GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

The news came out awhile ago that teacher data reports were available. Since I’m at a new school my principal did not have my report (I was the only one to even ask her about it). I checked ARIS constantly, thinking that the city schools’ online data system would be a logical site to post my report, but found nothing. Finally, I googled “teacher data reports nyc” last night and found a Department of Education page about data verification for the reports. Clicking through this page to the Data Toolkit I saw “Get Your Reports” on the side. I was getting somewhere!

The page says that a username and password were to be sent to our DOE e-mail, so I double-checked that and found nothing. Moving on, I clicked through to the site where I could download my report. When I did so an alert showed up notifying me that the site was not under the jurisdiction of the DOE and the DOE was therefore not responsible for its content (the page is run by the Wisconsin Center for Education Reform at the University of Wisconsin). Okay … I tried my DOE username and password, but had no luck, so I went through the password retrieval process, and … I made it. I had finally accessed my data.

The whole ordeal couldn’t have taken more than 10 minutes, but it was far from easy which begs the question — why? (more…)

• The city schools are spending this week focusing on tolerance and respect. (NY1)
• Parents are organizing a “bake-in” to protest the city’s new bake sale rules. (Daily News)
• City Limits offers an overview of the city schools’ dismal budget outlook.
• The proposed state budget would eliminate many summer camp jobs for teenagers. (Times)
• Diane Ravitch summarizes why her education policy views changed over time. (Wall Street Journal)
• A man with a gun was killed by police outside Brooklyn’s PS 194 just after school let out. (Times)
• The Everyday Math program used in NYC is credited with test-score gains in D.C. (Washington Post)

• The mayor will give the principal of P.S. 24, Christina Fuentes, a Sloan Award tomorrow.
• A WNYC reporter visits a juvenile justice center and reports back on the conditions, funding problems.
• Newsweek says firing bad teachers and hiring good ones is imperative, nevermind the gray areas.
• A New Orleans charter school is built on teachers who work long hours for little, but can that continue?
• Diane Ravitch talks to Brian Lehrer about her new book and her change of mind.
• Edwize: more charter school regulation, not less, could have helped NY in its RttT bid.
• Patrick Sullivan, the parent of two Lower Lab students, says the Village Voice story got it wrong.
• Teacher quality isn’t the only important factor schools can control, school environment matters, too.
• Schools built around team structures are best for training teachers, writes a UFT blogger.
• Look for Race to the Top to be franchised out to other policy areas, writes Kevin Carey.
• To repeat the eternal question: is what teachers do like what doctors or lawyers do?
• Teachable Moment is annoyed that the tenor of RttT coverage resembles that of a horse-race.
• And there’s no better cure for a Monday than a P.S. 22 performance. This time: Lisztomania.

As dust settles on a months-long school rezoning battle in Tribeca, State Senator Daniel Squadron said he would introduce a new bill today that would force the Department of Education to give community leaders more information before they sit down to draw new zoning lines.

Standing outside the epicenter of that zoning battle, P.S. 234, Squadron said members of the parent council for District 2 had been asked to chose a rezoning plan — but hadn’t been given any information about how many kindergarten students to expect. As a result, P.S. 234 still has too many new students zoned for it, leaving families to take their chances in a lottery.

Shino Tanikawa, a member of the Community Education Council for District 2, said DOE officials gave the council numbers for how many kindergarten and first-grade students are enrolled in Tribeca schools, but not projections for how many were coming down the pipeline.

“We kept asking for enrollment projections and the number they had was an aggregate number based on historical trends,” she said. “For the actual zoning we had to do, there was nothing.” (more…)

With funding for student Metrocards on the line, students’ commutes have been a hot topic lately. But is it good for students to be commuting long distances?

I do not doubt that a great many students across the city travel long distances to attend a school they feel are the best fit for their needs. But students don’t always take on long commutes out of choice. Suspecting that lengthy commutes actually hurt many of our most vulnerable students, I undertook a study into attendance statistics that suggests that it might be better for some students to have a shorter trip to school.

The Background

We already know that enrollment patterns have an impact on progress report grades and contribute to the low scores received by schools that have been slated to close. Three years ago, I noticed a relationship between self-contained special education students (high-needs students requiring smaller classes) and progress report grades: Schools receiving poor grades serve far higher percentages of self-contained students.

