GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Talking about Barack Obama’s hopes for expanding early childhood education (school for 3- and 4-year-olds) Sam Dillon reports in the Times this morning that, despite efforts to make pre-kindergarten available, New York State’s efforts are “far from complete.” How far? Pretty far. There are two areas to pay attention to: access (how many 4-year-olds are actually enrolled in programs) and quality (are the programs doing real teaching or simply baby-sitting?).

Let’s start with access. New York City advocates told me last year that they estimate demand for pre-kindergarten in the city at about 75,000 4-year-olds. Yet the number of 4-year-olds who are taking part so far this year is 54,000. That represents a steady increase from years past, the Department of Education’s director of early childhood education, Recy B. Dunn, just told me in a telephone interview. But it’s still far away from universal — and it’s also below the number of seats the state agreed to pay for this year, 60,000, a package that would cost just over $230 million, Dunn said. The picture statewide is arguably bleaker. Winnie Hu of the Times reported last year that only 38% of 4-year-olds in the state participated in programs. (more…)

President-elect Obama just announced Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools chief, as his secretary of education. In doing so he suggested that pragmatism, not ideology, will be his guiding principle in navigating the wars inside the Democratic Party over how to improve schools. “Let’s not be clouded by ideology,” he said, praising Duncan’s “deep pragmatism.”

Obama reiterated his support for innovations like merit pay for teachers and charter schools, yet also indicated he may sympathize with the incrementalists in the disrupter-versus-incrementalist debate that George Miller, the chair of the House’s education committee, laid out recently. “We’re not going to transform the schools overnight,” he said.

As Elizabeth wrote yesterday, the next place to watch is the sub-cabinet positions. (more…)

No hint of jealousy in a statement Klein just put out on the news about Duncan:

“Arne has been one of the country’s great school reformers. We’ve worked closely and I consider him tremendously dedicated, smart, and honorable. Our nation’s children will be well served if he’s appointed.”

David Hoff is reporting that the Denver and Chicago schools chiefs are getting background-checked by the Obama administration. How about our own Joel Klein? Through a spokesman, David Cantor, he just gave his answer:

No comment.

Klein also said he expects to be in New York City, which has been his standard answer as his name has been raised as a possible education secretary to Obama.

Background on Arne Duncan is here. Kate Boo wrote a great New Yorker piece on Bennet, which you can read here, but only if you are a subscriber and understand the New Yorker’s new archives, which I don’t. LynNell Hancock also posted a Word document here.

I was just checking out the Obama transition team’s new interactive “Open for Questions” feature and that got me thinking: Didn’t the city Department of Education dip its toes into the world of online question-and-answer features earlier this year?

Back in August, Kelly wrote about how the DOE launched a new feature where parents could submit questions online for top DOE officials to answer. Since then, three DOE officials have posted answers to parent-submitted questions about high school admissions, gifted and talented programs, and instructional programs.

But for more than a month, the “Ask About…” page on the DOE Web site has lain dormant. In fact, it still says that Anna Commitante, the head of gifted and talented programs, is accepting questions through Nov. 5.

A DOE spokesman told me that the feature will return as soon as in the next few days to help parents get answers about middle school admissions.

From today’s AP story:

“Arne Duncan actually reaches out and tries to do things in a collaborative way,” said Randi Weingarten, head of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers.

From Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter, in a report on Bill Gates:

Gates does seem to be weighing in on Obama’s pick for secretary of education. He favors choosing from today’s exciting collection of hard-charging, china-breaking school superintendents. One of those he likes a lot is Joel Klein of New York City, which is ironic considering that, as a Justice Department lawyer in the 1990s, Klein almost succeeded in breaking up Microsoft.

I’ve been taking my head cold to bed long before Stephen Colbert’s Comedy Central show goes on the air, so I was glad to see that Alexander Russo posted about Tuesday night’s featured guest, Roland Fryer. Fryer is of course the Harvard professor who last year became the city Department of Education’s first-ever chief equality officer. His research tests whether cash payments can make students more motivated. This year, Fryer’s cash-for-kids experiment expanded from New York to schools in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Watch the full segment to see Colbert ask — and answer — hard questions like this one:

If Danny gives Johnny $10 to copy his homework, then the teacher gives Danny $50 for turning in his homework for an A, how much money does Danny have left to give Johnny for tomorrow’s homework?

The answer is: Danny has no idea, because it was his math homework.

Also worth noting: During his interview, Fryer doesn’t claim that paying kids for good grades is a sure bet. When Colbert asks if the program is working, Fryer says, “We don’t know yet.” And he says he’ll scale the experiment up to more cities next year — but only “if it works. … If it doesn’t, we’ll try the next innovation next year.”

Talk about a team of rivals.

Campaign K12 discloses the full list of names on Barack Obama’s education policy transition team, which includes two prominent New Yorkers who have sparred on this Gotham ground. Robert Gordon, now at the Center for American Progress, was the Department of Education’s mastermind behind the Fair Student Funding scheme that was supposed to spread education more equitably across schools, so that the schools with the most challenges get the most money. Geri Palast, who heads the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, has criticized the funding scheme as not being equitable at all.

Another big difference: Gordon fought the teachers union to get his funding scheme enacted (and only partially won), while Palast’s organization often works as an ally with the union and (I’m almost positive*) receives funding from it.

Also, this explains why the last time I called Palast she was weirdly in Washington, D.C., and told me she would “explain later.”

*Confirmed! I found a $25,000 contribution listed on the United Federation of Teacher’s 2007 tax filing.

In case you were not fully convinced, it appears that, yes, Teach For America is flexing its muscle to influence Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education pick. The organization is concerned about the possibility that Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who has criticized TFA and is chairing Obama’s education policy committee, could get a prominent role in the Obama administration.

In a mass e-mail today, Teach For America urged alumni to “stay on top of about [sic] what is happening and not happening regarding education reform at the national and local levels.” The e-mail (pasted below) also directed them to the Web site of TFA’s new political group, Leadership for Education Equity, where alumni are invited to post comments on several Web sites (including this one), saying, “Decision makers do watch online reactions.” We hope so!

This is the site’s main graphic:

Here’s the e-mail, after the jump: (more…)

A thousand or more New York City charter school parents are expected to gather in Times Square tonight to urge Barack Obama to send his daughters to charter schools. At the event, they will sign letters to the Obamas making that case. More than 10,000 parents have already signed, according to the groups organizing the event, Democrats for Education Reform and the Black Alliance for Educational Options.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is also expected in Times Square, as is BAEO founder Howard Fuller.

The parents have a local message, too: they want the city to open 32 new charter schools by 2010.