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Item(s) found: 730
NYC Schools Parents Bill of Rights
Date CapturedMonday February 14 2011, 9:49 PM
Parents have the right to: 12. consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in the student’s education records, except to the extent that Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Chancellor’s Regulation A-820 authorize disclose without consent.
NYC P-3 SCHOOL FAMILY HANDBOOK
Date CapturedSunday February 13 2011, 5:39 PM
See page 19 for information deemed appropriate to release about 4 year old CHILDREN.
CONFIDENTIALITY AND RELEASE OF STUDENT RECORDS; RECORDS RETENTION
Date CapturedSunday February 13 2011, 3:13 PM
This regulation supersedes New York City Chancellor’s Regulation A-820 dated July 8, 2008. Changes: • The regulation was revised to conform to amendments to federal regulations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”).
Schools Wait, Teeth Gritted: Their Grades Are Coming
Date CapturedSaturday September 01 2007, 9:31 AM
NY Times reports, "Making good on a promise to hold educators more accountable for student performance, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will oversee the distribution of report cards for each of the city’s schools next month. Each school (and by extension its principal) will receive a letter grade in the mail, and the grade and the data that led to it will be posted on the Web, where parents can see and possibly stew over them. Mr. Bloomberg described the grades as part of 'the most sophisticated achievement data system in the nation, which will allow us to focus on how well individual students are learning.'"
QUEENS PARENTS: OUR SCHOOL'S A MAJOR HAZARD
Date CapturedSaturday September 01 2007, 9:25 AM
NY Post reports, "Angry parents at a Queens elementary school questioned yesterday why portions of the building resembled a hazard zone just days before it was set to open - and whether the rushed project was done aboveboard."
Critics Ignored Record of a Muslim Principal
Date CapturedWednesday August 29 2007, 7:19 AM
NY Times contributor Samuel G. Freedman, professor of journalism at Columbia University opines, "What Ms. Almontaser has done — as a private citizen, not in her classroom — is assail the Bush administration for its domestic surveillance and for its Middle East policies. She has said that desperation and oppression contribute to terrorism. You can disagree with her positions and still not believe they should be the basis for destroying her career."
CITY'S SAT SCORES SINK
Date CapturedWednesday August 29 2007, 6:38 AM
NY Post reports, "In a year that saw more students and more minorities than ever taking the most popular college-entrance exam, education leaders pointed to the upswing in participants as both a positive trend and also a contributing factor to the overall decline."
SCHOOL 'HOT LINES' GO COLD: GOTBAUM
Date CapturedWednesday August 29 2007, 6:20 AM
NY Post reports, "Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said employees at district offices, which are designed to serve as one-stop information centers on issues like transportation and enrollment in public schools, were largely unavailable or unresponsive to nearly 100 calls from her office last week. At nearly half the districts her team contacted, phone calls went unanswered or were not returned, according to the report. As a result, Gotbaum said she is launching an education hot line, at (212) 669-7250, to fill in the information gap."
City's learning curve
Date CapturedTuesday August 28 2007, 7:24 AM
NY Daily News opines, "As Klein said in an interview with Children's PressLine for Queens News, ' ... new ideas are worth trying. And if they don't work, you move on.'"
FACING SCHOOL VIOLENCE
Date CapturedSunday August 26 2007, 9:29 AM
NY Post opines, "All in all, 16 city institutions were added to the list of "persistently dangerous" schools, from which federal law mandates students have the opportunity to transfer. Only two schools in the entire rest of the state enjoy that dubious distinction. Now, before New Yorkers sound the alarm about a renewed school-violence epidemic, some perspective is required: In a system of more than 1.1 million students, 5,000 assaults aren't all that many."
Education Department fixes busing rules
Date CapturedSaturday August 25 2007, 10:08 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Education officials are tweaking several of the school bus eligibility rules that turned last year's route shakeup into a full-blown fiasco. A much-criticized rule requiring students to live a quarter of a mile from a bus stop to receive service - suspended during the debacle - will be scrapped starting this school year. And to prevent young kids from riding public transportation by themselves, students in second grade or under who receive MetroCards can request yellow bus service instead."
Take it from a teacher: We need merit pay
Date CapturedThursday August 23 2007, 9:00 AM
NY Daily News op-ed contributor and NYC teacher ARIEL SACKS opines, "When Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg talk about performance pay, let's not blindly defend the status quo. Let's start developing a performance pay plan that makes sense to educators, students - and the age in which we live."
THE CHARTER DIFFERENCE
Date CapturedThursday August 23 2007, 8:03 AM
NY Post op-ed contributor Malcolm A. Smith, state Senate minority leader and founder of two public-charter schools opines, "Her [Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby] team also found that public charters disproportionately serve poor and minority students. In fact, nearly 70 percent of New York City's 12,000 charter-school students are black, vs. 32 percent of the city's general student population. Ninety-one percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, compared with 73 percent citywide. In practical terms, this means that the most rapidly improving public-school students in New York City are black, poor or both. Charter schools are standing the traditional racial-achievement gap on its head. At a time when less than half of the city's black and Latino students graduate with a Regents diploma, and those who do lag four grade levels behind their high-income peers, these results should get our attention."
Supporters of NYC Arabic school want founding leader reinstated
Date CapturedTuesday August 21 2007, 10:34 AM
Newsday reports, "School organizers have said religion will not be taught at the school, which will focus instead on Arabic language and Arab culture. There are a number of city schools that focus on a specific topic or culture. Officials have said they plan to open the academy on schedule on Sept. 4 despite statements by its vocal critics equating it with a madrassa, an Islamic religious school, and portraying it as a potential radical training ground.''
STANDARDS AID CUNY STUDENTS
Date CapturedMonday August 20 2007, 7:15 AM
NY Post op-ed contributor Alfred Posamentier, dean of the School of Education at City College-CUNY opines, "To allow students to enter a course without proper preparation is to do them a major disservice, setting them up for failure. It's best avoided with a proper admission requirement. An increase in standards at CUNY blocks no one from a college education, since anyone with a high-school diploma can qualify for admission. Those who cannot meet the new mathematics standards can simply enroll at one of CUNY's community colleges, where they can prepare to meet the standards."
'OUI' CAN'T DO IT -- LANGUAGES NOT TAUGHT
Date CapturedMonday August 20 2007, 6:49 AM
NY Post reports, "Members of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's task force on middle schools said last week that the Department of Education isn't complying with state requirements that students study at least two years of a foreign language by the end of ninth grade. 'Right now, the Department of Education is not even meeting the minimum requirements for language in intermediate school, and that's not acceptable.' said Councilman Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan). The task force said the city should ensure that all schools comply with the state requirements by 2010."
Americanization 101
Date CapturedSunday August 19 2007, 10:34 AM
NY Times op-ed contributor Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation opines on the Khalil Gibran International Academy, "Shanker said: 'If public schools become places where children learn that, fundamentally, they are not American, there will be no reason for taxpayers to continue supporting them. And there will be little to hold society together.' Ten years after Shanker’s death, this remains wise counsel."
MIDDLE MANAGEMENT -- $5M BOOST FOR WORST SCHOOLS
Date CapturedTuesday August 14 2007, 7:25 AM
NY Post reports, "The moves come on the recommendation of a task force created to tackle what educators have described as a 'crisis' of declining student achievement and escalating violence in middle schools. The initiatives are aimed at improving the learning and social environment for the schools' struggling students, officials said. The reforms would add the guidance counselors and related social supports, providing free teacher training at high-need schools and introducing advanced-level courses to all city middle schools by 2010. Speaking at Manhattan's JHS 44 yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein also announced the appointment of former Brooklyn Region 8 instructional leader Lori Bennett to the newly created role of director of middle-school initiatives."
School Translators Can Help Parents Lost in the System
Date CapturedMonday August 13 2007, 8:37 AM
NY Times reports, "Forty-two percent of the parents of children in the school system [New York City schools], the country’s largest, are not native English speakers, and communicating with them is an immense challenge. That is especially the case at a time when the system is offering ever-increasing school choices but is also requiring students to go through a complex admissions process for high school and certain programs. So prodded by advocates for immigrants, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein created a unit three years ago to translate a never-ending flow of school documents, like press releases, report cards and parent surveys, into the eight languages most commonly spoken in New York, after English: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, Arabic, Urdu, Korean and Haitian Creole. It has since expanded to an office with 40 employees and a $4.5 million budget, and is the largest of its kind in any school system in the United States, said Kleber Palma, the unit’s director."
MIKE'S TIMELY VETO
Date CapturedMonday August 13 2007, 7:57 AM
NY Post opines, "The issue is the controversial ban on cellphones in public schools, which was only really enforced starting last year. The mayor is a chief supporter of the ban, arguing that cellphones in schools are both distracting and, at times, dangerous. And he's right: Not only are phones a serious classroom disruption, but they've also been used to cheat on tests, bully, deal drugs and coordinate gang activity."
Truth about School Construction Authority
Date CapturedFriday August 10 2007, 9:13 AM
Queens Courier letter to editor contributor Joel I. Klein, Chancellor of New York City Public Schools opines, "We are pleased that Senator Padavan, and environmental advocates, recognize that our present environmental review vastly improves on procedures in place before this administration. The Bloomberg Administration remains committed to protecting public interest and safety."
Are City [NYC] Vocational Education High Schools Being Left Behind?
Date CapturedFriday August 10 2007, 8:55 AM
NYC Independent Budget Office Fiscal Brief -- August, 2007.
MIKE KOS CELLS IN SCHOOLS
Date CapturedFriday August 10 2007, 8:25 AM
NY Post Maggie Haberman reports, "Mayor Bloomberg yesterday vetoed a City Council bill that would let parents give kids cellphones to carry to and from school as part of a battle over letting students have them inside the buildings."
City schools plan anti-violence event
Date CapturedThursday August 09 2007, 7:20 AM
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports, "City School District officials announced plans Wednesday for a communitywide violence prevention workshop next weekend. The three-day event will begin with a candlelight vigil and community parade at Wilson Magnet High School on Aug. 17 and will conclude on Aug. 19 at the city's annual Peace Festival, which is scheduled at the High Falls Festival Site."
BOOKS BEFORE BREAKFAST
Date CapturedThursday August 09 2007, 7:13 AM
NY Post opines, "Only 29 percent of students enrolled in city schools' free and reduced-cost lunch programs also take advantage of the schools' free breakfast, according to a recent report. To hear Gotham's 'hunger' advocates tell it, this portends a humanitarian crisis. Funny, we thought that students turning down free food is a fairly good indication that they're, well, not hungry."
BREAKFAST FLUB
Date CapturedWednesday August 08 2007, 6:35 AM
NY Post opines, "Twenty-nine percent of kids from low-income families - or about 150,000 of the more than 750,000 students eligible for free or discounted meals - take advantage of the breakfast program. About 65 percent do so at lunch. Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, called on the city to expand participation by serving breakfast in classrooms, rather than cafeterias."
CITY PRINCIPAL IS 'REVOLTING'
Date CapturedMonday August 06 2007, 8:10 AM
NY Post reports, "Almontaser, a community activist and Muslim, has said the new grade 6-12 public school will be modeled on other dual-language city schools and have no religious component. But the shirt sales are giving new ammunition to critics who fear Almontaser's school will teach a biased view of Middle Eastern history."
Charters pass big test
Date CapturedTuesday July 31 2007, 8:59 AM
NY Daily News opines, "The opponents often argue that charter children do better than kids in neighborhood schools because they come from homes where adults are focused on education. In other words, charter kids have an advantage largely because grownups push them to succeed. This, it turns out, is myth. The truth is that charter schools are simply doing better jobs at education. So says a groundbreaking study that should be required reading for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and everyone else who has fought to limit the number of children who can attend a charter school."
KLEIN SETS A RECORD
Date CapturedTuesday July 31 2007, 8:35 AM
NY Post opines, "Klein, with Bloomberg's strong backing: * Undertook to break up decades of bureaucratic infrastructure - sundering longstanding political alliances and an gering union leaders by the score. * Eliminated the corrupt community school boards, imposed a tougher new curriculum, demanded and got stricter performance standards - and put an effective end to social promotion. * Raised basic standards and expectations at the earliest grade levels and installed no-nonsense discipline to remove violent troublemakers from classrooms. * Encouraged the development of charter schools as an innovative way to challenge the long-accepted notions of education that clearly have not been working. * Demanded the same accountability and responsibility from teachers - and principals - as he has set for himself."
Time for a surge in war to save our kids
Date CapturedSunday July 29 2007, 9:18 AM
NY Daily News guest essayist Colin Powell, former U.S. secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and founding chairman of America's Promise Alliance opines, "Research shows that when young people receive four of five basic resources, which we call the Five Promises - caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, effective education and opportunities to help others - they are twice as likely to receive A's in school, twice as likely to avoid violence and 40% more likely to volunteer. Together, we must ensure that 15 million more at-risk American young people experience these promises. Don't look at young people who are angry or adrift, standing on some city streetcorner, and think they're someone else's problem. They're not. By volunteering to help in this battle, you can help us win the war."
Picture the arts in schools
Date CapturedSunday July 29 2007, 9:07 AM
NY Daily News opines, "Building on an existing plan detailing curriculums in music, dance, theater and visual arts, ArtsCount adds accountability to the mix. It spells out, year by year, what arts training every student must receive. It will measure how good that instruction is. And it will note the results in annual school report cards, just like reading and math."
City hatches nest egg savings plan for foster care grads
Date CapturedFriday July 27 2007, 8:34 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The five-year pilot anti-poverty program is designed to teach those on the verge of leaving the foster care program financial skills because they don't have relatives to lean on when they exit the system. Roughly 1,000 young adults age out of foster care annually, and many end up homeless, unemployed or in low-wage jobs."
KLEIN PLAYS FAVES: FOES
Date CapturedFriday July 27 2007, 7:59 AM
NY Post reports, "The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, whose 14-year-old lawsuit won billions of extra education funding for the city over the next four years, said some of the cash won't reach the struggling schools it's supposed to help."
Pols dial up school fight
Date CapturedThursday July 26 2007, 10:16 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Hoping to force the Education Department's hand, the City Council passed legislation yesterday restating the right of children to use cell phones traveling to and from school."
THE CITY OF NEW YORK OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER BUREAU OF MANAGEMENT AUDIT : AUDIT REPORT ON THE MONITORING AND TRACKING OF SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Date CapturedThursday July 26 2007, 9:55 AM
MD06-073A -- June 29, 2007. "Based on our findings, we make nine recommendations, five of which are listed below. DOE should: Develop and enforce written formal policies and procedures to ensure that services are provided according to the provisions of each student’s IEP. Develop policies to ensure that all attendance forms and summaries are maintained as evidence of services provided. Ensure that providers fill in all required information on the special education attendance forms and sign the forms as certification of the delivery of services. Ensure that supervisory review of attendance records is performed and documented. Institute a control (e.g., periodically reconcile special education attendance forms with general education attendance forms) to help ensure that the days that services are provided are accurately recorded."
THOMPSON: DEPT. OF EDUCATION FAILING TO MONITOR, TRACK AND DOCUMENT PROVISION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES
Date CapturedThursday July 26 2007, 9:51 AM
Thompson’s audit found a pattern of flaws so severe that many students sampled often didn’t get required services when providers were absent. Examples of the flaws included records that were inadequate and incomplete, and records showing students getting services on days when schools were actually closed.
SPECIAL-ED WOE
Date CapturedWednesday July 25 2007, 8:42 AM
NY Post Chuck Bennett reports, "The audit reviewed the records of 89 mainstreamed special-ed students during the 2004-05 school year. It found sloppy record-keeping and no formal rules for monitoring the delivery of services."
Fighting toxic school sites
Date CapturedTuesday July 24 2007, 7:17 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Toxic school sites could soon come face to face with a potent enemy - angry, protective parents."
SCHOOLS BRUSHING UP ON THE ARTS
Date CapturedTuesday July 24 2007, 7:02 AM
NY Post Chuck Bennett reports, "'I didn't want the arts to be a throwaway. I didn't want the arts to be some add-on, some feel-good thing. I think arts education is critical,' Klein [NYC schools chancellor] said. He added that $250 million in this year's school budget will go toward arts education, including the hiring of 141 new teachers. More students also will be eligible to receive an Arts-Endorsed Regents Honors diploma for taking a concentration in arts classes."
Chancellor Answers Critics on School Financing Data
Date CapturedWednesday July 18 2007, 8:34 AM
NY Times reports, "The city (New York City) this month said that it would use nearly half the funds to reduce class sizes. Detailed figures released by the city yesterday showed how much extra financing school districts and individual schools would receive, but still did not specify where class sizes would be cut. Critics say the distribution raises the question of whether schools that are relatively high-performing are getting too much of the money."
New school plan for aid, smaller classes
Date CapturedWednesday July 18 2007, 7:21 AM
NY Daily News reports, "More than $133 million will go to 688 schools that historically received less funding per student than similar schools. The rest will be steered to various citywide programs to improve teacher quality and reduce class size."
RACE-BIAS FLAP IN ELITE-HS TEST PREP
Date CapturedMonday July 16 2007, 6:23 AM
NY Post reports, "A free course offered by the city Department of Education to train students to ace admissions tests at elite public high schools like Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech has been quietly enforcing separate standards for blacks and Latinos compared with whites and Asians for the past decade, The Post has learned. Asian and white students had to be 'free-or reduced-lunch eligible' to qualify, according to department guidelines - meaning a white or Asian student from a family of four with an annual income above $37,000 was too rich for the program. Black and Latino students had no such family-income requirements."
Smaller schools work well in NYC
Date CapturedSunday July 15 2007, 12:33 PM
Murray B. Light, former editor of The Buffalo News opines, "Truancy, discipline problems, substance abuse and gang involvement show great improvement. The level of student activity in extracurricular school also is much higher and more varied in the small schools than in the larger ones. The report also shows that student attendance was better in the smaller schools and that a smaller percentage of students dropped out of the smaller schools than the larger ones."
'PS' I LOVE YOU: $80M IN GIFTS GO TO SCHOOLS
Date CapturedSunday July 15 2007, 7:10 AM
NY Post reports, "Public schools are cashing in. The New York City school system netted about $80 million in private donations in Fiscal Year 2007. About $34.2 million came in through the Fund for Public Schools, a non-profit organization and the biggest provider of private money to the $15 billion school system."
Teachers, on Paper: The Chancellor’s View
Date CapturedSaturday July 14 2007, 9:55 AM
NY Times op-ed contributor Joel I. Klein, Chancellor, New York City Department of Education responds to “So Much Paperwork, So Little Time to Teach,” by Samuel G. Freedman. Klein writes, "He [Freedman] turns 'paperwork' into a dirty word. But when teachers track student performance, they can spot trends, tailor instruction to the needs of students and take corrective action. We have worked to eliminate busywork and have created easy-to-use tools that give teachers constructive information that makes them more effective. Our city is attracting, and holding on to, great teachers, and they are making a difference for our children"
The Education Gadfly
Date CapturedFriday July 13 2007, 11:06 AM
A Weekly Bulletin of News and Analysis from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation -- July 12, 2007, Volume 7, Number 26 . Gotham City showdown: Ravitch and Cantor on NYC reading scores. Diane Ravitch's June 7 Gadfly article took the New York City Department of Education to task for hyping the most recent reading scores for students in grades 3-8. "The scores," she wrote, "were mainly flat or declining." And the much-ballyhooed rise in eighth-grade reading "downplayed the curious fact that eighth grade scores were up across the state." Her interpretation drew a critical review from David Cantor, the NYC Department of Education's Press Secretary. His critique and Ravitch's response follow.
Concerns on NYC's Contract for Excellence
Date CapturedFriday July 13 2007, 9:59 AM
Patrick Sullivan, member of the Panel for Educational Policy opines, "The absence of a coherent plan demonstrates a lack of willingness to be held accountable for overcrowding. No one wants the mayor and chancellor to fail in their efforts to improve our schools. However, if they continue their refusal to plan for and spend new state funding as intended, the state must hold them accountable."
How Hard Can It Be to Teach? The Challenges Go Well Beyond the Classroom
Date CapturedWednesday July 11 2007, 5:53 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN writes, "The daily work in schools is so hard that most educators in the system do not distinguish between the chancellor’s office and the mayor, the labor unions and state government, the teachers’ contract and the federal No Child Left Behind law when they complain, frequently, that the 'system' is against them. Forces above and beyond school level often make the work in classrooms more difficult. And the work in classrooms is difficult enough."
Just a hint of gain for empower schools -- Joel's pet program shows slight boost
Date CapturedMonday July 09 2007, 10:17 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Chancellor Joel Klein created the empowerment school program at the beginning of the 2006 school year to give principals more independence in spending and instruction. A total of 332 principals signed on. Although the difference between empowerment school averages and those of other city schools is only a few percentage points, the Ed Department sees the scores as a signal that giving principals more autonomy works."
SCHOOL BATTLE OVER CLASS SIZE
Date CapturedMonday July 09 2007, 9:34 AM
NY Post reports, "Advocates yesterday slammed the city Department of Education for not putting up a five-year strategy to reduce class size as part of its plans to spend $4.7 billion in additional funding for schools."
FUROR OVER SCHOOLS SITE
Date CapturedSaturday July 07 2007, 7:10 AM
NY Post reports, "The plaintiffs, a coalition of environmentalists and community residents, are worried about the engineering controls to contain the toxins. They fear that some of the controls, such as a ventilation system to disperse toxic fumes or using plastic caps to isolate contaminated soil, could break down over years. But, without a long-term monitoring plan, no one would know, Palmer said. The site is contaminated by mercury, lead and benzene, a suspected carcinogen. The city committed $30 million to clean up the 6.6-acre site, which over the years had been home to an industrial laundry, a rail yard, gas station and gas manufacturing facility. That cleanup effort is under way."
CITY EYES 1,300 NEW TEACHERS
Date CapturedFriday July 06 2007, 10:27 AM
NY Post reports, "The city wants to hire 1,300 new teachers to reduce class sizes, using some of the millions of dollars in extra school funding it wrangled from the state, the Department of Education said yesterday."
$80M still not enough
Date CapturedFriday July 06 2007, 9:43 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The education department's new $80 million student-tracking computer system just got more expensive - and some parents are questioning whether that's the best use of the money. To ensure that children's test scores and other private data don't get into the wrong hands, the city began accepting bids this week from companies that specialize in safeguarding information, which experts say could add several million dollars to the system's price."
'ID LEAK' FEAR IN $80M ED. COMPUTER
Date CapturedFriday July 06 2007, 8:26 AM
NY Post CHUCK BENNETT reports, "Now education officials are worried that the info, ranging from a child's achievement record to family income to Social Security number, could be at risk when teachers, principals and support staff download information or access it from shared computers. The system 'makes available to inexperienced users an enormous amount of extremely sensitive data about students and staff,' the Department of Education said in a request for proposals seeking a fix."
Money for Nothing
Date CapturedMonday July 02 2007, 8:26 AM
NY Times Op-Ed contributor BARRY SCHWARTZ opines, "Obviously, the intrinsic rewards of learning aren’t working in New York’s schools, at least not for a lot of children. It may be that the current state of achievement is low enough that desperate measures are called for, and it’s worth trying anything. And we don’t know whether in this case, motives will complement or compete. But it is plausible that when students get paid to go to class and show up for tests, they will be even less interested in the work than they would be if no incentives were present. If that happens, the incentive system will make the learning problem worse in the long run, even if it improves achievement in the short run — unless we’re prepared to follow these children through life, giving them a pat on the head, or an M&M or a check every time they learn something new. Perhaps worse, the plan will distract us from investigating a more pertinent set of questions: why don’t children get intrinsic satisfaction from learning in school, and how can this failing of education be fixed? Virtually all kindergartners are eager to learn. But by fourth grade, many students need to be bribed. What makes our schools so dystopian that they produce this powerful transformation, almost overnight?"
Small Schools Are Ahead in Graduation
Date CapturedSaturday June 30 2007, 8:35 AM
NY Time JULIE BOSMAN reports, "Graduation rates at 47 new small public high schools that have opened since 2002 are substantially higher than the citywide average, an indication that the Bloomberg administration’s decision to break up many large failing high schools has achieved some early success. Most of the schools have made considerable advances over the low-performing large high schools they replaced. Eight schools out of the 47 small schools graduated more than 90 percent of their students. One campus of small schools at the old Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, for example, reported a 92 percent four-year graduation rate this month. In 2002, 40 percent of its students graduated."
What Yesterday's Supreme Court Decision Means For NYC Schools
Date CapturedFriday June 29 2007, 6:44 PM
The Politicker's Andrew Mangino writes, "That profoundly insightful excerpt is proof that the court — or at least one middle-road justice on it – is trying to update the law for the 21st Century. Justice Kennedy here is calling for community forums to solve the issues with new solutions that consider race but do not give it more weight than it deserves at the cost of other factors ranging from heritage to economic background to ideological perspective. It is advice directly aimed at a city like New York."
Patrons’ Sway Leads to Friction in Charter School
Date CapturedFriday June 29 2007, 9:04 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, "The Reichs said the problem was that the board was 'constituency-based' and that they wanted members with practical skills like fund-raising or public relations instead. To get the changes, they threatened in a strongly worded letter to cut off their support unless all but three of the board members resigned. Among those told to quit were five parent and faculty representatives. At a board meeting last month, parents lashed out at the Reichs, angrily describing their relationship as that of master and servant or landlord and tenant."
Union to Help Charter Firm Start School in the Bronx
Date CapturedThursday June 28 2007, 8:46 AM
NY Times reports, "Green Dot Public Schools, a charter school operator from Los Angeles, is seeking to expand into New York with the cooperation of the teachers’ union. Under the proposal, Green Dot, which is heavily financed by the billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, would open a high school in the South Bronx. The school, which must be approved by the state, would become one of only a handful of charter schools in the city to use a union contract."
Not in our school's backyard
Date CapturedThursday June 28 2007, 8:35 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Junior High School 113 parents received notices this week that the city will install one of its new Alternative Learning Centers in the basement of the Fort Greene school. It will be one of 28 such programs slated to open in city schools in September. The centers are revamped versions of Superintendent Suspension Sites, catering to students suspended by superintendents for six to 90 days."
Bloomberg's Misguided Pay-the-Student Plan
Date CapturedSaturday June 23 2007, 6:15 PM
Huffington Post contributor Diane Ravitch comments, "From the point of view of society, the plan is wrong because it tears at the social fabric of reciprocity and civic responsibility that makes a democratic society function. Should we pay people to drive safely? Should we pay them to stop at red lights? Should we pay citizens for doing the things that good citizens do on their own? The pay-for-behavior plan is anti-democratic, anti-civic, anti-intellectual, and anti-social. It is the essence of the nanny-state run amok."
Dollars for scholars
Date CapturedThursday June 21 2007, 9:01 AM
NY Daily News opines, "Using money to encourage students to achieve runs counter to cherished beliefs about the value of schooling, including the not unimportant notion that maybe, just maybe, kids should appreciate learning for its own sake. But what if the plan works? What if it starts to break through the perverse culture that mocks kids who love to learn? What if young people score real, sustained gains?"
MAYOR MIKE'S POVERTY PERVERSITY
Date CapturedThursday June 21 2007, 8:26 AM
NY Post contributor Nicole Gelinas, contributing editor at City Journal writes, "The program doesn't do anything to address social dysfunction: the normalcy of single motherhood in the targeted neighborhoods, and the fact that kids grow up in such a difficult home environment that they have a hard time learning when they finally get to school - something $5 for a kid to take a test can't help. Worst of all, the mayor's program makes the dangerous assumption that a focus on specific behaviors can replace the traits - self-motivation, personal responsibility and, contrary to the Bloomberg cash offers, an ability to delay gratification - that are behind those behaviors. Bloomberg may instead send an unintended message to the truly dependent among the poor that the government owes them money just to participate minimally in society."
His Charge: Find a Key to Students’ Success
Date CapturedThursday June 21 2007, 8:17 AM
NY Times reports, "His [Roland G. Fryer] first job, though, he said, will be to mine data — from graduation rates to test scores to demographic information — to find out why there are wide gulfs between schools. Why, for example, does one school in Bedford-Stuyvesant do so much better than a school just down the block? And he will monitor the pilot program to pay fourth- and seventh-grade students as much as $500 for doing well on a series of standardized tests. That program will begin in 40 schools this fall. He hopes to find other ways to motivate students. 'I don’t know what it is, but I will tell you what it can’t be,' Dr. Fryer said. 'It can’t be what happened when I was in schools, you know, people come and say, you know, "Go to school and get a good job."’ Words like that, he said, were not enough, because 'this dream that we are all talking about is less tangible to people who have not actually seen someone making the dream real.'”
'POOR' JUDGMENT -- PAYING FOR GRADES FAILS OUR KIDS
Date CapturedWednesday June 20 2007, 8:13 AM
NY Post columnist Andrea Peyser opines, "Kids whose parents chose to (a) stay married or (b) work three jobs aren't eligible for this program, which, so far, will be funded with private donations. We're not talking chump change. A student could earn $50 just for getting a library card. Two hundred bucks for visiting the doctor. And $600 a pop - up to $3,000 - for passing five Regents exams. Parents can climb aboard the gravy train, too, raking in dollars just for climbing out of bed and attending parent-teacher conferences, or holding a job. Make no mistake. This payoff is just for kids living below the poverty line. Middle-class families who want to buy new sneakers or indulge in a cold six-pack on a Saturday night need not apply."
. . . AND PAYING THE POOR
Date CapturedWednesday June 20 2007, 8:06 AM
NY Post opines, "Think of it this way: A student isn't successful because he holds a library card; he gets a library card because it contributes to success. More troubling, though, is the corrosive effect payola will have on struggling people who believe that virtue at least should be its own reward - and who are trying to inculcate such values in their own children. Bottom line: Bribery certainly can have an impact. But it's rarely wholesome."
Schools Plan to Pay Cash for Marks
Date CapturedTuesday June 19 2007, 9:56 AM
NY Times reports, "Sol Stern, a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, called the idea a[n] 'insult to every hard-working parent.' Mr. Stern has said he would support paying teachers more to work in low-performing schools. But he cautioned against giving too much credence to the notion that money would prod students. He said the mayor was being a 'sucker for the market system.'”
Endangered After-School Programs
Date CapturedTuesday June 19 2007, 9:37 AM
NY Times opines, "More than 200 after-school programs serving kindergarteners through high-school students will have to drastically reduce operations or close unless $30 million can be raised before September. In New York City, the fate of 118 after-school programs, serving almost 20,000 children, is up in the air."
20,000 'CLASS' ACTS
Date CapturedTuesday June 19 2007, 9:07 AM
NY Post reports, "Nearly 20,000 candidates applied for 1,725 teaching-fellow slots at city schools this year, the Department of Education announced yesterday. The 19,846 applications equaled a 17 percent jump over last year's response to the program, which recruits teachers and other professionals from nonteaching backgrounds. They are given special training and offered subsidies to study for master's degrees. The program focuses on subjects with a shortage of qualified teachers, such as math, science, special education and English as a second language."
