GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

One of my major regrets of this year was a lack of field trips early on, but finally we made it out of the building yesterday. It was a perfect day for a field trip, especially since our trip was to the Bronx Botanical Garden. We enjoyed the incredible weather with a long walk around the garden, lunch outside, and a pretty awesome game of Octopus Tag. Before we even started the Chocolate and Vanilla Adventure the kids were ecstatic.

Field trips are equally fun for teachers as for students. It’s a chance to relax (when you’re not reminding kids not to run, or climb …) and let your guard down a bit. You also have a chance — whether when on the bus or walking around — to interact with the kids freely outside the structure of a day in the classroom.

All in all, it was a great day. Still, I never know how to react when a student tells me, “This is the best day of my life.” Yes, I know children tend to exaggerate a little. And at the very least, I can take this statement as a sign I’m doing something right. But just as when a kid made a similar declaration the day we made s’mores I can’t help feel some sadness over this hyperbole. More than a sign of my students’ capacity for embellishment, I also take it as a sign of the experiential deficit they suffer. They spend day after day cooped up in the classroom (our playground’s under construction) and more days than not, they spend their time at home watching TV or playing video games. That doesn’t take anything away from how awesome today was, but it is a reminder I owe my students more memorable and special experiences.

I am an eighth-grade student at PS/MS 147 in Queens, and I’m sure I’m not the only annoyed eighth-grader in the city. I’m annoyed because after six months of a long, complicated high school admissions process, things got delayed even more a few weeks ago.

In early October 2009, six months ago, every eighth-grader in the city was handed a high school admissions application. We were told to complete this application by ranking the high schools of our choice and to submit it by early December. For the next couple of months, we all rushed around to open houses and information sessions to learn about the schools that we could choose. A few of the high schools that I applied to were Townsend Harris, Benjamin N. Cardozo, and Queens Collegiate — all good schools, but still, I knew that my ranking would decide where I go to high school, which could influence my future for a long time. That decision has to be taken seriously, so my classmates and I stressed out about our rankings before submitting them.

We thought that was all we would have to do, but then in the middle of February, all the eighth-grade students in my school were called to our auditorium. We were told that the city was closing 14 high schools, and that all of us who applied to any of those schools must reapply. (more…)

• The city’s cash-for-grades initiative ended because it didn’t cause kids to work harder. (Post, Daily News)
• The city will offer students online training next year about how to behave properly online. (Times)
• The state is threatening to cut thousands of scholarships funded by lottery revenue. (Daily News)
• The Daily News: UFT head Michael Mulgrew should lead teachers to the “new and unavoidable future.”
• Jonas Chartock, the head of SUNY’s Charter Institute, says state cuts would decimate the organization.
• The Harlem arts program on the chopping block has been in trouble for a while. (Times, Daily News)
• Mayor Bloomberg has offered cupcakes to the Post’s editorial board, and for sale in city buildings. (Post)
• Middle school students are decorating their cafeteria tables in an environmental art contest. (NY1)
• The research doesn’t say merit pay boosts performance, but states are pushing it anyway. (AP)
• The Education Equality Project co-chairs write that good teachers matter to poor kids. (Washington Post)
• A system being tested in Chicago’s schools uses a checklist to identify good and bad teaching. (Times)
• New Jersey’s schools added 36,000 students and 28,000 staff since 2001, a columnist writes. (Post)

• A state budget deal could be a “few weeks away,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said today.
• Joanne Jacobs looks at why school districts have trouble tracking their spending.
• A survey of 453 school district leaders finds bigger class sizes and less money for electives and books.
• GOOD’s blog makes a case for why healthy school lunches matter even to people who don’t have kids.
• Ms. Mimi tallies all everything from her classroom that she drags along on her vacation.
• Bloomberg is mailing cards to top political donors asking them to support his education reforms.
• One teacher challenges a re-elected Mulgrew to be more responsive to the union’s member.
• How should we define “a quality charter law”? NYCSA’s Peter Murphy takes on the union definition.
• More advice for New York State on how to win Race to the Top, this time from the city’s charter center.
• Do you teach special lessons for Earth Day? (Or maybe for Facial Protection Month?) Here are some tips.

The state organization commonly cited as a national model for approving and overseeing charter schools is facing quietly proposed cuts that would slash its budget by nearly 70 percent.

The State University of New York’s Charter School Institute (CSI), which oversees charter schools from the union-run UFT School to the popular KIPP schools, is slated to lose $1.7 million of its $2.4 million budget under budgets proposed by both the Assembly and the Senate.

