GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

FROM NEW YORK CITY:

• Some are convinced that Mayor Bloomberg is planning to fire Chancellor Klein. (New York Magazine)
• The DOE is moving lots of schools around this fall to make seats for every student. (Daily News)
• Class sizes in the city’s schools are up, but no one is quite sure how much that matters. (Times)
• The high school graduation rate is up for everyone except those learning English. (Daily News)
• NPR examines the Ghetto Film School, the lead partner for a new high school opening this fall.
• A dropout from Brooklyn’s James Madison High School got his diploma — at age 100. (Post)

AND BEYOND:

• Atlanta’s school chief is the national superintendent of the year. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Michelle Rhee says she’s no longer considering a federal takeover of the D.C. schools. (Washington Post)
• The education world is having a laugh over renaming No Child Left Behind. (Times)
• The New York Times tells Arne Duncan to “stay the course” on school reform.
• Jay Mathews says KIPP schools are an example of bottom-up school reform. (Washington Post)
• Diane Ravitch says the new USDOE administration is as bad as the one it replaced. (Politico)

Jenny Medina, in her Sunday New York Times article on class size, quotes Mayor Mike Bloomberg as calling class size “an interesting number.” “It’s the teacher looking a child in the eye, and teachers can look lots of children in the eye,” he said. “If you have to have smaller class size or better teachers, go with the better teachers every time.”

skoolboy thinks this is idiotic. “It’s the teacher looking a child in the eye”? What does that even mean? How much time has Mayor Mike spent looking children in the eye in real classrooms? Is looking children in the eye the key to good teaching? Somehow, I thought it was more complicated than that.

No, Mayor Mike will go with “better teachers” over smaller classes every time—as if it’s all that easy to identify these better teachers. Then there’s the thorny problem that who is identified as a “better teacher” may depend on a teacher’s access to adequate resources—and a smaller class with fewer disruptive students may be such a resource. (more…)

• Check out this amazing debate on teacher quality, going on in the comments to Aaron Pallas’ latest.
• The state education department is soliciting teachers’ thoughts about the annual testing regime.
• The Department of Education released its calendar for pre-K admissions.
• Caroline Kennedy is getting an award for her school fundraising from the United Negro College Fund.
• The union newspaper calls out the principal at IS 218 in Manhattan for causing all kinds of problems.
• The Economist honors former ed, now City Hall reporter for asking Mayor Bloomberg a good question.
• Sherman Dorn likes Ed Sector’s push for technologically innovative tests, but has one problem.
• In search of answers to the “creaming” question, a request for information from charter schools.

The blue line represents parents grading the system an A or B; the green line is parents who gave it a D or F.

To prove that parents — and especially poor parents — approve of the changes that Mayor Bloomberg has brought to the schools, his administration often cites data collected by a group called the Community Service Society, which every year conducts a survey of low-income families called “The Unheard Third.” The troubling thing about this data is that it doesn’t exist anywhere on the Internet. (When I referred to it earlier today, I just plucked the figures Klein cites.)

Until now! Thanks to a spokeswoman at CSS who just called me back, I’ve got the numbers from all the surveys that asked a question about the school system since 2002. They tell a story that is encouraging, but less black and white than Klein has had it. “We don’t want to paint such a rosy picture that people say, ‘Oh, everything is good,’ because it truly is not,” the spokeswoman, Tracy Mumford, told me.

The data suggest that more parents gave the school system a high A or B grade on the survey in 2007 than did so in 2002: The number is up to 35% from 22%. Less encouragingly, the percentage of families who grade the system an F, 11%, is still higher than the percentage who grade it an A, 9%, and the F percentage has been climbing since 2005. C remains the most common grade by far, and the portion of parents grading the schools a C has actually risen since 2002, by one percentage point.

The figures also suggest that the path to higher satisfaction has been bumpy, with parent upset rising to a peak in 2005 — the same year Mayor Bloomberg won re-election. The result is that while the portion of parents giving D and F grades has fallen substantially since 2005, the change since 2002 is less dramatic.

Here’s one other way to look at the figures graphically, below the jump, plus a chart showing the raw numbers: (more…)

A recent poll found that while half of public school parents approve of Mayor Bloomberg’s takeover of the school, half do not. Two mothers I met yesterday underscore that divide.

The first mother, who lives in Park Slope, told me she feared her daughter’s school would spend too much time prepping kids for standardized tests. It’s a familiar worry: that schools eschew instruction that stimulates creative thinking when they know they’ll be evaluated on the basis of their state test scores. (A new study has borne out this fear, at least for schools that fare the worst on the city’s evaluation system, Elizabeth reported yesterday.)

Chancellor Joel Klein speaks to two Explore Charter School parents. PTA president Stephanie Campbell is on the left.

Later, while I was at Explore Charter School in Flatbush for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s visit, PTA president Stephanie Campbell told me she loves how much her sixth-grade son is tested. Teachers at Explore are vigilant about identifying and addressing problems her son is having, she said. At his neighborhood school, which he last attended as a first-grader in 2004, teachers didn’t generate the data that would have revealed a delay, Campbell said. “I didn’t know he had a problem with reading until he got here,” she said.

