GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• YouTube is launching an internet-wide “American Idol” search for the best video lesson. (TechCrunch)
• One Chicago teacher on the picket lines has signs that impugn Rahm Emanuel’s music taste. (Gawker)
• A Boston teacher explains why he has opted out of the profession: It’s about autonomy. (HuffPo)
• Teacher Will Johnson argues that “lean production”  is killing the teaching profession. (Jacobin)
• Some parents at a Harlem charter school are upset about the school’s data talk. (Columbia Spectator)
• Mike Petrilli: The issues under debate in Chicago’s strike are “confusing” by design. (Flypaper)
• A principal who protested N.Y.’s evaluation law describes talking to a low-rated teacher. (Answer Sheet)
• A teacher suggests a list of contract demands that the UFT should make. (Chaz’s School Daze)
• A student and an academic are starting an advocacy group for students with disabilities. (SchoolBook)
• An examination of why teachers unions strike and why school boards let them. (More Thoughtful)

Distribution, by effectiveness rating, of 300 teachers who were part of a two-year observation pilot.

City teachers got better when they participated in a two-year teacher evaluation pilot program, Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced today.

Of 300 teachers who were observed and given systematic feedback multiple times for consecutive years, the number with the lowest rating on a four-tiered evaluation system fell by half and the number with the highest rating more than doubled. Officials said the trends were evidence that when used correctly, a citywide evaluation system would help teachers improve.

The teachers were among 5,000 who participated last year in the city’s Teacher Effectiveness Pilot, in which some schools practiced using a style of teacher observations called the Danielson Framework. The model is a way of advising and assessing teachers based on multiple observations throughout the year and is seen as likely to count for a significant component of teachers’ annual ratings in the future.

Walcott announced the numbers during an address at the Schools for Tomorrow conference hosted by the New York Times. His speech centered on the city’s efforts to boost teacher quality and took a gentler tone about the purpose of teacher evaluations at a time when city and union officials are expressing optimism about reaching a deal on instituting a new evaluation system. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he will withhold some state aid from districts that have not adopted new teacher evaluations by January 2013.

“Across all categories, from the weakest to the strongest, we saw teacher improvement,” Walcott said during his address. “It’s time to bring these results to every student in every school through a citywide evaluation deal.” (more…)

Social studies teachers who want to align their instruction to the Common Core have so far gotten only limited guidance: The new curriculum standards exist only for literacy and math, and a search of the city’s resource library comes up bare.

Now, they are getting a helping hand from the State Education Department, which today released a proposal for revising what is taught in social studies and when. (more…)

Martin Kurzweil, right, spoke on a panel discussion in June, weeks before leaving the Department of Education.

As the city prepares to release another edition of performance grades to more than 1,700 schools in the coming weeks, it will be doing so without the person who was behind the project last year.

Martin Kurzweil, a lawyer who most recently oversaw data-crunching for the Department of Education, exited this summer to take an academic fellowship at Columbia University Law School.

Kurzweil’s departure is part of a steady drip of directors and program leaders to have exited the department in recent months. This summer also saw the departures of Deputy Chancellor Laura Rodriguez; Rodriguez’s deputy in special education, Lauren Katzman; and public affairs director Lenny Speiller. In the spring and winter, the department lost its top lawyer and communications chief, as well as most of its press officers. Jessica Scaperotti, promoted in July to take over the newly consolidated External Affairs office, left in August.

“It’s a great loss,” said Clara Hemphill, senior editor of The New School’s Center for New York City Affairs, who worked with Kurzweil often when presenting school data on InsideSchools, the website she runs. “He’s a really smart, good guy who understood that there’s more to schools than numbers.” (more…)

• Chicago and its union both cited progress and said schools could reopen Friday. (Tribune, Sun-Times)
• A popular school is one-third empty after it set aside seats for students with disabilities. (Insideschools)
• A custodian discovered evidence of PCBs at a second New York City school this week. (NY1)
• New York City’s mentoring program to combat truancy is expanding in its third year. (GothamSchools)
• An elementary school principal is poised to take over as District 10 superintendent. (Riverdale Press)
• Help could be on the way in the form of a new school for an overcrowded school in Queens. (Daily News)
• A principal resigned in 2010 after being caught stealing and having an affair with an aide. (Daily News)

More on the Chicago teachers strike:

• Nicholas Kristof: The strike is less about students and more about protecting the weakest teachers.
• The Post compares the demands of the Chicago Teachers Union to New York City’s union.
• Rahm’s combative tactics could force him to compromise further to end the stoppage. (WSJ)
• Arne Duncan and aides for Obama are taking pains to say they’re not taking sides. (Times)
• On the third day of striking, rallies were smaller and teachers fretted about momentum. (Tribune)