Children First Reform Agenda

School A is a public elementary school located in Harlem in New York City. The demographics of the student body at School A are predominantly low-income and African American. 65% of the students in School A scored below the required NCLB standard on their Math and English proficiency exam. Many of the students who scored below the required standard on their exams have severe difficulty grasping even the most basic grammar rules. As a result of the test results, School A has been deemed "needing improvement." In fact, all of the public elementary schools in School A's school district have been put in the category of "needing improvement" and are overcrowded. This is the third year that School A and the other schools in its district have failed to meet the requisi

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er, as a department head, I would have to face the reality of the situation. Although students from School A now have added options, transferring to School B would not likely improve the academic skills of these low-performing students. First of all, the Chancellor of the New York Department of Education has adopted a series of reform called Children First. Under Children First, there has been an "adoption of a single, coherent system-wide approach for instruction in reading, writing and math that is supported by strong professional development" (McKenzie, 1). The Chancellor adopted reading, writing and math programs for universal use by the schools which they purported were proven effective methods of teaching (Stern, 3). The new math program would emphasize understanding concepts rather than mastery of basic operations (Traub 1). Similarly, the reading and writing program focuses more on hands-on reading and writing than on drilling of the fundamentals (Traub 1). Overall, the instructions would focus more on experiential approaches to be applied universally. "Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, says that urban districts have increasingly adopted a single approach for all scho
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Approximate Word count = 2173
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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