GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• McKinsey once cited New York City as a district reform model to watch and model; no more. (Ed Vox)
• Leonie Haimson saw last night’s PEP as a frustrating denial of an overcrowding crisis. (EdNotes)
• Teachers at Francis Lewis HS, Walcott’s alma mater, rallied against budget cuts today. (EdNotes)
• Watch an architect of the common core standards, David Coleman, “bringing [them] to life.” (NYSED)
• A survey of Californians finds Latinos and blacks are the least likely to support test-based pay. (PPIC)
• Keeping virtual schools rigorous is hard but possible, and online learning isn’t for everyone. (Mindshift)
• Louisiana gave SIG to schools based on the quality of their plan, not extent of need. (Quick and the Ed)
• Study: observers’ views of Cincinatti teachers matched value-added numbers. (Joanne Jacobs)
• Randi Weingarten has stolen Al Sharpton’s heart from Joel Klein, a New Jersey rally shows. (Sify)
• For- and non-profit edu-entities aren’t that different, and neither is inherently good or bad. (AEI)

Today’s news about a contractor accused of stealing $3.6 million from the Department of Education comes from a report by the Special Commissioner of Investigations. We’ve pasted the full report below.

The report paints a picture of contractor Ross Lanham’s straightforward scheme: he billed the DOE at a high price, and paid his subcontractors at a lower price. The difference, allegedly, went into a lavish lifestyle that includes three houses on Long Island.

More surprising, though, is the extent to which IBM and Verizon turned a blind eye to Lanham’s accounting. For instance, when an IBM staffer noted irregularities in Lanham’s billing, Lanham protested that the DOE was “okay with it.” IBM, perturbed, shuffled Lanham and his consultants into a different subcontracting company with a different name, but said nothing to the DOE.

Next, Verizon accepted Lanham’s subcontractors after he threatened to take the DOE contract to IBM. Puzzlingly, Verizon found out that Lanham was not giving his subcontractors the full amount that Verizon was paying out, but only went into action after the DOE contacted them with their concerns. (more…)

Three more schools will begin closing next year, following a vote by the citywide school board last night that brought the total of schools closed this year to 27.

Members of the Panel for Educational Policy voted to close two transfer schools — Pacific High School and the Bronx Academy High School — as well as P.S. 30, an elementary school in Queens. A spokeswoman for the city’s Department of education said that, including the decision to shutter Ross Global Charter School, 27 schools will begin closing next year.

It was Chancellor Dennis Walcott’s first panel meeting since Mayor Bloomberg named him to the post. Walcott said he hoped to change the tenor of the meetings by answering parents’ questions and publicly debating policy issues at a deeper level than his predecessors did.

Walcott began the meeting by walking down from the stage and into the crowd, where he promised parents, teachers, and students that he and his staff would respect them.

“You will never hear me be disagreeable with you,” he said. “The one thing we understand is these are emotional issues for you…the approach we’re going to take moving forward is be responsive to those issues even when we don’t agree.”

If audience members heard Walcott’s plea for civility, they betrayed no signs. The boos and catcalls that have peppered panel meetings for months reappeared last night, as did animosity between charter school supporters and the district schools they will have to share space with next year. (more…)

• With the $3.6M he allegedly stole, a DOE contractor built a lux lifestyle. (Daily News, Post)
• The DOE says it boosted oversight protections after firing the contractor. (Times, WNYC, NY1)
• John Liu said he’s reviewing contracts with vendors implicated in the investigation. (WSJ)
• The UFT won’t survey all its teachers, a favor Educators 4 Excellence requested. (Post)
• Two high schools and an elementary school will be phased out after a PEP vote. (Post, NY1, GS)
• The Daily News: Parents behind a lawsuit should get sanctioned for “political theater.”
• Police: A Queens third-grader sold a handgun for $3 in school yesterday. (Post, NY1)
• A lawmaker wants to ban the handcuffing of children younger than 12. (Daily News)