CSI is one of the groups that are the prime oversight bodies for the state’s charter schools. Known as “authorizers,” the groups are responsible for reviewing proposals for new charter schools, monitoring the schools they approve, and closing charters they deem under-performing. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has praised CSI for its rigor and willingness to shutter schools that don’t live up to high expectations.

“All of that takes real human resources,” said Jonas Chartock, the agency’s executive director.

The cuts are a serious threat but far from a done deal. The institute has historically been a target of political efforts, often supported by the teachers union, to weaken its authority to open charter schools. But the union is not supporting these cuts. Rather, the proposals appear to be more prompted by the state’s financial duress. (more…)

Sydney Morris (left) and Evan Stone (right), two teachers in the Bronx, founded Educators 4 Excellence to give teachers frustrated with how they're evaluated a voice in policy debates.

New York City’s teachers union likes to say that it speaks for all teachers. But two young teachers at a Bronx elementary school are starting an organization with a distinctly different point of view.

Both in their third year of teaching at P.S. 86 in the Bronx, Evan Stone and Sydney Morris started “Educators 4 Excellence” last month out of frustration with how their work is supported and evaluated.

One of their first battles will be against the state’s “last-in, first-out” law, which forces the city to lay off newer teachers in advance of their more experienced colleagues.

“We want it to be the ostensible solution to a lot of screaming on both sides,” said Stone, 25. (more…)

One of the highlights of my week off was the opportunity to spend lots of quality time with my nephew. He’s almost 2, soaks up words like a sponge and overall is insanely adorable. The time I spend with him is never enough, and I love the challenge of finding new ways to entertain him. Way beneath the surface of our time together, there’s always a bit of sadness when I contrast his development with my students.

What does a toddler have to do with my third graders? Well, developmentally, a lot. Watching this baby develop into a little person is an amazing front row seat to the development of the young brain. It also has given me a deep appreciation for what research already shows: A great deal of academic success is established before a child even enters the classroom.

This is not to say I am relinquishing my responsibility as a teacher. It is my job to help students regardless of their performance when they enter my classroom. In fact, helping kids struggling below grade level is a major reward of teaching in a high-need school as well. That said, I can’t help thinking about the missing pieces in many of my students’ formative years. (more…)

• Michael Mulgrew was elected teachers union president in a landslide vote. (GothamSchools, NY1, Post)
• After the court-induced delay, some unlucky high school students still didn’t get into any school. (Post)
• Renaissance Charter School staff members say the UFT should have fought for charter funding. (Post)
• One charter school group that operates three city schools bills for interest on support fees. (Daily News)
• Two school buildings were briefly evacuated for safety concerns yesterday. (Daily News, NY1, NY1) 
• The city is looking at dangerous traffic conditions at the Bronx’s PS 97. (Bronx Times-Reporter)
• A drug counselor at Queens’ IS 266 was among 22 people arrested in an interstate drug ring. (Post, NY1)
• The city’s former cash-for-kids guru Roland Fryer says his work was politically charged. (Time Magazine)
• The Times says Race to the Top has improved education by putting “the right issues” on the agenda.
• U.S. health secretary Kathleen Sebelius wants schools to serve communities. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• D.C.’s new teachers contract will offer teachers without positions a buyout option. (Times)
• It won’t be easy for other school districts to copy D.C.’s new merit pay model. (Wall Street Journal)
• The Washington Post says the contract shows D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee is able to compromise.

• The city is putting the Choir Academy of Harlem’s closure to a vote, again, despite judge’s ruling.
• Norm Scott posts the UFT election vote breakdown by caucus and by type of voter.
• A New Action caucus member says if Mulgrew’s numbers are high, it’s because he’s been tough.
• A union blogger hopes Mulgrew’s win will strengthen the union as NY competes for round two of RttT.
• On the first day back from spring break, a school was evacuated because of high carbon monoxide levels.
• Then water damage forced a Washington Heights school to evacuate its students.
• Nearly 1,500 soon-to-be kindergartners are still on waitlists for school next year.
• The stress of not getting matched to a single high school is too much for students, writes Miss Eyre.
• EdWeek publishes an overview of value-added models and some of the concern surrounding them.
• Great schools that stay that way often don’t make it into headlines, writes Jay Mathews.
• Rick Hess tells Gadfly that the term “best practices” makes him nauseous.
• New Jersey teachers are dealing with budget cuts by taking wage freezes over mass layoffs.
• And a new report on struggling schools highlights an LA school where turnarounds didn’t work.