Overview

The New York City Public School System is the largest urban school district in the United States with approximately 79,000 teachers in 1,400 schools educating one million students.  In 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein launched Children First, a comprehensive school reform effort built on the three inter-related ideas of leadership, empowerment, and accountability.  Principals, holding the most critical school leadership positions, are empowered to make informed decisions and take smart risks.  With this empowerment comes accountability, so while they are asked to set a high bar for student achievement, they are also held accountable for their results.

Unlike many other school district change initiatives, Children First does not mandate a cookie cutter approach to instruction.  On the contrary, at the core of Children First is the belief that each school has unique needs and challenges, and instructional decisions should be made by those closest to the classroom.  For New York City teachers and principals, this means significant discretion to choose the instructional strategies and curricula that will best serve students' needs.  At the same time, Children First has introduced increased accountability for performance outcomes, focusing on academic progress and improvement, not just absolute measures.  New state of the art data tools are also available to help teachers and parents make smart, informed decisions designed to accelerate student progress.

Impact of Children First

Children First has delivered significant, measurable benefits to our students:

• Graduation rates have increased 11.2% since 2002.
• 79.7% of 4th graders and 59.6% of 8th graders met or exceeded grade level NY State Math standards in 2008, up from 52% and 29.8%, respectively, in 2002.
• 61.3% of 4th graders and 43% of 8th graders met or exceeded grade level NY State English standards in 2008, up from 46.5% and 29.5%, respectively, in 2002.  
• Black and Latino students in New York City achieved greater gains in both Math and English than their white and Asian peers, narrowing the socioeconomic and racial achievement gap

Our reform effort has created a strong foundation and an effective framework for advancing student achievement.  As a new teacher joining our team, you will play an important role in fostering continued success in the classroom

National Recognition

The New York City Department of Education’s success with Children First has also been recognized on the national stage.  After earning runner-up status in 2006, the Department won the 2007 Broad Prize for Urban Education, the largest education prize in the country.  The Broad Prize honors the urban school district that demonstrates the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement while reducing the achievement gap among poor and minority students.