GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• America’s teachers have a lower salary-to-mean earnings ratio than many other countries. (Economix)
• Teachers unions are still stumping for Obama even though they don’t love his ed policies. (Hechinger)
• Still, the strike in his adopted hometown is making things awkward for his reelection campaign. (NPR)
• Here’s a fascinating meditation on the socioeconomics implied in classic children’s literature. (The Awl)
• Education technology execs said on a panel that they didn’t want to “replace” anything. (VentureBeat)
• A chat with a former Bloomberg official on the Chicago strike spilled into the comments section. (WNYC)
• A California task force called for more training and limited testing to improve teacher quality. (LA Now)
• A 9/11 story of a school that served as an evacuation site after the attacks in 2001. (GothamSchools)
• The United Federation of Teachers passed a resolution to give $10,000 to the Chicago union. (UFT)
• An advocacy group is offering $500 to teachers for essays about thinking “outside the box.” (NYCAN)

The crackdown on cell phones at Stuyvesant High School has extended in some cases to laptop computers and tablets, according to people in and close to the school.

With the school year just four days old, parents already buzzed in emails to each other about the confiscations. But school officials are in the process of explaining the abrupt change in the way they plan to handle phones and other electronic devices, and the devices will be permitted under some circumstances, students said today.

Monday’s confiscations came after Stuyvesant teachers and administrations seized 17 cell phones on the first two days of the school year. While city students have long been banned from bringing cell phones into schools, students at Stuyvesant and other schools where security is generally not a concern say their principals and teachers have usually turned a blind eye to phones that emerge in their classrooms. But after a student used a cell phone to help dozens of students cheat on final exams in June, Stuyvesant’s new principal seems to be renewing enforcement.

The crackdown has in some ways jolted the tech-savvy community at Stuyvesant,  which includes course offerings that often requires extensive work on computers. Students said today that nearly everyone brought a smartphone, laptop or tablet to school in the past and had grown accustomed to using them freely throughout the day.

The Department of Education’s regulations about school security say that “ipods, beepers and other communication devices” are also verboten.

It’s the last point, about communication, that seems to have muddied enforcement of the policy at Stuyvesant. Department officials say computers that don’t communicate are allowed in schools, and they are passing the message along to teachers at Stuyvesant. (more…)

Chancellor Dennis Walcott talks to teachers at M.S. 223 while principal Ramon Gonzalez looks on during a visit last week. M.S. 223 is working with nine teaching residents this year.

A program to train and keep new teachers inside some of the city’s most struggling schools is expanding to include better-performing schools as well.

The New York City Teacher Residency launched last summer at two schools that were receiving federal funds earmarked for overhauling struggling schools. The point of the program, city officials said at the time, was to create a talent pipeline for schools that have trouble attracting teachers.

But because the city and its teachers union did not agree on a new teacher evaluation system by a state deadline, the funds were cut off in January. The city is going forward with plans to double the size of the residency program anyway, but instead of sending new residents only to struggling schools, it is also directing them to schools that the city has touted as success stories. And it is picking up the bill out of the Department of Education’s regular budget.

The department opened the program to stronger schools in order to expose the teachers-in-training to a wider range of “best practices” and mentorship from experienced teachers, officials said.

“Think, what would it actually be like if these teachers were trained at a successful school instead of at a failing school?” said Ashley Downs, the special education director at M.S. 223 in the Bronx who is helping to mentor that school’s nine residents. (more…)

For months, state education officials have been hounding school districts to draft teacher evaluation plans and submit them for approval.

But now that the plans are streaming in, the officials are realizing the state is not adequately prepared to assess them. Each plan must be combed through to ensure that it complies with the state’s evaluation law and meets the State Education Department’s hard-and-fast rules and subjective guidelines.

“I think it’s fair to say we underestimated the time and resources that we needed to review these plans,” Valerie Grey, SED’s deputy commissioner, told members of the Board of Regents Monday in Albany.

Grey said the department would seek “additional resources to get through January,” when Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said districts must put new evaluation systems in place or risk forgoing an increase in state aid. She also said the department would ask districts to turn in their plans early to leave time for the approval process. (more…)

• A student at Stuyvesant HS first alerted administrators about cheating there. (Stuy Spectator, Daily News)
• A Bronx high school returned one student to class after an expose on its warehousing practices. (Post)
• For a host of reasons, city teachers and their union are unlikely to strike any time soon. (GothamSchools)
• New York State is considering changing how global history is taught and tested. (GothamSchools, WSJ)
• City officials say a tutoring company dinged in an audit in May should get a new contract. (Daily News)
• Parents are upset about long rides and messy routes for some children with special needs. (Daily News)
• The Daily News calls on Chancellor Walcott to resolve the borough’s busing issues once and for all.

Chicago’s teacher strike:

• Schools are shut for a second day after contract talks yielded no detente Monday. (Tribune, Sun-Times)
• The strike’s backstory includes an insurgency by a left-wing group in Chicago’s union. (GothamSchools)
• Parents seem split on backing the strike but many are finding the logistics a challenge. (WSJ, Sun-Times)
• The strike could have national implications, maybe even in the presidential election. (Washington Post)
• The strike could be a defining episode in a broader defensive by teachers unions against attack. (Times)
• Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s challenge is to win in both the talks and public opinion. (Tribune, Sun-Times)
• Joe Nocera: The strike is frustrating because it likely won’t induce change, possibly by design. (Times)
• The Wall Street Journal says Emanuel should make like Wisc. Gov. Scott Walker and crush the union.