NEW YORK, NY October 02, 2003 — Mayor Bloomberg has promised to reform the city school system with the same zeal his predecessor devoted to the war on crime. Bloomberg - and his chancellor, Joel Klein - have tried to streamline the unwieldy system with a new management structure and core curriculum. As part of our ongoing series, Reading, Writing and Reform, WNYC's Beth Fertig examines the changes through the eyes of one Junior High school principal in Queens.

KIDS: Good morning, good morning, Hi Mister Moore!

William Moore believes he runs a pretty tight ship as the principal of Middle School 202 in Ozone Park. He monitors the halls when students arrive for school in the morning. And he keeps a watchful eye for any disruptions - as well as boys who forget to remove their hats.

MOORE: See they know, they turn the corner and they take the hats and the do-rags off.

Moore is in his third year as principal here. But this fall, he isn't the only one watching over the building and its classrooms. As part of the restructuring, he's also being watched by regional supervisors. One is Joanne Brucella. Her official title is local instructional superintendent, and she works very closely with Moore.

BRUCELLA: We sit and we observe lessons, we talk about what we've seen, just walk through the halls and notice the tone of the building.

MOORE: And it helps us to see growth from one visit to the next in classrooms. And we can have discussion with teachers, we liked what we saw in this area and then we would make recommendations for improvement.

Brucella supervises 9 different principals in Region 5, which includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn. She stops by MS 202 about 3 times a week. On this day she visits a seventh grade social studies class.

KID: Tell me about the Virginia government. KID: Governing the colonies also provided difficulties.

When the teacher sees Brucella, she explains how her students are using laptop computers to compile information they've learned about colonial America.

TEACHER: It's a review so all of them are going through the chapter and outlining the key points of Jamestown. BRUCELLA: What had you done previous to this before you got into that? TEACHER: This is a review so it's Powerpoint

Brucella carries a notebook during her visits. She checks to see if desks are arranged by groups, instead of by rows, to facilitate more interaction. She also looks for examples of student work posted on bulletin boards. The teacher, Ellen Plunkett, admits she was nervous when regional supervisors began showing up in her classroom.

PLUNKETT: Yes, very hesitant at first because you knew everybody was going to be in and out all the time. But now that it's actually happening you see what they're around for, so it's not like they're coming every day and saying you're doing something wrong, it's just to make sure everything's the way it should be.

Teachers were especially afraid of these visits because they're working with a brand new curriculum for math and literacy. Principal Moore says every math and reading class in a particular grade is supposed to be doing the same thing.

MOORE: I mean this is fantastic because I can walk into any class and know what I'm supposed to be seeing. And it really makes the students' learning more on task and on target.

The change in management is also supposed to improve the flow of what's happening outside the classroom. Upstairs, Moore shows off an old home economics lab that's finally being converted into a regular classroom. He and the previous principal had been requesting renovations for 13 years.

MOORE: I brought this to the attention of Ms. Brucella that children were in a room with stoves and ovens - it's very common in public schools for this to take place - and they were able to within 2-3 weeks have the work begun.

Moore says this direct link to the school system's bureaucracy, and the core curriculum, have enabled him to spend more time focusing on instruction.

The Chancellor's office had promised these reforms would give principals more control. They're also now in charge of their budgets. And that can lead to difficult choices in a time of limited resources. The new curriculum demands more class time for math and literacy - meaning less time for other subjects. So, Moore cut a health teacher and sixth grade Spanish. But he didn't want to lose the arts.

TEACHER: see this deck, this is a video deck, just like you have VHS at home.

In a tiny room downstairs, a few students are gathered around a video monitor and mixing board. This was previously a television studio for the old District 27. But Moore turned it into a media lab.

MOORE: By combining it with social studies we're inter-disciplinizing social studies with literacy and the arts and the TV studio or the media center. So that the children are now exposed to 4 different aspects where before they would just have art.

Like other Middle School principals, Moore also encouraged his visual arts teachers to incorporate literature. But even creative planning couldn't prevent some schools from reducing art and music classes, angering parents who say the new focus on math and literacy is hurting other valuable programs.

TEACHER: you guys have in your writers notebooks...

At Middle School 202, some classes are at the limit of 36 students. Moore has arranged for other teachers in the building to take half of each English class during the 90 minutes allotted to reading and writing, allowing students to work in smaller groups. Twelve year-old Sunjum Hussain says an hour and a half is a long time for one class; but she agrees it's better this way.

HUSSAIN: You get to do your work, you get to finish your work on time. Don't have to do it for homework later. It's helping me more, more in writing and everything. (Fade sound)

Overcrowding is still an issue, though. While Moore's enrollment is smaller this year, he's still got more than 1400 students in a building for 1250. And some principals are grappling with mandatory transfers from other schools.

Privately, many principals are fuming about this burden. Some also complain about getting too many visits from bureaucrats carrying checklists, a complaint echoed by the teachers. Their union president claims they're being turned into robo-teachers by a corporate style of management. Joseph Giordano is the union rep at MS 202. He says some staffers are nervous about supervisors visiting their classes. And he thinks the changes are all happening too fast.

GIORDANO: You know it's new people, different problems, everyone has a better idea and I don't think they really thought this through that well.

Giordano says he's seen some chaos. While school gets out 45 minutes later on Tuesdays nobody in the region made arrangements with the bus company that's supposed to pick up the students. The issue was finally resolved last week.

William Moore agrees there have been some bumps in the road. And, like any principal, he's anxious about how these sweeping changes will affect the test scores at his school. Just about a third of his students were reading at grade level last year. That's actually a big improvement in this enormously diverse low- to middle-income neighborhood. Still, Moore believes the changes can lead to greater improvements.

MOORE: The system wasn't doing as well as it should have. So this change was inevitable I believe. And if it is embraced whole heartedly I think it will make a big difference in children's lives. And that's what we're trying to do.

Of course, that's a pretty big IF in a system of 1200 schools. There's no guarantee all teachers and principals will embrace these changes. And those in charge of the new regime are also still finding their way. But with political pressure from above - and the future of more than a million students at stake - everyone's hoping these reforms will make a difference in the lives of children. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.