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Keoni Wright, an East New York parent, speaks on Saturday at a StudentsFirstNY backing new teacher evaluations.

The scene was familiar, but the rallying cries and signs were a departure.

More than 100 parents and organizers from StudentsFirstNY filled the steps of City Hall on Saturday to demand that the teachers union cooperate with the city on an evaluation deal before a deadline that could cost the city $300 million in state aid.

“What do we want?” shouted Darlene Boston, who has been working to organize parents in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn to support StudentsFirstNY’s policy agenda. “Great teachers!” they replied.

“When do we want them?” Boston shouted back. “Now!” they said.

When education advocates protest outside City Hall, it is usually with an ensemble of union leaders, City Council members, and other elected officials. And more often than not, they are criticizing policies favored by Mayor Bloomberg, the man who governs the city from the building behind them.

But no elected officials showed up at Saturday’s rally — and organizers said none was invited. Parents came mostly from neighborhoods in Central Brooklyn and Harlem, areas where StudentsFirstNY is trying to build a base. And while the mayor’s name was not uttered, it was clear that he was not the target of their protest.

The target was the continuing lack of new teacher evaluations in New York City, which StudentsFirstNY and Bloomberg have blamed on the United Federation of Teachers. (more…)

The United Federation of Teachers’ latest idea for stopping sex abuse in schools is “disingenuous shell game” aimed at protecting teachers who misbehave, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott charged in an unusual weekend letter to the union’s president, Michael Mulgrew.

The letter, released to the press Sunday afternoon, came in response to Mulgrew’s proposal that the city reexamine how it screens school workers as a strategy to curb a recent spate of sex abuse case. Mulgrew made the suggestion to members of the City Council on Friday.

But all school workers already go through a rigorous examination before they are hired, Walcott said, and what the city needs is more freedom to fire those who are found to have behaved inappropriately once they are working in city classrooms. Walcott has been arguing that point strenuously in recent weeks to push a bill that would give the chancellor, rather than independent arbitrators, the power to fire teachers in sex abuse cases.

The bill, which would affect at most a handful of teachers, has gained little attention in Albany and is unlikely to pass before the legislative session ends Tuesday. (more…)

Arnold Duncan, meet Albany. Whaddya think?

This is the question Governor Paterson and state lawmakers are trying to figure out right now, 48 hours from the deadline for the federal Race to the Top competition.

They’re spending the final hours mulling whether to pass legislation that — depending on who you talk to — would either bolster the state’s chances of winning the race, and as much as $700 million, or would be a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” imperiling New York’s odds, as Mayor Bloomberg said in a strongly worded statement this afternoon.

The legislation being circulated right now would double the charter school cap to allow 200 new schools in the state. It would also severely rewrite how the schools are opened and closed and in which neighborhoods they’re allowed, following many of the suggestions proposed by the teachers union last week. These include eliminating the city’s power to authorize charter schools, as well as that of the most respected authorizer, the State University of New York, which even authorized the UFT’s own charter school.

(Read the latest legislation here.) (more…)

Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education in Albany just sent around this TV-watching guide to reporters:

Campaign for Better’s Schools’ Zakiyah Ansari will be on ABC this Sunday morning at 11 AM with Diane Sawyer.  The segment was filmed today, and features a moderated discussion about mayoral control with Zakiyah, Peter Hatch from Learn NY and Tamara Rowe from the Parent Commission.  Tune in and check it out!

UPDATE: It’s not Diane Sawyer hosting the debate, but Diana Williams, of Up Close with Diana Williams on Eyewitness News 7.