GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Bloomberg’s budget suggests cutting 1 of every 12 teachers; criticism is rampant. (AP, GS, NYT, DN)
• Chancellor Walcott broke up a skirmish between reports at Bloomberg’s budget presser. (Daily Politics)
• Why did Bloomberg suddenly retract Cuomo criticism and his no-LIFO push? One possibility. (NYM)
• A qualitative report on a cash-for-good-behavior program to city families offers early findings. (MDRC)
• Challenging the idea that opposition to idealocrat reform only reflects a vocal minority. (Failing Schools)
• The NEA, which cast a no-confidence vote for Race to the Top, plans to endorse Obama. (Teacher Beat)
• Brizard hasn’t started yet, but Chicago schools central employees are already being let go. (Catalyst)
• The Chicago teachers union is pulling away from support of a change in state law. (Catalyst)
• What Diane Ravitch means when she says poor children deserve private school quality. (Flypaper)
• The gap between policy and practice is wide, say teachers working at the USDOE. (Ed Week)
• What Mitch Daniels might support on education, if he decided to run for president. (Politics K-12)
• Former educators argue that “mass customized learning” is Inevitable in a new book by that title. (LFA)
• In three states, lawmakers are pushing to reject the adoption of common core standards. (Ed Week)
• In some areas, Calif. spends $200,000 per student on education. (California Watch via Joanne)
• Some online education programs rely heavily on teachers, but some simply do not. (ED.gov)

Mayor Bloomberg said today that if he’s able to convince Albany to reduce the city’s deficit, he won’t promise to use the money to avoid teacher layoffs.

During his presentation of the city’s budget for 2012 this morning, the mayor blamed deep cuts from the state and federal governments for his decision to layoff 4,100 teachers. Saying that it was unlikely that lawmakers in Albany would increase aid to the city at this point, he called on them to trim public employees’ pensions and cut programs it mandates the city offer, but doesn’t help the city pay for.

But if he succeeds in extracting cuts and more funding from Albany, that money isn’t necessarily going to save teachers’ jobs.

“Any moneys that Albany manages to get back to us…don’t automatically go to education,” Bloomberg said today.

“There are a lot of first priorities. There are a lot of agencies that are very important to the city. You may decide that you need one more policeman or one more fireman… there are plenty of things in addition to education,” he said. (more…)

Though the Kingsbridge Innovative Design Charter School is less than a year old, state education officials have decided they have seen enough of its finances to recommend the school’s closure.

In a letter sent to the charter school’s founder and board earlier this week, state officials wrote that after putting the school on probation and reviewing its finances, they believe it should close at the end of this year. Ever since the school’s delayed opening in September, it has struggled to pay rent and cover the costs of educating its 150 students. According to a report on WNYC, the school laid off 11 teachers it could no longer afford.

Back in April, Julio Cotto, the school’s founder and executive director, told the Wall Street Journal that his school did not deserve to be closed.

“Our financial challenges are similar to those of any charter school moving into a private space in the first year,” he told the paper.

Officials from the New York State Education Department did not agree. In a letter to Cotto and the school’s board, Deputy Commissioner John King and Charter School Office Director Cliff Chuang wrote that they don’t believe the school has proved it can stay afloat financially even through the remainder of this school year. Their letter states: (more…)

Bloomberg announced his budget today, which continues to propose thousands of teacher layoffs.

Mayor Bloomberg reaffirmed his plans to cut 6,000 teaching jobs in his budget address today and said that even if the state restores some funding, he will not promise use it to avoid teacher layoffs.

The budget for 2012 includes 4,100 teacher layoffs and the loss of an additional 2,000 teaching jobs through attrition. These job losses would amount to an eight percent decrease in the size of the teaching force — from 75,000 teachers down to about 69,000.

If the layoffs become a reality — threats in the last two years never bore fruit — it will be the first time since the 1970s that the city has laid off public school teachers. City officials have previously estimated that these layoffs will save the city roughly $300 million.

In his budget presentation today, the mayor blamed cuts to school spending from the city and state for the impending layoffs. In 2002, the city and state each covered roughly 50 percent of the city’s education costs. Next fiscal year, the state will contribute 39 percent and the city will fund the remainder. This year, the city has also lost $850 million in federal stimulus funding for schools. (more…)

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.

It takes more than just teachers to run a school. By the time the Brooklyn Arts Academy was a full 9-12 high school, close to 20 non-teaching staff members served our 400 students in some capacity. As one of only three teachers who had remained on staff for three continuous years, I developed positive relationships with many of these individuals. Having proven my dependability, I was granted favors small and large that helped me do my job. At the same time, I was often mystified by the seeming dysfunction of our staff as a whole.

I began my third year as the 10th-grade global history teacher with a renewed sense of optimism. I’d achieved a significant improvement in my students’ Regents exam scores the year before, and I felt good about a couple of personnel additions the principal had made over the summer. A new assistant principal in charge of instruction seemed knowledgeable and personable. A special education teacher was also made an AP in charge of data analysis, and he likewise proved to be a responsive and diligent administrator. Our two new APs did a lot to help the school run more smoothly. However, it seemed as though both were coached to side with the principal during any conflict with the teachers.

