GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Early class size estimates from the city’s teachers union indicate that while a new high school campus in Queens may have alleviated crowding in some schools, others are now feeling the pain.

The new Metropolitan Avenue campus, which is home to two small high schools and about 400 students, appears to have given nearby Forest Hills High School some breathing room (though not enough, according to some Queens officials). Forest Hills had 209 oversized classes this time last year. This year it has 103.

The numbers come from the city’s teachers union, which surveys teachers about overcrowded classes. The Department of Education has not yet released its official class size numbers.

Benjamin Cardozo High School, another chronically overcrowded school, has 214 oversized classes this year, an improvement over the 274 it had last year. (more…)

State education commissioner David Steiner and deputy John King discuss New York's Race to the Top application.

As school districts and charter schools prepare their proposals for spending their share of nearly $700 million in Race to the Top spoils, state officials are giving guidance about how they should use the money.

School districts have until November to create their plans for using the federal funds. On Monday, State Education Commissioner David Steiner and Deputy Commissioner John King held a videoconference with superintendents and school administrators around the state to help them begin to plan.

(Watch Steiner and King’s presentation and see the accompanying slides here.)

The state education department will keep half of the Race to the Top winnings; the other half will be distributed among participating school districts and charter schools according to the federal Title I formula, King said. (more…)

The most aggravating and enjoyable part of teaching is the puzzle it represents. The classroom is a giant web of questions, some minor and some profound. The challenge of answering these questions is what makes teaching so frustrating and fun at the same time.

Where should I seat my students who don’t speak English? When’s the best time of day and what’s the best procedure to check homework? How should I handle kids who keep chewing gum in class? When and how should kids sharpen their pencils?

Questions like these can pester a teacher. They seem insignificant, but they can affect the whole rhythm and flow of a classroom. When you figure out how to control the simple minute details of a classroom, you can help everything else run smoothly.

Then there are the questions that really weigh on me. (more…)

• CUNY tests that decide whether a student needs remedial help are unusually easy to pass. (Daily News)
• Natasha Cooke-Nieves, a science teacher at P.S. 282, received an award for great teaching. (NY1)
• Michael Mulgrew didn’t attend the event because of the donor’s Tea Party connections. (Daily News)
• The Daily News calls the union president a “petty petty man” for not coming to the award presentation.
• Three teachers critical of P.S. 282′s principal say she removed them for the public event. (NY Post)
• Archbishop Timothy Dolan says “Superman” is already here in the form of Catholic schools. (Daily News)
• A charter school teacher says she lost two months’ pay for missing two days of work. (Daily News)
• A private UWS high school is letting students tend five bee hives on the roof. (Daily News)
• Two hooded young men threated a Queens middle school teacher with a handgun. (NY Post)
• Zuckerberg’s $100 million donation to Newark public schools is raising legal questions. (NY Post)
• LA’s teachers union was left out of a deal to change seniority policies and may sue. (LA Times)
• In Baltimore, Rhee-style school reforms have not alienated parents and voters. (Washington Post)

• Charters good ”as long as the [lottery] is as public and cruel as humanly possible.” (Daily Show)
• Inside the big hotels where teachers and principals speed-date for matches. (GS Community)
• An instructional coach and former science teacher won a $25,000 award today. (WNYC)
• Forget Huberman; Pittsburgh’s superintendent is leaving mid-school year. (Corey)
• The Minneapolis superintendent will get a merit pay bonus if she produces good results. (Hechinger)
• Pundits make suggestions for how Mark Zuckerberg’s money should be spent in Newark. (NYT)
• The NEA plans to spend $40 million this election, mainly on Democrats. (Politics K12, Upshot)
• The Gates Foundation is giving $1.5 million to ABC News to cover health issues. (NYT)
• An effort to train students in “digital citizenship” is born. (NPR)
• A teacher wary of Cuomo and Paladino praises the UFT’s Tony Avella endorsement. (NYC Educator)
• The state education department has posted Race to the Top forms for local districts. (NYSED)

Rejecting small schools with themes like social justice or green jobs as “boutique schools,” parents in central Queens are demanding that the city build them a large, comprehensive high school. And, after years of the city closing big schools and championing those boutiques, city officials have agreed.

At a meeting in central Queens last night, Executive Director of School Improvement Alex Shub said the Department of Education intended to build a 1,100-seat school building in Maspeth. The school will open in 2011 or 2012, depending on how quickly the city finds and hires the right principal, Shub said. But when it does, it will be one school, not several small high schools housed in a single campus as has become the norm.

“People want one large comprehensive school. You don’t want a bunch of boutique schools, a dance school, a school for lawyers,” Shub said to the parents assembled at P.S. 58.

“It sounds like people speaking now are interested in a comprehensive school that is going to give your kids every opportunity for success. And I can guarantee you a school that can do that.” (more…)

Diane Ravitch, the education historian and best-selling author, borrowed her title from Jane Jacobs, the chronicler of urban planning.

And it looks like Ravitch’s publisher borrowed the cover art for her latest book from a novel published not too long ago — about a one-room schoolhouse. The two books side by side:

After deciding to leave Minnesota, I flew to New York City to attend a hiring fair in July 2006. I had already received a “commitment letter” from the city assuring my placement, but I had not interviewed with any specific schools. My trip to New York was my one chance, as I did not have the time or money to return that summer.

The hiring fair, held in a hotel convention hall, was intimidating and overwhelming. I arrived early only to find a line of prospective teachers wrapped around the block. There were over 200 schools represented inside but based on the length of the lines behind each table, I calculated that I could visit only about 10 of them. I would get five minutes at most to make a good impression and hopefully land a job offer or at least a longer follow-up interview. It was teacher-school speed dating.

Naively, I had hoped to find a school in Manhattan, proximate to the Upper West Side where my girlfriend would be attending graduate school. Quickly, I realized that hardly any Manhattan schools were posting social studies openings. I refocused my attention on Northern Brooklyn and the South Bronx.

Other than geographic location, I chose schools based on which had the shortest lines. (more…)

• Budget cuts closed the television studios at Edward R. Murrow HS, named for the TV man. (Times)
• The incoming president of the New York Public Library wants closer ties to city schools. (Times)
• A Queens teacher accused of forcing students to fight was accused of molestation. (Daily News, Post)
• The city’s Catholic schools will reorganize and close to try to save themselves. (Times, Post, NY1)
• An agreement with the state will mean New York teachers get trained in Google Apps. (WSJ)
• Chicago’s superintendent, Ron Huberman, will leave before Mayor Richard Daley retires. (Sun-Times)
• Los Angeles is set to adopt a policy that would limit “last in, first out” dismissals. (L.A. Times)

• Concerns about progress reports could foreshadow problems with score-based teacher evals. (HuffPo)
• Diane Ravitch goes over some of the criticism of value-added assessments of teachers. (EdWeek)
• Can a school improve a neighborhood? Petrilli says no; Corey Bower says maybe. (Ed Policy Thoughts)
• A new report says that ed schools and training programs don’t teach how kids learn. (Answer Sheet)
• The Baltimore contract shows why Weingarten doesn’t deserve the anti-reform label. (Class Struggle)
• Education hiring has actually increased 2.3 percent during the recession. (Flypaper)
• Google Apps for Education is being offered up to districts all over the state. (ZDNet Education)
• Merrow on the anti-testing “Race to Nowhere”: Strong message but not a great movie. (Taking Note)
• Though she likely drove to West Beverly HS, Jennie Garth wants kids to walk to school. (GossipCenter)