• New Chief in Albuquerque, p.3 • Miami Cuts Tests, p.7 LEGISLATIVE • One More Step in ESEA, p. 10 The Nation’s Voice for Urban Education May 2015 Vol. 24, No. 4 www.cgcs.org 11 Council Schools Rank in Top 20 On National List In the Washington Post’s 2015 rank- ing of “America’s Most Challenging High Schools,” 11 of the top 20 schools are in districts represented by the Council of the Great City Schools. Three schools in the Dallas Indepen- dent School District ranked in the top 20 of the more than 2,300 public high schools nationwide that made the national news- Maria Hinojosa Fareed Zakaria paper’s “Challenge” list, released in April. Dallas’ Talented and Gifted and Science/ Council Fall Conference to Feature CNN Host Engineering Magnet schools ranked No. 3 and 4, respectively. And Trailblazing Journalist Top Schools continued on page 4 Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS international affairs program, and Baltimore Takes Top Maria Hinojosa of public television’s America by the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa will be featured at the Council of the Great City Schools’ 59th Annual Fall Conference, Oct. Prize in Urban Debate 7-11, in Long Beach, Calif. Noted as a global thinker in delivering analysis and commentary on world affairs, Nick Imparato and Jonas De La Huerta Zakaria will be a keynote speaker at the conference. The award-winning journalist is are juniors at Baltimore City College high also a contributing editor at The Atlantic and a Washington Post columnist in addition to school and have been members of the Bal- hosting his CNN program. timore Urban Debate League (BUDL) for Born in India and educated at Yale and Harvard, where he received his Ph.D., Zakaria three years. Since joining the league, they also served as the youngest managing editor of Foreign Affairs at age 28, and was editor have won several awards for their debating of Newsweek International from 2000 to 2010 and editor-at-large at TIME from 2010- skills. 2014. They can now add one more: first place He has written bestseller books, with his latest, In Defense of a Liberal Education, listed at the 8th Annual Urban Debate National recently by the New York Times. Championship Tournament held recently Hinojosa will moderate the Council’s National Town Hall Meeting on an issue of the at the University of California in Los An- day in urban education, the pinnacle event of the Fall Conference. geles. Hosted by the National Association An award-winning trailblazer in news and investigative journalism, Hinojosa has been for Urban Debate Leagues, the three-day reporting on critical issues and the changing culture of America for some 25 years. tournament featured the top two teams from 19 urban debate leagues across the country competing against each other. Fall Conference continued on page 4 Urban Debate continued on page 4 INSIDE THE COUNCIL MAY 2015 Metropolitan Opera Taps Jacksonville School to Screen Live Performances The Metropolitan Opera recently se- lected a school in Jacksonville, Fla., as one of only three in the nation to broadcast live Met performances on its campus. The Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville joins schools in New York and Dallas in screening live perfor- mances from the Met as part of the compa- ny’s national education program to support opera in education. The Met’s HD Live in Schools program partners with some 40 school districts na- tionwide, transmitting live opera perfor- mances to local movie theaters for students to view via field trips, allowing a few hun- dred students in a district to participate. Riley Bragg, a student at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Fla., sings at the With support of community partners press conference to announce the screening of live performances from The Met. and donors, Jacksonville’s Douglas Ander- son School of the Arts’ theater has been outfitted to broadcast the performances live performances from the Met in New York Marsha Drummond, director of edu- in HD, which will allow for an estimated City at the Douglas Anderson School of cation for the Metropolitan Opera, in 3,000 students – 600 students/five shows the Arts. a news release. – to participate and view the performances “The Jacksonville community and Du- “We were immediately impressed on campus. Students formerly visited local val County Public Schools were chosen by the motivation, eagerness, and en- movie theaters for Met performances. based on the district’s level of need for arts thusiasm of the school system’s admin- Starting this fall, students in Jackson- education support and their enthusiasm to istrators and teachers in addition to the ville will be able to watch the live stage incorporate opera into the classroom,” said Opera Jacksonville’s spirit of collabo- The Met continued on page 3 Executive Director Editor Associate Editor Staff Writer Michael Casserly Henry Duvall Tonya Harris Danyell Taylor [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Council