GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

For years, the High School for International Business and Finance has been one of four schools in the George Washington campus, each named the High School for Something and Something. But over the summer, the school changed its name, rebranding itself as College Academy.

New York City public schools can re-name themselves only by jumping through a series of bureaucratic hoops that ultimately lead to Chancellor Joel Klein’s final approval.

Once a principal approves or initiates a change, it’s voted on by the parent association, which then passes it on to the school’s superintendent. In cases where a school is part of a community school district, the superintendent makes a recommendation to the community education council, which holds a public meeting and then votes on the change. But for most high schools and other schools that are not zoned for a district, the decision goes straight from the superintendent to Chancellor Klein. (more…)

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan defended himself yesterday to critics of one of the centerpieces of his federal education policy — his practice of staging competitions to reward student progress or new ideas.

Duncan’s approach, which inspired his signature Race to the Top grant program, has drawn criticism from advocates like the NAACP, some state leaders and even members of Congress. His critics say that a policy that awards funds based on anything other than student need will inevitably leave some districts behind.

During Duncan’s visit to the state teachers union headquarters in Albany yesterday, those concerns surfaced again, this time from a teacher from Newburgh. Patricia Van Duser told Duncan that school districts like hers depend on the reliable funding that the federal education department doles out to schools based on need.

Van Duser worried that her district’s finances could be jeopardized if the federal government moves towards a more competitive model as the Obama administration plans its overhaul of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

“You really need that to be formula-driven, not competitive-driven,” she said. (more…)

• The Yankees briefly offered a back-to-school promotion for a game on the first day of school. (Post)
• Ed Sec Arne Duncan praised New York’s reforms in Albany. (GothamSchools, Daily News, Post, WNYC)
• Last night’s Panel for Educational Policy meeting reprised conflict over test scores. (NY1)
• An all-girls charter high school opened in Albany yesterday, the state’s first. (WNYC)
• New Orleans parents want to see more racial diversity now that there is more school choice. (NPR)
• Seattle and its teachers might have agreed about using test scores in evaluations. (Seattle Times)

• Tracking down South Bronx students eight years later, with disappointing results. (Robert Pondiscio)
• A kindergarten teacher’s son was murdered by one of her former students. (Baltimore Sun)
• An inspiring story about a student who tried, failed, and tried again. (Pissed Off Teacher)
• A historical argument for why translating memos to parents is a really good idea. (Tablet)
• Unpacking the New York Post’s high school rankings. (Leonie Haimson)
• Budget documents suggest the city is cutting funds to lower class size. (Norm’s Notes)
• The Economic Policy Institute finds issues with score-based value-added evaluations. (Answer Sheet)
• Race to the Top and the problem of trying to do too much at once. (Sara Mead)
• Why D.C.’s mayoral primary is “a caution for overcaffeinated fans of mayoral control.” (Rick Hess)
• What teachers really want: Well-rested students. (Dan Willingham)
• D.C.-area schools are growing more diverse, maybe because of the recession. (Washington Examiner)
• Or maybe because schools are actively recruiting white families. (Washington City Paper)
• And congratulations to Elizabeth! She’s writing a book based on “Building a Better Teacher.” (Russo)

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (right, blue shirt) and NYSUT President Richard Ianuzzi listen to a teacher at a roundtable at NYSUT's Albany headquarters today.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Teamwork was the watchword as U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan took his national back-to-school bus tour to Albany today.

Duncan has taken to the road to celebrate teachers, and to convince them that his reform efforts will not undercut their interests.

In New York, many teachers are still skittish of a new teacher evaluation plan that will, for the first time, allow school districts to judge them based on their students’ test scores. The state and city teachers union struck the agreement with state education officials in May, in part to improve the state’s Race to the Top application.

And so, in appearances at the state teachers union headquarters and the State Capitol, Duncan and state officials emphasized that New York’s reform policies are the result of a team effort between state education officials and its teachers unions. Those policies won the state nearly $700 million in federal Race to the Top funds last week.

“Where other states were not able to reach consensus, New York was,” Duncan said. (more…)

With fewer dues-paying members, the United Federation of Teachers is renting out space in its downtown headquarters to help cover its operating costs. (Photo via Flickr)

The bags of swag at the city teachers union’s regular conferences might be lighter this year, the catered dinners less lavish. The recession has caught up with the union and it’s beginning to cut back.

Hit with the combination of a two-year hiring freeze and typical teacher attrition, the United Federation of Teachers has lost roughly 2,000 members in the last year. With them has gone about $2 million in dues.

On top of the membership decline, the union is now funding programs that the state used to support. This year, the state legislature cut all $16 million of its funding for the Teacher Center, a professional development program that trains teachers at over a hundred city schools. To keep a cut-back version of the program going, the UFT has had to kick in $5 million of its own money.

