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Some high schools allow students who fail a class to get credit for it anyway by completing a short course or special project in a controversial practice known as “credit recovery.” But despite the practice’s widespread use, credit recovery has actually never been permitted under state regulations, which require a certain amount of “seat time” for students to earn course credit.

Now, the practice could soon get a green light from the State Education Department, which last year said it would review whether credit recovery met its standards for course completion. At its meeting this week, the Board of Regents reviewed a proposal from SED for a formal policy on what the department called “‘making-up’ course credit.” 

The proposed policy, which SED developed in collaboration with the city Department of Education, does away with seat time as a basic standard for whether students earn high school course credit. The proposal would require schools to establish committees of teachers and administrators to determine whether a student’s make-up work should receive credit. It would not require that students spend a specific amount of time making up the credit, but it would mandate that replacement instruction be given by a teacher certified in the subject. (The full proposal is at the end of this post.)

SED Deputy Commissioner Johanna Duncan-Poitier told the committee that a policy is needed because credit recovery programs are becoming more prevalent. (more…)

Part of the million pennies raised by schools through Penny Harvest. Photo from Insideschools.

City principals will have to submit plans in October explaining how they’ll meet the Mayor Bloomberg’s new service requirement for schools, but it shouldn’t be an onerous task for most of them.

Most schools, particularly at the high school level, already engage in some service, according to Department of Education spokeswoman Kerri Lyon. At Manhattan Bridges High School in Midtown, for example, students have always been required to log 40 hours of service before they graduate, Principal Mirza Sanchez Medina told me yesterday. Other schools announced service initiatives this week that were planned before Bloomberg’s announcement: Students from the Academy of Urban Planning and the Bushwick School for Social Justice planted 16 trees in between their campuses in honor of Earth Day, and kids at Harlem’s PS 57 pitched ideas for community-improvement grants to Scholastic’s Be Big Fund.

For the many schools that already engage in service, the mayor’s initiative should expand the number of volunteer options available to students, Lyon said. And schools that have never participated in service before can start slowly, such as by joining Penny Harvest, the popular program where kids donate pennies to charities of their choice, she said. (more…)

Councilman Bill de Blasio at PS 154, which stopped using Styrofoam trays this spring. Photo from Gowanus Lounge

A year after the Department of Education promised to get its schools recycling, a councilmember complains they are still woefully behind the curve. Bill de Blasio, a council member from Brooklyn, announced today (Earth Day) that the DOE has not followed through on its promise to implement recycling in its schools by naming a “recycling coordinator” to head up each school. Half of the 44 schools de Blasio contacted have yet to name a recycling coordinator.

“Almost one year ago the Department of Education promised us results but now, on Earth Day, they are still behind the curve,” de Blasio said in a statement.

The debate over recycling in public schools has been raging for quite a while. The City Council passed a mandatory recycling law in 1989, and five years later the public school system was found to be in violation of that law. The delay in recycling was attributed to “bureaucratic apathy,” a characterization that critics are echoing 15 years later. The DOE mandates that all schools recycle, but leaves enforcement up to each individual school. In 2007, the Department of Sanitation estimated a 9.5 percent recycling rate for public schools, which lagged behind the citywide rate of 16.5 percent, suggesting that some kids might be recycling at home but not at their school.

City council members have been championing efforts to green schools. This spring, de Blasio led a crusade to ban environmentally loathsome Styrofoam trays from school cafeterias. Fellow City Councilman Lew Fidler has been pushing for schools to use energy-efficient light bulbs.

UPDATE: The Department of Education released a statement saying 1,223 schools have recycling coordinators who will be receiving training this spring from the Department of Sanitation.

From New York City:

• A new report says NYC’s graduation rate has risen by the sixth-highest amount nationally. (Daily News)
• The city still has one of the largest graduation gaps when compared to nearby suburban districts. (Times)
• The DOE is no longer trying to change state law to turn Catholic schools into charters. (Times)
• A state labor board is set to rule today on the unionization efforts of KIPP AMP teachers. (Post)
• A Queens student was arrested after he took a gun through a metal detector at his school. (Post)
• A school fire safety system that a whistleblower said was flawed failed a test yesterday. (Daily News)
• A new coffee table book highlights art on display at city public schools. (City Room)
• Community education councils, the parent councils in each district, remain anemic. (WNYC)

And beyond:

• Democrats for Education Reform hired a former Sheldon Silver aide as its chief state lobbyist. (Post)
• The College Board wants undocumented students to become eligible for financial aid. (USA Today)
• The stimulus is giving hope and anxiety to teachers whose jobs might be cut. (Christian Science Monitor)
• Arne Duncan argues for an “honest assessment” of what works in education. (Wall Street Journal)
• Thomas Friedman reports on a study calculating how much bad schools have cost the country. (Times)
• The Times says the USDOE should really make sure states give stimulus money to the poorest districts.
• A new study concludes that California’s high school exit exam has hurt lots of students. (LA Times)

• Above is Stephen Colbert at the event this morning, talking about what a loser he was in high school.
• The principal of P.S. 20 is re-thinking his offer to hold a public meeting about his performance.
• Russo confesses that he once decided not to work for Sandra Feldman at the UFT — and regrets it.
• Lindsey at InsideSchools reports from the first-every lottery for Coney Island Prep, a new charter.
• Need to fulfill the new community service requirement? Here’s a chance in Bedford Stuyvesant.
• A Boston teacher follows Pallas’ lead, comparing actual Boston charter schools to suburban ones.
• Educators should “pimp our ride” to capitalize on the fact that teaching is suddenly a hot job.
• Two education advocates are forming a new organization to help struggling Catholic schools.
• A new Ed Sector report suggests paying teachers more earlier on in their careers.
• Sawchuck points out that pension systems are doing even more to “backload” the system.
• As the Supreme Court mulls school funding, Chief Justice Roberts wonders how to factor in the economy.
• Diane Ravitch offers six reasons not to give teachers bonuses for raising students’ test scores.
• Examining the argument that it’s in corporate America’s interest to expand early childhood.
• Chaz summarizes exactly what he sees as the change at the Dept of Ed: top-down management.

