GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Contract talks seem have taken a turn for the better in Chicago, days before a strike date. (Sun-Times)
• In a statement, Randi Weingarten walks a fine line while supporting Chicago’s teachers. (AFT.org)
• As children start making new friends for a new year, here’s a look at how they do it. (Boston Globe)
• One “con” on a teacher’s first week pro/con list is the city’s special education reforms. (B. Niche)
• The fallout of the “turnaround” tumult at John Dewey High School still isn’t clear. (Bensonhurst Bean)
• It turns out that more districts front-load salary increases than many folks thought. (Teacher Beat)
• A teacher explains how she navigates the exciting terrain of working with seniors. (GS Community)
• It’s the first week of school, but eighth-graders already have chances to tour ninth grade. (Insideschools)
• A Newark school that didn’t open this week epitomizes many districts’ enrollment woes. (Hechinger)
• A memory of childhood cheating leads to the conclusion that culture can breed dishonesty. (Motherlode)

A dozen Stuyvesant High School students will be suspended for as long as two weeks and more than 50 others could face short-term suspension for cheating.

The punishments are only one component of the school’s renewed response to a broad cheating scandal that broke this summer. Stuyvesant’s new principal, Jie Zhang, is also requiring students to sign on to an academic honesty policy, urging the creation of an “honor code,” and cracking down on student cell phones.

Department of Education officials announced in July that they had determined that 71 students had cheated on final exams, with all but two receiving answers in advance to a city Spanish exam. They said at the time that a student who provided the answers would be suspended and not allowed to return to the school, the city’s most elite. They also said more punishments could come this fall but did not say how many students faced suspension.

Today, the city announced that the number is 66. Zhang informed the students and their families today about the suspensions, which for some students will start on Monday.

A second phase in the department’s investigation into the cheating, which is ongoing, is looking at the school’s original response. The department did not learn about the cheating until nearly a week after then-Principal Stanley Teitel sent a letter to parents informing them that some students had been punished, and the penalties the school levied did not match those outlined in the city’s discipline code. (more…)

This week on GothamSchools was filled with stories of fresh starts: new reforms, new jobs and, of course, a brand new school year.

On Tuesday, one of our contributors wrote in the Community Section about his decision to take a job at a new school and leave the one he’d been at for three years. The reason, he wrote, stemmed from a lack of responsibility and compassion at the administrative level. He wasn’t the only teacher with a story to question the leadership at his school. Several teachers took our comment section to echo similar sentiments:

 ”Bronx teacher-lady” wrote:

I also worked at a school where it seemed that the strongest, most involved teachers received the poorest treatment.  After five years of successful teaching and an excellent reputation amongst colleagues and parents, a new assistant principal (under a new Leadership Academy principal) harassed me horribly, on and off, for three years. That, coupled with a particularly difficult class that I received no support with and three years of administrative incompetence which seemed to thwart every effort I made, I became so physically ill I had to leave. Interestingly, I wasn’t the only good teacher that left during that time period.

(more…)

Two city charter schools and three city public schools were among just 20 schools in the state and fewer than 300 nationwide that today found out they earned “Blue Ribbon” status from the U.S. Department of Education.

The designation is given annually to schools in each state that meet certain performance standards. It does not bring any financial rewards, but it considered a feather in the cap for schools that earn it. Schools that win get a plaque and are expected to share their strategies for success.

To be nominated, schools must have top scores on state tests. They must also not have any achievement gaps within their student bodies. And after they are nominated, they must complete lengthy applications that includes short essays about their curriculum, their leadership, and how they measure success. New York State was allowed to nominate 19 schools.

The five city winners are Bronx Charter School for Excellence, P.S. 34 in Brooklyn, P.S. 191 in Queens, P.S. 203 in Queens, and Harlem Success Academy 1. This was the first year that any city charter schools took home the honor. (more…)

City lawyers are in negotiations to extend the life of a charter school that the education department tried last year to close, according to a lawyer representing the school’s parents.

Details aren’t final, but the terms are likely to include an agreement to grant the school, Peninsula Preparatory Academy Charter School, an extension beyond this school year, according to the lawyer, Arthur Schwartz. The city and school are still negotiating how the school would be evaluated in subsequent renewal decisions moving forward, he said.

Schwartz filed a second lawsuit on behalf of PPA’s parents in May, arguing that the city’s handling of the closure procedure violated their due process rights. A judge hasn’t yet ruled on that issue, but a restraining order meant the city had to abandon its closure plans for this year.

“We won, basically,” Schwartz said this week. “We won’t have a decision on what the law is, but who cares?”

A spokeswoman for the city confirmed that the two sides “are discussing a possible resolution” but declined to provide more details.

UPDATE: City law department officials said the court order does not necessarily mean the school is off the hook for the year. If the court were to rule in the department’s favor later, the department could take action to close the school mid-year.

An extension would be a significant about-face for the city. Citing insufficient test score gains, it announced in January that it would close Peninsula Prep when its charter expired in June. But the school’s board of trustees fought back in court as well, winning the restraining order, which allowed the school to admit and enroll new students until the judge made her decision. (more…)

• The state will require 550 schools to administer additional “field tests,” which will be shorter. (WSJ)
• Most city students started the school year on Thursday. (GothamSchools, Daily News, NY1, DNA Info)
• The city launched a text-messaging school news service for parents. (S.I. Advance, GothamSchools)
• Stuyvesant HS is cracking down on phones after last year’s cheating. (Daily News, GothamSchools)
• A new principal is in place at Sisulu-Walker Academy, the city’s oldest charter school. (Daily News)
• Parents answered a one-question poll about if they’re better off than before Bloomberg. (Daily News)
• P.S. 36 in Queens has an uneasy relationship with the fact that Dennis Walcott has ties there. (Times)
• At P.S. 16 in Queens, some families didn’t get the news that kindergarten classes were relocated. (Post)
• As special education contracts continue to balloon, some money winds up outside of schools. (NY1)
• Officials in Yonkers, N.Y., are hoping private investors will help them fix public school buildings. (WSJ)
• A Texas university is combating low grades in algebra classes by putting instruction online. (Times)