GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• NY’s failure to lift the charter cap has charter operators looking to more supportive states.
• Randi Weingarten went on Morning Joe to fend off claims that the UFT sunk NY’s bid for RttT.
• Arne Duncan says Katrina was good for New Orleans schools because it forced them to rebuild.
• Klein needs to learn the power of race and communities writes a UFT blogger.
• Norm chronicles the humble rise and growth of ICE, an opposition group within the UFT.
• Faced with a 2% (or 1.4%) raise, a teacher counsels the union to wait out the mayor’s tough talk.
• Elementary students’ production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is built around their testing schedule.
• Peter Murphy estimates how long it would take NY to reach its charter cap if it only had conversions.
• The National Council on Teacher Quality graded states’ policies and most of them basically failed.
• And as of this coming Monday, the school year will be halfway over.

Many of the city elementary and middle schools who received A’s on last year’s report cards are likely to see their grades drop under a new scoring system for next year, Department of Education officials told principals today.

Next year, only the top-scoring 25 percent of elementary and middle schools will receive A’s, with just under a third of schools each getting B’s and C’s. A tenth of schools will be handed D’s, and 5 percent will receive failing grades, according to the plan outlined today by the city’s accountability chief Shael Polakow-Suransky.

(More than 80 percent of elementary and middle schools took home A’s on their progress reports for last school year.)

The change comes as part of the first step of a gradual recalibration of the way schools are rated in the city’s progress reports system and is also a by-product of the wider state effort to overhaul tests given to New York’s third through eighth graders. (more…)

New York State’s Race to the Top application is nearly a printer-jamming 1,000 pages, but a quick skim of the documents offers some insight into how the state is presenting itself and its proposals to judges in Washington.

Charter cap:

Throughout the fight over whether and how to lift the state’s charter cap, state education officials and the Board of Regents advocated for more than doubling the number of charters allowed in New York. Lifting the cap would not only improve the state’s chances at winning federal money, they said, it had become necessary as New York was closing in on its 200 school limit.

In December, Chancellor of the Board of Regents Merryl Tisch told GothamSchools: “My opinion is that the charter cap is now at a place where it will prevent us from opening great charter schools.” Yet the state’s application paints a distinctly different picture of the charter cap’s effect: (more…)

• Massive layoffs like those Mayor Bloomberg is floating would seriously disrupt the school system. (Times)
• Teachers don’t like the position Bloomberg’s cuts-for-raises offer has put them in. (Daily News, NY1)
• Reorganizing the DOE’s back-end bureaucracy will save $13 million, the city said. (GothamSchools)
• Juan Gonzalez: The fervor to open charter schools could breed more East New York Preps. (Daily News)
• Michael Mulgrew seems to be striking a combative stance as the UFT’s new president. (City Hall News)
• Newtown High School held a rally to protest its position on the state’s list of failing schools. (Daily News)
• Last year’s switch to low-fat milk in the schools saved children from lots of fat and calories. (Post)
• President Obama’s goal of revising the NCLB law is a lofty one in a tough year for lawmaking. (Times)
• In Haiti, where 97 percent of schools were destroyed, officials want to restart classes next week. (Times)
• Los Angeles released a new school “report card” aimed at making comparisons easier. (L.A. Times)

• Joe (not Joel) Klein blasts the UFT and calls unions a “reactionary force in education reform.”
• Miss Brave feels more overwhelmed as the year goes on, maybe because of constant curriculum changes.
• As he called for smaller raises, Bloomberg praised Mulgrew and said they have a “good relationship.”
• Why can the mayor pay top dollar to hire his campaign staff but cut teacher wages? Mr. Talk wonders.
• Obama is touting a $4 billion ed spending increase, but Rob Manwaring thinks the math is fuzzy.
• Controversy is brewing over the WashPo’s decision to revise a blog post on Michelle Rhee.
• Is a bipartisan effort to renew ESEA a pipe dream? Could be, Republicans tell Politics K-12.
• A German family harassed for homeschooling were granted political asylum here. (via Joanne Jacobs)
• John Liu repeated his promise to audit the DOE’s “musical chairs” school closings.
• And here’s the chancellor defending school closings on “Good Day New York”:

The head of the Brooklyn charter school whose charter could be revoked is firing back at the Department of Education and the former teachers who reported her.

In a letter sent to parents on Tuesday, Sheila Joseph, superintendent of the East New York Preparatory school, called the DOE’s allegations that she artificially inflated her salary, violated its charter by shortening the school year and expelled nearly 50 low-performing students before they took state tests “unfounded and untrue.” Joseph also argued in the letter that the school’s high faculty turnover rate was necessary to preserve high standards for the students.

“No one enjoys faculty turnover, but just as we have high and uncompromising standards for our students we also will not compromise on faculty performance,” she wrote. Between the end of last school year and the beginning of this one, the school lost every teacher it had.

“Some of our best teachers are now here because others had to be let go,” Joseph continued. “I don’t take lightly the fact that there has been turnover. However, I will never allow your children to have anything less than the absolute best.”

Former teachers at the school reacted angrily to Joseph’s explanation to parents.

“She’s lying,” said one former teacher who was dismissed in June. (more…)

The day before principals were due to submit midyear budget cut plans, the city has decided to fill their budget holes with money set aside for teacher and principal pay raises.

It’s a bittersweet moment for school staff, who could lose out on the 4 percent pay raises other unions have received, but won’t see their schools stripped of money for classroom supplies and technology midyear. The city’s plan rests on its ability to pressure the United Federation of Teachers and the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators into accepting to two percent raises over two years, half of what the unions expected and a proposal both union presidents have met with angrily worded statements.

Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city will swap the savings from halving teacher and principal’s pay raises with the savings that would have come from a midyear 1 percent cut to schools and a planned 4 percent cut for 2011. (more…)

A worn “High School Musical” wallet with two dollars in it is currently sitting in my jacket. I acquired it after school today, when a student I’ve nicknamed Mastermind handed it over to me, her mom standing next to her with a look somewhere between bemusement and exasperation. The wallet, Mastermind had told me earlier, was hers, as was the money. I was asking since that exact sum had gone missing from another girl I’ve dubbed Digo‘s pencil case. Mastermind is the only student with what passes for a prior record in the third grade.

The story changed of course once her mom explained to me that she hadn’t given her daughter any money, and her daughter wouldn’t have any money otherwise. When her mom took charge of the inquisition Mastermind tried a new performance. Now the wallet was a gift from the guidance counselor and the money was given to her by her friend (aka follower), another student of mine.

I’m looking forward to getting to the truth tomorrow. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to try out a good old fashioned prisoner’s dilemma with eight-year-olds. I’m sure however, the experience will be less than enlightening and somewhat anticlimactic. Relying on these two students to tell the truth will probably be something like a reenactment of Rashomon, but with third graders instead of samurais.

It’s not the first time I’ve faced a situation like this obviously, and they always begin and end practically the same. This is actually one of the rare cases where I’ve resolved who took the money. Still, even with this pretty much settled, the resolution remains unclear. (more…)