GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

What is it good for? Well, war has been around for an awfully long time, and sometimes if you can create the right war, you wag the dog, and no one even needs to win.

If you’re Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein, you find one of the last remnants of vibrant unionism in the center of your fiefdom and ask, “Why should we put up with such nonsense? Unions? We don’t need no stinking unions!” After all, most charter schools don’t have unions, and you can fire teachers simply for telling their colleagues how much UFT teachers earn. You can fire them for hanging Picasso paintings in the classroom. 

So, how do you start this war? Well, a good start is to seek out some nervous and wacky senator facing an uncertain future. If he’s desperate enough for your support, maybe you can persuade him to propose an uphill bill demanding an end to reverse-seniority layoffs. You will demand this only for teachers, not for firefighters, police, or anyone else. After all, you haven’t invested years into sliming them. Also, you’ll insist this bill be restricted to New York City, where you have mayoral control and a fake board of education that votes for absolutely everything the mayor wants. If they don’t, they’re fired on the spot, and teachers should be fired on the spot too, goshdarn it! (more…)

Does that April 15 edition of New York Teacher look familiar?

Apparently, the state teachers union didn’t take to Newsweek’s take-down of teachers unions all that kindly. The inside story is a two-page spread written by New York State United Teachers president Dick Iannuzzi on why states looking to reform their school systems need to involve teachers unions.

• State Sen. Bill Perkins’ upcoming hearing on charter schools will showcase his antagonistic views. (Post)
• The Post asks why Perkins opposes charter schools when his constituents like them. (Post)
• Thomas Carroll says Perkins and the state teachers union are unfairly attacking charter schools. (Post)
• The Albany Times Union profiles Peter Murphy, policy head of the state’s Charter Schools Association.
• Murphy appeals to research to exhort Perkins to change his tune on charter schools. (Post)
• School choruses are seeing interest from kids who are hooked on the musical TV show “Glee.” (Post)
• Two Queens districts are fighting to claim PS 130, a school that lies on their border. (Daily News)
• Brooklyn’s PS 105 has the borough’s longest kindergarten waitlist, at 76 potential students. (Daily News)
• The staff at PS 105, including the principal, an immigrant herself, speak 7 Chinese dialects. (Daily News)
• In New Jersey, school districts are simultaneously trying to raise taxes and cut school spending. (Times)
• Military leaders want to improve school food so their recruits will be healthier. (USA Today)
• The Penn. district accused of spying on students took 56,000 pictures of them. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Federal officials visited a San Francisco school to learn how it turned around. (S.F. Chronicle)

• Was the rubber room closing deal a “pure win” for the union? One teacher thinks not.
• Two top high schools admitted too few students, but they’re not accepting second-round applications.
• South Philadelphia HS is learning from New York’s Lafayette HS on how to combat race-based violence.
• A teacher speculates that the hiring freeze might make this year easier for teachers to transfer schools.
• Nationally, more children are home-schooled than attend charter schools, a new study reports.
• Seventh-graders are already starting specialized high school exam test prep for next year.
• The Albany Times-Union profiles charter school advocate Peter Murphy.
• Kim Gittleson is experimenting with ways to make Learning Environment Survey data accessible.
• And a 12-year-old girl in India is teaching her neighbors what she learns in school.

Following reports of principals using a heavy hand to drum up school participation in the city’s annual Learning Environment Survey, here’s one Brooklyn student’s more lighthearted approach.

This “Peanuts”-inspired home-made ad is brought to you by a family at Brooklyn’s P.S. 29. That school’s survey response rate was at about 39 percent today, four days before Friday’s deadline for returning the form, according to the school’s parent association website.

The survey results — as well as the rates at which parents, teachers and students respond to them — count for 10 percent of a school’s grade on its annual high-stakes report cards.

Schools, non-profit organizations, and businesses all came out to demonstrate their wares and share their efforts Saturday at the city’s first-ever Green Schools Alliance conference, titled “Visioning the Future.” We were there with our group, NYC Green Schools, and we were impressed by what we learned about initiatives —from vertical gardens to trayless Tuesdays to electronic waste reduction — that are making public and private schools in the city more green.

We were there to promote our Meatless Monday campaign, because, as we wrote last week, animal production for food consumption contributes more to global climate change than all forms of transportation combined.

Here’s a glimpse at what other people are doing to make our schools more sustainable:

SOSnyc.org is responsible for bringing Trayless Tuesdays to all of the city’s public schools earlier this year. Find out how to eliminate Styrofoam trays from your school during the rest of the week.

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• Chancellor Klein says seniority is the next frontier now that the rubber rooms are closing. (Daily News)
• The Regents could vote this week to let alternative certification programs give master’s degrees. (Times)
• The city’s new book-buying policy, intended to save money, cuts out small vendors. (Times)
• A one-time rubber room occupant says he’ll believe the reforms when he sees them. (Daily News)
• The city will shut East New York Preparatory Charter School in June. (GothamSchools, Post)
• Girls at city private schools are joining the Girl Scouts in growing numbers. (Times)
• East Harlemites like Nicholas Tishuk and his new Renaissance Innovation Charter High. (Daily News)
• City students competed in a national robotics tournament in Atlanta this weekend. (NY1)
• Some educators at Teachers College say cell phones can be constructive classroom tools. (NY1)
• Students at Archimedes Academy in the Bronx compete against their teachers in boxing classes. (Times)
• Andy Wolf: NY should skip Race to the Top because it undercuts local education authority. (Daily News)
• The Daily News says that high demand for charter schools is proof the state should allow more of them.
• One of the founders of Educators 4 Excellence explains why she opposes seniority-based layoffs. (Post)
• Letter-writers weigh in on the rubber room agreement, with some questioning its wisdom. (Post)
• A charter school in Massachusetts focuses on philosophy — for elementary-aged children. (Times)
• A top D.C. principal at the front line of reform was found murdered in his home. (Washington Post)

• Chancellor Klein discussed the end of the rubber rooms on Good Day NY.
• And the makers of a documentary about the rubber rooms were on Morning Joe.
• D.C.’s CFO and Michelle Rhee are sparring over whether the school system’s surplus exists.
• Randi Weingarten said she’s “really disgusted” by the D.C. situation, and the union is going back to court.
• Letters were sent out to families eligible for gifted and talented programs today.
• Glenn Beck has a suggestion for how to direct education budget cuts: close USDOE.
• Schools whose teachers rated their principals badly tended to also have low report card grades.
• A union member praises his Florida peers and calls on the UFT to be “more radical [and] focused.”
• A teacher posts a list of her favorite books to read aloud to students.