The women who worked in the office were also in no position to challenge the principal. Predominantly Puerto Rican woman, many of them got their jobs through connections to the principal or to each other. The principal’s personal secretary had been with him from the beginning. She had little interactions with teachers but was in charge of scheduling among other responsibilities. I often felt frustrated by her placement of students into cohorts that moved together from class to class. Students placed in groups with chronically disruptive classmates never had respite. A colleague told me that the principal’s personal secretary has been taking night school classes and is slated to become an assistant principal next year.

Some of her family members also gained employment at the school. One was in charge of computers and technology. I liked him because he allowed me to keep an LCD projector in my room throughout the school year when most teachers had to request them for daily use. Another relative was a secretary in charge of transcripts. Last year, the daughter of the principal’s personal secretary got a job as an after-school tutor and this year she was made the new parent coordinator. (more…)

• Mayor Bloomberg’s budget will not cut 16,000 child-care slots, as previously feared. (Post, NY1, WSJ)
• The city braces for other cuts, especially to education, in today’s budget announcement. (Times)
• Staten Island teachers and parents came out yesterday to protest the cuts. (NY1)
• Some, however, argue that a tighter budget is for the best. (Post)
• A Bronx school is about to become the first charter to be shut down in its first year. (Post)
• Attention shifts to Jean-Claude Brizard’s past as a Brooklyn principal. (Times)
• In California, teachers’ pensions are lower than those of most other public workers. (Times)
• Texans debate a bill that would change how charter schools for at-risk students are assessed. (Times)

• Bloomberg told people he maybe thought were teachers he’s sorry about the budget. (Daily Politics)
• Somehow, Educators 4 Excellence emailed principals about happy hours for teachers. (Ed Notes)
• School cooks can — with difficulty — make healthy food even in half-broken kitchens. (GS Community)
• A teacher reports funny business in the online Open Market System, which lists no jobs. (JD2718)
• The high school admissions process is defined by excessive demand and inadequate supply.  (EdVox)
• Ruben has gimmicks to get his students ready for the state tests but wonders why. (GS Community)
• Are the high-stakes Teacher Data Reports biased against teachers with good students? (Edwize)
• Whole Foods dashes the argument that schools, like grocery stores, can be distributed better. (Scocca)
• A worldwide tour of school lunches includes fish sausage in Japan and moules in France. (Buzzfeed)
• Megan McArdle: Too few acknowledge that most kids just don’t learn to read and add well. (Atlantic)
• A debate is raging over the propriety of legacy admissions to elite colleges. (The Choice)
• Unlike most other big cities, Baltimore has managed to avoid the word “layoffs” this year. (Inside Ed)
• One priority of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst venture seems to be private school vouchers. (Russo)

Days before the deadline to decide how it plans to overhaul low-performing schools, the city is considering going in a new direction.

Over the last year that the city has been deciding which of four federally mandated school improvement strategies to use in these schools, it has only publicly discussed two plans: transformation and turnaround. Both of them call for major changes in school personnel and how schools use time, meaning that both of them have to be negotiated with the teachers union.

But with the deadline for the city to submit its proposal only four days away, and the city yet to reach a deal with the teachers union, the Department of Education is considering a third option.

Known as the “restart” model, the plan involves closing a school and reopening it under new management — either as a charter school or as a district school run by a school management organization (for example, New Visions). Because this plan does not require the city to fire teachers or principals, it can be used without the union’s cooperation.

“We would obviously love an agreement on those two models [transformation and turnaround], but we felt we had to cover our bases and be prepared to do restart,” said DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld. (more…)

Not long after I wrote about my hopes for my students to feel confident and well-prepared for this week’s New York State English Language Arts exam, I went to bed and immediately began my own battle with test anxiety. As soon as my head hit the pillow my mind started racing with recollections of past ELA exams.

What I remembered was the overwhelming feeling of helplessness, while walking around and watching certain students struggle. I remembered that quiet voice screaming inside my head, “No! No! Go back and re-read! The answer’s right there!” Or, “Please don’t change your answer. Please don’t change your answer.” Or, “Why aren’t you using the strategies we practiced?!”

But ultimately my anxiety and sleeplessness was unimportant yesterday as my students entered the classroom. Finding a way to alleviate their test anxiety was my only goal. Still, as we went through a number of my test day rituals, I couldn’t help fight the nagging question, was it all a waste of time?

The students started the day with a few Ritz crackers and juice. This start was less about alleviating test anxiety, and more to make sure all my students had food in their stomachs.

After that, I tried a basic priming exercise. (more…)

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly described the requirements for becoming a substitute teacher. We regret the error.

An unusual online training is among the steps people must take to become substitute teachers in New York City schools, according to a person who recently took the training.

The training covers topics ranging from the appropriateness of humiliating bullies to whether sneezing constitutes a classroom disturbance, according to screenshots of the tutorial provided by the person. (A slideshow of the screenshots is below.)

One screenshot shows two photos of a woman on the phone. In one picture, she looks bored, and a thought bubble reads, “Hmmm…Did I leave my clothes in the washer?” In the next, she is shown laughing while she thinks, “That is so funny! What a great story!” The question beneath: “Which image shows a person who is demonstrating good listening skills?”

The full requirements of becoming a substitute teacher are unclear. An earlier version of this post incorrectly pointed to the requirements for becoming a substitute paraprofessional. According to a Department of Education web site, substitute teachers who are not certified as teachers in New York State can work in classrooms if they have a principal’s nomination and successfully complete certain “assessment and training components.” (more…)