Schools are learning a lot from money managers’ quick action and attention to data. (Forbes Magazine)
Board members from Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School explain why their for-profit model works. (Post)
Laid-off teachers could get financial aid for special education training under a city plan. (GothamSchools)
Education Trust’s Kati Haycock says the city has the tools to make performance-based layoffs. (Times)
Bronx Science teachers say they’re worried about the school’s future post fact-finding. (Riverdale Press)
The “recession-proof” market for teachers is the worst it has been since the Great Depression. (Times)
AFT President Randi Weingarten argues that public schools need a massive federal bailout. (WSJ)
Education Secretary Arne Duncan pushed a federal jobs bill in a commencement speech. (Boston Globe)
Some educators are focusing on the pre-high school years to stem the tide of dropouts. (USA Today)
Texas is set to approve controversial, right-leaning social studies standards. (Wall Street Journal)
Massachusetts is considering replacing its challenging state tests with a common test. (Boston Globe)
After difficult months, Philadelphia’s schools chief will shake up her top staff. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Charter Parent
So that explains why Senator “Selective Transparency” Perkins’ office wasn’t returning my calls or emails about attending the hearing part 2. HIS mission was already accomplished.
http://web.sbu.edu Michael M.
RE Item 5, Report on Abuse at Opportunity Charter School, for Special Ed kids no less.
Questions:
What sort of training or certification were the behavior modification types supposed to have?
And how would such have been DIFFERENT in a non-charter?
And, when did the Charter’s Trustees know what, and when did they know it?
In short: Where’s the oversight?
And what of Opportunity Officials’ (Trustees? Principals’?) reaction to this report?
Per the Post… LAWYER UP.
Note: I don’t care how unruly a student might be, the responses described are unacceptable. “Appropriate” at this point should not be left up to the Charter’s Trustees. The DA, maybe.
(Pardon the comment reprint below.)
* * *
Pardon my tripping over my fingers like never before, but….
This happened in 2007-2008. Not 2008-2009. Not 2009-2010. It took two-plus years to get to now.
The report went not to the Chancellor (except via cc), but to the Charter School Board of Trustees.
“Condoned assaults.” WOW! Isn’t “assault” sort of, you know, against the law or sumthin?
Worse: “Injuries to the student.” and “…ignored injuries to the student [in the school-internal report].” W-W-W-WHAT !?!
And the recommendations? A mere sixteen (16) words.
Here’s five of them: “…action which is not inconsistent…”
Onus on the Charter’s Board of Directors — not the Chancellor.
What am I missing?
e.g. What may have CONTINUED to happen in 2008-2009 or 2009-2010? Prior removal of numerous adults? A perp walk?
Charter or not — and I’d like to think this report was NOT watered down over the school being a charter — ALL parents deserve to know that when such outrageous conduct is going on, including “CONDONED ASSAULT”, and staff screaming the F-bomb and the N-word in the hallway (p12), that there will be prompt, and I repeat, PROMPT, action to remedy.
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