CC9’s successful reform strategy, which served as a template for the boroughwide Community Collaborative to Improve Bronx Schools as well as for the Coalition for Educational Justice, is both commonsensical and rare: Get the DOE, the UFT and a bevy of area community-based organizations and parents to cooperate on a joint project of benefit to everyone.
Its lead teacher project was a win-win program. For parents, it meant guaranteeing new teachers would learn best practices from veteran educators. For the UFT, it meant a career path for educators that was rewarding, more lucrative and a solid alternative to going into administration. For the DOE, it meant claiming palpable student progress in learning.
As Fabricant wrote, “In a short period of time, CC9 had moved from an outsider political group with an unprecedented agenda of changing the instructional dynamics of South Bronx public schools to a partner with the DOE and the UFT in implementing its own agenda.”
For Zachary, it wasn’t enough to organize parents into a social movement or train them to be leaders. Both goals had to be aligned in carrying out a policy agenda, especially if the strategy was to look for commonalities and downplay confrontation.
No comments:
Post a Comment