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An effort to move state tests later in the year is gaining momentum, following a state Education Department survey that shows wide support among teachers for the change. More than 80 percent of nearly 23,000 parents, teachers, and school administrators the department surveyed this spring said they favor at least some rescheduling of the tests, and the state Board of Regents could implement a change as soon as the 2010-2011 school year, a member said.

Right now, students take English tests in January and math tests in March, but critics have said the timing doesn’t give teachers enough time to bring students up to grade level. The early testing also makes it difficult to use test scores to evaluate teachers’ effectiveness.

The Board of Regents, the state board that sets education policy, requested the survey. Betty Rosa, a Regents member from the Bronx, said that the Regents are likely to propose a change in the timing of tests for the 2010-2011 school year. “All the members have been very, very united on this front,” Rosa said.

Merryl Tisch, the new Regents chancellor, did not return several requests for comment. (more…)

While lawmakers in Albany battle over how much to limit the mayor’s control of the public schools, a City Council member from Brooklyn is zeroing in on another part of the city school system he wants revised: the parents’ “bill of rights” — which apparently exists! Bill De Blasio, who is running for public advocate this year, is using the bill of rights to illustrate his argument for a “bottom-up” rather than “top-down” approach to improving public schools.

The current version of the list, created by the Department of Education and published on the department’s Web site, includes five rights that parents have (the right to file a complaint, the right to “be actively involved”) plus seven responsibilities (they must send their children to school “ready to learn,” they must keep track of their children’s performance, they must treat educators with respect).

The version drafted this week by Bill de Blasio, a City Council member from Brooklyn, outlines 10 rights that would give parents much wider latitude to participate in policy-making (plus the crowd-pleaser right to a “reasonable approach to cellular phones.”)

De Blasio has been telling supporters that he would improve the city schools by using the public advocate’s office as a kind of organizing arm of government that would empower parents to get more involved in improving their schools — and to supply them with the information required to do that.

De Blasio explained his position at a recent fundraiser in Harlem tied to education issues that I attended, where supporters brought toys to donate along with cash for the campaign and De Blasio’s two children, both public school students, made an appearance.

Here’s the full bill of rights, below the jump: (more…)

• Half of city students are in overcrowded classrooms, according to a new report. (Post)
• Randi Weingarten offers suggestions for a freer PEP that’s still controlled by the mayor. (Post)
• “This is big,” the Post says about Weingarten’s school board composition concession.
• School construction is lagging, with 10 planned schools without even broken ground. (Daily News)
• Kids from schools closed because of the flu are spending their time in parks and malls. (Times)
• Parents at Brooklyn’s PS 153 want their school shut after 20 percent of kids were out sick. (Daily News)
• A bill was introduced, apparently in error, that would unionize all charter school teachers. (Post)
• Governor Paterson signed a law making e-mail and text message alerts available to parents. (Post)
• Comptroller William Thompson found that parents have been shut out at the DOE. (Daily News)
• Mayor Bloomberg is urging calm on swine flu, even as more schools close. (Daily News)
• Schoolkids in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, want more security near their schools. (Daily News)
• Media mogul Mort Zuckerman says technology could save our schools. (Daily News)
• Angry townspeople in a California town voted to recall their entire school board yesterday. (Times)
• Ed Sec Arne Duncan is responding to reports about dangerous special ed discipline. (Washington Post)
• A review of scores and spending at California charter schools had mixed results. (L.A. Times)

• A new report compares charter schools to good grocery stores, and says both are underused by the poor.
• Elizabeth, Aaron, and Chad Aldeman analyze the numbers from the Harlem Children’s Zone study.
• A reminder that the DOE says parents will be able to log into ARIS by the end of the school year.
• A teacher saw a silver lining in the swine flu: A stocked up soap-dispenser in his trailer bathroom.
• Notification about middle school admissions has been delayed because it has been delayed.
• Arne Duncan isn’t going to make it easy for cities to get his special innovation funds.
• I think there’s some substance here, but I can’t make it out through the profanity and talk of bacon.
• Schools for special needs kids require a $5,000 deposit that usually isn’t returned if a family withdraws.
• A suggestion that Chancellor Klein and Mayor Bloomberg should visit every flu-stricken school.
• A sunny Q+A with James Merriman of the NYC Center for Charter School Excellence.

The Department of Education announced that it was closing three more schools in Queens today because of swine flu fears, bringing the total of closed schools to 24 in 20 different locations. And in response to growing concern that it was not being straightforward about the disease’s magnitude, the department also said it would begin posting up-to-date attendance data for all city schools on its Web site.

The newly closed schools are PS 242 in Flushing and PS 130 and P 993, which share a building in Bayside. They will reopen on Tuesday, after the long weekend, along with most of the other closed schools, the department said. A few schools are scheduled to reopen on Friday.

Comptroller William Thompson, City Council members, and even usually timid members of the Panel for Educational Policy have criticized the DOE over the quality of its communication about the flu crisis. Today, Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm announced that the department would start sharing to-the-moment attendance data, in a move she said parents and teachers have requested. The data, which will be updated daily, are available here.

I eyeballed the attendance data quickly and saw lots of elementary school attendance rates far below the citywide average rate of 93 percent of elementary schools. Attendance in the Queens districts where the flu is most severe is obviously down significantly: JHS 169 in Flushing, which usually has 94 percent of students present, had only 66.9 percent attendance today, for example. (more…)

State lawmakers from New York City are rushing to register their views on mayoral control before a deal is finalized over the future of school governance in the city. One piece of legislation introduced today would gut the mayor’s school power, and it has already amassed a robust roster of supporters.

