Dear Commons Community,

Federally owned schools for Native Americans on reservations are marked by remoteness, extreme poverty and few construction dollars. There are 183 such schools spread across 23 states. They are in some of the most out-of-the-way places in America; one is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, reachable by donkey or helicopter. Most are small, with fewer than 150 students. The schools serve about 48,000 children, or about 7 percent of Native Ameircan students, and are among the country’s lowest performing. These are schools, says Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, whose department is responsible for them, “that you or I would not feel good sending our kids to, and I don’t feel good sending Indian kids there, either.” The Associated Press describes the conditions of one such school in Arizona:

“On a desert outpost miles from the closest paved road, Navajo students at the Little Singer Community School gleefully taste traditional fry bread during the school’s heritage week.

“It reminds us of the Native American people a long time ago,” says a smiling 9-year-old, Arissa Chee.

The cheer comes in the midst of dire surroundings: Little Singer, like so many of the 183 Indian schools overseen by the federal government, is verging on decrepit.

The school, which serves 81 students, consists of a cluster of rundown classroom buildings containing asbestos, radon, mice, mold and flimsy outside door locks. The newest building, a large, white monolithic dome that is nearly 20 years old, houses the gym.

On a recent day, students carried chairs above their heads while they changed classes, so they would have a place to sit.”

Principal Etta Shirley’s day starts at 6 a.m., when on her way to work, she picks up kids off the bus routes. Because there’s no teacher housing, a caravan of teachers commutes together about 90 minutes each morning on barely passable dirt roads.

All this, to teach in barely passable quarters.

“We have little to work with, but we make do with what we have,” says Verna Yazzie, a school board member.

The school is on the government’s priority list for replacement.

It’s been there since at least 2004.”

Another victim of our do-nothing federal government.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, on Monday, announced the replacement and/or reassignment of 15 of 42 city school superintendents in her biggest personnel shakeup since taking office. As reported by The Daily News:

“Fariña’s goal is to create a handpicked cadre of lieutenants capable of whipping the nation’s largest school system into shape. They start their jobs Tuesday.

“We’re going to get it right,” said Fariña, 71, who’s worked in city schools for five decades. “We’re making sure every child is in a school where they can be successful.”

The chancellor’s shakeup of the school system has been months in the making. In July, she told the city’s superintendents that they would all have to reapply for their jobs. Of 42 who reapplied, 27 kept their positions. Seven resigned. Two retired, two found other jobs with the Education Department and four more will be employed through Dec. 31, unless they find other work at the agency.”

One of Fariña’s themes since being appointed is that she wants people with experience in public schools in leadership positions. Those who remain all meet Fariña’s new minimum requirements of at least 10 years of experience in schools, including three as a principal.

Since taking over as chancellor, Ms. Fariña has indicated that she plans to roll back some of the changes that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg made to the school support system. In 2007, that administration created a system of so-called networks, which were created to provide principals with operational and instructional support while leaving them significant autonomy. Unlike superintendents, the networks were not geographically based, and principals could choose which of the roughly 60 networks to join. Superintendents, meanwhile, lost their traditional power over hiring and budgeting when Mr. Bloomberg became mayor in 2002.

A report commissioned by the Bloomberg administration from a consultant last year concluded that the networks had been mixed in their effectiveness, in part because of a range in the quality of their staff. The report found that struggling schools in some cases needed more assertive direction and suggested that superintendents should perhaps play a greater role in guiding them.

In her remarks to the new group of superintendents, Ms. Fariña hinted at her frustrations with the decentralized system created by the previous administration and said that she saw the superintendents as the “anchors” of her administration.

Tony