Witnesses Tell Committee That High Standards and Outstanding Teachers Will Close the Achievement Gap

By Betsy Miller Kittredge on 07-18-2008, 09:30 AM in

Setting high standards, ensuring that all children have access to outstanding teachers, holding educators accountable for their schools’ progress, and restructuring chronically struggling schools, are vital to creating a world-class public education system, mayors and superintendents of major U.S. cities told the Committee at yesterday's hearing.

Each of the four cities represented at the hearing -– New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Atlanta -– have made impressive gains in recent years in boosting student proficiency in reading and math and narrowing the achievement gap between groups of students. As the witnesses explained, many of these gains are the result of the innovative reforms being pursued through mayor-superintendent partnerships, including performance pay initiatives for teachers and principals, increased accountability, and community-wide partnerships that can help strengthen schools and provide better support for teachers. More »

Chairman Miller

Mayor Adrian Fenty

Mayor Michael Bloomberg