GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

If you weren’t at the GothamSchools party last week, then you missed a real treat: Diane Ravitch reading publicly for the first time from her forthcoming book, ”The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education.”

Reading from a selection titled “What I Learned About School Reform,” Ravitch explained why she has reversed her position on policies from test-based accountability to school choice. (more…)

As Schools Chancellor Joel Klein himself admitted, he’s provided a lot of grist for our site in its first year. His name has appeared more than 5,000 times on GothamSchools, far more than anyone else.

So we were excited when Klein agreed to speak at our party earlier this week. Love him or hate him, Klein is a great party guest.  The chancellor offered some kind words for the GothamSchools community and the role of education journalism.

“I think the work you’re doing —the ability to give people voice, and the ability for people to disagree, to argue, to learn from each other — is enormously powerful, in many ways much more powerful than the daily fare in the daily newspaper,” he said. “And in that respect, what you’ve done has made the process better, richer. I’ve learned from it.”

(Agree with Klein? Here’s how to help.)

For those of you who missed it (or for those who want to relive the magic), here’s a video of the chancellor’s remarks. Take a look:

As the country gears up for President Obama’s surprisingly controversial back-to-school speech on Tuesday, here’s a blast from the past: Ronald Reagan’s November 1988 speech to students, in which the outgoing president encouraged students to “ground yourself in the ideas and values of the American Revolution.” The speech was broadcast on C-Span and shown in classrooms across the country.

Dakarai Aarons at Education Week dug up Reagan’s speech and one given to schoolchildren in 1991 by then-President George H.W. Bush, who sounded the same theme of personal responsibility that Obama has said his speech will cover.

This spring, GothamSchools’ colleagues at Livable Streets Education (like us, an initiative of The Open Planning Project) are teaching students at 15 elementary and middle schools about urban planning and street safety. In this video, Livable Streets Education Director Kim Wiley-Schwartz describes the curriculum, which is tied to state standards, and children from PS 87 on the Upper West Side show off what they’ve learned.

And in case you’re wondering, that’s a speed gun in Wiley-Schwartz’s hand.

With lots of help from former CBS reporter Kerri Lyon, who now works at the Department of Education press office. Here’s the video:

For the last month, After Ed TV has been posting episodes of a reality show, called “School ReDesign.” In the show, education and architecture students, both from Columbia University, team up to sketch out the classroom of the future.

In this week’s episode, the winning design is revealed: A flexible classroom that can be rearranged to meet students’ individual needs and reconfigured depending on the lesson. But the youngest judge, an 8th grader at Tompkins Square Middle School, worries that using the design as it’s intended could distract children and take away from learning time.

Simon Doolittle of After Ed TV was busy this week. In addition to posting an interview with Diane Ravitch, he also made an appearance on the New York Times’ City Room blog with a seven-minute piece about ZeAndre Orr, a Brooklyn fifth-grader who recently competed in a citywide Double Dutch competition.

This fall, Double Dutch became the city’s newest official school sport.

Stephen Colbert, who has in recent months hosted KIPP charter school founder Mike Feinberg, cash-for-grades guru Roland Fryer, and New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, this week spent a few minutes talking with Geoffrey Canada.

Canada, who started the Harlem Children’s Zone, got his message across, loud and clear: Helping poor kids get a good education, go to college, and start careers is great news for the national bottom line.

Who’s the next ed-star Colbert should interview?

[Via This Week In Education]

Spanish Native Language Arts Class at High School for Arts and Business from Diana Scalera on Vimeo.

Here’s a rare peek into an actual classroom at the High School for Arts and Business, where Spanish-speaking students are learning about the literature and culture of their native language by analyzing the lyrics of the song “Guantanamera,” which were adapted from a poem by Cuban hero Jose Marti.

The video was created by Integrated Curriculum and Instruction, one of the city’s School Support Organizations that provides professional development for teachers and other services for their network of schools.

This has been popping up all over the internet, but what better video to post with Election Day fast approaching? If you’re still undecided, perhaps these students from the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, can help you. Here’s a taste of their lyrics:

Lower your Taxes – you know Obama Won’t
PROTECT THE LOWER CLASS – You know McCain won’t!
Have enough experience – you know that they don’t
STOP GLOBAL WARMING – you know that you won’t

And here’s the whole song, performed live.

Ron Clark, the school’s founding teacher, is the author of a best-selling book on teaching, The Essential 55: An Award Winning Educator’s Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child. Check out the blog of the American Prospect for some additional context about the school that might surprise you. Here’s a hint: the school isn’t free.