GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• It’s not just New York City where Chicago’s teachers strike seems unlikely to spread. (Governing)
• A debate about whether teachers and officials have to fight features local voices. (Room for Debate)
• In the footnote, Peter Murphy predicted the state’s evaluation approval backlog — in February. (NYCSA)
• A labor lesson: The nation’s first teacher strike also happened in Chicago, in 1902. (Dana Goldstein)
• A prediction that the strike will end when Chicago teachers next would have been paid. (Intercepts)
• A NAEP official makes the case for why his test could also predict college readiness. (Education Week)
• Analysis of every New York State school district’s sex ed standards (except NYC) finds gaps. (NYCLU)
• Fifth-graders at a city private school are producing videocasts of their tough music reviews. (YouTube)
• Why the White House, elected officials and editorial boards have it wrong on evaluations. (Answer Sheet)

Students exited John Dewey High School today where people said scheduling issues were disrupting their learning.

Most years at John Dewey High School, scheduling mistakes were scattered and quickly corrected, students say. But this year, they say, entire programs are wrong. And they say that so far, little has been fixed.

“All of our schedules are messed up, and a lot of the classes we want to take we can’t,” said Darlene Tinsley, a senior at the Brooklyn high school.

“I passed my classes in summer school, and they gave me all sophomore classes. I’m supposed to be a junior,” said Debra Galindez. “I heard everything was done in mid-August and they didn’t really look at anyone’s transcripts.”

Over at High School of Graphic Communication Arts in Hell’s Kitchen, Jamie Striharsky, a senior studying photography, said disorganization reigned on the first day of school, with many students scheduled for classes they did not request — including one calculus class with so many students it filled three classrooms.

“There were 90 something kids,” she said in a phone interview last week. “As of now, I don’t even think there’s a teacher for the class. there was a security guard, and to be honest they were just like, ‘let’s move the kids out, the first 30 come here, the next 30, come here.’” (more…)

Jean Robinson, then a senior at the High School for Teaching and the Professions, spoke at a press conference touting the city's absenteeism initiative last year.

After testing a range of strategies to combat truancy, the city is settling on one that’s close to home: matching students with a mentor within their own schools.

“Mentoring has been central to our fight against chronic absenteeism,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during his weekly radio address on Sunday, which focused on the start of the school year.

Since 2010, when Bloomberg launched a campaign against absenteeism. the city has paired some frequently absent students with “Success Mentors,” school staff and volunteers who monitor their attendance and coax them back to school. After starting with just 450 students in 2010, the program grew to about 4,000 students in 50 schools last year.

Citing dramatic gains, the city has increased the program’s size again this year. With more than 5,000 students in 100 schools, the Success Mentor initiative is now the largest school-based mentoring program in the country, city officials say.

John Feinblatt, the deputy mayor in charge of the Interagency Task Force on Truancy, Chronic Absenteeism and School Engagement, said last year that the city was exploring a range of “success mentor” models, including peer mentoring and enlisting volunteers from outside organizations. But the city has zeroed in on what it’s calling the “internal school-staff model” in part because it can be expanded without adding cost or personnel, according to Lauren Passalacqua, a city spokeswoman. (more…)

• The DOE withdrew a proposed contract for the tutoring company with shaky financial practices. (Post)
• The city slashed the contract and routes of the bus company with serious snafus this week. (Daily News)
• Some educators recruited for struggling schools are going to stronger ones instead. (GothamSchools)
• The city’s training and chain of command for reporting sex abuse in schools is muddled. (NBC NY)
• State officials are bringing in temps to assess teacher evaluation plans amid a backlog. (GothamSchools)
• Staten Island’s P.S. 41 is getting new lights after one leaked PCBs onto a student. (NY1, Daily News)
• When not shielding students from PCBs, P.S. 41′s principal, Elise Feldman, is pushing college. (Post)
• Arthur Levine, a foundation president, says School of One is an innovation, not a failure. (Daily News)
• Since 1996, the nonprofit Rocking the Boat has empowered teens through boat-building. (Daily News)
• The president of a Brooklyn school’s partner group is accused of sex misconduct with a student. (Post)
• A teacher at an elite private school is under investigation for having an affair with a student. (Post)
• Greenwich, Conn., and other ritzy districts are more aggressively trying to purge non-residents. (Times)
• Some students suspected of cheating at Harvard are leaving rather than face consequences. (Times)

Chicago’s teacher strike:

• The strike is entering its third day with no resolution and few signs of progress. (Tribune, Sun-Times)
• Karen Lewis, Chicago’s union leader, is a formidable adversary for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. (Times)
• As we explained on Monday, Lewis came to power as the head of a left-wing minority caucus. (WSJ)
• Chicago’s strike reflects debate about policy issues facing schools nationally. (Times, Bloomberg)
• The Times says Chicago teachers could quickly pay a price for striking without changing big issues.