GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Chancellor Cathie Black with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at the Brooklyn International School today.

At the end of a week in which students across New York City were supposed to highlight ways they can celebrate each other’s differences and fight against bullying and harassment, city officials announced an expansion of their anti-harassment initiative.

School safety teams will now be required to include a staff member trained in diversity awareness and in efforts to battle bullying and harassment, officials announced today. The city is also collecting some of principals’ most successful responses to bullying, and plans to formally recognize schools with strong anti-bullying programs.

City officials, led by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, have been expanding their anti-bullying efforts — known as the “Respect for All” initiative — since 2009. Since then, elementary school teachers and counselors have joined middle and high school teachers at anti-bullying training, and annual school surveys and quality reviews have begun to rate school on how accepting the environment is. (more…)

The crowd at Harlem Charter Night.

Mayor Bloomberg and Lil Mama cheered charter schools, school choice, and mayoral control of the public schools before a crowd of thousands of parents and students last night.

The mayor and the rapper even shared some tactics. “Do we want more parent choice?” Mayor Bloomberg yelled. “I can’t hear you! Do we want more competition? Do we want better test scores and higher graduation rates?”

Lil Mama was more successful with the call-and-response style. She called “Parent” while the crowd screamed back, “Choice!” “You don’t have to send your child to a regular public school,” the Harlem native said before performing two of her hits, “G-Slide” and “Lip Gloss.” “You can send them to a public charter school.”

While many of the kids seemed most excited to watch Lil Mama perform, a team of volunteers and interns at the pro-mayoral control group Learn NY were on hand to encourage parents to sign a petition supporting mayoral control, and a parade of education officials used the unprecedented crowd size to push their causes. (The legislature will vote on whether to renew the mayor’s control of the public schools in June.) (more…)