GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• A member of MORE says he’d promote desegregation as education secretary. (Indypendent)
• Linking zero-tolerance discipline to Chicago’s school-to-prison pipeline. (In These Times)
• A photo project tracking Detroit’s decline includes vivid pictures from schools. (Fast Company)
• Inspirational “Kid President” says, “boring is easy…You’re gooder than that.” (Soul Pancake)
• Sonia Sotomayor is saddened as her alma mater Catholic high school closes. (CityRoom)
• On digital page 6 of this Quinn profile, Bloomberg is quoted sounding impolite. (New York)
• After a NewsHour documentary, Rocketskip is changing the way it blends learning. (KQED)
• A veteran Democracy Prep official is replacing departing Seth Andrew. (Democracy Prep)

City educators gave out answers to state test questions, inflated Regents exam scores, and coached students to change incorrect responses dozens of times in recent years, according to reports from a slew of investigations into test improprieties.

Responding to a Freedom of Information Law request by GothamSchools for information about complaints about test security, the Department of Education released 97 reports from investigations that concluded violations had taken place. The reports were completed between 2006 and 2012 by the Department of Education’s Office of Special Investigations and the independent Special Commissioner of Investigation.

Thirty-eight of the reports documented relatively minor violations of administrative protocol. In multiple cases, for example, investigators found that teachers had photocopied exam books when there were too few before getting official permission.

But 59 of the reports substantiated allegations about cheating, some of them serious.

One of the people found to have participated in cheating in a newly released report told GothamSchools today that an administrative trial ultimately concluded that no misconduct had taken place. The department did not immediately provide details about what happened in the cases after the investigations were over. (more…)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mark Page, his budget director, testified in Albany today about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget, which would penalize the city again for not adopting new teacher evaluations.

ALBANY — New York City would have to cut 2,500 teaching positions over the next two years under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget plans, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told lawmakers this morning.

Appearing at a hearing about Cuomo’s budget proposal, Bloomberg focused on the school aid that would be withheld because the city and teachers union have not agreed on new teacher evaluations. The city already lost out on $240 million in state aid this year as a consequence of missing a Jan. 17 deadline that was written into law and could lose another $224 million next year if Cuomo goes through with his plan to tie school aid to evaluations again.

The cost of that penalty would be severe, Bloomberg told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, forcing cuts to city schools’ spending on personnel and programming.

Bloomberg blamed the UFT, again, for the city’s shortfall and also criticized the State Education Department, which is threatening to penalize the city further by withholding some resources for high-need students.

But during a fierce exchange with Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, who chairs the education committee, the blame also landed briefly on Bloomberg himself.

Nolan pointed out that Bloomberg had supported the law that paved the way for the union and the city to reach a deal on evaluations last February. She recited Bloomberg’s comments at the time the law was passed (“This is a win-win-win for the kids and for the adults”).

“Don’t you feel some responsibility for this disaster?” she asked. “And it is a disaster.” (more…)

Walid Rahman, a senior at Townsend Harris High School, was recently admitted to Columbia University. His family has struggled with poverty, illness, and homelessness.

Walid Rahman was homeless from the time he was four until he was 10. He moved from couch to couch as his family struggled to earn a living while caring for Walid’s terminally ill father.

But Walid, an 18 year-old senior at Townsend Harris High School in Queens, refused to let any of that stop him. He is determined to find a cure to beat his father’s illness. The first step for him is getting out of poverty and getting into a top college. Even though there are over 70,000 high school seniors across the country this year who are like Walid — low-income and qualified to attend a top college — they make up only 3 percent of the population at elite colleges and universities.

The odds were stacked against him.

Hard Beginnings

Despite the Rahmans’ numerous hardships, the family considers their circumstances a blessing from God.

The Rahmans, originally from Bangladesh, feared for their lives during Walid’s childhood. A criminal blackmailed the family, leaving them the choice to give up their business and lose everything or have Walid kidnapped. For Mr. Rahman, the choice was obvious.

His family believed they could rebuild their lives in the United States. They entered the visa lottery and were chosen.

When the family arrived in America, they had nothing. (more…)

• The Common Core standards’ tougher tasks for kindergarteners are inducing anxiety in some. (Post)
• A man who was removed from the classroom in the late 1990s is still in the rubber room today. (Post)
• High school decision letters, delayed by Sandy, won’t come until private school tuition is due. (WSJ, NY1)
• Even as they are under pressure to serve healthier food, schools are buying more pizza than ever. (Post)
• The city plans to open new schools inside two large Queens high schools it failed to close. (Daily News)
• Parents and children are still under pressure as the city’s school bus strike enters its third week. (WSJ)
• Mayor Bloomberg brokered a bus strike talk for today that he won’t attend. (Post, WSJ, SchoolBook)
• A plan to have students with disabilities ride buses with other students is raising concern. (Daily News)
• Seniority rights, whose intended end prompted the strike, are important in bus drivers’ culture. (Times)
• In court, a 9-year-old confronted the former P.S. 87 teacher’s aide charged with abusing him. (Post)
• A Memphis educator accused of running a teacher certification fraud ring rejected a plea deal. (Times)
• Manhattan’s private Ideal School is set to launch a student-created Civil Rights Museum. (Daily News)