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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.

The quality of teaching varied at the Brooklyn Arts Academy, but no single teacher ever stood out as a superstar and rarely was there a teacher who everyone agreed was incompetent. I can honestly say the vast majority of teachers who I worked with over my four years worked hard, meant well, and could have achieved greater success if they’d been better supported. Unfortunately, our administration, out of either design or neglect, left teachers to sink or swim on our own before they made decisions about our future at the school. In my third year at the Brooklyn Arts Academy, administrators appeared to target four or five teachers (out of about 20) who they deemed as insufficient classroom managers for unsatisfactory ratings. Though I was not one of these teachers, I shared the stress and anxiety of my singled-out colleagues.

The stories of two teachers paint a picture of what happened that year. Mr. J was a math teacher who served on our staff for two years. He was a tall and mild-mannered guy who had a calming effect on those around him. In his first year, he was observed only once by the principal, and this observation was informal and undocumented. Mr. J reports that the principal had little constructive feedback about the content of the lesson, but instead advised him to make his room “sexier” and to make his aim and do-now “pop” more off the white board.

Ms. S was originally hired as a long-term substitute for an English teacher on maternity leave, but then kept on board for the rest of the year as a global history Regents-prep teacher. She was a chipper teacher who had a deep love of English literature and film. The next year, when she joined the staff as a full-time ninth-grade English teacher, she never had an official observation. At the end of that year, though, she was given a U-rating. According to Ms. S, the administration attributed the rating to frequent tardiness. But she told me she suspects that “the real reason … was to encourage me to find placement elsewhere. Along with several other teachers, I was told simply, that I was not a good fit. I had the ability to be a good teacher, with the ‘right students.’”

In Mr. J’s second year, he was observed once informally during the second semester. (more…)

• Nationally, students scored poorly, again, on last year’s NAEP exam in history. (Times, WSJ, Post)
• The city’s graduation rate ticked slightly up last year. (GothamSchools, Daily News, WSJ, NY1, WNYC)
• But data show that city students still lag on measures of college-readiness. (GothamSchools, Times, Post)
• The Daily News says graduates’ low skills means we shouldn’t celebrate the rising graduation rate.
• Michael Goodwin says malfeasance and cheating are fueling the graduation rate rise. (Post)
• Elected officials are forming a task force to examine the role of parents in city schools. (GothamSchools)
• Manhattan’s PS 6 is opening a roof garden to honor an eco-minded teacher who died. (Daily News)
• A substitute teacher hired in 2008 was among 26 people caught in a child porn sting. (Post, AP, NY1)

• The Obama team is noting that education didn’t come up in the Republican debate. (Campaign K12)
• Charter schools are a revolt against bad education, but we need a revolution. (USA Today)
• The new edition of the AFT mag looks at a common core for learning to teach. (American Educator)
• A Brooklyn high school student who was bullied is launching an anti-bullying campaign. (NYDN)
• Kevin Drum: A new study of preschool effects shows we are remiss not to invest more. (Mother Jones)
• Or does it? The Chicago study was just a pilot with no proof that it could be scaled. (Megan McArdle)
• A two-day Teachers College conference will ask how to teach philosophy to young students. (Ed Week)
• How to take advantage of the end of stimulus funding: restructure education. (Ed Money Watch)
• An argument against the assignment of a single novel to an entire class of students. (Ed Week)
• A New Orleans education entrepreneur hosted a “DisruptED” event about change ideas. (YouTube)

Poorly-handled Community Education Council elections has prompted elected officials to form a new task force of parents that promises to “overhaul” their role in the public school system.

Borough President Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio spearheaded efforts to organize parents into the task force over the last several weeks. Today, they announced the group will hold first meeting next week.

“We need real parental involvement, and that begins with making the CECs more democratic and meaningful,” DeBlasio said in a statement.

In advance of the June 22 meeting, a survey was emailed out to hundreds of newly-elected parents this morning to solicit their opinions on how to improve the CECs. Officials said they weren’t sure how many parents would make up the task force, or how long it would last.

Details on what specifically needs to change are also vague. Some parent leaders, such as Noah Gotbaum, an outspoken critic of the CEC structures, have called for an entirely independent office from the DOE.

Others, such as Mary Silver, a CEC member in District 2 since 2005, believe smaller-scale changes could make a big difference.

“Training is key,” said Silver. “My experience has been – because it’s a two year term – it takes parents about a year and a half for them to figure out what exactly their role is. By then, they’re about ready to leave.”

The CECs are made up of volunteer parents and participation often wanes. Many struggle to fill the seats needed to operate as official functioning bodies.

Parental involvement is uniformly hoisted by education advocates as key contributors to a child’s education, including Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. But the department has tightly managed their voices since Mayor Bloomberg has controlled of the school system..

And critics believe that the mishandled elections are a more realistic barometer of the city’s educational priorities.

The perception of a dwindling parental role seemed to be punctuated earlier this month at the city council budget hearing for education. As part of alternative cuts proposed to Chancellor Dennis Walcott, Speaker Christine Quinn suggested the DOE slash nearly $1 million from the budget for Office of Family Information and Action, which oversees the parent leadership.

