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Collin Lawrence is a former New York City teacher who is recounting his four years working at a Brooklyn high school. Read Collin’s previous posts.

On a Friday afternoon, before the last class of the day, in the winter of my second year at the Brooklyn Arts Academy, I was busy setting up a video segment to show as part of my lesson on the causes of the French Revolution. At that moment, my principal walked into the room with a pad of paper and took a seat in the back of class. Just my luck, I thought. The principal rarely observed my classes, or even dropped into my classroom, but here he was at a time when my students were likely to be at their most distracted.

Sure enough, my students strolled in acting off-the-wall. A boy chased a girl around the room. There was joking and yelling. The students did not seem to notice that the principal was sitting quietly in the back. I started to panic about what to do. Should I yell at them and try to assert authority? Should I walk around and gently touch the out-of-line students on the arm and remind them to find their seats? (Had the principal not been there, I probably would have stood in the center of the classroom and waited for calm.)

In any case, the principal came to my rescue … sort of. He stood up and spoke loudly. The students, suddenly aware of his presence, fell silent. “You aren’t even giving this teacher a chance, ” he told them. One of the students laughed and the principal grew angrier. He told the students that they weren’t taking learning seriously and that they all had to stay an extra hour after school. When the students objected, he threatened to make it two hours. Then he looked at me, told me that he’d do the observation another time, and walked out of my classroom.

Incidentally, I went on to teach a great lesson. I have worked hard at instilling rigid beginning-of-class routines, but even so students often come to class riled up and need time to calm down. The passing periods at the Brooklyn Arts Academy were five minutes, and students often went into social mode. Getting them back into academic mode after passing periods was a challenge, especially with no bell signaling the start of class. Once students settled down, however, I was usually able to keep them engaged. (more…)

• The state’s teacher evaluation task force released its recommendations to union support. (Daily News)
• But schools say evaluation changes can’t happen as fast as Gov. Cuomo wants. (Press & Sun-Bulletin)
• A group of district superintendents is the latest to sign onto the bid to end “last in, first out” layoffs. (Post)
• Schools Chancellor Cathie Black is polling miserably. (GothamSchools, Times, Post, WNYC, NY1, AP)
• Top DOE official Santiago Taveras is leaving for the private sector. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News)
• Rochester’s schools chief, DOE alum J.C. Brizard, might be up for big-city jobs. (Democrat & Chronicle)
• Park Slope’s PS 107 is moving its pre-K program to make room for more kindergartners. (Brooklyn Paper)
• A 6-year-old Lower Manhattan private school that has struggled has been sold to a for-profit firm. (Times)

• Anti-union ads in Florida and Wisconsin use the same footage of a teacher to make their case. (Politico)
• It seems no one has anything bad to say about Ed Sec Arne Duncan — at least as a person. (Newsweek)
• Norm Scott heard from two 40-year-old students who said he was their best teacher ever. (Ed Notes)
• Mike Petrilli says proposing to cut health care for the elderly shows Republicans love kids. (Flypaper)
• Kevin Carey says WaPo schools reporter Bill Turque has a comprehension problem. (Quick and the Ed)
• Bill de Blasio is asking parents of students with disabilities to fill out a survey. (Public Advocate site)
• Relationship-building is a big part of great teaching, but it’s not at all the only requirement. (Coach G)
• With fewer, better teachers a charter school network plans to turn around a failing charter. (HuffPo)
• A Brooklyn school will screen “Race to Nowhere,” about high-pressure schools, April 13 . (GS Calendar)
• “Race to Nowhere” says students do too much homework, when they really do too little. (Jay Mathews)
• D.C. is crawling with charter preschools, which aren’t allowed in New York State. (Hechinger Report)
• Marc Waxman lists nine things his Denver charter school is doing to value teachers. (GS Community)
• Children’s lives could be at risk as school nurses’ hours and positions fall to budget cuts. (Motherlode)

A month’s more time in the public eye has done nothing to lift Chancellor Cathie Black’s approval rating. The number of New Yorkers who approve of her work remains at 17%, according to a NY1-Marist poll released tonight.

