Urban Education Summit: Innovations in K-12

About this course

I’m Lee Bollinger president of Columbia agile I want to welcome all of you to this new york city global partners summit on urban education and especially the representatives from 26 cities and

18 different nations who have traveled to columbia to be here with us this morning we are happy to be joined on campus once again by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Marjorie tivan a board

member and director of the New York City global partners she’s also an alumna of Columbia School of Social Work in many different quarters there is talk today about globalization the forces it has

unleashed and the consequences for society in the academic community we are mindful that with each passing year globalization is increasing the complexity of the problems we seek to

understand Columbia University along with all of our peer institutions is committed to developing the resources needed to meet the challenges only by doing so will we be able to continue to

advance the frontiers of knowledge which is the central mission of our universities any listing of the subjects affected by globalization typically includes the environment climate change

the economy financial regulation the study of infectious disease and other public health issues and this global partners initiative recognizes that at its core globalization is an engine of

urbanization throughout the world and that we have to learn how to better govern our cities in order to succeed as a global society too rarely though do we consider the ways in which globalization

should be changing how we educate our children today’s urban education summit proves beyond any doubt that by looking to the experience of other nations and other cities educators can find a rich

and virtually inexhaustible source of innovative ideas and practices it is a resource that must be tapped if we are to maximize gains in K through 12 education and when we think about the

problems affecting the economies in this country and throughout the world by far and away the most important thing we can do is to build the minds of our children Columbia is affiliated with teachers

college which was a little more than ahead of the curve in recognizing the value of international work because in 1899 it began a program on comparative and international studies in education

Columbia’s engagement in new york city’s public schools is broader than Teachers College however and we have acknowledged leadership which goes beyond the historic role of a local Ivy University

where generations of talented talented New York City public school graduates like Joel Klein could get on the subway in Brooklyn Queens and the Bronx and take a vital intellectual step on their

journey to this campus and you already know about ester Fuchs and how engaged she is with educational policy she’s joined by other faculty members around here known for their expertise as

scholars and researchers on educational reform the fact that new york city’s public school system is the largest in the united states with approximately 1.1 million students in nearly 1,700 schools

is well known but to appreciate the scale of new york city school system consider that the population of students in the city public schools would constitute on its own

the 10th largest city in the United States to reform this staggering Lee large and diverse public school system Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein a Columbia alumnus and I should

add a recipient of an honorary degree this past may have 48 years committed themselves to the arduous path of innovation their reforms have been discussed passionately debated and

frequently emulated in other cities around the nation and around the world this is the fourth consecutive year that Columbia has co-hosted a summit with the New York City global partners a

collaboration a series of conferences which we value greatly mayor feldburg who for 15 years served as dean of Columbia’s business school and is one of the most outstanding as Dean’s of anyone

I know and who is now president of the New York City global partners has been and remains at the heart of this collaboration and so too is professor ester Fuchs of Columbia School of Public

and International Affairs I recognize the moment ago and I want to recognize them thank them along with the others at New York City global city city New York City global partners the office of the

mayor and here at Columbia all the people who have worked so hard to put on this summit on urban education it is now my pleasure to introduce mayor feldburg ladies and gentlemen I would like to

thank my colleague and friend President Lee Bollinger for once again inviting us to his home this is probably one of the greatest spaces in New York City and it is always a privilege and an honor to be

in low as it is known around the campus this conference this event as you heard from Lee Bollinger is the fourth consecutive event that Columbia University is hosted we thank them we

don’t take for granted or they do for the city and we also think the city does a great deal for Columbia University it is an extraordinarily synergistic relationship I would also like to

welcome this morning some of the board members of New York City global partners Marjorie Turan who has already been mentioned and former Mayor David Dinkins this year we’re delighted to see you mr.

