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Reimagining the School Experience
Dear New Yorkers,
As I travel throughout the city and meet with families, I often speak about how we are reimagining the school experience for our children. I believe that every child has unlimited potential, and I promise to deliver the kind of education that will help all our kids realize their dreams.
I’m excited to share more about how we are reimagining New York City public school education. Our work focuses on excellence in five key areas:
- Literacy. The ability to read on grade level is the building block of all future learning. We’re shifting back to teaching the basics of phonics because it worked before, and we believe it will work again. We’re also identifying students who have barriers to reading, like dyslexia. Every student must be a proficient reader by the end of third grade; this is a key gateway to academic success.
- Safety. We know that when we have adults checking in on children, making sure they are coming to school every day and participating in activities that will build them up, those children feel safer and perform better in classrooms. Project Pivot, our new school safety initiative, puts caring adults from organizations that know their communities directly into schools to guide students to academic success and social-emotional well-being. This wonderful program offers services such as counseling, mentorships, mental health support, and violence prevention to help our children thrive.
- Student Pathways Initiative. We want every child in a New York City public school to walk off the commencement stage confident and ready to pick a pathway to the bold future they see ahead. The world of work has changed dramatically over the past 25 years, and we must change along with it. Through Student Pathways, we will offer career-connected learning that enables our students to graduate with real-world skills and experience in such fields as technology, health care, business, and education. We’ll also partner with our business and civic communities to offer paid internships and apprenticeships. Earlier this school year, we announced two career-connection programs, The Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship and FutureReadyNYC.
- Reimagining the student experience. We need to be better at the basics of core instruction—not only in reading but also in science and math. So, we will be piloting new programs to scale up financial and digital literacy next year. We will build on successful bilingual education by opening new programs across the City and working to ensure a pathway to proficient bilingualism for every student. We recognize the role of wellness in student success and will continue to create school environments in which all students are physically and emotionally safe.
- Reimagining the family experience. We want to ensure that every family gets clear information, expanded language access resources, and all the support they need. One way we are doing this is by reforming our enrollment and admissions process. After six months of engagement with families and community members, we recently announced changes to make the admissions process easier while expanding access to quality schools for all families. Most importantly, we will continue to listen to our families and engage them in their children’s education.
We believe that our young people have tremendous talents. What they can achieve truly is unlimited—if we help them discover what excites them and give them a sense of purpose. I am so excited to continue partnering with you to give all our students a chance to explore their interests and invest in themselves, their futures, and their communities.
Soaring high,
David C. Banks
NYC Schools Chancellor
NYC School Survey Results
2022 NYC School Survey results are now available! You can view the results here. This survey gives families, students in grades 6–12, support staff, and teachers the opportunity to provide schools with feedback that help them reflect on the past year and understand what their communities need. We will use these survey results in combination with other data and knowledge from school communities to inform planning, improvement, reflection, and professional development for the 2022–23 school year.