GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Against Joel Klein’s assertion that “collaboration is the elixir of the status-quo crowd.” (Future of Ed)
• Inside an expulsion hearing at a Bronx charter school for a student with theater skills. (GS Community)
• Rahm Emanuel’s inauguration speech today focused on schools, children, and schools. (WBEZ)
• Concerns that arts education will suffer under the new state teacher evaluation system. (Dewey21C)
• In NCLB talks, Margaret Spellings, now at the Chamber of Commerce, is sidelined. (Politics)
• How a Philly principal lost confidence in now-NYC school official‘s data analysis. (City School Stories)
• Advice for a parent of twins with questions about the gifted-and-talented tests. (Insideschools)
• Threading efforts to teach social justice and prepare students for college work. (Notebook)
• The back story of how former NYC official Michael Duffy got involved in education. (Goldstein)
• The use of the term “failing school” in books has skyrocketed since the 1990s. (Kevin Kosar)
• Georgians protested a court’s rejection of the state’s power to open charter schools. (GPB)

The city is hoping that the second time is the charm for its plan to move a charter school into the P.S. 9 building in Brooklyn.

A revised version of a plan outlining how the two schools would share space is one of the items expected to be passed at tomorrow night’s Panel for Educational Policy meeting. (A majority of panel members are appointed by the mayor, and so city proposals always pass easily.) State education officials overturned a first draft of the plan last month.

The state’s move followed an appeal by parents at P.S. 9 parents who claimed that the city’s proposal did not include required information. Parents at the school also challenge the city’s plan because it conflicts with their own hopes for the school, which they would like to expand through the eighth grade.

Parents have even nominated one of their own, a P.S. 9 parent who is currently a dean at a Manhattan middle school, to oversee the expansion, which would require P.S. 9 to take up more space inside the building.

The Department of Education is standing by its plan. “We are pleased with P.S. 9’s progress and understand the desire of the school to expand, but in this case, the need of an entire school district strongly outweighs the need of one school,” said Marc Sternberg, deputy chancellor for portfolio planning.

Faye Rimalovski, a P.S. 9 parent, said parents are prepared to protest the plan at tomorrow’s PEP meeting. “Armed and ready,” she said.

(more…)

A change in the state’s testing program meant to close an $8 million budget gap could have far-reaching consequences for city students and schools, principals say.

The Board of Regents voted yesterday to do away with the January administration of the state exams required for high school graduation. The tests will still be given in June and August.

City school officials criticized the change, which had principals across the city lighting up their colleagues’ e-mail inboxes with protests of the change. “The state shares our belief in high standards that prepare students for college — so it is somewhat disheartening that the Regents would make a decision that undermines the hopes of high school students who take courses and exams to graduate mid-year,” said Chancellor Dennis Walcott in a statement.

In 2010, about 360 students used January exams to graduate midyear, out of about 3,800 total midyear graduates, according to Matthew Mittenthal, a Department of Education spokesman. Under the new system, those students would have had to wait until June to try to graduate.

But principals say those figures underestimate the effects of the change. Many students use the January dates to increase the number of times they take the Regents exams, which in turns increases their chances of passing in the long term. Students also use the January administration to spread out their tests and avoid burnout. (more…)

In next week’s staging of “Guys and Dolls” at South Bronx Prep, the role of Nathan Detroit will be played by the understudy.

That’s because the theater teacher’s first choice to play Detroit was recently tossed from the charter school, according to the teacher, Kate Quarfordt. Among several vignettes from the lead-up to the play that Quarfordt describes in the Community section today is one that offers a nuanced view into a controversial aspects of charter schools: their ability to expel troublesome students.

Quarfordt writes:

The expulsion hearing for the young man who plays Nathan is emotionally devastating. All 10 people in the room are openly weeping pretty much the whole time, including the principal and the head of school, the teachers who have come to testify on the student’s behalf, the student’s mother, and the student himself.

In a heart-rending apology delivered with shaking hands and quavering voice, the young man admits that he’d gone against his instincts and committed an illegal action on a school trip in an effort to impress one of his alpha-dog friends who had challenged him to do something he knew was wrong.

