GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• A town in Mississippi is being investigated for sending students from school to prison. (ABC News)
• On the heels of the Olympic Games, two early-learning experts want to get kids moving again. (HuffPo)
• GothamSchools’ Elizabeth Green reviews a new book about a Texan turnaround. (Texas Monthly)
• Another review applauds the book for accurately capturing ed reform’s complex climate. (Daily Beast)
• As National Novel Writing Month approaches, a teacher offers advice based on her class. (Edutopia)
• Breaking with his GOP allies, Georgia’s education chief opposes a charter school  ballot initiative. (AJC)
• A parent says that before nixing a math discipline, educators have to first fix how it’s taught. (Schoolbook)

About 21 percent of the city’s middle- and high-schoolers attend schools in the Bronx. But 48 percent of the summonses that police handed out in schools last year went to Bronx students.

That is one statistic about policing in city schools that the New York Civil Liberties Union is highlighting now that it has a full year of school policing data in hand. Since last year, the New York Police Department has been required to publish information every three months about arrests it has made and summonses it has issued in schools, where it has more than 5,000 officers assigned.

Between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012, police officers made 882 arrests in city schools and issued 1,666 summonses for behavior, according to the NYCLU’s tally of the year’s data.

Virtually all of the arrests — more than 95 percent — were for black and Latino students, who make up about 70 percent of the city’s enrollment. Three quarters were of male students. And 20 percent were of students between the ages of 11 and 14.

Two-thirds of the summonses were issued for “disorderly behavior,” a category of offense that the NYLCU argues usually amounts to typical teenaged behavior. Those behaviors are best dealt with by educators, not by directing students into the criminal justice system, the group argues. (more…)

Adam Israfil pitches his book reviewing app to peers at NYC Generation Tech.

“Have you ever worried about lost papers?” Steffany Ceron read from a notecard to three fellow students powwowing in a semicircle of desks. “Well don’t worry, this app can help.”

Ceron and her peers were among a half-dozen groups of high school students feverishly preparing to present their ideas for mobile phone applications designed to help students stay organized, prepare for exams, or make clothing and food choices. Together, the 29 students are enrolled in New York City’s Generation Technology, a fledgling summer program that teaches city high school students how to design and market apps that solve common educational problems.

Over two weeks this August, the students — who range from native New Yorkers with experience building digital tools to recent immigrants — are receiving a crash course in digital entrepreneurship, funded by the city’s Economic Development Corporation. The program represents one prong of the Bloomberg administration’s recent push to remake New York City into a technology hub to rival California’s Silicon Valley. Like the computer engineering-themed school that’s set to open next month, Generation Tech aims to seed technology talent locally by investing in city students.

During the day-long classes, the students review a manual on entrepreneurship, calculate the costs and benefits of various business models, and listen to lectures from the founders of local technology start-ups such as Kickstarter. The class is fast-paced and packed with group presentations and discussion questions designed to get students thinking creatively about business: What is the lifetime value of a New York Times subscriber to the company? How would you help a rapper promote a show in Queens?

To be eligible, students must come from a low-income family or attend a school where at least half of students come from low-income families. Only a few of the participants had experience creating mobile apps before this summer, and many said the program also marked their first time practicing public speaking. (more…)

• Nearly 70 percent of city students are so poor they are eligible for free lunch, up since 2009. (NY1)
• For the Hamptons set, summer has turned into a time for students to take test prep classes. (Times)
• SED named the companies that it chose to create a data system. (GothamSchools, WSJ, Daily News)
• An audit by the state comptroller found sloppy accounting at two large high schools. (SchoolBook)
• A district school that didn’t get the go ahead to replicate is looking to the charter sector. (GothamSchools)
• The city broke ground on a larger building for Beacon High School. (GothamSchools, SchoolBook, Post)
• Chancellor Walcott has a broken finger, and his joke about its origins beats the real story. (Daily News)
• School started — with newly extended days — for a third of Chicago schools on Monday. (Tribune)
• Cami Anderson’s reforms are moving quickly in Newark, winning her friends and enemies. (Star-Ledger)