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Did you expect the Principal to really pull you out of class to meet Cathie Black just because you are the Chapter leader?? Arthur, you are probably the last person she wants to meet. You might ask her questions she cannot answer.

Bravo, Arthur.

If only the people setting policy and running the schools had a fraction of the insight of you and your students. Sadly, and portending terrible things for the republic, they don’t believe in public education. Adding insult to injury, they appoint a non-entity like Black, who is little more than a glorified sales rep.

Well, Arthur, if the last time we were both in the same place has set any precedent, she probably wouldn’t want you to ruin her grand procession through the city schools, either. Even with Diane, Leonie, and the rest of us ed-bloggers in tow.

Well, I am jealous! We’re right across the street from Tweed and no visit!
I am glad she got to your school though and met these terrific students. 

I can see by the news reports she’s a fish out of water in a public school. It looks like her skin is crawling when she’s there. She doesn’t look like the type to roll out of bed in the early hours to be with kids. 

Would still like to meet her anyway. 

This is a wonderful lesson for the kids in citizenship, public relations and political science. Good luck!

Sensing a song title here—”Have the chauffeur drive you a mile in my shoes.”

Can you dance to it?

How about a movie?
“Driving Miss Daisy’s Test Scores.”

Title Song:
“New York, New York.
It’s a wonderful town.
Test scores are up,
Salaries are down.”

Michael M.,

It sounds like Mr. Walcott is overqualified. Mayor Bloomberg seems to want a businessperson, and not to mess around with any of that education stuff. Love the song, but I’m not sure the test scores are really up, particularly if Tweed is your source.

Martin,

I’m very sorry to hear you have to go through this. It’s unfortunate that after these experiments fail, then fail again, that the “reformers” are compelled to go back, do it again, and perhaps expect a different result.

The REAL test score shock is going to come next year, after the test contents get played with. Or so I understand.

LAST year, the only shocker was that the “proficiency” cut points got moved by the state. That’s different.

Of course, it’s all treading water vs NAEP. Then again, class sizes are going up, so we may soon pine for mere flat-lining.

“New York, New York.
It’s a wonderful town.
The scores are cooked
In a hole in the ground.”

Much mo bettah.

Its too bad she didn’t ask the parents in the neighborhood why they are abandoning the school if their kids have any other choice. The school is filling with kids from outside the zone and those from District 26 who don’t get accepted elsewhere. My kids are zoned for that school but there is no way they would ever choose it. My son’s middle school counselor had to force most of the kids to even put it on the high school application as a last resort. Between the triple sessions, overcrowded classrooms, the unheated trailers and the early morning breakfast (lunch), unless your kid is interested in the ROTC program, the kids in the neighborhood with other choices avoid this school like the plague. Can you say Bronx Science and St. Francis Prep.

What a witty and level head.
It is kind to call the reforms reforms, they are transitions toward corporate-grade efficiency, evaluation and compensation without due regard to proper treatment of youth, dedicated and often sublimely talented staff, and the field of education as public service. Some additional flaws are amorality and failure to motivate (both of these derive in part from a reliance on greed and competition as motivation as well as raison d’être); often these result in toxic environments and soul-destroying nonsense. As a result, they don’t work, but they look really good in binders and are great fodder for endless rubrics and systems upon systems for layers of evaluation and pretenses of data analysis as problem-solving, solutions testing and genuine reflection.

I speak to community parents regularly at meetings, conferences and around the school. Forgive me for taking them more seriously than anonymous voices on the internet. As a result of an agreement we made with Tweed last year, 50% of students in our magnet programs now come from the neighborhood. We’ve been able to reduce enrollment by several hundred students this year, the first time this has happened in the 18 years I’ve been there, and we’re working to continue this. 

If we are successful, we will eliminate the trailers. Nonetheless I will stay working in them until the day we do. Someone has to.
Yes we are on a state list, along with our neighbor Cardozo, precisely because 6 too many special education students failed tests in math and English. The CL of Cardozo tells me it was only 4 in their case.  

Thank you for repeating your wholly unsubstantiated explanation as to why we are one of the most requested schools in the city. I look forward to hearing further about it in your next missive.

In response, I would like to Thank Arthur for his tireless efforts and his proactive articles that pin point the problems that the NYC High Schools face today.  He is one of the few advocators that speak their mind and he is a real motivator to teachers and parents alike. He has a talent for writing and I love to read his articles. I applaud you. 

I have to say that Francis Lewis HS is a wonderful school.  I have 2 children that graduated from the school and if you ask them, they would say that their high school experience was great, as well as a child presently attending Lewis. This school has so much to offer that 12,000 children apply to the school each year. Parents are known to beg and plead to get their child into Lewis the best public (non-specialized) school in the city. Last year some of  our science students won the prestigious “intel award” last year, beating out Bronx Science and Sty.

Though the school was designed to hold 2000 students, we are now over 4000.  We have classes with 34 students in them, we have multiple sessions (who doesn’t), we have portable classrooms (by the way, they have heat and even a bathroom), it seems that most public elementary and HS’s have them, but this is the only way the schools can handle the huge population.  We have been fighting to reduce the enrollment in the school but it just falls on the DOE’s deaf ears. Unlike specialize HS’s and private schools, Lewis has no control  when it comes to enrollment.  I could send my child to St. Francis Prep, where I would pay $7250 a year and they could be in a classroom with 35 students, as well.

Why I send my children to Lewis: They get a great education, the educators care, the Principal is an innovator, many course choices, diversity of the schools community, great music and art programs, and many different sports teams to choose from.  Most importantly My child is in a safe environment.

Be an advocate for your school and your children. Lets reduce enrollment in our schools. Let your voices be heard by the DOE.

PS The reason Cathie Black stopped at Lewis for 10 minutes, was to address a few of the government students, who wrote to her and asked to speak to her about her new position.

Thanks for your kind words, Leslie. And thanks very much for giving a real picture of the school from a real public school parent.

LI Parent,

The press seems to be waking up a little in view of Ms. Black’s recent remarks. How long they’ll stay awake is anyone’s guess.

i think queens parent is predicting the future…once the DOE succeeds at seeing all the comprehensive high schools to the south closed down (I’m sorry, “phased out”) then lewis will face more and more challenges and his scenario is entirely possible at that point.  in the meantime, however, Lewis and Bayside are definitely still the “cool” public high schools to attend!