GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• The city’s elite public school students say they are rarely assigned research essays. (Daily News)
• Media companies like Discovery are venturing into the education and technology markets. (Times)
• Some school districts plan to open before Labor Day, in a move that has frustrated some families. (WSJ)
• The city plans to build a public housing complex with room for a 6-12 charter school. (Daily News)
• Many school-aged children play outside in Brownsville, but few with adult supervision. (Daily News)
• Post: Advocacy group critical of StudentsFirst is conflating education reform and Republican politics.
• The city is ending a special lunch program that connected professional chefs with city cafeterias. (Times)
• Race gaps at the city’s specialized high schools are still wide thanks to entrance exam prep tutors. (NBC)
• The Coney Island school that banned a patriotic song saw a mass exodus of staff over the year. (Post)
• In second year of crackdown, half of teachers won tenure. (GothamSchools) (Daily News) (Post) (Times)
• Probe: A fake sign-language education company stole from the department. (GothamSchools) (Post)

And last week on GothamSchools:

• Some mayoral candidates will take money from StudentsFirst; at least one will not. (Thursday)
• New Yorkers for Great Public Schools criticized StudentsFirsts’ donors Mitt Romney ties. (Wednesday)
• ATR teachers are attending job fairs and weighing options against buyout possibility. (Wednesday)
• High school students are learning how to build mobile apps in a city-funded tech camp. (Tuesday)
• SED is trying again to create a student data system once blocked by the state comptroller. (Tuesday)
• A district school with large class sizes and “master” teachers is expanding as a charter. (Monday)
• A year in, Millennium Brooklyn has yet to draw Park Slope families to the John Jay campus. (Monday)