Dear Colleagues,

Yesterday, voters reelected Mayor Bloomberg to a third term in office. In an election where
education was a major focus, the outcome is truly a testament to your hard work and
accomplishments—and what they have meant for our students. Over the past year especially,
you brought about historic achievement gains despite the worst economic climate since the Great
Depression. And you kept your focus even as our schools and our students’ progress were
challenged during the loud debate over mayoral control and then, of course, the long campaign.

This third term provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to build on our success and take it
to the next level. Many of you remember how things used to be. For decades, our schools were
characterized by a revolving door of leadership and reforms that never had the support to
produce any sustained results. That all changed in 2002. By the end of this four-year term, the
city will have experienced 12 years of consistent and bold educational vision.

Mayor Bloomberg’s continuity of leadership has led to historic achievement gains and what I
hope is a permanent culture shift—creating a school system that puts the interests of students
above all else. Today, our students have many more good school options from which to choose.
Our teaching force is more highly qualified. And principals have more authority than ever to
make decisions that best meet the needs of their schools. But as proud as I am of what we’ve
accomplished—raising our graduation rate by 15 points (to 61 percent), for example—so far we
are still a school system capable of graduating just six out of ten students in four years. We must
do better than that for our kids and frankly, for the future of this city.

We’ll get there by building on what we know works and by being prepared to innovate. We will
continue to be guided by the pillars of leadership, empowerment, and accountability. The best
decision we made was to focus our reforms on individual schools and the talents of those who
lead them. As you know, we demand more than ever from our schools—and that will not change.
We must continually set higher standards to ensure our children are prepared to tackle real-world
challenges. That’s why I support more rigorous assessments and graduation requirements for our
students. To help you meet and exceed these expectations, we’ve given you more information
than ever to help your students achieve. Tools like ARIS and inquiry teams, for example, help
identify students’ strengths and weaknesses so you can better target instruction, and we will
continue to expand these resources.

But it’s also time to take a fresh look at how we organize our schools and deliver instruction: for
too long, public education has been immune to innovation and that cannot continue. We already
are piloting several models that reorganize our classrooms, redistribute our teacher talent, and
take advantage of technology. Several other ideas are in the planning stages, and we need even
more of them. We’re redefining Career and Technical Education so that our curriculum is tied to
college standards and prepares students for jobs that are currently in demand. Indeed, for the first
time, working with CUNY, we’ve created an integrated 9-14 CTE school where students get a
high school diploma and an Associate’s Degree. And Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to open 100
more charter schools if Albany raises—or lifts altogether—the current cap on their creation. As
always, I encourage you to e-mail me with your ideas and share your experiences.

With school improvement both a local and, now, a national priority, there has never been a more
exciting time to be working in public education. The expectations for this third term are high and
the debates will be noisy, but after more than seven years, we’re used to that. I’m confident New
York City will once again lead the way.

Sincerely,

Joel I. Klein