That’s the same place last month’s Quinnipiac poll put Black and a drop from her 21% approval rating measured by Marist last February. And for context, the 17% figure is two percentage points below Governor Paterson’s approval rating at its lowest, a number Marist described as historically low.

Approval for the public school system’s performance overall is higher, but not by very much. Only 38% of respondents said they approved of the school system’s performance, and 20% rated the schools’ performance as poor.

School performance reports divided along racial lines. While 45% of white residents polled by Marist rated the schools highly, only 36% of Latino respondents and 25% of African-Americans did the same.

Approval was higher among households with children who attend public schools. A little more than half, or 53%, said they approve of the system’s performance. (more…)

After wrestling down a unionization attempt and struggling with academic performance, a Brooklyn KIPP school is bringing in a new principal and letting go of teachers.

Concerns about high teacher turnover surfaced at the KIPP AMP (Knowledge is Power Program: Always Mentally Prepared) school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, two years. The concerns were the driving force behind teachers’ decision to join the teachers union against the will of the school’s board. A year later teachers opted out of union membership, kicking off a prolonged fight in which the United Federation of Teachers accused KIPP of intimidating teachers who wanted to unionize.

Now, the school could experience what teachers initially feared: turnover and instability. It’s unclear how many teachers will lose their jobs.

A teacher at the school said today that the school’s leadership has informed most of its teachers that they will not have jobs next year.

KIPP co-founder David Levin, who is also the superintendent of KIPP’s New York schools, said that claims that the majority of KIPP AMP teachers would lose their jobs were incorrect. He would not say how many staff members had been asked to leave the school. (more…)

The city’s first-ever community engagement czar is the latest in a string of high-level departures from the Department of Education since the departure of Chancellor Joel Klein.

Santiago Taveras, deputy chancellor for community engagement, is leaving the department to become a vice president at Cambridge Education, the consulting firm that originally conducted quality reviews in city schools. Taveras is the third member of the chancellor’s leadership team to resign since Cathie Black replaced Klein in November.

Taveras, who worked for the city schools for 22 years, was deputy chancellor for teaching and learning from May 2009 until April 2010, when the DOE eliminated its teaching and learning division. He then became the city’s first community engagement chief, managing the way the department explained proposals for policy changes, such as school closures, to the public. In recent months, he had become the voice of the department at public meetings, sometimes staying long after other officials to take questions and speak with parents and school leaders.

A former principal, Taveras was one of the aides Eric Nadelstern name-checked as someone trained to pick up the slack after the former chief schools officer resigned in January. In addition to Nadelstern, whose position was eliminated after he left, the department also replaced finance director Photeine Anagnastopoulos, who quit the day after Klein announced his departure. The department is looking for a replacement for Taveras, according to the city’s press release.

Here’s the city’s press release: (more…)

Marc Waxman, who is opening a charter school in Denver, and Stacey Gauthier, principal of Renaissance Charter High School, are corresponding about school policy. Read their entire exchange.

Stacey,

Even though I won’t use this post to react to all the ideas you listed in regards to “what makes education in Finland that good,” please keep the lists coming!

If there is a dominant theme that runs through your list, it seems to be that teachers in Finland are truly valued and respected — that the profession on teaching is truly that — professional. I know I don’t need to go into the myriad ways that is not true in America, especially right now.

Moving the American education system, and the larger society in which it exists, to a place where teaching is truly a profession will require more than just changing the system; it will require systemic change.

But as school leaders at autonomous schools we need not wait for larger change. So I am going to throw my own list at you that describes efforts to value teachers at our new network of schools in Denver.