mayor Veronica Kelly is here today and we’re very happy to have her with us as well my toss this morning is to introduce the mayor of our city Mike Bloomberg who is now in his ninth year

before I do so I would like to make one observation that came out of last night’s reception I was talking to the deputy mayor of the city of Antwerp he was at last year’s conference which was

devoted to job creation in urban areas he said it was so beneficial that he came back this year for the education summit and in fact many went back last year they made some changes in the city

of Antwerp to the way in which they were administering and running their job creation programs so it’s always good to have confirmation that these programs really do have an impact and really do

work and we’re delighted to see so many cities back again so who do we have here today we have Antwerp and buena series Delhi and Edinburgh Edmonton Helsinki and Hong Kong Jerusalem London and

Luxembourg Manila mexico city in Montreal New York City Quebec City rio de janeiro Rome sau Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei tel aviv toronto and tokyo

truly global event with those brief observations let me now introduce the 108 mayor of New York City and I would like to do so with a number and the number is that during the past year New

York City has accounted for ten percent of the nation’s job growth I say again in the past year New York City is accounted for ten percent of the nation’s job growth and of course this

doesn’t happen by accident it requires an enormous amount of vision an enormous amount of leadership and the capacity to execute and one of the defining success factors in Mayor Bloomberg’s

administration has been the capacity to take a vision turn it into a strategy and actually executed get it done the mayor understands the end game and the end game is making it all work and he

has done so extraordinarily well and i’ll talk a little bit about the educational machinery that that is being built in created in the city under the leadership of the mail and joel klein i

also want to mention very briefly of the mayor doesn’t mind that in 1981 he founded a company with one person namely himself called bloomberg plc over the course of the past 30 years Bloomberg

plc is probably employed in and out maybe forty fifty thousand people has probably supported four or five hundred thousand people in a pretty direct way around the world company operates in 160

cities around the world so we’re talking about a mayor who actually has executed on an enormous scale and on a global scale prior to becoming mayor of New York City now when we talk about

education particularly k through 12 we tend to focus very much on the students on the teachers and on the parents in many ways the end game in fact is the graduates the students will be students

for 12 years there will be graduates for 75 years and the ultimate success the ultimate test the proof of the pudding is how successful the graduates are when I come

out of the New York City school system and I think that that it’s clear to everybody who has been involved that each year over the course of the past nine years the quality of the graduating

class is improved and each year the graduating class comes into the city starts jobs start jobs starts on to start entrepreneurial programs work in the public sector and each year they

enhance the quality of the intellectual property and intellectual capacity in the city and help the city move forward so it is all about the graduates but in order for that to be a success you have

to have an extraordinarily successful k through 12 program so a couple of data points and then we’ll ask the mayor to come up and talk to us before Mayor Bloomberg came to office New York City’s

graduation rate had been flat for more than a decade in the past five years the graduation rate is increased by twenty-seven percent Mayor Bloomberg has also been a leader together with Joel

Klein in moving the city to a point at which parents and students have far more choice in the schools that can attend through the charter school system and through the vision schools that have

been created Mayor Bloomberg has also provided an enormous amount of additional support for the teachers and teacher salary since he’s being mayor have grown by forty-three percent that

is forty-three percent since 2002 under Mayor Bloomberg New York City students have made significant progress on national assessment of educational progress that’s the NAEP test which is

considered to be the gold standard test and under Mayor Bloomberg and also under ray kelly whose wife mrs. Kelly is on the board of New York City global partners crime in New York City Schools

has dropped dramatically so with those brief observations I would like to invite the 108 mayor of New York City to address us on urban education K through well I can’t not make the obvious joke

from one mayor to another I thought it’s actually funnier than that but anyways maiya thank you very much for that kind introduction it is it’s great to be back here at one of the jewels in the

educational crown of New York City and I also wanted to thank you for working with our cities Commission for the United Nations consular Corps and protocol headed by my sister

Commissioner Marjorie tivan and also the New York City Department of Education in organizing this global partners summit let me acknowledge the organizations that have provided support for this

summer because the summit because without them we couldn’t do it Pearson bank of america the mayor’s fund to advance New York City and of course our hosts Columbia University led by it’s

wonderful President Lee Bollinger and the entire Columbia community and while I cannot claim that I ever got a degree from Columbia University my sister has it Diana Taylor has two degrees from

