Posts from October 2009
crowd control
October 21, 2009
Upper West Siders warns DOE of kindergarten crowding next year
Members of the Upper West Side’s district school board are meeting tonight to warn Department of Education officials that if they don’t build more classrooms, next year’s kindergarten crisis will be in their district.
In an interview this afternoon, Community Education Council president Noah Gotbaum said that though the DOE’s data shows a district-wide decrease in enrollment, many schools were hit with an influx of kindergartners this year. P.S. 87 had to create three more kindergarten classes than the department had projected, while P.S. 199 had to create two more to accommodate children who live in the zone.
Pointing to the rapid construction of housing developments in the district and the increase in parents who can no longer afford private school, Gotbaum said the numbers for next year look worse, but there’s no room for the schools to grow.
“These are pretty significant trends that need to be taken into consideration and addressed immediately, otherwise there will be real chaos in September and I think the DOE recognizes that,” he said. (more…)
experimental edschool
October 21, 2009
A new hybrid model for teaching teachers comes to New York
New York City has launched an experimental model of teacher training that pairs inexperienced newcomers to the city’s schools with seasoned pros.
Developed by Hunter College, New Visions for Public Schools, and the Department of Education, the Urban Teacher Residency program aims to give new teachers the skills they’ll need to manage classrooms full of high-needs students. It also coaches them along as they do. Residents spend four days a week in their classrooms and the fifth at the Hunter College School of Education, taking courses intended to make education theory practical.
Danielle Ruggiero, a mentor teacher, said she showed up at Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, Queens, six years ago, armed with a degree that taught her much about the theory of education but glossed over many of the practical concerns she faced on her first day.
“When I first started teaching, I was thrown into a class of 38 kids who were all behind in their reading skills and I was this 22-year-old,” she said. “You’ve got to get on-the-ball really quickly.” (more…)
Early Obama adviser waiting to see on schools strategy
- The adviser said Obama’s strategy has to stretch beyond simply, “Be like Joel.” Above, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan lauding New York City as a model last year.
An early adviser to President Obama on education issues, Christopher Edley, the dean of the law school at UC-Berkeley, today praised the president for following through on his promise to make schools a priority despite the tough times. But Edley said that whether Obama is pursuing the right education policies is unclear.
“The question is whether he is going to pick the right strategy to advance that,” Edley said, speaking on an education panel at the New York Public Library sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and Intel Corporation.
His skepticism called to mind the ongoing debate inside the Democratic Party about how to transform public schools — and also cast it in a different light. Edley’s concern, he said, is that the Obama administration could end up relying too heavily on competition as a lever to spur change. But forcing schools to compete for students and to stay open will not alone improve them. Schools also need to be regulated, he said.
City adds new corps of “education experts” to 311 call service
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein today announced an addition to New York City’s phone assistance service designed specifically to answer parents’ questions about the city schools.
The city is adding about 40 operators to the city’s 311 call centers specially trained to answer questions on issues like school enrollment, admissions and transportation, said DOE spokesman Andrew Jacob. They will also be able to look up some information on specific students and schools, which general 311 operators were unable to do before.
The enhanced service will cost about $3 million per year, Jacob said, with about half of those funds diverted from other services. Some of the operators come to the 311 service after working on other DOE information hotlines, while others are new hires, he said. (more…)
Asking the tough questions about G&T
Over in the Community Section, Gifted Gazette author Michael McCurdy is riffing off an article in the New York Times earlier this week about the Speyer Legacy School, a new private school that only admits “gifted” children, to ask big questions about how we define giftedness and whether gifted students should have their own schools.
McCurdy writes:
, at 10:44 amI’d like to hear from other GothamSchools readers on how they define (or despise) the label “gifted and talented.” Should we use another name? Should NYC have yet another private school that caters to the gifted and talented like Speyer Legacy School?
Gifted Gazette
October 21, 2009
What EXACTLY Is Gifted and Talented?
The New York Times had an interesting article this week about the new Speyer Legacy School, a private school catering to gifted and talented children where annual tuition is a meager $28,500 for kindergarten. I suppose some people think there’s a need for such a program in the competitive world of gifted and talented but there still remains that nagging question: What exactly is “gifted and talented”?
