GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Ed in the Apple doesn’t think the city teachers union will endorse a mayoral candidate this fall.
• A right-wing activist is among the panel of experts called in to guide Texas’ textbook writing process.
• Danny Dromm tells City Hall News he wants to move schools’ focus away from testing.
• A Boston school becomes the state’s first unionized charter school.
• Philadelphia schools may have to face a doomsday budget.
• Deborah Meier writes that the current definition of achievement is absurd.
• A bill that passed the House today sets aside $4 billion for school facilities over two years.
• What kind of education would a person need to understand the healthcare debate?
• A parent of a P.S. 29 student says the school is fighting budget cuts with “energetic fundraising.”
• Told to ditch her curriculum map for two new ones, a teacher is less than thrilled.
• And a former fourth grader teacher is finding it hard to discipline his significantly cuter 3rd graders.

A list of bargaining goals distributed to union delegates at a meeting on Wednesday night offers the first real glimpse of what the UFT hopes to gain from its upcoming contact talks.

Though delegates and chapter leaders were told not give the document to the press, one kind teacher sent me the list today, and it’s worth a read. As reported in the Daily News, the first goal on the agenda is a “substantial salary increase in each year of the agreement,” though it does not say how much. Another item of note is a proposed teacher apprenticeship program, which may be the result of the agreement the city and UFT reached concerning parent-paid teaching assistants.

The document also calls for an end to the way schools currently receive their funding. (more…)

Principals union president Ernest Logan is raising questions about Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s threat to take money away from principals who don’t fill their vacancies by Oct. 30.

The point of Klein’s threat, made in an e-mail to principals yesterday and first reported by the Web site Insideschools, is to get principals who might be trying to outlast the hiring freeze to pick up “excessed” teachers from the ATR pool. Those teachers, who currently number more than 1,500, are drawing full salaries even though they don’t have permanent positions in schools. Their salaries are “a fiscal liability we cannot sustain in this budget climate,” Klein said in his letter.

But principals can’t hire teachers who aren’t eligible for their vacancies or who don’t apply for jobs, Logan emphasized in a response today to Klein’s hiring deadline. “We would like to know more about what the DoE will do if appropriate licensing matches are not made or if excessed teachers fail to show up at the recruitment fairs,” he said.

The Department of Education is requiring teachers in the ATR pool to attend borough-based hiring fairs next week, according to an e-mail obtained by union activist Norm Scott. Ann Forte, a DOE spokeswoman, confirmed that the fairs are compulsory for ATRs. (more…)

• For the second year in a row, a Texas school district has won the Broad Prize. (AP)
• Teachers say they will be pushing for a “substantial” pay boost in their new contract. (Daily News)
• Union president Michael Mulgrew had a different focus at yesterday’s meeting. (GothamSchools)
• Tony Bennett talks about the Queens high school named for his friend, Frank Sinatra. (USA Today)
• The Daily News looks at the three Brooklyn schools that won national Blue Ribbon honors.
• D.C.’s controversial voucher program has management problems, a senator says. (Washington Post)
• Gov. Deval Patrick’s plan for improving Mass. schools starts with more charter schools. (Boston Globe)
• D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee is letting principals choose how to $40 million. (Washington Post)
• The city parks department has kicked Queens kids off their longtime football turf. (Post)

• Klein is giving principals until Oct. 30 to hire ATRs or forfeit the money to pay for the excess pool.
• NEA is putting $6 million toward getting good teachers to stay in tough schools.
• Michael Posner argues that art education can improve students’ cognition (h/t Dewey21C).
• A math teacher lists his reasons for opposing Gates’ and UFT’s “Methods of Effective Teaching” project.
• Arthur Levine wonders if the School of One is the greatest education experiment conducted so far.
• Pissed Off Teacher says Bloomberg’s education mailers are a “misuse of data.”
• Big names in education don’t like a new Partnership in 21st Century Skills program.
• A burst of charter approvals means the state can only create 37 more before hitting its ceiling.
• Chad Aldeman pens a “Dear Iowa Republicans” letter opposing high school exit exams.
• The country’s first program teaching gaming principles will open in New York next month.
• And a 6 year-old surprises his mother by wandering out of kindergarten and following her home.

The city’s teachers union offered the first glimpse of its contract demands tonight, but remained silent on the possible pay raise many have predicted — and on whether the union plans to sweeten its chances at a good contract by endorsing Michael Bloomberg.

The glimpse came at a meeting of the delegate assembly, the union’s ruling body, where members were given a seven page list of demands that fell under categories such as compensation and health.

Union president Michael Mulgrew addressed the crowd, which spilled out of the room and into the hallway of 52 Broadway, the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers. The event was closed to the press, and union members were told not to share the seven-page document with reporters.

According to several in attendance, Mulgrew lectured on the grim state of the city’s economy and the need to get the union’s new contract finalized quickly. One teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said Mulgrew seemed to be pushing the union to reach a deal quickly, before the economy worsens. “They’re presenting it like there’s this brief window of time, because of the economy, in which to rush the contract through,” he said. (more…)