GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Chicago’s teachers union leadership faces internal challenges over its post-strike gains. (Catalyst)
• A San Jose school found that graduates’ success in college took money and power. (Joanne Jacobs)
• The New York Times wants teenagers to document their lives through photography. (The Lens)
• City principals can get free support for service learning, thanks to a donation. (912 Generation Project)
• The color yellow was chosen for school buses in the 1930s as a way to keep kids safe. (City Room)
• A principal says her school’s bandwidth couldn’t handle students using iPads in class. (SchoolBook)
• Florida is working on plan B for if Common Core-aligned shared tests aren’t ready. (Curriculum Matters)
• A Chicago reporter reveals how one school is psyching students up for tests. (WBEZEducation Twitter)
• City advocates released a handbook about rights and responsibilities in charter school discipline. (AFC)
• A California teacher-leader argues that teacher leadership can help schools get better. (Shanker)

Changes to the Department of Education’s student promotion policy are just one part of a sweeping offensive to prepare schools and families for tougher state tests and lower scores this spring.

In April, elementary and middle school students will take state math and reading tests that are aligned for the first time to new learning standards known as the Common Core. Education officials have warned that the state is likely to see scores plummet as a result, as they did in Kentucky — by 30 percent — when that state first administered Common Core-aligned tests.

In an email to principals on Friday, Chancellor Dennis Walcott offered reassurance that schools and students would not be penalized just because they post lower test scores this year. And he encouraged principals to use parent conferences over the next few weeks to steel parents for the drop-off. (more…)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to have state education officials impose teacher evaluations on New York City would begin in just three months, he announced today in Albany.

Premiering a slate of budget amendments that he will formally propose on Thursday, Cuomo said he would ask legislators to approve an amendment that would allow the state education commissioner to select a plan well in advance of Sept. 1, the deadline for districts to have evaluation plans in place for the 2013-2014 school year.

“What this law will say is that the State Education Department must render a decision by June 1 for the September deadline,” Cuomo said.

In late May, the city and United Federation of Teachers would be asked to submit their proposals for what an evaluation system should look like, according to Lawrence Schwartz, Cuomo’s top aide. But all of the details would be fully up to State Education Commissioner John King, as long as they follow the state’s evaluation law, Cuomo said.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew signaled that he would not mind letting King have the final say on the evaluation system that is adopted in the city. (more…)

A chart from the latest CREDO study about city charter schools shows that students at many charter schools make outsized gains in math. But in reading, charter school students tend fall behind more often, researchers found.

City students benefit from attending city charter schools, according to a new study — but the advantages are not universal.

The study, by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, which analyzes charter school performance, concluded that city charter school students, on average, learn five more months of math each year than similar students in neighboring schools. In Harlem, where the charter school enrollment share is highest, the math gain was seven months, the researchers found.

And in reading, charter school students averaged one month’s additional learning each year, the researchers found. All of the gains were measured by students’ state test scores.

Yet within the sector, some schools did far better than the average — and others far worse. The study found that nearly two thirds of charter schools moved their students forward in math significantly farther than other schools in the area. But a full quarter of charter schools moved their students forward significantly less in reading. (more…)

Students from Bronx Academy of Letters line up to speak at a public hearing last week about changes that are proposed to their school’s building. (Photo: Elana Eisen-Markowitz)

At a public hearing where accusations flew about who is responsible for a South Bronx school’s challenges, only one person stood up to take blame.

“I apologize publicly for not doing what was expected by the community of me,” said William Hewlett, the founding principal of M.S. 203, at a hearing last week about the school’s proposed closure.

The Department of Education announced in January that it would seek to shutter M.S. 203, open since 2001, because of low performance. The middle school’s test scores put it among the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state, and it earned a C grade or lower on its last three city progress reports, which focus on student growth.

As M.S. 203 phases out, the department announced, a charter elementary school, Bronx Success Academy 1, that had shared its building for a year would be able to expand to serve middle school grades. Two other schools in the building — the Urban Assembly Bronx Academy of Letters and P168, which serves students with severe disabilities — would stay on, but with new neighbors. (more…)

• The city will now promote most students who fail state tests and hold back only the lowest-scoring. (NY1)
• Some city school bus drivers say their union struck at the wrong time and did not help them. (Times)
• Chancellor Walcott wants parents to return Metrocards they were given during the strike. (Daily News)
• The Democrats who urged bus drivers to return to work did not actually promise anything. (SchoolBook)
• Gov. Andrew Cuomo could ask to impose a teacher evaluation system on the city on July 1. (Daily News)
• The Daily News lists principles for a Cuomo-imposed evaluation system and says he’s mostly on board.
• A federal panel listed steps American school should take to boost equity in education. (Washington Post)