His other teachers and I speak, each one us acknowledging this student’s otherwise stellar record of community service and school spirit. We wrestle with the excruciating clash between the value of zero-tolerance tough-love and the importance of judging young people’s actions with flexibility and nuance.

When the verdict is announced and the young man is asked to clean out his locker, his mother collapses with grief.

I’m late to rehearsal because I can’t stop crying.

Quarfordt is chronicling the run up to the play, which will be staged May 24-26, in three parts. Read the first and the second. The third will appear next week.

By the end of Part 1 of our 100-day countdown to opening night of “Guys and Dolls” at Bronx Prep, 30 percent of our cast members — including the talented 12th-grader who plays Sky Masterson — are on the verge of being kicked out of the show due to grades, I’m on my way to an expulsion hearing for the 10th-grader who plays Nathan Detroit, and as if there weren’t enough going on, I’m also launching into the second trimester of my second pregnancy.

Cast members of "Guys and Dolls" at South Bronx Prep

Here’s Part 2 of our tumultuous — but ultimately, I hope, inspiring — journey. Stay tuned for next week’s final chapter of our countdown to “Guys and Dolls,” in performance at Bronx Prep May 24-26.

46 days until opening night

The expulsion hearing for the young man who plays Nathan is emotionally devastating. All 10 people in the room are openly weeping pretty much the whole time, including the principal and the head of school, the teachers who have come to testify on the student’s behalf, the student’s mother, and the student himself.

In a heart-rending apology delivered with shaking hands and quavering voice, the young man admits that he’d gone against his instincts and committed an illegal action on a school trip in an effort to impress one of his alpha-dog friends who had challenged him to do something he knew was wrong.

His other teachers and I speak, each one us acknowledging this student’s otherwise stellar record of community service and school spirit. We wrestle with the excruciating clash between the value of zero-tolerance tough-love and the importance of judging young people’s actions with flexibility and nuance.

When the verdict is announced and the young man is asked to clean out his locker, his mother collapses with grief.

I’m late to rehearsal because I can’t stop crying.

44 days until opening night

Set crew members paint the backdrop

The expulsion, one of several stemming from the same incident, has sent shockwaves through the school, and we’ve spent a good part of the last two days packed into the gym in deep conversation as a whole school community.

It feels good to be back here in the now-empty space on a Saturday morning, painting with the set crew. When we leave, there is a sunset stretching across the back wall of the gym’s small stage.

42 days until opening night

Today on my regular D train commute from Brooklyn to the Bronx a teenage boy stands up and offers his seat. I may have officially hit the 3-month-mark on the calendar a few weeks ago, but taking the kid’s seat today is the first time this pregnancy feels fully real. I sit on the train with my hands on my belly, thinking about the mothers of the kids I teach. Soon there will be one more person in the world I care about so much it makes my chest ache.

40 days until opening night

Nathan’s understudy, a magnetic, cheerful, naturally talented 12th-grader who has never been in a musical before, misses his first week of rehearsals with his fellow leads. All week I’ve been livid, threatening to kick him out. Then I find out today that he has been attending the wakes of two friends of his who were shot and killed when a scuffle at a party turned violent last weekend. Having been shot himself in the shoulder earlier in the year — the victim of an unprovoked and unexplained drive-by — he’s not only mourning the loss of his friends but also reliving his own traumatic experience.

I pass him on the street on my way out of rehearsal late this afternoon and ask him if he’s doing OK. He pauses and musters a bone-tired smile. “Not really,” he says. Then he hugs me and says, “I’ll be there on Monday.”

37 days until opening night

Kate and creative co-conspirator, Julia

Today’s Saturday rehearsal offers a momentary glimpse of brightness. While the costume crew sorts colorful clothing, a select group of dancers learns authentic Afro Cuban dance forms from dancer/choreographer Rebecca Bliss. Not only am I proud to infuse the usually-corny Havana scene with movements that come from some of our students’ own cultural traditions, I’m also excited to collaborate with Rebecca, a former fellow high school theater cast member, and now a dear friend.

