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Headlines
October 28, 2009
Rise & Shine: Study finds a boost for charter-sapped schools
- The Gates Foundation will let all 50 states to seek its Race to the Top help, not just its chosen 15. (Times)
- A Manhattan Institute study: Schools whose students leave for charters get a reading score boost. (Post)
- Marcus Winters, the study’s author, explains the effects on students “left behind” in district schools. (Post)
- The Daily News says the study should forever end the “creaming” charge against charter schools.
- The ban on bake sales could cut down on how much money student groups can raise. (Village Voice)
- A judge ruled that DC-37 must pay school aides’ salaries while their firing suit is pending. (Daily News)
- A look at what the hiring restrictions might mean for schools this year and next. (Village Voice)
- An audit by Bill Thompson found the city didn’t give federal grant money to needy schools. (Daily News)
- Criticism about schools doesn’t seem to stick to Mayor Bloomberg. (Crain’s New York, sub required)
- Two City Councilmen say the city should provide school safety officers to private schools. (Daily News)
- A Queens family is upset that their daughter has to attend test prep instead of dance. (Daily News)
- Park Slope parents are bringing world-class musicians to play a benefit concert for PS 321. (Daily News)
- A former NBA coach is the gym teacher at the high-paying Equity Project Charter School. (NPR)
- Nat Hentoff praises PS 636’s efforts to help its many homeless students. (The Trentonian)
- H1N1 flu vaccines in schools start today. (NY1)
- Middle and high school students are now eligible again for priority-round flu shots. (Daily News)
- Community colleges are offering classes in the middle of the night to meet student demand. (Times)
- A new policy in Los Angeles allows parents to vote to close and reconstitute their schools. (L.A. Times)
- Michelle Rhee asked principals for advice about how to win trust from D.C. teachers. (Washington Post)
- A report finds that Chicago’s school closures didn’t move students to better schools. (Chicago Tribune)
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October 28th, 2009 7:55 am
In re the Manhattan Institute study: There’s also data that district schools that share buildings with charters see, on average, a class size drop. The excel spreadsheet on the class size matters website says so. (Unless you took it down Leonie.) That’s from probably 2 years ago, I’d like to see updated enrollment and class size data on the district schools that share space with charters before and after now that there are more.
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October 28th, 2009 10:18 am
KS,
Thanks for the props re 98% A’s and B’s.If I can piggyback on your comment above, there are a number of school buildings wherein the TPS and the Charter BOTH want Rooms to Grow. Class size is a part of it, but not the only metric. (I too am looking forward to the data. Anecdotally, I understand it to be the OTHER way round — smaller Charter class sizes, bigger TPS sizes.) Further, in some catchment zones, the TPS kids are getting turned away because the charter pulls from farther afield. Worse than a zero-sum game. It’s convoluted.
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October 28th, 2009 10:29 am
Re last item, impact of closing schools on student performance in Chicago, starting in 2001:
“Researchers found that the greatest negative impact to learning occurred in the window between when closings were announced and the actual closing occurred. Typically, announcements were made in January, six months before schools closed.
Once students began studies in their new environments, they largely made up for lost time and performed on par with the control group selected by researchers, meaning they did no better than before.”
Ouch. As I understand, when schools are closed in NYC, there’s sometimes a phase-out period of LONGER than Chicago’s six months. (True of Bayard Rustin HS, wherein DOE stopped taking new 9th graders. Not sure re Elementary schools. And the Chicago study looked at K-8’s, not high schools.)
Seems like a time window in which student — not to mention teacher — morale, motivation, and performance, are at risk for sinking. “The school board changed policies during the 2006 school year in part to address some of the concerns. Instead of closing schools, it moved to turn around weak schools by firing and replacing staff.” Ouch again, but at least Chicago used data, not dogma, and changed the policy. Still waiting for same in New Yawk.
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Mapping the Budget Cuts
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