In my reimagining, all students would have access to smaller classes with our innovative, creative and caring New York teachers at the helm. These students would attend state-of-the-art facilities and have access to music and the arts, technology and family and consumer sciences. Each school building would have a school nurse, a beautiful library with a librarian and access to CTE, world languages, physical education and health. And each building would have locally developed ways to keep students safe and secure. All schools would have strong connectivity and devices for each student to assist in supporting their learning. School food would be healthy and tasty, and our playgrounds would be gathering spots where play is celebrated. School-related professionals would abound to assist our students and teachers as learning takes place. Electives and advanced placement courses would be available in our secondary schools. Teaming would exist in all of our middle schools. Social workers, school counselors and school psychologists would be abundant to ensure the social emotional needs of students were put first.
Professional learning for our educators would be a priority. Structures would be put in place to ensure that trauma informed, restorative and culturally responsive practices were refined and honed to meet the needs of all children. Our newest teachers would be placed with a mentor teacher for as long as needed. And our workforce would reflect the students in the community by removing the barriers that exist for teachers of color to enter and be retained in the profession. And of course, our most vulnerable students, like those learning English and those with special needs, would have access to programs based on their needs and not based on space or staffing considerations.
Our schools can and should be the heart of our communities, and in fact, the community schools model would be another way we could reimagine our education system for our students and families.
Imagine if we had the time and training to focus on building even stronger family and school engagement partnerships? I could go on and on, but I won't. You get the picture.
This reimagining doesn't require outside groups to make it happen. It takes listening to our educators and investing in our students by funding their future in New York and that includes investing in our community colleges and SUNY and CUNY. We don't need anyone else reimagining our schools or colleges for us. We need funding, so we can look at our children and know that we gave them every opportunity to succeed. Imagine that!
