GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Delayed “transformation” funding has left 11 schools with staffing and resource shortages. (Post)
• Kindergarten acceptance letters are out, but it’s unclear how long the waiting list will be. (NY1)
• City officials are halving estimates of how many seats they can built in the next three years. (Times)
• Bob Herbert: current education reform strategies ignore the benefits of racial integration. (Times)
• The AFL-CIO released its own pro-”last in, first out” ad yesterday. (Post)
• New York City’s charter space wars have made their way to New Jersey. (WSJ)
• The Obama administration is bringing its Race to the Top model to higher ed. (Times)
• Bill Gates says he hopes that in ten years, schools will have vastly different personnel systems. (WSJ)

• Budget director Mark Page says the city may still cut education budgets by 2 percent. (Bloomberg)
• Diane Ravitch critiques Pres. Obama for endorsing the lion’s share of No Child Left Behind. (Newsweek)
• Randi Weingarten says the common ground she shares with Joel Klein will drive achievement. (HuffPo)
• Fifth-graders with autism at Staten Island’s PS 4 don’t yet know where they will go to middle school. (SIA)
• Harry Potter fans are holding a book drive (called “Accio Books”) for a Bed-Stuy charter school. (Patch)
• More advice from Stephen Lazar on how to combat the problem of teacher turnover. (GS Community)
• Conflicts over N.J. school budget cuts are being fueled by opposition to charter schools. (Star-Ledger)
• Pensions, not charters, are the real reasons for school budget cuts, says an advocate. (Centerpoint)
• Chicago’s new mayor’s goal for the schools: students focused on studies, not safety. (NPR)
• How Michelle Rhee is leading the charge nationally to remove low-performing teachers. (NYMag)
• Ed. Sec. Arne Duncan spent the day in Delaware, celebrating Race to the Top’s birthday. (Flypaper)

As principals’ tenure decisions come under harsher scrutiny than in the past, one principal has found a new way of proving that his teachers deserve the honor.

Last year, when Fortunato Rubino, the principal of a high-performing Williamsburg middle school, wanted to grant tenure to one of his teachers, his superintendent wouldn’t sign off because the teacher had a low effectiveness rating. Scenarios like this are becoming more common as the DOE tries to make tenure tougher to earn and asks superintendents — who have the final word on tenure — to consider teachers’ value-added scores. These scores measure how well a teacher’s students performed on the state math and reading tests compared to how well a predictive model thought they would do.

So this year, when six of his teachers are up for tenure — including the one who didn’t get it last year — Rubino plans to introduce his own evidence.

During a visit to his school I.S. 318 this morning, I watched Rubino pull three DVDs out of his briefcase — each carefully marked with a teacher’s name. For all six teachers who are up for tenure, Rubino has filmed a lesson and burned the videos to DVD for his superintendent to watch. He told me he’d spent the weekend going through the videos to make sure each showcased his teachers at their best. (more…)

I previously wrote about the killer effects that teacher turnover is having on my Bronx school, as well as considering some of the causes of this high turnover. It is now my hope to offer solutions to this problem.

I have been thinking long and hard about a way to solve this problem that does not cost more. In times of falling budgets and layoffs, I know any idea that costs more will get little traction. Unfortunately, I cannot think of a single solution that will not cost more at some level. If we value the education of our students, we need to be willing to pay for it. I hope there will be commenters more creative that I am.

Studies have shown that the number one reason teachers leave is not because of low pay, but rather because of poor working conditions. These solutions aim specifically at improving the working conditions of new teaches. These strategies could be used in concert or individually, but all of them would make new teachers more successful, and therefore, more likely to remain in the profession:

Provide real mentoring from trained mentors to new teachers
In his 18 years as an urban teacher, administrator, and instructional coach, David Ginsburg (whom I met at the recent Education Writers Association’s conference) has seen a direct relationship between the practical support teachers receive, including classroom coaching and new teacher induction training, and their retention rates and overall effectiveness. Here’s an excerpt from an email I recently got from him:

Last year a school that was averaging around 40% turnover of new hires from one year to the next for several years brought me on to do a teacher induction program and to coach teachers, and over 90% of teachers who received that support are back this year.