In the last few months, I have looked deeper into these patterns within the Bronx, trying to understand the increasingly high concentrations of self-contained special needs students within the remaining large high schools (see the details by district here). I hypothesized that this ongoing shift was also not good for the students, who were being assigned to travel increasingly far to get to school as their neighborhood schools closed. I sought research on the relationship between commute and achievement for these most vulnerable of students, but kept coming up empty. (more…)

News from New York City:

• PTAs at 26 schools have raised more than $2 million this year to pay for extra teachers aides. (Post)
• The Board of Regents is considering eliminating 13 Regents exams to save money. (Daily News,Post)
• Parents say the Joel Klein-Eva Moskowitz e-mails should stop school closures for now. (Daily News)
• State Sen. Bill Perkins is at odds with many of his Harlem constituents on education policy. (Times)
• A member of the Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board says the teachers union should get out of Harlem.
• A teacher is in the rubber room after being accused of choking a student at Life Academy HS. (Post)
• Students at the Brooklyn charter school that parents say is too strict earn top test scores. (Post)
• Parents and students protested against the impending closures of Catholic schools. (Daily News)
• Students from Samuel Gompers HS competed in a memory competition this weekend. (Daily News)
• This year’s Penny Harvest change drive will collect funds for Haiti. (NY1)
• Bob Herbert backs the New York Civil Liberties Union’s safety lawsuit against the city schools. (Times)

And beyond:

• Some think teachers can be made better with a new kind of teacher education. (Times)
• Others argue that teaching is an innate skill, so more bad teachers should be fired. (Newsweek)
• Ed Sec Arne Duncan said states shouldn’t change schools policy just for money. (GothamSchools, Post)
• The Daily News says New York should still make changes to increase its Race to the Top chances.
• The Wall Street Journal says Race to the Top will fail because it’s trying to be all things to all people.
• Duncan is in Selma, Ala., today to unveil stepped-up civil rights initiatives. (Times, Wall Street Journal)
• President Obama’s warm response to the Central Falls mass teacher firing was “tough love.” (Times)
• Similar mass firings where teachers had to reapply for their jobs have helped some schools. (USA Today)
• Educational and fiscal imperatives compete in districts’ move to four-day weeks. (Wall Street Journal)
• Readers weigh in on Diane Ravitch’s changing education policy positions. (Times)
• A Boston Globe columnist argues against the current drive toward national standards.

• New York’s RttT application has some sentences only the most jargon literate can decipher.
• The point spread among RttT finalists is so close, it’ll all come down to states’ presentations.
• A new study finds numerous problems with the common standards movement.
• To raise money for Haiti, adults pledged money to P.S. 7 students for their “playathon.”
• A first-year teacher wonders how young teachers should go about distancing themselves from students.
• City Room’s Complaint Box admonishes those who display their brilliant acts of parenting too loudly.
• Emmy Partin writes: states that are finalists for RttT but don’t win could suffer in round two.
• Space-sharing at P.S. 198 and the Lower Lab school isn’t the crisis some say it is, a parent writes.
• The city wants to move one of Eva Moskowitz’s charter schools out of P.S. 123 and bring another one in.
• A member of the UFT caucus ICE says it may be an opposition group, but it approves of some things.
• Be sure to pick up the Sunday New York Times as Elizabeth Green’s story is on the cover.
• Adults surveyed about their experience with high school guidance gave counselors slow marks.
• And Joel Klein ran up the City Hall steps yesterday, right past people protesting his policies.

As finalist states head into the home stretch of competition for coveted Race to the Top funds, who’s running the show could make all the difference, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said today.

Duncan appeared today at a panel with former Education Secretary Richard Riley at a professional development conference for teachers in Manhattan. Speaking with reporters afterward, Duncan reiterated what he has often said: Race to the Top applications will be judged on “the three C’s,” a state’s “courage, commitment and capacity” to put its plans into action.

When I asked him today how the contest’s reviewers will determine capacity, Duncan said judges’ appraisals of the people behind the plans will be the most important factor — more important, he said, than a state’s policy track record so far. (more…)