News

In this week's education news: UFT politics costs the city a $15 million grant, Buffalo’s “failing schools” had most students with special needs, language barriers and dropout indicators, KIPP's partnerships with universities prepares students for college and more Hometown Heroes in Education nominees.

Data’s Role in Education Policy
SchoolBook // July 23, 2013

Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky reviewed the Bloomberg administration’s legacy of using data when implementing education policy with Beth Fertig of WNYC’s SchoolBook. Suransky discussed how the Department of Education is finding a balance between quantitative and qualitative information when evaluating schools:

“And so when we evaluate school quality, we now never make any decision to close a school, to change the structure of the school, to remove a leader, without first looking at both our quantitative and our qualitative information. And the quality review is a big piece of that. The surveys [of parents, teachers and students] are another piece that.”

UFT Politics Costs NYC $15 Million Grant
SchoolBook // July 23, 2013

The city failed to meet a deadline set by state officials for a grant proposal from the Department of Education by only receiving approval from the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, which represents principals, and not the United Federation of Teachers. According to WNYC’s SchoolBook, the $15 million grant which was supposed to help school staff implement the new teacher evaluation system will now be redistributed to other regions.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott commented on the UFT’s refusal to sign the proposal:

“The latest obstructionist positions of Mr. Mulgrew will cost the City and his own members $15 million in grant money that would provide teachers and principals additional training and resources in the new teacher evaluation system. By refusing to sign the grant and inserting unrelated issues at the eleventh hour, the UFT is once again hurting the students and schools of New York City.”

Teacher Engages Autistic Students in Creative Ways
NY Daily News // July 24, 2013

Trained by the Manhattan Music Project, Rachel Goeler works to bring art, music, and dance activities to her autistic students to enhance their communication skills. Goeler has been nominated for a Hometown Heroes in Education award for her work in bringing out the best in her students at P233Q.

Goeler spoke to the NY Daily News about teaching and her students:

“It’s my life. There’s something so pure about this population. When they’re happy, you know it’s not disingenuous. And to be that person to make them laugh or smile has always been unbelievably motivating.”

Buffalo’s “Failing Schools” Had Most Students with Special Needs, Language Barriers and Dropout Indicators
The Buffalo News // July 25, 2013

Buffalo’s Bennett, Burgard, East, International Prep, Lafayette and Riversides registered graduation rates lower than forty percent. The Buffalo News found that these “failing schools” had the highest placement of students with special needs, the most language barriers and the greatest dropout indicators.

According to the Buffalo News all six “failing schools” share common factors:

“They have all seen alarming drops in their graduation rates from 2010 to 2012 while their populations of special education, immigrant and impoverished students have swelled over the same period.

"And they don’t have admissions requirements that prevent kids with serious academic problems from walking through their front doors.”

KIPP Partners with Universities to Prepare Students for College
Washington Post // July 26, 2013

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) entered into written agreements with colleges to assist disadvantaged students by creating recruiting pipelines and support systems at college.

KIPP co-founder Mike Feinberg spoke with the Washington Post about the program's success with written agreements:

“KIPP students are applying, getting accepted, and matriculating to our partner colleges and universities. Next steps will be to figure out how to increase not just acceptances but matriculation, and also how to ensure we are maximizing our partnerships to help our alumni stay in college and graduate.”

Charter School Prepares Students to Become Responsible Citizens
NY Daily News // July 26, 2013

Democracy Prep Charter School founder Seth Andrew has been nominated for a Daily News Hometown Heroes in Education Award for his work with his charter school network which posts higher math and reading scores than comparable schools.

Andrew spoke to the NY Daily News about the Democracy Prep Charter Schools’ curriculum’s heavy focus on civic engagement and government participation:

“The goal is to prepare students to become responsible citizens. We want them to go to college and change the world.”

In this week's education news: UFT politics costs the city a $15 million grant, Buffalo’s “failing schools” had most students with special needs, language barriers and dropout indicators, KIPP's partnerships with universities prepares students for college and more Hometown Heroes in Education nominees.

Data’s Role in Education Policy
SchoolBook // July 23, 2013

Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky reviewed the Bloomberg administration’s legacy of using data when implementing education policy with Beth Fertig of WNYC’s SchoolBook. Suransky discussed how the Department of Education is finding a balance between quantitative and qualitative information when evaluating schools:

“And so when we evaluate school quality, we now never make any decision to close a school, to change the structure of the school, to remove a leader, without first looking at both our quantitative and our qualitative information. And the quality review is a big piece of that. The surveys [of parents, teachers and students] are another piece that.”