PAY-THE-POOR PLAN: 3G TO PASS 5 TESTS
Date CapturedTuesday June 19 2007, 8:57 AM
NY Post Maggie Haberman reports on Bloomberg's plan, "Gibbs [Deputy Mayor] said it would cost 'hundreds of millions' if the program works without a hitch and the city decided to try it on a broader basis after two years."
Bloomberg to pay the poorest to learn and work
Date CapturedTuesday June 19 2007, 8:43 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The city is dangling a big fat carrot in front of New York's poorest kids, offering them $600 for every tough Regents exam they pass as part of Mayor Bloomberg's ambitious $53 million anti-poverty program. And it's not just hitting the books that pays off. Families who do what's right - such as going to the doctor, getting a job and even showing up for parent-teacher conferences - can make between $4,000 and $6,000 a year, tax-free."
Kids' buses ride a road to peril
Date CapturedMonday June 18 2007, 8:20 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Overall, The News found numerous flaws in the system that's supposed to ensure the buses are safe for city school kids: *Buses breaking down days after winning passing grades from city and/or state safety inspectors. *Drivers saying they are forced to drive unsafe buses. *Bus companies knowing ahead of time about supposedly unannounced inspections."
DOE Officials Field Parents' Questions At Town Hall Meeting
Date CapturedSunday June 17 2007, 10:59 AM
NY1 reports, "Parents with questions about their children's schools got some time with Department of Education officials Saturday. Chief Family Engagement Officer Martine Guerrier led a town hall meeting, open to all parents, at Brooklyn Tech High School in Fort Greene. "
SCHOOL WEAPON-SCAN 'SUCCESS'
Date CapturedSunday June 17 2007, 9:41 AM
NY Post reports, "Students checked more than 1,500 guns, knives and other dangerous items at the door at New York City schools this year - down 18 percent from last year."
Good News on Math
Date CapturedFriday June 15 2007, 9:54 AM
NY Times opines, "The new scores won’t be considered fully legitimate until New York’s students are judged on the federally backed National Assessment of Educational Progress. That’s the country’s most rigorous exam and the yardstick for measuring state standards and tests. Even so, all signs suggest that the city and state are on the right track."
It all adds up to success
Date CapturedWednesday June 13 2007, 10:15 AM
NY Daily News opines, "Next year, Bloomberg and Klein are giving teachers the ability to closely track how well students are learning, so those who lag can get immediate special attention. And the mayor and chancellor are giving parents report cards that will grade how individual schools are working. The trends are moving in the right direction after years of stagnation, and the innate abilities of thousands of kids are finally being unlocked."
New York City math scores climb
Date CapturedTuesday June 12 2007, 7:46 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "Fourth-graders did better than last year, but their 74.1% passing rate was less than their peers in 2005, when 77.4% passed. This year's eighth-graders had the highest passing rate since 1999 with 45.7% passing, compared with the previous high of 42.4% in 2004. In 1999, 2000 and 2001, less than 23% of eighth-graders passed. Sol Stern, a frequent Bloomberg critic and a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said the scores 'are better than being flat,' but grumbled: 'If that's all you can produce with 15 extra school days [the sum of 37-1/2 minutes over a year], 4 billion extra dollars, thousands of extra teachers and a greater emphasis on test preparation, I don't think it's spectacular. It's not worth the Nobel Prize.'"
Plan to pay kids for grades sees success, and suspicion
Date CapturedMonday June 11 2007, 1:36 PM
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE reports, "The cash-for-kids incentives that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Education officials are considering in a bid to boost attendance and marks are similar to what the 2,000-student district in Coshocton, Ohio, has tried for three years. And so far, so good, according to Conshocton's School Superintendent Wade Lucas."
A+ on school safety
Date CapturedSunday June 10 2007, 10:04 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Schools have experienced a 33% drop in serious crime, a 40% decline in weapons changes and a 50% drop in sexual assaults since the NYPD took over security five years ago, Kelly [Police Commissioner] notes. This academic year alone, the NYPD has seized 23 guns, 111 pellet guns, 224 knives and 135 box cutters. The department has placed a mix of regular police officers and NYPD-trained school safety agents, who are not armed, in city schools."
Cash is cool: Mike
Date CapturedSaturday June 09 2007, 8:12 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Mayor Bloomberg defended a controversial proposal to pay kids for high test scores yesterday, but said there are no specific plans to make it happen."
Manhattan: Money to Support Parents in Schools
Date CapturedFriday June 08 2007, 8:19 AM
NY Times reports, "Robert Jackson, the chairman of the City Council Education Committee, yesterday proposed a $3.2 million budget outlay to support programs that encourage parent involvement in public schools."
It's a cash course
Date CapturedFriday June 08 2007, 8:12 AM
NY Daily News Juan Gonzalez writes, "Under the unusual program, pupils in as many as 400 autonomous public schools that are part of Chancellor Joel Klein's Empowerment Schools program will be rewarded with money for results. Fourthgraders would get $25 and seventh-graders would get $50 for nailing a perfect score on a new battery of assessment tests from CTB/McGraw-Hill. The new assessments, announced by the Department of Education last week, will be administered a whopping five times a year to all city students from the third to the eighth grades. This will be in addition to the existing high-stakes New York state English language and math tests, though the McGraw-Hill tests are not meant to determine student placement, officials say. Under the cash incentive plan, all participating students will receive smaller amounts of money just to take the McGraw-Hill tests, according to internal Department of Education memos obtained by the Daily News."
City Nonprofit Group Gets Money for Merit Pay at Charter Schools
Date CapturedThursday June 07 2007, 10:05 AM
NY Times reports, "The United States Department of Education has awarded a $10.5 million grant to a New York City nonprofit group to create merit pay systems in 10 local charter schools, local and federal education officials announced yesterday. The grant, to be spent over five years, will allow the charter schools to pay annual performance bonuses of up to $8,000 for school supervisors, $6,000 for teachers and $2,000 for aides."
‘Failing’ schools to get axe - DOE decides to reshuffle the deck once more
Date CapturedMonday June 04 2007, 11:08 AM
Bay Ridge Courier reports, "Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced plans to revamp 'failing' alternative schools and programs due to poor attendance and success rates. To be eliminated are schools for pregnant girls, New Beginnings centers, which take in disruptive students, and many schools operated by Offsite Educational Services (OES), the alternative high school system that helps students earn General Equivalency Diplomas (GED) and offers small learning environments."
My faith is in cash; City's public education stinks, so I gave Catholic schools $22.5M
Date CapturedSunday June 03 2007, 9:19 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "Wilson, who was married but has no children, is himself the product of public schools. But that was back before teachers were unionized, he said. Wilson angered city teachers union President Randi Weingarten when he used the announcement of his big gift last month to blame unions for the problems with schools. And, during his 90-minute sitdown with The News, he continued his assault, repeatedly knocking unions for 'feather-bedding' and creating a 'rigidity' that hurts kids. He said he wants to help Catholic schools both because he thinks they're better and because they're 'under siege' from unions determined to 'deprive them of a shred of government money.'"
Testing students & teachers; An $80 million system to scrutinize student performance is scrutinized
Date CapturedSaturday June 02 2007, 8:54 AM
NY Daily News opines, "The critics are naysaying. Randi Weingarten, president of a teachers union whose members' strengths and weaknesses will be placed on view: 'How much teaching time is this eating up?' The head of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing: 'We've reduced schooling to preparing for bubble tests.' Kids in struggling schools and knee-jerk critics of education reform: When will they ever learn?"
OH, MANN! PREP SCHOOL GAGGED
Date CapturedFriday June 01 2007, 7:55 AM
NY Post reports, "Posh Riverdale prep school Horace Mann is giving its students an education in totalitarianism. The student newspaper The Record was banned from publishing two letters to the editor as well as an op-ed piece about the firing of Professor Andrew Trees."
POL PAL FINED ON 'PRINCIPAL'
Date CapturedFriday June 01 2007, 7:43 AM
NY Post reports, "A Bronx principal got a very expensive civics lesson when he was slapped with a $5,000 fine for using an official letterhead to endorse two political candidates, officials disclosed yesterday."
Report shows schools' progress under No Child Left Behind Act
Date CapturedThursday May 31 2007, 7:55 PM
AP reports, "Almost half the eligible schools in New York received ratings of 'High Performing/Gap Closing' for the 2005-2006 school year under the No Child Left Behind Act, state education officials said Thursday. The 1,658 public schools, 14 charter schools and 288 public school districts got the designation for meeting all applicable state standards and showing adequate progress in English and math for two years. They included 1,120 elementary schools, 301 middle and 251 high schools. Another 220 public schools, six charter schools and 26 districts were designated 'Rapidly Improving' -- about 6 percent of those eligible -- because they were below state standards in at least one subject but improving. The 148 elementary, 44 middle and 34 high schools improved for three straight school years."
TESTS SYSTEM E-ASIER
Date CapturedThursday May 31 2007, 8:49 AM
NY Post reports, "In a sense, it is like the Police Department's CompStat crime analysis tool for the classroom. And the data makes it easier for administrators to keep an eye on how teachers are performing, Klein said. For instance, if a disproportionate number of students get the same question wrong, that could be an indicator that a teacher needs coaching. Students and parents will also be given special accounts to go online and access individual results. All test results - whether taken on paper or on computer - will be online within five days. The system was designed by McGraw-Hill Companies and Scantron. It will eventually be incorporated into an even larger, $80 million database being developed by IBM that tracks results on all standardized tests. Teachers can create their own periodic assessment tests but can still track them on the database. They can also choose from a menu of ready-to-go assessment tests. Previous tests were 'one size fits all,' Klein said.
New York Is Top State in Dollars Per Student
Date CapturedWednesday May 30 2007, 9:23 AM
NY Times reports, "Nationwide, public school districts spent an average of $8,701 per student on elementary and secondary education in the 2005 fiscal year, 5 percent more than in the previous year. New York, which also came in highest last year, spent $14,119 per student, followed by New Jersey at $13,800, Vermont at $11,838 and Connecticut at $11,572."
GOLD-PLATED SCHOOLS
Date CapturedFriday May 25 2007, 10:11 AM
NY Post opines, "To be sure, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have made some gains in New York's schools. But the tax burden - in the suburbs and upstate in particular - has long since passed acceptable levels. The state's economy, outside Manhattan, is suffering dearly for it. Bottom line? Potential investors in New York - the kind who create jobs - got a heads-up from the Census Bureau yesterday: Look elsewhere."
Pay the poor for good behavior?
Date CapturedThursday May 24 2007, 7:56 AM
The Christian Science Monitor opines, "The value of Bloomberg's plan is that its incentives approach reinforces an emerging political consensus on how best to help the poor. The New Deal and Great Society programs generally didn't require people to change behavior to get assistance – thus the birth of the 'welfare queen.' But the welfare reform of the last decade showed that people really do want to do for themselves; they just need an incentive, or a consequence. Not only did plunging welfare rolls prove that point, but so has another incentive-based tool for the poor: the Earned Income Tax Credit. That direct payout is available only to whose who work. Studies show it has reduced both family and child poverty."
$CHOOL HOLY WAR
Date CapturedThursday May 24 2007, 7:36 AM
NY Post reports, "The atheist philanthropist who gave the New York Archdiocese $22.5 million for Catholic school scholarships yesterday blasted the city's public school system as 'lousy.' Robert Wilson laid the blame for the state of the public schools on the United Federation of Teachers, the union that represents teachers at city schools. Wilson, 80, told Bloomberg News that his huge donation 'was a chance for a very modest amount of money to get kids out of a lousy school system, and into a good school system.'"
A GLIMMER OF HOPE
Date CapturedThursday May 24 2007, 7:26 AM
NY Post opines, "Previously, English as a Second Language (ESL) students didn't have to take the reading test until after their third year in a U.S. school. In New York City, this meant a sudden jump in students taking the test despite not being proficient in English - from 24,000 last year to nearly 55,000. Obviously, kids still learning the language will have trouble passing an English reading test. Factor out those students, and the city's third-grade pass rate is virtually unchanged from last year. The total results for all kids in grades 3-8 in city schools were also virtually unchanged - 50.7 percent passing last year, 50.8 percent this year. Take ESL students out of that mix, and it becomes a rise from 53.2 percent to 56 percent."
Klein smears immigrant kids
Date CapturedWednesday May 23 2007, 8:23 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Mayor Bloomberg and his schools chancellor, Joel Klein, have reaffirmed that old Mark Twain saying about the three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics. Using a PowerPoint presentation filled with glitzy graphs and color charts, Klein reached a new low yesterday by attempting to blame a sharp drop in this year's third-, fourth- and fifth-grade reading scores on thousands of immigrant pupils."
Mike gives high marks for rising scores
Date CapturedTuesday May 22 2007, 7:23 AM
NY Daily News reports, "State officials are expected today to release lackluster reading scores for city elementary schoolers, but that didn't stop Mayor Bloomberg yesterday from touting near-perfect success in improving the schools. 'By virtually every objective measure - attendance, promotion rates, test scores, you name it - student achievement is on the rise,' the mayor said as he released City Hall's version of the 2006 graduation rate. City officials put the graduation rate at a record-breaking 60% because they include kids who graduate in August after summer school, kids who drop out and earn GEDs and special education students who earn individualized diplomas."
STAFFING SCHOOLS
Date CapturedSaturday May 19 2007, 9:20 AM
NY Post Op-Ed contributor Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers opines, "Finally, I proposed a service differential to compensate teachers who go above and beyond for their students. As an alternative to taking courses to earn additional income, teachers would provide extra service, such as developing a unit of lesson plans for their department or designing a school-to-work internship program. These proposals are powerful recruitment and retention incentives that would transform hard-to-staff schools into schools that teachers would gravitate to and parents would want their children to attend. After all, that is what it's all about, isn't it?"
Principals Act in Plan to Reduce Bureaucracy
Date CapturedFriday May 18 2007, 9:53 AM
NY Times reports, "More than a third of New York City’s public school principals embraced a challenge from Chancellor Joel I. Klein to free themselves as much as possible from outside oversight under a new reorganization and become full stewards of their individual schools, the city said yesterday. But few took up the chancellor’s offer to work with a private nonprofit group. And a great majority chose to align themselves with veteran schools superintendents from the traditional schools bureaucracy."
PRINCIPAL PACT
Date CapturedThursday May 17 2007, 9:14 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "New York City public-school principals and other administrators overwhelmingly ratified their contract deal with the city that calls for a 23 percent raise in exchange for fewer seniority rights, their union announced yesterday."
When the schoolhouse feels like a jailhouse: Relationships between attendance, school environment and violence in New York city public schools
Date CapturedTuesday May 15 2007, 1:04 AM
By: Sharon Balmer [2006] -- This quasi-experimental study was conducted to examine whether the implementation of a punitive discipline policy, known as the Impact Schools intervention, in ten New York City high schools was successful in increasing attendance rate.
The Virtual Y: A Ray of Sunshine for Urban Public Elementary School Children
Date CapturedMonday May 14 2007, 2:51 PM
(See page 30 of document for chart of factors impacting attendance). The National Center for Schools and Communities at Fordham University report presenting the results of seven years of evaluation for the YMCA of Greater New York’s Virtual Y after school program finding, "Third and fourth grade Virtual Y participants outperformed the comparison group in school attendance. We controlled for students’ gender, race, age, and prior school attendance in our analyses. • The average school attendance of third grade children (94.4 percent) and fourth grade children (94.9 percent) participating in the Virtual Y exceeded the average attendance of children in the comparison group (93.9 percent and 94.2 percent respectively) taking into account initial differences in student attendance and demographic background. • The difference between the mean school attendance of second grade Virtual Y students (93.7 percent) and comparison group students (93.4 percent) was positive but not significant.
Arabic school fails the test
Date CapturedMonday May 14 2007, 8:34 AM
Daily News contributor Diane Ravitch, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the Brookings Institution in Washington opines, "The American public school is supported by public tax dollars because it has an important role in American society. It is the one institution that is supposed to teach children to think critically about the world they live in and at the same time to prepare them to take responsibility as American citizens. The founders of American public education knew that our democratic experiment would survive only if the people were educated enough to participate in our democracy and to select wise leaders."
RADICAL TEACH -- New York City SCHOOLS' NEW FAD
Date CapturedSaturday May 12 2007, 8:39 AM
NY Post contributor Sol Stern, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute opines, "Since gaining control of the city schools in 2002, Mayor Bloomberg has won the plaudits of business leaders for his corporate-style reorganization of the system and for supporting market-oriented initiatives such as charter schools and merit pay for teachers. But there has been a dark side: a hands-off approach to what's actually taught. The result has been travesties like the radical math conference and the proliferation of social-justice schools - and the legitimization of bringing leftist politics into the classroom. It's ironic that, as Mayor Bloomberg extols the benefits of the market approach in education, his schools are becoming rife with radical teachers using the classroom to trash the American system of market capitalism."
New math for schools
Date CapturedThursday May 10 2007, 9:14 AM
NY Daily News opines, "A new system for tracking student performance as well as schoolwide results will be critical to ensuring all this new dough is put to good use. And the arrival of the money only heightens the importance of using the new data to identify the teachers who foster the least learning, to deny tenure to rookies who don't make the grade and to halt programs that don't work. And, ideally, were the teachers union not an obstacle, the top instructors would get top rewards."
HS doesn't like money? I'll check it out - Randi
Date CapturedThursday May 10 2007, 8:57 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Though the school's students come from poor families, most are academically successful and therefore unable to benefit from Title I unless parents and teachers vote for a 'schoolwide option' to free up the cash. Parents voted unanimously to do so, but most teachers are opposed. The school could lose as much $70,000 again next year."
Citywide Budget Data
Date CapturedWednesday May 09 2007, 10:30 AM
As part of the Fair Student Funding initiative, the Department of Education [New York City] is committed to providing more information about school funding levels. This data set shows details pertaining to preliminary school budgets for the 2007-2008 school year. Using this data set, you can see information for 1,391 of New York City’s schools regarding: 07-08 preliminary budget allocations 07-08 adjusted per capita data for comparison to previously released 05-06 data 07-08 Average Teacher Salary (ATS) This data set allows some comparison between different schools’ funding levels. However, the set is neither comprehensive nor perfect. It covers only funds that are recorded on the school budgets that principals monitor and control. Therefore, large amounts of money spent in schools on students do not appear here at all, including centrally funded administrative services such as food, transportation, maintenance, utilities; instructional supports, such as related services in special education’ and fringe benefits for school employees.
Formula for class success
Date CapturedWednesday May 09 2007, 10:18 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "Nearly 700 underfunded schools will see an influx of $110 million next year under the city's new student funding formula, officials announced. As principals across the city began scrutinizing their 2007-08 budgets yesterday, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein laid out specifics of the new "weighted" system designed to create more equity."
CASHING IN ON KIDS
Date CapturedWednesday May 09 2007, 9:55 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "According to the plan, a school could receive as little as $3,788 for a first-grader who lives above the poverty line, did not transfer from a failing school and is proficient in English. But a first-grader who lives in poverty, transferred from a failing school and cannot speak English could funnel $8,212 to the same school's coffers. Depending on a child's special needs, a school could expect to receive an additional $2,121 and $8,637. While schools already receive additional city money to address student needs - including learning and English-language difficulties - budgets have never been so specifically weighted to student traits."
PEACE IN KLEIN'S TIME
Date CapturedWednesday May 09 2007, 9:46 AM
NY Post opines, "Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday laid out a funding plan for city schools - and, in so doing, made clear just what City Hall paid to buy peace from labor and allied radical groups. His plan includes funds to cover a deal announced last month with teachers' union boss Randi Weingarten and her radical pals. Officials say this won't cost more than 'a few million' dollars. But for how long did Weingarten stay bought? Not so long, it seems."
Manhattan School Survey Pushed Back
Date CapturedTuesday May 08 2007, 9:26 AM
NY Times reports, "The Department of Education has extended a deadline for surveys measuring satisfaction in the schools from May 18 to June 1, officials said. The surveys, for parents, teachers and students from grades 6 to 12, are part of a $2 million city effort."
Cell ban upheld - principals get leeway
Date CapturedTuesday May 08 2007, 9:15 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The city's controversial school cell phone ban will stand - but principals may make exceptions, a Manhattan judge ruled yesterday. Judge Lewis Stone wrote in a 50-page decision that the Education Department's cell phone policy is not unconstitutional."
DESPERATE CITY 'OUT' TO RESCUE SCHOOLS
Date CapturedMonday April 30 2007, 7:53 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Facing a steady decline in student performance through the middle grades and pressure to combat that decline, the city is seeking an outside firm to help it devise a new 'middle school strategy,' The Post has learned. The strategy would look at everything from 'school design' to staff experience and per-pupil spending, to determine why students score lower on tests as they get older."
FRIEDEN'S NEW FOUL
Date CapturedMonday April 30 2007, 7:45 AM
NY Post op-ed contributor David Yassky, north Brooklyn representative, New York City Council opines, "The rules would cost parochial schools millions of dollars, quite possibly forcing some of them to shut down. Most important, these new rules would cross the line that should separate church and state. Of course, we do want the Health Department to protect children against dangers like lead exposure. But existing rules already do that. Now the Health Department wants to impose much more comprehensive regulations on parochial preschool facilities - mandating a certain number of square feet per child, a certain number of toilets per child and so forth."
A Lack of Interest (and Candidates) in New System’s School Parent Councils
Date CapturedSaturday April 28 2007, 9:52 AM
NY Times reports, "Unlike the old school board elections, open to all registered voters, current state law restricts this election so that only the top three officers of each school’s parent association vote for council members. Parents serving on the district councils are ineligible to be officers in the parent associations of their own schools. Many parents who have been elected to the councils say they feel out of the loop, disrespected by an education department that, they say, decides first and asks later. And several council presidents said they were frustrated by a perceived lack of support from school principals, many of whom do not even know who their council members are."
Improving by degrees
Date CapturedThursday April 26 2007, 10:16 AM
NY Daily News opines, "Many have attacked the reforms, and many have doubted whether students were actually learning more. Gains on standardized reading and math tests have been questioned as the products of dumbed-down exams. And Klein's own tally of rising graduation rates has been dismissed as statistical balderdash. His numbers and the state's figures differ because they count varying student populations, but Mills has now certified the trend. And it is happily up. So much so that Mills pointed other districts to some of the techniques now in use in the city's schools, virtually all of which hinge on constantly measuring the progress of individual students and tailoring teaching to their needs. The approach is at the heart of the drive by Bloomberg and Klein to hold everyone in every school accountable for producing results, as opposed to moving students along on a conveyor belt of failure. It's very basic, and it's working. Well done."
GRAD TIDINGS: CITY'S RATES UP, BUT 50% OF HS KIDS ARE 'LATE'
Date CapturedThursday April 26 2007, 8:42 AM
NY Post KENNETH LOVETT in Albany and BILL SANDERSON and DAVID SEIFMAN in New York City report, "The new numbers also show that just 19 percent of students with disabilities in New York City graduate in four years compared to a 37 percent statewide average, and that English-language learners have actually seen their on-time graduation rates drop in the last three years, to 27 percent statewide and 22 percent in the city. Also, there is a significant gender gap, with 56 percent of female students and just 43 percent of male students in New York City graduating on time."
School Push-Outs: An Urban Case Study
Date CapturedWednesday April 25 2007, 11:46 AM
Elysa Hyman writes, "While the specter of the No Child Left Behind Act continues to loom over our nations’ schools, grassroots organizations, parent groups, attorneys, educators and policymakers must monitor their local school systems and take action if schools are engaging in exclusionary practices. National coalitions must be formed to highlight the unintended effects of the Act and to advocate reform of laws and policies that punish schools for trying to educate all students or that provide incentives for schools to push them out of the building."
Class Dismissed
Date CapturedWednesday April 25 2007, 11:42 AM
Village Voice Mara Altman reports, "The UFT and the DOE each claim no knowledge of the origin of rubber rooms. One longtime employee says they have existed since at least the late 1960s, but in a different form. Teachers at that time who were accused of wrongdoing were reassigned to their district office where they were put to work—filing, typing up reports, and organizing data. Today, teachers simply rot."
Settlement Approved In Lawsuit Against New York City DOE
Date CapturedWednesday April 25 2007, 11:34 AM
NY1 reports, "The settlement creates more classroom slots for the children and the DOE will use an internal monitoring system to make sure kids get in the classes quickly. The children, between ages 3 and 5, were on waiting lists to get into special education classes in city schools. Some of the children spent months or years waiting to get in the classes which provide speech, physical or occupational therapy."
If you pay 'em, they will come!
Date CapturedWednesday April 25 2007, 10:20 AM
NY Daily News reports on Mayor Bloomberg's trip to Mexico, "The Mexican government says the payments, which were created 10 years ago, have helped lower school dropout rates, boost school attendance and reduce health problems among children."
Here's a bright idea: Turn off the lights!
Date CapturedWednesday April 25 2007, 9:21 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Lights at the historic Tweed Courthouse, which houses the Education Department headquarters, were still blazing at 3:50 a.m. Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said Tweed is regularly cleaned during off-hours. The department's building at 65 Court St. in Brooklyn also was lit well into the wee hours. Feinberg said those lights had to be on because of an unspecified number of information technology and payroll employees who work overnight. She refused to provide an exact number of late-night workers and referred further questions to the city. The Education Department paid $172,000 in the most recent fiscal year for lighting, elevators, air conditioning and heating for the Court St. building. If the department stopped running its lights at night, it would potentially save a third of that cost, or about $57,000 a year. The city could hire one new teacher at the average starting salary of $42,512 or two new cops at $25,000 each."
Metal-bat ban set for September in NYC high schools
Date CapturedTuesday April 24 2007, 10:02 AM
AP reports, "The measure outlaws metal bats under the theory that they crack harder and faster hits, raising the risk of injury because young players have less time to react to speeding baseballs. Opponents, including Little League Baseball and sporting goods makers, say there is no evidence metal bats are more dangerous. Youth leagues and lawmakers are proposing similar bans in other areas, including New Jersey, where a 12-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest and suffered serious injuries after a batted ball struck him in the chest."
Bloomberg Reaches Deal With Principals
Date CapturedTuesday April 24 2007, 8:56 AM
NY Times reports, ""The deal was the second time in less than a week that Mr. Bloomberg took a long stride in seeking to quiet some of the loudest critics of his education policies. On Thursday, he reached agreements with the teachers’ union and several advocacy groups that have opposed his reorganization of the school bureaucracy."
PRINCIPALS GET 25G EXTRA CREDIT IN DEAL
Date CapturedTuesday April 24 2007, 8:28 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Ending nearly four years of ugly haggling, the city reached a tentative contract yesterday with the union representing school administrators that gives 23 percent raises and offers principals an extra $25,000 a year to take over underperforming schools. The nearly seven-year retroactive deal with the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators also provides every principal the chance to earn a $25,000 bonus based on their students' progress and sharply curtails seniority rights for assistant principals. The pact concludes a stalemate that loomed over the Bloomberg administration's efforts to reform the school system, in part by broadening the authority of principals this fall in exchange for greater scrutiny."
Rush to slash class size will hurt our schools
Date CapturedMonday April 23 2007, 9:00 AM
NY Daily News Op-ed contributor Michael Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity, at Teachers College, Columbia University opines, "A mandated average class-size reduction plan is likely to be applied across the board to virtually all schools in the system, while it is clear that we should, at least at first, target the students with the greatest education deficits. Let's not forget that it was for them that the CFE case was waged and won, and that the Court of Appeals invalidated the old funding system to ensure that funding follows need. When they meet tomorrow, the Board of Regents should approve regulations that allow class-size reductions to be limited to low-performing schools and to follow improvements in teacher quality and the availability of adequate space."
TUNED-IN SCHOOLS SPUR LESS DROPOUTS
Date CapturedSunday April 22 2007, 9:29 AM
NY Post reports, "The DOE [NYC] has implemented several new programs to deal with the problem, including Multiple Pathways, which offers a job readiness program, Young Adult Borough Centers, transfer schools and General Equivalency Diploma programs. Since it launched in 2005, 2,176 students have met graduation requirements through Multiple Pathways; 2,104 earned diplomas, 72 earned GEDs."
CITY EDUCATION PLAN TO BOOT 'NEGATIVE' PTA FOLKS
Date CapturedSunday April 22 2007, 9:20 AM
NY Post reports, "Principals may soon have the power to expel parents from PTAs. The city Department of Education is mulling a stunning policy change that would allow principals to ban parents from the volunteer panels for patterns of 'negative behavior.' The controversial proposal to alter existing chancellor's regulations comes as the DOE is trying to increase parent involvement - adding paid parent coordinators at each school and hiring a $150,000 parent czar."
PRINCIPALS NEARING NEW PACT WITH CITY
Date CapturedSaturday April 21 2007, 9:14 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "It was expected that the pact would call for raises of more than 22 percent - bumping the pay of principals and their assistants beyond that of teachers, whose union has negotiated two wage hikes since the contract expired almost four years ago. Such a raise would increase the top salary to about $150,000 for principals and to about $130,000 for assistants. In exchange, the city has demanded provisions aimed at weeding ineffective assistant principals out of the school system."
Mayor Revises Some Points of School Budget Proposal
Date CapturedFriday April 20 2007, 9:01 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, "The deals also call for the city’s Education Department to establish committees to improve parent relations, to comply with a new state law requiring the city to reduce class sizes, and to provide oversight of the new budget process. In addition, the administration agreed to work with the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, on improving middle schools."
$IGNS OF PEACE IN TEACHER TALKS
Date CapturedFriday April 20 2007, 8:53 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Labor, immigrant and political activists who had complained about an ongoing overhaul of the school system softened their stance at a hastily called City Hall press conference upon winning concessions on how schools will be funded. Under the deal, a city plan to funnel more money to historically low-performing and underfunded schools would not factor in teachers' salaries and would allocate more cash for students not proficient in English."
THE SCHOOL WARS: TEACHERS UNIONS MAULED GOV
Date CapturedFriday April 20 2007, 8:46 AM
NY Post Op-ed contributor Thomas W. Carroll, president of the Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability opines, "In sum, the governor's vision for educational accountability got mangled in the legislative process. The public and educators will get much better student data. But the political process removed the 'teeth' from any consequences for failure. Teachers unions hijacked the infusion of billions of dollars in state money for things they favor - smaller class size (read more dues-paying teachers) - and blocked crucial companion measures like longer school days, longer school years and more flexible work rules that are the sine qua non for successful schools, especially those serving economically disadvantaged populations. At the same time, the governor couldn't expand school choice on anything like the scale of the vast need for alternatives, especially in New York City. The net result: New York state will spend billions more on public schools, and likely produce marginal, if any, changes in outcomes. Eventually, the new assessment system will let us demonstrate this failure conclusively - but that will be faint solace for the generation of children who will be forever damaged by our failure to get reform right."
