NYC’s #1 Source for Political & Election News
A word with the new NYC schools chancellor
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | DEC. 17 - DEC. 23, 2021 17
BY STEPHEN WITT
Eagle Academy Founder and CEO
David Banks was recently appointed
by Mayor-elect Eric Adams to become
the New York City schools chancellor
in January.
Banks is a pioneering educator
with decades of experience in the
New York City school system. Born
in Crown Heights, he attended public
schools and credits two inspirational
teachers for inspiring him to become
an educator. He began his career in
1986 as a teacher at P.S. 167 in Crown
Heights. After working as an assistant
principal at P.S. 191, he co-founded the
Bronx School of Law, Government,
and Justice before founding Eagle
Academy, a network of district schools
that serve low-income Black and Latino
boys in grades six through twelve.
Eagle Academy schools currently have
a campus in each borough and consistently
outperform other City schools.
Schneps Media recently had the
opportunity to interview Mr. Banks
on his plans for running the nation’s
largest school system. The following
interview was lightly edited for clarity
and length.
Schneps Media (SM): On WPIX
you floated the idea of having more
elite schools with different admissions
criteria. Can you expound
about that and does this mean you
are okay with the SHSAT at the
current Elite schools?
David Banks (DB): What I’m doing
right now is working with MayoreElect
Adams and his position right
now is he doesn’t want to change
admissions criteria for the current
schools, and so the notion of creating
more specialized schools is something
again that the mayor-elect has talked
about. And those additional schools
would have a different set of admission
criteria. Maybe instead of just
accepting students that take the test,
we’ll look at other things like community
service and teacher recommendations.
It could be a number of
things. We haven’t settled on it yet. I’m
just saying that it is possible to have
a different set of admissions criteria.
Maybe just taking the top students
in the 3 to 5% of the graduating class
from middle school and opening it up.
I think these students have already
proven that they’re the most accelerated
hardworking learners in our
middle schools. And so you’re looking
at different approaches, but we don’t
have a stated position on it yet. I’m not
even in the office, but it’s offering just
kind of a general, big picture vision
here.
SM: Mayor-elect Adams has mentioned
on the campaign trail more of
a year-round school year. Do you have
any ideas on how you would like to see
the school year change – for example
four days a week instead of five during
the school year and institute that
as year-round schooling?
DB: Again, it’s still an idea that
has to be developed and we have not
developed it as of yet. What we are
saying is that we want to be taking
full advantage of all the time that we
possibly can. It’s going to be critically
important. That means what do you
do after three o’clock for the use of extended
learning time, or use Saturday,
something that we do at the Eagle
Academy. A lot of our boys come to
school on Saturday, as well. And then
there is summertime. For many of our
kids that’s a dead zone where there’s
nothing going on for two months. We
want to take advantage of that. It’s really
important. That’s something that
came to light with what’s been happening
with COVID where so many of our
kids have really fallen even further
behind.
But that does not necessarily mean
mandating that all teachers have to
work Saturdays or after school, or in
the summer. We will certainly look at
opportunities for teachers to get additional
pay, but we also want to engage
community-based organizations.
There are thousands of communitybased
organizations across the state
who are ready to lean in and we want
to provide an opportunity for them
to provide additional support after
school. So you know, a young person
may go for basic core work with the
regular teachers during the school
day but after school, maybe they’re
working with the Children’s Aid Society,
Good Shepherd, or all the other
organizations as they work in these
spaces. Utilizing places like the PAL
(Police Athletic League).
SM: The needs of special needs
kids are pretty broad, but what will
be your immediate initiatives for
kids with special needs in public
schools?
DB: Access to services is so critically
important. I can’t say what
would be the thing most immediately
needed, but I’m literally just coming
from visiting the Windward School
on the Upper East Side. It’s the preeminent
but private school in New
York State for kids with dyslexia. So
I think one of the first things we’re
going to be doing is screening to identify
the many kids in our system that
have never been identified with these
learning disabilities.
We’re going to have to develop
a level of professional development
and training for each student where
they’re able to help provide a level
of deeper context for the teaching of
reading. The basic approach that we
use right now is something called balanced
literacy. I think this has been
a failed approach, and particularly
for Black and brown kids. I certainly
would like to see us return to a phonetic
approach to teaching reading,
which I think is based in real-time.
That’s what they do at the Windward
School, and they turn the lives around
of so many young people. The challenge
is that a place like Windward is
a place that pretty much is for affluent
families, overwhelmingly white families
who could afford to take a course.
But I don’t think you need to be white
and afford to learn how to read and
so that’s what we’re going to be committed
to doing. A full-on redirection
of our school system and teaching our
kids the fundamental nature of how
to read. It’s going to take them a while
and it won’t happen overnight, but our
commitment will begin on day one.
SM: What common ground with
the United Federation of Teachers
union would you point out as a starting
point to working with them in
partnership to improve city schools?
DB: I think the UFT as a union
should be focused on how to provide
the best experience for the teachers.
I want the teachers to have that joy of
teaching, and you get a joy of teaching
when you have a level of success.
The UFT currently has a bill that
they’ve been promoting on reducing
class size. I don’t know that we’ll
be able to do that for the entire system,
but in areas of the greatest level
of overcrowding, we can work very
closely with the teachers union on
that. We want to be able to offer up a
little bit more autonomy throughout
the schools, particularly in the middle
and high school level, to be able to help
create a curriculum that will work
best for the population that they have.
We want to be able to offer that kind
of freedom to schools, but it’s got to be
what I call earned autonomy. You can’t
tell me that you want autonomy when
all the kids are at a failing school. So
we’ve got to put some basic metrics in
place. I’ve been a union member have
throughout my career as a teacher as
part of the UFT and was a CSA Council
of School Supervisors & Administrators
union member when I became
an assistant principal and a principal.
I believe in what unions represent, but
there are limits. We want the union
to be partners for the greatest good of
what needs to happen in our schools
and for our teachers.
SM: Finally, If you were to revisit
your tenure as chancellor in 10
years what accomplishments would
you take pride in seeing?
DB: A very reimagined school system.
That kids are not locked in on
day-to-day school. That you’ll school
connected to mastery learning and
not the traditional 45 minute period
that you have in high school for four
years until we graduate you. I would
love to engage in mastery learning
where magic kids could graduate high
school in three years if they’ve mastered
all the content, providing that
type of incentive. I want to see kids in
high school openly engage in the corporate
space through internships. I
want to see a teaching course that has
been exposed to what the 21st-century
economy and workforce really look
like. Teachers have no idea what it
means to work at Google or Microsoft.
I want to see them in a professional development
experience. Those are some
DAVID C. BANKS
PoliticsNYnews PoliticsNYnews PoliticsNY.com PoliticsNYnews
/QNS.COM
/PoliticsNY.com