UFT Politics Costs NYC $15 Million Grant
SchoolBook // July 23, 2013

The city failed to meet a deadline set by state officials for a grant proposal from the Department of Education by only receiving approval from the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, which represents principals, and not the United Federation of Teachers. According to WNYC’s SchoolBook, the $15 million grant which was supposed to help school staff implement the new teacher evaluation system will now be redistributed to other regions.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott commented on the UFT’s refusal to sign the proposal:

“The latest obstructionist positions of Mr. Mulgrew will cost the City and his own members $15 million in grant money that would provide teachers and principals additional training and resources in the new teacher evaluation system. By refusing to sign the grant and inserting unrelated issues at the eleventh hour, the UFT is once again hurting the students and schools of New York City.”

Teacher Engages Autistic Students in Creative Ways
NY Daily News // July 24, 2013

Trained by the Manhattan Music Project, Rachel Goeler works to bring art, music, and dance activities to her autistic students to enhance their communication skills. Goeler has been nominated for a Hometown Heroes in Education award for her work in bringing out the best in her students at P233Q.

Goeler spoke to the NY Daily News about teaching and her students:

“It’s my life. There’s something so pure about this population. When they’re happy, you know it’s not disingenuous. And to be that person to make them laugh or smile has always been unbelievably motivating.”

Buffalo’s “Failing Schools” Had Most Students with Special Needs, Language Barriers and Dropout Indicators
The Buffalo News // July 25, 2013

Buffalo’s Bennett, Burgard, East, International Prep, Lafayette and Riversides registered graduation rates lower than forty percent. The Buffalo News found that these “failing schools” had the highest placement of students with special needs, the most language barriers and the greatest dropout indicators.

According to the Buffalo News all six “failing schools” share common factors:

“They have all seen alarming drops in their graduation rates from 2010 to 2012 while their populations of special education, immigrant and impoverished students have swelled over the same period.

"And they don’t have admissions requirements that prevent kids with serious academic problems from walking through their front doors.”

KIPP Partners with Universities to Prepare Students for College
Washington Post // July 26, 2013

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) entered into written agreements with colleges to assist disadvantaged students by creating recruiting pipelines and support systems at college.

KIPP co-founder Mike Feinberg spoke with the Washington Post about the program's success with written agreements:

“KIPP students are applying, getting accepted, and matriculating to our partner colleges and universities. Next steps will be to figure out how to increase not just acceptances but matriculation, and also how to ensure we are maximizing our partnerships to help our alumni stay in college and graduate.”

Charter School Prepares Students to Become Responsible Citizens
NY Daily News // July 26, 2013

Democracy Prep Charter School founder Seth Andrew has been nominated for a Daily News Hometown Heroes in Education Award for his work with his charter school network which posts higher math and reading scores than comparable schools.

Andrew spoke to the NY Daily News about the Democracy Prep Charter Schools’ curriculum’s heavy focus on civic engagement and government participation:

“The goal is to prepare students to become responsible citizens. We want them to go to college and change the world.”

Six of Buffalo’s sixteen high schools registered graduation rates lower than forty percent. The six schools with low graduation rates are Bennett, Burgard, East, International Prep, Lafayette and Riversides. The Buffalo News found that these “failing schools” had the highest placement of students with special needs, the most language barriers and the greatest dropout indicators.

According to the Buffalo News all six “failing schools” share common factors:

“They have all seen alarming drops in their graduation rates from 2010 to 2012 while their populations of special education, immigrant and impoverished students have swelled over the same period.

And they don’t have admissions requirements that prevent kids with serious academic problems from walking through their front doors.”

Rachael Goeler has been nominated for a Hometown Heroes in Education award for her creative work in bringing out the best in her autistic students at P233Q. Trained by the Manhattan Music Project, Goeler works to bring art, music, and dance activities to her students to enhance their communication skills.

Goeler spoke to the NY Daily News about teaching and her students:

“It’s my life. There’s something so pure about this population. When they’re happy, you know it’s not disingenuous. And to be that person to make them laugh or smile has always been unbelievably motivating.”

Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky reviewed the Bloomberg administration’s legacy of using data when implementing education policy with Beth Fertig of WNYC’s SchoolBook. Suransky discussed how the Department of Education is finding a balance between quantitative and qualitative information when evaluating schools:

“And so when we evaluate school quality, we now never make any decision to close a school, to change the structure of the school, to remove a leader, without first looking at both our quantitative and our qualitative information. And the quality review is a big piece of that. The surveys [of parents, teachers and students] are another piece that.”