And around the country:

• Harvard ed school students protest the school has abandoned social justice concerns. (Globe)
• The Calif. group pushing “parent trigger” has a grassroots base in churches. (WSJ)
• The man behind tenure law changes in Illinois is the child of two activists. (CNC/Times)
• Several California school districts are reaching to taxes to try to stave layoffs. (Bay Citizen)
• At the last Chicago school board meeting under Daley’s control, consolidations pass. (CNC)

• A former consultant is charged with stealing $3.6 million meant to wire schools. (NYT, DN)
• A rising senior doesn’t need bad behavior to prove she’s growing up. (GS Community)
• NYC Leadership Academy names Irma Zardoya, a former superintendent, as president. (No link)
• Failure to build consensus on Buffalo’s school turnaround plans will doom them. (School Zone)
• Of the 800-some schools getting SIG dollars, about 50 are charter schools. (Quick and the Ed)
• A report released by KIPP finds its college-graduation rate is “far short of our goal.” (Ed Week)
• A reform plan that aimed to unite the teachers union and district deals with discord. (VOSD)
• Applications to CEC parent councils are in; some districts have way more than others. (Insideschools)
• More aspiring gifted and talented students took tests this year than last year. (GS, Insideschools)
• Diane Ravitch and Andy Rotherham debated education on Terry Gross’s “Fresh Air.” (NPR)
• Posting a police officer at a school has advantages but isn’t a long-term solution. (Notebook)
• Lawmakers, want to get the feds out of K-12 education? There is a bill for you. (Politics K12)

A push to get more students to take the city’s gifted and talented test this year paid off: over a thousand more students took the citywide admissions tests this year, with the overall number rising to 39,160 from 38,015 last year.

But the outreach efforts did not increase the number of students admitted to the program’s most selective citywide programs. In fact, the number of students who qualified for the citywide programs declined. The number of students who qualified for the less selective district-based gifted and talented programs, which require slightly lower test scores for admission, did increase, growing by 319 students from last year.

The racial and family income backgrounds of the students whose test scores made them eligible for gifted and talented were not immediately available.

The city sent letters to qualifying students this morning, whose families now get to list the programs they prefer and hope for a spot in the program of their choice.

A place in the citywide programs is not guaranteed. Last year, 1,788 kindergartners qualified for about 300 seats. This year, the number of kindergartners making the cutoff is slightly larger, though the overall number of students who qualified for the citywide programs dropped by 149 students. (more…)

From L to R: Sharon Denson, Vice President; Raj Thakkar, Founder & CEO; Stephen Reid, Vice President; Karen Daniels, Chief Operating Officer

Disenchanted with the corporate world, Raj Thakkar was skimming job openings in 2003 when he found an ad from a charter school looking for a chief financial officer. He didn’t have any experience in education, but then again, the charter school barely did either: Explore Charter School was only a year old.

Years later, Explore is a growing charter school network and Thakkar has his own company, Charter School Business Management Inc., that has become one of the most widely consulted financial advisors by New York City charter schools. In a phone conversation yesterday, Thakkar estimated that he’d worked with more than 40 percent of the city’s charter schools at one point or another over the last five years.

Yesterday, the New York branch of the U.S. Small Business Administration recognized Thakkar, giving him and his company the New York City Small Business Person of the Year Award.

Thakkar’s company is unusual in that he has little competition: few firms do the same sort of work in New York, and none specialize in support for charter schools alone. (more…)

It’s true that high school applications are not all there is to eighth grade, but that doesn’t mean that thinking about high school and transitioning isn’t a big part of it either.

As I stayed up late talking with my close friend last night, we realized something huge: In some way, elementary school and middle school are connected to each other. Fifth grade to sixth grade is a smaller jump than sixth grade to eighth grade, and as you get closer to eighth grade, you get closer to realizing that your years of being a younger student are over. Entering high school is all about entering as a much bigger person than the student you were entering middle school.

