GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

1. 

   leonie haimson

   February 9th, 2010 8:44 pm

   Correction! Jackie bennett’s piece on Edwize is about the correlation between grad rates and self-contained special ed, not CTT classes.

2. 

   Samuel Morris

   February 9th, 2010 9:38 pm

   Today, I noticed a post entitled “A UFT blogger finds a correlation between low grad rates and a school’s population of CTT students.”, which suggests the blog posting will correlate Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) with low graduation rates, however, the blog mentions NOTHING about CTT. It DOES mention the correlation between low graduation rates and Self Contained classrooms, which is entirely different setting. I find the post on your site, incorrect AND misleading to those folks who might confound both CTT and Self Contained. Please correct this information, as I have always believed your coverage to be informed AND correct.

3. 

   Maura Walz

   February 9th, 2010 9:55 pm

   Thanks, guys. It’s been fixed!

4. 

   Fort Tryon Teacher

   February 9th, 2010 11:06 pm

   Those kids’ blogs are such a downer! Come on, it’s a snow day–sledding, hot cocoa, snowmen in the park! True, all that snow will turn to ugly slush eventually…all the more reason to live it up now, kiddos!

5. 

   Snow Day? ‘S No Fun at The Core Knowledge Blog

   February 10th, 2010 9:22 am

   [...] Here in NYC we’re having a rare snow day.  But kids are strangely blasé about it all.  (H/T: Gotham Schools) [...]

6. 

   I noticed that...

   February 10th, 2010 10:13 am

   In the above article, “Does the city plant school scandal stories to deflect attention from bad news?” where Michael Mulgrew says “yes”.

   Nothing only do they plant such inflammatory stories, but the facts are so incorrect that I wonder why the journalists still have a job with the NY Post.

   Here’s a reporter’s informing about Mr. Rosenfeld’s accumulated unused sick days.

   Rubber Room Exposé Wins Praise from Bloomberg
   http://gothamist.com/2010/02/01/bloomberg_thanks_ny_post_for_rubber.php

   “With his perfect attendance, he has accumulated 435 unused sick days. When he retires, he is paid for half.”

   The Gothamist’s statement that Mr. Rosenfeld accumulated so many ununsed sick days is blatantly untrue because the teacher’s contract, Article 16A17, clearly contradicts their misleading information.

   Here’s where these rogue reporters are unethically misinforming the public into thinking that teachers are scamming the system. What I’ve seen since the Mayor has been in office is nothing but propaganda and distortion of the truth.

   It is time for the public to take action and not read any newspaper that sensationalizes and distorts the truth.

7. 

   I noticed that...

   February 10th, 2010 10:47 am

   Diane states that there are “Two Types of Superintendents”. She ends her column with the following statements:

   “For just as the police officers felt compelled to game the system to meet the demands of CompStat, so educators are now gaming the system to meet the demands of NCLB. Some states have dumbed down their tests; some have rigged the scores to produce greater numbers of “proficient” students. Some districts have narrowed their curriculum and have replaced instruction with intensive test-prep. Some schools of choice exclude low-performing students. All in the service of making the numbers, making AYP, looking good rather than doing well.
   Anyone who thinks that these methods will produce first-class education for our nation’s children is either a fool or is fooling himself.”

   Since 2000 when Bush implemented the NCLB federal law, with its initial intention of ensuring that all children would be proficient by the year 2014, and the pivotal year fast approaching, I would like to know how many years will it take to reverse the damage and educational negligence to all the children in the nation who were not given the opportunity of being exposed to a rich curriculum across the subjects, where the arts and music should never have been replaced because of these incessant test-prep sessions, and where our most vulnerable special needs students are treated as “orphans or step-children” because their “inclusion” into the stats would affect the AYP?

   I find it very disturbing that these business-type superintendents, where their goal is to keep the stats high at the cost of a true education, has only brought around a generation of test-prep children who will find themselves searching for a true education for many years to come.

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