GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• The UFT has given donations to most of the politicians that signed on to its school closure lawsuit. (Post)
• Recent questions about the city’s crime data veracity sound like those about school gains. (Times)
• Queens politicians are banding together to protect schools that could face closure. (Queens Courier)
• City investigators recommended firing the teacher who’s been in the rubber room for seven years. (Post)
• The KIPP high school’s gym teacher runs a program that pairs students with Columbia athletes. (Times)
• A peace-loving fiberglass cow was stolen from Brooklyn’s Seth Low Intermediate School. (Post)
• School officials cut the ribbon yesterday on a new high school dedicated to sports management. (NY1)

• Many states are going to have big education budget problems without more stimulus funds. (Times)
• Students at Automotive HS can take a class to learn how their food gets to their plates. (Times)
• A teacher accused of molesting several students has been in the rubber room for seven years. (Post)
• Post columnist Andrea Peyser outlines some ways the DOE has proposed tackling the rubber rooms.
• State Sen. Ruben Diaz responded to the Post’s rubber room crusade by decrying DOE policy. (Post)
• Thousands of people turned out for a fair advertising new high schools opening this fall. (Daily News)
• Chapter president Hazel Dukes defends the NAACP’s decision to oppose school closings. (Post)
• Even fewer minority students were accepted to specialized high schools this year. (Times, Post)
• Haven Academy, a charter school, is using donations to help its students who are in foster care. (Times)
• NY1 visits East New York Prep, the charter school facing closure at the end of the school year.
• The A Better Chance Program helps city students get into, and pay for, elite schools. (Daily News)
• The principal who had a student arrested for doodling on a desk says she was in the right. (Daily News)
• A Daily News columnist says NYC principals might have less common sense than their students.
• The Post urges the DOE to send “dopey principals” who discipline excessively to the rubber room.
• The Obama Administration is going to try to outlaw candy, sweets, and soda in schools. (Times)
• Dismal circumstances make life hard for Detroit’s students and teachers. (Detroit Free Press)
• Chicago’s schools are looking to hire a “Culture of Calm” coordinator. (Times)
• A Chicago high school offers students the chance to be trained in stagecraft. (Times)
• A Bay Area charter school that caters to Muslim students gave its founder lavish perks. (Times)
• Early college high schools, of which New York has several, blend high school and college. (Times)

• Principal Ira Weston is out at Paul Robeson HS, apparently for drinking at work. (NY1, Daily News, Post)
• The city says Queens’ IS 190 shouldn’t have had a student arrested for drawing on a desk. (Daily News)
• The principal of Staten Island’s PS 52 apologized for complaining about a student’s toy gun. (Daily News)
• The English Times Educational Supplement takes a long look at New York City’s teacher rubber rooms.
• Arts programs vary widely in quantity and quality across city schools. (Gotham Gazette)
• Elected officials are angry that being homeless forced a student to miss a Regents exam. (Daily News)
• With Columbus HS closing, nearby Truman and Lehman are worried about the impact. (Bronx Times)
• Los Angeles officials are unsure about whether to allow a Hebrew language charter school. (L.A. Times)
• The Times says USDOE should tweak NCLB but should be careful not to weaken the law.
• The key to boosting student performance could be increasing recess time. (Christian Science Monitor)
• Psychologist Dan Willingham says linking salaries to test scores will cause bad behavior. (Boston Globe)

• A Staten Island principal called home when a student brought in a 2-inch toy gun. (Daily News, Post)
• Shelter check-in rules caused a HS student to miss the last exam she needed to graduate. (Daily News)
• A new charter school opening up in Riverdale has kept a low profile. (Riverdale Press)
• To save money, the city will try to close day care centers in gentrified neighborhoods. (Times)
• The Upper East Side will get a new elementary school to cut down on crowding. (Times)
• Students and parents at the Clinton School protested against the school’s move last week. (The Villager)
• Letter-writers weigh in on teacher misconduct, in and outside of the rubber rooms. (Post)
• The head of the New York Civil Rights Coalition questions the NAACP’s school closure suit. (Daily News)
• In Los Angeles, communities vote on what should happen to low-performing schools. (L.A. Times)
• Philly students do have HS choices, but most can’t take advantage of them. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Jay Mathews showcases a teacher’s critique of D.C.’s teacher evaluation program. (Washington Post)
• In cities nationally, charter schools are more racially segregated than other schools. (Washington Post)
• Amsterdam News Editor Elinor Tatum writes an open letter to Dennis Walcott about school closures.

• The typical Race to the Top judge is “a former female teacher from the Northeast who has a PhD.”
• Norm Scott has footage of the time the DOE turned off the microphone when the NAACP was talking.
• The DOE released its guide to the new high schools that will be on view at this weekend’s fairs.
• Joel Klein is a co-chair of the Education Equality Project. Al Sharpton is not.
• Obama’s budget could require states that receive Title I funding to link teachers and student test scores.
• Quick & the Ed looks at what might happen if tenure decisions were made entirely off value-added scores.
• Chad Aldeman also disputes Ravitch’s argument that the city’s small schools serve fewer at-risk students.
• A charter school can’t move into a Gowanus industrial warehouse, voted a Brooklyn community board.
• And Bronx Mom wonders how schools can keep students engaged, even in times of budget cuts.

