GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

A Brooklyn charter school that has the dubious distinction of committing the worst charter violations city officials say they’ve ever seen is about to be closed.

New York City rarely closes charter schools, but yesterday Department of Education officials told East New York Preparatory that it intends to revoke the school’s charter when the current school year ends in June. The K-4 school was authorized by Chancellor Joel Klein in 2006 and would only be the fourth charter school in the city to close.

Director of the city’s office of charter schools, Michael Duffy, said DOE officials began noticing problems last year when parents contacted the department and the school was put on probation in February.

“It’s certainly the worst in New York City that I’ve seen,” Duffy said. (more…)

Our current education policy debates have me depressed.

“But there’s so much going on! Look at all the intersecting issues we’re juggling in New York:  school closings, small and charter schools opening or expanding, our Race to the Top application, the Regents proposal expand preparation options, eliminating the charter school cap, another DOE restructuring, teacher merit pay and tenure based on student performance! Isn’t this a great time for addressing the BIG ISSUES in education?!”

No.

Arguably, I feel this way because of deep flaws in most of the above proposals. But it’s not mere opposition that drives my ennui. (more…)

• The city is set to close a DOE-authorized charter school that has serious money problems. (Post)
• A big crowd is expected for tonight’s sure-to-be-contentious PEP vote on school closures. (NY1)
• The big high schools being closed by the chancellor are not going down without a fight. (Times)
• Joyce Purnick, a Jamaica HS grad, says it’s time to accept that Jamaica’s heyday is over. (Times)
• WCBS went inside the city’s rubber rooms and talked to reassigned teachers.
• The Times compares Albany’s charter cap balk to its rejection of congestion pricing in 2008.
• Mayor Bloomberg said it’s not fair for legislators to lay any of the blame on the city. (Post)
• Female teachers who don’t like math pass on their fears to their students, a study found. (L.A. Times)
• Across the country, high schools are adding personal finance courses. (USA Today)
• More teens got pregnant last year, for the first time in a decade; more also got abortions. (USA Today)

• The New Yorker profiles U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
• A New York City trade school is seeing an enrollment boom triggered by the recession.
• Richard Kessler asks if the recession will “correct” the overgrowth of non-profit arts organizations.
• Edwize takes a look at the special education demographics of the schools slated for closure.
• The Alliance for Quality Education has a video of school closure protests from around the city.
• The DOE plans to open a new elementary school in M.S. 44 to alleviate overcrowding.
• Large high schools have been hit especially hard by the Bloomberg administration.
• Alyson Klein looks at what Scott Brown’s election could mean for MA schools.
• Leonie Haimson says there’s strong evidence students will drop out as their schools are closed.
• In a city losing its neighborhood high schools the choice is to specialize or wear your traveling shoes.
• CBS News is running a story tonight at 11 p.m. on NYC’s rubber rooms (no link).
• Pissed Off Teacher writes about the social benefits of attending a neighborhood school.
• Doing the math: Race to the Top cost every person in the U.S. $13.
• Pennsylvania’s Ed Sect. thinks the new teachers contract will give the state’s RttT application “oomph.”
• Is it being too cynical to think Duncan’s RttT decisions will be colored by politics?
• Peter Murphy said Sens. Craig Johnson and Ruben Diaz saved the charter movement last week.
• Richmond votes out a charter school, a move that may not last long under the new governor.
• And Texas mistakenly bans a children’s book…must have been that red bird.

After hearing about Jamaica High School’s proposed closure, former New York Times multimedia producer Monica Evanchik was inspired to seek out stories from some of the school’s teachers. (more…)

In New York City, schools live and die by statistics. If statistics take a nosedive, schools are closed, no ifs, ands or buts. Of course, everyone knows the old saying about liars, damned liars, and statisticians. So you’d think before taking the draconian step of closing a school, statistics would be checked with great care.

You’d be wrong, of course. But if you were relying on the local papers to inform you, you’d never know it. In fact, it appears Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gets his info straight from Mayor Bloomberg’s PR machine, and that appears good enough for President Barack Obama as well. Amusing though it is to watch politicians jump like trained seals, doing whatever it takes to grab the money Obama and Duncan dangle before them, their utter lack of vision and common sense is unsettling, to say the least.

One of the most vexing aspects of this administration’s frenzy to close schools is its absolute willingness to accept and propagate explanations like this one. While the much-ballyhooed statistics are outrageous and inaccurate, it appears true that no one’s actually planning to bulldoze Jamaica High School, as far as I know. Of course, that’s only as far as I know.

Still, even if the building will remain, does that mean residents will still get what they’ve always gotten? (more…)

• Six high-profile former students from Jamaica High School describe their school days. (Times)
• If the DOE does close Paul Robeson HS, students with serious needs will have no home. (NY1)
• People who protested outside Mayor Bloomberg’s house said their protest was illegally surveilled. (NY1)
• The school closure protests are just what mayoral control was supposed to prevent. (Gotham Gazette)
• Paterson’s proposed school budget cuts might be mitigated by wealthy districts’ savings. (Times)
• State Sen. Craig Johnson explains why he supported Gov. Paterson’s charter cap bill. (Post)
• Issues of teacher pay and firing ease stopped the UFT from signing on to the state’s RttT bid. (Post)
• The Daily News calls state legislators hypocrites for selectively supporting school choice.
• Entrepreneurs are trying to increase the number of public schools offering Chinese from 60. (Daily News)
• The Post rails against the EPA’s plan to test schools for air safety.
• City students advanced through the first round of LEGO robotics competition. (NY1)
• Real estate mogul David Walentas predicts an end to the suit over the MS planned for DUMBO. (Times)
• Conservative pundit Maggie Gallagher asks a perpetual question: How can we do more for boys? (Post)
• Australia is getting an NYC-inspired school ranking Web site this week. (The Age)
• The federal government will soon fund education technology for the first time in a decade. (Times)

• Advocates for Children asked the DOE to consider the impact of closing schools on homeless students.
• Want to know who the RttT judges are? It’s a secret. USDOE says it’s to keep pressure off the judges.
• Here’s where to watch State Senate President Malcolm Smith’s town hall on school closures.
• Texting “l8r” requires more literacy and spelling skills than “u” might think, according to a new study.
• InsideSchools is surveying student and parent attitudes toward school safety officers.
• In spite of head lice scares and troubled students, Miss Brave is still living in the “sparkle days.”
• The new Philly teachers contract includes a school-based but not individual performance pay plan.
• Stephen Sawchuk dissects the Houston school district/AFT flap.
• Bureau of Indian Education schools would automatically get a slice of RttT, if a new bill is passed.
• Pissed Off speculates that the teacher responsible for her typing skills would be in a rubber room today.

Four days before the vote that will determine whether the city can close 20 schools this year, the Department of Education released a list of their replacements.

The DOE is making a pretty safe bet — the citywide panel that will decide these schools’ fate next week has never voted down any of the chancellor’s proposals.

It’s difficult to understand what next year will look like because information about the closures has come out in drips and in Educational Impact Statements no civilian should have to read. Hoping to make the picture a little less foggy, I’ve compiled a list of all the schools that are slated for closure and their planned replacements.

When possible, I’ve included enrollment sizes and descriptions of the new schools. Some new schools’ impact statements are so vague and full of edu-speak, it remains well-nigh impossible to know how they’ll be pedagogically different from the schools they replace. (more…)