GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• A new study finds that New York State’s charter schools are better than other states’. (WNYC)
• The city announced it wants to close nine more schools. (GothamSchools, Post, NY1)
• City Councilman Jimmy Vacca: DOE policies damaged Christopher Columbus HS. (Bronx Times)
• Students from New York City placed third in a national science competition. (Post)
• Christine Quinn wants to change the fact that city schools get their lettuce from out of state. (Crain’s NY)
• Portland, Ore., schools are returning to a large-high-school model after five years. (The Oregonian)
• A new nonprofit will help D.C. charter schools with logistical and political issues. (Washington Post)
• Detroit is planning to tear down more than half a dozen unused school buildings. (Detroit Free Press)

• The Center for Education Reform gave New York State’s charter law a “B.”
• A UFT rep in the Bronx has been elected executive vice president of the state teachers union.
• Accountable Talk wonders what a video game, Imagine Teacher, would look like in NYC.
• A teacher remembers his early days at Columbus High School, which is on the “to be closed” list.
• Maxwell High School’s supporters are planning to fight the school’s phase-out.
• A blogger says a small school in Jamaica HS was treated better than the larger, older school.
• In David Brooks’ love of Springsteen, Richard Kessler sees an embrace of arts education.
• Questioning charter schools’ place in the spotlight draws responses from Joel Klein and others.
• NCLB’s definition of “professional development” could be in for some changes.
• Peter Murphy has some harsh words for UFT president Michael Mulgrew.
• After following three Philly students, the Notebook finds they’re all in trouble.
• And thanks to the Core Knowledge Blog for the kind words.

A plan aimed at easing crowding in District 2 has parents up in arms because it would force a popular middle school to move from its long-time home.

The plan would move the Clinton School for Writers and Artists to P.S. 33, roughly five blocks from its home on the fifth floor of P.S. 11 in Chelsea. The move was finalized at the end of last week just as the school’s parent-teacher association sent a letter to the Department of Education rejecting the placement.

Though parents and the department agree that P.S. 11 is too overcrowded for the Clinton School to remain there, there’s disagreement over whether P.S. 33 is an appropriate relocation spot.

In a letter sent to the DOE last Friday, co-president of the PTA Darren Taffinder asked that the Clinton School be given one more year at P.S. 11. Taffinder wrote that he and other parents couldn’t agree to a move to P.S. 33 without knowing how much space their school would have and without a promise that the move is temporary. (more…)

In the most sweeping round of school shuttering this year, the Department of Education announced today that it intends to phase out nine more schools, eight of them high schools and three of them opened under Chancellor Joel Klein.

The schools slated for closure today include large high schools in every borough except Staten Island. Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn, Norman Thomas High School in Manhattan, Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, and Beach Channel High School in Queens all will not accept new students for next year, provided that the city school board approves the closures next month. Together, the four schools have nearly 6,000 students.

Beach Channel received attention in 2007 after students and teachers complained about a destabilizing influx of students who had not chosen to attend the school but were placed there. Those students included many who would have been zoned for Far Rockaway High School, a large school nearby that has since begun to phase out.

Today’s proposed closures also include three schools that were opened by the current administration: (more…)

• A small coterie of rich hedge fund partners are galvanizing donations to city charter schools. (Times)
• Charter school operators from other states say they’ll avoid NY until the charter cap is lifted. (Post)
• The State Senate’s ed committee chair says she needs more guidance about Race to the Top. (NY1)
• Bob Herbert: Harvard’s new doctoral education program will help create education leaders. (Times)
• Lafayette HS was closed this weekend because of asbestos fears, canceling the SAT. (Daily News)
• More city teens are testing positive for some sexually transmitted diseases. (Post)
• Students from Stuyvesant and Francis Lewis HS are in the running for a top science scholarship. (NY1)
• The percentage of CUNY freshmen needing remedial classes is holding steady at three quarters. (Post) 
• Letter writers, including the DOE’s David Cantor, take on the issue of charter school space. (Times)
• In a letter, a Harvard Med professor critiques Bloomberg’s teacher-doctor comparison. (Times)
• A teacher at Tribeca’s PS 89 was arrested for hitting a police car while driving drunk. (Post)
• Most D.C. schools with big test score gains last year did not make them this year. (Washington Post)
• A new study finds negative effects of parents’ deployment on children. (Times, Wall Street Journal)
• Jay Mathews is disappointed by how few regular public schools have longer days. (Washington Post)
• Students who don’t have computers at home can be at a disadvantage. (Washington Post)
• Boston is reminding parents not to give teachers expensive holiday gifts. (Boston Globe)

What is it about the Harlem Children’s Zone that causes pundits and reporters to suspend disbelief?  Perhaps it’s the deep desire for evidence that the large and persistent racial gap in educational achievement can be overcome.  The enduring racial inequalities in educational and social outcomes in the U.S. are a blight on our society, and evidence that these inequalities can be eliminated, however, tenuous, can be elevated into the feel-good story of the year.

Last night, Anderson Cooper reported on the Harlem Children’s Zone for the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes.  “For years, educators have tried and failed to get poor kids from the inner city to do just as well in school as kids from America’s more affluent suburbs,” he began. “Black kids still routinely score well below white kids on national standardized tests. But a man named Geoffrey Canada may have figured out a way to close that racial achievement gap.”  Cooper asked Canada, “So you’re trying to level the playing field between kids here in Harlem and middle class kids in a suburb?”  “That’s exactly what we have to do,” Canada replied.

As is customary, Cooper spoke with Harvard economist Roland Fryer, who has analyzed the achievement of students attending the HCZ Promise Academy charter schools.  Fryer said, “At the elementary school level, he closed the achievement gap in both subjects, math and reading.”   

“Actually eliminating the gap in elementary school?” Cooper asked.

“We’ve never seen anything like that. Absolutely eliminating the gap. The gap is gone, and that is absolutely incredible,” Fryer said. (more…)

• A report from TNTP asked Ohio faculty if they have colleagues they think should be fired but haven’t been.
• A third of those teachers said yes. Jamie Davies O’Leary at Flypaper thinks that number is very high…
• …While Corey Bunje Bower calls that percentage “almost laughably low.”
• The city principals union testified before City Council that dedicated arts funding should be restored.
• A teacher is surprised to learn that one of his third-grade students doesn’t know how to sing his ABC’s.
• Teacher Chaz accuses the DOE of dismantling Jamaica High School step by step.
• D.C. charter schools will now receive the same police protection as traditional public schools in the district.
• And NYC educator says there isn’t really a boom of classroom seats in Queens.