THE SCHOOL WARS: LESSONS FROM NYC
Date CapturedFriday April 20 2007, 8:40 AM
NY Post Op-ed contributor New York City Mayor Bloomberg opines, "I've always been a strong believer in the idea that if an extra year is necessary in order to learn basic and essential skills and knowledge, then that year is well-spent. And as our program to end social promotion demonstrated real results, the status-quo crowd stopped screaming. Turning around the school system in D.C. won't be any easier than it's been here in New York. But it can be done - and it must be done. The future of our cities, and of our nation, rests on whether we can create schools where children receive the high-quality education they will need to pursue their dreams in the 21st century. Our children deserve nothing less, and we can't settle for anything less."
ALUMNI SEETHE AT CLUB RED
Date CapturedThursday April 19 2007, 10:03 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports on the Beacon School spring-break field trip to Cuba, "'Beacon's overly liberal and, in my opinion, quite un-American viewpoints, rants and now, apparently, actions have finally gotten them into some trouble,' wrote one alumnus about the trip."
Parents, UFT and city in talkathon
Date CapturedThursday April 19 2007, 9:01 AM
NY Daily News CARRIE MELAGO reports, "The city officials offered to modify the proposed new school funding plan, possibly leaving teachers' salaries out of the formula, sources said. They also suggested the creation of a task force to study parent involvement, sources said. 'There were crumbs for everybody,' said a person who attended the meeting."
TEACHING CONTEMPT . . .
Date CapturedWednesday April 18 2007, 9:29 AM
NY Post opines, "Presumably somebody in the Department of Education understands the gravity of a deliberate violation of the law (The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992); the flouting of trade and travel embargoes dating to 1962 - and blowing off the DOE's own proscription of the trip. That adds up to grounds for suspending Turner posthaste - and maybe a more thorough housecleaning at Beacon. We know Beacon is special. But is it above the law, too?"
Chancellor Klein Specifies Restructuring of New York City Schools
Date CapturedTuesday April 17 2007, 7:48 AM
NY Times reports, "Principals are being asked to choose among three options: empowerment, in which schools are organized into networks and led by network support teams; partner support organizations, in which nine private nonprofit groups can be hired on contract to provide support to schools; and four learning support organizations, run by former regional superintendents, each with a different theme."
Proposed NYC Public School Causes Stir
Date CapturedMonday April 16 2007, 9:33 AM
Newsday NAHAL TOOSI reports, "The school, which is named after the famed Lebanese-American Christian poet who promoted peace, would be one of a few nationwide that incorporate the Arabic language and Islamic culture. Almontaser and city Department of Education officials say the curriculum will be in line with basics required from public schools while integrating elements of its theme. For instance, the role of Arabs in developing algebra would be explored in math. In history, students may study Egypt's extraordinary past. And Arabic will be offered as a second language. The goal is to eventually teach half of the classes in Arabic. Plans are to open this September with a 6th grade and gradually expand into a middle school and high school. About half the students are expected to be of Arab heritage, though the school will have open admission."
ASBESTOS FURY; CITY TOO CHEAP TO SAVE SCHOOLKIDS: DOE VET
Date CapturedMonday April 16 2007, 8:23 AM
NY Post reports, "DOE spokeswoman Marge Feinberg insisted that the city's schools are safe and that the agency removes exposed asbestos as soon as it's alerted. But a lab hired by Kielbasa and Gleason found asbestos in samples obtained from the eight sites last November and December. 'I find it in libraries. I find it in classrooms. I find it in hallways. I find it in machinery rooms, near ventilation ducts,' he said."
NEW YORK CITY HIGH SCHOOL SPURS FUROR WITH CUBA TRIP
Date CapturedMonday April 16 2007, 8:14 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "A group of Manhattan public high-school students and a history teacher with a soft spot for Cuba flouted federal travel restrictions by taking a spring-break field trip to the communist nation - and now face up to $65,000 apiece in fines, The Post has learned. The lesson in socializing and socialism was given to about a dozen students from the selective Beacon School on the Upper West Side, which for years has organized extravagant overseas trips with complementary semester-long classes. Some past destinations include France, Spain, South Africa, Venezuela, Mexico and, according to the school Web site, Cuba in 2004 and 2005."
High style, no class
Date CapturedFriday April 13 2007, 8:24 AM
NY Daily News reports, "City investigators are probing whether bureaucrats built themselves a cozy lounge using money that was supposed to be used to repair crumbling schools, sources told the Daily News. The Education Department's Division of School Facilities - which fixes broken windows, replaces damaged doors and completes other school maintenance - has spent $38,000 for custom bookshelves, electrical wiring and other features inside the room, sources said. But work on the room inside the division's headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, was halted this week after the office of Special Schools Investigator Richard Condon paid a visit, the sources said."
Educrat on buses: Yep, we goofed
Date CapturedThursday April 12 2007, 8:56 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has created a new managerial position overseeing the investigations unit and has promised to hire four new investigators."
Blowing the whistle
Date CapturedThursday April 12 2007, 8:44 AM
NY Daily News opines, "Weingarten's purposes are particularly transparent in that city laws already protect whistleblowers who report gross mismanagement or abuse of authority, and a special investigator is tasked with investigating school complaints. New York State law also protects whistleblowing teachers. Regardless, the Council Education Committee yesterday voted 14 to 1 in favor of Weingarten's bill. Among those in support was Chairman Robert Jackson, who allowed that he doesn't really know what's covered under existing law but "wholeheartedly supports" Weingarten's bill anyway. If it sounds good for kids, that's good enough for Jackson. But the people it's really good for are teachers who are worried about being subject to hard data analysis of student progress."
School bus big to face City Council
Date CapturedWednesday April 11 2007, 8:15 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The new bureaucrat in charge of city school buses is scheduled to appear before the City Council today to answer questions about abuse aboard buses, which was exposed by the Daily News' 'School Bus Disgrace' series."
School Records on Special English Classes Are Called Works of Fiction by Critics
Date CapturedWednesday April 11 2007, 8:10 AM
NY Times Samuel G. Freedman, professor of journalism at Columbia University writes, "According to official school documents, amplified by interviews with a teacher at the school and a union representative, the school tried at one point to create a paper trail to make it appear it was offering E.S.L. classes that were not being held."
UFT BIDS TO GRADE MIKE PLAN
Date CapturedWednesday April 11 2007, 7:35 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "The head of the city's teachers union wants to put together a "multipartisan" task force to judge mayoral control of the school system and devise possible alternatives, The Post has learned. Delegates of the United Federa tion of Teachers were expected to vote as early as today to give their president, Randi Weingarten , the green light to move on the project.."
BLOOMBERG'S BULL'S-EYE
Date CapturedWednesday April 11 2007, 7:30 AM
NY Post opines, "Again, there's nothing wrong with looking out for No. 1. And most teachers do care a great deal about their students. But let's be clear: The union and its political allies (as we've noted before) have their own agenda here. They want to restore the old status quo - a system over which they and the entrenched educrats held sway, but one that failed to educate huge numbers of kids. Indeed, they want to ensure that they, and those who dance to their tune, are the ones who call the shots."
Fund the Child: A Better Way to Help Disadvantaged Students
Date CapturedTuesday April 10 2007, 10:55 AM
HumanEvents.com contributor Dan Lips writes, "In January, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed that Gotham adopt three new policies: 'backpack funding,' school-based management, and widespread school choice. This bundle of reforms -- known as the 'weighted student formula' -- embodies a new approach to education finance."
Mayor Attacks Critics of Plan to Fix Schools
Date CapturedTuesday April 10 2007, 9:10 AM
NY Times reports, "While the mayor suggested that the gathering yesterday was evidence of a groundswell of support for his agenda, the group was composed of many people who also have business dealings with the school system, including two former Education Department officials, leaders of nonprofit organizations that are helping to run schools and high-profile donors who have given millions to support the mayor’s work. Mr. Bloomberg has come under increasing attack from parent groups, community advocates, elected officials and union leaders, urging him to halt his plans to reorganize the school bureaucracy. These plans include eliminating the city’s 10 instructional regions and adopting a new school budgeting system."
Blazin' Bloomberg, Mike fires salvo at school policy foes, comparing them with NRA fanatics
Date CapturedTuesday April 10 2007, 8:52 AM
NY Daily News CARRIE MELAGO reports, "Bloomberg said his detractors, including the teachers union, are merely a 'small chorus' that supports the status quo for its own self-interest, just like the National Rifle Association. 'You always do have the problem of a very small group of people who are single-issue focused having a disproportionate percentage of power,' he said. 'That's exactly the NRA.'"
BROOKLYN SCHOOL IN SPACE WAR
Date CapturedTuesday April 10 2007, 8:44 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Parents claim the new school would force PS 282 to cram 35 students to a classroom and compromise its art, science and computer-instruction programs."
MIKE'S SCHOOL-WAR BLAST: UFT = NRA
Date CapturedTuesday April 10 2007, 8:36 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Bolstered by a vote of confidence from 100 civic leaders, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday took aim at what he called 'special interests' trying to derail his education reforms, and compared the tactics of the teachers union to those of gun lobbyists."
'CHARTERS' RACE IS ON
Date CapturedMonday April 09 2007, 8:31 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Advocates of the alternative public schools say they have been deluged with inquiries from potential operators seeking advice on meeting new demands in the measures that raised the cap from 100 to 200 schools last week."
CITY SUED OVER SCHOOL PLAN FOR TAINTED LAND
Date CapturedSaturday April 07 2007, 8:59 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "A coalition of South Bronx community groups sued yesterday to stop the city from building what would be New York's largest school complex ever - on contaminated ground. The organization claims the city has failed to live up to a deal to adhere to recommendations made by an environmental consultant for the $235 million plan."
New York City readies for eight new charter schools
Date CapturedFriday April 06 2007, 1:10 PM
Crain Communications reports, "Officials at the New York City Department of Education say two new charter schools are scheduled to open in September—Bedford-Stuyvesant Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn and Carl C. Icahn Charter School Bronx North—because they were approved before the cap was reached in January 2006. Two other schools have received preliminary approval by the DOE and have been sent to the New York State Board of Regents for approval. Six more are under review by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. "
Safety first
Date CapturedThursday April 05 2007, 10:01 AM
Staten Island Advance opines, "If Mayor Michael Bloomberg has his way, New York City, which bans smoking in bars, the use of trans fats in restaurants, noisy ice cream trucks and countless other practices and behaviors city officials don't condone, will never ban the use of dangerous metal bats in youth baseball games."
MIKE BLASTS CURBS ON CHARTER SCHOOLS
Date CapturedTuesday April 03 2007, 8:40 AM
NY Post DAVID SEIFMAN and DAVID ANDREATTA report, "His remarks, made at city Department of Education headquarters during a press conference to invite applications for new charter schools, were interpreted by many as veiled slaps at Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the state and city teachers unions, which championed the initiatives. Among the provisions is a mandate to ensure that proposals to place charter schools inside buildings housing traditional public schools - a common occurrence in a city short on space - would now be subject to a public forum. The initiative is a direct outgrowth of a nasty civic battle last year that pitted a public school for gifted students in Silver's home district against the city, whose plans to have the school share space with a new charter school were ultimately beaten back."
School Aid Fight Erupts in Albany as Budget Passes
Date CapturedMonday April 02 2007, 10:38 AM
NY Times DANNY HAKIM and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN report, "The Bloomberg administration also praised the lifting of the state’s limit on charter schools, but there were compromises on that front, too, including a provision that automatically unionizes the employees of any charter school serving more than 250 students in its first two years. In an interview, Chancellor Klein said of the budget, 'It’s obviously a very solid deal for us.' 'There is no doubt that if we infuse over the next four years the kinds of money that Albany has committed to, that we will be able to achieve our goals,' he said, 'including an overall considerable reduction in class size.'”
Charter OK no help till next year
Date CapturedMonday April 02 2007, 10:20 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "Many of the city's 58 charter schools have long waiting lists of parents hoping to enroll kids. The schools, often seen as innovative, are subject to less bureaucracy and have more flexibility than traditional public schools. The new charter law addresses some parent concerns by requiring the Education Department to hold hearings before placing a charter within an existing public school. It also requires new charters that enroll 250 students in their first two years to hire only unionized employees."
Fears on school funding
Date CapturedMonday April 02 2007, 10:14 AM
NY Daily News CARRIE MELAGO reports, "The promise behind the plan is that it will end inequity among schools and replace unfair, decades-old formulas that have led to drastic variations in funding, even among similar schools. Under the plan, certain city funds will be directed to schools on a per-pupil basis. Extra cash then will be added to a school's budget based on its students' special needs, ability to speak English, family income and other factors. But the Education Department has not yet decided on the exact formula, causing anxiety among some parents who fear better-performing schools will lose out."
A fund boost for charters?
Date CapturedSaturday March 31 2007, 9:46 AM
Newsday reports, "There are about 4,000 charter schools nationwide, according to the pro-charter Center for Education Reform. The budget agreement between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the state legislature, which is expected to be passed by Sunday, gives the State University of New York and the state Board of Regents the authority to hand out charters to groups interested in running schools. Bloomberg said Friday he was disappointed the deal did not give the schools chancellor similar authority."
SCHOOL WARS: NOTHING TO FEAR
Date CapturedFriday March 30 2007, 8:19 AM
NY Post Adam Brodsky opines, "RUN for your lives, kiddies! Mad Chancellor Klein is about to launch School Reorganization No. 3! That's the hysterical message from labor and left-wing groups opposed to Joel Klein's latest school reforms. Wednesday, more than two dozen Chicken Little members of the City Council actually announced legislation to slow Klein down - lest the sky tumble down on Gotham's young'uns. Some state lawmakers are set to sound similar alarms on Monday. Please. The kids will be fine, reforms and all. At worst, their schools won't be any more awful than they've been for the past few decades. Anyway, the Big Reorg isn't really all that big. Some of Klein's ideas are so commonsensical, anyone opposing them couldn't possibly have kids in mind. Others merely hold promise - or seem little more than spine-stiffening exercises. It's hard to see cause for fear - while there may be grounds for hope."
MIKE'S MILLIONS TO BE 'REWARD' $$ FOR POOR
Date CapturedFriday March 30 2007, 8:06 AM
NY Post reports, "Regular attendance at elementary school would be worth $25 every two months. At the high-school level, the payoff doubles to $50. Students who get high grades on major exams could earn $200 to $300 a pop for their struggling households. Similar payoffs would be available for 20 to 25 other activities deemed beneficial to society and the family."
New York mayor announces antipoverty experiment
Date CapturedThursday March 29 2007, 5:46 PM
International Herald Tribune reports, "Under the program, which is based on a similar effort in Mexico but is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, families would receive payments every two months for meeting any of 20 or so criteria per individual. The payments would range from perhaps $25 for an elementary school student's attendance to $300 for greatly improved performance on a standardized test, officials said."
POL PUSH VS. SCHOOL CHANGES
Date CapturedThursday March 29 2007, 8:25 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "[City Councilman and head of Education Committee] Jackson promoted the nonbinding measure [resolution urging the Department of Education to stop its reorganization of the school system] outside City Hall with a dozen officials and about 40 parents and protesters, who chanted 'Listen to the parents!' as Mayor Bloomberg exited the building without acknowledging the rallying cry. 'That just shows what he's doing - he's not listening even when you scream and yell,' said parent Corinna Lindenberg."
Mike's school funding fix worked out West
Date CapturedThursday March 29 2007, 8:11 AM
NY Daily News Guest Contributor Arlene Ackerman, Christian A. Johnson professor of Outstanding Educational Practice at Teachers College, Columbia University opines, "Many have complained that the reform push here has shut out community voices. But to their credit, Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein are now doing extensive outreach. People shouldn't hesitate to speak out - not only about what they think the precise sums of money ought to be but also, in the end, about how individual schools should spend their budgets given newfound autonomy. In San Francisco, site-based decision-making provided new opportunities for community members to participate in the decisions that matter most to children. The same can happen here. The mayor and chancellor have aroused anxiety in part because they have tackled one issue that we in San Francisco didn't address. We essentially said that schools with many senior teachers would be held harmless for those teachers' higher costs. Bloomberg has said he will do that for existing teachers, but not for future teachers. Because high-poverty schools chronically have lower-salary teachers, that's a big step. The mayor deserves applause for tackling this challenge."
School bus disgrace spurs Assembly panel to OK cams
Date CapturedWednesday March 28 2007, 8:28 AM
NY Daily News reports, "At least two other safety bills have been proposed in addition to the two camera proposals, including a measure before the City Council to require bus monitors on all school buses."
WFP: WEINGARTEN'S FAKE PROTESTERS
Date CapturedWednesday March 28 2007, 8:23 AM
NY Post opines, "The far-left Working Families Party and its minions - 27 members of the City Council, led by Education Committee Chairman Robert Jackson, answering to teachers-union boss Randi Weingarten - are holding a press conference/rally today at City Hall to launch the latest assault on continuing mayoral control of the city's public schools. Specifically, the group will announce a new council resolution calling on Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein to postpone an upcoming school-reorganization plan, pending a 'dialogue' on the future of the city's schools."
CALL WAITING (& WAITING) FOR SPECIAL-ED PARENTS
Date CapturedMonday March 26 2007, 8:23 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "A majority of parents of special-education students are left hanging on the phone when they call the Education Department for help, a report out today charges. A survey of 98 calls to the Committees on Special Education for each of the city Department of Education's 10 regions found that less than half were answered or returned within a week."
New York City Schools Chancellor KLEIN EDGES TOWARD SCHOOL REVOLUTION
Date CapturedSunday March 25 2007, 9:06 AM
NY Post reports, "Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said during a teaching symposium yesterday that the city should 'take a serious look at some of the recommendations' in a December report by the bipartisan New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce and consider making 'bold, systemic challenges to the status quo.' The report entitled 'Tough Choices or Tough Times' - the subject of yesterday's panel discussion - made several recommendations, including a 'state board qualifying exam' that would be taken by all children after 10th grade to determine the future of their education. Depending on their scores, students would be sent for two years in high-level secondary school or two to three years in regional vocational schools or community or technical colleges. The commission - which counts Klein as a member - also advocated the elimination of school districts and local school funding, a system of 'contract schools; run by independent entities, high-quality universal pre-K, free adult education and an option for teachers to take higher salaries in exchange for fewer pension benefits."
Now, mayor sees school bus woes
Date CapturedSaturday March 24 2007, 8:17 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Mayor Bloomberg yesterday admitted that the city should have done a better job in protecting school kids from physical and sexual abuse aboard school buses."
Wasted cash cost city tots class - audit
Date CapturedThursday March 22 2007, 8:33 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Among allegations are unexplained checks, cash withdrawals listed as loan repayments and school directors paying themselves rent for space in buildings they own. Other allegations include centers appearing to use prekindergarten funds for things like karate uniforms, even though karate is not an approved activity for kids that age."
Citywide class size cuts would hurt the poor
Date CapturedWednesday March 21 2007, 8:19 AM
NY Daily Guest Op-Ed writes, "While research shows that - all things being equal - smaller classes are good for student achievement, particularly in the lower grades, not everything is ever equal. The truth, therefore, is far more complicated. You see, reducing class size requires the system to hire many more teachers. In a small school district, that's no big problem. But here in the nation's largest school system, which already employs some 80,000 teachers, hiring more teachers means delving deeper into a labor pool that is already stretched thin. If New York City were to reduce class size across the board, many parents would see their children placed with less-qualified teachers. Not exactly what they were promised."
Fix bus mess: Pols
Date CapturedWednesday March 21 2007, 8:10 AM
NY Daily News reports, "In separate announcements yesterday, two state senators and a member of the City Council each proposed bills to reduce the growing number of cases of physical and sexual abuse aboard school buses. The measures propose requiring video cameras on all buses, expanding the use of monitors for buses with special-needs students to all buses, and requiring criminal background checks and fingerprinting for all monitors."
POTEMKIN PROTESTERS
Date CapturedWednesday March 21 2007, 7:30 AM
NY Post opines, "Frankly, it's the UFT and its dubious allies who are disrespecting parents. Shame on them."
Save these students
Date CapturedTuesday March 20 2007, 8:17 AM
NY Daily News columnist Bill Hammond writes, "What is it about charter schools that makes people in Albany so nuts? These privately managed public schools are working miracles in the inner cities of New York, delivering superior education to poor kids at lower cost than many regular public schools. A sane state government would let a thousand charters bloom. Yet Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his majority Democrats - who claim to represent the downtrodden - are trying to squash the movement."
News spurs ed chief to review bus oversight
Date CapturedTuesday March 20 2007, 8:13 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Reacting to an ongoing Daily News investigation, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said yesterday that he'll consider expanding the number of investigators who probe abuse incidents on school buses."
PARENT PROTEST SHAKES SCHOOL-SHAKEUP MEETING
Date CapturedTuesday March 20 2007, 8:04 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Dozens of angry parents, students and activists last night disrupted a panel meeting headed by Chancellor Joel Klein, in protest of his planned reorganization of the city's school system. Chanting, 'No respect for parents' and 'Listen to the parents,' about 60 protesters stalled the monthly gathering of the Panel for Educational Policy at Department of Education headquarters for 20 minutes."
Sex & secrecy in back of the bus
Date CapturedMonday March 19 2007, 9:04 AM
NY Daily News reports, "A four-month Daily News investigation into the troubled network that transports 142,000 New York City public and private school students daily has documented a secret history of physical and emotional abuse, from broken bones to shattered psyches. But the most gutwrenching, nauseating behavior uncovered has been sexual in nature. On many occasions, the sexual abuse victims have been especially vulnerable special-needs students, mercilessly violated within a transportation system designed to protect those most at risk."
Take 'em to school, Mike
Date CapturedMonday March 19 2007, 8:59 AM
NY Daily News opines, "The drumbeat of opposition to school reform grows ever louder under the skillful orchestration of teachers union President Randi Weingarten. It's time for Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein to fight back with facts."
NYPD UNCOOL IN SCHOOL, ACTIVISTS CHARGE
Date CapturedMonday March 19 2007, 8:48 AM
NY Post reports AP story, "The New York Civil Liberties Union said that, in recent years, it has received hundreds of complaints from both students and teachers about foul language, rough treatment and unwarranted arrests by the NYPD's 4,827 school-safety agents."
SCHOOL BOOK UPROAR
Date CapturedMonday March 19 2007, 8:42 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "A group of Korean-American parents is demanding an award-winning memoir be yanked from libraries and reading lists at city middle schools because of what they say are historically distorted, racist and sexually explicit passages. The book, 'So Far from the Bamboo Grove,' is the story of an 11-year-old Japanese girl's perilous escape from World War II Korea, in which she witnesses brutality at the hands of Koreans, including the rapes of young girls and the tossing of a dead infant from a moving train."
Bus attacks spark outrage
Date CapturedMonday March 19 2007, 8:34 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The ongoing News investigative series, 'School Bus Disgrace,' reveals a hidden history of abuse on school buses - from beatings, drivers and bus monitors being arrested, rude and nasty behavior being inflicted on students, and students being abandoned on buses or dropped far from their homes."
New York State Education adds 20 schools to most troubled list
Date CapturedThursday March 15 2007, 6:09 PM
AP reports, "The number of schools in serious need of improvement and at risk of being closed is rising, state Education Commissioner Richard Mills said Thursday. His comment came as the state put 20 schools on its list of those in most serious in need of improvement, while removing eight. Mills added nine New York City schools, three each in Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester, one in Wyandanch on Long Island and one in Yonkers. Mills removed six schools in New York City, one in Hempstead, and one in Yonkers. That's five more schools than were added in 2006, and five more schools removed than in 2006."
Putting schools in play
Date CapturedWednesday March 14 2007, 8:12 AM
NY Daily News Michael Goodwin writes, "While conceding he wasn't satisfied, [Chancellor] Klein said there was real progress in test scores and graduation rates, which he put at 58%, including students who get GEDs. The state puts the stripped-down figure at about 43%. The problem now, Klein said, is 'the enormous push back from the status quo people.' He cited teachers union opposition to more charter schools. Saying some had proven their worth in poor neighborhoods, he added, 'How could anyone in good conscience block them?'"
New York City COMPTROLLER RUINS Chancellor KLEIN'S APPETITE
Date CapturedTuesday March 13 2007, 6:49 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "In a no-holds-barred evisceration of the department's business practices, Thompson[Comptroller] portrayed the agency as one in the midst of a corporate back-room, free-for-all spending spree with none of the accountability to the public that it demands of its schools."
PRE-K COMPETITION GETS IN-TENTS
Date CapturedMonday March 12 2007, 7:58 AM
NY Post reports, "A group of Brooklyn parents camped out overnight in an elementary-school playground to snag places for their kids in a pre-K program. 'It's the Board of Ed that's causing this,' said angry mom Amy Giagrande, who was the first in line at PS 236 in Mill Basin. 'We pay enough in taxes. They need to spend it for our children.'"
Subs, but paid tops
Date CapturedSunday March 11 2007, 7:50 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "Hundreds of tenured teachers who have failed to land permanent jobs in city schools are on the public payroll earning hefty salaries to work as substitutes and fill-ins, the Daily News has learned. While most substitute teachers make $141.70 per day, 236 of the 564 teachers whom nobody wanted to hire currently pull down more than $70,000 a year, plus benefits, to do the same work, according to a News analysis of Education Department data. Forty of those teachers make more than $90,000 - and some are slated to get raises next year, bringing them to the six-figure level."
New York City Schools Turn To Business Intelligence For Help
Date CapturedSaturday March 10 2007, 11:46 AM
Information Week reports, "The deal, already controversial in New York, likely will face more scrutiny as details are revealed. IBM says ARIS will be a highly secure system, but some parents may voice concerns about a Big Brother approach to tracking the performance of more than 1 million students. And some parties feel the money could be put to better use."
Dial down the nasty, Regent urges angry New York City parents
Date CapturedFriday March 09 2007, 7:48 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, " State Board of Regents member called on city parent leaders yesterday to 'tone down' the rhetoric they're using to oppose the Education Department. Following weeks in which Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have met with rising fury from parents who feel they've not been consulted on sweeping changes planned for schools, Regent Merryl Tisch, a longtime Bloomberg ally, visited a citywide parents group to urge calm."
Crowd fumes as chancellor bolts from forum; A PTA president calls the meeting 'a disgrace,' with only 90 minutes for audience remarks
Date CapturedThursday March 08 2007, 9:44 AM
Staten Island Advance reports, "[New York City Schools Chancellor] Klein's appearance was part of a five-borough series addressing the next phase of Children First, a four-part agenda for school reform that will eliminate regional offices and institute a new student-based school funding formula, a more rigorous teacher tenure review, and greater school accountability measures."
New York City Schools Attendance Memo re: Law and Policy
Date CapturedWednesday March 07 2007, 1:21 PM
The New York City Department of Education is committed to the academic success and social development of all students. Our objective for the 2006 – 2007 school year is to ensure that all students are provided with the necessary intervention and supports that encourage regular school attendance. Regular attendance is critical to successful achievement in school. Conversely, poor attendance is one of the most significant indicators of potential risk. It is our goal to ensure that students are provided with every available resource to support and facilitate their successful completion of school. To this end, the accurate tracking of student attendance is fundamental to the implementation of effective educational services. The Department of Education has established a clearly defined system for recording, tracking and monitoring school attendance. This system is supported and implemented by a series of attendance guidelines and procedures set forth in Chancellor’s Regulations, State Education Laws, and descriptive memoranda distributed to school staff. This Memorandum provides information about attendance law and policy, attendance procedures for this school year, the implementation of attendance services, clearance of register procedures, revised procedures for addressing student absences, requirements for reporting educational neglect and child abuse, and discharge and transfer procedures including the process for conducting and tracking planning interviews on the ATS system. Additionally information about, “ILOG” the new student intervention screen on ATS, will be provided.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING TEACHERS
Date CapturedWednesday March 07 2007, 8:17 AM
NY Post opines on NYC schools database, "New York City's public schools employ the equivalent of 83,000 full-time teachers to instruct 1.1 million kids. That's 13.25 kids per teacher. Wait, you say - classes are larger than that. Right. So where are all the teachers hiding? Think maybe the database might be useful in finding them? And make it easier to herd a bunch of them back into the classroom - you know, to teach?"
SCHOOL SCI OF RELIEF; CITY WIDE LESSON PLAN
Date CapturedWednesday March 07 2007, 8:03 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports on new citywide science curriculum, "An expert applauded the plan, but cautioned that it won't cure all the city's ills. 'It's a good idea if it's well managed,' said New York University science education professor Pamela Fraser-Abder. 'What is even more critical than having an enforced curriculum is having elementary teachers trained to teach science.' 'Until we get to the stage where people really feel comfortable teaching science, regardless of what structures we put in place, it will not work as well as it could.'"
New York is useful model for school reform; Detroit could learn from switch to small, innovative high schools
Date CapturedTuesday March 06 2007, 10:25 AM
The Detroit News reports, "In New York City, for example, leaders replaced the lowest performing high schools with small schools. They allow for more personalized relationships between students and teachers, who can get to know their students' emotional, social and academic needs. Small specialty schools also use creative approaches to be both efficient and effective, such as team teaching and using trimesters. In the past, Detroit school system leaders have been unwilling to open themselves to such dramatic reforms and there have been no signals that they are now."
Council Assails Mayor’s Plan to Give Principals More Autonomy
Date CapturedTuesday March 06 2007, 7:53 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, "At yesterday’s Council hearing, the Education Committee chairman, Councilman Robert Jackson, invoked the bus problems as part of his criticism of the department’s overall performance and as a reason for slowing down any additional widening of principals’ autonomy. 'I’m not confident in the D.O.E.’s ability to make such large-scale reform,' Mr. Jackson said. 'All we have to do is look back a month ago to the school bus fiasco.'”
Big brother is looming; $80M computer to track kids and educators in detail
Date CapturedTuesday March 06 2007, 7:18 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "The system will combine existing data on kids - from a child's gender and race to whether he or she needs special education services to the name of his or her third-grade teacher - with new data to be generated from annual state exams and interim tests given to kids every four to six weeks. The interim tests measure whether kids havemastered specific skills, such as multiplying fractions or distinguishing fact from opinion, at different times of the year. Teachers will be able to see an entire classroom of results at once. Principals will be able to see an entire school. Parents eventually will have access to their own kids' data plus summary facts about their child's school, the results of parent, student and teacher surveys and details about how their school scored on annual reviews."
