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Mayors and Superintendents Focus on Intergovernmental Partnerships for Closing Achievement Gaps
by Marjorie Cohen
Last Thursday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty participated in a committee hearing convened by Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, on “Mayor and Superintendent Partnerships in Education: Closing the Achievement Gap.”
Joining Mayors Bloomberg and Fenty were New York City Public Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee as well as Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Arne Duncan and Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall.
The mayors described the importance of education to their cities, the impetus for mayoral control over their respective school districts and the triumphs and challenges they had experienced thus far.
Pointing to a lack of accountability in educating the city’s children at the time of his election, Mayor Fenty said that “just as much as the mayor is responsible for keeping the streets free of snow,” the mayor also has a vital role to play in ensuring that a city’s children and youth receive an excellent education, whether the schools are under the mayor’s control or not.
Chancellor Rhee shared Mayor Fenty’s sentiments, stating, “Without a mayor who prioritized education, no matter how muddy [the politics and bureaucracy] got, we would not have made the progress we have for the students of Washington, D.C.”
Picking up on Mayor Fenty’s theme of accountability, Mayor Bloomberg thanked Chairman Miller for his leadership on the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), saying that “NCLB has brought accountability to education from coast to coast. It is not a perfect piece of legislation, but we have to close the achievement gap.”
Mayor Bloomberg, along with the school district leaders on the panel, argued for “treating teachers as the professionals they are” by promoting a system of higher pay in return for greater accountability. He suggested that merit pay for teachers be considered during the next round of NCLB reauthorization.
In addition to teacher compensation, panelists focused on several other key aspects of education reform at the federal level. Panelists suggested that NCLB focus not only on absolute proficiency levels, but also a measure of growth enabling schools to demonstrate effort and gains, even among children who do not meet proficiency levels.
In addition, Duncan called for being “tight on goals and standards and loose on how we all choose to get there,” a pointed call for the creation of national standards and a national assessment system, along with room for flexibility in how districts meet those standards.
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