Posts from September 2009
Ready for work, but what about college?
We know about the skills vs. knowledge debate going on as the national — sorry common — standards drumbeat gathers momentum. Here’s another question the authors of the draft standards out today raise: Does the workplace really demand the same knowledge and skills as college?
The report today draws on interviews with industry types and college professors. And it concludes that in most cases, what you need to, say, make the dean’s list and what you need to keep your job are pretty much the same. An example: (more…)
Where is she now? Ms. Vaughan the science teacher
When this site launched just over a year ago, I was one of two reporters. The other was Kelly Vaughan. In January, Kelly left GothamSchools to return to teaching, and this fall she has made her triumphant return to the Internet, with a blog for her sixth-grade science classes at the brand-new Brooklyn Prospect Charter School.
Last week, Kelly asked her students to apply what they had learned about simple machines to explain what Archimedes might have meant when he said, “Give me a place to stand on and I can lift the earth.” Could Archimedes actually use a lever to lift the earth? she asked. Here’s one of the 45 responses her students posted:
Headlines
September 21, 2009
Rise & Shine: Students take on long commutes for city schools
News from New York City:
- The UFT wants principals to have to give teachers a “counseling memo” before writing them up. (Post)
- A principal who has been in the rubber room for years is apparently running a business from it. (Post)
- The Daily News says the city should be able to fire teachers so it doesn’t have to undo empowerment.
- Mayor Bloomberg’s latest education mailer attacking Thompson gets some facts wrong. (Daily News)
- Among the opponents of Brooklyn’s new Hebrew charter school: its Orthodox Jewish neighbors. (Post)
- The Daily News profiles John King, the charter school leader who is the new deputy state ed chief.
- King has credibility, but he still has to be held accountable for improving schools, the Daily News says.
- Getting into LaGuardia HS, the city’s most selective arts high school, takes serious skills. (Daily News)
- Among five students attending city arts high schools are some who moved to NYC for them. (Daily News)
- Arthur Goldstein (a GothamSchools contributor) says the city caused his school’s crowding. (Daily News)
- A quirk in DOE policy has left some Bronx students without busing after their school moved. (Daily News)
- A Queens boy with a disability has spent two hours on the bus twice a day until now. (NY1)
- A new study shows tremendous financial benefits to halving the city’s high school dropout rate. (NY1)
And beyond:
- There is high demand for South Africa’s schools, but most are not preparing students adequately. (Times)
- A former DOE deputy is pushing NYC-style policies upstate. (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)
- In a surprising move, Chicago’s school chief fired the his charter schools head. (Chicago Tribune)
- A new federal initiative will spend $8 billion on improving early childhood education. (Times)
- About 20 Houston teachers got an extra $20,000 to move to troubled schools. (Houston Chronicle)
- Many successful people did not attend selective colleges, reminds Jay Mathews. (Washington Post)
nightcap
September 18, 2009
Remainders: Teacher certification programs take a few knocks
- Has the new year brought change to P.S. 20 in Fort Greene? The Times’ Local blog wants to know.
- A Mathematica report finds that students of ABCTE-certified teachers perform poorly in math…
- …While Jay Mathews compiles some suggestions on how to overhaul the teacher certification process.
- Teachers in an Eastern Washington school district are splitting off from the NEA.
- Head Start is feeling younger as it grows older.
- Chicago schools are using text messages to help parents keep tabs on class-cutting kids.
- What happens when a teacher you’re friends with moves over to the administration?
- The Bloomberg campaign mailers on education are hitting mailboxes, and they’re not subtle.
- The NEA has objections to the current version of the health care bill.
- And Transform America is hosting a party for education advocates in Harlem tomorrow.
City updates its school capacity estimates
For those curious about how the city decides how many students to squeeze into each school building, the city has handily just updated its guide to school capacities, called the Blue Book. This year’s guide includes some changes from past Blue Books. From the guide:
1. Capacity for rooms that are shared by multiple schools is distributed among the organizations by the usage percentage provided by principals.
2. Incorporates enhancement from the Annual Facilities Survey such as the identification of CTT classes which have a maximum capacity of 25.
3. Upon request by City Council, a new City Council Edition which organizes the information by City Council District is being released.
View the complete Blue Book here.
, at 7:45 pmHow some principals are getting around Klein’s hiring freeze
Yesterday, Philissa reported that the Department of Education has granted exemptions to principals who made a compelling case that they had to hire someone outside of the teacher reserve pool.
But what are the hurdles principals have to clear in order to be found compelling enough? A source sent over the step-by-step guide:
- The DOE may grant additional individual exceptions to the hiring freeze, based upon unique circumstances in a school.
- To make such a request, you must ensure that you have completed ALL of the following steps:
- 1. Reviewed all of the resumes of candidates certified in the subject in question that applied to your school through the Open Market. (more…)
Away From My Desk
September 18, 2009
All out of desks, a Queens high school buys folding chairs
The Academy of American Studies in Long Island City bought folding chairs to manage overcrowding.
There are no extra desks at a Queens high school where overcrowding has prompted the principal to buy folding chairs to accommodate students.
The Academy of American Studies, a selective high school in Long Island City, shares space with Newcomers High School, and leases a small building across the street.
“It looks like a deli,” said Mir Niaz, a tenth grade student at the Academy.
Niaz said last year’s incoming freshman class had 110 students, but this year’s class has 180, and the sudden increase has overwhelmed the already-cramped space the school has to work with. Now, some students have to sit in folding chairs, which they pull up next to their luckier classmates who have desks and share writing space.
“We got more freshmen than we expected this year,” said the school’s parent coordinator, Jean Mendler. “It’s a temporary solution.” (more…)
turf wars
September 18, 2009
Red Hook charter paves way out of P.S. 15, but can’t say when
A packed crowd gathered for a District 15 CEC meeting to discuss the space-sharing arrangement between P.S. 15 and PAVE Academy Charter School.
The founder of a Brooklyn charter school locked in a battle for space with a district school announced yesterday that the school has signed a contract for its own building site.
But Spencer Robertson, founder of the PAVE Academy Charter School, declined to reveal the new location. Nor would he give a date for when the school would move there, instead re-iterating his request for a two-year extension to the school’s contentious site-sharing agreement with P.S. 15 in Red Hook.
“We will be out,” Robertson told a standing-room-only crowd in the auditorium of P.S. 15. “When?” shouted audience members.
The exchange came during an emotional District 15 CEC meeting to which charter school advocates and critics mobilized their most vocal allies. Audience members interrupted speakers, and those who approached the microphone seemed to compete over who could drown out the other groups’ claims. (more…)
Headlines
September 18, 2009
Rise & Shine: Thousands of city classes are too big, union says
- Chancellor Klein is pressuring principals to hire teachers from the ATR pool. (Times, Daily News, Post)
- But the principals union has questions about Klein’s budget ultimatum. (GothamSchools)
- The UFT says 7,200 city classes are over their contractual size limits. (Daily News, NY1)
- The next front in the charter school space-sharing war appears to be at Brooklyn’s PS 15. (Post)
- One of the UFT’s contract demands is time off sans penalty for teachers who get H1N1 flu. (Daily News)
- The city DOE is partnering with Harvard’s new education leadership PhD program. (Harvard Gazette)
- A Bronx assistant principal was arrested for driving drunk to school at 6:40 a.m. (Post)
- Charter school supporters are mobilizing politically in Massachusetts. (Boston Globe)
- The City Council passed a bill that would green school buses; Bloomberg will sign it. (NY1, WNYC)
- D.C.’s Council chairman says Michelle Rhee is using budget cuts as an excuse to fire teachers. (WaPo)
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