officers A newsletter published by the Council of the Great City Schools, representing 67 of the nation’s largest urban public school districts. Chair Jumoke Hinton Hodge Albuquerque Charlotte East Baton Rouge Long Beach Oakland Sacramento Board Member, Oakland Anchorage Chicago El Paso Los Angeles Oklahoma City San Diego Chair-elect Atlanta Cincinnati Fort Worth Louisville Omaha San Francisco Richard Carranza Austin Clark Co. Fresno Miami-Dade Orange Co. Santa Ana Superintendent, San Francisco Baltimore Cleveland Greensboro Milwaukee Palm Beach Seattle Birmingham Columbus Honolulu Minneapolis Philadelphia Shelby Co. Secretary-Treasurer Boston Dallas Houston Nashville Pittsburgh St. Louis Felton Williams Bridgeport Dayton Indianapolis New Orleans Portland St. Paul Board Member, Long Beach Broward Co. Denver Jackson New York City Providence Tampa Buffalo Des Moines Jacksonville Newark Richmond Toledo Charleston Detroit Kansas City Norfolk Rochester Washington DC Wichita All news items should be submitted to: Find the Council on: Urban Educator Council of the Great City Schools 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Suite 702 • Washington, DC 20004 (202) 393-2427 • (202) 393-2400 (fax) 2 | URBAN EDUCATOR URBAN EDUCATOR | 3 MAY 2015 INSIDE THE COUNCIL Albuquerque and Palm Beach Districts Name New School Chiefs; Jackson Superintendent Given Contract Extension Robert Avossa graduation increased from 76 percent in perintendent since last August. has been selected to 2011-2012 to 81 percent in 2012-2013. Valentino is no stranger to working lead Florida’s School Before coming to Fulton County, Avos- in a large urban school district, having District of Palm sa served as chief strategy and accountabil- served as the associate superintendent of Beach County, the ity officer for North Carolina’s Charlotte- curriculum and chief academic officer for state’s fifth largest Mecklenburg Schools as well as chief of the San Francisco Unified School District school district with staff. since 2012. In this position, he developed 183,000 students. “…We welcome Dr. Avossa to Palm a three-year strategic plan for the redesign Avossa is the Beach County and look forward to work- of curriculum and instruction. And for five Robert Avossa superintendent of ing with him in ensuring that all of our years, he served as director of school ser- Georgia’s Fulton students are provided a world-class educa- vices for the Los Angeles Unified School County School System, with approximate- tion,” said Board Chairman Chuck Shaw. District. ly 96,300 students. Avossa will begin his tenure with the “The Board believes that Valentino has He will succeed Wayne Gent, who is district in June. the right combination of professional ex- leaving the district to head Florida’s St. perience, ability and vision to lead the Al- Lucie County’s public schools. Albuquerque Leader buquerque Public Schools to even greater Avossa has led Fulton County Schools success than it has enjoyed in the past,” said since 2011 and under his leadership, the Luis Valentino was Albuquerque schools board president Don district was organized into smaller “Learn- recently named the su- Duran. ing Communities” to enable a decentral- perintendent of New Valentino will take the reins of the ized approach to school management and Mexico’s Albuquerque school district in July. provide schools the opportunity to work Public Schools, the more closely together and align resources. largest school district Contract Extended In addition, the district’s graduation in the state with ap- rate has increased more than 8 percentage proximately 80,000 Mississippi’s Jackson points from 70.1 percent in 2011 to 78.7 Luis Valentino students. He will suc- Public Schools has ex- percent in 2014, while the overall percent- ceed Brad Winters, perienced a decrease in age of ninth-grade students on track for who has served as the district’s interim su- the number of schools labeled low-performing as well as a decrease in discipline incidents and The Met continued from page 2 an increase in gradua- her operatic vocal talent at the Met press Cedrick Gray tion rates. The district ration,” she added. announcement in Jacksonville. She had has also embarked on “It is truly an honor to welcome The viewed Met productions when she was in its first ever 1:1 digital initiative, in which Met: HD Live in Schools program to our middle school. high school students receive a laptop com- district to serve our students,” said Duval “I’ve seen Carmen and Madame Butterfly puter or personal computing device. Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who and they were really good experiences for As a result, Cedrick Gray, who has also thanked the DuBow Family Founda- me just starting out young because I didn’t led the district since 2012, was recently tion for its support of making the program know what I was going to do or how far given a one-year contract extension that possible.