GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Many ultra-Orthodox Jewish yeshivas offer little to no secular instruction, despite state law. (DNAInfo)
• President Obama’s second-term agenda, laid out on Monday, features school safety. (Politics K-12)
• A teacher notes that Mayor Bloomberg has cost the city long before evaluations. (Chaz’s School Daze)
• Polls still show that far more New Yorkers trust the UFT over Mayor Bloomberg on schools. (Capital NY)
• A principal says the teacher training residency at his school should be a state model. (SchoolBook)
• A city teacher shares his Teach for America essays, now older than most applicants. (Gary Rubinstein)
• A Brooklyn nonprofit has recommendations about how to boost long-struggling District 16. (BCF)
• A nonprofit aimed at helping struggling schools has a new web TV series featuring educators. (PFSA)
• The former city schools official who heads New Leaders describes his path to principal training. (Times)
• A critique: StudentsFirstNY says it’s too hard to become a teacher, and too easy. (Horace Mann League)
• One strategy for education innovation should be to listen to what teachers want, a wonk says. (Eduwonk)
• A detailed look inside a Relay Graduate School of Education-trained teacher’s classroom. (SSI Review)
• Some states are pressing forward with plans to arm teachers, even as other options succeed. (Atlantic)

Addressing the collapse of teacher evaluation talks for the first time since state education officials criticized his role, Mayor Bloomberg today blamed the teachers union again.

Last week, Bloomberg said he could not accept a teacher evaluation deal because the union wanted only a temporary evaluation system — an objection that State Education Commissioner John King said city officials had not raised earlier in negotiations.

“That comment from the mayor was, from my perspective, a new issue that was raised after they walked away from the table,” King said on Friday.

Speaking this morning at an announcement about an affordable housing project, Bloomberg dialed back his emphasis on the “sunset” issue. The union “was just deliberately trying to throw as many procedural roadblocks up that it would be so impossible to remove a teacher, even if the deal didn’t expire,” he said. (more…)

Last year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo used his budget address to issue a teacher evaluations ultimatum heard around the state.

This year, Cuomo took that ultimatum and raised it, telling districts that he would again tie their increases in school aid to having new teacher evaluation systems on the books but that he would also reward some of their highest-rated teachers.

Cuomo also set new funding for full-day pre-kindergarten in high-need school districts, early college programs to help high school students accelerate, and extended day programs that he introduced in his State of the State address earlier this month. And he announced that the state would require teachers to clear a new hurdle, a “bar exam,” before being certified to work in New York State.

We’ll have more about Cuomo’s education budget proposals later today, including his answers to three open questions about how he would fund schools. For now, here’s the education section of his budget highlights sheet:

The 2013-14 Executive Budget reflects a continued commitment to supporting improved student outcomes, sustainable cost growth, and equitable distribution of aid. (more…)

Democracy Prep students and their families watch President Obama's inaugural address.

An inauguration event at the Harlem Armory on Monday drew students too young to remember any president but Barack Obama — and others who said his presidency changed the way they see their own futures.

While most schools across the city were closed for the Martin Luther King Day, the Democracy Prep charter network convened students, parents, teachers, staff, and community members to watch Obama’s inauguration on the big screen.

Leesandra Moore brought her four daughters to the inauguration event. Her oldest is in eighth grade at Democracy Prep, and her three younger daughters were born during Obama’s first term.

Referring to her three-year-old, Moore said, “I wanted her to experience it so she can say that she was there. She doesn’t understand race … but she will grow up in a world that does talk about race. Right now it just seems to her like, all these people are making a big fuss, what are they making a fuss over?” (more…)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is set to unveil his annual budget proposal this afternoon. Several important education issues are on the table.

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo releases his budget proposal for 2013-2014 later this afternoon, education observers around the state are hoping to have many questions answered.

While Cuomo has made headway on the education policy centerpiece of last year’s budget proposal, teacher evaluations, new issues are arising — including that New York City still doesn’t have a new evaluation system. Meanwhile, there is uncertainty over how much funding districts will receive from the state now that aid increases are determined differently than in the past. And Cuomo’s competitive grants program will likely get a fair share of attention, three weeks after he announced that he would be using grants to fund a slate of ambitious — and pricey — new education programs and services.

Here are three questions that Cuomo’s budget address is likely to address:

1. How much money will there even be? That’s a question that officials at the State Education Department are grappling with from their headquarters across the street from Cuomo’s office. The answer will depend on how conservative Cuomo’s budget officials were when they calculated personal income growth, the data point used to determine how much school aid increases. (more…)

• The city and school bus drivers union are not scheduled to meet about the union’s strike. (Daily News)
• But the drivers union is set to make its case today before a federal labor board. (NY1, Daily News)
• The strike is growing worse for families as the temperature falls; it will be cold all week. (Post, NY1)
• A columnist suggests that the city terminate the bus companies’ contracts for noncompliance. (Post)
• Two of the Republican contenders for mayor remain the only candidates opposing the strike. (Post)
• The city could lose more funds over teacher evaluations. (GS, NY1, Post, Times, DN, WSJ, SchoolBook)
• The timeline issue that ended talks here is not seen as a problem in the rest of the state. (Journal News)
• Chancellor Walcott says blame for the impasse should fall directly on the UFT’s president. (Daily News)
• The Daily News says state education chief John King was wrong to point the blame at Mayor Bloomberg.
• The Post endorses Christine Quinn’s promise to make the city’s customer service more like Zappos’.
• A city education official takes the unorthodox view that students might be better off without school. (Post)
• Some city schools are buying new technology meant to help students with disabilities. (Daily News)
• Nationally, the high school graduation rate has climbed to its highest point in over three decades. (WSJ)
• Prominent educators are supporting teachers who boycotted a Washington State test. (Seattle Times)