What did David do? He observed the, gave them feedback, provided them with resources when needed, and talked with them. He also did this in a non-evaluative, low stakes manner. This is not rocket science.

I am attempting to provide similar coaching this year to three teachers. Unlike David, I have no training or experience to show that I can coach teachers, other than the fact that I have been successful in the classroom. I hope I am doing a good job, but I don’t have the tools to truly assess if I am. This is the flaw in the current school-based mentoring system that exists in NYC: there is no process to make sure mentors can coach. The key to making mentoring successful is making sure we have the right mentors, then giving them to time to meet, support, and actually coach new teachers. NYC currently has no screening nor evaluation of mentors, and this needs to change.

Reduce the class loads of new teachers, and make them observe
There is no other profession I know of where someone is expected to do the same work on the first day of their job that they do in their 30th year. If an experienced teacher can handle five classes with a maximum load of 170 (which is already too high), new teachers’ loads should be capped at three sections with no more than 75 students total. Teachers should spend the rest of their day formally reflecting on their classes and students’ work, as well as observing all other teachers in the school, both good and bad.

I was blessed to go through a student teaching program that capped my load at two sections, then required me to do observations. I learned a ton from watching teachers on whom I wanted to model myself, but I learned even more from watching the others who I did not want to be like. This allowed me to enter the profession with a clear conception of both who I wanted to be, and what I wanted to avoid becoming.

Moreover though, I got to be a “perfect teacher” for four months. At my most idealistic moment, I had the opportunity to actually put all my ideals into action, and then had time to reflect on my performance. I could spend ten minutes grading every essay (now if I spend three minutes per essay, that’s 2 hours per section), make weekly calls to parents, and truly know every one of my students on a deep, personal level. I will never have the time to be that teacher again, but I know what I am aiming for. Most teachers do not get this experience.

Create new teacher support groups, with guidance from novice teachers
A very common complaint from new teachers is the feeling of isolation they have when entering the profession. It is important that new teachers be given the time and space to reflect, vent, and share their successes and failures in a safe environment. This group can take many forms. At schools with lots of new teachers, this can take place at the school level, elsewhere on a district level. For those places where it cannot, this can happen online through blogging, chartrooms, or on Twitter (there is a weekly chat for new teachers on the hashtag #ntchat that many rave about). This, ideally, should not be something extra new teachers have to do, as they do too much already, but should be part of their paid work time.

However, these groups should not happen in isolation. Teacher who have survived the early part of their career should be participant-leaders in these groups to help bridge the social divide between new and experienced teachers, but also to ensure new teachers learn that success is possible.

I would also like to point an optimistic eye towards the DC’s Center for Inspired Teaching Resident Program, which provides a new model for teaching training which I think makes a lot of sense, and hopefully can yield long-term results. I will be keeping an eye on the work of Aleta Margolis and her organization as they move forward with this ambitious plan.

These are but a few ideas, and I am hopeful that others will add to this list; from my point of view in the Bronx, there is no bigger challenge facing urban schools right now.

• The city earns millions from out-of-town students who pay tuition to attend school here. (Daily News)
• An analysis of the mayor’s budget showed decreasing spending on classrooms. (GS, DN)
• City officials say it’s good that schools can buy data programs to fill in ARIS’ gaps. (NY1)
• The city comptroller plans to audit two of the city’s ambitious technology programs. (GothamSchools)
• A lawsuit alleges that partitions in school gymnasiums are unsafe for children. (Wall Street Journal)
• The New York Times urges Albany to extend the surcharge on high-earners to mitigate cuts to schools.
• Public disapproval of Cathie Black could hinder the mayor’s third-terms education agenda. (Post)
• N.J. gov. Chris Christie said a Newark schools chief would likely not be appointed until May. (WSJ)
• A member of District 1′s parent council was arrested for threatening to burn down a school. (Post, NY1)
• An 11-year-old was arrested for bringing a loaded pistol to his Queens elementary school. (Post)

City Comptroller John Liu announced today that he is launching audits of two of the Department of Education’s most ambitious technology programs developed under former Chancellor Joel Klein.

The comptroller’s office plans to examine the Innovation Zone, or iZone — a $50 million initiative the Department of Education is touting as a strategy to improve schools during budget-conscious times. Funded through a combination of Race to the Top winnings, private donations and $10 million in tax dollars, the iZone is paying for experiments in online learning, staffing, and school time in 80 schools this year.

