GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Dem-turned-Republican mayoral candidate Adolfo Carrion Jr. said the UFT is “out of touch.” (Capital NY)
• Some students who store cell phones during the day use BlackBerrys, but few want to. (Metropolis)
• Looking back on his own schooling, an educator asks how much testing is enough. (More Thoughtful)
• A Missouri lawmaker wants gun safety classes for all students and assailant training for teachers. (KCTV)
• And a Tennessee lawmaker would cut welfare payments for families whose kids lag in school. (HuffPo)
• Bill Gates’ stance on teacher evals has not changed, though he agrees the devil’s in the details. (Atlantic)
• Newly released emails suggest that Jeb Bush is trying to influence state education laws. (Answer Sheet)
• What happens when students from “no excuses” schools get to college remains unresolved. (Ed Next)
• True or false: “Ninth graders like learning colorful expressions in Yiddish” and so on? (McSweeney’s)

Comptroller John Liu's report on the Panel for Educational Policy includes a proposal for a nominating committee.

The city’s school board, used as a rubber stamp for mayoral proposals since 2002, would gain independence under a plan put forward today by Comptroller John Liu.

The plan makes Liu the first of the likely candidates for mayor to propose specific changes to the board, known since 2002 as the Panel for Educational Policy. Any changes would require the approval of the state legislature, which is next set to consider New York City’s school governance in 2015, to become permanent, but a new mayor could take some of the steps immediately upon taking office.

Whether and how to reform the panel is one of the stickiest questions that mayoral candidates face on education. (more…)

The city’s charter school sector is pushing back against a groundswell of support for a moratorium on the space-sharing arrangement that has allowed the schools to proliferate.

Their resistance is not unified in tone. Some charter school advocates are requesting that proponents of a moratorium reconsider and others are taking their fight to the street. (more…)

Mayoral candidates mingle after discussing education at an event Wednesday hosted by the principals union.

If education policy discussions among mayoral candidates were a song, the second verse would be the same as the first.

With two recent entrants to the Republican race absent, the lineup for Wednesday evening’s discussion, hosted by the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, was identical to the first education debate held in November, and the conversation was similar, too.

The four Democratic candidates — Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Comptroller John Liu, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and former comptroller Bill Thompson — and the single Republican, Manhattan Media publisher Tom Allon, rehashed now-familiar positions on school closures (most want a moratorium), educator as chancellor (almost all are committed to that), and community schools (after a visit to Cincinnati, they are all on board with the model).

But CSA President Ernest Logan told GothamSchools that he thought sharper distinctions would emerge in the coming months, particularly about which elements of the Bloomberg administration’s school policies each candidate would maintain.

“I think [the candidates] are trying to come into their own,” he said. “If you dig down deep, I think you can find some disagreement.” (more…)

New York state voters said they aren’t crazy about the idea of a longer school day, a new poll shows.

Fewer than four in 10 voters responding to a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University’s survey center said they believe Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s extended learning day proposal should be a priority for Cuomo and state legislators. The poll focused on five of the proposals Cuomo floated during his ambitious State of the State speech three weeks ago, three of which are education-related.

New York voters were more open to his proposals to improve teacher quality, including a tougher “bar exam” and merit pay. (more…)

• Kristof: I.S. 318′s chess team helps me stay positive about covering poverty, but it needs help. (Times)
• School bus drivers say the city declined to halt their strike. (GothamSchools, SchoolBook, NY1, WSJ)
• Gov. Cuomo could impose teacher evaluations. (GS, Times, Post, Daily News, WSJ, NY1, SchoolBook)
• Democratic mayoral candidates talked education before city principals. (NY1, Post, SchoolBook)
• Local leaders in the Bronx are reviving a tabled bid to open a new charter school. (Riverdale Press)
• The father who of a boy who was robbed of $5 thinks the police reaction at P.S. 114 was too harsh. (Post)
• A retired teacher says more tutoring and family support could boost diversity at elite high schools. (Post)
• Schools across the country are doing away with teaching cursive handwriting in the digital era. (WSJ)
• The organization Behind the Book has sent authors into city public schools for a decade. (WSJ)