Teacher union ads flunk
Date CapturedTuesday March 06 2007, 7:00 AM
NY Daily News Bill Hammond writes, "Here's the truth. Spitzer wants to boost annual state aid to public schools by $7 billion, or 40%, over the next four years. That's far more than the Court of Appeals required in its ruling on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit. It's enough cash to finance things teachers have been talking about for decades, such as smaller class sizes. Most interest groups, if confronted by a windfall that huge, would break out the champagne. Not NYSUT. After praising the governor for providing 'increased funding,' they turn around and attack him for wanting to open more charter schools and offer a minuscule tax break to private-school parents."
New York City Department of Education Attendance Services
Date CapturedMonday March 05 2007, 9:17 PM
The Office of Attendance is responsible for the oversight of attendance policies, procedures and programs for New York City public school students. This includes the development and implementation of attendance guidelines and procedures, provision of on-going technical assistance and support and collaboration with outside agencies and organizations on attendance-related issues. The office also serves as a resource to the community and the public-at-large. In addition, the office is responsible for: Employment Certification; Attendance Improvement and Dropout Prevention (AIDP) Programs; Truancy Prevention Programs (TRACK, PACT); and home schooling.
BROOKLYN MOM'S A 'SCHOOL FOLKS' HERO
Date CapturedSunday March 04 2007, 10:12 AM
NY Post reports, "Guerrier said the first thing on her agenda are meetings with parents that have written to the chancellor about specific needs."
COUNCIL ZEROS IN ON PRINCIPAL POWER
Date CapturedSunday March 04 2007, 10:07 AM
NY Post reports, "Next year, all schools will be eligible for the empowerment program under a reorganization that requires principals to implement a 'support model' in their schools. Empowerment is one option. Another is to partner with a private company that will help develop a curriculum, as well as provide other assistance."
New York City Schools Chancellor: no letting up on school reform
Date CapturedSunday March 04 2007, 9:47 AM
NY Daily News interview with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
Schools on fritz - Spitz
Date CapturedSaturday March 03 2007, 7:23 AM
NY Daily News Michael Saul reports, "The state and the city calculate the graduation rate differently. City officials said they expected the state to release statistics soon substantiating the city's progress."
Chancellor Klein's Testimony Before the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee
Date CapturedFriday March 02 2007, 12:53 PM
EXCERPT: There is a lot in the budget proposal that we in New York City are happy about. Highlights include: significant increases in overall educational funding that take a major step toward fulfilling the promise of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity; a foundation formula that factors in student need and provides more transparency and stability to school funding; enhanced accountability that ties new education dollars to student performance; the lifting of the charter school cap; and an expansion funding for pre-kindergarten programs. (READ FULL TEXT)
THE UFT'S ALBANY PUPPETS
Date CapturedThursday March 01 2007, 7:19 AM
NY Post opines, "Education Committee Chairwoman Cathy Nolan and Assemblyman Ruben Diaz questioned Mayor Bloomberg's progress in improving the schools in the five years since he wrested control of them from folks like, well . . . Weingarten & Co. In so doing, they made their ultimate goal obvious: to kill off Chancellor Joel Klein's reorganization plan and then reclaim school governance for folks like (you guessed it) Weingarten & Co."
MAYOR BLOOMBERG TAPS CRITIC FOR EDUCATION POST
Date CapturedThursday March 01 2007, 6:55 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Martine Guerrier, a Brooklyn mom and member of the Panel for Educational Policy, the successor to the Board of Education, will be paid $150,000 a year to manage parent-support functions as the CEO of family engagement for the Department of Education. The differences between the pair were evident immediately after the mayor announced her appointment at City Hall, when she disagreed with his assessment that "most parents really are pleased" with the school system."
New York City schools Chancellor Klein's boasts fail to impress Albany skeptics
Date CapturedWednesday February 28 2007, 7:14 AM
NY Daily News Joe Mahoney reports, "In his two hours before a state legislative committee yesterday, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein tried to accentuate the positive - but the lawmakers weren't buying it. For every success story Klein spouted, legislators had a parallel horror story, questioning whether mayoral control of schools was working."
KIDS' 'AFTER'MATH
Date CapturedTuesday February 27 2007, 9:09 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "After-school programs that let roughly 34,000 children across the state - including 20,000 in the city - get tutored, play sports and participate in a host of other activities could be lost to a federal-funding shortfall, state education officials and youth advocates warn. Directors of programs at 207 schools were stunned to learn this month in a letter from the state Education Department that they would have to find new funding for the next school year because the federal government didn't pony up $11 million to keep the programs running past June."
New York City Education Department To Restore 17 School Bus Routes
Date CapturedSunday February 25 2007, 7:57 PM
NY1 reports, "Starting Monday, the Department of Education will bring back 17 of the bus routes it cut last month."
New York City principals powerless to quell violence - Public advocate charges DOE is not helping administrators get a handle on woes
Date CapturedSaturday February 24 2007, 2:25 PM
Brooklyn Heights Courier reports, "Some Brooklyn parents suggest that the DOE implement intervention services to prevent disagreements between students from escalating into all-out brawls that put school administrators and staffers in danger. They’ve called for the creation of school-based health centers in more local schools, as the facilities provide medical and psychological care to youths."
Middle schools called key to anti-dropout strategy
Date CapturedSaturday February 24 2007, 9:58 AM
Staten Island Advance reports, "The summit, coordinated by the City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus and the advocacy group Directions for Our Youth, also focused on the achievement disparity between white and minority students."
The dropout dilemma
Date CapturedSaturday February 24 2007, 9:20 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Advocates at the Baruch College event suggested that increasing the state's compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18 would encourage more students to stay in school, said Cary Goodman, executive director of Directions for Our Youth. Other ideas included additional professional development for teachers who may have difficulty relating to the problems facing city teens."
Add 4.6B to city's bill
Date CapturedSaturday February 24 2007, 9:17 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The city shelled out $4.6 billion more on construction in the past six years than it had planned - with most of the cost overruns coming from schools and environmental protection projects, a report released yesterday revealed."
Math Lessons: How to Make New Funds Count for New York City Public Schools
Date CapturedThursday February 22 2007, 5:40 PM
2/28/2007 8:30 am; The Century Foundation, 41 East 70th Street, Manhattan.
Teach character to cut racial gap in school results
Date CapturedThursday February 22 2007, 10:47 AM
Star-Tribune Katherine Kersten writes, "Here in Minneapolis, the time is right for significant school reform. The district's new superintendent and school board are flexible and open to new ideas. District authorities are engaged in what they call 'a good, constructive dialogue' with KIPP representatives."
Beyond 'No Child'
Date CapturedThursday February 22 2007, 8:02 AM
USA Today opines, "NCLB is the primary driver of improvement in the nation's schools — particularly to provide equal opportunity, regardless of economic status. But it can only provide the incentive to change, not the means. That's up to individual schools and districts. The real reward from the law is the innovative and successful practices that have sprung up to address demands for improvement."
Killing 68M art plan paints bleak picture for schools - critics
Date CapturedThursday February 22 2007, 7:37 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The funding change follows recent school reforms intended to give principals more flexibility in how they spend money while also holding them to higher standards."
Between Policy and Reality: School Administrators Critical of Department of Education School Safety Policy
Date CapturedThursday February 22 2007, 7:26 AM
A REPORT BY PUBLIC ADVOCATE BETSY GOTBAUM, FEBRUARY 2007. "The Public Advocate makes these recommendation: The Public Advocate made these recommendations: • The DOE must solicit the input of teachers, students, principals, parents, community-based organizations, and other stakeholders in the development of school safety policies that are conducive to teaching and learning. • The DOE, in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget, should list all school safety budget allocations as line items in the city budget, including items such as Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act (SAVE) provisions. • The DOE must ensure that all schools have “time-out” or SAVE rooms on-site for disruptive students, as required by state law. • The DOE must substantially enhance the role of conflict education and resolution programming in schools and make training for teachers and administrators mandatory. 'The DOE must provide the resources needed to ensure a safe environment for students and school staff,” Gotbaum said. “School safety must be a top priority. ”
SCHOOL SAFETY GETS AN INCOMPLETE
Date CapturedThursday February 22 2007, 7:21 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Charges that the DOE underreports school violence data are not new. The state Education Department last year questioned the accuracy of the city's figures, which are maintained by the NYPD, and said it would review the city's method for collecting school safety data."
Poll: Better New York City schools biggest need
Date CapturedWednesday February 21 2007, 4:03 PM
Newsday HERBERT LOWE reports, "New Yorkers are more widely concerned about the city's high school dropout rate than increasing funds to protect the city from terrorism, according to a survey of low-income residents released yesterday. Three out of four New Yorkers favor raising the age when teenagers may drop out of school from 16 to 17 or 18, reports the survey released by the Community Service Society of New York."
Shortchanged
Date CapturedTuesday January 16 2007, 5:38 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA reports, "City middle schools are caught in a "pattern of neglect" that is magnified in the poorest neighborhoods, a study to be released today charges. The study, by the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, an organization of parent advocacy groups, found middle schools are plagued by substandard teachers and an unequal distribution of resources and course offerings."
New York City Education Department Becomes an Open Book
Date CapturedTuesday January 16 2007, 5:37 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "After four years of landmark changes to the school system, the Department of Education is preparing to turn over mounds of data related to its most radical reforms to independent researchers, The Post has learned. A list of top priorities for the new Research Partnership for New York City Schools includes examining the controversial academy for training principals, empowerment schools, and changes to the high-school admissions process."
Panel Urges ‘Marshall Plan’ to Improve New York City Middle Schools
Date CapturedTuesday January 16 2007, 3:18 AM
NY Times ELISSA GOOTMAN reports, "A coalition of community groups is calling for the city Department of Education to develop a 'Marshall Plan for middle-grade schools,' saying that all too often, the sixth through eighth grades become 'pathways to failure.' In a report scheduled to be released at a news conference today, the coalition calls for a rigorous curriculum with advanced course offerings in all middle schools, classes of no more than 20 students each, and the creation of a new position within the department: a deputy chancellor who would focus on 'ensuring proper coordination and alignment' among middle schools, high schools, college and the working world."
Ed Dept. gets F on class size
Date CapturedMonday January 15 2007, 4:30 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Class-size data for high schools turned over to the City Council last week were flawed, overcounting more than a dozen classes in four schools by as many as 19 students. That was after the Council granted school officials a three-month extension to turn over the numbers."
Emotions high at hearing over schools' axing
Date CapturedMonday January 15 2007, 3:52 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Each of the targeted schools had a graduation rate below 45% - a statistic that Region 6 Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard called 'unacceptable.' Creating small schools 'is the best way to change the tide and to change it quickly,' he said. Some in the audience agreed, but opposed the decision-making process."
Spitzer's Deal
Date CapturedFriday January 12 2007, 5:06 AM
NY Post columnist Ryan Sager writes, "GOV. Spitzer wants to be the 'reform' governor, taking on Albany's entrenched power brokers on behalf of the people of New York. To do so, he's going to have to stand up to the most cancerous special-interest in all of Democratic politics: the teachers unions. To Spitzer's credit, it looks like he's stepping off on the right foot - by getting ready to push for a deal to expand the number of innovative (and typically non-union) charter schools allowed in the state. But he still risks stepping right in it - by conceding too much to the unions and crushing a promising experiment by over-regulating it."
New York City Schools Chancellor Klein Says Privatizing Not Planned for Schools
Date CapturedFriday January 12 2007, 3:26 AM
NY Times reports, "Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein flatly denied yesterday that he would hire private managers to run city schools, but he did not rule out a wide role for outside groups in advising and supporting networks of schools. The Education Department for months had discussed hiring private managers to do everything from recruiting and training teachers to offering an array of support services. Such a move would be a sharp departure from the traditional structure and already has drawn the opposition of labor unions."
Schools in Flunk Funk
Date CapturedThursday January 11 2007, 4:51 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Until last year, the city had enjoyed incremental decreases in the number of failing schools since hitting a peak of 497 in 2003. Officials had hailed the declines as evidence that the Bloomberg administration's education reforms were working. City and state education officials yesterday took pains to point out that the latest results were based largely on scores from new statewide tests introduced in grades 3 through 8 last school year. Previously, schools were judged only on the performance of their fourth- and eighth-graders."
506 TITLE I SCHOOLS AND 56 DISTRICTS STATEWIDE ARE “IN NEED OF IMPROVEMENT” UNDER NCLB; 193 SCHOOLS ALSO IDENTIFIED UNDER SEPARATE STATE RULES
Date CapturedWednesday January 10 2007, 6:11 PM
NYSED PRESS RELEASE: A total of 506 schools and 56 districts have been identified by the State Education Department as “In Need of Improvement” under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Of these, 73 schools and 14 districts were newly identified this school year. In addition, 52 schools and 8 districts have been removed from the Title I improvement list because they have made Adequate Yearly Progress for two consecutive years in all areas for which they were identified. Forty-five of the newly identified schools and 27 of the newly removed schools were in New York City. All of these 506 schools and 56 districts receive Title I funds and must take a variety of actions under federal law. A total of 193 schools have also been identified as “Schools Requiring Academic Progress” (SRAP). These schools did not receive Title I funds for the number of years required to be identified as schools “In Need of Improvement” under federal NCLB rules. Of these, 17 schools—6 in New York City—are newly identified. These schools are required to develop a plan for improvement in the area(s) for which they are identified. Thirty-three schools—12 in New York City—in SRAP status in 2005-06 made sufficient progress to be placed in good standing.
Mike's ed shakeup
Date CapturedWednesday January 10 2007, 4:35 AM
NY Daily News Juan Gonzalez: reports, "According to education sources who have been informed about portions of the plan, the mayor will propose: Doubling the number of schools in Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's experimental "Empowerment Zone" from the current 300 to more than 600 - nearly half of all schools in the system. Hiring private education companies as consultants or managers to oversee smaller networks of schools within the Empowerment Zone. They also would run some support services for the entire system. Further reducing the 10 existing regional school districts into five superdistricts - one for each borough."
Grades up for New York City teachers
Date CapturedTuesday January 09 2007, 4:34 AM
NY Daily News reports, "City education officials credited the jump to the lead teacher program - in which veterans train new hires - as well as the Partnership for Teaching Excellence, a training program with NYU and CUNY. Teachers union President Randi Weingarten credited salary increases, but added, 'In order to increase teacher quality even more, we must lower class size, vigilantly promote safety and create a more cooperative relationship between teachers and principals.'"
NEW DATA SHOW: NEW YORK STATE RAISES PERCENT OF HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS IN EVERY SUBJECT EXCEPT ARTS
Date CapturedMonday January 08 2007, 3:30 PM
NYSED PRESS RELEASE: The gap narrowed especially at the elementary school level, from a 16 percent gap in 2004-05 to a 7 percent gap in 2005-06. In middle and high school, the gap narrowed by 1.7 percent, to a 15.5 percent gap. New York City especially improved, with more highly qualified teachers in every subject. Despite the improvement, several of the Big 5 Cities still have relatively high percentages of teachers in some subjects who are not considered highly qualified under the federal rules of the No Child Left Behind Act
Put down the pitchforks and hear Badillo out
Date CapturedSunday January 07 2007, 7:31 AM
NY Daily News ANDREA BATISTA SCHLESINGER writes, "If we're ever going to have systemic change, we need all parents, no matter their race or background, to be involved in the school system - and not just ankle deep. It's not enough to check homework each night. So how do we do it? First of all, the school system makes it far harder than it needs to be for Hispanic parents. It took years to get the Department of Education to agree to provide translation services to parents."
Public Schools Get 0 for Conduct
Date CapturedFriday January 05 2007, 4:27 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Condon (Special Investigator) noted that his independent office investigates only serious misconduct by school employees. Complaints regarding corporal punishment and wrongdoing by students are referred to the chancellor's office. He said 259 cases of wrongdoing were confirmed last year - the highest ever."
TERRORIZED TEACHERS ARE BEING DRIVEN OUT
Date CapturedThursday January 04 2007, 8:40 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Many teachers cite fear for their safety as the reason for fleeing their middle-school jobs. Violent and disruptive incidents spike in middle schools, occurring at more than twice the rate as in elementary schools, even though middle schools account for about half as many students. The pattern mirrors a nationwide trend."
Little 'Middle' Left in Apple Schools: ED. DEPT. MOVING TOWARD K-8 FORMAT
Date CapturedTuesday January 02 2007, 5:04 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Perhaps not by coincidence, city officials say, middle-graders in K-8 schools are consistently scoring higher on reading and math tests than those in middle schools. 'There is less violence in these schools, the achievement is somewhat better and the attendance is higher. That's the bottom line,' said Kathleen Cashin, superintendent of Region 5, which covers some of the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. She added that the configuration was in high demand by parents looking for stability for their children and to keep older and younger siblings together longer. "
Money myth in education
Date CapturedTuesday January 02 2007, 3:23 AM
Washington Times contributor Matt Warner, education task director for the American Legislative Exchange Council writes, "This month, the American Legislative Exchange Council -- the largest U.S. nonpartisan group of state legislators -- released the 2006 Report Card on American Education concluding that 'despite substantial increases in resources being spent on primary and secondary education over the past two decades -- per pupil expenditures have increased by 77.4 percent (after adjusting for inflation) -- student performance has improved only slightly.' CFE argues that Americans need to shell out billions more -- on top of the nearly $500 billion they spend now -- to reduce class sizes, spend more per pupil and raise teacher salaries. If these "reforms" were the answer, no doubt most Americans would pay the price. But in fact America's classrooms have already been shrinking over the last two decades. Today's class sizes are nearly 11 percent smaller than in 1983 -- the year the Reagan administration issued its education report titled 'A Nation at Risk,' a clarion call for serious reform in education."
GED seed may grow
Date CapturedSunday December 31 2006, 8:40 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The GED program's first 12-week class will begin in February, around the same time as the start of Project HIRE (Help in Re-entering Employment), another program DEP is using to help Bronx locals qualify for jobs at the plant. Announced this month, Project HIRE also partners with Bronx Community College. Job applicants registered with DEP's community outreach office who need additional skills before being hired are offered a 20-week course to learn the skills needed for apprenticeships. After the training course, graduates will meet with a Project HIRE career counselor who works to match students with jobs based on their new skills."
Art and soul of schools
Date CapturedSunday December 31 2006, 7:35 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Thanks to the WPA [Works Progress Administration of the 1930s and early '40s], the government's most ambitious effort in history to provide employment for the jobless, countless artists were put to work creating paintings and sculptures for libraries, post offices, hospitals, parks and even public housing. The biggest beneficiaries of this effort were public schools, particularly in big cities such as New York."
Strides And Setbacks In School Funding Effort
Date CapturedThursday December 28 2006, 10:25 PM
Queens Chronicle reports, "Said Geri Palast, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, in a statement, 'Spitzer’s commitment to educational excellence, not mere competence and sufficiency, is critical to the future of New York’s schoolchildren, our most valuable human resource.'”
Teachers’ Union Chief Falters in a Pop Quiz on Fractions
Date CapturedThursday December 28 2006, 3:32 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, "In contract negotiations, Randi Weingarten, the president of the New York City teachers’ union, typically does math in percentages, not fractions — as in 7.1 percent pay raises over two years in a deal that she brokered last month. And with teachers receiving large raises in the last three contracts, many teachers would say they like the way she counts. But Ms. Weingarten, the standard bearer for more than 80,0000 teachers, was left flummoxed by a question about fractions yesterday when she was on “The Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC radio, to discuss a recent report calling for a reinvention of American public schools. “What is 1/3 plus ¼?” the guest host, Mike Pesca, asked. 'What is 1/3 and ¼?' Ms. Weingarten stalled. 'I would actually have to do it on paper.'"
New York City Makes Charters '2nd Class' Citizens
Date CapturedMonday December 25 2006, 4:19 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "Since the mayoral takeover of the school system, the department has had multimillion-dollar agreements with courier services to shuttle interoffice mail and deliveries between its schools to keep them from having to dip into their administrative budgets for postage. But the destinations never included the growing number of charter schools - publicly funded but independently operated schools that the department champions and lobbies hard to support."
Classroom drama
Date CapturedSunday December 24 2006, 9:36 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Earlier this month, Sun celebrated the 200th performance of 'No Child ...', which chronicles her attempt to teach drama to the worst class at a fictional Malcolm X High in the Bronx."
Some kids who 'failed' skip ahead
Date CapturedFriday December 22 2006, 4:36 AM
NY Daily News reports, "More than half of the 1,400 city kids who were wrongly held back because of changes in statewide exams decided to advance a grade in the middle of the school year, officials said yesterday. The kids and their parents made that choice against the advice of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who said they would be better served by a second year in the third or fifth grades."
Cheating Scandal
Date CapturedFriday December 22 2006, 3:32 AM
NY Times reports, "At least a dozen city educators were involved in an effort to help students at a Flatbush high school cheat by giving them answers to questions on science laboratory reports, city investigators said yesterday."
School Entrepreneur Named to Be a Deputy Chancellor
Date CapturedFriday December 22 2006, 3:28 AM
NY Times reports, "Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein yesterday appointed the former president of Edison Schools Inc., the world’s largest for-profit operator of public schools, as a deputy chancellor, perhaps the boldest move yet in the Bloomberg administration’s effort to increase the role of the private sector in managing city public schools. The former Edison president, Chris Cerf, is a longtime friend of Mr. Klein and has been a consultant to the city’s Education Department since early this year, paid with private donations."
Mike Bloomberg is blind to promise of school choice
Date CapturedWednesday December 20 2006, 4:25 AM
Daily News contributor Andrew J. Coulson, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom writes, "Instead of trying to simulate market incentives, why not actually create a free education marketplace? With a simple program of need-based financial assistance - such as the education tax credits supported by both New York's outgoing governor and its governor-elect - families could all be assured access to the schools of their choice. It's time school reformers - and big-city mayors like Bloomberg - stopped ignoring the best hope of preserving America's competitiveness in the global economy."
Negotiations Are Signaled on Phone Ban in City Schools
Date CapturedSaturday December 16 2006, 8:41 AM
NY Times ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS reports, "David Cantor, a spokesman for Chancellor Joel I. Klein, said yesterday that the school system stood by the cellphone ban. But the Department of Education said earlier this week that it was considering whether to hire a private vendor to store students’ cellphones in small lockers outside schools for a fee of 25 to 50 cents a day."
New York City Weighs Slight Amendment To School Cell Phone Ban
Date CapturedThursday December 14 2006, 7:57 AM
NY1 reports, "The city said Wednesday that it is considering plans to allow students to bring their cell phones to school as long as they lock them up in coin-operated lockers for a charge of between 25 and 50 cents."
What do you think of New York City Department of Education's school cell phone plan?
Date CapturedThursday December 14 2006, 7:54 AM
NY1 Snap Poll: What do you think of the Department of Education's school cell phone plan? VOTE HERE!
School bus losses feared
Date CapturedWednesday December 13 2006, 5:00 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The plans, which would eliminate 250 student bus routes throughout the five boroughs, would hit Queens particularly hard because thousands of immigrant and low-income families there rely on the free transportation, state Sen. John Sabini said."
5 Schools are Being Phased Out
Date CapturedTuesday December 12 2006, 5:07 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "As the multiple grades at these schools are phased out, they will be replaced by single grades of new theme schools. Officials said the number of small schools and their specialties are still being determined, although sources indicated Lafayette may play host to schools catering to immigrant students with limited English and students interested in pharmacology. The restructuring comes at a sensitive time for all of the schools, but especially for Lafayette, whose growing pains under a new principal has been the focus of several news articles."
Class dismissed
Date CapturedTuesday December 12 2006, 4:25 AM
NY Daily News reports on NYC schools closings, "'It is no secret that there have been problems at Lafayette, so its closing is not surprising,' said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. 'As to Lafayette, we are working with the DOE to create a redesigned school - and potentially two new schools - that parents will want to send their children to and where educators will want to teach,' she said."
How Do You Spend $1.93 Billion?
Date CapturedSunday December 10 2006, 8:42 AM
NY Times Op-Ed contributor Harold O. Levy, New York City schools chancellor from 2000 until 2002 opines, "Having been a witness for the plaintiffs in the case, I can now say that however much money we ultimately get, the critical question is how we spend it."
Broken promise: How the charter school experiment is falling short, December 2006.
Date CapturedFriday December 08 2006, 4:09 PM
NYSUT study concludes, "This study of charter school performance shows charter schools have fallen short of the promise and purposes described in the legislation creating charter schools. The experiment is not working and should not be expanded by increasing the cap. Changes in the law should be made to take the financial burden off school districts where charters are located by enacting transition aid; and stronger accountability measures should be put in place to make charter schools more accountable to local communities and the state. Before any increase in the number of charter schools is even considered, a limit must be placed on the percentage of public school students enrolled in charter schools in an individual school district, as well as the percentage of public school budgets diverted to charter schools. This would help ameliorate the damaging effects of over-saturation of experimental charter schools in any one district."
After Council Balks, Bronx Schools Project Is Withdrawn
Date CapturedThursday December 07 2006, 3:22 AM
NY Times reports, "The small schools have been widely criticized for taking fewer special education students and children with limited English proficiency than other schools. The city’s admissions rules allow officials in the small schools to control admission to their freshman class, giving preference to students who express interest by attending open houses or information fairs. Any remaining slots are distributed to applicants randomly by a computer system. "
Mayor urging more charters
Date CapturedTuesday December 05 2006, 5:14 AM
NY Daily News Joe Mahoney writes, "With state lawmakers slated to meet only once more this year, Mayor Bloomberg is pressing hard for an additional 50 charter schools."
Bloomberg Travels South To Meet with Miami Mayor, Florida Governor
Date CapturedMonday December 04 2006, 3:29 PM
NY1 reports, "Mayor Michael Bloomberg will join Florida Governor Jeb Bush in Miami today to lobby for changes to the federal No Child Left Behind Law."
Parents Gather To Express Concern Over DOE's Cut Backs
Date CapturedMonday December 04 2006, 9:23 AM
NY1 reports, "More than 600 people rallied together in the North Bronx Saturday to vent their frustrations with the city's plan to cut 1,500 seats at local schools. Elected officials came forward to say education is a priority to them, and they want to work with the community to fix the flawed system."
Small Schools Exclude Many Immigrants
Date CapturedMonday December 04 2006, 8:37 AM
Gotham Gazette reports, "It is the policy of the New York City Department of Education to allow a small school to exclude English-language learners (and special education students) during its first two years of operation. This is permitted, according to the department, so that the schools can build up the necessary infrastructure to provide the instructional services these students require. But, as it turns out, many of the older small schools still do not offer programs for these students, according to a new report issued by The New York Immigration Coalition (the organization for which we work), Advocates for Children, and seven immigrant community-based organizations."
Tests & Pests
Date CapturedMonday December 04 2006, 5:29 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA and HEIDI SINGER write, "Parents of a child found carrying a bedbug are notified. But the decision to issue a letter to the school community is made on a case-by-case basis by the Office of School Health."
Windfall fades
Date CapturedMonday December 04 2006, 4:29 AM
NY Daily News ERIN EINHORN writes, "City schools are in line for an extra $1.9 billion a year, thanks to a long-fought lawsuit - but nearly a third of the windfall could end up paying for a pricey new teachers contract. The contract, which will push top teacher salaries into the six-figure range for the first time, will cost the city an extra $89 million next year and creep up to an additional $684 million a year by 2010. That's about a third of the additional aid that the state's highest court has ruled Albany will owe the city annually by then."
Bucking Tide of School Reform, a Leader Gets Results
Date CapturedMonday December 04 2006, 3:32 AM
NY Times reports, "'These are the children that are traumatized, that are hungry, that are fatigued, that are stressed,' she [Kathleen M. Cashin] told the audience. 'We decided the goal was not to try to take the fewest numbers, but to have T-shirts for them, and book bags and intervention services, to welcome them, be nurturing to them, because these are the children who have been most hurt.'”
FREE US ALL FROM UNFAIR AND CORRUPT ED. SYSTEM
Date CapturedSunday December 03 2006, 8:57 AM
NY Post Ryan Sager writes, "When companies have to compete, consumers win. Yet when it comes to one of the most important products any of us will ever purchase - a child's education - we treat parents (at least the nonrich) as prisoners instead of as consumers. The reason? Because a corrupt education monopoly - consisting of the teachers' unions, the principals' unions, and public-school administrators - doesn't want to have to compete."
Bus cuts pass test
Date CapturedSaturday December 02 2006, 7:11 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The controversial overhaul of city school bus routes got a green light yesterday. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich rejected a request from bus companies to stop the reorganization, which could slash about 250 bus routes."
SAFE COURSE: SCHOOLS TO MAP KIDS' TRAVEL ROUTES
Date CapturedFriday December 01 2006, 6:57 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Students at nearly 1,500 public and parochial elementary and middle schools will soon get maps detailing the safest way for them to get to school, under a much-delayed city project unveiled yesterday. In addition to the maps, city officials announced that construction on long-term improvements around 32 of 135 schools prone to traffic hazards would begin late next year."
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
Date CapturedThursday November 30 2006, 7:59 AM
Columbia Teachers College Bruce Baker, associate professor in educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Kansas and Michael A. Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity and a professor of law and educational practice at Teachers College, Columbia University write, "Having both worked diligently for years to rectify inequities in education finance systems, we are concerned that the particular silver bullet emphasized in the Fordham report- 'an approach known as "weighted student funding"- 'would, if enacted as proposed, be more harmful than helpful to children's interests."
Education Leaders Speak on Schools
Date CapturedWednesday November 29 2006, 8:32 AM
Columbia Spectator reports, "Klein [New York City schools chancellor] focused on charter schools that have been successful in bringing students who were behind up to grade level, describing as politically driven the state-wide charter school cap that prevents New York City from opening any more charter schools. 'I'm a big fan of charter schools,' he said. "They are built on accountability." He also stressed the importance of good teachers over small class size, citing his own experience at Columbia as an example. 'There were people here at Columbia who were wasting my time,' he said. 'One of the reasons those classes were so small is because everyone else had realized that those teachers were a waste of time.'"
So Many Schools, So Few Options:How Mayor Bloomberg’s Small High School Reforms Deny Full Access to English Language Learners
Date CapturedWednesday November 29 2006, 7:08 AM
Key findings: ELLs Are Not Given Full and Equitable Access to All Small High Schools, Parents of ELLs and Students Reported Barriers in the High School Admissions and Enrollment Process, The Small School Policy for ELLs Appears to be Forcing ELLs to Remain in Large High Schools that Do Not Have Services to Meet Their Needs , Small Schools are Not Being Created in Queens, in which the Largest Number of ELLs Reside. A joint report by: The New York Immigration Coalition & Advocates for Children of New York In collaboration with: Chhaya Community Development Corporation Chinese Progressive Association Chinese-American Planning Council Council of Peoples Organization Haitian Americans United for Progress Make the Road by Walking Metropolitan Russian American Parents Association November 2006.
