GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• A new program is trying to turn NYC classrooms high-tech. (GothamSchools, Times, Post, Forbes)
• The comptroller raises questions about the grad rate. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News, NY1, WNYC)
• The Post says Comptroller William Thompson’s audit is “clearly bogus” and politically motivated.
• UFT: Higher test scores show that teachers are doing better, even as more are being U-rated. (NY1)
• Juan Gonzalez says the DOE is set to give a $95m contract to a tech firm that barely exists. (Daily News)
• Remembrances of Frank McCourt from former students at Stuyvesant High School. (Times)
• A Cobble Hill private school is growing even after sloughing off its special ed program. (Brooklyn Paper)
• The founder of a state education reform group says state senators have it all wrong on schools. (Post)
• The CUNY system is considering switching to e-textbooks to cut costs. (Post)
• In a speech to legislators from many states, Bill Gates says better data is needed to improve schools. (AP)
• Growing interest in the “science of learning” could change how schools look and work. (USA Today)

• Should we save children from their own backpacks? A study of overstuffed backpacks says yes.
• Pissed Off Teacher says she’s voting for the Naked Cowboy.
• A new report disputes the theory that test scores “plateau” after a state has used a test for a few years.
• Mayor Bloomberg has convinced at least some critics that he didn’t mean to compare senators to Nazis.
• An odd example of a state (Minnesota) doing better on international assessments than on state tests.
• George Miller is still trying to get “green schools” funding through Congress, now in a higher ed bill.
• Advice for new teachers from a thoughtful and slightly curmudgeonly veteran. (Via Joanne Jacobs)
• Randi Weingarten is in Portland, Ore., where the local teachers union considered leaving the AFT.
• Here in New York, a policy blogger from Portland managed to meet Norm Scott on the subway.
• Satire that hits close to home: “DOE to Ban Parents from Public Schools”
• A new book memorializes the illustrious graduates of DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx.
• A progressive think tank calls for ending salary bumps when teachers get masters degrees.
• Can education save the economy? A view from the economics perspective.
• New research is causing Jay Mathews to reevaluate his “pro-testing bias.”
• Arizona State University professor Gerald Bracey on “the new tyranny” of mayoral control.

The accelerating 2009 mayoral campaign is distracting from real information inside an audit of city graduation rates released by the city comptroller’s office today. In fact, the audit is neither as damning as Bill Thompson Jr., the comptroller and mayoral hopeful, is claiming — nor as unequivocally rosy as the Bloomberg administration says.

Thompson said the audit suggests that principals and teachers responded to pressure to raise graduation rates by falsifying student records. “The New York City Department of Education has become the Enron of American education, showing the gains and hiding the losses,” he said at a press conference today.

But the audit found no evidence of tampering. Thompson’s declaration about fudging numbers came in remarks to reporters, not the official audit. “Is it just about sloppy bookkeeping or sloppy record-keeping? I don’t think so,” he said. He added, “This is a case where you can read between the lines.”

The audit also concludes that only 2 out of 206 randomly selected graduates, or 1%, did not deserve their diplomas. That’s quite different than the 10% figure being widely reported. Auditors initially challenged 19 graduates, or 10%, but threw out the concerns about 17 of them after school officials provided documents showing they earned their diplomas. And 11 of the 19 had overall grade averages of 80% or better, according to the audit. (more…)

School of One students speak to remote tutors. (GothamSchools)

I reported earlier today about the School of One, a new program to personalize instruction for every student. This morning I got to see the program in action.

Inside the library at MS 131, where bookshelves had been covered with canvas, one set of students dialed in to distant tutors by phone while another set worked one-on-one with teachers in a section of the room called “The Bronx Zoo.” At the same time, data analysts manned a behind-the-scenes command center, where a powerful computer calculated exactly what each student needed to learn.

For a classroom being revolutionized by technology, some of the interactions between teachers and students were decidedly low-tech. In a partitioned area of the library called “Brooklyn,” a teacher patiently redirected several of the dozen students sitting around a large table when they shouted out. “I want to play games,” one boy called. “I want to go home,” another interrupted.

In another part of the library, a girl talking with a distant tutor through a headset raised her hand and summoned a teacher. “I need a pen!” she said.

School of One founder Joel Rose said today that tasks that can be uniquely accomplished by teachers should be all the teachers do. “What we want our teachers to focus on is the hardest part of the equation, which is delivering great lessons,” Rose said. (more…)

(via GothamSchools' Flickr)

Democratic mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson said today that were he mayor, he would fire schools chancellor Joel Klein.

In a document released today by Thompson, the city’s Comptroller, a chart compares “Bill’s Vision” for the city’s schools to that of Mayor Bloomberg. Item two, below a promise to “Tell The Truth,” reads “Fire Joel Klein.”

“It’s time to bring back an educator to our schools who can lay out an educational vision that goes beyond taking tests and creates opportunities for our children to be successful in life,” the statement reads.

Thompson’s campaign spokesman, Jeff Simmons, said his candidate would appear on NY1′s “Road to City Hall” program at 7 p.m., reiterating this latest campaign promise.

The comptroller and Bloomberg have been feuding all day over an audit Thompson released today calling the city’s graduation rate intentionally inflated.