State officials set a 5 p.m. deadline Monday for a grant proposal from the Department of Education with approvals from the unions representing teachers and principals. The city failed to meet the deadline as the grant proposal only received approval from the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, which represents principals, and not the United Federation of Teachers. According to WNYC’s SchoolBook, the $15 million grant which was supposed to help school staff implement the new teacher evaluation system will now be redistributed to other regions.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott commented on the UFT’s refusal to sign the proposal:

“The latest obstructionist positions of Mr. Mulgrew will cost the City and his own members $15 million in grant money that would provide teachers and principals additional training and resources in the new teacher evaluation system. By refusing to sign the grant and inserting unrelated issues at the eleventh hour, the UFT is once again hurting the students and schools of New York City.”

In this week's education news: NYC’s Charter School Center expands to other U.S. cities, the Parents Transparency Project targets four NYC mayoral candidates, State Controller DiNapoli targets charter schools with audits and the UFT faces opposition over its charter school co-location:

NYC's Charter School Center Expands to Other U.S. Cities
GothamSchools // July 12, 2013

The New York City Charter School Center announced plans to expand its "Replicating Quality Schools" program to cities across the United States. The Center will visit four cities, starting with New Orleans, and run an eight-week program in each city.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been an outspoken advocate of charter schools during his 12 years in office. According to Gotham Schools, it is unlikely that the next mayor of NYC will be as friendly to charter schools:

"Elsewhere in the country, the outlook for the publicly financed but privately managed schools is more favorable. So the charter center announced this week that it plans to help charter operators set up new schools in other cities, using a 2011 program for city charter schools that aimed to duplicate as a blueprint."

Parents Transparency Project Targets Four NYC Mayoral Candidates in Ad 
NY Daily News // July 15, 2013

The Parents Transparency Project, a parents advocacy group headed by former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, will begin airing an ad that portrays mayoral candidates William Thompson, Anthony Weiner, Bill de Blasio and John Liu as afraid to protect city students from sexual predators because of the teachers union.

The group will not target the remain candidates according to the NY Daily News:

"Four other candidates — Christine Quinn, Sal Albanese, Joe Lhota and George McDonald — signed the group’s pledge to not sign a new contract with teachers until the process for removing teachers accused of inappropriate behavior is overhauled. The union, which endorsed Thompson, has opposed legislation to streamline the process."

State Controller Tom DiNapoli Targets Charter Schools with Audits
NY Daily News // July 17, 2013

State Controller Tom DiNapoli is targeting charter schools through audits despite a court ruling stating he lacked the authority to do so. DiNapoli has targeted twelve charter schools since 2011 and is now auditing a Success Academy elementary school in Harlem.

DiNapoli’s audits are clearly political for two reasons according to a recent opinion piece in the NY Daily News:

“First, DiNapoli does not audit traditional public schools individually. Second, he announced his first charter audits at a meeting of the New York State United Teachers, which loathes charters because most are not unionized. His audience heartily applauded.”

UFT Faces Opposition Over its Charter School Co-location
GothamSchools // July 18, 2013

The United Federation of Teachers has been strongly opposed to the city’s space-sharing arrangements within school buildings in the past.

The union however now finds itself in the very situation it has regularly protested as the UFT Charter middle school is preparing to move into J.H.S. 292 while its students, teachers and administration have spoken out against the move.

According to GothamSchools, Gloria Williams Nandan, the principal of J.H.S. 292, expressed her opposition to the space-sharing plan on Wednesday at a public hearing:

“Come September, our teachers will lose their classrooms and there begins their dilemma, for when our teachers are kicked out of their classrooms, to whom will they turn? Their union? Oops, sorry, it’s their school that would have taken over their classrooms.”

StudentsFirstNY Criticizes UFT Lawsuit
GothamSchools // July 18, 2013

On Thursday, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education to halt the city's plans for charter school colocations after Mayor Mike Bloomberg leaves office. Currently, the Bloomberg administration is planning charter school co-locations into 2015.

According to GothamSchools, charter school groups and parental choice organizations blasted the lawsuit as a way to halt the growth of charter schools until a more union-friendly mayor enters City Hall next year. StudentsFirstNY's Interim Executive Director Glen Weiner said the lawsuit could trap students at failing public schools with no other alternatives:

"With this lawsuit, the UFT is telling the tens of thousands of parents looking for a better option for their children that the doors of public school buildings are closed to them," said Glen Weiner, interim executive director of StudentsFirstNY, in a statement. "We will do everything in our power to ensure that the judicial process is informed by the view of parents who do not want to see the clock rolled back on their kids."

In this week's education news: NYC’s Charter School Center expands to other U.S. cities, the Parents Transparency Project targets four NYC mayoral candidates, State Controller DiNapoli targets charter schools with audits and the UFT faces opposition over its charter school co-location:

NYC's Charter School Center Expands to Other U.S. Cities
GothamSchools // July 12, 2013

The New York City Charter School Center announced plans to expand its "Replicating Quality Schools" program to cities across the United States. The Center will visit four cities, starting with New Orleans, and run an eight-week program in each city.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been an outspoken advocate of charter schools during his 12 years in office. According to Gotham Schools, it is unlikely that the next mayor of NYC will be as friendly to charter schools:

"Elsewhere in the country, the outlook for the publicly financed but privately managed schools is more favorable. So the charter center announced this week that it plans to help charter operators set up new schools in other cities, using a 2011 program for city charter schools that aimed to duplicate as a blueprint."

