GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• A mother’s poem about how her daughter got 90′s and 3′s, then bombed the PSAT. (EdNotes)
• Last-minute registration centers opened today to place the unplaced. (Insideschools)
• The charter cap lift was big but not “mathematically” key for NY’s RTTT win. (EdVANTAGE)
• Los Angeles teachers aren’t too happy with the LA Times’ value-added project. (LA Times)
• A study finds “mutual consent” policies against forced teacher placement don’t pay off. (Ed Week)
• “Value-added data is not gospel,” writes David Leonhardt, summing up the LAT drama. (NYTM)
• A 29-page chronicle of reasons to be skeptical of value-added. (Economic Policy Institute, PDF)
• Poll: Michelle Rhee is so divisive that she is a “political wash” for DC’s mayor. (WashPost)
• A lack of training to teach special ed is deemed a “national crisis.” (Hechinger Report)
• Nationwide, charter schools are being urged to serve more English language learners. (Ed Week)
• Preschoolers use statistics when they interact with each other, a researcher finds. (Ed Week)

The city is removing some principals, but letting others keep their jobs or take on mentorship roles, at a handful of low-performing schools that are being overhauled this year with federal funds.

The eleven schools are part of a select group about to begin the federal government’s “transformation” model intended to improve some of the state’s lowest-performing schools. Though it is the least invasive of the four models offered — it doesn’t require firing teachers — it does call for the removal of principals.

City school officials have decided to entirely replace principals at four of the schools. Another four will get brand new principals, but their current principals will remain in the schools under a new job title. Department of Education officials believe these administrators, who will be called “transformation mentor principals,” should remain in leadership roles because the schools have shown improvement on their watch.

“This is a creative solution for select schools that will mean new teachers, more resources and needed reforms — all while making sure to keep recent positive trends in place,” said Department of Education spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld. (more…)

A stitched-together panorama of the Mott Haven Educational Campus, which will house five schools this year and is the largest school building project completed by the School Construction Authority.

The city’s largest new school building since the founding of the School Construction Authority will open for classes next week, creating room for more than 2,000 students in the Bronx.

The seats at the Mott Haven Educational Complex are among more than 17,000 new classroom seats that will become available when school starts next week, city officials announced today.

Of the 26 new school sites opening this year, 15 are completely new school buildings. Three projects add annexes to existing buildings, and eight sites are opening in newly-leased space. Nearly 700 of the new seats will be set aside for students in the city’s District 75 program for special education students.

Not all of the new seats will be filled with students when schools open next week. I’ve asked the DOE for estimates about how many of the seats they expect will be filled this year, and will update when I hear back. A map showing where the new seats added this year are located is below the jump. (more…)

To save her school from closure, the principal of a large Bronx high school took a drastic step and applied to become a charter school. But her application, along with nearly a dozen others, was rejected by the state today.

New York State’s Education Department announced today that of the 24 New York City charter school applications it received earlier this month, 12 schools have been green-lighted for the next step of the approval process.

Christopher Columbus High School, which applied to become a conversion charter, is not among them. Columbus is one of nearly two dozen low-performing schools selected to be “turned around” with federal money, meaning that in the next year it will be closed and replaced by a new school or it will lose half its staff and its principal.

A Columbus teacher who helped write the application said she was disappointed and felt the school’s application had been strong. (more…)

• A new study finds that students fare better in K-8 schools than in traditional middle schools. (Post, WSJ)
• Value-added models to assess performance are already in use widely, including in NYC. (Times)
• A new state law mandates that schools tell parents if bedbugs appear in the building. (Daily News)
• A judge ruled that the city can cut school bus service to some middle-school students. (WSJ, NY1)
• Teachers union head Michael Mulgrew says city schools should drop test prep this year. (Daily News)
• The state has advised school districts not to ask enrollees about their immigration status. (Times)
• Parents at the private Horace Mann School are suing over their son’s 3-day suspension. (Times)
• Texas is encouraging schools to pool their resources to pay for bureaucratic help. (Reuters)