With the economy in the shape it is, some people are considering pursuing teaching as a “fallback career.” But the reality is that the very same economy means that there are relatively few jobs for teachers this year. Looking at budget cuts and expecting fewer people to leave, many districts, including New York City, are cutting down on hiring.

The city’s Teaching Fellows program, the most prominent route into the classroom for career changers, is planning to accept significantly fewer applicants. I heard from one friend who got an acceptance last week, but far fewer applicants are being accepted than in past years. Two GothamSchools readers reported in the comments section of a post from January that their Teaching Fellows application statuses were finally updated last week: One was rejected, and the other was deferred even longer, until the city’s budget situation becomes clearer.

Still, the Department of Education has extended employment offers to some applicants it considers likely to be particularly successful in shortage areas such as math and English, through a new initiative called TRQ Select. (TRQ is the acronym for the Office of Teacher Recruitment and Quality.) This week, the DOE’s hiring office is using its Twitter feed to profile some of those new teachers in under 140 characters. Here’s an example: “Pia, ESL Teacher- Fordham grad, taught English in Haiti and Panama, served in Peace Corps in Morocco.”

Stephen Colbert appeared at Manhattan Bridges High School this morning to announce a $4 million grant that will help teachers buy supplies.

The comedian Stephen Colbert took time out from his regular ranting to conduct a polite, earnest interview at a Manhattan high school this morning, in an appearance meant to announce a new “citizen philanthropy” project by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation is giving $4.1 million to a Web site that connects private donors with classroom teachers who need extra supplies, DonorsChoose.org, .

Colbert, who sits on the site’s board, made the announcement in the style of his televised interviews, before an audience of students at Manhattan Bridges High School, but without any of his usual mean comments. (He did draw laughs with an awkward attempt to use Spanish, the native language of many Bridges students, to explain that he was a “perdedor gigante,” or giant loser, when he was in high school.) The panel he interviewed included Vicki Phillips, the head of Gates’ education division; DonorsChoose founder Charles Best; and a Manhattan Bridges English teacher.

The Gates money will be disbursed to teachers who apply for small grants through DonorsChoose’s existing “Double Your Impact” program, which allows foundations and companies to earmark donations for specific kinds of projects. When a DonorsChoose user views projects that fall into that category, they appear as already being 50 percent funded. The Gates Foundation money will go to support as many as 17,000 projects that are identified by DonorsChoose as boosting students’ readiness for college, one of the new goals the foundation adopted after it re-considered its mission last year.

(more…)

Carole Huxley (New York State Department of Education)

A retired education administrator, Carole F. Huxley, will take the helm of the state’s schools while officials search for a permanent leader, state school officials announced today.

The current commissioner, Richard Mills, retires at the end of June, leaving Huxley to steer some big projects, including allocating $2.5 billion in stimulus dollars sent by the federal government and manning an ongoing restructuring of the state’s Education Department. Huxley is coming out of a two-year retirement to take on the post. She served as the state’s deputy commissioner of cultural education for 24 years.

Merryl Tisch, who became education chancellor just last month, said that Huxley will be a “bridge” between Mills and the new commissioner. “Having Carole in place will ensure a seamless transition in leadership as the Board continues a wide and exhaustive search for the next Education Commissioner,” Tisch said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the State Education Department said they are accepting applications but have no time frame for when a permanent commissioner will be chosen. “I am eager to continue the work underway and to guide the progress ahead until new leadership is ready to take on the task,” Huxley said in a statement.

A public school principal in Fort Greene is asking for a public, face-to-face meeting with concerned community members after Internet and newspaper reports described dissatisfaction with his leadership.

One report, in the Brooklyn Paper, said unhappiness with the principal, Sean Keaton, of the Clinton Hill School, P.S. 20, is behind a surge of interest in the nearby Community Roots charter school. Another report, at Insideschools.org, includes a parent describing Keaton as “authoritarian,” “hostile,” and “abusive.” The frustration comes as a flood of middle class families are moving to the Brooklyn neighborhood – and often searching for options outside P.S. 20, their zoned school. The Brooklyn Paper reported that only 27% of kindergarten-aged students zoned for P.S. 20 attend it.

Parents posting in the comments sections of the Times blog and at Insideschools said they feel Keaton shuts them out of the school. One said that he has a “closed door policy to the parents.” (more…)

• Teachers at many charter schools, as at KIPP AMP, are struggling over their union ties. (Times)
• Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan last year killed a popular plan for a teacher effectiveness study. (Post)
• Community service is set to make an appearance at NYC public schools. (GothamSchools, Daily News)
• Teachers in Queens are still protesting their principal, and the DOE is still backing him. (Post)
• A robocall from former mayor Ed Koch is reminding parents to weigh in on their leaders. (Daily News)
• As the newspaper industry changes, high school newspapers are changing, too. (Chicago Sun-Times)
• High demand for charter schools is a good reason to create more of them, says the Daily News.
• The Post editorializes against the mayoral control “tweaks” Betsy Gotbaum is pushing in Albany.
• The Washington Post says D.C. residents should be able to pick private schools, as politicians often do.