35 days until opening night

Last night at midnight, third quarter grades were posted. Most of our cast members have gotten their GPA’s up high enough to participate. But despite several weeks of intensive tutoring, support, cajoling, and follow-up, our Sky has missed the mark.

This is a kid I’ve known since he was in fifth grade. He’s extremely bright and has always excelled. I don’t know why he’s given up on himself halfway through his senior year. My instinct is that something complex is going on below the surface, but with all the buzz in the air about accountability — not just in connection with our recent expulsions, but also in the national conversations about test scores, teacher firings and school closings — I feel intense pressure to enforce the grading policy I helped create. I reluctantly gear up to tell this young actor we’ll have to replace him.

Then he walks into rehearsal. His shoulders are slumped and his usually bright eyes are vacant and dim under the brim of the baseball cap he knows he’s not allowed to wear in school.

I agonize for a second. Then my teacher hardwiring kicks in. This kid needs accountability, no doubt, but right now my instinct screams that his need for support comes first. I pull the hat off his head, mentally postpone my final decision for one more day and tell him to open his script.

His first run-through is bland and lifeless. I ask him to do it again. Little by little, the role starts to do its work on him. By the third pass, he’s standing up straighter. His eyes come to life. The lines crackle; the jokes land.

Two hours later, he has completely transformed. His diction is crisp and assured. He holds himself with confidence and poise. There is a swagger in his walk.

Still, we both know there’s an elephant in the room. I send him home and tell him that we’ll need to have a big talk before the end of the week. He nods soberly.

34 days until opening night

Dancers learn mambo and Afro-Cuban salsa

I’ve been up most of the night, partly because the baby was kicking me, but mostly because I’ve been stressing about costumes, re-choreographing the end of the opening scene to replace kids who’ve missed too many rehearsals, and struggling over what to do about Sky.

No rehearsal today. My husband and daughter come with me to my 20-week sonogram.  We find out that we’re expecting a boy.

33 days until opening night

This afternoon, after a mad flurry of emails to his teachers—some of whom are supportive of giving him a second chance, others of whom warn me that I’m being manipulated by a clever young con artist who is more like the slick-talking character he plays than I’m giving him credit for — I give Sky an ultimatum. If he’s willing to dig deep and write a letter that explains the causes of his sudden apathy, takes responsibility for his past actions, and lays out a detailed accountability plan for the rest of the school year, I will let him stay with the cast — provided he follows through on the plan he creates.

I give him a deadline of midnight tonight for the letter.

At 11:47 p.m., his email arrives. The letter attached is well-written, courageous, and heart-felt.

I decide to take the gamble.

Stay tuned for the final installment of this three-part series of posts leading up to opening night of “Guys and Dolls” at Bronx Prep. As always, the students featured in this post agreed to let me share their stories; the views expressed here are my own and not those of my school’s administration.

• Gov. Cuomo wants new public employees to receive lower retirement benefits. (WSJ, Daily News, Post)
• John King is the state’s new education commissioner. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News, Post, NY1)
• The Regents OKed test-score-heavy teacher evaluations. (GS, Daily News, Times, Post, NY1, WNYC)
• The PS 29 mother accused of embezzling PTA funds might avoid jail by paying back the money. (Post)
• Georgia’s Supreme Court struck down the state’s law allowing more charter schools. (Times, WSJ)

• Group work comes with perils, seven in particular, says Diana Senechal’s new book. (Joanne Jacobs)
• NY’s Board of Regents elected John King to be the state’s next education commissioner. (GS, Times)
• As John King takes over for David Steiner, an assessment of the pair’s efforts so far. (Education Next)
• NCLB reauthorization kicks off with a congressional bill that would mainly keep SIG. (Politics K12)
• Today’s boycott of Buffalo schools resulted in an attendance rate of 53 percent. (Buffalo News)
• A scientific exploration into what’s going on when students feel pain doing math. (Ed Week)
• The playground fire at P.S. 29 offers a tough lesson about trusting communities. (Insideschools)
• Charter schools are similar to British “free schools,” writes a former city school official. (Spectator)
• A report looks at the qualities of charter school networks that grow successfully. (Hechinger Report)
• More on that study in the journal Science that looked at effective science instruction. (Ed Week)

Deputy Commissioner John King, who will soon become commissioner, said that for a teacher to earn a rating of developing, effective, or highly effective, there should be some evidence of student progress on state tests.

