Home Home Home About Us Home About Us About Us About Us /links/index.html /links/index.html /links/index.html /advertising/index.html /links/index.html /advertising/index.html /advertising/index.html /advertising/index.html About Us About Us /archives/index.html About Us /archives/index.html About Us /archives/index.html /archives/index.html /subscribe/index.html /archives/index.html /subscribe/index.html /archives/index.html /subscribe/index.html /subscribe/index.html /survey/index.html /subscribe/index.html /survey/index.html /subscribe/index.html /survey/index.html /survey/index.html /survey/index.html /links/index.html /survey/index.html /links/index.html /links/index.html /links/index.html
Home About Us About Us /links/index.html /advertising/index.html /advertising/index.html
About Us /archives/index.html /archives/index.html /subscribe/index.html /subscribe/index.html /survey/index.html /survey/index.html /survey/index.html /links/index.html

FAMOUS INTERVIEWS

Directories:

SCHOLARSHIPS & GRANTS

HELP WANTED

Tutors

Workshops

Events

Sections:

Books

Camps & Sports

Careers

Children’s Corner

Collected Features

Colleges

Cover Stories

Distance Learning

Editorials

Famous Interviews

Homeschooling

Medical Update

Metro Beat

Movies & Theater

Museums

Music, Art & Dance

Special Education

Spotlight On Schools

Teachers of the Month

Technology

Archives:

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

1995-2000


 
New York City
December 2001

Education Reform Through Accountability
By Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Throughout the course of my administration, I have consistently emphasized the need to improve New York City’s schools through a combination of new initiatives and increased accountability. Although inefficiency and bureaucratic paralysis have been obstacles in our effort to successfully reform government run schools, I am pleased to see that we have swung the debate toward accountability and the importance of dismantling the Board of Education. Many new initiatives have been put in place over the last eight years to ensure a better opportunity in New York City’s classrooms.

I am proud of my administration’s record of implementing many new academic programs in the classroom. Programs such as Project Read and Project Science have provided more intensive training and class time for students – especially for those who are in danger of falling behind in these crucial subjects. Project Arts has permanently restored arts education to all City schools for the first time since the mid 1970’s. The addition of more than 7,000 school computers and funding for 300-book libraries in 21,000 classrooms citywide has similarly improved upon the resources available to our students. Children are also safer in school now, thanks in part to the Police Department assuming responsibility for school security services, the hiring of hundreds of additional school officers, and the creation of in-school suspension centers that help enable teachers to enforce discipline in the classroom. The public-private partnership “Take the Field” meanwhile, has helped to restore over 50 High School athletic fields, providing students with a better environment outside the classroom as well.

Over the last eight years, the successful methods of the Police Department’s Compstat program have been adopted by numerous City agencies. Through the Capstat program, over twenty different City agencies now provide up-to-date information and statistics that help determine whether current tactics and strategies are working or whether they need to be re-evaluated in order to provide better service to the public. The vast array of success stories that these agencies are reporting convince me that New York’s students would also be far better served by a more transparent school system. A system where teachers and administrators are held accountable for their performance and for thoroughly, effectively, and promptly fixing problems that arise in the classroom.

I do believe that the tide of the debate on education in New York City has turned toward accountability. We have already successfully ended social promotion and abolished principal tenure, replacing them instead with stronger academic standards and performance-based pay. Much of this year’s Mayor’s race centered on improving education, and I was extremely pleased to see that both the Republican and Democratic nominees for Mayor agreed on the need to dismantle the Board of Education, and to hold the Mayor accountable for the City’s schools. With this in mind, I am confident that Mike Bloomberg will build upon our efforts to restore accountability in the classroom and to raise academic performance standards.

On another note, I have greatly enjoyed sharing my ideas on education with the readers of Education Update over the past three years. Publications like this one are valuable assets in encouraging constructive debate on improving the quality of education. It is my sincere wish and belief that the trends in thought and the positive measures that we have furthered over the last eight years will continue to gain strength and will continue to improve the lives of New York City’s school children in the years to come.#

 

Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2001.




MetroBEAT

DIRECTORIES