MORRISANIA — Every city public school student will receive an education in computer science within the next 10 years via an $81 million public-private partnership, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday during a wide ranging-speech laying out his plan to make the school system more equitable for its 1.1 million students.
"Think about the world we live in now. Hundreds of thousands of good jobs will be accessible to those with coding and other essential skills," said de Blasio, who added that fewer than 5 percent of public school students currently have a chance to learn computer science.
"And when you do find students in computer class, they’re learning word processing or typing. What they should be learning is how to code," the mayor added.
Using a theme of the "twin engines of equity and excellence" and echoing back to his campaign theme of "A Tale of Two Cities," de Blasio said there was too much inequality among schools in different zip codes across the city.
"Success needs to be as common in East New York as it is on the Upper East Side," said de Blasio during his speech at Bronx Latin.
To close those gaps, the mayor announced several initiatives:
- Providing universal reading supporters for all 76,000 second graders in every school across the city by 2018. Only 30 percent of third graders are proficient in reading.
- Access to at least five Advance Placement classes will be available at all 400 city high schools by 2022. More than 40,000 students are now enrolled in high schools that don't offer any AP classes.
- All students will have access to algebra education in the eighth grade by the fall of 2021.
- Students in grades 6 to 12 at two districts in the Bronx and Brooklyn with the lowest high school graduation and college attainment rates will be assigned a dedicated counselor.
- By 2026, the city will boost its high school graduation rate to 80 percent from 68 percent.
All told, the overall plan will require a $186 million annual commitment from the city.
"Excellence and achievement can not, should not and will not discriminate in New York City," de Blasio said.
Funding for the computer science effort, which will require the retraining and hiring of 5,000 teachers, will be split evenly between city tax money and partnerships with AOL, Robin Hood Foundation, the New York City Foundation for Computer Science Education, and other donors.
De Blasio touted the program — called Computer Science for All: Fundamentals for All — for teaching not only critical tech skills like coding, robotics and design. He also said it will help bolster teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking and creativity as well as position the city's students for today's workforce.
"We want to make sure that every single child who graduates from a New York City School has the skills they need for 21st century job," Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Alicia Glen said after the speech.
"There's almost no job you can think of where technology and those skills are not going to be important," she added.
With just a handful of schools presently offering computer science — like the elite Stuyvesant High School — bringing the subject to all schools is a major issue of equity, officials emphasized.
The main hurdle will be finding qualified computer science teachers, especially since many tech jobs likely pay more than a teacher's salary.
"The curriculum is there now. It's really about getting the teachers comfortable with teaching it," said Fred Wilson, a technologist and venture capitalist who is chairman and founder of the New York City Foundation for Computer Science Education.
Wilson said about 30 percent of the private money has already been committed and their are discussions for another 20 percent. The other $20 million still needs to be raised. The group is contributing $5 million to the effort.
"This is not charity. This is an investment," said Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña.
Many of the mayor's lofty goals for creating equity stretch over several years. By the time the computer science initiative is fully implemented in 10 years, de Blasio will have been out of office for approximately four years even if he wins a second term.
De Blasio spokesman Wiley Norvell said a road map will lay out benchmarks and goals to be met over the next several years. For example, new AP classes will launch in the fall of 2016 and should be available in 75 percent of classrooms by fall 2018.
Wilson said the timeline on the computer science effort stretches for a decade because it won't be easy to implement.
"That's a lot of teachers, that's a lot of professional development, that's a lot of schools and you need to have a rollout plan. If we said we could do it in three years we'd be setting ourselves up for failure and we don't want to fail with this so we want to do it over the right time period and do it intelligently," said Wilson.
Fariña said part of the effort is helping to set a new paradigm in schools.
"It's not going to be something that's going to happen overnight...but I'm fully committed to the professional development piece of how all teachers need to come to the table fully expecting that all their kids will do well, said Fariña.
The mayor also seemingly extended an olive branch to city charter schools—whom he has engaged in a battle with over resources— offering up an official partnership between district schools and charter schools.
Up to 50 schools will be paired up with the goal of sharing best practices on math instruction and teaching English language learners.
But de Blasio's overall proposal was not well received by pro-charter school group Families for Excellent Schools which said it will take too long for all students to read at grade level under the plan.
"The incremental change proposed today won't fix New York City's education inequality," the group's CEO Jeremiah Kittredge said in a statement.
The group Alliance For Quality Education praised the mayor's plan as a way of insuring that all students "experience a quality education regardless of race or socioeconomic status."
The announcement comes on the heels of de Blasio's other big education program, Pre-K for All, which this year, for the first time, will provide free "full day" pre-k seats for every 4-year-old in the city.
Fariña said the pre-K initiative will give kids a head start and make many of the initiatives, such as the second grade reading goals, easier to accomplish.
The chancellor said she plans to meet with school superintendents next week to discuss the implementation of de Blasio's plan.