Now, Campbell said she uses the results of her son’s frequent tests to know what skills she should work on with him at home. In fact, even though she said she likes Explore’s small classes of about 16 students, she said the frequest testing is the school’s feature she values most. “As long as we keep testing, it’s okay with me if you put 30 kids in the class,” she said.

I believe that our current system of teacher certification requirements could be greatly improved.  I think we should focus more on competency exams and less on required coursework, especially if that coursework has a questionable relationship to teacher effectiveness.  Also, I think we should liberalize the ability of high-performing schools to make exceptions to any coursework-related certification requirements.

When I debate this issue, perhaps the most common questions revolve around comparisons to doctors and lawyers.  Would you go to a doctor who didn’t go to medical school?  Do you think lawyers shouldn’t have to go to law school?  Here are some of my thoughts on these questions.

1. In general, I don’t have the option to see a doctor or lawyer who didn’t go to professional school.  (Lawyers, in a few states, can be admitted to the bar without completing law school, but this is uncommon.)  Before the 20th century, I would have had more choices, but movements lead by the medical and law schools and by professionals who were concerned with excessive competition have managed to eliminate almost all alternative routes.  (I recommend “The Social Transformation of American Medicine” by Paul Starr and “American Law in the 20th Century” by Lawrence Friedman for the gory details.)  Here is some advice from one well-known lawyer who couldn’t afford law school. (more…)

His handling of the public schools may be second only to crime on Mayor Bloomberg’s bragging list, but a new Marist poll finds that voters rate his handling of the schools second to last, below crime, security, taxes, and even public transportation.

The portion of voters who approve of Bloomberg’s schools policy, 40%, was higher only than the portion who approve of his handling of unemployment, 36%. By contrast, 71% of voters said they approve of the mayor’s handling of crime, 50% said they approve of his economic development work, and 41% said they approve of his work with public transportation.

Several of these policy areas generated higher approval ratings than the last time Marist asked these questions, in 2005. The approval rating on schools did not change, while the disapproval rating dropped one percentage point, to 52% from 53%.

The poll adds to a small and decidedly mixed body of public opinion data on the school reforms Bloomberg undertook in 2002. (more…)

I grew up in a Pennsylvania town with a country club that didn’t admit blacks and Jews. The exclusion was taken for granted, even in these minority communities; there were no public protests or even public acknowledgment of the situation, and I think that over time it came to feel natural or normal. There were other choices for those blacks and Jews who wanted a place to swim, play golf, or play tennis. The country club didn’t seem to be in the domain of possible choices. My guess is that the black and Jewish members of the other clubs in town would have expressed satisfaction with their choices. But the fact is that blacks and Jews were excluded from the country club, even if they reported being satisfied with the clubs they chose.

I was reminded of the country club when I read the U.S. Office of Civil Rights (OCR) disposition of David Bloomfield’s complaint about small high schools in New York City excluding students with disabilities and limited English proficient students. Based on data provided by the NYC DOE, the OCR determined that there was insufficient evidence that the DOE’s policy of an “optional waiting period” allowing new small high schools in New York City to defer admitting disabled students or students with limited English proficiency was excluding disabled and limited English proficient students from the new small high schools during the first three years of each small school’s existence.

If the data that the DOE submitted to OCR hold up under closer scrutiny, that’s good news for rising ninth-grade students with disabilities and with limited English proficiency – although perhaps thin gruel for those disabled and LEP students in the past who sought entry to a small high school that did not welcome them. “Phase-in” policies often disadvantage some in the short-run in the hopes of benefiting more in the long-run, and there are legitimate arguments for and against such policies. (more…)

The national branch of our local teachers union apparently has decided that the story of the KIPP charter school network’s alleged resistance to a unionizing drive is a national story. I just got a fancy memorandum from the American Federation of Teachers’ press office addressed to “Education Writers.” The memo, titled “KIPP AMP Unionization Facts,” summarizes the story and offers to put journalists in touch with the Brooklyn teachers waging the campaign.

It includes more detailed language describing one of the accusations than I had heard before:

Under the guise of discussing testing, school leaders met with students and asked them for “dirt” on the teachers who favor unionization. As inappropriate as that is on its face, the meeting also took place during the school day, interfering with instructional time. This behavior does not fit into KIPP’s five pillars: high expectations, choice and commitment, more time, power to lead and focus on results.

I called Dave Levin, the superintendent of New York City KIPP schools, for comment not too long ago but haven’t heard back yet.

Here’s the full memo: (more…)

• In Brooklyn, Ed Sec Duncan praised New York City’s school reforms. (GothamSchools, City Room, Post)
• Mayor Bloomberg reiterated his belief that teacher layoffs would no longer be necessary. (WNYC)
• Families who don’t win a spot at their local schools this fall will be able to try again. (Downtown Express)
• In Texas, kids can now stay in school until they’re 25. (Dallas Morning News)
• Famed chef Alice Waters says a recession is a great time to reexamine school lunches. (Times)
• After bombing the SAT, a journalist and SAT tutor says its time to scrap the test. (Daily News)
• Jay Mathews suggests strategies to prepare more kids for college-level work. (Washington Post)
• A Baltimore school leader dispels what he says are five myths about education. (Washington Post)