Liu also plans to audit ARIS — the Achievement Reporting and Innovation System — an $81 million online data warehouse that debuted in 2008 and eventually overcame some of its early glitches. ARIS began as a contract with IBM, but soon became a project of Wireless Generation, a company that was recently purchased by News Corporation. The city plans to pilot a second phase of the database, known as ARIS Local, in some schools this spring.

Both projects have their skeptics and supporters, but it was mainly the former who attended Liu’s townhall meetings, where participants suggested that the comptroller investigate whether both of these programs were accomplishing their goals. (more…)

• A report finds that access to arts education here is on the rise, but plateauing. (Curriculum Matters)
• Which schools are winners and which are losers under the revised capital plan: a map. (Gotham Gazette)
• The deadline to apply to middle school approaches, and there are new options. (Insideschools)
• Arne Duncan backed efforts to end LIFO layoffs, but wasn’t specific about alternatives. (WNYC)
• Why we will probably pass the 2014 proficiency deadline without changing NCLB. (Time)
• Inside Central Falls High School, tardiness is a problem, but some teaching is dynamic. (Dana Goldstein)
• A European-born parent, dismayed by American schools, considers returning home. (Failing Schools)
• Teachers in states without collective bargaining make more in salary, pay more for benefits. (Flypaper)
• An argument for reforming school pensions by tying benefits to contributions. (Gadfly)
• Why do we need employment protections like tenure? Because employers are biased. (Shanker Blog)

Spending going directly to schools would decrease along with the number of teachers in the city, while spending on instructional administration, transportation, and school food would all increase if Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed 2012 budget is passed.

Those are among the findings of an analysis of the mayor’s proposed 2012 budget released by the Independent Budget Office today.

The budget also calls for cutting spending on general education and special education instruction by between 1 and 2 percent and making large cuts to funds for school facilities and safety. The cuts to classroom spending include the loss of more than 6,000 teaching positions, with more than 4,600 of those positions lost through layoffs.

Meanwhile, spending on the DOE’s central administration would grow by 10 percent from this school year, though it would still be lower than it was between 2005 and 2010.

The IBO analysis also predicts that the city will have a slightly smaller surplus to roll over into next year than the Bloomberg administration has estimated, $2.9 billion compared to the mayor’s estimate of $258 million more. The surplus has attracted attention from the teachers union, which points to its existence to argue that the mayor shouldn’t have to lay off teachers.

But the analysis shows that neither surplus would be enough to use to plug the projected 2012 shortfall. (more…)

Teachers and parents from Canarsie's P.S. 114 carried signs at a Panel for Educational Policy meeting where the board was set to vote on the school's closure.

Threatened with closure when their school’s test scores sank, parents and teachers at a Brooklyn elementary school quickly mobilized their local elected officials in their defense. The plan worked. At the last minute, the city pulled its proposal to close the school.

But not a month later, PS 114 parents and teachers are wondering exactly how much their school was saved. That’s because they’ve learned that the Department of Education plans to slash the school’s enrollment by roughly 200 students in the next three years to accomodate a new charter school. The charter school, Explore Excel, was originally supposed to help replace P.S. 114 as the school was slowly closed.

Currently, P.S. 114 enrolls 754 students in kindergarten through the fifth grade, but its enrollment has been on the decline. Last year, it had 844 students and the year before that, 887.

With a new charter school slated to open in the building next year, Department of Education officials have decided to trim the student enrollment further to make room for the new school to grow. (more…)

Earlier this week my school held parent-teacher conferences. The turnout for my class, with 21 of 27 students represented, was considered good. Still I was surprised and frustrated by some of the no-shows. Meanwhile, it’s March and I have yet to meet a parent for two of my students. This is more than discouraging, it’s just sad.

I know these parents work all hours and more than likely multiple jobs. But I’ve reached out every way I know how, with no success.

Luckily these two students go against the trend I’ve seen over the years, and are in fact two of my top readers. Nonetheless I wish deeply I could share their learning, their strengths, and needs with someone at home.

In the meantime, I tried something different. I held the conference with the student. (more…)