Staff Reports
A new report makes a blunt claim: New York City’s public schools have been stuck on a treadmill of failed fixes for more than a decade. The study traced schools through six different accountability systems since 2012 and found that hundreds of schools remain labeled “in need of improvement” year after year. The numbers are stark — 906 schools where a majority of students fail math, English language arts, or both, serving about 409,000 students (roughly 43% of the system) — yet the city keeps doing more of the same and expecting different results.
What the report actually found
Same schools, same problems
The report followed schools across changing state and city systems and found that roughly one-third of chronically struggling schools have been flagged for more than 10 years. In plain terms: a child who started kindergarten when a school was first identified could have finished high school before that school was turned around — if it was ever turned around at all. Every few years the city rolls out a new plan, renames or merges schools, or tweaks the accountability rules, and the pattern repeats. That’s not reform. That’s rearranging the deck chairs while students drown.
Money poured in, but results didn’t
Funding without consequences
The city now spends more than $42,000 per student, and many chronically failing schools became eligible for extra city, state and federal dollars and new improvement initiatives. Yet the report finds little lasting academic gain. That should surprise no one. You can throw cash at a problem, but if leadership, incentives and accountability stay broken, the money buys programs and consultants — not consistent learning. Add grade inflation and lax oversight into the mix, and you get a system that looks busy on paper but fails kids in the classroom.
What real change would look like
Simple, hard choices — not more studies
Policymakers have options, if they have the will. Start by making accountability real: tie funding and leadership jobs to clear, measurable student outcomes. Give parents transparent data and real alternatives — school choice, strong charter options, or replicable turnaround models — rather than forcing families to wait for bureaucratic miracles. Replace ineffective school leaders and install proven principals with authority to make staffing and curriculum changes. Stop the endless relabeling of failure and start measuring progress the way we measure success in every other part of life.
Conclusion: Enough experiments — students need results
The new report is a stark warning: decades of tinkering haven’t worked. New York City’s public school system has become expert at identifying problems and spectacularly bad at solving them. Voters, parents and elected leaders should stop treating repeated failure as an acceptable long-term plan. Kids deserve real schools that teach reading and math, not more rounds of the same failed reforms. If the city won’t change course, parents should have the power to get their children to places that will.