In making the task force announcement, Stringer and DeBlasio – and the four other borough presidents with a hand in creating it – weren’t specific about what kind of changes they’d like to see.

“I am confident our new Task Force will give light to the voices of those who are most affected by decisions about our schools – and develop a set of strong, smart recommendations for enabling these bodies to play the role they were intended to in our educational process,” Stringer said in a statement.

Momentum is mounting against the state’s decision to eliminate the January administration of Regents exams required for high school graduation.

City officials have pressured the state to restore the testing period, Mayor Bloomberg said at a press conference today about the city’s graduation rate. He called the elimination of January Regents exams “a very big deal” and said restoration would cost the state only “a trivial amount of money.”

More than 100 city principals have petitioned the state to restore the testing date. At today’s press conference, principals union president Ernest Logan also emphasized the relatively low price tag of maintaining the January testing date, often used by students making a final push for graduation.

“The state — for a pittance — has decided to take away that option,” he said.

This year, Chancellor Dennis Walcott said today, 2,400 students took a Regents exam in January and then graduated — roughly the same number of students represented by this year’s graduation rate climb. “If January Regents disappear, those students unfortunately will not be able to graduate,” he said. (more…)

Mayor Bloomberg points to a chart showing graduation rate increases among ethnic groups.

Those were the messages Mayor Bloomberg broadcast at the city’s press conference about new graduation rate data, which put the city’s official 4-year graduation rate over 60 percent for the first time.

Indeed, the data released today show that two trends continued last year: The city’s graduation rate again rose faster than that of other urban districts in New York State, and black and Hispanic students posted larger gains than white and Asian students, though they still lag far behind.

But today’s data also draw attention to the fact that many city students are making it to graduation despite weak academic skills. According to a new measure the state adopted this year, just 21 percent of students who entered city high schools in 2006 were ready for college four years later. A higher proportion of graduates — 35 percent — met the state’s standards, city officials noted.

Bloomberg said the focus on college readiness gives short shrift to real performance improvements. “If you don’t give people credit for what they’ve done, they can’t go on,” he said.

At the press conference, which took place at the Van Arsdale campus in Brooklyn, Bloomberg was accompanied by Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, department deputies, principals, students, and principals union president Ernest Logan — but not UFT President Michael Mulgrew. The mayor took aim at the state’s argument that city students are not ready for college, saying that measures of college-readiness are ”just arbitrary points.” (more…)

The city’s 4-year high school graduation rate continued its upward tick last year and now exceeds 60 percent for the first time, according to new figures released by the state today.

Sixty-one percent of students who entered high school in 2006 graduated four years later, according to the new figures. Last year, the city’s graduation rate was 59 percent. When August graduates are included, the rate rises to 65.1 percent.

But the new figures show that city graduates continue to lag on more demanding measures of achievement. Just 1 in 5 graduates is prepared for college, according to the state’s measure of college readiness, which looks at students’ math and English Regents exam scores in addition to their diploma type. That’s compared to 36.7 percent of graduates statewide. And just 16.4 percent of city graduates earned the prestigious Regents diploma with Advanced Distinction, far more than in the state’s four other large cities but significantly lower than the statewide average of 30.9 percent, according to the state data.

Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott are likely to emphasize the city’s performance and growth relative to the state’s four other large school districts when they present the new graduation rate at a press conference later today. (more…)

• The city is sending more students to summer school this year. (GothamSchools, Times, Post, Daily News)
• Any deal to avert layoffs by raiding a union health fund seems to hinge on the city’s contribution. (Times)
• Elected officials say the city can save on legal settlements, which totalled $136 million last year. (WNYC)
• To save money, Newark is planning to introduce charter school co-locations this fall. (Star-Ledger, Post)
• Public-private partnership will bring a charter school to a Harlem housing project. (GothamSchools, Post)
• Teachers and students say transformation hasn’t helped troubled Central Falls High School. (NPR)

• Why first-graders at a South Bronx school can read, but the fourth-graders struggle. (Learning Matters)
• After prom obsessions frustrated her, a teacher gave in and enjoyed the Electric Slide. (GS Community)
• New York will revamp its English Language Learners test to fit the common core standards. (Ed Week)
• A new graphic novel by a teacher titled “Yo, Miss” explains why a 20-year-old is still in school. (Edwize)
• More students face summer school; here’s information for parents on scheduling. (GS, Insideschools)
• Hundreds of NEA and AFT affiliates have lost their tax-exempt status, IRS reports show. (Intercepts)
• A program connects middle school students to entrepreneurial “micro-internships.” (Business Insider)
• The Gates Foundation will support Colorado’s teacher effectiveness plans. (EdNews Colorado)
• A study in Science finds that Chicago’s pre-K to third grade programs helped children. (Early Ed Watch)
• On Wednesday, WBAI will host a conversation among critics of Bloomberg’s school policies. (EdNotes)
• Here’s a petition that AQE is organizing against budget cuts to New York schools. (Insideschools)