GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Upper East Side parents say they’re changing their plans and picking public schools because of the toll the financial crisis has taken on their bank accounts.

They aired the complaints at a meeting last night about overcrowding in public schools on the Upper East Side. (More on this later today.) Parents said department officials underestimate how many children will enter the neighborhood’s schools this fall, in part because many Upper East Siders can no longer afford the pricey private schools attended by as many as 60 percent of families in one part of the neighborhood.

One mother, Caroline Hall, said at the meeting that she’s pulling her son out of his private school when he starts kindergarten in the fall. I filmed her comments:

Hall, who works on Wall Street as a lawyer, told me that many people she knows saw their bonuses drop by 50 to 80 percent last year. “Most people rely on their bonus to play for things like private school,” she said. While Hall and I talked, we were approached by a father whose children attend an overcrowded school in the neighborhood. Hall recognized him from their company — but he said he is no longer employed.

Okay, not 24 hours. But check out the mayor’s public schedule. Not one moment without teachers union president Randi Weingarten:

PUBLIC SCHEDULE FOR
MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2009

*11:00 AM     Joins American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten at Meeting of the New York State Democratic Congressional Delegation to Discuss Economic Stimulus Conference Report
H-137 U.S. Capitol Building
WASHINGTON, DC
*FYI Only. This meeting is closed to press.

*12:15 PM      Joins American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to Discuss Economic Stimulus Conference Report with Senator Susan Collins (R – ME)
401 Dirksen Senate Office Building
WASHINGTON, DC
*FYI Only. This meeting is closed to press.

*1:00 PM        Joins American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to Discuss Economic Stimulus Conference Report and Hold Media Availability with House Education Chairman George Miller (D – CA) and House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D – NY) (more…)

A reader informed me this week that Michelle Rhee, the indomitable D.C. schools chancellor, is speaking at Pace University tonight. “What a hot tip!” I replied. “How did you find out?” “I think I found this on GothamSchools…” my Deep Throat said.

Moral: Do not forget about our excellent calendar, which updates itself based on your event tips! Tonight not only is Rhee speaking at Pace, but the Citywide Council on Special Education is having an open meeting about the coming special ed overhaul — featuring Garth Harries, the school official who will lead the changes, and Marcia Lyles, the deputy chancellor for teaching and learning.

Just days into Harries’ assignment on the special education beat, advocates have already criticized Chancellor Joel Klein for choosing him, complaining that Harries lacks any experience with special education. Tonight, Harries will have a chance to explain his plans.

• Three busloads of New Yorkers lobbied in D.C. for the stimulus bill yesterday. (Daily News)
• A $30 million state data system doesn’t work, its critics say. (Post)
• College awareness is in the curriculum at a Bensonhurst elementary school. (Daily News)
• The Daily News says the state should change the law to let Catholic schools become charters.
• Nationally, nearly 600,000 educators’ jobs are at risk, a study has found. (USA Today)
• A Colorado school district is doing away with grade levels altogether. (Christian Science Monitor)

• We are chirping into Twitter land. Please advise.
• Among the UFT’s list of recommended budget cuts: downsize accountability and downsize the press office.
• St. Louis lawmakers are lumping charter schools in with sex-toy shops and liquor stores. (Via Eduwonk.)
• The stimulus the Senate passed has more edu-dollars than the entire USDOE discretionary budget.
• Head Start is a stimulus; it provides jobs, often to poor women, and helps parents work. (Via Early Stories.)
• Head Start should not go into the stimulus with no strings attached.
• Arne Duncan seems to be creeping toward national standards.
• Richard Whitmire asks Congress to remember charter schools when writing the stimulus.
• Diane Ravitch says the “miracle teacher” is a myth.

As he gears up to run for a third term, Mayor Bloomberg announced today that he has made good on a 2005 campaign promise to double the number of charter schools in the city.

Bloomberg said in October 2005 that he would bring the number of charter schools in the city to 100 by the end of his second term this year. At the time, there were fewer than 50 charters open in the city, and state law allowed only 100 charters altogether. The law changed in 2007 and since then, the state, city Department of Education, and SUNY system have granted charters at breakneck speed. This fall, 100 charter schools will be open in the city.

Bloomberg’s vigorous lobbying influenced the legislature’s decision two years ago to permit more charters, and today, his support for the movement won him a “Champion for Charters” award from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, an organization that promotes the schools. The award ceremony took place at Brooklyn Charter School, a Bedford-Stuyvesant elementary school that was the first DOE-authorized charter school.

