Real reform is the only way to improve Rochester schools

Peter Murphy:

In his recent "State of our Schools" presentation, the Rochester schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard showed that three years into his tenure, Rochester's schools have had slow, but measureable progress in elementary and middle school achievement levels, fewer suspensions and more students graduating high school.

Still, Rochester continues to struggle with many challenges common for large urban communities in the state and throughout the country - challenges that will take much longer than three years to significantly improve.

While Rochester's school superintendents come and go, one district fixture remains: Adam Urbanski, the long-time head of the Rochester Teachers Association. He recently wrote in this newspaper that Rochester schools are "worse off" in the last three years, a period which happens to coincide with the Brizard's tenure.

Rochester, NY 2011 State of the Schools PDF Presentation and Scorecard Strategy Map. Rochester's 2010-2011 budget is $694,515,866 for 32,000 students. $21,703.62 per student. View Rochester's 2010-2011 budget presentation document here.

Related: The 2011 State of the Madison School District reports $379,058,945 in planned 2010-2011 spending for 24,471 students. Madison's per student spending this year is $15,490.13.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 15, 2011 1:45 AM
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