GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• The Board of Regents approved six New York City charter schools today.
• A teacher defends small schools, and prompts a debate on Norm Scott’s blog.
• Hundreds of Chicago teachers turned out to strategize  against school closures there.
• Liz Willen wonders if there’s too much pressure on students at the city’s specialized high schools.
• A teacher discovers that having a class pet in your first year of teaching isn’t a very good idea.
• The California state teachers union is urging its affiliates not to sign off on state RttT plans.
• A study of 1,000 British university students claims they have attention spans of just 10 minutes.
• Simple measures of the achievement gap can mean a lot of different things, reports a new study.
• Teachers in Indiana will now have to major in a content area, with a minor in education.
• Nearly 80 leaders of research universities promised Obama they’d train more math and science teachers.
• And thousands of Tanzanians fleeing floods have taken up temporary residence in schools.

Charter schools could soon have one single “common application,” under a deal hatched today by the three bodies that oversee the state’s charter schools, a Department of Education official confirmed.

Right now, families apply by filling out separate forms for each charter school that enter their children into separate lotteries. Under the new process, the city will create one common application, accepted by all schools, but keep lotteries separate.

The change will answer critics’ charge that the current process, with its overwhelming paperwork, is so complicated that it discourages all but the most motivated parents and effectively screens out needy students. The introduction of a common application does not address a second demand from critics, including the teachers union — that the lotteries also be streamlined.

Michael Duffy, the head of the city’s charter schools, said the city’s goal was “to widen the access for families” to charter schools. Duffy previously spearheaded a push to increase recruitment by charter schools, and said that the new common application should help charters reach out to groups of students, including those learning English, that charter recruiters often miss.

Duffy told me about the plans today by phone, just after a meeting with representatives from the State University of New York and Board of Regents charter authorizers, who Duffy said agreed to join the city in using the new application.

Their decision comes just after a group for charter school parents announced its own effort to streamline the admission process. (more…)

In a post last spring, Ken reviewed some philanthropy statistics for New York City charter schools. This post reviews the updated statistics based on the 2008-2009 audited financial statements for 77 charter schools and adds a new comparison: the difference in philanthropy for charters schools that have non-profit Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) versus those who don’t. In this analysis, we found that schools with CMOs take in at least $1,734 per pupil in philanthropic dollars, versus $994 per pupil in non-CMO schools — a $740 difference. We’ve summarized the rest of our results below, but you can see all of our calculations in this workbook.

The total amount of philanthropic contributions to the 77 schools was $31,302,550. The total enrollment was 23,715. (Enrollment information was taken from the 2008-2009 Learning Environment Survey data, which seems to have the most comprehensive information.) This comes out to a per pupil contribution of $1,320 — a 9 percent drop from the 2007-2008 audits, which showed a per pupil contribution of $1,443.

At the school level, the numbers were basically unchanged from last year. The average school philanthropy per pupil was $1,651 in 2007-2008 compared to $1,654 and the median school philanthropy per pupil was $1,092 compared to $1,081. (more…)

