GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• The tent-sleeping principal of East Side Community HS explains why he moved outdoors. (YouTube)
• Ross Global Academy’s former principal was de facto cleared of test-tampering charges. (NY Sun)
• Kate Walsh says releasing teacher value-added data won’t serve all children. (Talk of the Nation)
• Why not publish only the names of the top 25% of teachers?, suggests Doug Lemov. (TOTN)
• Can the charter school founded by John King, now of NYSED, scale its success? (Boston Mag)
• A push to consider cutting high school sports spending. (Reason via Flypaper)
• A case that “blame the teacher” and “anti-teacher” aren’t the same, and that one is real. (Corey)
• The president of D.C.’s teacher union calls the IMPACT evaluation “dangerous.” (Learning Matters)
• India now has schools on wheels, so that teachers travel to students. (City Fix via Flypaper)
• Reminiscing on NYSUT’s “rather breathtaking 180-degree turnaround” on RTTT. (NYFERA)

For years, the High School for International Business and Finance has been one of four schools in the George Washington campus, each named the High School for Something and Something. But over the summer, the school changed its name, rebranding itself as College Academy.

New York City public schools can re-name themselves only by jumping through a series of bureaucratic hoops that ultimately lead to Chancellor Joel Klein’s final approval.

Once a principal approves or initiates a change, it’s voted on by the parent association, which then passes it on to the school’s superintendent. In cases where a school is part of a community school district, the superintendent makes a recommendation to the community education council, which holds a public meeting and then votes on the change. But for most high schools and other schools that are not zoned for a district, the decision goes straight from the superintendent to Chancellor Klein. (more…)

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan defended himself yesterday to critics of one of the centerpieces of his federal education policy — his practice of staging competitions to reward student progress or new ideas.

Duncan’s approach, which inspired his signature Race to the Top grant program, has drawn criticism from advocates like the NAACP, some state leaders and even members of Congress. His critics say that a policy that awards funds based on anything other than student need will inevitably leave some districts behind.

During Duncan’s visit to the state teachers union headquarters in Albany yesterday, those concerns surfaced again, this time from a teacher from Newburgh. Patricia Van Duser told Duncan that school districts like hers depend on the reliable funding that the federal education department doles out to schools based on need.

Van Duser worried that her district’s finances could be jeopardized if the federal government moves towards a more competitive model as the Obama administration plans its overhaul of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

“You really need that to be formula-driven, not competitive-driven,” she said. (more…)

• The Yankees briefly offered a back-to-school promotion for a game on the first day of school. (Post)
• Ed Sec Arne Duncan praised New York’s reforms in Albany. (GothamSchools, Daily News, Post, WNYC)
• Last night’s Panel for Educational Policy meeting reprised conflict over test scores. (NY1)
• An all-girls charter high school opened in Albany yesterday, the state’s first. (WNYC)
• New Orleans parents want to see more racial diversity now that there is more school choice. (NPR)
• Seattle and its teachers might have agreed about using test scores in evaluations. (Seattle Times)