Before the State Legislature granted Mayor Bloomberg control of the New York City school system in 2002, there was little standardization or coordination across the City, and generations of students were leaving school without the skills and knowledge they needed to succeed.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein saw school reform as a two-step process. To create adequate schools, he needed to stabilize and bring coherence to the system. To elevate schools from adequate to outstanding, he needed to take a second step: empowering principals by giving them decision-making power and resources and holding them accountable for results.

The first step of Children First—unifying and stabilizing what was a disorganized and disjointed system of schools—began with the reorganization and streamlining of the Department of Education's management structure. Chancellor Klein created 10 regions, each comprising three or four community school districts. He also reallocated resources that were supporting the bureaucracy so that more money was at the school level, directly helping children.

The New York City Department of Education also adopted a single, coherent system-wide approach for instruction in reading, writing, and math. And, the department established a new parent support system, hiring a parent coordinator for each school, to make schools more welcoming to families and to give families access to the tools they need to be full partners in education.

At the beginning, even when the Children First reforms were focusing on stability, the Chancellor started infusing schools and the school system as a whole with the core principles of the reform effort—leadership, empowerment, and accountability.

The Chancellor created the Leadership Academy to train new school leaders. The Leadership Academy put some aspiring principals, who had the skills and the drive to be great leaders, on the fast track. Between 2002 and 2006, almost 200 aspiring principals graduated from the Leadership Academy and most have taken over schools, many of which are serving some of the most high-needs populations in New York City.

The Department of Education also worked with the United Federation of Teachers to reach a historic agreement that is good for teachers, principals, and students. The new contract allows the Department of Education to recruit and retain the high-quality teachers that New York City students need. The new contract increases teacher pay by 15%. Under the Bloomberg administration, teacher pay has increased by over a third. The contract also gives the DOE the ability to create Lead Teacher positions, with a $10,000 salary differential, giving principals a powerful new tool to recruit experienced, talented teachers to high-need schools. More recently, the DOE and UFT agreed to create a $15,000 housing incentive for experienced math, science, and special education teachers who come to the DOE and agree to teach for at least three years in high-needs schools. The agreement provides struggling students an additional 150 minutes every week in small-group instruction so they get the help they need to catch up during the school year. The contract also gives principals the power to make final decisions regarding hiring for all vacancies. There will be no more “bumping” by more senior teachers and no more involuntary placements of teachers in any school. This means that, for the first time, principals will be able to choose the teams they think are best for their unique student populations. The contract also allows principals to assign teachers to professional activities such as hall, lunchroom and schoolyard duty, tutoring, and advising student clubs. Finally, the discipline and grievance procedure has been streamlined and teachers who engage in sexual misconduct with students or other minors can now be suspended without pay pending a hearing and face automatic termination once charges are sustained.

In 2004, the Chancellor also launched a pilot program called the “autonomy zone.” The principals whose schools were included in this pilot program were given additional decision-making power over their programs, their personnel, and their finances, in exchange for pledging to meet ambitious achievement targets. In the first year, 85% of Department of Education schools in the zone pilot met their performance targets. In the 2006-07 school year, this program expanded into the Empowerment Schools initiative and was the predecessor of the School Support Organizations. Learn more about Empowerment Schools here.