School Reform - NYU Steinhardt - New York University

52 Pages·2003·1.01 MB·English

Parent Power and
Urban School Reform
THE STORY OF MOTHERS ON THE MOVE
Institute for Education and Social Policy
Steinhardt School of Education, New York University
November 2003
ABOUT THE INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION AND SOCIAL POLICY
The New York University Institute for Education and Social Policy (IESP) was
formed in 1995 to improve public education so that all students, and particularly
those in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, obtain a high quality
education that prepares them to participate effectively in a democratic society. Our
research, policy studies, evaluations and strategic assistance support policy makers,
educators, parents, youth, and community groups in their efforts to improve public
schooling. For more information, please visit our website at www.nyu.edu/iesp.
ABOUT THE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT PROGRAM
This report was produced by the Institute’s Community Involvement Program (CIP).
CIP was initiated in 1996 to support community organizing for school reform. CIP
provides support to community groups organizing parents and young people to im-
prove their schools, as well as to groups collaborating to shape more effective and
equitable education policies in New York City and in major cities in the northeast.
We also conduct research on school reform organizing nationally.
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THE INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION AND SOCIAL POLICY
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Photographs courtesy of Mothers On The Move
Parent Power and
Urban School Reform
THE STORY OF MOTHERS ON THE MOVE
Kavitha Mediratta
Jessica Karp
INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION AND SOCIAL POLICY
STEINHARDT SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
SEPTEMBER 2003

CONTENTS
1 Foreward
By Michelle Fine
3 Introduction
5 Unmasking School Failure
5 MOM’s Beginnings
9 Tackling PS 62
11 Developing a District Analysis
14 Building Power
17 Ousting Max Messer
22 After Messer
27 The New Superintendent
28 Betty Rosa’s Strategy
31 Working with Betty Rosa
37 Assessing Ten Years Of Organizing
41 Appendices
41 District 8 Eighth Grade Test Score Results
42 Notes on Data Analyses
42 Related Publications
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE 1 Community School District 8 Neighborhoods 2
FIGURE 2 District 8 is failing South Bronx children 6
FIGURE 3 SURR schools in District 8 7
FIGURE 4 PS 62 students reading at grade level 7
FIGURE 5 Junior High Schools in District 8 10
FIGURE 6 Teacher qualifications in District 8 schools 12
FIGURE 7 Average teacher salaries in District 8 schools 12
FIGURE 8 Reading results in Hunts Point schools vs. other District 8 schools 13
FIGURE 9 Wanted for educational neglect 17
FIGURE 10 Principal turnover in District 8 schools 29
FIGURE 11 Percent of District 8 teachers at their school for more than 2 years 30
FIGURE 12 District 8 elementary school suspensions 30
FIGURE 13 SURR shame 32
FIGURE 14 Fourth grade reading test results in PS 62, 1999–2003 37
FIGURE 15 Fourth grade reading test results in District 8, 1999–2003 38
FIGURE 16 Fourth grade math test results in District 8, 1999–2003 39
FIGURE 17 Eighth grade reading test results in District 8, 1999–2002 41
FIGURE 18 Eighth grade math test results in District 8, 1999–2002 41
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
e are deeply indebted to the members and current and former staff of Mothers On
W
the Move for generously sharing their time with us. Mili Bonilla, Ana Collado, Bar-
bara Gross, Lucretia Jones, Diane Lowman, Jessie McDonald, James Mumm, Lisa
Ortega, Carolyn Pelzer, Helen Schaub, and Czarina Thelen spent hours discussing their work.
Several Institute colleagues contributed to the analysis presented here. Deinya Phenix,
Natasha Pschelintseva, Dana Lockwood, and Jody Paroff prepared the data presentations on Dis-
trict 8 schools. Mili Bonilla and Barbara Gross (now at the Institute) provided invaluable concep-
tual assistance. Norm Fruchter and Carol Ascher’s incisive editing greatly enhanced this paper.
We are also grateful to former New York City Schools Chancellors Rudy Crew and Ra-
mon Cortines, and Community School District 8 Superintendent Betty Rosa for their comments
and insights. This story could not have been told without their contributions.
A special thank you to Barbara Taveras and Lori Bezahler, of the Edward W. Hazen
Foundation, whose leadership and financial support have been critical not just to this paper, but
also to the organizing it describes.
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FOREWARD
arent Power and Urban School Reform offers organizers, educators, reformers
P
and political theorists a compelling and complex case study of the strengths and
potential of rigorous, community-based parent organizing. Written in ways that
are vivid and inspiring, the history of Mothers On the Move (MOM) reveals the profound
need for multi-issue organizing; the radical potential for activist research to reveal the
fractures and contours of social injustice, and the stubborn bureaucratic refusal to engage
democratically with working class communities of color. This biography of organizing is not a
pretty glossy; the story reveals the sweat, struggle, despair, tears, false victories and the wins
of a group of well organized, fearless, and dedicated activist mothers.
Ten years ago, with the caring wisdom and leadership of Mili Bonilla and Barbara
Gross, a core of mothers from the Bronx decided that they and their children deserved
more, and organized to get it. Told as a journey of ongoing struggle, the monograph
documents a cautionary tale about the power and limits of inside-outside strategies; the
need for both ambitious macro analyses and deep local door-knocking work; the thorny
relation of community critique and support for public education, and the always fragile if
essential coalitions of parents, community and educators. Reading this, you will have no
doubt that good schooling requires engaged, mouthy, pushy, exhausted and never-giving up
Moms, working with educators who dare to dream and create what must be.
The story of MOM inspires, educates, and enrages. While this document is gorgeous
in its local, Bronx particularities, there are lessons to be mined for parent organizing across
urban America, and even into the suburbs and rural communities. Filled with data, T-shirts,
signs, charts, slogans, threats, fearless tactics, pins and generations of mother-wit, MOM
speaks back to the conscience of America with organizing brilliance, a sense of victory,
humor, despair, possibility and outrage.
This monograph is a must-read for organizers and educators. It is, also, a wonderful
gift for anyone who dreams that perhaps, in our lifetime, every child could breath clean air,
be educated amidst books and respect, live in a safe and loving neighborhood, enjoy the
comfort that police will protect, and that every child could giggle her way through a life of
freedom, growing up to contribute to a nation of justice.
In the powerful ripples of the everyday moves of a group of women, a world of radical
possibilities burst open in the Bronx. Victory was never secure, justice never guaranteed,
struggle never over, but these women inspire us to see that with collective critique, organizing
and commitment, possibility lies just around the corner in Hunts Point.
Michelle Fine
Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Graduate Center of the City University of New York
August 2003
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Community
School
District 8
ue
n
Ave
hester
W estc Throgs
Neck
Soundview
Hunts
Point
FIGURE 1 Community School District 8 Neighborhoods
Community School District 8 has three distinct neighborhoods: Hunts Point
(which includes Hunts Point, Longwood and Intervale Valley), Soundview and Throgs Neck.
2 3