Posts from March 2010
Facing backlash, state changes test schedule again
Principals across New York State were none too happy to hear that the state had scheduled a test in between two upcoming high stakes tests, but with a stroke of a pen state officials have reversed the decision.
A memo the city sent to New York City principals says that “in response to principals’ concerns,” the State Education Department has moved the field test from May 4 to May 12-14, roughly a week after students finish their last exam.
Initially, the field test — an experimental exam that doesn’t count, but is used by test makers to gauge the difficulty of the test questions — was going to be sandwiched between the high stakes English and math tests that students in grades three through eight take. Principals warned that if students were forced to take three separate exams over the course of twelve days, “test fatigue” could set in and hurt their results. (more…)
Headlines
March 17, 2010
Rise & Shine: Bronx students dancing in D.C. for St. Pat’s Day
- City officials stand by the schools’ new bake sale rules, which many parents are opposing. (Times)
- The city’s new “Trayless Tuesdays” program to cut down on cafeteria waste kicked off yesterday. (NY1)
- The Post criticizes Trayless Tuesdays as a distraction from the business of teaching and learning.
- Students from PS 59 in the Bronx are dancing at the White Houses St. Patrick’s Day celebration. (Post)
- The new principal of Khalil Gibran Academy is Arab-American. (GothamSchools, Post, Daily News)
- The Daily News says Khalil Gibran’s first principal wasn’t discriminated against but was a bad leader.
- The Obama administration’s next job is to convince skeptics about its education plans. (Times)
- Education policy could be a source of bipartisan consensus after the divisive health care debate. (Time)
- Former education secretary Margaret Spellings agrees that NCLB is ready for a revamp. (NPR)
- Chicago’s schools chief is banning teachers union campaigning at city schools. (Chicago Tribune)
- Teachers and officials in Chicago are sparring over how bad budget cuts will be. (Chicago Sun-Times)
nightcap
March 16, 2010
Remainders: Celebrities take up the teacher quality debate
- “From one man without children to another,” John Legend tells Bill Maher, “you’re off base.”
- Arne Duncan is taking two rounds of questions tomorrow on his blueprint of ESEA.
- Eric Nadelstern makes the case for having the first week of school next year be only one day.
- Democracy Now interviews former Khalil Gibran Academy principal Debbie Almontaser.
- Accountable Talk says the union should tie any rubber room deal to four percent raises.
- Hopeful that Michael Mulgrew would be fresh blood, a UFT member says he’s disappointed.
- Norm enters Grady High School to distribute election fliers and encounters the opposition.
- Flypaper has 10 questions for Race to the Top finalists giving presentations this week.
- A teacher says the flip side of blaming teachers for everything is not giving students enough credit.
- Diane Ravitch calls Newsweek’s education story a “parody of a right-wing rant.”
- For every good idea the Obama admin has on education, they have a bad one, writes Jay Greene.
- American Spectator wonders whether unions running charter schools will end up hating their contracts.
- Parents don’t love a PA state senator’s idea to punish parents if their children commit multiple crimes.
- And learning from Chicago, Cleveland is worried about mixing students from closing schools.
New York’s Race to the Top team pitches its case in Washington
New York’s Race to the Top delegation has officially finished making its high-stakes pitch in Washington today, we just heard from State Education Commissioner David Steiner and Deputy Commissioner John King.
But we won’t know if the state will bring home any of the $831 million it seeks for a few more weeks.
The team gave a 30-minute presentation, followed by an hour-long question-and-answer session with the competition’s judges.
“We thought the questions were fair and appreciated the opportunity to speak about the Regents’ overall vision for education reform,” Steiner and King said in an e-mail. (more…)
Khalil Gibran Academy principal resigns midyear
In the latest step in the turbulent saga of Khalil Gibran International Academy, the school’s third principal in as many years resigned yesterday.
The departure of principal Holly Reichert, who started at Khalil Gibran in 2008, comes just days after a federal commission found that the city discriminated against the school’s founding principal by forcing her to resign before the school opened. In an unusual move for a school principal, Reichert is leaving to become a literacy coach at the East-West School of International Studies, a secondary school in Queens.
