GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• City inspectors swarmed the UFT’s building today, said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. (GS Twitter)
• A top UFT negotiator says the city kept parts of its evaluation plan secret until the last minute. (Edwize)
• A teacher says the real winner in the teacher evaluation brouhaha was Gov. Cuomo. (Music & Beyond)
• One explanation for the collapse: Race to the Top, bad leadership, and a backlash against it. (MORE)
• An argument that the saga rebuts the USDOE’s emphasis on union collaboration. (Dropout Nation)
• Mob ties top a list of reasons why the cost of school busing is so high in New York City. (SchoolBook)
• An East Harlem 10-year-old’s comic illustration of bus strike sides with the striking drivers. (City Room)
• The Department of Education’s director of digital literacy and citizenship explains her job. (Hechinger)
• In Michigan, a newly hired armed school guard left his gun unattended in a school bathroom. (HuffPo)

If nearly $300 million wasn’t incentive enough for the city to create an evaluation plan, state Education Commissioner John King said today that he hopes the threat of more than $1 billion will do the trick.

King assailed the city and the teachers union for their failure to reach a deal on evaluations before last night’s deadline and vowed to get them to do so in the coming weeks. In a letter sent to Chancellor Dennis Walcott today, King said he plans to add teeth to the request by taking advantage of a $1 billion pot of funds meant for city schools that the state has the power to withhold or control.

“They have a legal obligation to continue their negotiation,” King said in a call with reporters today. “I’m disappointed that they’re not at the table today…They thought this new system was the right thing for students. If so, shouldn’t they be at the table?” (more…)

Chancellor Dennis Walcott told principals today that he was thinking about them when he rejected a teacher evaluation deal. Then he warned them that their schools could see budget cuts as a result.

In his first communication with school leaders since months-long negotiations with the teachers union fell apart on Thursday, Walcott said the union had asked to be able to file more grievances over teacher ratings than a previous agreement had allowed.

If the city had acceded to the union’s request, Walcott said, principals would face union attacks over the data they collect from students, the way they communicate with teachers, and what they ask teachers to work on.

“In the end, I could not agree to the UFT’s demands because they would have stripped principals of much of your existing authority,” he said. (more…)

• Jan. 17 came and passed without teacher evaluations. (GS, WSJ, NY1, Times, Schoolbook, Daily News)
• U.S. Ed Sec Arne Duncan called both sides late into the negotiation process to urge a deal. (Post)
• Gov. Cuomo, architect of the deadline, said he won’t restore the city’s lost funding. (GothamSchools)
• The Post says Cuomo should have known that the city wouldn’t get a deal done if left up to the union.
• The Daily News also knocks Cuomo’s law, saying he should have imposed evaluations on districts.
• The city’s school bus drivers strike continued for a second day as both sides dug in their heels. (NY1)
• Washington D.C. announced it will close 15 schools because of low enrollment. (Washington Post)
• Michigan’s sprawling charter school sector is prompting self-reflection among advocates. (HuffPo)
• Nationally, cash-strapped schools are taking different approaches to boost school security. (WSJ)
• A Queens elementary school student who brought a gun to school prompted a lockdown. (Daily News)