Still Putting It All Together

You need to read this.

What are we doing to our kids?   We need to access skills, that’s fine.  But why aren’t our assessments authentic?

Leaders of a national education reform movement, including Joel I. Klein and Michelle Rhee, the former schools chancellors in New York and Washington, have formed a statewide political group in New York with an eye toward being a counterweight to the powerful teachers’ union in the 2013 mayoral election.

[…] Michael Mulgrew, president of the city teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers,said the same policies that StudentsFirst sought to preserve in the city and extend throughout the state were no longer palatable to parents or voters.

“If these 1-percenters want to mount an AstroTurf campaign with their deep pockets, they’ve done this before,” he said. “But let’s be clear: the public school parents have not bought into the Bloomberg education reform movement.”

The new group is not supporting a particular candidate, nor will it necessarily endorse one, Mr. Lasher said. But he indicated that between now and the Democratic primary, the group would pressure mayoral candidates to declare their positions on education; those who have so far expressed interest in running have been silent on some elements of the reform agenda. Most of the politicians considering a run, including Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker; Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate; and Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, have been more cordial with Mr. Mulgrew than Mayor Bloomberg has.

I believe when Michelle Rhee began, she had the best intentions at heart.  I think she’s lost her way, and things that she gets involved in make me nervous.

New York City’s Education Department will spend $51 million to open more than two dozen new charter schools next year, according to a report released on Thursday by the Independent Budget Office.

soupsoup:

I spent a few hours down there tonight.

The crowd is diverse, not as predominately young as I perceived from afar. They’re well organized, they have places set up for medics, food, media, etc. The General Assembly hosts a wide variety of speakers, of all ages, gender, race and…

shapefutures:

Just thought I would let you all know that there are some very good seats available that would be directly benefiting DIAL/SELF Youth and Community Services in Western Massachusetts, which operates several programs including emergency shelter and transitional housing for homeless youth, a drop-in center for both leisure and life skills training, academic and family counseling, and a referral and hotline service that spans two counties.

So the money goes to a good cause.

If these tickets are sold, there’s a possibility that the organization may attempt to continue this reselling of donated tickets to bring in some very necessary funds — for staffing, additional teen/youth housing, supplies, etc.  

I know the seats are a bit pricey, because they’re very good seats, but if you could forward this to a big Red Sox or Yankee fan (as a NYer this is killing me even though I’m not a baseball person — surrounded by Sox fans!) that wants to see this Saturday’s game from a close-up-and-personal vantage point, that could mean a lot to the organization.

Passing this along.

The lack of AC is more than just uncomfortable, it’s nonsensical and borders on inhumane. When I think of the disparity between my students and their peers in the “haves” bracket, our AC-less classroom strikes me as one of the most simply profound examples of what its like in the classrooms filled with young “have-nots”. Schools like mine have to stretch every dollar, and most dollars find their way going toward technology and essential materials. AC is a luxury most high-need schools literally cannot afford.

Eva Moskowitz is deeply concerned about the education of English Language Learners, at least according to a favorable report in today’s Wall Street Journal. In a swipe at the New York City Department of Education, Moskowitz declares that “(i)t shouldn’t take six years” for students to achieve English proficiency on the state language test. English Language Learners are being left behind.

Eva talks the talk, but falls down when it is time to walk the walk. Her charter schools have enrolled very few ELLs, despite the fact that they are located in communities such as East Harlem which have large numbers of such students

[…]

Perhaps if Eva would stop using the NYC public school system and its school buildings as the location to run her business, the neighborhood schools in Harlem that are really educating these students would have the space to open and operate language labs.

Is it bad that I want to say, “Oooh, burn!”?

For months now we’ve been hearing that high-poverty schools have the largest proportion of new, inexperienced teachers and the fewest senior teachers.  Mayor Bloomberg has used this claim to argue that seniority based layoffs would hurt the most disadvantaged students.  Just this week, Matt DiCarlo at the Shanker Blog showed that layoffs by seniority would not disproportionately affect high-poverty schools in New York.  Now it’s time to set the record straight on the distribution of experienced teachers in New York City schools.

There is no statistical evidence showing that New York City’s poorest schools have the least experienced teachers.

[…]

As the table above shows, average teacher experience for the low poverty group is 9.1 years and 9.0 years for the high poverty group, a difference that is not statistically significant.

I’m actually pretty surprised by this.  High poverty schools often have high levels of teacher-burn out.  I think it is a good sign that there’s not a significant difference between low and high poverty schools.