GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

On Chicago:

• The Chicago strike is forging on, after a court denied a city bid to quickly end it early. (Chicago Tribune)
• Jezebel says there are three ways those talking about the Chicago strike are getting it wrong.
• A Chicago private school teachers explains why she supports the striking teachers. (Chicago Tribune)
• CTU leader Karen Lewis “is now the most important black labor leader in the country.” (The Nation)
• Juan Gonzalez: The strike is a testament to Lewis’s skills as a union leader. (Daily News)
• New York teacher and parent activists weigh in on the strike’s meaning for others. (NYC PS Parents)
• A retired teacher examines the possible contents of the contract being hammered out. (Norm’s Notes)
• Kahlenberg: the strike could catalyze a change in tone for education reformers. (The New Republic)
• Striking teachers take a break to sing “When There’s a Contract — Call Me, Maybe” (YouTube)

This week’s issue of New York Magazine has an in-depth profile of Nayeem ­Ahsan, the 16-year-old Stuyvesant High School student who helmed the school’s recent cheating scandal.

Last June, school officials caught Ahsan using his cell phone to help dozens of students cheat on Regents exams, which students must take before graduating. Since then, the city has launched an investigation and threatened many of the students involved with lengthy suspensions. And the school’s principal has retired, to be replaced by a former network leader who is also a Stuyvesant parent.

In the wake of these events, many GothamSchools readers told us that cheating is more widespread than officials would admit, and expressed suspicions of Principal Jie Zhang’s suggestion that the cheating ring was an isolated incident.

“I have not been made aware … or have a reason to believe that there is ongoing cheating there,” Zhang told reporters in a phone call shortly after being appointed.

The magazine piece also suggests otherwise. In addition to detailing Ahsan’s methods, which included sharing homework answers, procuring exams given by teachers in previous years, and texting students photos of entire exam booklets during last spring’s Regents exams, it describes a culture that encouraged cheating among many.

Ahsan said Stuyvesant’s educational environment put a premium on high-performance and competition. The structure of his classes often presented opportunities to game the system: (more…)

Chancellor Dennis Walcott made several policy promises during a May 2012 speech to ABNY.

In the 2011-2012 school year, Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Dennis Walcott vowed to push forward an array of policy changes — from the way teachers are hired and fired to the ways schools prepare boys of color for graduation and college. So how did they do?

We’ve rounded up all of last year’s policy promises and checked up on the city’s progress on each. Today, we’re looking at proposals to bolster teacher quality, a longtime pet issue for the Bloomberg administration.

We found that the city has fulfilled one promise completely, to create a new Teaching Fellows program just for middle schools, but several others fell off the radar or were pushed to the margins by ongoing negotiations over new teacher evaluations. Each promise is in bold, followed by an explanation of how far the city has come toward meeting it.

In future posts, we’ll tally the city’s progress on creating new schools, engaging parents, helping high-needs students, and improving middle schools.

• The city will adopt new teacher evaluations that adhere to the state’s new evaluation law.  (When: Many times)
  Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock should know the answer: not yet, despite one close call and a helping hand from Gov. Andrew Cuomo. City and union officials are meeting regularly to negotiate an evaluation deal, this time in hopes of meeting the state’s January deadline. They say they are “optimistic” and “hopeful” they’ll reach an agreement in time to qualify for state funds.
• Teachers with top ratings on teacher evaluations will get a $20,000 pay raise. (Bloomberg’s State of the City speech, January 2012)
  The city still has not adopted new teacher evaluations, so the proposal is moot. But the teachers union, a longtime opponent of individual merit pay, quickly passed a resolution opposing it, so its future prospects are not bright.
• The city will repay up to $25,000 in student loans of teachers who are in the top of their college classes. (State of the City) (more…)

• Newark education officials are considering merit pay for teachers based on new evaluations. (WSJ)
• Bloomberg: DOE must cut its budget by 1.6 percent this year and 4 percent next year.(WSJ, Capital NY)
• In Kalamazoo, MI, every public school graduate gets a scholarship to college in-state. (Times)
• The turnaround aftermath has left John Dewey High School short on programs and teachers. (Post)
• Tuscon schools weigh school closures and cuts to salaries and programs due to budget woes. (Times)
• The next generation of test designers are focusing on problem-solving skills. (Boston Globe)
• With new evaluations ahead, state teaching programs struggle to create internships. (Ithaca Journal)
• As politicians extol teaching’s virtues, pop culture portrays teachers increasingly negatively. (Times)
• A science educator says schools alone cannot cure effects of poverty on students. (Washington Post)

And in Chicago:

• The Chicago Teachers Union strike is extending into its second week. (Times, NPR)
• To end the strike, Mayor Rahm Emanuel may take the teachers union to court. (Chicago Tribune)
• Kotlowitz: The strike highlights challenges caused by student poverty that city schools face.  (Times)
• The teacher’s union’s new contract could include some significant concessions. (HuffPo, Times)
• Noguera: The Chicago strike has dealt a blow to Obama’s education reform policies. (The Nation)