Columbia it is a Columbia family whether I like it or not my allegiances incidentally are to a small school in Baltimore but we’ll let that go for the time being also I did want to thank esta

Fuchs Professor X pukes for moderating this morning’s panel on international school from the school Estes from the School of International and public affairs and for four years Esther was my

advisor in City Hall in that capacity she never let me down she always had advice for me and it was always special and sometimes I actually even followed it not often on behalf of the city of

New York I also wanted to welcome the delegates from 26 cities and 18 nations who are attending this summit now I must confess that if back in my school teachers in my school days you told the

school teachers in medford massachusetts that sunday mike bloomberg all people would be addressing a group like this from around the world about improving education they would not have

believed their ears and that’s because they knew me is the kind of student who usually made the top half of the class possible I’ll wait for a second to see if the translators can figure out a ways

to express that in other languages but since those days all kidding aside I’ve become more of them developed my appreciation of just how important education is in our world I know of no

social problem that we have that wouldn’t be ameliorated or eliminated if we had better public schools and that has to be where our focus is it is the future of our city it is the future of

our state it is the future of our country and in fact it is the future of the world and all of our children of no matter where they are no matter what the background is deserve a great public

education and if we don’t give them that we will all suffer from Helsinki to Hong Kong from Manila to Montreal the city’s represented in the summit I think for striking contrast to one another and

climate and in geography and in history and in culture but they also have something in common and that’s what’s brought us here today all of them recognize that those who dare to teach

must also always be willing to learn and our schools today have to embrace change because in every corner of the globe our schools all confront to his part historic challenges the first is posed

by the economic realities that we all face because the world’s economy continues to be transformed in ways that have profound implications for education as Lou Gerstner the former CEO of

American Express in IBM recently commented most jobs that will have good prospects in the future will be complicated they will involve being able to juggle data symbols and computer

programs no matter what the task and no matter where we’re from those words ring true for all of us now the path to security and prosperity for the people we serve in every nation

represented here today runs straight through the classroom and that’s what I want to talk about the second great challenge for our schools is demographic today for the first time in the long

history of life on Earth the majority of the world’s people are city dwellers and by the year 2050 fully three-fourths of the people on earth are expected to be living in cities and as a result in

cities everywhere on the globe whether our population are growing because of immigration or in migration our schools will now all faced a similar and enormous task preparing vastly increased

numbers of new students often the children of parents who are themselves newcomers to city life to succeed in an increasingly globalized urbanized world this summit focuses on ways to help our

schools meet these historic challenges and that includes exploring innovative approaches to teaching seeing how others have succeeded in turning around historically low performing schools and

looking at new ways to prepare students for the demands of colleges or careers we just cannot continue to do things in education the way we did them a hundred years ago there is no other part of

society will we do that and we’ve got to make sure that we responsible for education whether with a teacher in the classroom in front of the child which in the end is the way we deliver the

service and the month number one key in making sure that child learns or people all the way up through the taxpayers that are paying for it we just have to be willing to try new things because we

are living in a different world now we all have a lot to learn Americans I’ve always thought perhaps more than others many of us can remember when the educational system of the United States

was the envy of the world but we recognize that America’s scholastic standing has now slipped badly and we’ve gotta focus on that and understand what’s happened to us and make sure that

we stop that trend today we find America’s students ranked 20 in the world in high school graduation rates 21st in science and 25th in math and while other nations have raced ahead

expecting more of this students and teachers expecting more from their students and teachers America has Stood Still even though we’ve been spending far more than anybody else in the whole

world and cutting cutting class size far below what it used to be now let me be clear we don’t begrudge the great successes that schools elsewhere including some of your schools have had

you have earned it on the contrary we want to learn from you and do even better that’s what America is all about we don’t begrudge success we want to make sure that everybody succeeds and it

is what built this country and that kind of single-minded devotion to improving education has characterized our administration since we came into office back in 2002 when we started New York

