GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Teacher layoffs in New York State are about to begin, and they will not be pretty. There is no ideal approach to them; one can only hope to do as little harm as possible. But how do we set our priorities? Who should stay, and why?

Currently, the teachers contract requires layoffs to be done according to seniority, following the basic principle of “last hired, first fired.” In a recent City Journal op-ed, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Marcus Winters objects to the idea of laying newer teachers off first:

Basing layoffs on seniority would make sense if it were true that more experienced teachers were always more effective. But a wide and uncontroversial body of research says that’s not the case. We know that after only a couple of years in the classroom, a teacher’s additional experience has no bearing on the amount her students learn.

Unfortunately this is one of those “research has shown” statements that distort what the research has actually shown. (more…)

In my last post I introduced the problem of creating a classroom environment in which students care about their work. Today I would like to look at one successful approach, that of Ms. Mom.

Ms. Mom says: “These are all my children, my babies,” about her third graders. Hers, as you might imagine, is a hug-heavy classroom. Students unconsciously place their hands on her when she is nearby, as if for support. Ms. Mom says to a student: “I’m going to be honest with you, because we are family. Your work right now is not what it could be, and you know it and I know it.” She uses the words “love,” “family,” “son” and “daughter” as often as I say “pencil” or “book” or “addition.”

Ms. Mom is very giving, and all of her students feel this and relax in her affection, but she is also demanding. Wrapped up in her family talk you will often hear something like this: “Now, we are family, and that means that we can trust each other, and rely on each other. That means that we can trust each other to all get a 3 on that ELA test. We can trust that we are all getting our work done, in the classroom and at home. Because no member of my family is taking home a 2 this year.”

In other words, Ms. Mom creates an environment in which concentration, diligent reading and math preparation, and especially test scores, are part of the fabric of classroom harmony. (more…)

• Governor David Paterson said he could delay $2.1 billion in school aid until June. (Legislative Gazette)
• Boy Scouts rallied at City Hall to protest the sale of the city’s only Scout campground. (SI Live)
• A Brooklyn woman is organizing a prom dress giveaway for city high school students. (Daily News)
• Many school districts are agreeing to do more to protect against bullying. (SI Live)
• A former Fortune 500 CEO makes the case for common standards. (Wall Street Journal)
• Richard Cohen wonders why parents don’t get more blame in bullying cases. (Daily News)
• Colorado officials will meet today to decide whether to apply to Race to the Top again. (Denver Post)
• A member of Massachusetts’ first Teach for America class praises the experience. (Boston Globe)
• The Philadelphia Inquirer supports school turnarounds, but warns against relying too much on charters.
• A Boston Globe columnist argues that a lack of money is killing public education.

• A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds weaker teachers leave tough schools.
• Arthur Goldstein asks why the DOE makes old teaching methods new again and forces them on teachers.
• Kim Gittleson posts a round up of the most discussed education studies published last month.
• Carol Boyd, a member of the Coalition for Educational Justice, has a new blog.
• Norm Scott says votes for UFT opposition group New Action have declined since 2001.
• Reflecting on RttT, Weingarten suggests NY’s anti-union print op-eds contributed to the state’s loss.
• District & charter school parents are holding a conference on kindergarten waitlists and overcrowding.
• Parents association members can now serve on citywide and district community education councils.
• A blogger says the test for whether states really care about education is whether they apply for RttT 2.
• Bronx Academy of Promise Charter School staff pose for a photo after joining the union.
• A Nevada school district wants a refund for history textbooks because of how they portray race & gender.
• The Economist interviews former NYC policy analyst and education professor Brian Jacob.
• With the August recess approaching, lawmakers don’t have much time to pass ESEA.
• Andy Smarick counsels Massachusetts on what to do to win RttT.
• And there’s a math contest to select a teacher and student to ring in the NY stock exchange.

In part two of a rough guide to the upcoming teachers union elections, here’s a look at the union’s internal party system and who’s running for major positions.

Part of the reason why UFT ballots have the heft of a college acceptance package is that they’re filled with a dizzying number of names. This year, 1,485 candidates are running for about 900 positions.

Most of those positions are for delegates to the conventions held by the national and state union branches, as well as the country’s largest teachers union, the National Eduction Association. But others have a direct influence on how the union is run and where it stands on issues like merit pay, charter schools, and how difficult it is to fire a teacher.

Along with voting for a union president, UFT members also cast their votes for ten officer positions and 78 executive board positions. The executive board, which meets once a month and votes on resolutions, breaks down into 42 “at large” positions held by any UFT member, and 36 positions that are parceled out among elementary (11), middle (5), and high school teachers (6), as well as “functional” employees (14) such as guidance counselors. (more…)

Almost once a year for the last 25 years, I’ve listened to some expert or other explain there is one way to teach, only one way to teach, and that anyone who wasn’t teaching that one way was simply not doing things correctly. The new way was far better than every other way, there was no doubt whatsoever, and anyone who questioned the validity of this method had no business pretending to be a teacher.

