Manhattan-Bronx

Al- Interesting take on our conversation about Manhattan and The Bronx. This was from Deb Meier, she mentions Fannie Lou at the end. (I will not address my absence from the blog, I've been busy)
love ya
Jeff

Concerns about the Bronx are not new, as you know. But Bloomberg deserves blame not mostly for the state of the schools but the state of the Bronx writ large, which has produced catastrophes in the schools which have not been tackled. Or even focused on!!!

Bx high school have failed for decades - and decades. This is essential to remember, and that nothing was done for them. It's the response to failure--that's the crime. But doing something is much harder than labeling. They serve one of the poorest, if not poorest, cities in America if we thought of the Bronx as a city in itself. The politics of the Bx has not typically been helpful to schools. Or to anything else. When my colleague Marcia Brevot and I checked out data on the Bronx in the early 90's there was no Bronx high school in which more than a third of the entering freshman class went on to graduate high school--a fact disguised by their weird way of keeping graduation dates (based on % of midyear seniors who graduated) and amusing (weep weep) ways of explaining the data (kids often transferred schools or went back to PR) When we met the then borough leader he seemed unimpressed. Attendance rates were far worse than the official tallies--easy enough to do--and we found--by visiting schools--that far less than half the kids attended afternoon classes, somewhat more in the a.m., especially the class just before lunch hour. In fact, on paper, most schools were overcrowded. If there weren't so many "no shows" they'd have ha to confront the physical plant shortage.

As we have gentrified Manhattan I would imagine places like the Bronx have gotten poorer. I don't actually keep up on it. What we need is not either so-called "school improvement" or just closing them one by one and intensifying the problems in the remaining schools--or hiding them. We did have an idea--and were partners in the plan for breaking James Monroe HS into smaller schools while also starting a few others in renovated spaces in the early 90s. It may or may not have been a wise strategy, although it did create two longterm successes with the same kids Monroe high school serves including plenty of special ed etc. I still keep in touch with one--Fannie Lou Hammer. But it ended up having no impact on Monroe high school nor the Bronx's dramatic problems.

Deb

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Deborah Meier