New York City Schools hit on immigration bar
Date CapturedWednesday November 29 2006, 7:01 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "The report charges the vast majority of small schools either don't have services for so-called 'English language learners' (ELLs), who comprise almost 12% of the high school population, or exclude them altogether. It also says that immigrant families have less access to information about options for their kids. The city Education Department allows new schools to exclude both ELLs and special-ed students in their first two years because the schools are too new to properly serve those kids. It's a policy being reviewed by the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, which launched a probe after a complaint from a citywide group of high school parents. "
KIDS HIT LANGUAGE BARRIER
Date CapturedWednesday November 29 2006, 6:56 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Researchers could not say how many of the 184 new small schools created under Bloomberg exercise the two-year exclusion policy. But they found that 41 percent of 126 small schools surveyed do not offer any English-as-a-Second Language or bilingual services - apparently in violation of city, state and federal laws. 'The problem isn't just access,' said Chung-Wha Hong, director of the New York Immigration Coalition. 'Sometimes they can get in the door but they then face a long-term problem because there are no services for them.' The city Department of Education insisted that only a handful of small schools did not have a single ESL student enrolled."
Schooling corporate giants on recruiting
Date CapturedTuesday November 28 2006, 9:17 AM
CNN reports, "Seniors who compete to be Teach for America corps members must endure hours of interviews and tests designed to assess their organizational skills, perseverance and resiliency - critical traits since recruits receive only five weeks of teacher training (albeit grueling) before they get plopped into a classroom in the South Bronx or some other impoverished locale. As the students voice their qualms about TFA 'What if I fail? Won't poor kids reject Ivy League teachers?' Kopp doesn't sugarcoat the obstacles: 'It can be really overwhelming and depressing,' she warns. 'We all have bad days, and people who teach in Teach for America probably have more bad days than most.'"
New Project to Send Musicians Into Schools
Date CapturedTuesday November 28 2006, 7:14 AM
NY Times reports, "Two pillars of the classical musical establishment, Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School, have joined forces to give birth to a music academy whose fellows will go forth and propagate musicianship in New York public schools. The city’s Education Department is opening its arms to the new program, seeing an inexpensive but valuable source of teaching for a system deprived of comprehensive music training. And the leaders of Carnegie and Juilliard see an opportunity to promote their conviction that a musician in 21st-century America should be more than just a person who plays the notes."
Gov. cheers, CFE jeers court ruling
Date CapturedMonday November 27 2006, 5:44 AM
Legislative Gazette reports, "After 13 years and three appeals, what might be the final ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case was issued last week with New York’s highest court ordering the state to budget at least $1.93 billion more for New York City’s public schools."
School aid vows fail arithmetic
Date CapturedSunday November 26 2006, 6:24 PM
Columnist Jay Gallagher writes on CFE and school funding, "Shazam! Add money to New York City schools, but don't subtract any from anywhere else. What could be better? That sounds like a good math problem for the next Regents' math exam, which some New York students have so much trouble mastering. The problem goes something like this: take a pot of money. Divide it up into sections. Then take the same pot of money, and make some of the sections bigger, but don't reduce any of the others."
Day one, item one
Date CapturedSunday November 26 2006, 8:08 AM
Newsday opined, "First, Spitzer must propose a dollar amount for helping not just the city but also poor suburban and upstate districts - without cutting existing funds for any community. Then he has to craft a new formula, based on need and not political clout, for distributing all school aid. Then there's the issue of accountability. Although the court said the state doesn't need a new system of oversight, Spitzer must make sure both the education department and school districts have the resources to ensure that aid money is well spent. How much more should be spent? Based on authoritative studies, public and private, it's clear the court's $1.9-billion minimum for the city is too little. A more reasonable sum is $6 billion - with most going to the city - on top of the $15 billion-plus the state now spends annually. Who should come up with the money? Primarily the state, which has failed to give the city a fair share. But it would be fair if city taxpayers - who also have a history of shortchanging schools - ponied up as much as one-third of the new funds. How should aid be distributed? Most should go to the districts with the neediest students, who tend to be the most expensive to teach."
List for Schools Seems to Grow More Wishful
Date CapturedSaturday November 25 2006, 7:44 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, "The sum at issue is substantial: $2 billion a year translates to roughly $1,887 per student, or about $943,500 annually in a school with 500 students. While the amount ordered by the court is still huge, a leading critic of school financing lawsuits that have been filed across the country said the focus on the money had distracted from the work of actually fixing the city schools. 'For five years, people have looked to the courts and argued about the money without thinking seriously about what to do,' said the critic, Eric A. Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution."
Cell phone letters fall on deaf ears
Date CapturedFriday November 24 2006, 5:39 AM
The Queens Courier reports, "Although the situations of angry parents and students who sent complaints about the City's cell phone ban in schools were varied, their messages were similar: 'Our children have the right to have immediate access to their parents,' one parent wrote."
New York City Schools Figure 'Wrong'
Date CapturedFriday November 24 2006, 4:00 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "In a recent letter to the schools chancellor, Comptroller William Thompson Jr. noted that the steady climb began following a change in the way the city Department of Education defined discharged students in its annual reports beginning in 2002. The change involved omitting a disclaimer that said a student could be considered discharged only after the student was confirmed to have been admitted to a new school outside the city public school system."
Landmark NYC school aid ruling comes up about $3 billion short of lower courts' recommendations
Date CapturedThursday November 23 2006, 8:47 AM
Inside Albany reports, "Surprisingly, the decision’s author was Eugene Pigott, Pataki’s final appointee to the court. Pigott was sworn in a couple of hours before the CFE arguments. Pigott wrote that the trial court had erred in having the panel of retired judges conduct a new review of how much a sound basic education cost. His opinion focused on the separation of the branches of government. 'The role of the courts is not, as Supreme Court assumed, to determine the best way to calculate the cost of a sound basic education in New York City schools, but to determine whether the state’s proposed calculation of that cost is rational.'”
Inside Albany (IA)
Date CapturedThursday November 23 2006, 8:44 AM
This week on Inside Albany: Less than expected-Landmark NYC school aid ruling comes up about $3 billion short of lower courts' recommendations. CHECK SCHEDULE
State high court finally discovers its limitations
Date CapturedThursday November 23 2006, 7:28 AM
NY Daily News Bill Hammond writes, "He [Eliot Spitzer] campaigned on promises to spend as much as $8.5 billion settling the CFE case and to support legalization of gay marriage. He won with 70% of the vote. Now he has the right to be wrong, and this Court of Appeals won't stand in his way."
NYC Students Can Get Cellphone Waiver
Date CapturedThursday November 23 2006, 6:39 AM
The Queens Gazette reports, "A prior medical exemption provision allowed students to bring cell phones to school, but prohibited them from using or carrying the phones from class to class. Under the revised provision, students must have a doctor fill out a form describing their condition and explaining why they need to carry a cellphone during school hours. It is then up to the school principal to approve the student's request to carry the cellphone."
Queens Feels Squeeze Of Overcrowded Classes
Date CapturedThursday November 23 2006, 6:35 AM
Queens Chronicle reports, "Education reform advocates were quick to capitalize on the findings as evidence that the mayor’s plan to alleviate school crowding and reduce class size was falling behind. 'If we want our kids to succeed at every level, there is simply no way we can continue having classes this large,' said Leonie Haimson, of Class Size Matters, a Manhattan based advocacy group dedicated to lowering class sizes. 'It’s not good for kids, and it’s not saving money.' But education officials countered that the figures showed steady progress in the mayor’s plan to reduce class sizes, pointing to marginal declines in class enrollment from year to year at each grade level. Agency officials also noted that the recent class size averages are well below the limits established under the city’s teachers union contract, which recommends a threshold of 25 kids in kindergarten and 32 students in grades one through six."
In their court
Date CapturedWednesday November 22 2006, 10:00 AM
Times Union opined, "An epic court battle is over, then, but with a workable solution for neglect of school children, of all people, not yet in sight. Mr. Spitzer and the Legislature must provide them with the resources they've long been denied. While they're at it, they might fix the formulas for education funding statewide. Otherwise, they might find themselves right back in court, bracing for a ruling that's even more damning."
Pol slams 'outrageous' school consulting deals
Date CapturedWednesday November 22 2006, 7:45 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "School officials last year awarded a record-breaking $121million worth of contracts without the public review required of most city agencies, a Daily News analysis found. One of the largest and most controversial contracts put the city-based Alvarez & Marsal in charge of school finances for 17-1/2 months to find ways to cut bureaucracy. The contract - which was initially posted publicly for $17 million but later modified to $15.8million - includes 19 consultants billing at rates ranging from $275 to $450 an hour, including seven whose total bills will top $1 million."
'School Squeeze' Protest
Date CapturedWednesday November 22 2006, 6:06 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "At a meeting with Department of Education officials following the protest, parents voiced concerns about safety, overcrowding and the agency's refusal to commit to its own projected timetable to move the Columbia school to a new location in two to three years. "
A Minimum for City Schools
Date CapturedWednesday November 22 2006, 3:36 AM
NY Times opined, "Mr. Spitzer wants the city to contribute more, perhaps as much as $1 billion extra, but he might have a hard time getting Mayor Michael Bloomberg to go along."
Manhattan: Parents Protest Columbia Plan
Date CapturedWednesday November 22 2006, 3:26 AM
NY Times reports, "Much of the anger from parents seemed to stem from the fact that preliminary decisions were made without them."
SCHOOL SANITY: COURT OPTS FOR RESTRAINT
Date CapturedTuesday November 21 2006, 6:44 AM
NY Post contributor E.J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy writes, "It will take a determined governor to prevent legislators and the usual special-interest groups from using CFE as an excuse to promote Albany's traditional education 'solution' - lots more money, no reform. But thanks to the Court of Appeals, these issues at least will be contested in the right forum. In one of his more beneficial legacies, Pataki stocked New York's highest court with judges who were unwilling to micromanage policy. They've now kicked the ball back to the Legislature, once and for all. CFE and its allies must turn their attention to direct lobbying of the people's elected representatives - which is just the way it should be."
NYSUT blasts court decision on CFE; looks to Spitzer to do the 'right thing'
Date CapturedTuesday November 21 2006, 6:13 AM
NYSUT PRESS RELEASE: "For more than a decade, the court has repeatedly supported the premise of the CFE case: Every child must receive a sound basic education," Iannuzzi [New York State United Teachers President ]said. "Now, in addition to stripping away accountability measures, the court has basically said to every student in New York, 'Let them eat cake.'"
TOP NEW YORK COURT SUBTRACTS $3.7B FROM SCHOOLS
Date CapturedTuesday November 21 2006, 5:57 AM
NY Post Kenneth Lovett and David Andreatta report, "The school-funding ruling yesterday by the state Court of Appeals: * Requires state to increase operating aid to city schools by a minimum $1.93 billion annually. * Leaves final decision on spending above $1.93 billion with governor and Legislature, not courts. * Rejected state argument for a new office to monitor spending. * Tossed a lower court's order requiring $9.2 billion in additional school capital spending."
COURT BITES JUDGE
Date CapturedTuesday November 21 2006, 5:52 AM
NY Post opined on New York school funding lawsuit, "Gov. Pataki deserves two measures of credit for yesterday's ruling: * For having fought this case for so long - his entire 12-year tenure - in a state practically run by school unions and other special interests. Practically everyone agreed (wrongly) that the city needs billions more for schools. Even though it already spends far more per student than most other cities. And even though there is no credible evidence that extra money can guarantee students learn more. * And for assembling a high court - he appointed five of its members - that doesn't confuse itself with the Legislature."
Extra school money is cut in CFE school funding court case
Date CapturedTuesday November 21 2006, 5:10 AM
Times Union Rick Karlin reports, "The court's majority also found that Pataki's method of calculating education costs -- which led to the $1.93 billion figure -- was valid. CFE had used a different method that resulted in a higher price tag. The governor's method included a "filter" that excluded some of the highest-spending districts for comparison purposes."
Breathing Room for Spitzer in Decision on New York City Schools
Date CapturedTuesday November 21 2006, 3:19 AM
NY Times reports, "Certainly, the political tug of war over the issue will provide early tests of Mr. Spitzer’s relationships with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the leaders of the State Legislature. Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Bloomberg have already publicly skirmished over how to divide up the bill for new financing of city schools between the state and city governments. In Albany, the Democratic Assembly will probably want to go well above the court’s $1.9 billion floor, while the Republican Senate, led by upstaters, will most likely rebuff such spending."
New York Court Cuts Aid Sought by City Schools
Date CapturedTuesday November 21 2006, 3:17 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, "New York State’s highest court ended a landmark legal fight over education financing yesterday, ruling that at least $1.93 billion more must be spent each year on New York City’s public schools — far less than the $4.7 billion that a lower court called the minimum needed to give city children the chance for a sound basic education."
"Photo Finish: Which Teachers Are Better? Certification Status Isn't Going to Tell Us
Date CapturedMonday November 20 2006, 7:47 PM
Economists Thomas J. Kane of Harvard University, Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia Business School, and Douglas O. Staiger of Dartmouth College, in Education Next, 2007 No. 1 answer the question of whether certification ensures highly effective teachers in the classroom. Researchers write, "The results of our study of New York City public school teachers confirm a simple truth: some teachers are considerably better than others at helping students learn. For example, elementary-school students who have a teacher who performs in the top quartile of all elementary-school teachers learn 33 percent of a standard deviation more (substantially more) in math in a year than students who have a teacher who performs in the bottom quartile. Yet as we embrace this piece of conventional wisdom, we must discard another: the widespread sentiment that there are large differences in effectiveness between traditionally certified teachers and uncertified or alternatively certified teachers. The greatest potential for school districts to improve student achievement seems to rest not in regulating minimum qualifications for new teachers but in selectively retaining those teachers who are most effective during their first years of teaching. "
New York Must Pay Schools $1.93B More a Year
Date CapturedMonday November 20 2006, 10:39 AM
AP reports, "The state Court of Appeals, in a 4-2 decision, set the minimum to be spent, but said the Legislature should be allowed to determine the final total. The Pataki administration had argued that decisions on how to spend public money are the responsibility of the executive and legislative branches, not the courts. 'In fashioning specific remedies for constitutional violations, we must avoid intrusion on the primary domain of another branch of government,' Justice Eugene Pigott wrote for the majority."
Court Orders Education Dept. Not to Cut 250 Bus Routes Yet
Date CapturedSaturday November 18 2006, 6:44 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, " State Supreme Court justice yesterday blocked the New York City Education Department from eliminating 250 school bus routes to help save up to $20 million a year. The court order came at the request of school bus companies, which argued that the city’s plan violated their contract. Skip to next paragraph Blogs The Empire Zone Coverage of politics in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The justice, Shirley Werner Kornreich, said she would hear arguments in the case on Dec. 1."
Homework not fonework, sez Mike
Date CapturedFriday November 17 2006, 5:11 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Parents and students have argued that cell phones are useful in emergencies. But Bloomberg has repeatedly said cell phones disrupt classes. And despite growing calls for him to lift the ban on the phones, iPods and other gadgets, the mayor says he's not budging."
Firms sue to put brakes on New York City school bus cuts
Date CapturedFriday November 17 2006, 5:11 AM
NY Daily News reports, "A coalition of school bus companies sued the city Education Department yesterday in a last-ditch bid to stop the planned elimination of 250 routes. The 10 bus companies claim in the suit that the Education Department's Dec. 4 reorganization will cause chaos among students. The companies also argued that the cuts violate their contract with City Hall."
Schools too good, Mike says
Date CapturedFriday November 17 2006, 5:08 AM
NY Daily News ERIN EINHORN reports, "One of the reasons city schools are overcrowded is because they're getting better, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. While announcing the first of a series of bond deals to finance his five-year, $4.7 billion school construction plan, the mayor said his efforts to give kids more space is 'being exacerbated by the fact that our schools are getting better and parents are more inclined to stay in the city as their children get older.'"
Hands off our school!
Date CapturedThursday November 16 2006, 4:55 AM
NY Daily News reports on plans to tear down an upper East Side [New York City], "Supporters say the building, once known as Julia Rikers for its dangerous reputation, has reinvented itself as a home for six notable schools, including a performing arts high school, a school for autistic children and a school created to serve children of people who work in the area. Their objections were highlighted yesterday by Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez.."
Most Students in Big Cities Lag Badly in Basic Science
Date CapturedThursday November 16 2006, 3:33 AM
NY Times DIANA JEAN SCHEMO reports, "At least half of eighth graders tested in science failed to demonstrate even a basic understanding of the subject in 9 of 10 major cities, and fourth graders, the only other group tested, fared little better, according to results released here Wednesday. The outcome of those tests, part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the nation’s report card, showed that student performance in urban public schools was not only poor but also far short of science scores in the nation as a whole."
NYC schools chancellor urges 'radical change'
Date CapturedWednesday November 15 2006, 2:29 PM
Daily Princetonian reports, "This 'culture of performance,' Klein said, depends in large part on school officials' willingness to be innovative and depart from existing systems of public educations. 'Talent matters," he said. A central topic in the discussion was the "Autonomy Zone" that Klein and other education officials implemented in 2004 to allow schools to develop independently. Twenty-six NYC public schools comprised the initial Autonomy Zone population, with the principals of each school signing what Nadelstern called 'performance agreements.' These agreements allowed principals to commit voluntarily to high levels of accomplishment within their schools."
New York City parents peeved over cell phone ban
Date CapturedWednesday November 15 2006, 4:59 AM
amNewYork City Michael Clancy reports, "The public school system has prohibited cell phones in school buildings for years, but the policy was generally not enforced at most schools. Last spring, the issue exploded when school officials started performing random searches for weapons systemwide and guards seized hundreds of cell phones. Critics of the ban also say students who attend schools with permanent metal detectors suffer more than children at schools without the detectors because students at those schools are allowed to bend the rules."
New York City parents angry over nixed school meeting
Date CapturedWednesday November 15 2006, 4:55 AM
NY Daily News reports, "They [parents] are concerned the addition of middle-school students will disrupt the character of PS 36, which enrolls children in prekindergarten through second grade, and decried a lack of parent input in the Education Department's decision."
Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) school funds case Mike's No. 1 goal
Date CapturedWednesday November 15 2006, 4:52 AM
NY Daily News Joe Mahoney reports, "But Sanders [former Assembly Education Chairman, now a lobbyist] and Senate Education Committee Chairman Steve Saland (R-Poughkeepsie) said the key to making progress will be whether the city becomes more generous with its own classrooms. 'The city has been folding its arms and maintained consistently they don't want to provide a dime,' Saland said."
Dozens of NYC parents e-mail City Hall over cell phone ban
Date CapturedWednesday November 15 2006, 4:12 AM
AP reports, "Gotbaum [public advocate] and some other lawmakers say principals should set their own policies. They site safety as the No. 1 concern. In the e-mails, some parents pointed to the Sept. 11 disaster and the daily threat of terrorism as the primary reasons why their children need phones. "The reality is that the NYC subway system is vulnerable to terrorist attack," said the parent of a ninth grader. 'When we have so little control over these horrific incidents, and must continue to live our lives (as Mayor Bloomberg suggests we do), something as simple and basic as cell phone contact with our children should not be up for negotiation.' Another wrote: 'She and I both feel a little less crazy knowing that if something major happens - an accident, a crisis - that she can be in touch with me. If your child went to school blocks from ground zero, you'd know what I'm talking about.'"
'Guinea Pig' Kids Uproar
Date CapturedTuesday November 14 2006, 5:35 AM
NY Post CARL CAMPANILE and STEPHANIE GASKELL report on students as subjects in university studies, "More than 50 of those studies focused on health, psychology, race, ethnicity and religion - mostly on kids in the poorest neighborhoods. All were conducted with parental consent, but as an incentive, parents and kids often were compensated. 'This is outrageous,' Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron said. 'I'm concerned about any form of therapy going on in our schools.' But Mayor Bloomberg defended the research. 'We've been doing this for a number of years and we will continue to do it,' he said.
Maritime school's Gov. Island getaway
Date CapturedTuesday November 14 2006, 4:52 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The Department of Education {New York City] and the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corp. are in talks to move the 400-student school from Brooklyn to the 172-acre island off Manhattan's southern tip, officials said."
Education stats show New York City of wise guys, gals
Date CapturedTuesday November 14 2006, 4:39 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The city Education Department attributed rising graduation and lower dropout rates to an increase in programs devoted to keeping kids in school longer, including the Young Adult Borough Centers, targeting high school students who might be considering dropping out."
'Guinea Pig' Kids Stir Furor
Date CapturedMonday November 13 2006, 4:49 AM
NY Post CARL CAMPANILE reports, "City [New York City] education officials last year quietly approved more than 50 research projects related to health, psychology, race, ethnicity, gender and religion - mostly on kids in the poorest neighborhoods, a Post investigation has found. Nearly 200 studies - some of them financed by multimillion-dollar grants - were OK'd. All of the studies were conducted with parental consent. But as an incentive, parents and kids often were compensated. The city allows 'modest cash payments' to parents and teachers and gift certificates for kids, education officials said."
Weighing in on Ballroom Dancing
Date CapturedMonday November 13 2006, 4:40 AM
NY Post CARL CAMPANILE and MARK BULLIET report, "Research involving public-school students as "guinea pigs" can be seriously worrisome - but also downright silly, critics charge. One example: A study of whether ballroom dancing helps kids beat weight woes and bolsters healthy behavior by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical Center."
New York City Ed Dept. tells school bigs: Clear all talks first
Date CapturedMonday November 13 2006, 4:37 AM
NY Daily News ERIN EINHORN reports, "The Department of Education has ordered school bigwigs to powwow with a new external-communications team before accepting or declining invitations to speak with community groups or public officials. The new public-appearance protocol is pitched as a way to ensure that DOE reps are fully prepared, according to a memo obtained by the Daily News. 'And it will help them think strategically about how the DOE is publicly presenting itself,' the memo states."
Johnny got a raw deal
Date CapturedSunday November 12 2006, 8:23 AM
NY Daily News contributor Joe Williams writes on the New York City teachers contract deal, "By cutting such a deal so early rather than keeping pressure on, Bloomberg has made a statement loud and clear: Only contract nips and tucks are needed from here on out. Major new work-rule changes are unnecessary."
BAT BAN OFF BASE: SCHOOLS
Date CapturedSunday November 12 2006, 7:37 AM
NY Post reports, "The Catholic High Schools' Athletic Association sent a letter to all 51 council members urging them not to vote for the measure, which would require all high schools in the city to use wooden bats for safety reasons."
New York City Mayor Bloomberg won't blockade military from schools
Date CapturedSaturday November 11 2006, 8:28 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Despite some protests against them, the city won't ban military recruiters from public high schools, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday."
Klein's Principal Focus
Date CapturedFriday November 10 2006, 5:00 AM
NY Post opined, "Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's laser-like focus on the Council of Supervisers and Administrators - the union that represents both school principals and their administrative underlings - continues. As it should."
'No Secret Deal' in New York City Teacher Pact
Date CapturedFriday November 10 2006, 4:54 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Asked if she would push state lawmakers to reauthorize mayoral control when the law expires in 2009, Weingarten [United Federation of Teachers President ]said it was 'premature to decide.'"
New York City teachers deal not so sweet
Date CapturedFriday November 10 2006, 4:38 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Klein [New York City schools chancellor] has been critical of provisions in the teachers contract that he says protect incompetent teachers. He has called for the ability to alter the length of the school day and for the ability to pay some teachers more than others. He even boasted at a recent event that he was creating a 'new labor-management paradigm' in the school system. But the 24-month contract that teachers seem likely to approve in a formal ratification vote next month - the last teachers contract over which Klein is likely to have any influence - contained virtually none of reforms he has advocated."
New York City schools shakeup fury
Date CapturedFriday November 10 2006, 4:35 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, ""Every single year that I've been involved in the school issue, it's been a fight from one borough to another and from one district to another over a totally insufficient pie,' said Leonie Haimson of the advocacy group Class Size Matters. Officials have proposed cutting seven schools from its five-year construction plan because of increased costs." Hearings on the construction plans will be held.
OSHA Investigating Dispute Over Asbestos Removal at New York City School
Date CapturedFriday November 10 2006, 3:16 AM
NY Times reports, "Last week, the New York State Labor Department, contacted by a lawyer for the custodian, cited the city Department of Education for violating laws on the safe removal of asbestos. It said the Education Department’s asbestos-handling license had expired before some of the tiles were replaced and that the supervisor was not certified to perform the work."
Staten Island High School Athletic Fields In Dangerous State Of Disrepair
Date CapturedThursday November 09 2006, 6:56 AM
NY1 reports, "Years of neglect have left a Staten Island high school athletic field in a dangerous state of disrepair, and some parents and administrators are asking for help, before a student is hurt."
New York City School-bus info hotline
Date CapturedThursday November 09 2006, 4:41 AM
NY Daily News reports, "A new hotline will help parents and teachers negotiate upcoming changes in city school bus service."
New York City student cell ban adds med waiver
Date CapturedThursday November 09 2006, 4:40 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Although a medical exemption to the controversial cell phone ban was already on the books, the Department of Education yesterday set up a formal process to apply for the waiver."
New York City school construction plan loses 7 buildings, 3,000 seats
Date CapturedThursday November 09 2006, 4:39 AM
NY Daily News reports, "'We looked at the demographics and don't need the extra 3,000 seats to alleviate overcrowding,' said Jeff Shear, Klein's chief of staff for finance and administration. Instead, Shear said, the Education Department will build permanent homes for some schools now located in rental buildings. With that construction, the total number of seats built will still be 66,000 - but only 63,000 will be new capacity."
It's cool to stay in school
Date CapturedThursday November 09 2006, 4:33 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The citywide program is funded largely by $14.5 million of state money. It is administered by the United Way of New York City, which in turn contracts with local community groups. The program focuses on students who have 'attendance challenges' and are in danger of dropping out, but who are not so truant that they have fallen drastically behind."
Ap-parent Snub
Date CapturedWednesday November 08 2006, 6:00 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Overall, just 1,189 schools [New York City], or 82 percent, have an operational association, despite rules set by the chancellor that require schools to hold elections for parent officers in June and for each school to have an association in place within a year of its existence."
Now We Have Peace of Mind
Date CapturedWednesday November 08 2006, 5:58 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "For art teacher David Klaw, the new contract means two things: more money in his pocket and peace of mind."
New York City Mayor Bloomberg Could be Big Winner in UFT Deal
Date CapturedWednesday November 08 2006, 5:51 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Sensitive issues championed publicly by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, like establishing pay differentials for teachers based on competence and more instructional time for students, were not part of the latest deal - although the city won significant concessions on those fronts in the last contract."
New York City teachers chalk up an early deal
Date CapturedTuesday November 07 2006, 4:41 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "In a stunning move last night, the city's 120,000-member teachers union inked a tentative deal for a new contract nearly a full year before its current contract expires. The pact jacks the top range of teachers' pay over the $100,000 mark and includes a 7.1% raise over two years. The Bloomberg administration and the United Federation of Teachers reached the deal after just three weeks of closed-door negotiations, a sharp contrast to prior years when teachers angrily worked months without a raise."
City Reaches Early Tentative Deal With Teachers’ Union
Date CapturedTuesday November 07 2006, 3:15 AM
NY Times reports, ""The new teachers’ contract includes a minor change to a remediation program for teachers who receive an unsatisfactory rating, and it allows the city to offer a voluntary buyout to any teacher who does not have a regular school assignment. But this time around there were no demands for such concessions and there were no explosive disagreements, no talk of a strike or political threats like the union’s intimation last year that it would endorse Fernando Ferrer rather than the mayor. In the end, the union stayed neutral. The contract needs the approval of the Panel for Educational Policy, as well as the union members."
Poor scores test parents' patience
Date CapturedMonday November 06 2006, 4:15 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Angered by the dismal state test scores of the city's eighth-graders, a coalition of 100 parents of middle school kids took its demands for action to elite Stuyvesant High School. The New York City chapter of Coalition for Educational Justice asked the city Education Department to create a task force and take other measures to address poor performance in middle schools."
School Bus Drivers Angered by Corruption in Union
Date CapturedMonday November 06 2006, 3:18 AM
NY Times reports, "Many of New York City’s school bus drivers say their union local is so awash in corruption problems that they want the parent union to appoint a trustee to run it. And some drivers say they are angry and baffled that the parent union has done so little to address their concerns that their union, Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, has been sullied by guilty pleas and indictments among its leaders."
CITY SCHOOL EXAMS FAIL THE 'TYPO' TEST
Date CapturedSunday November 05 2006, 7:35 AM
NY Post reports, "A total of 1.2 million booklets went out to the 600,000 students taking the exams. One English and one math booklet was given to each kid. Of the 1.2 million booklets, between 10,000 and 20,000 of them had problems, testing officials said yesterday. Some 90 different exams were created for the empowerment schools - though some questions were the same on all the tests. Each of the tests contained about 25 to 30 questions, testing officials said. Empowerment schools are allowed to set their own curricula but must prove their kids aren't falling behind."
New York City kids deserve more same-sex schools
Date CapturedSunday November 05 2006, 7:05 AM
NY Daily News contributors Joel Klein (NYC schools chancellor) and Dennis Walcott (deputy mayor for Education and Community Development) write, "Creating good educational choices is another powerful reason for supporting single-sex schools. We believe New Yorkers should be able to select from a wide array of high-quality public schools: large high schools and small high schools, schools focused on the performing arts and schools focused on business, charter schools and traditional public schools. Single-sex schools ought to be part of that mix."
Chancellor Cites Favoritism at a New York School
Date CapturedSaturday November 04 2006, 7:31 AM
NY Times ELISSA GOOTMAN reports, "Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said the school’s practices were a 'stark and different' example of the kind of favoritism that he has been trying to eliminate from the city’s array of coveted schools and gifted programs. Officials say an examination of the school’s most recent kindergarten admissions documents shows that school officials were looking not only at students’ performance, but also at how involved their parents were likely to be."
A School-Bus Stop for 40,000 City Kids
Date CapturedFriday November 03 2006, 5:24 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "'We want to spend money on schools rather than on buses that kids aren't taking, while also ensuring that every child who wants and is eligible for busing gets it,' said DOE spokesman David Cantor. 'This plan will achieve that.' Cantor noted that the department has made 16 attempts since June to notify parents of the new bus-registration requirement through letters sent home with kids, reminder e-mails to principals and press releases. The plan affects only general-education students, not special-ed kids."
Test scores under investigation at New York City high school
Date CapturedFriday November 03 2006, 3:45 AM
AP reports, "City and state education officials are investigating claims that a high school tampered with students' scores on key state tests. Teachers at Susan E. Wagner High School in Staten Island say administrators pushed to raise some students' scores on Regents science, English and history exams last June, teachers' union spokesman Stuart Marques said Thursday."
New York City Education Bigs Eye 'Rebel' Parents
Date CapturedTuesday October 31 2006, 5:42 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "A department spokeswoman said auditors had been trying to review the group's books for weeks, since the principal complained the organization had not filed paperwork with her detailing its fund-raising."
