GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Facing criticism, Gov. Cuomo added a parent advocate to his education commission. (Schoolbook)
• Success Academies’ Eva Moskowitz has written a book on the virtues of school choice. (Schoolbook)
• A third grade teacher in Harlem has been charged with sexually assaulting a student. (City Room)
• Teachers union members are joining activists in a march to oppose stop-and-frisks. (Edwize)
• Students won college scholarships from the American Museum of Natural History. (Schoolbook)
• The state is accepting applications for three more Race to the Top grants. (SED)
• A Robeson HS teacher laments the suspension of students who walked out on May 1. (NYC PS Parents)
• A city teacher says those facing cheating allegations are not necessarily guilty. (Pissed Off Teacher)
• A Core Knowledge exec says the Common Core is renewing focus on content. (Common Core Watch)
• Christopher Caruso: Schools that increase learning time need deep outside partnerships. (Quick and Ed)
• Russo: Few Parents Across America activists are low-income or people of color. (This Week in Ed)

United Federation of Teachers Vice President Leo Casey at a public hearing about Opportunity Charter School's charter renewal in November.

A top United Federation of Teachers official who has been the union’s leading intellectual voice in recent years is heading south.

But he won’t be going as far as Florida, a common destination for union members who retire. Instead, Leo Casey, the vice president of academic high schools since 2007, said today that is taking a new position this fall as the director of the Albert Shanker Institute in Washington, D.C. The institute is a research arm of the American Federation of Teachers, the national union to which the UFT belongs.

In his role at the UFT, Casey has been both an intellectual and a seasoned activist. He has represented the union on various panels, forums, and debates on education policy and blogged prolifically for the union’s news and opinion site, Edwize. But he has been just as comfortable protesting at public hearings, where he was known to deliver fiery speeches against school closures, co-locations, and other policies that the union opposed.

In moving to the Albert Shanker Institute, a progressive think tank focused on education and labor policies, he will focus on research. Casey, a city teacher for 27 years, said that he hoped his legacy at the UFT would be of pushing against school reform that is driven by non-educators.

“I think one of the most important things that has driven my time at the UFT is to provide a voice for classroom teachers and that far too much of education policy making today is in the hands of folks who don’t understand what it’s like to teach,” Casey said.

Congressman Charles Rangel visits students at the Innovation Celebration in Harlem.

A pool of federal funds that has enabled schools and teachers to get help adopting new technologies is drying up at the end of the summer.

By the end of August, the Department of Education will no longer receive a federal grant called Title II-D, which helped schools pay for technology training centers in each borough, online curriculum, iPads, laptops, and other tools.

The U.S. Department of Education decided to eliminate Title II-D funds last year after the Obama administration reorganized its education budget to cut programs considered to be inefficient. The administration slashed the $100 million budget for education technology.

That means the city may have to find another way to pay for its technology centers and school gizmos without more funding, which amounted to $22.5 million over three years.

“I think people are working on seeing if there could be some sort of sustained support, but there’s nothing that’s been formally announced,” said Lisa Nielsen, who runs the Manhattan section of the department’s Educational Technology office.

The Education Technology office distributes the grants across five boroughs and helps train teachers at the borough’s technology center and in classrooms. The office also help schools use funding to buy items that encourage technological innovations in the classroom, such as iPads.

Nielsen and nearly 25 department employees are also expected to lose their positions because of the cuts. They will enter the Absent Teacher Reserve pool after August 30, when the funding ends.

“The relevance of us is that we are really able to personalize support to each school. I don’t believe that the schools will be able to take on using technology well without this sort of support,” added Nielsen. “When you’re the technology liaison or the media library specialist in your school, there’s usually just one of you so you feel alone. This was an opportunity to bring everyone together, to share ideas.” (more…)

Our readers are as excited as we are about celebrating the (almost) end of the school year on the roof deck of our gorgeous donated space tomorrow.

In fact, they responded to our invitation in such great numbers that our guest list now exceeds the deck’s capacity. That means we unfortunately must stop accepting new RSVPs.

If you’ve RSVPed already, you’re all set and we’ll see you tomorrow. If not, please get in touch to find out about last-minute openings — and stay tuned for announcements about some exciting events we are cooking up for the fall.

And just because some of you won’t be with us in person doesn’t mean you can’t join us in spirit. We’ll be exchanging drinks and snacks for tips and tips — both of which can be submitted online.

• A deal on the verge of completion in Albany would tell teachers’ ratings to parents in writing. (Post)
• Small schools opened by the Bloomberg administration saw their graduation rates fall. (Daily News)
• A third of pre-kindergarten applicants are being shut out, but thousands of seats are still open. (Post)
• The cell phone-storage company robbed at Columbus HS will refund students who lost phones. (NY1)
• Students entrusted their phones to the mobile storage van again, a day after the armed robbery. (Post)
• Council Speaker Christine Quinn blocked a vote to ask the state to let churches use school sites. (WSJ)
• New York City is now the state’s only district not to have squared away federal funds. (GothamSchools)
• The Daily News says Gov. Cuomo should drop his campaign to limit teacher ratings to parents only.
• A push for “inclusion” for students with special needs in San Francisco is drawing fire. (Bay Citizen)