacher, I cannot choose how I will arrange desks in my own classroom, or what I will post on bulletin boards. My principal doesn't even decide these things. It all comes from the highest municipal levels.

Now, one might think that this would increase accountability, because if the students don't progress, we can all point our fingers at the mayor. In reality, the opposite is true. When students fail, the superintendent blames the principal. The principal then blames the teacher. They claim that the reason the teacher failed is that he/she didn't implement the curriculum correctly. In reality, it would be impossible to implement the curriculum according to their standards, especially since the rules are constantly changing. So the principal always has an excuse; she can document how time and again she told the teacher to keep her lessons shorter and use more group work, but the teacher did not comply. Since the teacher can't be fired, no-one gets held accountable in the end.

The result is that students do not get the instruction that they need. The most qualified person to determine what a student needs is his/her teacher - in cooperation with the administrators and guidance counselors. The way things are under Bloomberg, those people have little to no influence over how students are taught. Teachers are required - required! - to have a Masters Degree. But then they are not trusted to make any decisions or use their expertise.

Another terrible result has been the increased emphasis on test scores. That's also partly due to NCLB, and test scores have always been overvalued in New York State. However, I believe that the situation has grown significantly worse since Bloomberg took over the schools. The bureaucracy is structured in such a way that people are afraid of losing their jobs if the schools under their purview don't improve test scores. There is tremendous pressure from the highest levels to produce higher test scores... to make the mayor look good. The result is that classrooms have become test prep central. The irony is that the curriculum we are forced to teach doesn't properly prepare students for the tests! There is no alignment. So teachers have to "sneak" the test prep in, and do it secretly.

It is really unfortunate, because the neediest chilren are not making progress.