“In many respects, you can say the economy caught up to us,” said the union’s Chief Financial Officer David Hickey. “We’ve done okay in the last couple of years. And so it did, it got us.” (more…)

• Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s back-to-school bus tour visits Albany today. (Washington Post)
• Duncan makes his argument for why states should release data on individual teachers. (Daily News)
• Teachers aren’t happy about the release of value-added rankings for 6,000 of them. (L.A. Times)
• Teachers whose students score high are rarely recognized or emulated. (L.A. Times)
• New Jersey’s fired education chief says he isn’t to blame for losing Race to the Top. (WSJ)
• The Times says states shouldn’t stop reforming education now that Race to the Top is over.
• Twelve of the state’s 16 persistently dangerous schools are in New York City. (Post, Daily News)
• Teachers flock to back-to-school shopping at Barclay School Supplies in Brooklyn. (Times)
• The new principal of the largest high school in Portland, Ore., is from New York City. (Oregonian)
• Five years after Katrina, charter schools dominate New Orleans. (Christian Science Monitor, WSJ)
• Online credit recovery is attractive because it’s fast and inexpensive. (Chicago Tribune)
• D.C. schools closed the achievement gap less this year than in recent years. (Washington Post)

• N.J. Gov. Chris Christie fired his education chief over his costly Race to the Top goof. (Star-Ledger)
• Christie previously blamed federal officials for not checking the clerical error. (NYTimes)
• But USDOE released video showing that the state didn’t give the right data when asked. (USDOE)
• Nine of the 12 winning RttT applicants were supported by Gates Foundation grants. (State Ed Watch)
• Former city schools Chancellor Rudy Crew is “not there yet” in his support for RttT. (Russo)
• La. schools chief Paul Pastorek says most state ed departments aren’t designed for reform.  (Rick Hess)
• And Arne Duncan will appear at the state teachers union on Monday to talk teacher evaluations. (T-U)

And in other news:

• A parallel between Mayor Lindsay’s fire department and Mayor Bloomberg’s schools? (NYSun)
• A Mississippi middle school has ended its race-based rules for class election eligibility. (Jezebel)
• A group of parents write to President Obama opposing the federal turnaround strategy. (Answer Sheet)
• And a portrait of how New Orleans schools have changed since Katrina. (EdWeek)

New data on the increasingly popular ACT college-entrance exam show that city students’ scores have risen to meet the national average, but the gains are spotty.

Since 2005, the average city student’s score has crept from 19.9 to 21.4 — a modest gain, but one that carries weight on an exam that’s only 36 points in total. The bulk of the progress has come from the city’s Asian and white students, while black students’ scores have risen slightly. Hispanic students’ average scores have shown little change, dropping by a third of a point. (more…)

Race to the Top:

• Eastern U.S. states dominated Race to the Top’s winners. (Times)
• New York was one of them, receiving $696 million. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News)
• New York City could see as much as $300 million of that. (Daily News, Post)
• The state would have placed third even if it hadn’t raised the charter cap. (Daily News)
• State education officials have ambitious plans for using the funds. (GothamSchools, WNYC)
• Actually seeing all the money depends on serious follow-through. (Wall Street Journal)
• New Jersey missed out on funding because of a data goof, and officials are angry. (AP, Post)
• The Post says the real Race to the Top win came in May when the charter cap was lifted.
• The Daily News says the hard work of making sure the reforms are successful is yet to come.
• Josh Greenman: Teachers unions were the only losers in Race to the Top. (Daily News)

News from New York City:

• City unions want the city to use a federal education job fund to rehire laid-off school aides. (Daily News)
• City teachers spend even more of their own money on their classrooms since funding was cut. (CNN)
• Principal Mark Federman is sleeping in a tent to raise money for his Manhattan high school. (Daily News)
• A Queens secretary spent $10,000 of school funds on her own expenses. (Post, Daily News)
• Employees at Manhattan’s PS 149 misused $30,000 and kept $10,000 in a cabinet. (Post, Daily News)
• After a fight, Girls Prep Charter School will open its middle school in a private space. (WSJ, Times)
• The city has launched a campaign to increase GED test-taking. (NY1)
• A teacher at a Brooklyn charter school was arrested for sexually assaulting a student. (Post)
• Two recent reports undercut the idea that Mayor Bloomberg is a good manager. (Gotham Gazette)
• Some say a state test given this summer glorified Islam and criticized Christianity. (Post)

And beyond:

• Ed Sec Arne Duncan’s goal of overhauling 1,000 schools is foundering because of logistics. (Times)
• Duncan also wants more states to release individual teacher data. (L.A. Times, Washington Post)
• White voters in New York State let school budgets take bigger hits than non-white voters. (Times)
• Thomas Friedman wants readers to see the edu-reform documentary “Waiting for Superman.” (Times)
• Stuart Buck argues that history shows segregated schools are superior. (Daily News)
• Jerry Weast, the longtime schools chief in Montgomery County, Md., is retiring. (Washington Post)
• Two students from New Orleans highlight the wide range in school quality post-Katrina. (NPR)
• Louisiana is getting $1.8 billion for schools that were destroyed in Katrina. (Times)
• Debate is raging over whether chocolate milk should be served in school cafeterias. (Times)