Yes, that’s a loaded question and depending on whom you ask you’ll probably get a different response from everyone. I’ve heard G&T defined by some parents as “every child is gifted and talented” while other parents claim “only the top 1% of the top 1% (.0001) are considered gifted and talented.” My guess is most people define gifted and talented somewhere in between.
As far as the NYC goes, the DOE defines gifted and talented extremely narrowly: by OLSAT and BSRA scores alone. Is this fair? (more…)
Headlines
October 21, 2009
Rise & Shine: State wants 5 years to count as on-time graduation
- Mayor Bloomberg is pushing parents to return flu shot consent forms. (Post, Daily News)
- The Board of Regents wants to count 5-year high school graduates as graduating on-time. (Post)
- Maura noted this, but once again: The Times rehashes our story about Bill Thompson’s BOE days.
- The firm that won a bid to provide healthy snacks in schools was fined for labor violations. (Daily News)
- France knighted four city principals yesterday. (GothamSchools, Post, Daily News)
- A Bronx school for blind students teaches them how to use technology to become independent. (NY1)
- The Post says legislators should consider and pass Sam Hoyt’s bill to lift the charter school cap. (Post)
- Massachusetts wants to cut the dropout rate by making school mandatory to age 18. (Boston Globe)
- Michelle Rhee’s teacher layoffs appear to be mucking up contract negotiations. (Washington Post)
nightcap
October 20, 2009
Remainders: Districts misspend stimulus funds at their own risk
- NYTimes tries its hand at characterizing Thompson’s Board of Ed days, a story we wrote last month.
- Leonie Haimson wonders why the Times wants accountability in Albany but not for the city school system.
- President Obama knows what his kids are reading; he says the Harry Potter novels are “pretty good.”
- The end of the federal desegregation decree in Chicago may have consequences for bilingual education.
- Corey Bunje Bower pushes back on Alexander Hoffman’s claim that national standards are useless.
- School districts that ignore rules for spending stimulus money could find themselves high and dry.
- School shootings are more likely in states with a “culture of honor,” a new study says.
- Diane Ravitch fears merit pay is a distraction from more serious and urgent reforms.
- Early Ed Watch checks out the New Jersey gubernatorial candidates’ stances on education.
- The average cost of a public college education rose 6.5 percent last year.
- How much time on Facebook is too much for high schoolers, Liz Willen wonders.
- A lawyer is offering free counsel to laid-off teachers in Washington, D.C.
The final question on standards: Why bother?
For the last two weeks, Teachers College doctoral student Alexander Hoffman has been enumerating the problems with national standards. Today, he arrives at his big finish: If standards are unrealistic, disconnected from the classroom, and necessarily limited in scope, why bother with them at all?
Here’s one explanation Hoffman suggests:
, at 4:59 pmPoliticians and public leaders want to do something, and probably want to be seen as doing something, so they do what they can, even if what they can do is worthless.
genesis
October 20, 2009
UWS parents and politicos took central role in McCourt’s building
DOE officials and parent activists have called the planning process of the new Frank McCourt High School a model for parent involvement in new school building.
The Frank McCourt High School set to open next year had a unique beginning: Instead of being dreamed up by the DOE, a nonprofit group, or a few teachers writing an application, parents played a major role in building it.
But while civic leaders praise the parental involvement, the story of the school’s opening is also a lesson in the challenges a larger community role can bring.
Parent advocates, community leaders and neighborhood elected officials conceived the idea of school last year as a way to honor the famed author McCourt with a school dedicated to literature, writing and journalism. They wanted a school of about 800 to 1,000 students that would attract a diverse population from around their district, which stretches from the Upper West Side to the middle of West Harlem. They also wished to make sure that the school would fit in well as one of several small schools replacing Brandeis High School, which is being phased out.
The school that Chancellor Klein debuted this month hews to that image in important ways. But the DOE’s plan diverges from the parent and advocates’ vision in other ways, most crucially in its size and admissions policy.
Parent advocates and the school’s new principal emphasize that the school is still in its early stages of planning. How those discrepancies are resolved may also be a key part of how the McCourt school provides a model for community involvement in new school development. (more…)
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