That’s why it was so rough for me when I didn’t know what high school I was going to. I had to imagine a time that would come very soon even though I didn’t know where to imagine myself. Then I did. I’m going to the Beacon School next year. When I found out, I felt like I could finally breathe. All of the waiting was worth it because I got into the school that I wanted and I felt this huge weight lifted off my shoulders. How unusual, though, that a month ago I thought I was the biggest failure ever but it turns out that I actually got into my first choice.

Ironically or not, Beacon is a school that doesn’t even consider a student’s score on the Specialized High School Admission Test, a test that I felt I had failed. I no longer felt alone and embarrassed. From sixth grade on, I worked hard to achieve good grades so I could get in to the school that I wanted to. Although the SHSAT score was upsetting to me, I realized later on that it had no effect on the school that I really and truly wanted to get into. I took the test in hope that I would just find out early, and that didn’t happen. But it didn’t lower my chances of getting into the school that I actually cared about.

So then the high school part of my year was over, and all I could do was sit back, relax, and see where the rest of the year would take me. (more…)

• Walcott visited the space for tonight’s PEP to “absorb the dynamics of the auditorium.” (WSJ)
• State Sen. Flanagan will hold hearings to probe the city’s teacher discipline process. (Post)
• Two city schoolteachers will appear on Jeopardy!’s two-week teacher special. (WNYC)
• Walcott’s visit to Robeson High School kept a promise to the student PEP member. (Daily News)
• “It’s time to lower the rhetoric on charters,” Walcott said on the John Gambling show. (WOR, WNYC)
• The $100 million suit against the city for Cathie Black’s appointment is deemed “ridiculous.” (Post)*
• Cursive handwriting, not widely considered a 21st century skill and not tested, is taught less. (Times)
• The urban mother accused of illegally sending her child to a suburban school plead not guilty. (Times)
• A teacher paid a fine and returned to teaching after using a Spanish swear word. (El Diario via Voice)
• A Wadleigh HS grad with a love for ties is the only American working in the royal wedding. (Post)
• Gates and Pearson are releasing 24 online math and English classes tied to common core. (Times)

*The story published in today’s Post print edition described the lawsuit as “ridiculous” by saying that “everyone acknowledged” it as so. The story originally published online also included that description. But at some point this morning, that wording was revised to say that even the people who filed the lawsuit “admit” the suit is “unusual.”

The original sentence read, “In a notice of claim filed yesterday that everyone acknowledged is ridiculous, the newly formed New York City Parents Union puts the wreckage of Black’s tumultuous tenure at $100 million.” The sentence now in the story’s web version instead begins, “In a notice of claim filed yesterday that even the filers admit is unusual.”

• A group of parents is suing Mayor Bloomberg for $100 million for appointing Cathie Black. (WNYC)
• Chancellor Walcott said the city will restructure how it gives guidance to closing schools. (GS, NYT)
• The Gates Foundation is spending $20 million to bring national standards to schools. (AP)
• Sect. Duncan is trying to ease NCLB’s renewal by holding community forums with lawmakers. (Edweek)
• Renaissance Charter teachers are drafting their own evaluation plan. (GS Community)
• Public high school students can enter a mural contest to get their artwork on school walls. (NY Cares)
• Students at P.S. 181 played on a student-designed playground on its opening day. (NYT)
• Bullies and victims spend more time in the nurse’s office than their classmates do. (NYT)
• Governor Cuomo’s plan to consolidate small school districts is a good one. (Dana Goldstein)
• Cuomo says most school districts can and should stay under his proposed tax cap. (State of Politics)
• Winners of a teachers union essay contest tell the chancellor about their jobs. (New York Teacher)
• Success Academy staff met with a tough crowd in Williamsburg, says an audience member. (EdNotes)
• Students’ scores on the city’s gifted & talented test were sent home yesterday. (InsideSchools)
• LA’s new superintendent is hiring an executive team, but some say he’s spending too much. (LA Times)