Keep public parks public
Date CapturedSunday October 29 2006, 6:18 AM
NY Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez writes, "Under the proposed deal, the city would supply money from its capital budget to renovate and increase the number of ballfields on Randalls Island from 30 to 68. The private schools would get near-exclusive use of 80% of those fields and, in turn, pay $2.85 million annually - an average of $142,000 each school per year - to finance the park renovations and part of the maintenance. The 20 schools, in effect, would be leasing for peanuts the city's biggest complex of public ballfields in a no-bid contract. A Daily News review of state financial records filed by 18 of the prep schools shows they have combined assets of nearly $900million."
FURY OF BOOTED NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL PARENTS
Date CapturedSaturday October 28 2006, 8:16 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "Parents claimed the principal, Olga Livanis, has cut student counseling sessions, single-sex math and science classes and sports programs; failed to supply students with a crossing guard and a nurse; and ignored their complaints. Some suggested Livanis, whose predecessor stood with parents in their loud public fight against the charter school, had a mandate to quash parent involvement."
Columbia Teachers College Alumnus is Project Director For New Columbia High School
Date CapturedSaturday October 28 2006, 8:02 AM
Columbia Teachers College writes, "Maldonado-Rivera's appointment was jointly announced today by Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger and New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein The new school, which will be operated by the New York City Department of Education in close collaboration with Columbia University, will be initially located in a transitional space and will accept students in the sixth grade, eventually serving approximately 650 students from grades six through 12 in a new building in Manhattanville."
Ferris Bueller's day is history for today's kids
Date CapturedFriday October 27 2006, 9:58 AM
USA TODAY reports, "Recent research showing that important brain development continues into adolescence has influenced new restrictions, says Stephanie Walton of the National Conference of State Legislatures. 'There's a real sense out there, and you see this reflected in all these laws, that kids don't grow up as fast as we used to think they do.' Lobbying by parents has brought a wave of laws and surveillance — as well as lawsuits contending that some policies designed to crack down on teens have gone too far:"
Unclear 'Net Tutors Aided Kids
Date CapturedThursday October 26 2006, 4:55 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Thousands of struggling city students unwittingly relied on online tutors based in India who were neither fingerprinted nor subjected to criminal background checks, probers charged."
The Fordham Report 2006: NEW YORK STATE
Date CapturedTuesday October 24 2006, 8:05 AM
Thoman B. Fordham Institute report writes, "New York's current state academic standards are solid, and nearly one-quarter of high school students passed at least one Advanced Placement exam, leaving the Empire State second to none in this category. The state is also working diligently to grow the number of minorities taking Advanced Placement exams. Between 1992 and 2003, for example, the number of African-Americans and Hispanics taking the test doubled. Charter school policy is not doing as well. Charter schools have proven wildly popular in New York since 1998, when Governor George Pataki's charter school proposal became law-when it turned out that legislators wanted a pay raise for themselves more than they wanted to follow the teachers union's bidding."
A+ for Mike, Joel
Date CapturedMonday October 23 2006, 4:08 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The Bloomberg-Klein tandem was lauded for improving public schools by stamping out 'cronyism and entrenched interests' and putting the focus back on students since the mayoral takeover of the education system."
Study Takes a Sharp Look at the City’s Failing Students
Date CapturedSunday October 22 2006, 8:22 AM
NY Times ELISSA GOOTMAN reports, "The study found that students who fall behind in the number of credits they are expected to accumulate have a difficult time getting back on track at traditional high schools. Of the class of 2003’s dropouts, the study found that 93 percent fell behind in their credits at some point, indicating that their chief problem may not be the state requirement that all graduates pass a series of Regents exams. By contrast, only 19 percent of those who graduated had fallen significantly behind in their credits at any point. There are 68,000 students ages 16 to 21 who have dropped out of school, the study found, but there are 70,000 who are still enrolled even though they are behind in their credits. Effectively serving that group, the bulk of whom are 16, 17 and 18, is critical to improving the city’s graduation rate, Ms. Cahill [senior counselor for education policy to Joel I. Klein, the schools chancellor] said."
Relax, It’s Just Preschool
Date CapturedSaturday October 21 2006, 7:23 AM
NY Times contributor HILLARY CHURA writes, "Sources like the Department of Education nces.ed.gov, schooldigger .com, psk12.com and schoolsk-12.com allow you to examine school size, some demographics and occasionally test scores in public or private — but rarely both — schools. The material, however, can be dated. Apple-to-apple meters are hard to pinpoint since students at independent schools rarely take the mandatory tests as do their counterparts at public schools, said Myra McGovern, spokeswoman for the National Association of Independent Schools."
New York City principals union chief to retire, go national in '07
Date CapturedFriday October 20 2006, 4:44 AM
NY Daily News reports, "After six years at the helm of the city principals union, Jill Levy announced plans this week to step down when her term ends Jan. 31. She will devote her time to the national union, the American Federation of School Administrators, which elected her president last summer."
NFL Joins Fight Against Child Obesity
Date CapturedThursday October 19 2006, 3:35 PM
AP KAREN MATTHEWS reports, "Some 25,000 middle schools that are participating in the nationwide effort will get lesson plans intended to broaden physical activity in schools. A language arts lesson has students create and perform a rap that demonstrates action verbs. A science lesson has kids play scooter tag, with one group of students representing cholesterol and another representing healthy hearts."
School Lunch Crunch
Date CapturedThursday October 19 2006, 9:14 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Claiming that students who con their way to a free lunch cost the DOE as much as $5 million annually in federal reimbursements, the agency on Monday will begin requiring more students to pay cash before getting served. The policy is aimed at students whose household income disqualifies them from receiving a free lunch, but who finagle one by preying on compassionate cafeteria cashiers and lax enforcement of eligibility rules."
New York City Mayor Bloomberg Says City Won’t Pay in School Financing Case
Date CapturedThursday October 19 2006, 3:20 AM
NY Times reports, "According to The News, Mr. Spitzer also suggested that the linchpin of the mayor’s education agenda — the Legislature’s decision in 2002 to give the mayor control over the school system — could be a tool used to pressure the city. 'In the background, you have the issue of mayoral control and other factors that will weigh in the balance in terms of how the negotiation plays out,' he said."
Bloomberg and Klein Keep Pushing Ahead
Date CapturedWednesday October 18 2006, 7:31 AM
New York Observer writes, "At the moment, private groups are managing nearly 200 small public schools through a program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That private funding, however, will expire in June in about 50 schools. The city is considering an idea to continue the private management by using public money as the Gates grants—which were never intended as a permanent funding source—expire."
Put N.Y.C.'s lice policies on ice
Date CapturedWednesday October 18 2006, 4:32 AM
NY Daily News contributor Amy Ellen Schwartz:, Professor of Public Policy, New York University writes on NYC schools head lice policy, "Second, schools are now paying for lice removal companies to screen kids for lice and sell the services they offer. It's wrong to open school doors to people hawking remedies for profit. What's next, cold medicine for sale when kids come to class with runny noses?"
New York City on hook for $1B in school aid
Date CapturedTuesday October 17 2006, 4:46 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The city [New York City] has long argued that it should not have to pay one penny to make up for the state's historic shortchanging of city schools, and so far the courts have not ordered the city to shell out any of the $5.6 billion they have set as the tab."
Kids' skills aren't adding up
Date CapturedTuesday October 17 2006, 4:41 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Only 25% of the borough [Bronx] schools' eighth-graders performed at grade level on the math exam, the lowest score of all five boroughs. In Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, nearly 40% or more of eighth-graders hit the mark, with Brooklyn, for example, coming in with a score of 39% at grade level."
$5B Headache
Date CapturedMonday October 16 2006, 7:14 AM
NY Post contributor Sol Stern writes on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) lawsuit, "The high court heard arguments on the case Tuesday; its past rulings suggest it will hold that New York City is entitled to almost $5 billion a year in extra state funding for its schools - close to the amount that the trial court ordered last year. That means a huge political migraine for Spitzer. On the one hand, the forces that backed the lawsuit - the teachers' union, the education-industry interests, New York City Democrats - represent the heart of Spitzer's liberal political base, and eagerly anticipate a big payoff. On the other hand, the billions in higher taxes needed to pay for the increased funding for the city's schools will make it impossible for Spitzer to fulfill his campaign promise to rescue the state from its looming fiscal crisis."
Columbia Students Tutor City Principals
Date CapturedMonday October 16 2006, 7:09 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "As the city has granted principals more authority over budgets and curriculum, principals from 30 schools have turned to Columbia's Education Leadership Consulting Lab for help tackling issues like pooling resources with other schools in shared buildings to measuring students' progress."
School Gruel in Gross Cafeterias
Date CapturedMonday October 16 2006, 7:01 AM
NY Post reports, "A staggering 360 school cafeterias - nearly one out of every three - is infested with mice, according to shocking new health-inspection reports obtained by The Post. In all, 111 schools - nearly one in 10 - were slapped with so many flagrant food violations that they flunked their inspections. That's more than triple the prior year's 3 percent failure rate. And the total number of rodent violations in school food areas jumped 10 percent during the 2005-2006 academic year - to 413 from 370 the prior year."
Why the left fears free speech on campus
Date CapturedMonday October 16 2006, 4:44 AM
NY Daily News guest essayist David French, director of the Alliance Defense Fund's Center for Academic Freedom opined, "In the '60s, the excesses of campus radicals eventually led to a cultural backlash that ushered in the Reagan era. These same excesses committed in an era of blogs, YouTube downloads and talk radio lead to a much more immediate response. So, rather than reveling in last week's momentary triumph, Columbia's leftist radicals find themselves on the defensive, blaming others for the violence and begging the administration not to search the Internet for clues about the protesters' identities."
SCHOOLS 'DEVELOP' $TRATEGY
Date CapturedSunday October 15 2006, 7:56 AM
NY Post reports, "Under the program, the city issues bonds to developers to rebuild and expand existing school sites alongside residential, commercial or office space."
It's hard to ax the boss
Date CapturedSunday October 15 2006, 7:47 AM
NY Daily News reports, "But despite the tough talk, Klein's [New York City Schools chancellor] ability to fire a principal - even one who has signed a 'performance agreement' to become an empowerment principal - is severely limited by labor law, civil service rules and contractual agreements."
New York City Middle School Admission Studied
Date CapturedFriday October 13 2006, 3:33 AM
NY Times reports, "Speaking to members of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council, Mr. Klein [New York City Schools Chancellor] said he was concerned that the process often unfairly favors savvy and well-connected parents."
New York City Puts Brakes on Planned School Bus Cuts
Date CapturedThursday October 12 2006, 5:19 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Education officials said that just 63 percent of the 110,000 students eligible to take yellow school buses responded to a request to register for the service, indicating that thousands of those unregistered could still need service."
Charters Charting Course to Success
Date CapturedThursday October 12 2006, 5:19 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "While charter students in each of the grades outperformed their counterparts in public schools, they did not always outpace them in terms of gains over the previous year. State education officials warned against drawing comparisons to previous years, noting that the tests were new and claiming they were more difficult."
Scores on State Math Tests Dip With Districts’ Income
Date CapturedThursday October 12 2006, 3:40 AM
NY Times reports, "It was the wide gap between poor cities and wealthy districts that Mr. Mills identified as a cause for alarm when he announced the scores in Albany yesterday. While 86.3 percent of students in rich, or so-called low-need districts scored proficiently, only 28.6 percent did so in Buffalo, 30.1 percent in Syracuse, and 33.1 percent in Rochester. 'I am talking about state aid, and it’s a reminder that resources have something to do with this as well,” Mr. Mills said. He added: 'The low-needs school districts, that is, the ones that have the resources, are higher performing — much higher performing.'”
Lawmakers seek less education spending:State looks to lower education spending
Date CapturedWednesday October 11 2006, 8:16 AM
The Journal News Yancey Roy reports, "Instead of a range of $4.7 billion to $5.6 billion in additional aid, as ordered by a mid-level court, state lawyers want the minimum set at $1.93 billion. State lawyers also want the court to issue its decision in a legally softer way - a "declaratory judgment," rather than a "directive." A directive would provide less wiggle room. But that was met with skepticism by a judge who has seen the case bounce around the legal system for 13 years."
School Grades May Get F: Gov. Jeb Bush
Date CapturedWednesday October 11 2006, 6:00 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Under the city's plan, each of the 1,450 schools would be graded on student progress, performance on standardized exams and school environment."
School dollars back on court docket
Date CapturedWednesday October 11 2006, 5:15 AM
Times Union reports, "The Court of Appeals in 2003 ruled on CFE's behalf, agreeing the approximately 1.1 million-student New York City system had been shortchanged over the years and should get more funding. Since then, however, Gov. George Pataki and the state Legislature missed a court-ordered deadline to solve the funding problem and litigants have been back to both local and state courts several times in what could best be described as a classic legal saga of briefs, arguments, court rulings and appeals."
New York City Mayor Bloomberg defends do-or-die tests
Date CapturedWednesday October 11 2006, 4:22 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Mayor Bloomberg lashed out yesterday at critics who object to his emphasis on using standardized exams to gauge students' performance in the city schools - saying 'high-stakes tests are a part of life.'"
School Financing Case Argued Before New York State’s Highest Court
Date CapturedTuesday October 10 2006, 11:29 PM
NY Times reports, "Lawyers on opposing sides of a lawsuit that challenges the fairness of the state’s education financing system argued before the Court of Appeals on Tuesday over how much more money it would cost to give New York City’s schoolchildren a decent education — at least $4.7 billion or only $1.93 billion."
Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges' Good Intentions and Harm our Children
Date CapturedTuesday October 10 2006, 9:20 AM
Read "Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges' Good Intentions and Harm our Children" by Eric Hanushek. This link allows the reader to read the book by chapters.
Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges' Good Intentions and Harm our Children (CHAPTER 1)
Date CapturedTuesday October 10 2006, 9:13 AM
By Eric Hanushek. Read chapter 1, by Sol Stern. Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. New York: The March of Folly.
Bus carries school spending drive
Date CapturedTuesday October 10 2006, 6:21 AM
Poughkeepsie Journal reports, "Some critics contend the existing court ruling would not help other low-income districts and would only apply to funding for the city. 'They couldn't be wronger,' Ulster County legislator Susan Zimit said. She cited several Mid-Hudson Valley schools that would receive increased funding if the court supports the AQE/CFE formula."
CFE Supporters Rally for Aid Formula
Date CapturedTuesday October 10 2006, 6:16 AM
WXXI reports, "People demanding a new state school aid formula cheered as members of two pro-education groups pulled into Rochester Monday on board a school bus. Members of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity and the Alliance for Quality Education are touring the state on their way to Albany."
School Financing Case Plays Out in Court, and in Classrooms
Date CapturedTuesday October 10 2006, 3:21 AM
NY Times reports, "Geri D. Palast, the director of the fiscal equity group, said it had asked the court to impose strict controls to make sure the money was spent wisely. 'Accountability is at the core of this,' she said."
Courting Failure: Education Experts Expose the Politics behind the Nation's School Finance Lawsuits
Date CapturedMonday October 09 2006, 10:08 AM
The Hoover Institute writes, "One of the most devastating elements in these [school funding equity] trials is the high-profile 'costing out' studies used to calculate the price tag of an adequate education. None of the studies effectively deals with any of the inefficiencies that currently exist in public schools, presuming that what is needed to get the desired student outcomes is simply more of the same -- and more money to support it. Indeed, some of the studies explicitly choose the most expensive way of running an educational program rather than the least expensive, inflating the costs and completely ignoring any possible change in the incentives or operations of public schools. Unfortunately, the courts have frequently sided with these recommendations."
Advocates call for solution to fiscal equity lawsuit
Date CapturedMonday October 09 2006, 8:23 AM
AP reports, "Tomorrow, the latest appeal will be heard, but a negotiated solution may extend beyond the end of Pataki's third term."
Fighting for dollars and sense
Date CapturedMonday October 09 2006, 5:45 AM
Newsday JOHN HILDEBRAND reports, "Lower courts already have ruled that the city shortchanges its students in that amount - for example, by employing thousands of uncertified teachers. Supporters hope a ruling in favor of city schools would also reap more money for needy districts elsewhere in the state, including Long Island. They base their hope on a political calculation: They assume that if the court orders the governor and legislature to distribute the money, that individual lawmakers then would demand that other needy districts also benefit from the windfall."
Making the grades
Date CapturedMonday October 09 2006, 4:58 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Teachers and principals have publicly worried that the department [New York City Department of Education] will oversimplify their efforts, dismissing the many subtleties of creating a safe and successful school."
FOR THE CHILDREN
Date CapturedSunday October 08 2006, 8:59 AM
NY Post opined, "Klein [New York City schools chancellor] is to be applauded for looking to breathe fresh air into a stale system. For years, he's been hoping to shake up school management through such promising ideas as charter schools - only to be stymied by the educrats and their puppets in Albany. Clearly, he's not giving up."
Punish parents when kids are tardy? No
Date CapturedSunday October 08 2006, 8:51 AM
NY Daily News op-ed contributors John Beam, Executive Director of the National Center for Schools and Communities at Fordham University and Cecelia Blewer, co-founder of the Independent Commission on Public Education in New York City write, "Of course students should get to school on time and show up every day they can. Our experience as researchers and parents - and plain common sense - suggests that strong attendance goes hand in hand with other positive results in schools, from fewer discipline issues to higher academic achievement. But humiliating parents for their children's attendance and tardiness problems is a big mistake - one that puts shortsighted punitive instincts before the good of parents, children and schools."
Up to court to end sellout of New York City schools
Date CapturedSunday October 08 2006, 8:46 AM
NY Daily News op-ed contributor Robert Jackson, plaintiff in CFE vs. State of New York and chairman of the Education Committee of the New York City Council writes, "It is to the enduring shame of this nation that millions of schoolchildren still struggle to learn in overcrowded classrooms with uncertified teachers, using outdated textbooks, and emerge bereft of a chance in life. These are conditions that demoralize, insult and crush young spirits, that breed despair, ignorance and civic alienation. The enduring social cost is enormous."
CUNY hiring bias alleged
Date CapturedFriday October 06 2006, 4:37 AM
NY Daily News reports, "As Columbus Day approaches, a number of prominent Italian-Americans are expressing concern that the City University of New York has a vendetta against them. Nearly 30 years after that ethnic group was included in CUNY's affirmative action program, Italian-Americans still face discrimination there, according to a university-commissioned report."
New York City Schools Find Millions in the Bus Rides Not Taken
Date CapturedFriday October 06 2006, 3:17 AM
NY Times reports, "To halt the waste, officials said, the city is requiring for the first time that the children who are eligible for bus service must register for it. In addition, bus companies would be paid only for children who actually ride buses. Children who receive free public transportation must also register to receive MetroCards."
75 New York School Districts Identified for Low Performance Among Students with Disabilities
Date CapturedThursday October 05 2006, 5:46 PM
New York State Education Department Press Release: The State Education Department has identified 75 school districts as “In Need of Assistance or Intervention” because of low performance among students with disabilities, Commissioner Richard Mills announced today.
Nonprofit builds new school playground
Date CapturedThursday October 05 2006, 6:35 AM
The Daily News reports, "It's the first project completed by Out2Play, dedicated to building and refurbishing city public school playgrounds. 'A lot of schools don't have gymnasiums or that kind of thing," she said. "We want to give them an outdoor space where they're encouraged to be physically active'"
New York City Considers Plan to Let Outsiders Run Schools
Date CapturedThursday October 05 2006, 3:19 AM
NY Times reports, "Randi Weingarten, the teachers’ union president, urged the administration to make its discussions more public. 'I have been concerned about the sub rosa debate on whether to privatize the management of the school system for quite a while,' she said. 'On an issue that is this transcendent there has to be a real public debate.'”
Recent School Shootings Raise Questions About New York City Schools Cell Phone Policy
Date CapturedWednesday October 04 2006, 7:30 PM
NY1 reports, "He [NYC Mayor Bloomberg] says the city has taken the appropriate steps to help make children safe in the classroom, with school safety officers at all schools and police walking the beat near every junior high and high school in the city. And the mayor says cell phones can actually do more harm than good."
Manhattan school gives parents detention with tardy children
Date CapturedMonday October 02 2006, 5:17 AM
Newsday reports, "Under the new rule at the Manhattan School for Children, parents who don't drop off their children by 8:25 a.m. have to pick up late slips from the principal's office and go to the auditorium to serve 20 minutes of detention with them."
A Good 'Read'
Date CapturedFriday September 29 2006, 5:42 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA writes, "Students in city [New York City] charter schools are more likely to be reading at or above grade level than their counterparts in traditional public schools in the same neighborhood, a new analysis reveals. The findings, by the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence, show that more than two-thirds of charter schools subjected to state reading tests this year outperformed public schools in the same district."
New York City Teachers Union Files Grievance Over Overcrowded Classrooms
Date CapturedWednesday September 27 2006, 3:20 PM
NY1 reports, "The [New York] City Education Department calls the union's data "unreliable" and said the majority of oversized classes are addressed during the first two weeks of school."
Who Controls the Schools?
Date CapturedWednesday September 27 2006, 7:57 AM
New York Observer opined on mayoral control of schools, "Historically, Albany resents strong Mayors in New York City and often sees itself as a counterbalance to figures like Mr. Bloomberg and his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani. Already, some legislators are whispering that the Mayor has too much control over the schools."
Classrooms bursting at seams - union
Date CapturedWednesday September 27 2006, 4:46 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Thousands of city classrooms are severely overcrowded with kids sitting on radiators and teachers struggling to learn three dozen names each period, union officials charged yesterday."
New York City Schools Even Odds for Gifted Kids
Date CapturedTuesday September 26 2006, 4:49 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports on a uniform application procedure for gifted children, "Citing an unreliable hodgepodge of selection criteria that varied from school to school and district to district, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said that a standardized system would ensure equity."
Aid for Teachers Urged
Date CapturedTuesday September 26 2006, 4:44 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA reports on the lack of diversity of NYC teachers, "Initiatives that help paraprofessionals become teachers and other incentives that offer financial aid in the form of loan forgiveness or housing aid are attractive and would better diversify the workforce if they were broadened, she [Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers] said."
School Principals Criticize Union Leaders
Date CapturedTuesday September 26 2006, 3:21 AM
NY Times reports, "In a sign of open rebellion against their union, whose contract expired more than three years ago, 31 New York City public school principals have written a scathing letter, citing 'grave concerns' about the union’s 'ineffectiveness,' and accusing its leaders of being increasingly 'out of touch' with members."
Flap Over New York City School Computer Dump
Date CapturedMonday September 25 2006, 4:31 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA and JANA WINTER write, "Administrators at Walt Whitman Intermediate School in Flatbush trashed scores of computer monitors, keyboards, hard drives, printers and desks, leaving them outside like high-tech gravestones."
Grim Minority Report Card on New York City Teachers
Date CapturedMonday September 25 2006, 4:28 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Christopher Brown, an executive with the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, said the federal No Child Left Behind law has hampered recruitment of minorities because teaching licenses are now not as easily transferable from state to state. 'The majority of blacks in this nation attend traditionally black colleges, most of which are in the South,' Brown said. 'We're seeing an increasing number of teacher candidates remaining in the states where they earned their degrees, because that's where they get certified.'"
Save the kids caught in the middle
Date CapturedMonday September 25 2006, 4:24 AM
NY Daily News opined on middle schools, "Klein [chancellor] is all too aware of the middle-school miasma. It is one of the reasons why he is establishing school-by-school accountability measures, pushing to expand the number of charter schools and seeking to empower principals. If anything, these dismal test results should give him more muscle in a fight to stop teachers and principals from treating kids as if they naturally become dull at the age of 12."
Schools get space-d out
Date CapturedSunday September 24 2006, 7:39 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Plans to build schools in the Rockaways are far behind the number of new homes already built, Hooks and others on the education council said. As part of Mayor Bloomberg's multibillion-dollar school construction plan to relieve overcrowding in city schools, 2,597 new seats are planned for District 27, which includes the Rockaways, by 2009. Exactly where those seats will be, and what form they will take, has not been determined, said Kelly Devers, an Education Department spokeswoman. At least one new charter school, which is expected to serve up to 800 kindergarten- grade 8 students, has been planned in conjunction with the construction of Arverne by the Sea, a multimillion-dollar, 2,300-unit condo development on the eastern end of the peninsula."
New York City charter schools grounded
Date CapturedSunday September 24 2006, 7:28 AM
NY Daily News reports, "What Imagine Schools and other groups weren't told is that eight of the state's 100 charters are going unused - even though 22,000 New York children are on waiting lists for seats in charter schools. The eight unused charters are being held hostage by a wrinkle in state law."
New York City Says 339 Students Were Left Back Unnecessarily
Date CapturedSaturday September 23 2006, 1:27 PM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, "A day after New York State released results of the 2005-6 reading and writing exam, city officials said the scores showed that they had required 339 students to repeat fifth grade even though, it turned out, they had scored high enough on the English test to be promoted."
KIDS ARE 'READ HOT' IN BROOKLYN AND QUEENS
Date CapturedSaturday September 23 2006, 8:05 AM
NY Post reports, "PS 108 Principal Constance Hahn attributed their success to parent involvement and intensive professional development for teachers. Newer teachers are mentored by veterans weekly, and all teachers collaborate on classroom strategies for 45 minutes a week. 'It really is a joint effort,' Hahn said. 'The parents, the staff, they're all wonderful. Once you show that this or that will help a child, people listen.'"
New York Reading Skills Drop After 5th Grade
Date CapturedThursday September 21 2006, 3:30 PM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, "The pattern of success in elementary school but failure in the middle grades, while hardly new, offered the most pessimistic assessment yet of New York State’s chances of meeting the goal of the No Child Left Behind law, which seeks 100 percent proficiency in reading and math among all categories of students by the 2013-14 school year, or even of a more realistic target of 80 percent proficiency for students without special needs."
'Dangerous' special ed controversy
Date CapturedThursday September 21 2006, 4:57 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Parent leaders and educators are steamed about a state list that labels three special education schools in Queens 'persistently dangerous.' They charge the report is inaccurate and has needlessly upset parents."
Mayor Bloomberg In California For Education Announcement
Date CapturedWednesday September 20 2006, 11:31 AM
NY1 reports on mayoral control of schools, "The jury is still out on whether putting the mayor in charge of schools was a total success."
Mayor Bloomberg Re-emphasizes School Control
Date CapturedWednesday September 20 2006, 3:16 AM
NY Times reports, "In addition, education advocates and elected officials say, Mr. Bloomberg has alienated many parents — precisely the public needed to bring pressure on legislators — who feel excluded from influencing decisions about the system."
Boston schools win top education award; Jersey City a finalist
Date CapturedTuesday September 19 2006, 8:48 PM
AP reports, "The Boston public school system won the nation's largest prize in public education Tuesday, earning $500,000 in college scholarships for making steady gains in the classroom. Jersey City's school system was a finalist for the award and will receive $125,000."The other four finalists will each receive $125,00. They are Bridgeport Public Schools in Connecticut, Jersey City School District in New Jersey, Miami Dade County Public Schools and the New York City Department of Education.
CUNY, NYU And DOE Team Up To Train Teachers For City Schools
Date CapturedTuesday September 19 2006, 7:22 PM
NY1 Mike Meenan reports, " A joint effort by the Department of Education, CUNY and NYU, the Teacher Academy recruits college freshmen who want to become math and science teachers and trains them to serve city schools."
Classes at West Side School End with Bang
Date CapturedTuesday September 19 2006, 4:56 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA and C.J. SULLIVAN report on use of dynamite near a New York City school, "A Department of Education spokeswoman said the school - at West End Avenue and West 70th Street - and its students were safe. But parents insisted the blasting caught them off guard, saying they learned of it from the school's principal only yesterday."
School Days
Date CapturedMonday September 18 2006, 12:28 PM
Fastcompany.com interview: Should for-profit companies run public schools? An entrepreneur and a principal weigh in.
Success in Philly Could Spread Here
Date CapturedMonday September 18 2006, 3:51 AM
NY Post reports, "The New York STD school-testing program is modeled after that of Philadelphia, which in 2003 found more than 17,000 cases of chlamydia - more than double the number reported a decade earlier."
Turn city schools into magnets
Date CapturedSunday September 17 2006, 12:12 PM
The York Daily contributor and home-schooling parent NANCY SNYDER writes, "There was a time when I taught my children everything they knew. Now, when I can't find a solution to a problem, I go to my children. So I recently asked them, 'What can be done for our city schools?' Noah responded quickly, 'Set up a cooperative system throughout the county. Turn the city schools into magnet schools that will attract students from middle-class families throughout the county. Bus city students who aren't in the magnet schools to nearby suburban schools.'"
Toughen home day care enforcement? No
Date CapturedSunday September 17 2006, 9:12 AM
NY Daily News Op-Ed contributors Sandra Robinson, family day-care provider in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Ilana Berger, Director of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) opined, "Ironically, rather than improving safety conditions, the new rules would force desperate parents to leave children in more dangerous situations. They would have to scramble to find ad hoc care or potentially leave their kids entirely unsupervised."
New York City school features British curriculum
Date CapturedFriday September 15 2006, 12:47 PM
AP reports, "About 50 grade-school pupils arrived Thursday for the first day of classes at the new British International School of New York, the city's only school centered on Britain's national curriculum."
Shortage of Bronx school nurses critical
Date CapturedThursday September 14 2006, 9:01 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Maysoun Freij, an advocate for the New York Immigration Coalition, said, 'New York has the fortune of having a large pool of bilingual and bicultural students who could go on to become nurses and doctors if given the chance.'"
Principal's cell grab is right call: Mayor Bloomberg
Date CapturedThursday September 14 2006, 8:20 AM
NY Daily News reports, "But some students and parents, including a group suing the city over its cell phone ban, maintain the phones are needed in cases of emergency."
Educate us about violence, New York City Chancellor Klein tells schools
Date CapturedThursday September 14 2006, 7:51 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The directive came more than a week after the teachers union accused the Education Department of inaccurately recording school crime and began testing an online system that will allow teachers to report violence. The union's criticism was prompted by a state report that classified only 14 of the city's 1,400 schools as 'persistently dangerous.'"
$3.4M Study of New York City Schools
Date CapturedThursday September 14 2006, 4:51 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA reports, "The city [NYC] has agreed to pay the Rand Corp. roughly $3.4 million to study its effort to end social promotion from the third and fifth grades, The Post has learned."
'Low'down on New York City High Schools
Date CapturedWednesday September 13 2006, 5:06 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Fewer city high schools got a failing grade from the state this year compared with last, but the dreaded roster included a handful of small schools and its first charter school - both high priorities of Bloomberg's administration."
The Not-So-Public Part of the Public Schools: Lack of Accountability
Date CapturedWednesday September 13 2006, 3:22 AM
NY Times reports, "Their [Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein] reinvented school system has many more private components than ever before, which come under very little outside scrutiny. This not-so-public part of the public school system has received more than $330 million in grants and donations from private sources over the past three years, according to Education Department statistics."
