Research Questions:
What underlining factors cause the educational pendulum to oscillate between centralized and decentralized schooling models: specifically in New York City over time? Are we fixing old problems, or simply creating new ones?
Is centralization or decentralization ultimately a ‘bottom-up’ or ‘top-down’ decision? In other words, do politicians need to reconcile the differences between centralized and decentralized education? Or do grassroots and communal movements need to discover/create concrete solutions for political support and action?
Justification:
Among all the public, private, magnet, charter, homeschool and many other forms of education in New York, are centralized or decentralized schooling models causing, creating or closing achievement, opportunity and learning gaps to emerge, remerge or dissolve? Is early childhood education and universal educational access the answer? Or will re-centralizing public schools eventually be the remedy we’re searching for? Somehow – teachers, administrators, reformers, families and politicians will need to reach a consensus – or America’s education will continue to fall through the cracks.
Research Process:
Ever since the New York City School Decentralization Law of 1969, there has been a heated debate about the advantages and disadvantages of centralized and decentralized schooling models, primarily between local/community School Boards and City Boards. As a result, my research will be more focused on what has been done, accomplished or implemented, and less focused on what has been said. Decentralization was a rational shift for New York school districts because of its extensive urban schooling layout. Although New York’s decentralization has produced meager results, smaller and additional community control districts could compensate for centralized schooling in New York. I will also examine different measurements among districts and between public and charter school performance in New York.
Bibliography:
Alvarado, Anthony. “Reengineering Reform: Adopting a New Approach to an Old Problem.” Centerforchildrensinitiatives.org. Ed. David Jones and Arthur Levine. Report of the New York City Council Commission on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Oct. 2005. Web. <http://www.centerforchildrensinitiatives.org/images/cfe.pdf>.
Berger, Joseph. “Board of Education: A Thing of the Past?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Feb. 1996. Web. 07 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/18/nyregion/board-of-education-a-thing-of-the-past.html>.
Boland, Maureen. “School Types: The Difference between Public, Private, Magnet, Charter, and More.” BabyCenter.com. Baby Center, Apr. 2012. Web. <http://www.babycenter.com/0_school-types-the-difference-between-public-private-magnet-ch_67288.bc>.
Cortines, Ramon. “Asking Too Much of Decentralization.” Edweek.org. Editorial Projects in Education, 27 Sept. 1995. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edweek.org%2Few%2Farticles%2F1995%2F09%2F27%2F04cort.h15.html>.
Greenblatt, Jonathan. “Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.” Whitehouse.gov. The White House, 25 Feb. 2014. Web. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/sicp>.
Herszenhorn, David. “New York Rethinks Its Remaking Of the Schools.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Apr. 2006. Web. 07 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/nyregion/09Klein.html?pagewanted=all>.
Hess, Alfred. “Community Participation or Control? From New York to Chicago.” Eds.b.ebscohost.com. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Theory Into Practice. Vol. 38, Issue 4, 1999. Web. <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com>
McGrail, Kenneth R. “New York City School Decentralization: The Respective Powers of the City Board of Education and the Community School Boards.” Ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj. Fordham Urban Law Journal. The Berkeley Electronic Press, 1976. Web.
McGriff, Deborah. “Decentralization: Why, How, and Toward What Ends?” Decentralization: Why, How, and Toward What Ends? North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 26 July 1995. Web. <http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/go0dcent.htm>.
Smolover, Deborah. “America Forward.” Americaforward.org. New Profit Inc. and America Forward, 2014. Web. <http://www.americaforward.org>.
Stevenson, Harold W., and James W. Stigler. “What Can We Learn from the Learning Gap?” JSTOR. Ed. Hirotoshi Yano. American Educational Research Association. Vol. 22, No. 1, Jan. 1993. Web.
Tough, Paul. Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.
Nate, as we discussed, it would be wise to read Heather Lewis’ book further and then decide whether you’re more interested in one research question or the other, based on this rough framework:
Did (centralization/decentralization) in NYC schools increase student skills or enhance parent/community involvement from (insert time period)?
Once your RQ is set, which you need to do within the next week, then focus on persuasive evidence to answer the question you’ve selected. There may be debate about student skills over time because of changes in tests used, scoring practices, etc. Also, the parental involvement/community participation may seem difficult to assess over time, but think about whether you can find evidence of, for example, contested school board elections (number of races where incumbents were challenged) or higher than average voting rates in these races.
Overall, you’ve found some good sources, though your process isn’t clearly spelled out. To help you move forward, read and look at Lewis’ bibliography, then consider some of the specialized databases on the Search strategies page for our class. For example, if you’re looking for post-1981 stories, see EdWeek.org. Of course, see NYT full-text on Trinity Library.