Merrick Academy Charter School conducted its PTA elections in a weird way. (Daily News)
PEP member Patrick Sullivan wants to see reports about wrongdoing at JFK HS. (Daily News)
Blaming the UFT, the Daily News lambastes the outcome of the first-day-of-school fight.
Coaches help some Latino students enroll in colleges that offer them a challenge. (USA Today)
Pogue
3 years old being tested? Why not earlier?
1. The vocabulary phrase “goochie-goo” most likely means…
A. Where is the bus terminal?
B. Do you have change for a $50 bill?
C. You’re a cute kid.
D. What is the capital of South Dakota?
These testing “reformers” are out of their minds.
Ellen
The simple fact is that about 3% of any population is gifted and 10% of any population has a disability. Please tell me when the student with the disability will generate as much attention as the student who is gifted? When will the DOE, or any Education Dept., fully fund programs that have been proven to assist students with disabilities? When the DOE, or any Education Dept, stop moving students with disabilities around the in the system to make was for other programs?
Michael M.
Who needs coffee when GS has Pogue and Ellen?
Teacher
I’m so sick of The Daily News and The Post. It seems like they base their stories on whatever Tweed feeds them. Whatever happened to real journalism in NYC? Are they so deep in to Mike’s pocket that they don’t dare question anything that the city or the DOE does or says?? The well-paid DOE superstars (most who have never worked in a school a day in their lives) created the calendar and rather than take responsibility for their blunder they turn it around and blame it on the teachers’ union. And as far as the school year being too short… You spend a few days in a sweltering five story NYC building with classrooms packed full of hot sweaty kids and teachers and no adequate ventilation during the last week of June and then tell me the school year isn’t long enough.
Michael M.
Shame on the Daily News, again, for taking totally unnecessary shots at the teachers. Uhgain. That last line was especially Post-esque.
Yet another potential solution would have been to start school on Tuesday, August 31 (Monday August 30 for teachers), have a full week of five days for teachers, and four for students. The Labor Day / Rosh Hashanah week would have two days of instruction, not one. This net pickup of FIVE instructional days would then allow us to drop the June 2011 silliness akin to the June 2010 silliness: classes on a Monday — and Tuesday in 2011 — AFTER what SHOULD be the last day of class in June 2011: Friday, June 24.
And we’d still have three days in hand in case of snow, other scheduling silliness, or, more schooling.
EFM
Enough with these predictive tests! Give kids a chance to prove their ability to excel, not with one time tests, performed in early childhood, but with the results of work done in school, over time.
As for testing three year old kids, that will just mean coaching will begin sooner. And that, sadly, is dangerously close to child abuse.
East Side Mom
A solution to this particular aspect of the G&T dilemma would be to change the kindergarten cutoff birthday to September 1 instead of December 31. It would probably solve a few other problems as well – some kids just aren’t ready for K at 4 years old.
Michael M.
Three days in hand… for Muslim holidays, if not snow.
yomister
In response to Ellen, as a special educator I can attest to the fact that students with disabilities have received a huge amount of attention: FAPE, ADA, 504, IDEA and now RTI.
But I agree with you whole heartedly with your sentiments regarding the DOE’s deplorable execution of instructional planning for students with disabilities – not to mention the revolting instructional outcomes.
There are numerous evidence-based, research validated instructional approaches to meet the learning needs of students with academic and emotional challenges. But the DOE’s special education leadership has been wholly inept in its ability to execute these interventions. Mind you, all too often the DOE is more than willing to spend exorbitant sums of money on instructional materials and programs for students with disabilities. But they feel no need to train (long term training, I mean) their special educators as to how to implement these interventions. So they’re not used.
We have students and teachers floundering in special education classrooms across the city. Educational mismanagement, malfeasance, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty permeates almost every aspect of special education instruction at the DOE.
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