Eleven More New York City schools Fail to Meet State Criteria
Date CapturedWednesday September 13 2006, 1:42 AM
NY Times reports, "The designations mean that students in the schools, including a Manhattan charter school, two schools for recent immigrants, in Manhattan and Queens, which are open only to students with limited English skills, and a Brooklyn school that has won wide acclaim for its work with students at serious risk of dropping out, now have the right to ask for a transfer to a better school."
New York City's No-Bid Deal for Schools
Date CapturedSunday September 10 2006, 10:59 AM
NY Times opined, "As they’ve tackled a myriad of education problems, Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein — who both lack previous education management experience — have frequently shown a lack of respect for the education department’s own experts. While both men clearly have the schools’ best interests at heart, it’s sometimes hard to tell whether their eagerness to reach outside for help is based on real need or a simple impatience with people who don’t fit the corporate model. And in the past they have not always been right."
SMART PASS NABS SUB-PAR TEACHERS
Date CapturedSunday September 10 2006, 10:13 AM
NY Post reports, " A sophisticated swipe-card system to track the city's army of substitute teachers - and keep criminals away from classrooms - will soon be installed at every public school around the city."
Upstate schools want aid if N.Y.C. gets more funds: September is "Act For Education Month."
Date CapturedSaturday September 09 2006, 8:24 AM
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports, "In anticipation of next month's hearing in the state Court of Appeals, the groups rallied education and political leaders in Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo and other cities to push for the passage of legislation to increase school funding if the Court of Appeals upholds a ruling to send more school aid to New York City."
KLEIN'S NEW LINE ON NEW YORK CITY CLASS SIZE
Date CapturedSaturday September 09 2006, 8:19 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said yesterday he has the authority to lower class sizes - despite claims of city lawyers this week that Mayor Bloomberg cannot force the school system to reduce them.
CUNY ROLLS ON
Date CapturedSaturday September 09 2006, 8:16 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "The 226,213 students registered at CUNY campuses represent a 2.5 percent increase over last year."
United Federation of Teachers (UFT) chapter leaders excited, but skeptical, about New York City Empowerment Schools
Date CapturedFriday September 08 2006, 10:52 PM
New York Teacher reports, "Several chapter leaders wondered if the sink-or-swim method of success imposed on the principals — and therefore on the entire school — wasn’t a way for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 'the accountability mayor,' to dodge accountability."
Watch Inside Albany
Date CapturedFriday September 08 2006, 7:00 PM
This week on Inside Albany: Patience thin on CFE-Advocates in NYC school aid case say it's time for the state to pay up. Make children a priority-New coalition wants policymakers to pay more attention to kids. (check schedule)
Overcrowded New York City schools still big problem
Date CapturedFriday September 08 2006, 8:26 AM
Queens Courier reports, "By 2009, an additional 50,000 seats will have been added citywide - in both new and restructured schools - at an estimated cost of $10.5 billion."
Albany Common Council backs call for education funding reform
Date CapturedFriday September 08 2006, 12:34 AM
Capital News 9 reports, "The Campaign for Fiscal Equity wants New York State to close the gap in education funding. And the Albany Common Council is backing the cause in declaring September 'Act for Education Month.'"
New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) on charter schools
Date CapturedThursday September 07 2006, 2:25 PM
Letter from NYSSBA executive director Timothy Kremer to New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Robert Bennett on charter schools accountability, "Article 56 off the Education Law compels the Board of Regents to review 'the educational effectiveness of the charter school approach and the effect of charter schools on public and nonpublic schools systems.' Regrettably, the State Education Department’s recently released annual report on the status of charter schools fails to illuminate whether this strategy is working."
State called on to comply with court ruling on New York City school funding
Date CapturedThursday September 07 2006, 9:05 AM
The Business Review (Albany) reports, "Elected officials in Albany, N.Y., and Schenectady will hold events Thursday designed to pressure the state into complying with the court ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case."
Taking a byte at teaching
Date CapturedThursday September 07 2006, 4:44 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Martin, 35, is one of 1,700 new recruits in the city's Teaching Fellow program - a joint effort of the Department of Education, the United Federation of Teachers and local universities and schools. The program, which started in 2000, trains professionals and recent graduates to teach subjects with a shortage of teachers, such as math, science and special education. There are now 7,000 teaching fellows."
City’s Lawyers Say Mayor Can’t Control Class Sizes
Date CapturedThursday September 07 2006, 3:46 AM
NY Times ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS reports, "The claim came during a hearing in a case in which parents and teachers are trying to put a referendum on the ballot to force the mayor to hire more teachers and reduce the class sizes in city schools. They argue that smaller classes, in line with those in much of the rest of the state, are the best way to improve education for city students."
New York City parents know the truth about charters
Date CapturedWednesday September 06 2006, 4:45 AM
NY Daily News guest columnist Paula Gavin, CEO of the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence opined, "Opponents argue that charter schools accept only the best students. Not true: Students are admitted through an open lottery. And opponents claim charter schools aren't real public schools. Wrong: They are just as public as your corner PS - but they happen to be run by parents and community groups."
Lower class size push launched on first day of school in New York City
Date CapturedTuesday September 05 2006, 3:46 PM
The UFT writes, "Research shows that small classes in all grades lead to higher student achievement. The STAR project in Tennessee randomly assigned 6,000 children to small and large classes in kindergarten through third grade and followed them throughout their school careers. The students in small classes did significantly better in the early grades, held on to those gains through high school and were more likely to go to college."
School Bus Sign-Ups
Date CapturedTuesday September 05 2006, 6:15 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Looking to trim fat from its budget, the city Education Department will require some 110,000 general education students eligible for busing to register for the service this year, The Post has learned."
Half-Booked HS a Classic: NEW YORK CITY WAS TOO LATE ON ELITE BROOKLYN LATIN SCHOOL
Date CapturedTuesday September 05 2006, 6:07 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports on new high school, "But when the bell rings in the new academic year today, less than half of the 125 seats at the Bushwick school will be occupied, because the city did not introduce it to top students early enough for them to apply."
Special ed is honcho's priority
Date CapturedTuesday September 05 2006, 4:30 AM
NY Daily News reports on NYC schools chancellor for teaching and learning, "'I'd like to see a sharp increase in the number of kids in inclusive settings,' he [Andres Alonso] said. 'We know that the kids that we see in inclusive settings are outperforming kids in more restrictive environments.' He also hopes to improve achievement for bilingual students, particularly those who come to city schools as teens. But he, added, increasing the graduation rate is 'our greatest challenge.'"
Exam-free rule for religious holidays in New York City schools
Date CapturedTuesday September 05 2006, 4:29 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The law was spurred after statewide English exams for third-graders were scheduled during the Muslim holidays of Eid-al-Adha and Eid-al-Fitr during the last school year."
Summer's bell tolls for kids: New schools, rules as class resumes
Date CapturedTuesday September 05 2006, 4:26 AM
NY Daily News talks with NYC Chancellor Klein about school choice, teachers, and cellphones, "We have charters that are ready and we could open in the fall of [2007]. We will continue to work with them in the hope and the optimistic sense that this cap will be lifted."
Back to School in a System Being Remade
Date CapturedTuesday September 05 2006, 3:23 AM
NY Times reports on NYC schools reform, "Chancellor Klein said last week that he was intent on moving the school system 'from a culture of excuse to a culture of accountability.' 'Our parents will come to see that the information they’re getting, the quality education their kids are getting, the sense of what it’s like at the school, is going to change,' he added. 'And I think our parents will insist on sustainability.'”
COLLEGE PHONE PLAN AN EASY 'CELL'
Date CapturedMonday September 04 2006, 9:13 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Baruch College students searching for an open computer on campus, assignments for a missed class, and even their best friends this fall semester now need only check their mobile phone for the info."
Labor Day lesson: Unions still hurt schoolkids
Date CapturedMonday September 04 2006, 9:01 AM
NY Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch writes on unions, "At this point, we can see that the grand monster and enemy of public education in our fair city has struck again. That monster is the principals union, which almost always seems more concerned with feather beds for its members than quality performance. As we found out last week from Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, a union contract requires the city to keep 44 inept assistant principals to the tune of millions of dollars when what is actually needed amounts to more high quality teachers."
CITY'S SCHOOL-SAFETY MATH PROBLEM
Date CapturedSunday September 03 2006, 8:15 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "John Feinblatt, the city's criminal-justice coordinator, explained that the city depends not only on the NYPD to shape school safety policy but also on random inspections of school security procedures. 'We think that when you combine that with crime data, you have a pretty surefire way of judging the health of a school.' He added that staff reports are important but 'just like I would never ask a police officer to grade a paper, I would never ask a teacher to report a crime according to FBI definitions.'"
Back to school, on to the future ... AND ... with smart new leaders (2 editorials)
Date CapturedSunday September 03 2006, 8:02 AM
NY Daily News opined on New York City schools Chancellor Klein and school reform plans, "Even more ambitious, a new computer system will let teachers and administrators check whether a child has improved by a full performance level, or gone down by half a level, and compare results by classroom, by demographic group and by individual student. Success will become readily apparent, as will failure. Performance will finally count."
Standing by their principals: 'Empowerment' bigs win freedom from educrats
Date CapturedSunday September 03 2006, 7:56 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, ""The thing people are really concerned about is where they go if there's a problem,' said Tim Johnson, head of a citywide parents group. 'There doesn't seem to be a clear path of accountability like there is in the current system.' Empowerment principals say they understand the concerns, but they argue that the consequences of failing will drive the schools toward success."
New York unsafe schools cited
Date CapturedSaturday September 02 2006, 9:42 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "The union [teachers] is testing an online system that allows teachers to report violent incidents and crimes into its central computer."
COLOR NEW YORK CITY'S SCHOOLS ROSY
Date CapturedSaturday September 02 2006, 8:47 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA writes, "Beginning this month, high-schoolers will be issued glossy cards outlining the number of credits and Regents exam standards needed to graduate. The cards will be color coded in accordance to the year they entered high school and will date to 2001, for those starting their sixth year of high school."
1,000 New York City schools teachers demoted to subs
Date CapturedSaturday September 02 2006, 8:37 AM
NY Daily News ERIN EINHORN reports, "Klein [Chancellor] said unwanted teachers no longer will be moved around in 'a random and arbitrary fashion.' This school year, no principals will be forced to take on new teachers whom they didn't hire. That's a drastic change from last year, when 2,800 teachers involuntarily moved to a new school by using seniority rules or because their job had been eliminated at another school, Klein said."
Chancellor Klein Reverses Hiring Freeze
Date CapturedFriday September 01 2006, 2:37 PM
New York Public Radio reports, "In this latest memo the chancellor also encouraged principals to consider Assistant Principals that have been excessed. The principals union had complained the day before about a letter in which the chancellor said he was spending millions of dollars creating jobs for more than 40 assistant principals because he didn't want to force them on any schools."
Get a job or get out
Date CapturedFriday September 01 2006, 10:38 AM
NY Daily News opined on AP positions, "But union boss Jill Levy rejects the thought of empowering the city's school chiefs. Why? Because assistant principals make up most of her union, and she insists on preserving the job security even of lemons that no one wants. In fact, she takes great umbrage at Klein's characterization of her desk jockeys in the making."
KLEIN BLOWS THE WHISTLE
Date CapturedFriday September 01 2006, 8:20 AM
NY Post opined, "Surely the public would like to hear why these people have to be given "make-work" jobs . . . rather than be let go. Surely the public would like to know why a union would be organized to permit - indeed, encourage - one part of its membership to undermine the efficiency of another."
NO TAKERS FOR 44 ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS
Date CapturedFriday September 01 2006, 8:13 AM
NY Post reports, "'There is one thing perfectly clear: This is not a performance issue,' Gibbons [spokesman for the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators] said. 'Some of the [assistants] were not even informed they [lost their jobs] until this week, and the Department of Education has not yet posted vacancies or tried to place these people.'"
Principals slammed by Klein won 'satisfactory' rankings, union sez
Date CapturedFriday September 01 2006, 8:00 AM
NY Daily News ERIN EINHORN reports, "Klein's letter was his latest effort to undermine and divide the principals' union as it enters its fourth school year without a contract. Some principals were angered by his tactics."
MIXED RECORD ON SCHOOL TAKEOVERS
Date CapturedThursday August 31 2006, 9:21 AM
AP reports, "As [Los Angeles] Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa prepares to assume some control over the nation's second-largest school district, education experts in Chicago and New York said Wednesday that greater city involvement there has achieved mixed grades."
NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS AX 328 JOBS
Date CapturedThursday August 31 2006, 8:39 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA reports, "The spokesman [NYC schools], David Cantor, said that $87.5 million has been trimmed from jobs related to teaching, counseling and administrative functions."
Late exam results test city parents' patience
Date CapturedThursday August 31 2006, 8:22 AM
NY Daily News ERIN EINHORN and CARRIE MELAGO report, "'When the data are finally released, schools will get the information electronically, which Dunn [state Education Department spokesman] argued would make it 'more useful to them in helping children.' Parents also will be given user-friendly reports that explain how their child fared, he said."
New York City Chancellor Klein: We gotta keep the rejects
Date CapturedThursday August 31 2006, 8:12 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Although the city's 1,400 schools still need to hire 22 assistant principals, none of the 44 administrators will be sent to schools where they aren't wanted. At a cost of $5.2 million, they will get paper-pushing jobs, Education Department officials said. The union contract prohibits administrators from taking teaching positions. The contract and state law also allow administrators to bump less-senior colleagues from their jobs."
Bloomberg defends fat ed rehab tab
Date CapturedWednesday August 30 2006, 7:24 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "'It's a $17 million contract over a period of time which is trying to save us $200 million a year,' Bloomberg said. 'Think about where you work if they put up a competitive bid for every job. Just getting the lowest person who's willing to work at the lowest price doesn't get you what you want.'"
Policing as Education Policy: A briefing on the initial impact of the Impact Schools program
Date CapturedTuesday August 29 2006, 12:50 PM
Prepared by Sharon Balmer with Travis Dale, Bethany Aaronson, and John M. Beam. Brief on Impact Schools reports, "In addition to having significantly higher rates of suspension and police incidents and significantly lower attendance rates than most non-Impact schools, Impact Schools were significantly different from other city high schools in a number of ways." National Center for Schools and Communities, Fordham University, August 2006.
Rev. Al weighs protests: Upset over no-bid Ed deal
Date CapturedTuesday August 29 2006, 8:32 AM
The NY Daily News reports, "'They're privatizing public education in New York without even telling anybody,' Sharpton said. 'If you're going to award something like this to people that have had controversy in the past, you at least want some kind of public discussion.'"
Private 'whys' in school consults
Date CapturedMonday August 28 2006, 7:55 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The city's decision to dish out millions of school dollars for financial consultants without public scrutiny is the latest reason mayoral control of the education system must be reexamined, the teachers union boss charged yesterday."
A tally to avoid?
Date CapturedSunday August 27 2006, 9:31 AM
The Journal News opined, "The violence-reporting process is more than five years old in New York, and wrought with problems — challenges complicated by the added federal performance requirements of No Child Left Behind, instituted three years ago. Still, New York remains only in a 'training' phase, with its Education Department continuing to clarify criteria and teach local administrators how properly to report violent incidents. Even the state Comptroller's Office is involved now, looking anew over shoulders because random audits of schools earlier this year found reporting compliance abysmal."
Schools hired guns' fat checks: No-bid contract doles out $17M in cost-cutting bid
Date CapturedSunday August 27 2006, 8:31 AM
NY Daily News exclusive, ERIN EINHORN and MICHAEL SAUL report, "Seven of the high-powered consultants hired by City Hall to cut fat from the school bureaucracy are charging taxpayers more than a million dollars each for work over the next 18 months, the Daily News has learned."
Plenty kids left in failing New York City schools
Date CapturedSaturday August 26 2006, 8:30 AM
NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "Nearly 11,000 city kids attending rotten public schools applied for emergency transfers to better schools under the federal No Child Left Behind law - but many of them will have to stay put, officials said yesterday."
POLL CALL FOR CITY SCHOOLS: MASSIVE OPINION SURVEY PLANNED
Date CapturedFriday August 25 2006, 7:37 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA reports, "The questions will focus on school safety, student-parent-teacher engagement and 'the quality of respectful and collaborative interaction' regarding student achievement."
New York City Mayor Bloomberg and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush discuss accountability in public schools
Date CapturedThursday August 24 2006, 12:51 PM
The Association for a Better New York will host a breakfast meeting on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 where New York City Mayor Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg and Florida Governor Honorable Jeb Bush will discuss increasing accountability and results in public schools. Register today.
New York City public schools splitting at the seams
Date CapturedThursday August 24 2006, 8:18 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Education Department spokesman Keith Kalb said six schools under construction in Queens will provide about 4,000 more student seats over the next two years."
City slapped in special ed lawsuit
Date CapturedThursday August 24 2006, 7:52 AM
NY Daily News reports on class-action lawsuit charging special education children are cheated out of services when disputes erupt, "A lawyer who has represented parents of special education students but is uninvolved with the lawsuit agreed that the hearings are an obstacle, particularly for those who can't afford lawyers."
LOWBALLING SCHOOL VIOLENCE...
Date CapturedThursday August 24 2006, 7:16 AM
NY Post editorial opined on school violence, "Regardless of the actual number of dangerous schools - 14, 140, or otherwise - zero tolerance on violent behavior must be the policy."
NAACP Hosts Back To School Rally In Brooklyn
Date CapturedWednesday August 23 2006, 4:23 PM
NY1 reports, "Schools Chancellor Joel Klein advised kids to 'read, read, read every day more than you read yesterday' during a back to school rally Wednesday sponsored by Brooklyn's chapter of the NAACP and the Brooklyn Public Library."
CLASS-KICKERS: 'DANGEROUS' SCHOOLS SOAR - AND N.Y. MAY BE LOWBALLING COUNT
Date CapturedWednesday August 23 2006, 8:00 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA and LEONARD GREENE report, "'Since the school system no longer shares incident data, no one really knows the true state of safety in our schools,' said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. 'But we do know that having only 14 [city] schools on the 'persistently dangerous' list doesn't make sense.'"
ROSY REPORT ADDS UP TO NONSENSE
Date CapturedWednesday August 23 2006, 7:53 AM
NY Post columnist Ryan Sager writes, "The answer is to give all parents - the people who know whether or not they feel their kids are safe enough at school - a choice. Open more charter schools, give parents vouchers and/or tuition tax credits, open up public-school choice to all families. Then persistently dangerous (and persistently incompetent) schools will be held accountable."
Majority Of State's Most Dangerous Schools Are In New York City
Date CapturedTuesday August 22 2006, 4:35 PM
NY1 reports, "Eleven of them (persistently dangerous) are schools for special education students and city sources say those schools are usually exempt from list."
Seventeen New York Schools Named As "Persistently Dangerous" Under NCLB,
Date CapturedTuesday August 22 2006, 3:57 PM
As required by NCLB: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, AUGUST 22, 2006. Persistently dangerous list includes NYC schools, Rochester, Buffalo charter school, and Berkshire Junior-Senior High School. New York State Education Department press release, "An additional 10 schools have been placed on a 'watch list.'" NYC, Buffalo, Rome, Wyandanch, Greenburg-Graham on "watch list."
Schools' audit finds corruption
Date CapturedTuesday August 22 2006, 8:20 AM
The NY Daily News reports on misuse of school funds in NYC and Long Island, "Kickbacks. Phantom payments. Using school funds to buy computers and cell phones for private use. Those are some of the more frequent examples of how local educators have mismanaged taxpayer dollars in recent years."
Ed contracts will be eyed after no-bid report
Date CapturedTuesday August 22 2006, 8:14 AM
Daily News reports, "'The fact that the [Department] of Ed is now doing $120 million in no-bid contracts without any form of public review or vote or scrutiny by any outside body is outrageous.'" [Assemblyman James Brennan ]
Free college-prep exams for New Yok City students
Date CapturedTuesday August 22 2006, 8:08 AM
Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "In addition to helping kids get into college, Klein said, the test and its results will also serve to help teachers and parents to know the areas where each student is struggling and extra attention is needed. The College Board says that similar arrangements in other cities dramatically increased the number of students taking the test and better prepared them for college."
CUNY'S CLASSY TACT-IC TO TEACH GRACES
Date CapturedMonday August 21 2006, 7:41 AM
NY Post education writer David Andreatta reports, "Believing that the curriculum at the esteemed City University of New York business school is second to none, college officials said the new program focuses on refining students in the social graces inborn to country-club kids attending pricey universities. Workshops on dining etiquette, accent reduction, global affairs and presentation skills are on the agenda. There is also talk of offering students golf lessons to prep them for the inevitable day when they will entertain fat cats on the links."
OL' COLLEGE PRY: POL PROBES SCHOOL PORK
Date CapturedMonday August 21 2006, 7:19 AM
NY Post correspondent GEOFF EARLE reports, "A powerful U.S. senator is demanding five New York colleges justify millions in federal pork-barrel funds sent to their campuses and reveal whether they've hired political muscle to get more taxpayer money. Among the schools getting a letter from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) are New York University, the State University of New York and Columbia University." Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Charles Schumer boasted last year about getting funds for Cornell University's Center for Grape Genetics.
ELITE SCHOOLS UNDER FIRE
Date CapturedMonday August 21 2006, 7:03 AM
NY Post editorial opined on academic achievement and enrollment at CUNY and elite schools, "Lowering admissions standards at elite public high schools - in other words, admitting students who are not able to handle a deliberately difficult and challenging workload - will hardly prepare those students for academically elite colleges and universities."
A no-bid bonanza: City schools awarded $120M in noncompetitive
Date CapturedMonday August 21 2006, 6:50 AM
Daily News Erin Einhorn exclusive, "City rules created to prevent graft and save taxpayer money make it difficult for local agencies to buy products or services without an open process that requires competition. When city agencies award lucrative noncompetitive contracts, public hearings are normally held. But Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein argue that because public schools are regulated by the state - not the city - the Education Department can follow different rules."
Greed, not high standards, shuts students out
Date CapturedMonday August 21 2006, 6:44 AM
NY Daily Post columnist Stanley Crouch opined, "Students need to believe that good teachers, like good doctors or good dentists, are looking out for their best interests. If that is done, children have a much better chance of standing up against the negative influences of a popular culture that is produced by people whose sole concern is material wealth, regardless of the impact it might have on our children."
Connie Williams Coulianos gets A+ for work with children
Date CapturedSunday August 20 2006, 8:40 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Connie Williams Coulianos, who teaches at Columbia University's Hollingworth Preschool, will be honored in the September issue of Nick Jr. Family magazine. The 53-year-old teacher was selected from among more than 570 instructors, who were nominated by their colleagues, parents and education experts."
Girls' sports hit hard by bias - study
Date CapturedFriday August 18 2006, 8:35 AM
NY Daily News reports on gender inequity in sports, fewer college scholarship scouting opportunities for women, and study findings, "According to Gotbaum (public advocate), girls involved in team sports 'are less likely to develop osteoporosis, breast cancer and diabetes as adults, and more likely to adopt long-term exercise programs.' And they're less likely to use drugs, smoke, have unwanted pregnancies or commit suicide, she added."
Minority Students Decline in Top New York Schools
Date CapturedFriday August 18 2006, 8:01 AM
NY Times ELISSA GOOTMAN reports, "More than a decade after the city created a special institute to prepare black and Hispanic students for the mind-bendingly difficult test that determines who gets into New York’s three most elite specialized high schools, the percentage of such students has not only failed to rise, it has declined."
Left behind: NCLB needs better accountability
Date CapturedTuesday August 15 2006, 10:27 AM
Tallahassee Democrat opined on Washington Post Op-Ed written by NYC Mayor Bloomberg and Florida Gov. Bush, and Harvard University's Civil Rights Project study, "With growing concern about America's academic competitiveness, it's crucial that No Child Left Behind become more than a political tool for Washington and an inconvenient headache for states and educators. When even its supporters acknowledge the need for reform, it's time for Congress to act."
NO MORE EXCUSES FOR SCHOOL FAILURE
Date CapturedTuesday August 15 2006, 8:43 AM
NY Post op-ed adapted from speech given by Joel Klein, New York City schools chancellor, "OUR reform strategy, which we call 'Children First,' is premised on the core belief that strong school-level leadership will result in high-functioning schools. Our aim is to accomplish three fundamental cultural shifts."
CUNY IN THE CROSSHAIRS
Date CapturedMonday August 14 2006, 8:45 AM
NY Post opined on academic standards at CUNY, "As CUNY's own records confirm, the percentage of black students at City College slipped from 40 percent in 1999 to 30 percent last year. At Hunter College, the decline was from 20 percent to 15 percent. At Baruch, black students made up 24 percent of the undergraduate population in 1999; last year, the number was down to 14 percent. But, notably, no one is charging that the results are in any way the result of intentional discrimination. Indeed, overall black enrollment at CUNY has increased 1.3 percent."
WELCOME BACK, KIDS - NOW LET THE TESTS BEGIN
Date CapturedMonday August 14 2006, 8:09 AM
NY Post DAVID ANDREATTA reports, "Incoming ninth- and 10th-graders at nearly half of all city high schools will be tested in reading and math during the first few weeks of school next month, The Post has learned."
Mike joins 1st Bro Jeb to propose school fixes
Date CapturedMonday August 14 2006, 7:44 AM
NY Daily News reports on co-authored Washington Post opinion piece, "Florida and New York City are leaders when it comes to accountability in education," they [Bush and Bloomberg] wrote. The two listed several ways Congress should change the act as it faces reauthorization: Make standards meaningful, encourage student gains, recognize degrees of progress and reward and retain high-quality teachers."
How to Help Our Students: Building on the 'No Child' Law
Date CapturedMonday August 14 2006, 7:18 AM
Washington Post op-ed contributors Florida Gov. Bush and NYC Mayor Bloomberg opined on NCLB, "The opponents of accountability have seized on the problems with the No Child Left Behind Act in an effort to do away with the law altogether. That is wrong. A little common sense could go a long way toward making sure that the nation's accountability system is realistic, tough and fair. Incorporating these four basic lessons will allow us to realize the law's full promise and help children realize their dreams."
New sour note for Harlem choir
Date CapturedSunday August 13 2006, 9:33 AM
NY Daily News ERIN EINHORN reports on NYC schools Promise Academy II charter school facility. "'The [Department] of Education is doing this behind parents' backs,' steamed Diana Boyd, a former member of the Choir Academy parent's association. 'This is being done without our consent.' Parents learned that the charter was coming after a city educrat was seen at the building last week checking out the space."
Keeping kids on a (technological) leash
Date CapturedSunday August 13 2006, 9:21 AM
Jerry McGovern, the Press-Republican's coordinator of Newspapers-in-Education opined on school information policy and safety regarding cell phones, "Whatever childhood is, it's not as loose and free as it used to be. And there is no turning back. Parents want to keep their children on shorter leashes, even if they are technological leashes."
Education Dept. puts night high schools to bed
Date CapturedFriday August 11 2006, 8:15 AM
NY Daily News reports, "About $4 million was spent last year to pay the salaries of night school teachers. That money will be made available to individual principals so they can create evening, weekend and tutoring programs tailored to the needs of their students."
Manhattan: School's Discipline Code Criticized
Date CapturedThursday August 10 2006, 9:23 AM
NY Times ELISSA GOOTMAN reports on New York City schools Internet use related information policy, "Civil rights advocates criticized proposed changes to the city Education Department’s discipline code yesterday, saying that a proposal to punish students who post 'libelous or defamatory material' on the Internet was unconstitutional."
BLACK SETBACK AT KEY CUNY SCHOOLS
Date CapturedThursday August 10 2006, 8:08 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Dr. Selma Botman, CUNY's chief academic officer, said freshman enrollment among blacks was up 11 percent across the senior colleges and suggested the overall decline at Hunter, Baruch and City was a reflection of a shift in career interests among young blacks."
TEACH FLUNK SPIRAL: MORE GET BAD RATINGS
Date CapturedWednesday August 09 2006, 8:41 AM
NY Post David Andreatta reports on the increased percentage of NYC tenured teachers graded unsatisfactory or "u-rated", "That spike troubled the president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, who suggested a correlation between the jump and a growing number of rookie principals, particularly those trained at the city-run Leadership Academy."
NOT A JOB FOR THE SCHOOLS
Date CapturedWednesday August 09 2006, 8:33 AM
NY Post opined on schools' plan to restrict Internet use from home, "It's certainly good to see education brass concerned about the need to assure an unintimidating environment for learning. But don't they have their hands full monitoring activity at school, without trying to police behavior at home, too?"
PARENTS DIGGING UP DATA ON TEACHERS
Date CapturedWednesday August 09 2006, 7:37 AM
NY Post exclusive by David Andreatta reports, "The moms and dads are taking advantage of a little-known provision of the federal No Child Left Behind law, which grants parents or guardians of students attending public schools that receive federal poverty aid the right to see the credentials of teachers and their aides."
School nurses cut: Targeted 45 schools with special-needs kids, 40% of them on Staten Island
Date CapturedWednesday August 09 2006, 7:17 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The moves are the result of concessions the city gained from two unions that represent school nurses, the United Federation of Teachers and District Council 37. The concessions, which went into effect July 31, freed the city from stipulations that forced it to put a second nurse in schools with even one special-education student."
Gain in Income Is Offset by Rise in Property Tax
Date CapturedSunday August 06 2006, 11:21 PM
NY Times reports, "In the suburbs of New York City, as in many other places across the country, property taxes are the main revenue source for municipal and county governments and, most expensively, their schools. But while property taxes are principally a local government issue, they have major political ramifications in state capitols. And so this sharp reversal in income and property tax growth helps to explain the building murmurs of a tax revolt not only in the New York region but around the country."
NYC Mayor Bloomberg endorses mayoral control of Los Angeles schools
Date CapturedFriday August 04 2006, 7:42 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Bloomberg and Daley [Chicago mayor] said mayoral takeover of the public school system has resulted in more-empowered principals, improved safety and new programs to support struggling students and schools."
Helping homeless kids get back to school
Date CapturedThursday August 03 2006, 8:10 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The Newkirk Area Neighborhood Association will prepare bookbags for distribution on Aug. 19. Send funds to help fill them to: NANA c/o Flatbush Development Corp., 1616 Newkirk Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11226."
In Push to Open Small Schools, a Big Obstacle: Limited Space
Date CapturedThursday August 03 2006, 12:24 AM
NY Times reports, "In the Bronx, 500 students in two high schools are not sure where they will go when classes start next month. The schools were supposed to share a former elementary school, but nonprofit groups that have occupied the building since 1982 refuse to leave and a lawsuit has been filed. The students are likely to end up in trailers outside the building."
