GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Mayoral candidates are speaking very carefully about the school bus union and its strike. (SchoolBook)
• Democracy Prep students are out with another music video, about Obama’s inauguration. (YouTube)
• Obama’s proposals to curb gun violence include plans for schools and mental health. (Politics K-12)
• Social studies teachers share their strategies for teaching about “history myths.” (Classroom Q&A)
• A map of 10 years of school closures in Chicago explains what happened to each school. (WBEZ)
• Some cities close schools to save money. Turns out, that plan might not work. (Washington Examiner)
• The founder of a charter school sited tonight says charter don’t all have to be the same. (Flypaper)
• The city could soon get a freestanding Jewish day school for students with special needs. (Jewish Week)
• Parents who fret about the philosophy of their children’s preschool probably shouldn’t fret at all. (Slate)

During the last year, Mayor Bloomberg repeatedly accused the United Federation of Teachers of trying to prevent a new teacher evaluation system from being adopted. At the same time, the union repeatedly questioned whether Bloomberg himself was committed to making a deal on evaluations.

Who was right? As the union and city prepare to emerge from the negotiating room for the last time, we don’t yet know. But what is clear is that each side has strong reasons to make a deal — and strong reasons to let negotiations fail. And our analysis of the incentives at play at the bargaining table suggests that Department of Education officials and the mayor might not always see eye to eye on evaluations.

Here’s why it would make sense for the UFT to leave a deal on the table:

• Fears about some elements of the evaluation system, particularly its use of volatile “value-added” measures, and perceived abuses by the Department of Education have conspired to turn many teachers off of new evaluations. Some of them are so distressed that they are questioning whether the union’s leadership is making choices that are good for teachers. Union leaders rejected a call by a minority party for a resolution that would require all members to ratify any deal that the UFT struck, but especially with his own election set for just a few months from now, UFT President Michael Mulgrew knows he has to recognize the criticism. His refusal to negotiate until the city hashed out an implementation plan and the union’s call for a mediator this week could appease angry union members, but declining to make a deal at all might satisfy them more.
• Bloomberg has made no bones about wanting to sign off on an evaluation system that allows weak teachers to be fired. Negotiators working for a mayor with a softer attitude about teachers might push for a different evaluation system. The city is likely to get such a mayor in just a year — and the union’s position would be even stronger if the candidate it endorses occupies City Hall when a new evaluation system is adopted. (more…)

Kayley, a student at Central Park East 2 (with head turned), traveled to school with his mother today. He took a city bus instead of a yellow bus because of a strike by school bus drivers.

Families across the city contended with unfamiliar transportation routes, incomplete information, and bad weather to get their children to school this morning, the first during a strike called by the bus drivers union.

Most bus drivers did not report to work today to protest the city’s decision not to extend seniority protections to current drivers when opening bids for new contracts with bus companies. Their union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, also picketed outside some bus depots, in some cases briefly impeding non-union bus companies from operating, and released a television ad that paints new bus drivers as dangerous.

But the Department of Education said 40 percent of buses actually did roll today, including 100 percent of routes serving children in prekindergarten. Those bus drivers work under contracts negotiated last year.

Just 12 percent of routes for students in general education were running today, while 60 percent of routes serving students with special needs were disrupted.

Preliminary data showed strong attendance citywide, Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced at a city press conference where he praised parents for “being really focused on getting their kids to school.” But he said attendance at District 75 schools, which serve the city’s most disabled students, was down by about a quarter today. (more…)

• Families are scrambling as a school bus strike begins. (Times, Daily News, Post, NY1, WSJ)
• A Brooklyn mom with three children who ride yellow buses has to choose which can go to school. (Post)
• Some of the bus companies are searching, in vain so far, for drivers to replace those on strike. (WSJ)
• The Daily News hammers away at the idea that the strike is over an unambiguous legal ruling.
• Again, here is backstory on the legal issue at the heart of bus drivers union’s complaint. (SchoolBook)
• Christine Quinn set education priorities. (GothamSchools, Times, SchoolBook, Post, WSJ, NY1, News)
• In public, city-union evaluation talks hit a bump. (GothamSchools, Daily News, SchoolBook, Post)
• Having grown its test security team, the state is now soliciting tips about improprieties. (GothamSchools)
• A high-performing Vermont school is trying to privatize to ward off state efforts to intervene. (WSJ)