GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Harlem Success serves fewer needy students overall than P.S. 194, Kim Gittleson finds.
• A new student group helped teachers test out professional development by taking part in it.
• New York RTTT roundup: Times, Daily News, Post, Gotham Gazette, oh yeah and us!
• Nelson Smith, of the national charter lobby, suggests NY charter supporters gave away too much.
• The Atlantic’s Wire blog has a rundown of different cases for the federal “teacher bailout.”
• Meanwhile, EdWeek explains that the legislation is stalled in Congress and what Obama thinks.
• Ruben Brosbe learns a smart former student’s mom forgot to fill out her middle school applications.
• New U.S. Dept of Ed data show that 2010 saw more high-poverty schools.
• The data also show a widening black-white gap in bachelor’s degrees, notes Debra Viadero at EdWeek.
• A perfectly terrible senior prank in Iowa: 14,000 cups filled with water, spelling out 2010.
• J.P. Morgan & Chase will invest $325 million in helping charter schools improve their facilities.
• To send special education students to private schools, D.C. pays more than $100k per child.
• HuffPost compiles funny answers students give on tests. (Via Joanne Jacobs.)

New York State Capitol, photo via Flickr.

One consequence of the charter cap legislation passed in Albany today is clear: it’s now possible for 114 new charter schools to open in New York City over the next four years, more than doubling the number of charters and students in them. Statewide, the door is open for 260 new charter schools to open by 2014.

But the new law also includes a slew of changes to the way the schools are opened and run, leaving advocates, officials and observers with at least five big unanswered questions.

1. What’s the deal with the new Request for Proposals process?

Under the old charter school law, educators could ask to open charter schools simply by applying to do so. Now, prospective school leaders will have to formulate their applications as responses to Request for Proposals. These will be issued by both the Board of Regents and the State University of New York’s Charter School Institute.

Advocates and union officials today disagreed on exactly how the RFP’s will be used. One school of thought is that the RFP will be a tool for limiting charter school leaders’ freedom to open in a location of their choosing. Indeed, the law declares that operators that receive an endorsement of their school district will have a leg up in the RFP process. That could make it harder for operators to open schools in some upstate districts whose school boards strongly oppose charter schools. (Or imagine a less charter-happy mayor in New York. Mayor de Blasio?) (more…)

Steven Brill’s latest article chronicling the politics of the Race to the Top competition has caused a torrent of commentary. One contentious aspect of the piece is Brill’s comparison of two schools that share the same building: Harlem Success Academy and P.S. 149. After Valerie Strauss picked up the statistics posted on the New York Public School Parents Blog, there has been much speculation about what types of kids are attending each school. Just how different are the populations anyway?

To figure out the answer, I looked at NY State Accountability Report Cards, the Special Education Service Delivery Report for P.S. 149, as well as special education invoices provided to the UFT by the New York State Education Department. I chose these data sets because they seemed to be the most reliable and the most comparable. By “comparable” I mean that both Harlem Success and P.S. 149 have to submit to the state as part of their Accountability Report Cards data on students who receive free or reduced price lunch (an indicator of economic need), whereas, for instance, only P.S. 149 lists something known as the poverty rate (which is slightly different.)

According to this data, Harlem Success Academy does appear to serve fewer needy students, both in terms of economic status, limited English proficiency, and special education needs.  On the other hand, Harlem Success dramatically outperforms P.S. 149 on 3rd grade test results. (more…)

It’s over, folks. The State Senate voted this afternoon to allow 260 more charter schools to open in New York State in the next four years, improving the state’s likelihood of winning Race to the Top.

The vote was 45 to 14, with a handful of senators who had been vocal opponents of charter schools swinging to the pro-charter side. Among them was Senator Bill Perkins, whose Harlem district is home to one in five of the city’s charter schools, and who is facing a primary against a candidate put up by charter school supporters.

Opposition to the bill came from Senate Republicans, who opposed a provision in the bill that bans more for-profit charter schools from opening.

The no votes (via Liz Benjamin) were: Farley, Flanagan, Golden, Griffo, O. Johnson, Larkin, Lavalle, Libous, Maziarz, McDonald, Nozzolio, Padavan, Saland, Young.

With both the union and charter school supporters declaring victory, let the spin begin.

The State Assembly passed a bill this morning to more than double the number of charter schools allowed in New York State.

The deal, hammered out in negotiations that lasted into the early morning, raises the cap on charters from 200 to 460. But charter operators hoping to open new schools will have to jump through a new hurdle, a new Request for Proposals process managed by the Regents and the State University of New York charter authorizers.

