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State education officials are pushing their reform agenda with editorial boards, on television and the radio — and now, in teachers’ email inboxes, too.

Last week, Education Commissioner John King sent an email to teachers across the state explaining the State Education Department’s plans to boost student achievement. Under the subject line “We Must Do Better,” the email acknowledges that many teachers are frustrated by changing expectations and curriculum standards and asks educators for advice about what the state can do to help them.

The email was the first of its kind and is part of a stepped-up campaign to fill educators in on the policy changes taking place in Albany, officials say.

“When I became Commissioner last June, I set two goals: one, to help make sure every student graduates from high school college- and career-ready; and two, to make the State Education Department a model government agency focused on customer service,” King wrote in the email. “As part of that effort, I’ll be reaching out as often as possible — through e-mail, Twitter, and other communication tools — directly with educators in the field.”

Other elements of the department’s ramped up communications strategy are already online. (more…)

School closure season began in earnest this week, as city officials began to hold required public hearings at each of the 25 district schools it hopes to shutter. But in contrast to last year’s meetings — where officials often sat impassively as school supporters emotionally protested the closures — officials are now using the hearings to directly respond to attendees’ criticisms and concerns.

At Queens’ Beach Channel High School, which held its hearing Thursday evening, the meeting format had changed, but the anger over the proposed closure — while quieter than last year’s — was still palpable.

At last year’s hearing, vocal supporters of Beach Channel did not turn out in the vast numbers as supporters of other schools slated for closure like Jamaica High School, but those who did were passionate about saving the last zoned high school in the Rockaways.

This year, a smaller but still fervent crowd came to the school to make many of the same arguments. The closure of Far Rockaways High School had flooded Beach Channel with needy students just as the school’s budget began to be slashed, they maintained.  And they argued that the Rockaways community needs a zoned high school, lest students be forced into long commutes to other, overcrowded high schools in Queens.

“Right now there is no incentive to send a local child to this school,” said LaVern Powell, who has taught living environment and human biology at Beach Channel since 2003. (more…)

Hoping to prevent the public outcry that met city officials last year when they tried to shutter nearly 20 schools, the Department of Education has begun holding meetings at schools that may be closed or overhauled next year.

One of the first of those meetings was held at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn last night, where parents, students, and teachers filled the auditorium to hear high school superintendent Aimeee Horowitz explain what could happen next year. Similar meetings have already taken place at Sheepshead Bay High School and John F. Kennedy High School and will continue as the city and state identify more schools they may want to close or significantly change.

Dewey, Sheepshead, and Kennedy are among 23 “turnaround” schools the city has received federal money to improve. This means that next year the city could close the schools and replace them with a district or charter school; it could fire half of their teaching staffs and principals; or it could decide that they are making progress and just need more funding, new programs, and experienced teachers.

DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld said the city has not made any decisions about the schools’ future and likely wouldn’t announce its plans until early December. (more…)

New York City is releasing its annual report cards for every public elementary and middle school tomorrow, and though this event is usually the focus of the week’s news cycle, city officials are trying to keep the release quiet.

Last year, when 97 percent of elementary and middle schools received an A or B on their progress reports, Department of Education officials held a press conference with Chancellor Joel Klein to announce the results. The same was done in 2008. This year, just as the city has changed its formula for assigning the grades and tougher state tests mean more schools will receive a D or F grade than last year or the year before, the DOE is downplaying the release.

There will be no press conference tomorrow. The chancellor, who in years past has taken questions from reporters in public, will spend the day in Washington D.C, according to a DOE spokesman. Instead, reporters have to request a phone interview with DOE Deputy Chancellor for Accountability Shael Suransky and Klein may be made available for some reporters’ calls late tomorrow afternoon.

“The reasoning is that apart from the data itself, the grades schools receive, and which ones receive the grades, there’s no news here,” said DOE spokesman Matt Mittenthal. (more…)

Beach Channel UFT chapter leader David Pecorado spoke against the Department of Education's plan to close the high school, as parents, alumni and other teachers waited behind him to speak.

Parents, students, teachers and alumni of Beach Channel High School asked Department of Education officials last night not to close their school, arguing the phase-out would be arbitrary, unnecessary and devastating for the Rockaway Park community.

The crowd that turned out to Beach Channel’s auditorium for the public hearing on the DOE’s plan to shutter the school wasn’t huge, but it was energized. Audience members jeered at DOE officials, including Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm, and speakers frequently ignored officials’ requests to limit their speeches to two minutes.

When senior Chris Petrillo approached the front of the auditorium, asking to give a presentation originally intended for Chancellor Joel Klein, Grimm initially asked him to wait until after a group of elected officials commented on the proposal. A chant grew in the audience: “Let the student speak.” Grimm ceded the floor.

Petrillo, who spent the evening of his 18th birthday at the meeting, proceeded to present a slide-show of reasons not to close the school, questions about the closure and photos depicting programs cut from the school during his time there.

“Why can’t the money being used to open up a new school be used to fix us?” Petrillo asked. (more…)

Hundreds of Queens residents filled the school's auditorium. Many had graduated from Jamaica or could name family members who had.

An event billed as a question and answer session about the proposed closure of Jamaica High School quickly became a pep rally for the school’s supporters last night. 

Hundreds of angry students, parents, and teachers packed Jamaica’s auditorium last night to protest the Department of Education’s plan to close the school. Chants of “Save our school” and “Four more years” could be heard blocks away and department officials had to fight to explain per-pupil funding and the school’s phase-out plan over waves of boos and shouts.

One of several large high schools marked for closure, Jamaica has struggled in recent years with low graduation rates and a high number of students who have learning disabilities or are recent immigrants and don’t speak English.

In its proposal, which the Panel for Educational Policy will vote on in January, the DOE says it plans to replace Jamaica with two small high schools.

Built in 1927, the school has graduated generations of Queens residents, many of whom turned up last night to defend their alma mater. Many who spoke accused the DOE of underfunding Jamaica while “dumping” some of the most difficult to educate students on its doorstep. (more…)

“The News Media: Ally or Adversary?” will be the topic of a session scheduled for tomorrow in Texas, at a conference for people who are paid to do communications work for school districts (known in the business as “flaks”). The session description:

Working with today’s news media can be challenging with fewer experienced journalists and education beat reporters. With more sensational, negative and inaccurate stories, critical editorials, and reporters who are indifferent to or hostile toward your district, what do you do? This session will explore some strategies for resolving conflicts with reporters and developing a better working relationship with your local news media.

This kind of mirrors Chancellor Joel Klein’s perspective on press coverage of his reforms, as described recently by Richard Colvin: The reporters heard mainly from sources who weren’t Klein. As a result, they wrote very negative — and, according to Klein, inaccurate — stories.

Head New York City press flak David Cantor told me he does not belong to the New York affiliate of the national group, the National School Public Relations Association. “You never want to be in a club that would have you as a member,” he said as explanation.