GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Former New York City schools chancellor Cathie Black gives advice on how to be a boss. (Media Bistro)
• After years of taking no position, Diane Ravitch formally came out against Common Core. (Diane’s Blog)
• In academia, the jury is out on whether homework improves student learning. (District Administration)
• A series of data visualizations to show how sequestration will put the hurt on schools. (Business Insider)
• A Queens teacher was warned by the city to stop working in his school as a custodian. (City Room)
• Advocates say children are being used as pawns in the city’s and state’s teacher evaluation fights. (NBC)
• Survey: Three of four teachers use cell phones as a tool to help their classroom instruction. (Mashable)
• The UFT’s upstart opposition caucus produced a lengthy ad ahead of the union elections. (DOE NUTS)
• Suburban Chicago districts are giving parents a heads up about a likely drop in test scores. (Tribune)
• A college-prep course’s teacher learns her students’ ambitions through storytelling. (GS Community)
• One poll found that an overwhelming majority of teachers support armed guards in their schools. (CNN)

For the first time since 2003, the Department of Education has revised its curriculum recommendations for schools.

The new recommendations are meant to guide schools through the myriad curriculum options on the market to those that best reflect new learning standards known as the Common Core. Students across the state are set to take math and reading tests aligned to the tougher new standards in April.

After scrutinizing 40 programs produced by 19 companies that met the city’s basic standards, teachers and Department of Education officials endorsed elementary and middle school reading and math programs from three of the largest publishing companies, including Pearson, which is also producing the state tests. The city is also encouraging schools to consider adopting literacy curriculums that the state hired two nonprofit organizations, Core Knowledge and Expeditionary Learning, to produce.

Schools don’t have to take the department’s advice. They can use other curriculum programs, including the ones that they have already been using, or create their own materials. Currently, about 70 percent of schools opt to use the city’s recommended curriculums, which for most schools were originally required a decade ago in one of former chancellor Joel Klein’s earliest initiatives.

Teachers union president Michael Mulgrew, who has criticized the city and state for holding teachers accountable for adapting to the Common Core without giving them a curriculum based on the standards, said today’s announcement represented a major step forward. (more…)

J.H.S. 272 social studies teacher Michael Maiglow testifies at a co-location hearing for the UFT Charter School on Wednesday evening.

The strength of the United Federation of Teachers’ opposition to contested co-locations is being tested.

The union has been so hostile to the city’s controversial space-sharing arrangements within school buildings — particularly those involving charter schools — that it sued the Department of Education to put a stop to them. And union organizers have regularly rallied around unpopular co-locations as a potent weapon to discredit Mayor Bloomberg’s education policies.

But in a twist of fate, the union’s own embattled UFT Charter middle school is now set to move into public space where it’s not welcome. Students, teachers and the administration at J.H.S. 292, a 750-student district middle school with a gifted and talented program and robust performing arts offerings, are vehemently against the plan and organizing to reverse it. (more…)

• The Public Schools Athletics League is starting wrestling teams for girls, who already compete. (Times)
• As the city works to clear public schools of PCBs, more schools’ light fixtures are springing leaks. (NY1)
• Schools up for closure, again, have large shares of needy students. (GothamSchools, SchoolBook, NY1)
• Astoria parents are upset about the city’s proposal to trim down a popular gifted program. (Daily News)
• The city is going through with school budget cuts even though the state cannot. (GothamSchools, NY1)
• The family of a Bronx seven-year-old arrested at school is suing the education department, too. (Post)
• The parent council of District 29 in Queens will vote tonight on districtwide school choice. (Daily News)
• The Daily News says the renewal of the UFT Charter School is “a massive failure of accountability.”
• Unlike Mayor Bloomberg, a top federal official says schools should give breakfast in classrooms. (WSJ)
• Philadelphia opened teachers contract talks with an offer of big cuts to pay and protections. (Inquirer)
• Chicago plans to hold charter schools more accountable for their finances and performance. (Tribune)