GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• A Los Angeles teacher says a robust teacher evaluation protocol has turned into a checklist. (Hechinger)
• Jay Mathews says he changed his mind about value-added ratings: They won’t work. (Class Struggle)
• A city teacher with top students scored low while her students aced an advanced exam. (GS Community)
• Analysts say the “Pineapple” debacle isn’t likely to hurt Pearson’s growing education arm. (Crain’s NY)
• Two Denver schools are under scrutiny after test scores fell amid tighter security. (EdNews Colorado)
• Reading materials at city schools are likely to change under Common Core standards. (Learning Matters)
• A teacher and union leader reports that a principal sent to sensitivity training has resigned. (JD2718)
• A Park Slope parent makes and sells maps showing the zones for neighborhood schools. (SchoolBook)
• A teacher worries what will happen to a depressed student over the summer. (Miss Eyre/NYC Educator)
• Tech leaders are showing an increasing interest in public schools and their students. (Fast Company)
• A half-hour show on education innovation by Channel 13 features Chancellor Walcott. (Metrofocus)
• A parent asks whether she must honor her child’s teacher’s summer school suggestion. (Insideschools)

City lawyers have filed their response to a union lawsuit that seeks to derail plans to move forward on 24 school closures. Both sides are due in court tomorrow to argue their case about whether a temporary restraining order on the closures should be extended.

The lawsuit seeks to prevent the Department of Education from following through on its decision last month to “turn around” 24 schools at the end of the school year. The plans include the replacement of up to 50 percent of the teaching staffs at the schools.

Lawyers for the principals and teachers unions filed the lawsuit last week, and the DOE agreed to halt all hiring until Wednesday’s hearing as part of the restraining order.

As we reported last week – and as the city’s response below argues – one problem the city has with the motion is that further delay to its plans could “cause disruption” to the hiring process. (more…)

During her brief stint as city schools chancellor, Cathie Black pulled the brakes on a planned rollout of special education reforms. Now, educators and parents are asking the city to slow things down once more.

They say the departure of the city’s top two special education officials will leave the Department of Education ill-equipped to carry out the planned reforms. They are also charging that the city’s proposal to change the way special education instruction is funded could encourage schools to place disabled students in settings that are not ideal for them.

The special education reforms are meant to encourage schools to move disabled students to settings that are less restrictive. The shift is in keeping with best practices in special education, and students are supposed to have their services changed only if it makes sense for them. But the city wants to add an incentive: Under a proposal likely to be approved next week, students who receive special education services for only a portion of the day would bring more city funds than students in self-contained settings for the entire day.

It’s a proposal that has educators and parents alike concerned. ”When it comes to special education we all know that as you move a child to a less restrictive environment, it’s a better thing, but it only works when it is appropriate for the child,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said at a union conference on Saturday. “When you start pushing to make that decision based on budget, then we have to start to question whether it’s appropriate or not.” (more…)

For Abraham Moussako, a 2011 graduate, working on the student newspaper at Bronx High School of Science was an exercise in frustration.

He writes today in the Community section:

Getting an article approved in your school newspaper covering an incident that garnered the institution bad publicity citywide is the sort of thing that probably would be a chore in any circumstance. But it was an even dicier situation at the [Science] Survey, where the administration took its power of prior review over the paper seriously.

Moussako’s description of several run-ins that he and other editors had with the school’s famously hands-on administration fans a longstanding debate about the role of school officials in reviewing student journalism. Reports from advocates of student journalism suggest that many city principals exercise their legal right to review and curb reporting that appears in school newspapers.

Bronx Science Principal Valerie Reidy is one of them. (more…)

• Manhattan Beep Scott Stringer: Exam errors should make the state halt new evaluations. (Daily News)
• The Daily News says Stringer’s teacher evaluation stance puts him on the fringe and should be rejected.
• A labor panel again backed mediation for the city’s evaluation talks. (GothamSchools, Daily News)
• Another Brooklyn chess team, from Sunset Park’s P.S. 503, won a national tournament. (SchoolBook)
• Walcott maintains a blistering pace of school visits, especially compared to Joel Klein. (GothamSchools)
• A senior at Fordham wants the university to “adopt” high schools at the Roosevelt campus. (Daily News)