One year, a woman came and explained to us that portfolios were going to revolutionize schools. The kids would do work, it would all be placed in portfolios, and the portfolios would be available, right there in the classroom, for anyone who needed to see them. Anytime you wanted to check the progress of any kids, you could simply look in their portfolios, and there it would be. What more could anyone ask?

The following year, the same woman came around and raved about cooperative learning. The students would work in groups and help one another. Every day would be a marathon of learning. A teacher asked whether this involved portfolios. “Portfolios are out,” the woman responded curtly. Several months later, some Very Important People came to my classroom and noticed my kids were sharing books. They complimented me profusely on my use of cooperative learning, and I decided it was best to thank them without explaining why I’d embraced this particular methodology. Actually, I only had 15 books for my 34 kids and was doing the best I could under the circumstances. (more…)

• The Harlem School of the Arts has to raise $500,000 immediately or close for good. (Daily News, Times)
• A 10-year-old allegedly stabbed a 5-year-old with a protractor on the bus home from school. (Post)
• The $550 chairs included in the state’s failed Race to the Top plan are made by prison inmates. (Post)
• The Queens girl arrested earlier this year for doodling on her desk is suing the city. (Daily News)
• Northwest Indiana school officials want to implement New York City-style reforms. (Post-Tribune)
• Marcus Winters: Seniority-based layoffs will rid the city of excellent young teachers. (City Journal)
• Five of six prospective schools vying for charters right now would be located in New York City. (WGRZ)
• New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn is the first city school to digitize student records. (Times)
• The Times says the school closure decision gives Mayor Bloomberg a second chance to follow the law.
• President Obama is giving his Nobel Prize money to an organization that works with city schools. (NY1)
• The city isn’t allowing Paul Robeson HS to keep a beloved local vending machine operator. (Daily News)
• High school students are opposing State Sen. Eric Adams’s anti-sagging campaign. (Brooklyn Paper)
• The Daily News says politicians should not be allowed to cheapen charter schools with dirty dealings.
• Discouraged by their loss in Race to the Top, at least six states are considering not reapplying. (Times)
• The Manhattan Institute’s president says we should stop over-funding schools and hospitals. (Post)
• Eileen Norcross: NJ Gov.’s school budget cuts have him on a collision course with the union. (Post)
• D.C.’s budget would slightly increase per-student spending, but force teacher layoffs. (Washington Post)
• Working under a new teacher-created turnaround plan, Jefferson HS is making changes. (L.A. Times)
• Schenectady has to build more schools while restructuring the ones it already has. (Albany Times Union)
• Unions and school districts are deciding whether to reopen contracts to stave off cuts. (Chicago Tribune)

This week in the GothamSchools community section:

• C.W. Arp discusses one of his Greatest Problems as a teacher: the phrase “I don’t care.”
• Alexander Hoffman continues his argument against counting charter schools as public schools.
• Sadly, teachers occupy only the audience in education policy debates, writes Tracy Dunne-Derrell.
• Parents Elizabeth Puccini and Anisa Romero advise the DOE on how to combat childhood obesity.
• And attorney David Bloomfield breaks down what the school closure ruling really means.

And on the rest of the Web:

• Most of the school districts that are finalists for this year’s Broad Prize are in Southern states.
• Flypaper has a rundown of how states are choosing to approach Race to the Top’s second round.
• A single judge was enough to derail states’ Race to the Top bids, according to an EdWeek analysis.
• Alexander Russo runs down his list of the best stories from the No Child Left Behind era.
• The Wall Street Journal’s new national education reporter is Chicago’s Stephanie Banchero.
• Student teachers can create more trouble than they’re worth, according to Pissed Off Teacher.
• Progressive educator Deborah Meier wants us to define what we mean when we refer to “achievement.”
• Insideschools attended a speakout against the Department of Education and caught the angst on video.
• If charter schools are public schools, why do so many of them boast that they’re “tuition-free”?
• Accountable Talk makes an unusual claim: that American education just isn’t broken at all.
• There is no citywide policy governing parents’ access to their children’s classrooms, Judy Baum writes.
• Miss Dennis broke from a long blogging break to report that she’s burnt out on teaching special ed.
• Inside auditions for the culture mash-up staging of “The King and I” at Bronx Prep Charter School.
• And you’ve heard of homeschooling. But did you know that some parents are choosing school-homing?

Enjoy the last weekend of this sunny spring break. We’ll be back to our regular posting schedule next week.

Five of my boys take home Daily Progress Reports, so that their parents can see how they behaved in the classroom that day. If they bring home an “S,” for Satisfactory, then they know their parents will be happy, that they will be able to watch TV, eat dessert, etc. Last week, one of my most troubled boys, let’s call him Cassius, was ramping up into the Red Zone, and I was using my entire arsenal to assuage him before he reached his crisis. “Cassius,” I said, “remember your S. You want to bring home an S for mom, right?” His reply: “I don’t care.”

Not, mind you, “I don’t care about the S,” nor “I don’t care what mom says, or what Mr. Arp says.” His idea was much simpler.

I don’t care.

“I don’t care” is one of the Gigantic Problems. (more…)