• A senior legislative official says Albany will pass a compromise charter bill “within a week.” (Post)
• At the schools slated for closure, some wonder whether anything could have been done. (Daily News)
• The Board of Regents is set to approve seven charters, including two in closing Catholic schools. (Post)
• The Times says the city’s top charter schools offer hope for the promise of charter schools everywhere.
• The Daily News says the state legislature must complete a lot of education-related work before Jan. 19.
• Letter-writers weigh in on the UFT’s charter school recommendations and the Post’s critique. (Post)
• Thomas Carroll criticizes the UFT’s charter school proposals and its president. (Daily News)
• The DOE’s charter school director wants Mass. to embrace the schools. (Waltham Daily News Tribune)
• Joel Klein gets a free ride, but Chicago’s schools chief gets two, at $1,800 a month. (Chicago Tribune)
• A second top legislator predicted that student Metrocards won’t be eliminated after all. (Post)
• Several city schools focus on environmental issues, with an urban twist. (Times)
• Seventy city schools will get new playgrounds under a new DOE deal with a nonprofit. (Crain’s)
• Bronx Community College has asked a school located on its campus to leave. (Mount Hope Monitor)
• City student athletes competed this weekend in the regional Hispanic Games. (NY1)
• City students were also among thousands participating in a regional robotics competition. (NY1)
• Jay Mathews: Policy changes don’t always change classrooms, a new study finds. (Washington Post)
• The Obama Administration hasn’t actually made any changes to the NCLB law yet. (Washington Post)
• Michelle Rhee says National Board Certification is too expensive for D.C.’s teachers. (Washington Post)
• The founder of a city charter school wants to open more schools in Atlanta. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• After talking to Klein, the mayor of Syracuse wants to take over the schools. (Syracuse Post-Standard)
• Some suburban districts are supplanting AP classes with early college programs. (Times)
• California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a law that would ease teacher firings. (L.A. Times)
• A coalition is growing to open a Harlem-style Children’s Zone in Albany. (Albany Times-Union)

• The MOUs in the RttT application could be fake agreements or produce watered down applications.
• On Inside City Hall, Mulgrew says there’s “no call” to remove the charter cap under RttT.
• Sixth graders taking the Hunter HS test today were shepherded by anxious parents.
• The DOE is partnering with a nonprofit and spending $12 million to give schools new playgrounds.
• Was today’s two-hour snow delay really necessary?  Jay Mathews thinks not.
• Michelle Rhee on Anderson Cooper said issue of teacher quality will dominate the next few years.
• If you haven’t had enough of school closing hearings, here’s a look at Jamaica and Columbus.
• New Jersey is in the awkward spot of submitting a RttT application its new governor may not like.
• Philly is enmeshed in teachers union contract and MOU negotiations at the same time.
• California’s union president worries the parent trigger could lead to parent “lynch mobs.”
• A former Toledo schools official stole thousands from the district and did the same in Cleveland.
• And without any cuts to restore, Arkansas is spending stimulus money on all kinds of projects.

With just over a week until the state’s Race to the Top application is due, the city is playing a game of chicken with the state legislature to pressure lawmakers into raising the cap on charter schools.

Today was the deadline for school districts to sign onto the state’s Race to the Top application, signaling they will participate in the state’s reform plans and making them eligible for a slice of the federal funds.

But the Department of Education of New York City —the state’s (and country’s) largest school district — has not yet agreed to the plan, taking advantage of a last-minute state extension of the deadline.

“We’re awaiting action on the charter cap,” DOE spokesman David Cantor said.

The more school districts that sign onto a state’s application, the more points the state earns in the competition for grant funds.

If New York City refuses its buy-in to the state’s plan, it could potentially cripple New York’s bid for the grant, which could deprive the state of a badly-needed $700 million in funding. The governor is currently withholding nearly $600 million in school aid from districts around the state, a move he defends as an attempt to stave off state financial insolvency. (more…)

Parents, teachers and alumni cheer on the testimony of a Jamaica High School supporter at a public hearing on the plan to close the school last night.

From Queens to Brooklyn, hundreds of teachers, students, and alumni poured into auditoriums last night to defend their high schools from closure.

In Queens, supporters of Jamaica High School turned out in droves for the public hearing, a meeting also attended by Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and some of the Department of Education’s top brass.

The arguments against phasing out Jamaica and replacing it with several small schools in the same building were similar to those voiced at a question-and-answer session with DOE officials held at the school last month, which also drew an angry crowd.

When one speaker pointed out Walcott’s presence in the back of the auditorium, audience members rose from their seats, turned around to face him, and chanted, “Save Jamaica High School.”

The Queens representative on the Panel for Educational Policy, Dmytro Fedkowski, asked the DOE to postpone the board’s vote on the proposals until the department releases more information about how the closure decisions were made. (more…)