Cutback on counselors
Date CapturedWednesday August 02 2006, 6:34 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Klein has pledged to fund the budget increase in the so-called empowerment schools by cutting $80 million this year from the system's central and regional bureaucracy. An added $200million is scheduled to be trimmed by next year."
New York Law School Launches $190 Million Expansion and Renovation of TriBeCa Campus
Date CapturedTuesday August 01 2006, 9:48 AM
PRNewswire reports, "Financing for the new academic building came from the sale of $135 million in insured bonds issued through the New York City Industrial Development Agency, which was successfully completed on June 30, 2006. The school's securities were given an A3 credit rating by Moody's and an A-minus rating by S&P, both reflective of the school's stable market position and solid financial condition."
New York City Independent Budget Office Fiscal Brief, July 2006
Date CapturedTuesday August 01 2006, 7:27 AM
By Paul Lopatto. Study finds, "THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, commonly known as CUNY, is the largest urban public university system in the country, with approximately 450,000 students. Until the city’s fiscal crisis in the 1970s, CUNY charged no tuition. But even with the addition of tuition revenue, CUNY has faced ongoing challenges to its operating budget. CUNY officials say these challenges have hampered their ability to expand and improve the university’s educational programs.IBO’s review of CUNY funding since 1989 finds that the university system has become increasingly reliant on tuition revenue even as it faces year-to-year uncertainty in the sources of its funding and costs to its students."
STATE $TILL FAILING CUNY
Date CapturedTuesday August 01 2006, 7:22 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "The study, released yesterday by the city's Independent Budget Office, confirms what CUNY officials have said for years - that a decline in state support has hampered the university's ability to expand." READ REFERENCED STUDY ON EDUCATION NEW YORK ONLINE, EDUCATION POLICY PAGE, HIGHER EDUCATION LINK.
FIGHTING POVERTY; WHAT N.Y.C. NEEDS TO DO
Date CapturedMonday July 31 2006, 7:35 AM
NY Post contributor Richard D. Parsons, chairman & CEO of Time Warner Inc. and co-chair of Mayor Bloomberg's Commission on Economic Opportunity writes, "We know that poverty rates decrease when education rates increase. That is why the mayor and city schools Chancellor Joel Klein have worked so hard to bring accountability to our public schools and improve high-school graduation rates. While much progress has been made, much more needs to be, and can be, done at all levels. We need to give particular focus to preschoolers, and we need to make it easier for more of our young people to go to college."
Bard aims to boost math teaching
Date CapturedSunday July 30 2006, 12:11 PM
Poughkeepsie Journal reports, "The one-year program, which has doubled in size since last year, is targeted at students who have recently earned bachelor's degrees and other college graduates who may be seeking career changes to education."
All work & less pay for school nurses
Date CapturedSaturday July 29 2006, 6:33 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Due to a summer payroll glitch, the Department of Education says that 30 occupational and physical therapists at Public School 37 in Staten Island and 65 nurses working at schools around the city were not paid for hours worked in July."
REPORT-CARD REVOLUTION
Date CapturedFriday July 28 2006, 8:07 AM
NY Post columnist Ryan Sager writes, "The broad, squishy ideas of 'standards' and 'accountability' have been all the rage in education reform for some time. They were the basis for President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, which theoretically requires all public schools in America to make all students 'proficient' in English and math."
AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT FREE TUTORING SERVICES UNDER THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN NEW YORK CITY: A FOCUS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Date CapturedWednesday July 26 2006, 11:18 AM
Advocates for Children of New York, June, 2006. "This policy brief examines the status of SES in NYC as of the 2004-2005 school year (the most recent year for which data is available) and compares, where possible, results from the first year of implementation. This report also analyzes the extent to which ELLs are eligible based on their attendance in designated schools, their enrollment in SES, and SES providers’ capacity to serve these students."
In Kindergarten Playtime, a New Meaning for ‘Play’
Date CapturedWednesday July 26 2006, 8:50 AM
NY Times contributor Clara Hemphill, director of Insideschools.org, a project of Advocates for Children of New York writes, "Now, with an increased emphasis on academic achievement even in the earliest grades, playtime in kindergarten is giving way to worksheets, math drills and fill-in-the-bubble standardized tests."
Advocates for Children
Date CapturedWednesday July 26 2006, 8:44 AM
Inside Schools
Date CapturedWednesday July 26 2006, 8:38 AM
An Unfailing Belief in the Power of Teaching
Date CapturedWednesday July 26 2006, 8:25 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN writes, in a story about NYC schools' head of instruction, Dr. Alonso, "He hates it when students are referred to as 'at risk,' icily noting that they are at risk only when educators fail. He denounces failed teaching techniques the way a preacher condemns sin. His speeches are dense with jargon."
SCHOOLS 'NET RIGHTS JAB
Date CapturedWednesday July 26 2006, 7:55 AM
NY Post reports, "The head of the New York Civil Liberties Union said yesterday that the group would challenge a city Department of Education proposal to discipline students who post defamatory comments related to their schools online."
$17M Ed Dept. job set without bidding
Date CapturedWednesday July 26 2006, 7:40 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said the contract 'seems to be part of a pattern' of no-bid deals handed out by the Bloomberg administration. Gotbaum argued that city contracts should only be awarded after a "strenuous" review process."
HOPES ON HOLD, ALBANY HAMSTRINGS SCHOOL REFORM
Date CapturedTuesday July 25 2006, 8:02 AM
NY Post guest op-ed contributor Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City schools writes, "Charter schools provide high-quality education to some of the poorest communities in our city, giving amazing opportunities to children who are more than 90 percent African-American and Latino."
MYSPACE INVADERS FOR CITY STUDENTS, SCHOOLS TAKE AIM AT NASTY BLOGGERS
Date CapturedTuesday July 25 2006, 7:51 AM
NY Post reports, "The proposed changes to the code have yet to be adopted by the city's Panel for Educational Policy, but civil-rights lawyers are already sounding the alarm over the Internet provision. 'What happens on the Internet at a student's home is not the Department of Education's business," said veteran civil-rights lawyer Elizabeth Fink. 'Any person who believes in the Constitution would have a vast problem with this.'"
Schools tackle new threats, from Net to stun guns
Date CapturedTuesday July 25 2006, 7:38 AM
NY Daily News reports, "With some kids using the Internet to harass each other or start fights and others bringing items to school - like paint-ball guns - that no one thought to ban before, city educrats are proposing a host of new rules to keep order in city schools."
NBA star to Choir rescue?
Date CapturedMonday July 24 2006, 7:08 AM
NY Daily News reports, "[Kevin]Johnson and the Education Department are expected to announce in the next few weeks their partnership in a rigorous, college preparatory school for middle- and high-school students that will focus on music and community service."
School deal idles, the CFE school case should be a focus of ongoing campaigns
Date CapturedSunday July 23 2006, 9:41 AM
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle editorial opined on fiscal equity, "Those on the CFE side have expended most of their energy demanding that new billions be allocated. But school quality is not a money issue alone, or even primarily. It's about leadership at every level, beginning with the classroom, properly trained teachers, involved parents."
SMARTER CHARTER KIDS
Date CapturedFriday July 21 2006, 10:42 AM
NY Post CARL CAMPANILE reports, "The just-released study by state Education Department found students in 11 of 16 city charter schools outscored kids in nearby public schools on the state's fourth-grade English and math exams in 2005."
CHARTER CHOOSER
Date CapturedFriday July 21 2006, 7:38 AM
NY Post DICKER and CAMPANILE report on Spitzer's comments in response to a state Education Department report , "'The study results confirm that these schools can play an important role in demonstrating the effectiveness of educational innovations that can be applied to other parts of the school system,' Spitzer said."
When activism masquerades as education
Date CapturedFriday July 21 2006, 7:15 AM
NY Daily News guest contributor, Manhattan Institute's senior fellow Sol Stern writes, "Far too many New York City public schools - including some of the new small schools created by Chancellor Joel Klein and funded with money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - distort education by imbuing social justice into everything they do."
Parents Dismissed: An Analysis of Manhattan"s Community Education Councils and the New York City Department of Education's Role in Engaging Parent Leaders
Date CapturedFriday July 21 2006, 12:08 AM
"This report on Manhattan’s Community Education Councils (CEC) finds significant failures by the City’s Department of Education (DOE) and violations of state law as it pertains to their obligations to adequately provide support and training for the parent councils."
“Parents Dismissed" gives NYC schools failing grade on education councils
Date CapturedThursday July 20 2006, 11:49 PM
The Villager reports, "Borough President Scott Stringer is calling for action from the Department of Education to address what he calls the failing performance of Manhattan’s Community Education Councils."
FREE CHILDREN FROM THESE 'PRISONS'
Date CapturedThursday July 20 2006, 7:57 AM
NY Post columnist Ryan Sager writes, "Let this be clear to everyone: Public schools in New York are prisons for low-income families - and the jailers are the city and state teachers unions."
SMARTER CHARTER KIDS, SCORING ABOVE STUDENTS AT NEARBY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Date CapturedThursday July 20 2006, 7:49 AM
NY Post reports, "The academic gap widens in the upper grades, the report said, with kids in five of six upper-grade charter schools faring better on eighth-grade English and math exams."
Sun shines in 'No Child' - a class act about NYC schools
Date CapturedWednesday July 19 2006, 7:24 AM
The Daily News reports, "Sun, a native New Yorker who is half-black, half-Puerto Rican, based the work on her outer-boro teaching experiences. It's about a naive instructor (named, natch, Ms. Sun) struggling to stage a 10th-grade class production of 'Our Country's Good,' Timberlake Wertenbaker's drama set in 1788 about Australian convicts doing a play."
'INSPECTORS' TO GRADE EACH SCHOOL
Date CapturedWednesday July 19 2006, 7:17 AM
NY Post reports, "The educational watchdogs will write five-page, 1,500-word "quality reviews" rating the schools based on their two-to-three day observations of classroom instruction, data analysis and building safety."
Pay teachers more and demand results
Date CapturedTuesday July 18 2006, 9:07 AM
Morton Kondracke, columnist and executive editor of Roll Call, writes on school reform, "With student performance still dismal 23 years after a federal report proclaimed a 'nation at risk,' it’s just possible that a decisive, bipartisan 'grand bargain' can be struck to improve the public schools."
'Ringing' in the school year; New York City fights over whether to allow cellphones in schools, echoing a debate nationwide
Date CapturedTuesday July 18 2006, 8:03 AM
Christian Science Monitor reports, "At City Hall, several council members are pushing for a legislative solution. If these efforts fail, the issue may end up in Albany."
SCHOOL TO BECOME HOUSING
Date CapturedMonday July 17 2006, 7:52 AM
NY Post (registration) reports, "As the city Department of Education awaits a multibillion-dollar court-ordered windfall to ease overcrowding in schools, it has rejected revamping a storied East Harlem school building - claiming the neighborhood doesn't need the seats. "
Overview of the 229th Legislative Session
Date CapturedSunday July 16 2006, 8:24 AM
NY Times (registration) reports, "Under significant political pressure from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, lawmakers agreed to borrow $11.2 billion for construction of New York City schools."
Charter School Gets Home at Education Headquarters
Date CapturedSaturday July 15 2006, 9:46 AM
NY Times DAVID M. HERSZENHORN reports, "City education officials had wanted the Ross school to share a building on the Lower East Side with the New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math school. But parents at that school, known as NEST, waged months of protests and filed a lawsuit to block the Ross school from moving in. Their most prominent supporter was Sheldon Silver, the State Assembly speaker, who considers NEST a jewel of his Manhattan district." (registration)
Charter school gets cozy with educrats
Date CapturedSaturday July 15 2006, 9:28 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Bloomberg and Klein have been strong supporters of charters and have made space for many of them in public schools, but their decision to put one in the Education Department's headquarters has raised some eyebrows."
Let Principals Lead
Date CapturedFriday July 14 2006, 8:33 AM
New York Times (registration required) editorial writes, "City officials are understandably optimistic about the new principals who have replaced the leavers. But the newcomers cannot simply be told they’re accountable and turned loose. The city needs to provide them with the training, the support and especially the resources that are needed to tackle the gargantuan tasks that lie before them. And while the city is nurturing the new principals on one hand, it must stand firm in its struggles with the union on the other."
Parents to Sue Over Schools’ Cellphone Ban
Date CapturedThursday July 13 2006, 7:27 AM
NY Times registration, ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS reports, "The lawsuit, which the plaintiffs said they intended to file today in Manhattan, will argue that the ban jeopardizes the students’ safety by making it hard for them to keep in touch with their parents before and after school."
Finish the Test
Date CapturedWednesday July 12 2006, 7:47 AM
Post-Standard on Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) lawsuit, "The CFE filed a brief last month asking the court to force the state to obey the ruling or face sanctions. The state responded this week with a counterbrief arguing, among other things, that the court has no business telling the state how to fund education. The ball is back in the Court of Appeals."
REGENTS RACKET
Date CapturedMonday July 10 2006, 7:07 AM
NY Post registration required. NY Post editorial writes, "New York state school officials had a problem: Not enough kids were meeting the standard to graduate with a Regents diploma. So what'd they do? They lowered the standard, of course."
825 CITY TEACHERS EXPELLED
Date CapturedMonday July 10 2006, 6:52 AM
NY Post registration required. NY Post reports, "Under a state mandate last year, uncertified teachers are prohibited from working in the city school system unless they are on track to earn their certification."
Just 1 Staten Island school opting for incentive plan
Date CapturedSunday July 09 2006, 10:29 AM
Staten Island Advance registration required. Advance reports, "A Department of Education source said the lack of participation among Staten Island principals makes it look like borough administrators are resistant to the initiative. 'I am sure the Chancellor is not happy with that.'"
HOU$EWARMING WOOS TEACHERS, CITY PAYS OUT TO HELP RECRUITS MOVE IN
Date CapturedSunday July 09 2006, 9:09 AM
NY Post registration required, "NY Post reports, "Each teacher accepted gets $5,000 up front for moving or down-payment costs, plus $400 per month for two years. They must teach for three years at a city middle or high school."
BONUS-$$ OUTRAGE AT FAILING SCHOOLS
Date CapturedSunday July 09 2006, 9:03 AM
NY Post registration required. NY Post reports on NYC schools, "Principals of 100 city schools that failed to meet state standards last year - including two so bad that they were ordered closed - are being awarded $887,500 in performance bonuses, city and state education records show."
NEST charter doesn’t fly; Is principal’s goose cooked?
Date CapturedFriday July 07 2006, 9:00 AM
The Villager reports, "The department claims it overturned its original, seemingly steadfast, decision to place Ross Global Academy inside the building because it wants to keep stability in the building after the change of the principal at NEST+m."
The Disability Gap
Date CapturedThursday July 06 2006, 2:41 PM
HuffingtonPost.com reports, "Nationwide, under 2% of students have learning disabilities severe enough to qualify for extra time on the SAT. In private school Manhattan, the percentage is substantially greater. And that means dramatically higher scores."
District 26 Seeks Repeal Of Schools Cellphone Ban
Date CapturedThursday July 06 2006, 1:50 PM
Queens Chronicle reports, "Saying that cellphones improve students’ safety, members of Community District Education Council 26 in Bayside voted last week to have the chancellor repeal the ban in public schools."
Schools enroll Health Corps
Date CapturedThursday July 06 2006, 7:48 AM
NY Daily News reports, "An innovative "Health Corps" program designed to motivate students to eat healthy foods and exercise will be expanding in September to high schools in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx with the help of a $250,000 city-state grant."
School Bus Drivers, Bus Companies Reach Tentative Deal
Date CapturedWednesday July 05 2006, 5:26 PM
NY1 reports, "Union representatives for school bus drivers, escorts and mechanics have reached a tentative agreement with the bus companies they work for Wednesday, averting a possible strike that could have left thousands of summer school students looking for alternate modes of transportation."
Boro's quality-of-life boost
Date CapturedWednesday July 05 2006, 7:26 AM
NY Daily News reports, "EDUCATION: Almost $3.9 million to schools for new computers, new science labs and a partnership with the Out2Schools Foundation, which will reconstruct several schoolyards across the borough."
A yearning for learning
Date CapturedMonday July 03 2006, 7:40 AM
NY Daily News reports, "Charter schools typically have smaller class sizes and more challenging academic regimens than regular public schools. Critics charge that they siphon off the best children in any school district and take money from a system that is already strapped for cash, and do so with little or no accountability."
School funding solution is in a backpack
Date CapturedMonday July 03 2006, 7:32 AM
NY Daily News reports, "In 1945, U.S. public schools received $1,214 per student, in 2002 dollars; by 2002, they received $8,745 per student, and the number keeps growing."..."Rather than simply pumping more gas into this broken down car, it's time to design a much smarter and more effective way to get from Point A to Point B. A reform idea called 'weighted student funding' does just that, making intelligent use of the resources we already devote to education."
BELOW-GRADE ED. DEPT.
Date CapturedSunday July 02 2006, 7:09 AM
NY Post registration required
Power to the principals
Date CapturedSunday July 02 2006, 7:05 AM
NY Daily News
No school bus strike yet
Date CapturedSaturday July 01 2006, 7:31 AM
NY Daily News
Put a plug in the summer brain drain
Date CapturedFriday June 30 2006, 11:18 AM
CNN
Graduation Rate Improving, Schools Chancellor Says
Date CapturedFriday June 30 2006, 7:58 AM
NY Times registration
City goofs on counting H.S. grads
Date CapturedFriday June 30 2006, 7:54 AM
NY Daily News
Contract Talks Between City, Bus Drivers Tabled For Weekend
Date CapturedThursday June 29 2006, 7:53 PM
GAY IS 'OUT'
Date CapturedThursday June 29 2006, 8:59 AM
NY Post registration
UFT protests the unfair firing of charter school teachers
Date CapturedWednesday June 28 2006, 4:31 PM
Small Schools Show Concern Over Proposal to Swap Land
Date CapturedTuesday June 27 2006, 11:52 PM
NY Times registration
School Bus Strike Threatened For Start Of Summer School
Date CapturedMonday June 26 2006, 7:57 PM
NY1
Renewed Push for the Artistic ABC's in New York Schools
Date CapturedMonday June 26 2006, 4:08 AM
NY Times registration
PRINCIPAL PRINCIPLES
Date CapturedMonday June 26 2006, 3:57 AM
NY Post registration
46% of NYC students don't finish high school in 4 years
Date CapturedSunday June 25 2006, 10:36 AM
Staten Island Advance
'F' is for full
Date CapturedSunday June 25 2006, 8:42 AM
NY Daily News
Teacher Dismissed
Date CapturedSunday June 25 2006, 7:49 AM
NY Times registration
Legislature Deals Setback to Mayor in Declining to Allow More Charter Schools
Date CapturedSaturday June 24 2006, 8:09 AM
NY Times registration
Charter School Will Not Go Into School for the Gifted
Date CapturedSaturday June 24 2006, 8:01 AM
NY Times registration
NEST-Y school dispute's over
Date CapturedSaturday June 24 2006, 7:53 AM
NY Daily News
Last Day For Catholic Schools Before Summer Break
Date CapturedFriday June 23 2006, 3:41 PM
NY!
Unions Seek Joint Bargaining With City
Date CapturedFriday June 23 2006, 10:50 AM
NY Times registration required
Giving Principals More Control
Date CapturedFriday June 23 2006, 7:42 AM
Gotham Gazette
FITNESS REPORT: SCHOOLS 'LEAN' ON BIG APPLE STUDENTS
Date CapturedFriday June 23 2006, 7:02 AM
NY Post registration required
Healthy addition to report cards
Date CapturedFriday June 23 2006, 6:52 AM
NY Daily News
City Students To Receive Fitness Report Cards
Date CapturedThursday June 22 2006, 11:47 PM
NY1
Council Bill Steps Up Fight For School Cells
Date CapturedThursday June 22 2006, 8:20 PM
queenstribune.com
Schools plan MetroCards if buses strike
Date CapturedThursday June 22 2006, 7:17 AM
NY Daily News
NYC High School Graduation Rates Among Lowest In The Country
Date CapturedWednesday June 21 2006, 5:30 PM
NY1
Plan To Build Middle School At WTC Site Gets Mixed Reviews
Date CapturedWednesday June 21 2006, 3:01 PM
NY1
BIG APPLE GRADUATION RATE ROTTEN (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedWednesday June 21 2006, 6:52 AM
Juvenile Center Restrictions Draw Fire
Date CapturedWednesday June 21 2006, 6:38 AM
Times Union
City HS graduation rates get 'F' in national study
Date CapturedWednesday June 21 2006, 6:20 AM
NY Daily News
Report: NYC High School Graduation Rate Below 40 Percent
Date CapturedTuesday June 20 2006, 9:19 PM
WNBC
New Lessons in Class
Date CapturedTuesday June 20 2006, 5:14 PM
Village Voice
Why Students Have No Rights
Date CapturedTuesday June 20 2006, 8:37 AM
REPLACING PARENTS (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedMonday June 19 2006, 7:42 AM
Pols dial in votes to veto school cell ban
Date CapturedMonday June 19 2006, 7:18 AM
NYC Accused of Neglecting Students with Disabilities
Date CapturedSunday June 18 2006, 9:10 PM
NYC schools take 16M hit
Date CapturedSunday June 18 2006, 8:32 AM
Special Ed pupils in limbo
Date CapturedSunday June 18 2006, 8:29 AM
17,700 kids may have to repeat grade
Date CapturedSaturday June 17 2006, 12:01 PM
NY1
Date CapturedFriday June 16 2006, 5:09 PM
NYC's New Small Schools Are Focus of a Bias Inquiry
Date CapturedFriday June 16 2006, 7:22 AM
PARENTS GET 'TEST'Y (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedFriday June 16 2006, 7:04 AM
UNIONS ABOARD FOR BUS STRIKE (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedFriday June 16 2006, 7:00 AM
Feds cast eye on city special ed
Date CapturedFriday June 16 2006, 6:42 AM
Students Design New Playground
Date CapturedThursday June 15 2006, 4:18 PM
Parents Still Feel Powerless in Community Education Councils
Date CapturedThursday June 15 2006, 4:14 PM
School Cell Phone Fight May Be Heading To Court
Date CapturedWednesday June 14 2006, 7:24 PM
City program would give PS 31 head more power, 250Gs in funding
Date CapturedWednesday June 14 2006, 7:40 AM
Latin Tech gets 100G
Date CapturedWednesday June 14 2006, 7:08 AM
Math doesn't add up
Date CapturedTuesday June 13 2006, 6:58 AM
Cut in school jobs - and bureaucracy
Date CapturedTuesday June 13 2006, 6:54 AM
New Education Program Puts Onus On NYC Principals
Date CapturedMonday June 12 2006, 7:50 PM
KIDS WHO WON'T TRY (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedSunday June 11 2006, 8:25 AM
Small schools changing shape of education in Big Apple
Date CapturedSunday June 11 2006, 7:50 AM
New focus on wellness for students
Date CapturedSunday June 11 2006, 7:27 AM
Kid power
Date CapturedSaturday June 10 2006, 7:46 AM
Can't cell council
Date CapturedSaturday June 10 2006, 7:43 AM
Students Say Safety Plan Discriminates In Schools
Date CapturedFriday June 09 2006, 7:14 AM
A site with class
Date CapturedThursday June 08 2006, 6:34 AM
Giving kids the biz
Date CapturedThursday June 08 2006, 6:28 AM
Race And Class
Date CapturedWednesday June 07 2006, 8:26 AM
CLASSY MOVE AT WTC (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedWednesday June 07 2006, 8:12 AM
50% more NYC schools win state kudos
Date CapturedWednesday June 07 2006, 7:20 AM
Education council fails to agree on special education program
Date CapturedTuesday June 06 2006, 12:39 PM
KIDS DROPPING OUT OF TUTOR CLASSES (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedTuesday June 06 2006, 8:57 AM
POLS BOOST SCHOOL CELLS (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedTuesday June 06 2006, 8:30 AM
Bus drivers may put brakes on summer school with strike
Date CapturedTuesday June 06 2006, 8:13 AM
Don't let Lotto kids lose, sez pol
Date CapturedTuesday June 06 2006, 8:10 AM
Marching to their own DRUM
Date CapturedTuesday June 06 2006, 8:06 AM
Teaching While Educating
Date CapturedTuesday June 06 2006, 7:55 AM
Pulling Strings to Get Into a Top (Pre-) School
Date CapturedMonday June 05 2006, 7:27 PM
Students at NYC public schools will be given transfer option
Date CapturedMonday June 05 2006, 6:17 PM
Students lose out on 280G
Date CapturedMonday June 05 2006, 7:58 AM
‘Jam on it’ is call on cell phone debate
Date CapturedFriday June 02 2006, 7:25 AM
Use court case cash to slash city class sizes
Date CapturedWednesday May 31 2006, 8:12 AM
‘We can lower class size’
Date CapturedThursday May 25 2006, 12:41 PM
Students rage at principal
Date CapturedWednesday May 24 2006, 7:35 AM
Pol flies POW/MIA school flag bill
Date CapturedWednesday May 24 2006, 7:28 AM
State will monitor school safety data
Date CapturedTuesday May 23 2006, 6:09 AM
Phones put on hold
Date CapturedSunday May 21 2006, 8:26 AM
Tell kids to defy school cell phone ban?: No
Date CapturedSunday May 21 2006, 8:23 AM
Tell kids to defy school cell phone ban?: Yes
Date CapturedSunday May 21 2006, 8:17 AM
199 cell phones snagged at Egbert
Date CapturedSaturday May 20 2006, 4:43 PM
No class size on Nov. ballot
Date CapturedSaturday May 20 2006, 7:38 AM
Parents, Teachers Rally For Smaller Class Sizes
Date CapturedFriday May 19 2006, 4:46 PM
Dial-up/Broadband
Is Segregation Undermining NYC Schools?
Date CapturedThursday May 18 2006, 7:28 PM
TEACHERS TAKE CLASS ACTION (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedThursday May 18 2006, 8:53 AM
TEACH JAM AT UFT CHARTERS (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedThursday May 18 2006, 8:46 AM
UFT's dangerous game
Date CapturedThursday May 18 2006, 8:00 AM
Kindest cut of all in city's schools
Date CapturedMonday May 15 2006, 7:33 AM
Call a truce in nasty school war
Date CapturedMonday May 15 2006, 7:03 AM
The Harlem Children's Zone
Date CapturedSunday May 14 2006, 8:15 PM
McCourt recruited in push for smaller classes
Date CapturedSunday May 14 2006, 10:34 AM
TEACHERS IN PUSH TO 'CUT CLASS' (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedSunday May 14 2006, 5:24 AM
Schools are lost in space
Date CapturedSunday May 14 2006, 5:08 AM
CUNY course a fresh start for dropouts
Date CapturedSunday May 14 2006, 5:05 AM
CFE denied expedited ruling
Date CapturedMonday May 08 2006, 8:17 AM
Quinn pushing full-time pre-K
Date CapturedMonday May 08 2006, 7:54 AM
The News Interview: Schools Chancellor Joel Klein
Date CapturedSunday May 07 2006, 8:10 AM
School Cell Phone Ban Stays in Place
Date CapturedSaturday May 06 2006, 8:40 AM
Cell phone ban? Klein says hang on
Date CapturedFriday May 05 2006, 8:10 AM
Buildings, But How About Books?
Date CapturedMonday May 01 2006, 10:59 AM
A is for accountability
Date CapturedMonday May 01 2006, 8:03 AM
Should class size be a top priority?: No
Date CapturedSunday April 30 2006, 7:47 AM
Bloomberg tone-deaf to cell phones
Date CapturedSunday April 30 2006, 7:46 AM
SHARING THE NEST (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedSunday April 30 2006, 7:40 AM
Stretching the Preschool Day (NY Times registration)
Date CapturedSunday April 30 2006, 12:25 AM
Bloomy sets ringtone: Cell no, kids won't gab
Date CapturedSaturday April 29 2006, 6:44 AM
Principals ticked at Klein talk
Date CapturedWednesday April 26 2006, 6:39 AM
GOV GIVES SCHOOLS $11B BUILD BOOST (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedTuesday April 25 2006, 8:14 AM
Web and work don't mix, Mike sniffs
Date CapturedTuesday April 25 2006, 8:09 AM
New York State Pledges Billions For School Construction, Repairs
Date CapturedMonday April 24 2006, 10:56 PM
DOUBTS ON TEACHER INCENTIVES (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedThursday April 20 2006, 7:52 AM
CFE sues for school funds
Date CapturedWednesday April 19 2006, 7:27 AM
TEACHERS TO GET 'HOUSE' MONEY (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedWednesday April 19 2006, 7:21 AM
Schools try bonus plan
Date CapturedWednesday April 19 2006, 6:42 AM
NY Offers Housing Subsidy as Teacher Lure (NY Times registration)
Date CapturedTuesday April 18 2006, 10:34 PM
New York City Will Add Schools to Ease Overcrowding, Klein Says
Date CapturedTuesday April 18 2006, 7:52 AM
Making the Grade
Date CapturedSunday April 16 2006, 8:33 AM
NYC schools doing fine, says Klein
Date CapturedSunday April 16 2006, 7:32 AM
Schools aren't factories
Date CapturedThursday April 13 2006, 7:27 AM
In NYC, model emerges for fixing urban schools
Date CapturedThursday April 13 2006, 12:13 AM
PRINCIPAL PRAISES NEW 'QUALITY' CONTROL (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedWednesday April 12 2006, 7:42 AM
SCHOOL REBEL PROBE (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedTuesday April 11 2006, 10:07 AM
Study Shows Charter Schools Succeeding Where Others Fail
Date CapturedMonday April 10 2006, 4:10 PM
CFE says Legislature’s education budget not adequate
Date CapturedMonday April 10 2006, 8:47 AM
Dumb mistakes with smart kids
Date CapturedMonday April 10 2006, 8:35 AM
Overhaul planned for New York schools
Date CapturedSunday April 09 2006, 3:22 PM
SCHOOL SHOUT (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedSaturday April 08 2006, 7:42 AM
Silver flunks Mike on charter schools
Date CapturedSaturday April 08 2006, 7:23 AM
Joel pushes charter schools
Date CapturedFriday April 07 2006, 12:04 PM
Principal fights to keep charter school out
Date CapturedFriday April 07 2006, 10:20 AM
Gov balks a bit on budget
Date CapturedFriday April 07 2006, 9:12 AM
GOV'S $CHOOL BUILDING BLOCK (NY Post registration)
Date CapturedThursday April 06 2006, 8:48 AM
A big win for the city's kids
Date CapturedSaturday April 01 2006, 8:22 AM
Borrowing from core of the Big Apple
Date CapturedTuesday January 24 2006, 12:37 PM
Chancellor Klein brass exempt from budget-trim vow
Date CapturedTuesday January 24 2006, 7:49 AM
Mike sees red over gov plan for school aid
Date CapturedTuesday January 24 2006, 7:42 AM



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