Before Thompson’s press conference could begin, the mayor’s campaign spokesman, Howard Wolfson, had already put out a statement crying politics and accusing Thompson, the city’s comptroller, of having his own “failed record on education.” (more…)

A group of parents is forming its own political action committee and donating small amounts of money to candidates who share their educational views.

Members of the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, a group that focuses on educational barriers facing low-income and minority students, will debut their new PAC tomorrow on the steps of City Hall. At this point in the campaign season, the group is supporting four challengers and nine incumbents — among them Speaker Christine Quinn and Education Committee chair Robert Jackson — for City Council.

The PAC is “really designed to support those candidates who we have goals in common with,” said Victoria Bousquet, a coalition parent member. The PAC is technically independent from CEJ.

“It’s really a matter of when we interviewed them, the general feedback – how they felt about English Language Learners, about middle schools, about the new Regents requirements, and parental involvement,” she said, adding, “No one’s perfect. We know that none of them are going to be infallible.”

The list includes incumbents Helen Diane Foster, Gale Brewer, Charles Barron, Julissa Ferreras, Letitia James, Rosie Mendez, and Melissa Mark Viverito. (more…)

The city’s internal hiring system for teachers helped Ruben Brosbe find a new job after his position was cut this spring. But a closer look at the system “doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence,” Brosbe writes in the GothamSchools Community section.

In his newest post, Brosbe grades the Open Market Hiring System, which was created to allow teachers to hunt for open positions. The teachers contract mandates that positions be posted on the Open Market, but some have complained that principals don’t use the system, making it hard for teachers without personal connections to find out about jobs.

In his “Final (Unofficial) Report Card for the Open Market,” Brosbe writes:

•    Results: Three interviews from 49 applications doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. It’s hard to tell if it’s because principals are being glutted with applicants or if they’re simply choosing to go through other channels, i.e. personal references, to make their hires. Then again, I did get a job. B
•    Overall Grade: If the results speak for themselves, then the Open Market is a success. However, had I not found a good fit on my second interview, I would still be looking, and I haven’t gotten any responses from the Open Market since July 3rd. If I was still looking, I would have to ditch the Open Market and hit the pavement to look for a job the old fashioned way. B

Read all of Brosbe’s posts chronicling his successful job search.

In one city classroom this summer, a computer algorithm is telling students what to do.

The classroom is actually a library at a Chinatown middle school with just 80 students, but school officials are hoping that it offers a glimpse into the future of the school system, one in which every student’s individual strengths and weaknesses are calculated before each day is planned.

Students in the new pilot program, a $1 million effort that officials are calling the School of One, take a quiz every afternoon, and then receive a computer-generated schedule each morning, called a “playlist.” A student’s playlist might tell him to begin the day by meeting with a tutor, then to complete a set of online tasks, and then to work on a project with his classmates. The program, which focuses only on math instruction, will expand to three sites in January.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein will roll out the program today, along with its mastermind, Joel Rose, who previously worked for Edison Schools, the for-profit education management company now known as EdisonLearning. The announcement will mark one of the first initiatives of Klein’s administration that focuses on what happens inside classrooms since he unveiled citywide math and reading programs six years ago. That effort scripted moves down to how teachers should arrange their classrooms and the size of rugs. (more…)

It has now been six weeks since I found out I was being excessed and two weeks since I found a new job. Throughout the process of my job search I relied entirely on the Open Market Hiring System run through the NYC Schools web site. The fact I was hired relatively quickly and easily implies the system is a success, but that doesn’t mean we can’t examine it a bit deeper. First I’ll give some background on the Open Market system, then some number from my search, and finally my unofficial report card for the Open Market.

The Open Market Hiring System can be found by clicking through the careers section of the NYC schools web site. It’s designed to allow any NYC schools employee from teachers to guidance counselors to search for open positions within the system. Using your employee ID it doesn’t take more than few minutes to create an account. From there you can create an application with your basic information, a cover letter and resume, and begin your search for open positions.

The day I found out I was excessed I went straight to the web site, created an account, and within an hour or so I’d already applied to more than 20 schools.

A look at my job search by the numbers:

Total time spent on Open Market web site: Approx. 3 hours
Total number of positions applied for: 49
Total number of interviews offered: 3 (more…)

• The city is giving schools the option of testing kids in math starting in kindergarten. (Post)
• The proportion of teachers getting “unsatisfactory” ratings has increased. (GothamSchools, Daily News)
• Parents say the city should have talked to them before cracking down on extra school aides. (Daily News)
• City officials say they aren’t sure that closing schools for swine flu actually slowed its spread. (Times)
• A study of NYC mothers found that prenatal exposure to pollution can lower kids’ IQs. (Daily News)
• Senators say the mayor shouldn’t have compared negotiating on schools to appeasing Nazis. (Post)
• D.C.’s mayor, Adrian Fenty, has cut funding for an independent schools evaluator. (Washington Post)
• Enrollment in Detroit schools has fallen to the point required for new charter schools. (Detroit Free Press)
• Back-to-school sales are projected to be way down. (Bloomberg)
• A successful Baltimore charter school is cutting hours and staff after union complaints. (Baltimore Sun)