GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Dozens of schools will have to stop paying for a yoga program created by an alleged cult leader. (Post)
• D.C. chancellor Michelle Rhee and Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson are engaged. (Washington Post)
• Turnout was low at free H1N1 vaccine clinics for students this weekend. (Times)
• Thousands of retired teachers had pension checks canceled. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News, Post)
• The Post says the city should freeze teacher pay as a way to weather the fiscal crisis.
• Some city kids ditched school to attend the Yankees’ ticker-tape parade Friday. (Daily News)
• Jay Mathews: Instead of rating teachers, principals should have power to fire them. (Washington Post)
• Nicola Vitale, a teacher at Banana Kelly HS, has won an elite science teaching award. (NY1)
• Schools nationwide are negotiating dress codes that accommodate students’ gender identities. (Times)
• The dairy industry wants to bring chocolate milk back to schools in a big way. (AP)

• The state teachers union says “there is no more fat to cut” from school budgets.
• A new study proposes a rule of thumb for when to close schools during a flu epidemic.
• A new book concludes that many colleges misunderstand their first-generation college students.
• Jay Mathews says it’s the “best book ever” written on college readiness.
• Early Ed Watch tackles how best to serve pre-K English Language Learners.
• Peter Murphy defends charter schools against the charge that they are political “darlings.”
• Sherman Dorn wants his school district to get online systems for course schedules and IEPs.
• Teachable Moment has suggestions for Bloomberg’s next term: more community schools, less Klein.
• And Mildly Melancholy’s students think she has special powers — teaching and charm.

• The city is giving $55K to a student who was attacked by a safety agent. (GothamSchools, Daily News)
• The DOE paid a Canadian hypnotherapist $374,000 for management advice. (Daily News)
• CFO George Raab, a former Bear Stearns exec who brought on the consultant, has since left the DOE.
• Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch wants to see more charter high schools. (GothamSchools)
• School rules allow high schools to recruit middle school student athletes. (Post)
• Greenwich Village Middle School will move downtown and change its name. (The Villager)
• The parent council for District 2 endorsed temporary zones for two new downtown schools. (The Villager)
• The ACLU is suing the state of Florida for failing to provide a quality education to its students. (AP)
• More schools across the country are putting their report cards online. (USA Today)

• Lawmakers will go back to Albany next week and may approve cuts to school aid.
• If the UFT and Obama had endorsed Thompson, Bloomberg would have lost, a Bloomberg aide said.
• Louisiana school boards reject RttT, possibly harming the state’s chances.
• What does Obama’s praise for Wisconsin mean for NY’s own data firewall?
• Don’t get too excited, writes Andy Smarick, Wisconsin’s law bans firing teachers because of student data.
• The many conflicting, even hypocritical, things Richard Kessler has heard about the arts in schools.
• Sen. Jose Serrano wants a state-wide audit of arts education.
• Dennis Walcott said Klein is the first and last person he talks to every day.
• Seven NYC math and science teachers win the first annual Sloan Awards for Excellence.
• Some eighth graders think the upcoming specialized high school test means everything.
• In the practice what you preach category, one reader wants Jonathan Alter to have performance pay.
• A day after becoming NJ’s new governor, Chris Christie stopped by a high-performing charter school.
• A transit strike in Philly is taking a toll on student attendance rates.
• And a parent group is circulating a petition to protest K-2 standardized testing.

Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch yesterday called on city charter school operators to move away from elementary education and take on the problems of fixing large failing high schools.

Speaking at Hunter College, Tisch said that charter schools have benefited from being the political “darlings” of the city and state, blessed with the most qualified teachers and some of the highest-achieving students. Instead, Tisch said, charter schools need to branch out to serve more struggling high school students, English language learners and special education students.

“It’s really time for charter schools to say to me, ‘I don’t want to just grow my own, I don’t want to operate in this zone where I am the darling,’” Tisch said. “I want them to dig in and say, ‘what can we do to help?’”

Currently, thirteen of the city’s roughly 100 charter schools serve high school students, though more are slated to grow to include ninth through twelfth grade classes.

Tisch was speaking on a panel organized by the group Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century about the future of the city schools post election. The panel also included teachers union head Michael Mulgrew, founder and CEO of Success Charter Network Eva Moskowitz and Democrats for Education Reform director Joe Williams. (more…)

Since Michael Bloomberg first became mayor and appointed Chancellor Joel Klein, new principals have been assigned to scores of schools in New York and considerable responsibility has been placed in their hands. Today, the majority of principals in the city have less than five years experience, and many have less than three. With the accountability measures adopted by the DOE in 2007, principals now have greater autonomy over how to manage their schools, to generate and expend resources, and increased pressure to produce results. What was true for SpiderMan is now true for New York principals: With great power comes great responsibility.

There is substantial evidence that many schools in New York have improved over the last eight years but several challenges remain. According to a recent study of high schools released by the New School, several of the city’s larger high schools are floundering. They generally have lower graduation rates, higher teacher turnover, and lower test scores than many of the new, smaller schools. The report also suggests that there are important equity issues at stake: The larger schools tend to serve higher numbers of English language learners and special education students. Many of these schools also serve a significant number of “over the counter students” who transfer in throughout the school year.

Holding principals accountable when they cannot control important aspects of the school environment is neither fair nor always an effective means of promoting improvement. (more…)

• Just 22 percent of elementary and middle school students plan to get an H1N1 vaccine. (Daily News)
• A second round of schools started offering the shots yesterday. (NY1)
• The Ford Foundation will fund high school reform efforts in seven cities, including New York. (L.A. Times)
• What Mayor Bloomberg’s third term will mean for schools is a matter for speculation. (GothamSchools)
• Obama issued a stern call for linking student test scores and teacher evaluations. (L.A. Times, Bloomberg)

• A Bronx mother says that the city’s middle school fairs “felt almost useless.”
• Chicago might have “drop-out factories” in higher ed as well as high school, says Joanne Jacobs.
• EdWize has a video of Mulgrew’s address at the UFT parent outreach conference last weekend.
• The Ford Foundation announced $100 million in grants to improve urban secondary schools.
• There’s a public hearing on how NAEP should test ELLs and students with disabilities next week.
• InsideSchools has a rundown on all the new proposed Chancellor’s Regulations.
• A pilot merit-pay program in Texas produced weak, negative or no effects on student test scores.
• GOP wins in New Jersey and Virginia could mean cuts to those state’s pre-k programs.
• Chicago Public Schools is competing with a charter school over who gets to buy a building.
• City students will watch free live transmissions of opera in movie theaters, beginning with Turandot.
• President Obama and Ed Secretary Duncan promoted Race to the Top in Wisconsin.
• Duncan told reporters that final Race to the Top requirements would be out “soon.”
• And the best caption writer for a photo of Bloomberg and Weingarten could win big bucks, maybe.