Last year was a lost school year for the majority of New York City children. Our schools enrolled about one-third of the city’s students in person and, for those learning at home, instruction was uneven at best despite heroic efforts by educators to stay connected to children and families. As students return to school this week, the core priority for teachers and school leaders will be to rebuild relationships, provide extra academic attention where needed, and build in time and support to help students work through the traumas of the past year.
Even before the pandemic hit, our schools have consistently failed the majority of our students. The most recent data from national assessments suggest just over one-quarter of New York City students are proficient in reading and math. The numbers are even worse when you look at how our schools serve Black and Latino children. Test scores can never tell the whole story, but these numbers raise tough questions about whether our classrooms are designed to support learning.
Fortunately for students, the New York City Department of Education is suddenly armed with new financial resources in the form of $6.9 billion in one-time federal relief and $530 million in new, annually recurring, state Foundation Aid formula funding. Congress is currently negotiating the details of President Biden’s American Families Plan, which could deliver another $762 billion nationally for education over the next 10 years.
As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, a portion of these dollars are needed to help schools address the immediate academic and mental health needs of children. But this once-in-a-generation infusion of funding is also a rare opportunity to think long-term about investments that can help us solve some of the deep inequities within our school system. Coupling this massive federal investment with the state’s pledge to fully fund its Foundation Aid formula opens up exciting possibilities for the incoming mayoral administration as they begin to plan for the next four years.
In addition to funding, we also have access to more research than ever before to help shape our future schools. This summer, The Learning Policy Institute and Turnaround for Children released a powerful report that translates the latest research from the fields of developmental and learning science into practical advice for schools about how to rethink what they do to create the optimal environment for learning.
At the heart of their advice is that schools need to think more broadly about our children. We can’t focus solely on teaching a narrow set of academic skills; we need to pay attention to the whole child. This means building school communities that know students well, connect who they are to what they are learning, and recognize that the social-emotional aspects of learning drive our brain’s ability to master complex academic skills.
The science suggests that strong relationships are a key driver for all learning from the time we are babies right through school and into adulthood when we train teachers. Developing talented educators who understand the science of learning and development will create schools that are able to build those relationships and nurture children as they grow.
Now is the time to invest in teachers so they can do this important work. Specifically, we have an opportunity to build a stronger talent pipeline for all educators, beginning with those who work with our infants and toddlers right up through our K-12 system.
To start, we must build a quality early child-care system for our youngest learners. Infants and toddlers are rarely a focus when we think about schools, but, during the first thousand days of life, children’s brains are growing explosively, developing more than one million neural connections a second.
Research shows that a child’s early brain architecture shapes all future learning and behavior, making the first three years the most important time for educational development. Without a system that supports the care and development of babies and toddlers, our city’s most vulnerable children are left behind. Data shows that by 24 months, many toddlers living in poverty already show both behavioral and cognitive delays that directly mirror the socioeconomic achievement gaps we see later in our schools.
It’s clear that building a quality child-care system accessible to all infants and toddlers is the most potent investment we can make to support long-term student outcomes. While two-thirds of the country’s youngest children spend their day in the care of someone other than a parent, fewer than 10% of child care arrangements offer high-quality care. Only 7% of infants and toddlers in New York City are enrolled in publicly funded care, versus 45% of 3- and 4-year-olds. Longstanding issues of access have only been exacerbated by the pandemic, with 27% of the city’s family child-care providers serving infants and toddlers shutting their doors.
If the city expands access, it must also pay close attention to quality. The key to quality is an investment in educator and caregiver preparation, ongoing professional training and equitable compensation for those that care for the city’s youngest residents. In New York City, for example, the average income for an infant/toddler educator is just $30,060; elementary school teachers make more than twice as much. Shifting our approach to compensation and training will attract and retain a high-quality workforce able to carry out the complex work of supporting the healthy development of children through age three.
In exemplary early-learning environments that help children thrive, babies and toddlers are free to safely explore a wide range of activities, from blocks to stories to nature, and more. In these environments, young children are encouraged to explore and make choices as part of carefully planned routines. They form stable trusting relationships with teachers who regularly engage with children using language that connects with the child’s interests and signals to the child that what she does matters.
These relationships and experiences accelerate healthy brain development and are the foundation for academic success once children enter school.
In our K-12 schools, research shows that teachers are the most important factor for students’ in-school learning. Experienced and well-prepared teachers positively impact student achievement, absenteeism, and motivation. In fact, the most important predictor of achievement within a school’s control is a teacher’s qualifications upon entering the classroom.
Despite this knowledge, one-quarter of teachers in New York City’s schools serving students in poverty are teaching out of certification, compared to just 6% across the rest of the state.
With access to this new funding, we can move away from the city’s reliance on “fast-track” training programs that flood schools with underprepared teachers and commit to well-planned investments in high-quality teacher preparation models that set teachers, schools and students up for both immediate and long-term success.
We must recognize that the job of teaching is more demanding and complex than ever. Just as we know that new doctors need hands-on training before they can diagnose and prescribe, we must acknowledge that teaching candidates need an upfront investment as well.
Yearlong co-teaching residencies, where candidates work alongside an accomplished teacher while studying child development and teaching methods, offer a promising path. This approach allows teachers to build their skills and knowledge and become fully integrated into their schools. Examples in New York City and nationwide demonstrate that funded residencies improve retention, student outcomes, and the diversity of the workforce.
There is a powerful link between a teacher workforce that reflects the communities they serve and student learning. Researchers have found that Black students who’d had just one Black teacher by third grade were 13% more likely to enroll in college — and those who’d had two were 32% more likely.
Historically, teacher residencies have been difficult to scale in New York City because of the initial funding needed to compensate teachers-in-training. This compensation offsets living expenses while aspiring teachers engage in a year-long residency prior to being paid full-time as a teacher.
With an initial investment from the new federal funding, New York City could transition all of its teacher preparation to a residency model. This would pay for itself over the long term by reducing turnover dramatically in our highest-need schools. All our prestigious private schools and strong charter networks already do this, as do most high-performing countries internationally.
Now is the time for policymakers and school leaders to make the bold changes our education system needs.
As we look ahead to a new chapter, we must not squander this moment by simply pouring more money into existing programs that, while worthy, won’t address the deep underlying challenges of our schools. Our city’s students deserve more than band-aid solutions. We must seize this opportunity to make meaningful, strategic investments in teacher preparation and early education if we want a different set of outcomes for our children.
Polakow-Suransky, president of the Bank Street College of Education, was senior deputy chancellor at the New York City Department of Education.