GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• The city has reversed a plan to weaken sibling priority in admissions to gifted programs. (Insideschools)
• But not before parents from a citywide gifted school criticized the plan for dividing families. (SchoolBook)
• A watchdog says his school’s badly done lockdown drill scared special needs students. (Horan Watch)
• “We are looking into how this drill was conducted,” a DOE spokeswoman told GothamSchools today.
• Charter advocates note again that co-located schools in the city are less often crowded. (Charter Center)
• A story of two Newark schools highlights the potential benefits of school co-locations. (Hechinger Report)
• A set of infographics show Hurricane Sandy’s lasting impact on city schools. (Liberty Street Economics)
• A teaching assistant says she’s starting to think that teachers’s job is to become obsolete. (Blue Engine)
• Arne Duncan will join a federal task force on violence, mental health, and other issues. (Politics K-12)
• A student activist says data geek Nate Silver presents new opportunities for math education. (Mindshift)

Weeks before a state deadline for the city and teachers union to agree on new teacher evaluations, UFT President Michael Mulgrew has thrown a major wrench into negotiations.

Mulgrew said today that he is halting talks about the evaluations until the Department of Education presents an implementation plan that he approves. The plan, he said, would have to include “a concrete plan” for how and when educators are trained on whatever system is adopted.

The announcement came in an angry letter to Chancellor Dennis Walcott this afternoon that Mulgrew said was prompted by a spate of complaints from teachers about surprising and intimidating observations. A top union offiical, Michael Mendel, registered alarm about the complaints in his own scathing letter to Walcott earlier this week.

The city and union had agreed to have some schools practice conducting observations of the type likely to be required in new evaluations. But Mendel said the reports came from schools beyond the pilot program and described practices that were not supposed to happen but could potentially be part of a new evaluation system, such as unannounced observations.

“How is it possible to start implementing a system that we haven’t agreed on?” Mulgrew said in an interview today. Doing so, he said, “breaks every piece of good-faith etiquette in negotiations.” (more…)

Two men who stole $1.5 million from the Department of Education by billing for special education services they did not deliver had help from someone inside the department, according to a report released today by city investigators.

Here’s how we reported about the fraud in August, when Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon announced the finding:

The fraud was apparently able to take place because of shortcomings in the Office of Non-Public Schools Payables, which pays independent vendors to provide services to students with disabilities that the department can’t otherwise offer.

Before it authorizes payments, the office first reviews a document — called a related service authorization form — that gives permission to parents to obtain services from an approved independent vendor. These forms included signatures from both parents and education department employees, which Ruiz and Cruz were forging.

Investigators found many of these forms were also outdated, contained wrong addresses, and were issued out of the wrong school district. But when office employees reviewed them, they didn’t pick up on the discrepancies.

Today, Condon’s office released a second report finding that it wasn’t lax oversight but outright fraud that got the bills paid. (more…)

A hard-charging principal’s efforts to rename a long-struggling school in the Bronx is meeting stiff resistance from a local community group.

District 9 Community Education Council last night voted against a proposal by M.S. 22 Jordan Mott to change its name to College Avenue Academy at Jordan Mott. The rejection comes after the council for two months delayed voting on the proposal, typically among a CEC’s least controversial duties.

When city officials told M.S. 22 last year that it would be among dozens of schools to undergo a federal school improvement strategy called “turnaround,” they promised that the school would get a pot of extra funds, many new teachers, and a new name.

A judge shut down the city’s plans over the summer. But high staff turnover at M.S. 22 meant the school could get new teachers and federal dollars anyway.

Now, the school is out to complete the trifecta. Principal Linda Rosenbury wants to change the school’s name to College Avenue Academy at Jordan Mott, a similar version of the name the city planned to use this year had the overhaul plan gone through. The school sits on College Avenue, where there is no college, although its official address is on 167th Street.

Rosenbury said that she sought the new name because it was a new direction create a new association for the school and accurately reflect the school’s new focus on academics. (more…)

New York City teachers discussed preparations for new teacher evaluations with Chancellor Dennis Walcott in September 2011.

In Washington, D.C., officials shortened a new teacher evaluation checklist after complaints from teachers and principals that it was too long and time-consuming.

In Memphis, Tenn., after a year of piloting new evaluations and a summer of training, some principals and teachers remained confused and overwhelmed.

In Louisiana, one expert warned of lawsuits as the state began to roll out a truncated observation system without first testing it.

But in New Haven, Conn., union officials and reformers alike have praised a collaborative effort to help teachers improve under the city’s new rating system.

As New York City officials and union leaders wrangle over the design of new teacher evaluations due to roll out citywide next year, the experiences of other states and districts offer both inspiration and lessons about what not to do. (more…)

• While most schools have reopened after Hurricane Sandy, many have extensive, lasting damage. (NY1)
• Gov. Cuomo reiterated his Jan. 17 deadline to adopt new teacher evaluations or lose state funds. (Post)
• New York City is one of just 27 districts not to have submitted an evaluation plan yet. (GothamSchools)
• Cuomo gave himself high marks on his progress toward education goals, despite problems. (Capital NY)
• Former chancellor Frank Macchiarola has died. (Times, Daily News, NY1, GothamSchools, SchoolBook)
• The Daily News and Post both praise Macchiarola for setting a high standard for schools chiefs to follow.
• Across the country, more students are taking community college courses while still in high school. (WSJ)
• School districts across the country remain on high alert after the shooting in Newtown, Conn. (WSJ)
• Some districts are reconsidering a highly controversial option, arming security guards in schools. (Times)
• An internal document shows that Chicago has weighed school closures more than it had said. (Tribune)