Rocked by controversy since it opened in 2007, Khalil Gibran, the city’s only Arab-language school, will now have a new interim principal: Beshir Abdellatif. The former principal of Law, Government, and Community Service High School since 2008, Adbellatif has been working in the city’s public schools since 1991.
Reichert released a statement through New Visions, Khalil Gibran’s support organization. (more…)
learning to teach
March 16, 2010
The Puzzling Demise of Running Around
In Mr. Arp’s classroom, we have something called the Behavior of the Week, and this behavior is rewarded at the end of every Friday. Last week it was “Staying in your seat and raising your hand.” Instead of standing up to sharpen a pencil or get a tissue, the students raised their hands, so that I could say things like “Excellent staying in your seat, I can see that you are really working on the behavior of the week.”
The students did very well, except Osmo. Osmo, of course not his real name, should have been born in a world without seats. He is a good reader, an excellent storyteller, and a fast mathematician, but seats are like hot coals to him. On Friday, during independent reading, he took a break from his work to run around the class with his arms flailing above his head.
“Osmo,” I said, calling him over to me, “why are you out of your seat without permission?”
“Because,” he said, as if admitting a secret, “I’m happy.”
Ouch. What could I say to that? (more…)
Headlines
March 16, 2010
Rise & Shine: L.A. teachers back tying test scores to evaluations
- Implementing Obama’s education law plan will be politically and logistically difficult. (Times)
- The plan will ease consequences for most schools but toughen them for some. (Washington Post)
- The city and the teachers union could change rules for teachers in the “rubber room.” (GothamSchools)
- A Los Angeles panel that includes teachers wants test scores used in teacher evaluations. (L.A. Times)
- The Post says the city is to blame for the Khalil Gibran debacle, because it created a “separatist” school.
- Choice fan Paul Peterson says students do better when their schools compete. (Wall Street Journal)
nightcap
March 15, 2010
Remainders: Obama’s ed plan is “strong medicine,” Klein says
- Education Secretary Arne Duncan explained his proposed NCLB revisions on Morning Joe.
- The two national teachers unions both say that the proposals “scapegoat” teachers…
- …While Chancellor Joel Klein called Obama’s plan “strong medicine” on NBC.
- Politics K-12 observes that, compared to 2007, most people seem pretty happy with Obama’s blueprint.
- The Times’ Room for Debate blog hones in on the causes behind the charter school backlash.
- Some Chicago charter schools are warning that budget cuts might force them to close.
- Education Sector examines how the DOE helps teachers use ARIS data in the classroom.
- Mass Insight’s Justin Cohen thinks we should all be paying more attention to Detroit’s schools.
- InsideSchools invites parents and teachers to share their thoughts on classroom discipline.
- A panel of researchers proposed an “America’s Teacher Corps” to attract great teachers to needy schools.
- And satirist Bill Maher has a modest proposal for fixing schools: don’t fire teachers, fire parents.
State adds another testing day to schools’ schedules
Teachers and principals are not taking kindly to a recent State Education Department decision to have students take a test in between their already-scheduled high stakes state exams.
State officials scheduled the field test, an experimental exam that doesn’t count toward schools’ and students’ progress, on May 4, between the English and math exams that all students in grades three through eight take. The new schedule means that over the course of a dozen days, students across New York will take three tests, leading administrators and teachers to worry that “test fatigue” will set in and affect students’ scores.
Schools are already working around a new test schedule this year that moved the English and math tests from January and March to May. (more…)
The case for putting curriculum on a reform pedestal
While city education officials have made reforming teacher quality their first priority, others argue that by improving curriculum they could do more with less.
In the GothamSchools community section, former president of the Community Education Council for District 2 Matthew Levey writes that creating a citywide curriculum would not only help new and struggling teachers, it would be more efficient than having schools write their own.
, at 6:08 pmCurriculum reform must play an equal role in our efforts. A recent Brookings Institution report noted curriculum’s strong impact on student outcomes. Importantly, in a system as large as ours, curriculum can be developed centrally and replicated at almost no marginal cost, earning a far greater return on investment than merit bonuses for every qualifying teacher or hiring 10,000 high-quality teachers. In short, teacher quality is a long, expensive, politically difficult fix. Curriculum is comparatively fast, cheap, and also effective.
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