This is Leigh’s first “Weekly Reader.” Each week, I’ll include something about what is going on here in New York City schools, something of interest that is happening in another district, and something about planning, analysis or organizational management. Read it if it interests you, and feel free to forward it to others who may be interested. Please send me articles and ideas for inclusion.
This week….
New York: As you know, this year marked the beginning of a new emphasis on school accountability. Here is a link to a Powerpoint presentation that describes the accountability initiative in detail. The presentation includes a copy of the quality criteria by which all schools will be evaluated in 2006-07.
http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/C4348B95-2E89-4504-BEFD-A5EA28D282E5/13884/092706OnlineDeck1.pdf
Another District: One of the hot topics in this and many other urban districts right now is the extent to which schools can and should control their own budgets, becoming purchasers of services from central office providers. Two districts that have been leaders in this approach are Edmonton and Houston. I think Edmonton devolves about 80% of its total budget to schools and Houston devolves about 65%. If you are interested in seeing more from these districts, the first link below sets out Edmonton’s guiding principles that govern this decentralized approach. The second is a 2001 policy paper describing the decentralization initiative in Houston. The Houston paper specifically discusses funding based on weighted student averages and the move from using average teacher salaries to using actual teacher salaries in setting school budgets.
http://www.epsb.ca/policy/ae.ar.shtml (Edmonton)
http://www.houstonisd.org/vgn/images/portal/cit_7634/12071DecenRef0901.pdf (Houston)
Planning and Organizational Management: I’m a fan of Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, and I’ve been rereading it in preparation for my role here. The link below is to Jim Collins’ website, which contains a number of short audio clips describing the factors that characterize great organizations. I especially like the ones dealing with “Good to Great in the Social Sectors” and “How Do You Stop Doing?”
http://www.jimcollins.com/hall/index.html
And One Last Thing: OK, I said three but it’s my Weekly Reader. Something that describes the culture I’ve seen here so far….for the poets among us:
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2006/09/04/index.html