Parents Transparency Project Targets Four NYC Mayoral Candidates in Ad 
NY Daily News // July 15, 2013

The Parents Transparency Project, a parents advocacy group headed by former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, will begin airing an ad that portrays mayoral candidates William Thompson, Anthony Weiner, Bill de Blasio and John Liu as afraid to protect city students from sexual predators because of the teachers union.

The group will not target the remain candidates according to the NY Daily News:

"Four other candidates — Christine Quinn, Sal Albanese, Joe Lhota and George McDonald — signed the group’s pledge to not sign a new contract with teachers until the process for removing teachers accused of inappropriate behavior is overhauled. The union, which endorsed Thompson, has opposed legislation to streamline the process."

State Controller Tom DiNapoli Targets Charter Schools with Audits
NY Daily News // July 17, 2013

State Controller Tom DiNapoli is targeting charter schools through audits despite a court ruling stating he lacked the authority to do so. DiNapoli has targeted twelve charter schools since 2011 and is now auditing a Success Academy elementary school in Harlem.

DiNapoli’s audits are clearly political for two reasons according to a recent opinion piece in the NY Daily News:

“First, DiNapoli does not audit traditional public schools individually. Second, he announced his first charter audits at a meeting of the New York State United Teachers, which loathes charters because most are not unionized. His audience heartily applauded.”

UFT Faces Opposition Over its Charter School Co-location
GothamSchools // July 18, 2013

The United Federation of Teachers has been strongly opposed to the city’s space-sharing arrangements within school buildings in the past.

The union however now finds itself in the very situation it has regularly protested as the UFT Charter middle school is preparing to move into J.H.S. 292 while its students, teachers and administration have spoken out against the move.

According to GothamSchools, Gloria Williams Nandan, the principal of J.H.S. 292, expressed her opposition to the space-sharing plan on Wednesday at a public hearing:

“Come September, our teachers will lose their classrooms and there begins their dilemma, for when our teachers are kicked out of their classrooms, to whom will they turn? Their union? Oops, sorry, it’s their school that would have taken over their classrooms.”

StudentsFirstNY Criticizes UFT Lawsuit
GothamSchools // July 18, 2013

On Thursday, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education to halt the city's plans for charter school colocations after Mayor Mike Bloomberg leaves office. Currently, the Bloomberg administration is planning charter school co-locations into 2015.

According to GothamSchools, charter school groups and parental choice organizations blasted the lawsuit as a way to halt the growth of charter schools until a more union-friendly mayor enters City Hall next year. StudentsFirstNY's Interim Executive Director Glen Weiner said the lawsuit could trap students at failing public schools with no other alternatives:

"With this lawsuit, the UFT is telling the tens of thousands of parents looking for a better option for their children that the doors of public school buildings are closed to them," said Glen Weiner, interim executive director of StudentsFirstNY, in a statement. "We will do everything in our power to ensure that the judicial process is informed by the view of parents who do not want to see the clock rolled back on their kids."

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) filed a lawsuit to halt New York City's plan to continue charter school co-locations after Mayor Mike Bloomberg leaves office. According to AM New York, this lawsuit shows the UFT is fearful that Bloomberg will cement his education policies after he leaves office and make them irreversible:

At the same time, growth trends favor the charters - which have generally shown positive educational results. Parents love the schools. The waiting list for a slot in one of the city's 159 charter schools is now about 53,000 pupils. Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota is promising to double the number of charters in the city if he's elected.

None of which augurs especially well for the UFT.

Read the full opinion article here.

On Thursday, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education to halt the city's plans for charter school colocations after Mayor Mike Bloomberg leaves office. Currently, the Bloomberg administration is planning charter school co-locations into 2015.

According to GothamSchools, charter school groups and parental choice organizations blasted the lawsuit as a way to halt the growth of charter schools until a more union-friendly mayor enters City Hall next year. StudentsFirstNY's Interim Executive Director Glen Weiner said the lawsuit could trap students at failing public schools with no other alternatives:

"With this lawsuit, the UFT is telling the tens of thousands of parents looking for a better option for their children that the doors of public school buildings are closed to them," said Glen Weiner, interim executive director of StudentsFirstNY, in a statement. "We will do everything in our power to ensure that the judicial process is informed by the view of parents who do not want to see the clock rolled back on their kids."

Read the full article here.