GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

On the teacher evaluation showdown:

• Gov. Cuomo is set to link new teacher evaluations to school funding from the state. (Daily News, Post)
• He is likely to demand NYSUT drop its suit and to allow just a month to agree to new evaluations. (Post)
• The plan was Cuomo’s second choice, after talks with statewide unions didn’t yield results. (Daily News)
• Robert Ward: The legal process that Cuomo is leveraging with his budget plans is arcane. (Post)
• The moment has Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg teaming up against the “education bureaucracy.” (Times)
• The total amount of federal funds at risk over the evaluations conflict is over $1 billion. (Daily News)
• State leaders are expected to approve the city’s transformation-to-turnaround switch. (Daily News)
• The UFT is threatening to sue over the city’s turnaround plans. (GothamSchools, WSJ, SchoolBook)
• A rundown of what major players, including principals and parents, say about evaluations. (Daily News)
• Most parents polled on the Lower East Side say teachers should have tough evaluations. (Daily News)
• A former teacher says that in his experience, good evaluations didn’t ensure good teaching. (Daily News)
• DFER’s Joe Williams: Mayor Bloomberg’s push on teacher evaluations will pay off in the long term. (Post)

In other news:

• Mayor Bloomberg’s State of the City speech showed that he is still staking his legacy on schools. (Times)
• His policy proposals, including pay hikes and turnarounds, could cost $350 million a year. (Daily News)
• The city switched a $10 million data contract from IBM to NewsCorp’s Wireless Generation. (Daily News)
• The American Museum of Natural History is launching its own teacher certification program. (Times)
• A new teacher training program at Fordham University preps teachers for tough schools. (Daily News)
• The first school closure hearing of the year was for a school started under Bloomberg. (GothamSchools)
• A Queens teacher investigated three times for misconduct is now on permanent desk duty. (Daily News)
• An East Village private school is giving parents views into the school day using social media. (WSJ)
• City students participated in a “Future City” innovative science competition this weekend. (Daily News)
• A Queens neighborhood group got a “Promise Neighborhood” grant to help students in college. (NY1)
• Ads for a Williamsburg charter school have attracted sticker criticism. (GothamSchools, Brooklyn Paper)
• Several Brooklyn private schools are bucking a trend and keeping tuition low — around $20,000. (WSJ)
• Elected parent leaders on Staten Island want to change the process for yellow bus service. (S.I. Advance)

And elsewhere:

• Michael Winerip: The study showing the value of good teachers is based on old test score data. (Times)
• Upstate, some districts are putting meat on the bones of new evaluations. (Syracuse Post-Standard)
• In some U.S. border towns, students travel hours each day to get from homes in Mexico to school. (Times)
• A teacher in D.C. said she she stayed after getting a pay raise under a merit program there. (Daily News)
• Students at a diverse range of New Jersey schools will talk about “Of Mice and Men” together. (Times)
• An influential Chicago activist has built up that city’s largest charter school organization. (Times)
• A proposal for mayoral control of Kansas City’s public schools is likely to face an uphill battle. (K.C. Star)