New York City’s Education Funders Research Initiative asked our parent organization, the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, to identify key priorities for education reform under Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio. On Thursday, the Center for New York City Affairs released the results: a new report called "Building Blocks for Better Schools: How the Next Mayor can Prepare New York's Students for College and Careers," co-authored by Insideschools founder Clara Hemphill. The paper analyzes the successes and failures of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s education initiatives—and proposes six key areas on which the next administration should focus attention and resources.

A top priority: Make sure young children can read. This is a first, crucial building block for school reform efforts.

Other priorities include:

  • Use the Common Core to build a true, skills-based college preparatory curriculum.
  • Revise the accountability system to use a wider range of measures, and to be more responsive to schools and families.
  • Keep principals' control of hiring, budgets and curriculum—but provide them greater supervision and support.
  • Strengthen neighborhood schools and create new structures to connect all schools—neighborhood, magnet and charters alike—within given geographic areas.
  • Build early and ongoing support for college and career guidance.

Read more about "Building Blocks for Better Schools" and download the paper on CenterNYC.org.