City school system was widely considered to be one of the worst in the nation one that year after year utterly failed to educate too many of our children and the key reason for that failure was evident

to all it was a governance structure that segmented authority over schools so that local officials were effectively shielded from being held accountable for school performance well it’s true in

business it’s during government it’s true in every field when there is no accountability here’s what you inevitably get lousy results and no reason to improve them so as a first

step we campaign hard to gain authority for our state leaders to assume control of an accountability for new york city’s public schools themselves and there’s somebody sitting in this room who

deserves an enormous amount of credit for actually helping us to achieve it it is the hundred n sixth mayor of the city of New York David Dinkins and he with his predecessor Ed Koch and his

successor Rudy Giuliani the three of them worked very hard to get mayoral control and acted Joel and I were the beneficiaries of coming along at the right time but you know we build on

those before us and we stood on shoulders and without the work of all three of those we never would have gotten this done when we finally got control of the schools we seized it as

an opportunity to make dramatic and fundamental changes and in the process it’s fair to say that we have transformed our school system from one of the nation’s worse to one that

President Obama’s administration has identified as a model for cities in the rest of America that transformation rests on a new culture of accountability it’s the basis for all of the reforms

that with the visionary and vigorous leadership of schools chancellor Joel Klein we have instituted for example when schools have chronically failed to help students advance elastically we’ve

closed them down we’ve given greater authority to principles including the authority to decide what works and what doesn’t work in their individual schools with the student body that they have and

the physical resources that they have we’ve ended the practice of social promotion which for years move children up a grade even if they hadn’t mastered the necessary skills to do the grade

that they were in what a tragedy a child is falling behind and we put them into a more difficult environment what would any of us do if we SAT there and just totally understood that we didn’t

understand anything going on at the head of the class we stop that process it was controversial but today I think people would look back and say if it wasn’t for Joel’s idea and if we didn’t get that

done we could not make most of the progress that we have made and by encouraging the creation of hundreds of new academically challenging schools including charter schools we’ve

introduced greater competition into the entire school system that makes all of the schools stand or fall on the results they produce and challenge them to do even better about six months ago US news

and world report listed the hundred best public high schools in the country and I’m happy to say twelve or New York City public high schools in the entire country we got twelve percent right here

with three percent of the country’s population the graduation rates as mayor said orly said that will one stagnant have grown up every single year they are

twenty-seven percent higher than they were four years ago compared to just a three percent rise among students who face the same requirements in the rest of our state our african-american and

Hispanic students have substantially narrowed the achievement gap that for far too long has separated them from their white and Asian counterparts a shameful fact I’m pleased to say that we

have helped to change we still have a long ways to go but when you compare the students within the state who all take the same tests I don’t know whether the tests are harder or easier it’s not

worth having that debate they all take the same tests and so these comparisons are a very fair ways to measure it and by any standard New York City students have done better than the rest of the

state and by any standards we have we have cut substantially into that disgraceful gap that has been existing for far too long when people just threw up the hands and says that’s where it is

and there’s nothing we can do about it now I said we still have a long ways to go because for example even while our graduation rates have climbed dramatically it’s still the case that

more than a third of our students don’t complete high school within four years and too many who do graduate still lack the academic skills they need for success let me also point out that

another thing we’ve been able to do while not every child can get through high school in four years the number of children who are staying around for a fifth and sixth year rather than

dropping out has gone up substantially as well and in many senses that’s what I think we should be most proud of not everybody learns at the same pace not everybody has the same social support at

home where the freedom to go to school every day but if a child cares enough to stand around and work as hard as they can stay around and work as hard as they can and graduate in five or six years my

hat’s off to them too many of our graduates however still lack the academic skills they need for success in the real world and so to build on our achievements

today we have now set this goal making sure that all our students leave school ready for college or careers college is not right for everyone sometimes maybe you’ll go back later on sometimes