• A new discipline system at Brooklyn’s Excellence Boys Charter School has some parents angry. (PIX11)
• Graduates of LaGuardia HS’s jazz program gathered to honor Justin DiCioccio, its founder. (City Room)
• A story about the growth of charter schools in Williamsburg has a strong point of view. (Village Voice)
• To mark a year in the rubber room, teacher Mr. Portelos read his former students’ names. (YouTube)
• Researchers who studied city charter schools also found that schools’ early patterns persist. (CREDO)
• A former education reporter is leaving journalism to improve schools for low-income students. (Russo)
• A teacher with 10 years as his school’s UFT chapter leader is the most senior one in the Bronx. (JD2718)
• A mother says she’s having her son repeat kindergarten since she couldn’t start him late. (Insideschools)
• A teacher tries to balance assigning writing assignments with not ruining his life. (Starting an Ed School)
• Andy Rotherham has backstory on school sports for students with disabilities. (School of Thought)

Striking bus drivers picketed outside the Department of Education's headquarters at Tweed Courthouse on Monday.

A union proposal to suspend the city’s two-week-old school bus strike temporarily got a swift rejection this week from city officials, who said the plan would block cost-cutting measures for over a year.

The bus drivers union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, called a press conference today to announce that the city had turned down its proposal for a two-to-three month “cooling off” period during which drivers would return to work and the city would not solicit bids for new transportation contracts.

The union called the strike because the city is not including seniority protections for current drivers in the new contracts’ terms.

In a mediation session organized but not attended by the city, union president Michael Cordiello met on Monday with Justice Milton Mollen, who brokered an agreement to end the last bus strike, in 1979, and representatives from several major bus companies. (more…)

Appearing with legislative leaders this morning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he would seek the right to take over teacher evaluation planning in New York City if local negotiations fall through again.

Cuomo said he still hoped Mayor Bloomberg and teachers union president Michael Mulgrew can break their impasse and agree to a deal on their own terms. But the two sides have failed to reach a deal for more than a year, despite mounting financial penalties for the city, and they fiercely defended their positions in back-to-back legislative hearings this week.

Negotiations resumed this week, and Cuomo said he’s planning to “firmly request” they get a deal done.

“If they don’t, then let the state step in and let the state … determine the evaluation process and impose it on the city of New York,” said Cuomo, who was flanked at a press conference by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate leaders Jeff Klein and Dean Skelos.

(more…)

• A 5-year-old Bronx student was handcuffed after a $5 theft allegation at P.S. 114, a lawsuit says. (Post)
• A students’ comment about a toy gun sent P.S. 4 in the Bronx into lockdown yesterday. (Post, NY1)
• The state Board of Regents told legislators that they want more funds to be directed to schools. (WSJ)
• Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Walcott detailed midyear school budget cuts. (GothamSchools, NY1)
• But Bloomberg said budget cuts to schools could evaporate with an evaluation deal. (Daily News, Post)
• UFT and city negotiators are preparing to reopen negotiations. (GothamSchools, SchoolBook)
• UFT chief Michael Mulgrew and Walcott testified about the state’s school budget. (GothamSchools)
• The Daily News says Mulgrew’s testimony reveals that all he really wants is a mayor he can control.
• Non-striking bus drivers were harassed as they tried to return to work with new skills. (WSJ, Post, NY1)
• Security concerns have prompted the city to give Walcott police protection during the strike. (Daily News)
• A substitute teacher was charged with collecting steep fees for tutoring he pretended to deliver. (Post)
• School closure critics from many cities testified at the U.S. Department of Education. (Washington Post)
• In Chicago, charter school advocates held a counter-protest over the school closure issue. (Tribune)