Meeting the Challenges of Radical School Reform NSRF/NY at the Crossroads
Project Summary
The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is now engaged in a radical decentralization - this time to the level of schools and networks of schools. The National School Reform Faculty Center of Activity in New York (NSRF/NY) feels an obligation based on its history and its values to become involved in this massive change; to serve as critical friend to those spearheading it - which, not incidentally, include some of NSRF/New York's National Facilitators and a good share of its more than 50 Endorsed Facilitators; and to serve as an independent voice in evaluating the direction and impact of these reforms. The Center is especially well suited to help New York educators deal with the extraordinary amount of turbulence these reforms have generated. We believe that the Center is now at a point where it can scale up activity, and position itself to become one of the two or three major centers of NSRF nationally. NSRF/NY refers to these in a shorthand way as "retail," "wholesale," and "embedded" opportunities.
Below we have outlined the full range of activities that will constitute the Center's work over the time of the proposed grant.
- Brokering work in school reform for local NSRF facilitators.
- Advocating among the diverse reform organizations in New York City for NSRF-tuned practices.
- The development and delivery of workshops and other activities - "retail," "wholesale," and "embedded" as described above - that draw on the rich expertise of New York-area NSRF Endorsed Facilitators and National Facilitators, and that aim to orient the emerging systems and practices of New York City schooling to the democratic goals of NSRF.
- Semi-annual one-day critical friends retreats for facilitators affiliated with the Center. Attendance at one of these per year will be required for the maintenance of affiliation, and will serve to keep affiliates tuned up in their practices and connected with each other. This is consistent with the direction of NSRF National and its standards for facilitators. The retreats will also serve as portfolio review opportunities for potential new affiliates.
- An Annual Meeting that will be designed to serve the school reform community in the New York metropolitan area, focusing each year on an issue or topic of significant interest, featuring provocative speakers and their critical friends, and demonstrating meeting and facilitation practices characteristic of NSRF.
- The management of the NSRFNY.org domain - co-hosted by NYU and NSRF National.
- Fundraising activities with two priority areas. One is research. The research partner here will be the NYU Institute for Education and Social Responsibility. The Institute is currently competing to be the lead organization of a consortium of research organizations studying New York City school reform, and based on the model of the Chicago Consortium on School Research. The second priority for fundraising will be to develop a fund for micro-grants to support promising small-scale NSRF practices throughout the New York metropolitan region.
Contact
- Principal Investigator: Joesph McDonald
- Department: Teaching and Learning
Funding
Funder: Bay and Paul Foundation
Project Amount: $150,000 for September 2007 - August 2010