The ”Better Schools Act,” introduced today in both the Assembly and State Senate, would turn into law many of the recommendations made by the Campaign for Better Schools, the coalition of community groups which is calling for control over the city school board to be taken away from the mayor. The bill’s lead sponsor in the Assembly is, as I reported on Monday, Carl Heastie of the Bronx, and he has 15 co-sponsors in the Assembly and eight for an identical bill in the State Senate. 

Here’s the laundry list of bill supporters, from the Campaign for Better Schools’ press release:

Sponsors include Assembly Members Jeff Aubry, Inez Barron, William F. Boyland, Jr., Nelson Castro, William Colton, Vivian Cook, Deborah Glick, Carl Heastie, Janelle Hyer-Spencer, Hakeem Jeffries, David Koon, Grace Meng, Nick Perry, Linda Rosenthal, Matthew Titone and Keith L. Wright. And Senators Ruben Diaz, Sr., Ruth Hassell-Thompson, Shirley Huntley, Velmanette Montgomery, Kevin Parker, Bill Perkins, John Sampson and Diane Savino

Meanwhile, members of the Parent Commission on School Governance, which is also calling for substantial curbs on the mayor’s school control, are working on lining up sponsors for a bill to support the commission’s recommendations. A member told me today that Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell of the Upper West Side has agreed to sponsor the bill, and that the group is close to narrowing in on a State Senate sponsor as well, with a goal of having legislation introduced early next week.

An exercise activity schedule from the DOE's learning guide.

The Department of Education doesn’t want healthy children who attend the as-of-now 19 schools closed because of swine flu fears to sit idly while they stay home. To keep them occupied, the DOE has made available optional “learn at home” activity guides, and Chancellor Joel Klein is urging everyone to participate.

The guides were compiled in short order by the DOE’s teaching and learning department and can be picked up in four locations or downloaded from the department’s Web site. Updated guides and a packet of work for high school students will be posted as soon as tonight, according to a DOE spokeswoman.

Chancellor Klein told reporters yesterday that he would like students who are able to complete the voluntary schoolwork. “I hope this is not viewed as a holiday,” he said.

The guides include daily schedules that break down four hours of learning into small blocks: 45 minutes each for English and math and half an hour each for vocabulary and science. Another hour and a half is divided evenly among fitness and health, arts and sampling educational television shows (one suggestion is Animal Planet’s “Meerkat Manor”) and Web sites. (more…)

A frequent criticism of charter schools is that they succeed by “creaming” children. A new analysis by Insideschools finds that many city charter schools do have significantly fewer needy students than other public schools.

Vanessa Witenko, a former colleague of mine, analyzed data from city charter schools (although she had trouble obtaining some data) and found that most do not enroll homeless students, offer special programs for students still learning how to speak English, or provide special education services that are legally required for some children with special needs.

Here are a few key excerpts.

On why charter schools enroll just 111 of the city’s 51,000 homeless students:

“The application period is February and March and the lottery is held in April,” said [Jeff] Litt [of the Carl C. Icahn charter schools]. “A mother who comes [to the shelter] in June is too late, so their kids go to the neighborhood school.” Homeless families may have priorities other than seeking alternatives to their neighborhood schools, he said. “They have daily survival needs. I don’t know if they have the time to research who we are, what we are, how to get in.”

On some charter schools’ use of Collaborative Team Teaching classes, intended for some children with special needs, to educate children who are learning English: (more…)

• The DOE’s Marcia Lyles is leaving to head a school district in Delaware. (GothamSchools, News-Journal)
• The DOE gave $342 million in no-bid contracts in 3 years. (GothamSchools, Daily News, Post, WNYC)
• School budgets are being cut by 5 percent today. (GothamSchools, Times, Post, Daily News, WNYC)
• Juan Gonzalez asks, why haven’t all city schools been closed because of swine flu? (Daily News)
• Under pressure, the DOE is issuing new rules about military recruiting in schools. (Times)
• A state lawmaker is dropping her bid to weaken the autonomy of charter school authorizers. (Post)
• State Republican leaders say they’ve got Bloomberg’s back on mayoral control. (Post, Daily News)
• The Daily News says state lawmakers have to preserve “undiluted authority” for the mayor.
• The Post praises Malcolm Smith’s support for mayoral control, but worries about superintendent power.
• The Post also commends Suzi Oppenheimer’s move to withdraw her charter school operator bill.
• A score change small enough to be caused by measurement error can pay off on the SAT. (USA Today)
• A 17-year court case over Arizona’s classes for children learning English will be decided soon. (Times)
• Some Los Angeles public schools are raising eyebrows by offering legacy admission. (L.A. Times)

• A look inside one day in the rubber room, from a teacher who is serving time there.
• It wasn’t hard for Washington Post readers to suggest ways to spend $100 billion on improving schools.
• An Insideschools review shows that city charter schools have lower-than-average numbers of needy kids.
• Alexander Russo twittered his way through the NewSchools Venture Fund summit today.
• Ed Sec Arne Duncan has poached one of NewSchools’ top officials to run his own Race to the Top fund.
• A look inside two Ohio schools: One KIPP school and one school where kids saw a horse have surgery.
• A (break-craving) teacher wonders if closing all schools might be a more prudent way to deal with the flu.
• Diane Ravitch continues the Geoff Canada-as-Broader-Bolder-icon meme, on Bridging Differences.
• Chicago doesn’t have a freeze on outside hires, and teachers say they can tell at hiring fairs.
• City Comptroller William Thompson said the city should be doing more to spread swine flu information.