The number of charter schools operating in the city grew from 17 when Bloomberg first took office in 2002 to 78 this school year. This fall, there will be anywhere from 99 to 104 charters open, depending on the results of Bloomberg’s attempt to convert some shrinking Catholic schools to charters and on whether the State Education Department approves the first charter school for Staten Island. (That school would serve children with special needs.) A couple of low-performing charter schools have also closed. On average, charter schools outperform other city public schools on state tests and on the city’s progress reports.

The city’s full press release about Bloomberg’s award, and the rise in the number of charter schools, is after the jump. Also in the press release: a list of 25 charter schools that will open either in the fall or in 2010. (more…)

Liz Willen, the Brooklyn mom and kick-ass education writer who has been chronicling her son’s high school admissions process at InsideSchools, has a vivid description today of the apparently wretched post-selection aftermath:

…but if you think parents are mystified and anxious this week, just check in on Facebook posts. If you don’t have your own Facebook to compare notes with other parents, ask your child to share — if they are willing. You will see status updates about tears and depression, along with posts expressing anger, happiness and disgust about having to wait until late March for a “match.” The Facebook friends are offering one another words of comfort, like “everything happens for a reason,” or “Not everyone likes Stuyvesant anyway.”

There are discussions of how the wrong kids get in, along with notes and advice comparing the different schools and lots of the standard: “You rock dude!” and “congrats, ur awesome!”

She raises a lot of questions, from how in the world the most selective schools (Beacon, Bard, Townsend Harris) pick their students to whether New York City’s ambitious, subway-savvy families would be happy with the Leave it to Beaver neighborhood high school alternative.

There’s also the question of whether selective high schools meet Chancellor Joel Klein’s equity goals. Seth Andrew, the charter school principal in Harlem, calls what the selective schools do “creaming.”

Among those who have commented on Elizabeth’s post about journalist Jay Mathews’ seven KIPP myths are one of the charter school chain’s most vocal critics; a graduate of a KIPP school in Philadelphia; and Mathews himself. It’s a vibrant discussion and one you should check out.

One topic of debate is whether KIPP schools “cream” students — that is, whether the students who enter their lotteries are better prepared academically or socially, thus priming the schools to outperform their local competitors. In the comments section of Elizabeth’s post, Seth Andrew, the head of Harlem’s Democracy Prep Charter School, argues that other public schools are far more guilty than charters of creaming. He writes:

Traditional Public Schools “cream” far more than charter schools throughout New York. I attended NYC Public schools from grade k-12, and I always took a test before being enrolled. The NYC middle school process evaluates students by their test scores, grades, attendance, and even has parent interviews for a number of traditional public schools. Whether it’s great traditional public schools like FDA, Bronx Science, or Anderson, that require specific entry requirements or G&T tests, or traditional schools that select based on other factors, traditional public schools are far more guilty of “creaming” (both in terms of agressiveness and quantity of students effected) than charters could ever be. We have a legal mandate to enroll by a random lottery.

Members of Class 4/3. Image from Sony Pictures Classics

Yesterday I took a break from blogging to check out “The Class,” the French movie about a year in the life of an urban classroom that took the top prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Among the movie’s many fans: Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, apparently.

Michael Barker, the Sony Pictures Classics executive who brought the movie to the United States, showed Klein the movie before it hit the theaters. (Klein’s wife, Nicole Seligman, is a Sony executive.) From the L.A. Times:

One of the first things Barker did when he brought the film to America was to screen it for Joel Klein, an old friend who is the New York City schools chancellor. “He adored it,” Barker says. “He recognized right away that ‘The Class’ was about the challenges every school system in America has in trying to deal with multiculturalism.”

For all of the hype about the movie, I expected its main character, Mr. Marin, to be a better teacher. (more…)

The latest issue of Education Next has a study on Philadelphia’s experiment in having outside groups manage public school. The study, by two Harvard researchers, finds that for-profit school managers, including schools run by the commercial Edison Learning company, ran schools better than both the school district and non-profit groups.

The for-profit vs. nonprofit breakdown does not apply in New York, where all outside support organizations are not-for-profits. But the study’s authors suggest that the variable of real importance might be not the profit motive, but experience:

The two main for-profit providers had much more experience with school management than did any of the nonprofit organizations. The nonprofits seem to have been selected more for their strong political ties than for any history of effectiveness at delivering educational services. Others have reported that newly formed charter schools under both for-profit and nonprofit management appear to become more effective as they gain in experience. That could easily account for the pattern of results reported here.

The Department of Education is evaluating school support organizations as I type. Chief Schools Officer Eric Nadelstern said the results should be out in the spring. He told me he doesn’t predict that outside (PSO) vs. district (LSO) support groups’ performance will follow any clear pattern. “It’s likely to cut both ways,” he said. “Some of the PSO’s will be high-ranking and others will not. It’s going to be hard to draw hard and fast distinctions by SSO type.”