GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Nationally, $1.7 billion is spent annually on standardized testing; some say it’s not enough. (HuffPo)
• NYU pulled the plug on a Harlem Children’s Zone-like initiative to help Newark schools. (Hechinger)
• A teacher’s open question: “How do you combat (and … change) low teacher morale?” (B Niche)
• Chicago teachers say they’re hopeful but not confident about performance tasks in evaluation. (Catalyst)
• A map of charter school penetration by city shows that New York is not close to the lead. (Flypaper)
• John Liu visited his alma mater, Queens’ P.S. 203, and met a younger version of himself. (YouTube)
• Rick Hess: Thinking the Common Core will change everything suddenly is a mistake. (Straight Up)
• A critic of the state’s strategy for counting student growth pans Merryl Tisch’s op/ed. (School Finance 101)
• A teacher riffs off questions about Joel Klein’s life story to ask questions about her impact. (SchoolBook)
• The second-term exodus from the U.S. Department is underway — at the press office. (Politics K-12)

Students at Central Park East High School, one of several now receiving city credit for college-level courses its teachers developed.

At Harry S. Truman High School, juniors in an honors English class arrange their desks in concentric circles to discuss Marxist and feminist theory in the American literary canon.

At Central Park East High School, students taking the Mt. Sinai Careers course develop research projects on the health sciences while interning in hospital departments like pediatrics, orthopedics, and Mt. Sinai’s morgue.

And at East Side Community School, seniors compare ancient Greek tragedies.

The courses are as challenging as any Advanced Placement class, their teachers say: To pass, students must demonstrate not only deep knowledge but also the kind of critical thinking required for success in college. But last year, when the Department of Education moved toward giving high schools credit in their annual letter grade for exposing students to college-level work, the courses did not count.

This year, they are among 52 courses in city high schools to get the department’s “college and career preparatory” stamp of approval, meaning that students who pass them typically stay in college after many ill-prepared students drop out. (more…)

TripodProject.org

Should students have a say in how their teachers are evaluated? The question surfaced this week after the teachers union came out in staunch opposition to the idea as an evaluation measure. Department of Education officials say that they would eventually like to see it happen.

In comments and on Twitter, teachers reacted with a range of emotions.

One teacher, Mook, said the surveys would be a welcome measure if it meant less of an emphasis on test scores:

I would like to have the option of using student surveys as part of my evaluation.  Of course, I’d like to use it in place of whatever ridiculous measures of student progress we’ll eventually be forced to use.  Not only am I confident I would do well on the surveys, but they wouldn’t take an extra minute of my planning time.  No data collection, no seething about the lack of scientific rigor in the collection of the data.

But many teachers shared their union’s position on student feedback, which is that placing such a high-stakes decision into the hands of students was unreliable and could wrongly threaten their ratings.

“Seriously????” asked DisgustedNYCTeacher:

After 25 years of teaching, my professional future will d[e]pend on the evaluations of 13 year olds?  The same ones who can’t remember to bring a pen to school every day and forget their books in class? (more…)

• The city is assuring worried parents that mold is no issue in Sandy-damaged school buildings. (NY1)
• With no safety agents on hand, schools shut because of Sandy saw expensive supplies disappear. (NY1)
• Millennium High School returned to its building while repairs were still underway. (Downtown Express)
• Teachers at Boys and Girls HS say the school will get yet another F if the principal stays. (Daily News)
• A group wants research to sway mayoral hopefuls away from current schools policies. (GothamSchools)
• Bronx Science’s volleyball coach quit to protest school sports policy before a big game. (Riverdale Press)
• One detail in an overview of evaluation talks: Principals think their deal will get done. (SchoolBook)
• Board of Regents Chancellor says New York City needs to agree on new evaluations already. (Post)
• College students held a march to call for a city-union deal about new evaluations. (Columbia Spectator)
• David Bloomfield: Gov. Andrew Cuomo should empower the Regents to effect real change. (Daily News)
• Parents aren’t happy about plans to split school zones in Greenwich Village and Chelsea. (The Villager)
• California wants to stop school districts from locking themselves into onerous borrowing. (WSJ)