GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• The former treasurer of P.S. 29′s PTA pled guilty to embezzling and repaid $50,000. (Patch)
• An ex-teacher and current occupier went from PEP meetings to “The Colbert Report.” (NYC P.S. Parents)
• UFT analysis: As populations of needy students grew, some high schools got lower grades. (Edwize)
• A study by a conservative research institute concludes that teachers are overpaid. (The Enterprise Blog)
• Idaho schools are incorporating parent engagement in teacher bonus metrics. (AP via Teacher Beat)
• Los Angeles parents say they might sue if the city doesn’t adopt new teacher evaluations. (Teacher Beat)
• New Jersey seems to be putting the brakes on charter school creation. (Hechinger Report)
• Eric Hanushek: Replacing the lowest-performing teachers is a pro-teacher move. (Eduwonk)
• Diane Ravitch responds: Improving weak teachers, rather than firing them, is more prudent. (Eduwonk)
• An explanation of what education researchers mean when they say “significant effect.” (Shanker Blog)

Principals and superintendents suspended a disproportionally high number of black and special needs students last year, according to data the Department of Education released today to comply with a new law.

Of the 73,441 suspensions in the 2010-2011 school year, more than 50 percent were black and thirty percent had individualized education plans, according to the data. In contrast, black students make up 33 percent of city enrollment and students requiring special education services make up 17 percent.

“These are outrageous numbers,” said Udi Ofer, Advocacy Director for New York Civil Liberties Union, a group that has closely followed suspension data for more than a decade. “It shows a policy and practice that has a grossly disproportionate impact on black and special needs children.”

It is the first time that the DOE is providing disaggregated data about student suspensions to the public under the Student Safety Act, which City Council passed last year after years of lobbying by NYCLU and other advocacy groups. In previous years, the DOE has only been required to release overall suspensions under state law. (more…)

Students wait for pick-up outside the P.S. 156/I.S. 392 school building, which was evacuated twice this morning in the wake of reports of a bad-smelling smoke.

A Brownsville school campus was evacuated twice this morning after students and staff smelled a “foul, chemical” odor and saw smoke inside the building.

The incident, which scared teachers and students and rendered afternoon pick-up chaotic, comes a day before Chancellor Dennis Walcott is scheduled to speak at one of the schools in the building, P.S. 156, during a town hall meeting for District 23. The building also houses I.S. 392, a middle school for gifted students.

Isbi Lopez, whose two daughters attend P.S. 156, said she was volunteering at one daughter’s pre-kindergarten classroom when she first smelled the smoke shortly after 9 a.m. She said students and staff evacuated to nearby P.S. 323, P.S. 327, and Teachers Preparatory High School.

She said her daughters were allowed to return to their school around 10 a.m. after the fire department deemed the building safe. But the two schools evacuated a second time shortly after, when staff found that the smoke and smell were still present, according to multiple accounts from students and teachers. Several students said the evacuations cut into lunch and most of the day’s classroom time.

Students and staff from the two schools returned to their campus again around 2 p.m. for dismissal, which took place on the school’s playground and basketball court. After-school care was cancelled for the day.

This afternoon, parents who arrived to pick up their children said they were surprised to learn that the building had been evacuated during the day. They said they were frustrated about not being allowed into the building, where many children had left personal belongings. Marge Feinberg, a Department of Education spokeswoman, said the building would reopen tomorrow. She said DOE officials had not yet determined what caused the problem today.”

“What about his coat?” one parent asked a teacher when she met her fourth-grade son at the playground gate. The teacher replied, “He can’t go in to get it.” (more…)

Union officials presented findings from a survey outside P.S. 1 in Chinatown today.

Years of budget cuts have slashed academic programs, increased class sizes, and shortchanged teachers of classroom supplies, according to results of a survey conducted by the United Federation of Teachers.

The cuts hit after-school programs and elementary class sizes particularly hard, according to the survey’s findings, which were compiled from anecdotal accounts from UFT chapter leaders at more than half of the city’s roughly 1,700 schools.

The city’s budget environment has been grim since the start of the economic recession in 2008. As the city’s costliest agency, the Department of Education – and especially its individual school budgets – has shouldered a hefty burden of the cuts. This year, Chancellor Dennis Walcott cut school budgets by an average of 2.4 percent, or $178 million. That followed 4 percent cuts in 2010.

The survey confirms what the UFT had already known – and what the DOE had already had acknowledged – about class sizes: They are up. In September, a UFT study reported that 7,000 classes citywide were too crowded.

Three out of four elementary schools reported that class sizes were on the rise, with some classes increasing by more than 10 students, according to one anecdote. (more…)

News on “the nation’s report card,” sent home today by the U.S. Department of Education, is not good for New York State.

New York was one of just two states to post statistically significant declines on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a biennial assessment administered by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The state’s fourth-grade math scores fell for the second straight time, from a high of 243 points in 2007 to 238 this year. Scores on the eighth-grade math test and the reading tests showed no significant change.

Just 35 percent of fourth-graders in New York scored proficient or higher on the exam, considered the only reliable yardstick for measuring educational progress in a field of flawed state assessments. On the state’s own tests, whose scores dropped last year when state officials acknowledged that they had been inflated, more than 66 percent of fourth-graders were considered proficient in math.

It was the discrepancy between state test scores and NAEP results that triggered state officials to acknowledge that the state’s test scores were inflated in the first place.

State Education Commissioner John King called today’s results “disappointing and unacceptable.” In a statement, he said new state tests aligned with the Common Core curriculum standards, set to be given for the first time in three years, would improve New York students’ performance on the NAEP. (more…)

• A secret state database shows that cheating allegations have risen most sharply in city schools. (Times)
• The city’s investigative arm has confirmed cheating in 11 percent of 909 allegations since 2006. (Post)
• The High School for Leadership and Public Service operates adjacent to Occupy Wall Street. (NY1)
• Some city parents are signing their kids up for after-school classes in social skills. (WSJ)
• Eva Moskowitz pitched her charter school in Brooklyn. (GothamSchools, WSJ, Daily News, Daily Eagle)
• NAEP scores coming out today will offer a state-level view of student performance. (AP)
• Brooklyn’s private Saint Ann’s School bought a $3.8 million brownstone for its headmaster. (Times)
• Tottenville High School’s marching band is set to compete for a national title. (S.I. Advance)
• Experts: Of children in foster care nationwide, half drop out of high school and few finish college. (AP)