economic necessities force you to go to work to support your family that’s what America is about it’s about people taking responsibility and working and I’ve made sure that our next school’s

chancellor Kathy black comes to our Department of Education with the top flight management experience and skills that qualify her superbly to guide this effort Joel and I worked very hard to

find somebody who can take what Joel’s done and carry it on and when this administration finishes the end of 20 2013 we’ve got to make sure that we as citizens of New York citizens of this

state citizens of America citizens of the world make sure that all of the changes that we’ve made all of the improvements that we’ve made don’t get turned around and go back to where we

came from we cannot do that for our students we owe them more we have to make sure that every teacher in every classroom is an excellent teacher New York City has blessed with is blessed

with 80,000 teachers it’s an astonishing number and most do a phenomenal job in fact as our schools have improved new teachers have been flocking here from across the nation because they want to

be part of the success story being written in New York City we want them very much because we know that the most significant factor affecting any students performance is the quality of

his or her teacher yet I’m sad to say unlike in other professions teaching is still organized on what might be called a factory model with teachers regardless of the mastery rewarded primarily for

their longevity on the job and to alter that we’re reforming how we award teacher tenure which is a vital career-long guarantee of job security for many years teachers were granted

tenure automatically by default instead it should be an honor earn outstanding achievement the rest of us have to face that kind of competition and accountability and everything else

we do in society demands that we do it in perhaps the most important endeavor that we are engaged in educating the future of our world so within the next few weeks will present teachers and

principals in our public schools we think with a new fair and detailed framework for how teachers tenure decisions we made it’s a process that will focus on teacher effectiveness in

helping students learn and grow over the course of the year especially struggling students for whom English is not their first language and students with learning disabilities we live in a very

complex world we live in a global world we have a lot of students who join our school system they come here from around the world and they don’t speak English and it’s up to us to make sure they

still get an education we have a lot of students who come here who aren’t blessed with a big stable family that can support them we have to make sure that they have opportunities and get the

support in the school system that they should be getting at home but just by the luck of the draw don’t we have to make sure that every student no matter what hand God dealt them in terms of

abilities physical mental whatever gets a chance to participate in the great American dream and we will continue to improve the school system continue to improve the quality of teachers work

with the parents do everything we can we have budget problems like everybody else we will find a ways to make sure that there is a great teacher in front of every child in our school system we owe

the world at least that and we’re going to help our teachers enhance their careers enhance their abilities we are not going to fail and our teachers are not going to fail this morning many

thousands of parents across the city woke up well before dawn to make breakfast lay out clean clothes and get the children ready for a new school day they took their children’s hand in

theirs and they guided them to the schoolhouse doors sometimes with an hour or an hour and a half subway ride there are students that have to take a subway and a bus and a boat to

to the school that they want to go to but when I talk to parents on the subway in the morning the parents no matter how long their commute every single one of them looks me in the eye and says thank

you for improving our school system my child is into the most wonderful school in the city and I say how long’s your commute oh it’s only an hour and a half if that’s the sacrifice parents have to

make to get their children in to a great school that’s what they do it is our responsibility to once the parent drops the child off at the schoolhouse door leaving their children in our trust to

make sure that we do our part and each day seems like I’ve described get played out in their cities that means we have an enormous responsibility a responsibility to do the utmost for

children they’re our future and it’s really that simple and that profound and it’s also that exhilarating because it means it is in the power of our hands to make an enormous difference and ensure

that the best days for the cities that we live in the countries that we live in and loved the world that gives us opportunities will have a great future it’s why our teachers have to be held

accountable it’s why you and I have to be held accountable and it’s where why we have to find new ways to do our best and that’s what this summit is really all about so from those of you from

elsewhere outside the city around the world or across the country do two things for me most importantly is try to share ideas with each other because we all can learn from each other and number

two please spend some money in the stores here we need the sales tax revenues to pay for our educational system enjoy your stay in the city and thank you

you