• State ed chief David Steiner said the state would take years to recover from Gov. Paterson’s cuts. (AP)
• Paterson’s proposed budget would cost the city schools 8,500 jobs, Joel Klein reiterated. (WNYC)
• Klein also begged lawmakers for rules that would make it easier for teachers to be fired. (Post)
• State Sen. Carl Kruger told Klein not to ask for help without taking lawmakers seriously. (Daily News)
• More than 3,000 charter school parents lobbied lawmakers. (Albany Times-Union, GothamSchools)
• Gov. Paterson told charter school parents that he’ll continue to push for more charters. (AP)
• A charter parent advocate argues that charter schools are again getting deeper budget cuts. (Daily News)
• The principal of JHS 226 in Queens was knocked out while intervening in a student fight. (Post)
• More on that fourth-grade fight club in Queens: The two teachers say nothing happened. (Daily News)
• Students at Parkchester’s PS 106 were allowed to move from dingy trailers into the school. (Daily News)
• Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch likes Harold Ford for Senate, to her brother’s chagrin. (Times)
• The city’s oldest Catholic school will definitely close in June, the New York Archdiocese said. (NY1)
• Supporters of abstinence education have been invigorated by the new study showing it can work. (Times)

School officials outlined a plan to change the way city schools serve students with disabilities at a closed-door meeting this morning with special education advocates.

The plan’s first step: Telling schools they have to accept, and “embrace,” students with special needs.

“For too long, educating students with disabilities has meant separating them from their general education peers,” Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said in a statement. “Today we are building on the premise that every school must be able to educate the vast majority of these children.”

That premise represents a badly needed advance for the city schools, according to special education advocates.

“The principles in [the plan] are wonderful, but they’ve been law forever,” said Maggie Moroff, who coordinates the ARISE Coalition but was not speaking on the coalition’s behalf. “The overarching goals are exactly what they ought to be, it’s just that in my mind they’re not so novel.” (more…)

• The UFT is set to file a lawsuit today to stop the 19 school closures approved last week. (Daily News)
• The new NCLB could give districts funding based on progress, rather than demographics. (Times)
• Charter leaders say they’ll give up on New York if the state doesn’t get more supportive soon. (Times)
• A teacher found to have spoken lewdly to a student has sat in the rubber room for almost 10 years. (Post)
• The head of NYPD’s School Safety Division was promoted to another position. (Daily News)
• The Daily News says the many people who spoke at last week’s PEP meeting weren’t representative.
• The city wants to make it harder to get a top progress report grade. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News)
• A Daily News survey says school lunches in the city are still full of unhealthy components.
• The yummy lunches at Harlem’s Promise Academy Charter School continue to be healthy. (Daily News)
• A city program that gives summer jobs to more than 50,000 teens is at risk from budget cuts. (Daily News)
• A former member of Joel Klein’s team will lead Teach for America in Providence. (Providence Journal)
• More D.C. residents don’t like Michelle Rhee, even as they say the schools are better. (Washington Post)
• A study released last week says many states keep bad teachers and send good ones away. (AP)

• Massive layoffs like those Mayor Bloomberg is floating would seriously disrupt the school system. (Times)
• Teachers don’t like the position Bloomberg’s cuts-for-raises offer has put them in. (Daily News, NY1)
• Reorganizing the DOE’s back-end bureaucracy will save $13 million, the city said. (GothamSchools)
• Juan Gonzalez: The fervor to open charter schools could breed more East New York Preps. (Daily News)
• Michael Mulgrew seems to be striking a combative stance as the UFT’s new president. (City Hall News)
• Newtown High School held a rally to protest its position on the state’s list of failing schools. (Daily News)
• Last year’s switch to low-fat milk in the schools saved children from lots of fat and calories. (Post)
• President Obama’s goal of revising the NCLB law is a lofty one in a tough year for lawmaking. (Times)
• In Haiti, where 97 percent of schools were destroyed, officials want to restart classes next week. (Times)
• Los Angeles released a new school “report card” aimed at making comparisons easier. (L.A. Times)

• Even after hours of public comment, many students and parents feel the PEP didn’t hear them. (Times)
• Students and teachers in the Columbus HS building respond, with sadness, to the closings. (NY1)
• The communities at other schools also took the closure news hard. (Post)
• Bloomberg’s jobs-for-pay raise offer suggests he’s now bargaining in public with the UFT. (Times)
• District 2’s parent council voted to rezone but keep most of Tribeca together. (Downtown Express)
• The Daily News: The UFT’s sabotage of the state’s Race to the Top bid went deeper than the charter cap.
• A Stuyvesant HS student is the only city finalist in a prestigious national science competition. (Post)
• A lawyer says the city should stop resisting and let churches use schools on the weekend. (Daily News)
• A fourth teacher at James Madison HS has been arrested for inappropriate sexual behavior. (Daily News)
• Advanced Placement courses are being revised to emphasize concepts, not facts. (Washington Post)
• Cities see strife as they try to accommodate new immigrants in integrated schools. (Wall Street Journal)