Despite a new mandate, some schools are still turning away special needs students. (Insideschools)
The city has called off its state hearing to restore federal funds to 33 struggling schools. (GothamSchools)
Juan Gonzalez: The release of teachers’ ratings will bring undeserved ridicule for many. (Daily News)
Two transfer high schools don’t want a charter school serving the same students to move in. (DNAInfo)
A researcher says charter schools have caused state Catholic schools to lose enrollment. (Daily News)
A Bronx substitute teacher was charged with forcibly touching a high school student. (NY1)
Another teacher at the same Bronx campus was charged with assaulting a student. (Daily News, NY1)
An upstate union leader is denouncing NYSUT for its teacher evaluations agreement. (Buffalo News)
A push to use the “parent trigger” to turn a California school into a charter school fell short. (L.A. Times)
The recent history of “turnaround” efforts shows improving long-struggling schools is hard. (Denver Post)
The Supreme Court is rethinking colleges’ use of race in admission just years after upholding it. (Times)
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Regarding the 33 PLA schools that may be switched to “Turnaround.” This story out of the Denver Post should give pause to NYSED, and DOE officials.
“…..The competitive grant program was aimed
at avoiding what some reform experts call “Groundhog Day restructuring” —
a depressing redo of what previous school leaders already tried.
Denver’s North High School, for example, has undergone several transformations over the past decade.
The
school did not meet the federal standard of “adequate yearly progress”
in reading or math in 2004 and in 2005 was targeted for improvement,
according to state records. Eight years later, the school’s scores are
still abysmal: Its graduation rate is 65 percent, and just 9.9 percent
of students are at least proficient in math.
In the school’s
application for federal money, school leaders said the reason for
North’s poor performance is “policy churn”: specifically, “the constant
introduction of new, big changes with significant attention and
resources, which eventually turn out to be short-lived until a new
reform effort is introduced.”Based on the Denver experience; wouldn’t changing the 33 PLA schools from “Transformation, and Restart” to “Turnaround” just be a “recipe for failure?”
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An interesting article in the DN..didn’t make it to the ” Headlines”. The Archdiocese is blaming charter school proliferation for declining Catholic school enrollment. Why no mention GS?
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Why would any school refuse to enroll special needs students? Everyone “knows” that if the kids don’t do well it’s the “teacher’s fault.” It’s the “truth!” We even have a new teacher evaluation law in NY state which states it’s the “teachers fault.”
Philissa Cramer
I didn’t see it. I’ve added it now. As a reminder (this information is in our About page):
The Rise & Shine feature is our morning roundup of the day’s news headlines, drawn from major local and national newspapers. We aim to include all news stories and opinion pieces appearing that day. A story’s inclusion does not imply GothamSchools’ endorsement of its content.Notice something missing? Email tips@gothamschools.org.
Flerplunk
Makes sense. The parochial schools have long been seen as a semi-affordable alternative to bad local schools. Particular charters may or may not be better than the local alternative, but they’re certainly free.
Flerplunk
I hope you don’t take offense at this, but I would suggest a huge reduction in your use of quotation marks. Even in parody and satire, they’re almost always unnecessary unless you’re actually quoting somebody.
donnie
Can you blame schools for turning away “special needs students”? In today’s data driven education world, these are the students who will bring the stats down which leads to turmoil within the school and if teachers don’t inflate grades (to make a.y.p.) or pass them along (to make graduation rates). These are the results of data based education.
bee
Juan Gonzalez is the cat’s meow!
http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator
Certainly it’s tough to turn around a struggling school. Far more expedient to close it, ignore every factor that caused it, shuffle kids somewhere else, close the schools where they end up, blame teachers, and take no responsibility whatsoever after an entire decade of such nonsense.
Flerplunk
Although I don’t think it makes sense to talk about whether the DOE should or should not release the records now. That’s no longer an issue. If the DOE were to withhold the records, it would have to justify that decision by pointing to an applicable FOIL exemption. It can’t do that. The courts have already determined that there is no applicable exemption, so the records must be released.
The DOE could have decided to fight the FOIL requests, as it promised the union it would do. And if it did that, its determination that an exemption applied would have been given some deference by the courts. But you can’t turn back the clock to that point.
Guest
They should worry, teachers will sue if the post false/wrong results. I know I will.
Just wait until a teacher is physically attacked by a parent. It will happen. I teach at a decent school and teachers have been threatened, chased and scores haven’t been released.
GUest
There are no funds or support for special needs kids. We also have parents who refuse to “label” the kids so we have special ed kids that are not labeled. Teachers will fail because of that.
http://twitter.com/SoBronxSchool Bronx Teacher
Awesome! Like Spock said in Wrath of Khan, “It is easier to destroy.”
Flerplunk
Easier still to do nothing at all.
Vote NO!
No offense taken, but not everyone is as perceptive as you in identifying “parody and satire.” Therefore the quotation marks… “stay.”
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I wonder, if a teacher is injured as a result, is there legal liability?
Flerplunk
On the DOE’s part? For releasing government records pursuant to a FOIL request after where two courts ruled that the records must be released? I’d say no.
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