Introducing a new option for how to change teacher evaluation, the Board of Regents voted today to allow districts and unions to increase the weight of student test scores on those evaluations to 40 percent.

According to the law passed last summer, which changed how teachers in New York State are evaluated and introduced their students’ test scores as an element for consideration, state tests would count for 20 out of 100 points. Another 20 points would come from local assessments, which school districts could devise on their own. Yet the set of regulations approved in a vote this evening will allow school districts, with the approval of teachers unions, to count students’ progress on state tests for 40 points of a teacher’s evaluation score.

The board voted 14 to 3 to approve the regulations. Regents Betty Rosa, Roger Tilles, and the board’s newest member Kathleen Cashin, voted against the proposal.

The increased emphasis on students’ progress on standardized tests turned up in the final draft of regulations after Governor Andrew Cuomo stepped into the discussions last week. In a letter to Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, the governor said he believed that students’ scores on the annual math and reading tests should carry more weight in the evaluation of their teachers. Mayor Bloomberg agreed, saying that an earlier draft of the regulations did not place enough importance on the tests.

Yesterday, a group of 10 prominent education researchers sent the Regents a letter asking them not to place more weight on value-added scores, which measure students’ progress on tests against that of similar types of students. (more…)

If the Board of Regents approves a proposal today to double the weight of student test scores in teacher evaluations, they’ll be spurning the advice of 10 leading education researchers.

The researchers — who include Linda Darling-Hammond and New Yorkers Aaron Pallas and Henry Levin — sent a letter to the Regents yesterday that summarizes studies that they say point to problems with basing teacher evaluations on student scores. Those problems include teaching to the test and disincentives to help students with special needs.

“We urge you to reject proposals that would place significant emphasis on this untested strategy that could have serious negative consequences for teacher[s] and for the most vulnerable students in the State’s schools,” the researchers say.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week told the Regents that he thought test scores should play a larger role in teacher evaluations. The state’s year-old teacher evaluation law bases 20 percent of teachers’ evaluations on student test scores and another 20 percent on local measures of student achievement. The proposal being considered today would allow districts, with the approval of their local teachers unions, to use the same measures for both parts of teachers’ evaluations.

The Regents meeting is being broadcast online beginning at 4:45 p.m. (more…)

Another round of state testing is behind us, and after years of supervising the tests, I still can’t believe how mentally exhausting it can be just to walk around and watch my students take them. I proctor third-graders designated as English language learners, so I’m watching over some of our grade’s most struggling students. This makes the experience of administering the test exceptionally harrowing.

Going into this year’s English Language Arts and mathematics exams there was a lot of buzz about the increased rigor. It wasn’t the first time we’ve heard these rumors, and in the past they haven’t exactly panned out. So I was a little skeptical that this year’s test would prove any different.

This year’s ELA test didn’t seem especially difficult compared to past years’. The format was different, extending over three days instead of two, and including more open responses in place of an editing passage. The open responses, while simpler, were still a major improvement over the basic editing passage third-graders were responsible for in the past. Still, having seen the fourth-grade tests, and essentially preparing my kids for something similar, I thought this year’s third-grade ELA exam wasn’t a huge step up in terms of difficulty.

But on this year’s math exams, I did notice an increase in the number of questions that required more critical thinking and maneuvering through a problem-solving process. There were multiple two-part problems and there were a few questions that tested students’ understanding of how to use certain math process, rather than just their mastery of rudimentary skills.

I was happy to see this shift, even if it might mean my students score lower, because it lessens the benefit of teaching to the test. (more…)