GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• The Post endorses Bloomberg (again) for mayor, but says he may regret running. (Post)
• NYS’s ed department is building a system to track student test scores and evaluate teachers. (Post)
• City health officials are warning of a mumps outbreak among children in Brooklyn. (Daily News)
• The DN agrees with Thompson that the city can’t afford 4 percent raises for teachers. (Daily News)
• D.C. schools in low-income neighborhoods took the brunt of budget cuts. (Washington Post)
• Arne Duncan called scores of education schools “mediocre,” but praised Teachers College. (Times)
• David Brooks praises the Obama Administration’s “quiet revolution” in education policy. (Times)
• Veteran substitute teachers are getting little or no work in Los Angeles. (L.A. Times)
• Curtis High School employees are getting ticketed because of a sign they can’t see (S.I. Advance)

• Bloomberg: “everybody wants more high schools, but nobody wants them in their neighborhoods”
• Before calling out bad ed schools, we have to figure out what makes some bad, writes EduFlack.
• The UFT’s internal opposition party is urging its members to vote against the mayor.
• District schools should be able to hire non-certified teachers, like charters do, writes Peter Murphy.
• Deborah Meier: what works with rich kids, works with poor kids, with “tweaks.”
• America’s “best” high school could become a model for down-sizing grade-point systems.
• Report on ELL students ranks NYC among the four most successful cities.
• Theodore Sizer, founder of the Essential Schools movement, died yesterday at age 77.
• “I think they are so used to it that they just live with it,” Sizer said of Americans and edu inequality.
• A Brooklyn teacher says her school’s ATRs can’t teach, but who’s to blame?
• …and Accountable Talk writes that we should be ashamed for publishing her thoughts.
• Alexander Hoffman finds the vision of standards appealing, but is unconvinced they’ll improve anything.
• Jamie O’Leary says it’s unfair to target Obama for hyping teacher quality.
• And Duncan isn’t all about nutrition all of the time.

U.S. education secretary Arne Duncan speaking at a meeting of the Children's Aid Society at Teachers College this morning.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan called this morning for states to link student test data not only back to teachers, but also to the programs that trained them. New York State education officials said they are already working on it.

Speaking to a packed auditorium at Columbia University, Duncan criticized education schools for failing to graduate classroom-ready teachers. He said there needs to be a way to determine which programs are working.

“It’s a simple but obvious idea,” Duncan said. “Colleges of education and district officials ought to know which teacher preparation programs are effective and which need fixing. The power of competition and disclosure can be a powerful tonic for programs stuck in the past.”

Duncan said he will use the competitive stimulus package funds known as the “Race to the Top” program to pressure states to use student data to evaluate teacher preparation programs.

After Duncan’s speech, state Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and education commissioner David Steiner said that Duncan’s speech was in line with their own visions of change. (more…)

Despite everything I have written about the intrinsic weaknesses of big state or national standards, I understand the appeal of standards. I really do.

Imagine this:

A country in which all students are well educated. High quality curricula, outlined in rigorous standards, taught by smart, thoughtful expert teachers using differentiated instructional techniques that address multiple modalities, learning styles and intelligences. Students easily surpassing the low bar of standardized tests and building a lifelong love of learning. Even students who move or are in the lowest SES communities are well educated because standards ensure that all schools are appropriately ambitious for their students and focused on the core content that really matters.

What’s not to like?

Well, that’s the vision. And the vision is the appeal. I get it. What’s not to like? (more…)

Deputy mayor Dennis Walcott spoke to parents last night at Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing Arts.

Speaking at a townhall-style event last night, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott said the city needs to cut down on inequities between charter schools and traditional public schools.

Responding to criticism that New York City charter schools have significantly more money, school supplies, and better facilities than the district schools they often share buildings with do, Walcott conceded that this is a problem on some campuses.

“That’s something we need to work on,” he said.

“Charter schools have the ability to raise money and so can get enhancements, and that’s a beautiful thing,” he continued. “At the same time, we have the responsibility to make sure that the existing schools that share the space also get the enhancements.” (more…)

Strange happenings … There are ATRs in the teacher’s lounge of my school. Let me explain.

As you probably know, starting this summer the Mayor put a freeze on hiring of any non-DOE teachers. So teachers who just moved to the city, as well as newbies out of any teacher prep program, including NYC Teaching Fellows and TFA, have all been left with no job prospects in the public schools. This is because of the ATRs, who are teachers who have been excessed — NOT fired — from their positions.  

Excessing happens when funding for a position closes up or a school closes down. Now, it is pretty difficult to fire a tenured teacher. It requires lots of documentation from the principal, multiple chances for the teacher to redeem him or herself, and there is strong legal representation for all teachers provided by the union, so even in the clearest of cases, it can take a few years. Many principals take the easy way out and simply dry up the position, thereby excessing the unwanted teacher. Often this is nothing more than a bad match between teacher and principal/school, and such teachers secure positions at other schools quickly. In other cases, the excessed teacher doesn’t find a position at another school, but continues to receive his or her salary from the DOE as per the contract — if you’re not fired, then you still have a job, even if that job is actually no job at all.

My school had a number of vacancies at the end of last year. We were able to hire a bunch of experienced NYC teachers who were fleeing their schools for the greener pastures promised by my school (I hope we’re delivering!). But a few positions remained open. My principal interviewed 37 ATRs. (more…)

• Arne Duncan will call for an end to “mediocre” ed schools at Teachers College today. (Washington Post)
• Bill Thompson says the city can’t afford the 4 percent raise it has budgeted for teachers. (Daily News)
• Bloomberg’s campaign is ignoring Giuliani’s school role when Thompson headed the BOE. (WNYC)
• Bloomberg announced Parent 311 yesterday even thought the project has been up for months. (NY1)
• Tom Carroll: Paterson wants budget cuts but hasn’t helped the state get Race to the Top funds. (Post) 
• Staten Island families are protesting a decision to deny them school bus service. (Staten Island Advance)
• The Riverdale Press profiles Edward Tom, a Riverdale resident who heads a South Bronx school.
• Children of Hispanic immigrants are behind way before starting school, a new study finds. (Times)
• Contemporary parents don’t like to hit their kids but sure do scream at them. (Times)
• Baltimore teachers say Andres Alonso’s policies have distracted them from instruction. (Baltimore Sun)
• Toronto schools are launching a Parent Academy based on Rudy Crew’s model. (Globe and Mail)

• Tom Carroll writes: New Haven’s new teachers contract is “not that remarkable at all.”
• We still don’t know if teacher quality is more important than outside-school factors.
• The strength of a school’s chapter leader says a lot about the school’s culture.
• Bloomberg and Thompson’s fixation on the Board of Ed. days could numb voters.
• Sol Stern: If Obama wants an education miracle, he should follow the work of E.D. Hirsch.
• Malcolm Gladwell thinks city schools could work better if they were run likes sports teams.
• A teacher who refused to attend the Peer Intervention Program gets the charge dismissed.
• Corey Bower says national standards aren’t a silver bullet, but they’re not useless either.
• Michigan seems poised to take a survival of the fittest approach to lifting its charter cap.
• D.C. students aren’t impressed with their schools’ sex education curriculum.
• NYSUT says it’s lost 6,500 members to the recession, and can’t afford to lose more.
• Here are four states that are making painful school cuts, post-stimulus.
• Duncan is speaking at Teachers College tomorrow, perhaps he’ll mention NY and RttT?
• And here’s one way to get a police officer to send students scurrying back to class.