1. It’s hard to become a SOAR teacher. We have a competitive, extensive, and intensive selection process for new teachers. Entry into our community isn’t easy.
2. Teachers are held to high expectations. In education we often talk about the importance of high expectations for students. We also must have high expectations for teachers. Our teachers know that great things are expected of them.
3. Accountability must support the culture of high expectations. And I don’t mean the student growth-data type of accountability that is coming into vogue. (more…)

• Across New York, there are fewer students in public schools, but more administrators. (Post)
• Some city officials believe the teacher bonus program failed because it was schoolwide. (Post, WSJ)
• The Bronx charter school that could be closed fired a third of its teachers, but kept arts teachers. (WSJ)
• A Fort Hamilton HS teacher was arrested for threatening to shoot up the school. (Post, Daily News, NY1)
• The teacher is out on bail, but has been ordered to stay away from the school. (Post)
• Michael Daly: You just can’t say “Columbine” in a crowded school, even if students like you. (Daily News)
• The family of a Bronx 10-year-old arrested at PS 132 is suing the city. (Post, Daily News, Times, AP)
• Some students at Renaissance Charter High School write poetry to express themselves. (Daily News)
• Mayor Bloomberg rejected Gov. Cuomo’s assertion that the city can afford to avoid layoffs. (Daily News)
• Next Bloomberg will try to convince New Yorkers with a colorful leaflet arriving by mail tomorrow. (Post)
• Union leaders who attended a recent Cuomo event said he backed collective bargaining. (Daily News)
• The state’s School Boards Association endorsed Bloomberg’s bid to end “last in, first out” rules. (Post)
• The state blocked a city plan to put a charter school into PS 9. (GothamSchools, Daily News, NY1)
• A Marta Valle HS senior was killed by a subway on his way to a school cooking class. (Post)
• A National Review editor: Recent schools missteps are key to Bloomberg’s bad third term. (Daily News)
• Richard Whitmire: Michelle Rhee made enemies because she pointed out bad teachers. (Daily News)
• The Paterson school district in New Jersey suspended a teacher over a Facebook post. (Times)
• An all-boys Catholic high school in Harlem is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. (Times)
• The superintendent of a Phoenix district is retiring, then immediately returning as a consultant. (Times)
• Clubs for atheists are beginning to form in high schools around the country. (Times)

• Teachers, apply here to adopt an Olympian to work with your school. (Classroom Champions)
• Cathie Black made a joke that proved she understands she’s had a rough start. (Daily Politics)
• Middle schools in poor communities have fewer skilled teachers, says study. (Teacher Beat)
• A teacher makes the case for trying again in the face of feelings of failure. (GS Community)
• “Like Justin Bieber, the D.C. test has got us in a trance,” says a charter school. (YouTube)
• Lawmakers are moving to close the “comparability loophole” in Title 1 funds. (Quick and the Ed)
• Is the union skeptic Terry Moe, of Stanford, heading to work for the AFT? (Eduwonk)
• The younger Bill Gates ate chicken with a spoon and was a ruthless taskmaster. (Vanity Fair)

Hundreds of Bryant High School students in school t-shirts and jerseys came to a meeting last night to insist their school isn't failing.

At a public meeting at a Queens high school last night, students and teachers found themselves caught in the quandary that often accompanies school change. They want the money that accompanies a set of federal improvement plans, but they don’t want the plans themselves.

Students and staff have worried that the city will try to close William Bryant High School since it landed on the state’s “persistently lowest achieving” list in December. Instead, the city is considering two other options dictated by the Obama administration’s school improvement grant program. The options would send millions of dollars to Bryant over the next several years in exchange for dramatic changes to the school’s staff.

At the meeting last night, audience members alternately supported the turnaround plans and pushed back against any proposed disruptions to their school.

Told that Bryant was eligible for up to $2 million over the next three years, they applauded. But when Queens high school Superintendent Juan Melendez mentioned the two improvement options that Bryant might undergo — both of which call for the principal’s removal — they told him to leave Bryant be.

“Don’t change the formula,” said State Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas, a Bryant alumna. “I am confident that this is a school on the rise.”

According to the city, Bryant had a graduation rate of nearly 60 percent last year. That was among the lowest in the city, but an improvement over the school’s graduation rate of 56 percent the year before. Teachers said that the latest figure excludes six students who graduated after summer school and are contesting the school’s “persistently lowest-achieving” designation. (more…)