GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Chancellor Joel Klein is making a lot more money than Governor David Paterson. (Politics K-12)
• The DOE’s charter school office chief Michael Duffy is leaving to join Victory Schools. (WSJ)
• The city wants the Panel for Educational Policy to give up some of its limited power. (City Room, GS)
• How did the Columbus Secondary School principal get tenure if principal tenure doesn’t exist? (Chaz)
• Rotherham thinks the Times’ NCLB-forced-out-a-good-principal story is simplistic. (Eduwonk)
• Valerie Grey is the State Education Department’s new COO. (NYSED)
• Doug Lemov describes great teachers as great problem-solvers. (Flypaper, Education Next)
• Head Start programs could be in for a rude awakening, funding-wise. (Early Ed Watch)
• NBC’s Education Nation convention is public-service meets marketing. (Sacramento Bee)
• A Berkeley playwright is making a school board the setting for a culture war. (Times)
• Charter schools may be hurting middle-class kids’ scores because they don’t focus on tests. (Flypaper)

Protests from Comptroller John Liu have prompted the city to scrap a proposal that would have let it enter into certain contracts without individual approval from the citywide school board.

Since the state legislature voted last summer to extend Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s control over the city schools, the Panel for Educational Policy has been required to approve all contracts worth more than $1 million as well as those that were given without competitive bidding.

Last week, the city quietly announced that it would ask the panel to approve a resolution giving the city “blanket approval” to enter into contracts negotiated by other city agencies. But Liu objected, calling the resolution an “end run” around the panel’s oversight authority over the Department of Education. Liu also pointed out that while the resolution was listed on the agenda for tonight’s panel meeting, text of the resolution was not posted to the Department of Education’s website.

This morning, the city removed the resolution from tonight’s agenda. If the resolution had remained on the agenda, it likely would have passed; the panel is controlled by a majority of mayoral appointees, and has never defeated an item proposed by the city.

A slide in the state's presentation shows that eighth graders who score a level 3 on the math test have a low chance of getting a math Regents score that will lead to success in college.

In recent years, teachers, principals, parents, and much of the city’s press have met the annual unveiling of climbing test scores with increased skepticism, if not outright incredulity.

Today the State Education Department officially caught up to them and said yes, the results were too good to be true.

At a meeting of the Board of Regents this morning, Commissioner David Steiner presented (webcast) an analysis of state tests performed by Harvard University testing expert Daniel Koretz and New York University assistant professor Jennifer Jennings. The analysis shows that even though a greater percentage of students are passing the state’s exams than several years ago, many of these students are not prepared for high school or college.

Much of the criticism has focused on the state’s tests for elementary and middle school students and Steiner emphasized today that high school scores are exaggerated as well. Many students who pass the math Regents exam, even by a margin of 15 points, flounder in college, Steiner said. (more…)

• A beloved Burlington, Vt., principal is an early casualty of Race to the Top’s requirements. (Times)
• A DOE employee allegedly used a racial epithet when advising on how to shut parents out. (Daily News)
• The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board okayed Cami Anderson’s bid to open charter schools. (Post)
• Few students are assigned to schools the city legally can’t close. (GothamSchools, Daily News, NY1)
• A Manhattan lawmaker who voted to allow more charter schools says he doesn’t support them. (Post)
• A subnarrative of the Nicole Suriel tragedy is the private fundraising that fuels her school. (Times)
• The city says it might reopen an investigation into Columbia Secondary School’s principal. (NY1)
• The Post calls for quick handling of new complaints against the school’s principal.
• The soon-to-be-released testing report is a harsh reality check for city schools, the Daily News warns.
• The Daily News says teachers who have flirtatious relationships with students should be fired.
• Mayor Bloomberg will take part in a televised education summit on NBC in September. (AP)
• Fans and foes of socioeconomic integration in schools are set to face off in Raleigh. (News & Observer)
• New Jersey won’t see charter schools open in affluent areas this fall after all. (Wall Street Journal)