The bill includes several measures dear to charter school critics. It bans for-profit charter operators from managing schools, allows the state controller to audit the schools, and creates new regulations around how the schools serve special education students and English language learners. And the bill sets up new rules that govern how New York City charters share building space with district schools.

The bill includes one change from the version of the bill that was being circulated this morning. The Assembly passed a chapter amendment that clarifies that SUNY can act as an authorizer independently from the Regents.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where sources tell us that Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson is ready to vote the bill up. But Republicans are holding up the bill because they oppose its prohibition of for-profit charter operators. (more…)

On the train home yesterday I ran into a student of mine from last year. We barely recognized each other. Since shaving my beard I look a bit younger and she looks like a soon-to-be middle schooler. While I would be excited to run into any of my former students, I have to admit I was especially happy to run into this girl. She’s an incredibly smart girl and an unbelievably talented writer. She also has a tough home life and a look of perpetual sadness and exhaustion. Since leaving my old school I have wondered periodically how she is doing.

Since last year she’s moved to a new neighborhood that requires her to travel almost an hour to school each day. Her sister told me she’s often late, because she doesn’t want to get going in the morning. When I asked about her plans for next year, I hoped she would list one of the better middle schools available in the Bronx or even Manhattan. Sadly, her mom forgot to fill out the applications, so she doesn’t know where she will be next year.

When I decided to teach, it was based on a cliched, middle-class, white liberal “save the children” fantasy. While my expectations of teaching have been tempered over the past three years by reality, my hopes for my students remain ever-lofty and idealistic, if not naive. It’s hard losing touch with my former students and wondering what will become of them. In the case of truly extraordinary students like the girl on the train, the hopes are all the more elevated. (more…)

After negotiating late into the night, the Assembly, Senate, Mayor Bloomberg, and city teachers union are closer than ever to a deal on how to make New York more competitive for Race to the Top. But even the seemingly final bill introduced today may not be the last version. An Albany source said there are already plans to amend the bill.

The full text of the bill in the most updated form we know of is here. Background on Race to the Top is here.

This bill would raise the cap on charter schools to 460 from 200, but change the way schools are opened. Prospective charter school operators would have to respond to Request for Proposal documents, like contractors, rather than applying on their own. Exactly how this process would work is unclear, but one effect could be slowing the pace of charter school growth. The bill puts a cap on the number of newly approved charter schools that could open by September 2011 — 32.

The deal also aims to ease the tensions (and sometimes all-out wars) that have happened when charter schools are placed inside traditional public school buildings. Now, before schools are placed together, the city’s Department of Education would have to write up a new document called a “building usage plan” outlining exactly which rooms would be used by which schools, and proposing how the schools can share common spaces like cafeterias, libraries, playgrounds, and auditoriums. (more…)

• The Assembly and the city reached a tentative deal to raise the number of charter schools to 460. (Times)
• The same bill mandates the agreed-upon teacher evaluations and a statewide data system. (NY1)
• The bill might (or might not) strip New York City’s chancellor from being able to authorize charters. (Post)
• The bill would require entire buildings to get capital improvements, not just charters. (Wall Street Journal)
• Public, charter, private and parochial schools should work together, private school heads say. (Daily News)
• Gov. Paterson could undermine the bill by not allowing the Senate to vote on it this morning. (Daily News)
• The national education jobs bailout bill faltered in the House and looks to be dead forever. (AP)
• Nationwide, schools are increasingly segregated by economic status. (Christian Science Monitor, AP)
• After much pressure, the city is in talks to make Greenwich Village’s 75 Morton St. a school. (Daily News)

• Word out of Albany is that lawmakers are readying to vote on a charter cap bill tonight.
• If the Assembly passes a charter bill tonight, the Senate would vote on it in the morning.
• A high school teacher is primarying Assemblyman Jonathan Bing, a charter school supporter.
• Summer weather is here and with it, the obligation to enforce schools’ vague dress codes.
• The UFT is claiming that high performing charters are losing tons of kids through attrition.
• Eighth graders take note: the last day to appeal a high school placement is next Tuesday.
• In Philly parents are concerned that an online-learning school hasn’t taught students the basics.
• Steven Eisman: the for-profit education industry is as destructive as the sub-prime mortgage industry.
• D.C. special-ed chief apologizes after plan to move students from private to public schools hits snags.
• Whether common standards are too much of a federal imposition is an issue that’s not going away.
• Nationally, teacher/student ratios have gone down, but has investing in more teachers paid off?
• Many NJ districts voted down their school budgets, but town councils are approving them anyway.
• CA is seeing a steep decline in the number of people enrolling in teacher preparation programs.