June 30, 2007

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More On The UFT-Green Dot Partnership

Filed under: Charter School Education by Leo Casey @ 8:07 pm

There has been a wave of discussion of the UFT-Green Dot partnership in the news media and in the educational blogosphere.

In the news media, check out the perspectives of the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. The silence from the New York City right-wing tabloids speaks volumes.

Some thoughtful takes on the partnership appeared across the educational blogosphere, from Eduwonk and Small Talk to JD2718 and PREAPrez [here and here]. In the category of silence speaking volumes, the Charter Blog of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools had no comment.

A few issues raised across the blogosphere and in this comments section will be addressed here. (more…)

June 28, 2007

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Leading The Local

Filed under: Education Labor by Leo Casey @ 8:26 pm

We’re not shy about criticizing Education Sector when it publishes less than completely thoughtful attacks on teacher unions and collective bargaining agreements.

All the more reason to give credit where credit is due, and commend their publication of Leading the Local: Teachers Union Presidents Speak on Change, Challenges.

This is a solid, interesting and informative piece of research on the views of a new generation of teacher union leaders from six different states [other than New York]. The team of authors from Harvard’s Project on the Next Generation of Teachers, led by Susan Moore Johnson, have an impressive record of scholarship on new teachers and teacher unions, and bring solid credentials to this work. The result provides real insight into the dynamics of teacher unions in an era of educational change.

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UFT-Green Dot Launch Partnership, Plan Union Charter School

Filed under: Charter School Education UFT News by Leo Casey @ 7:53 pm

In the first collaboration of its kind in the nation, United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Green Dot Public Schools Founder and CEO Steve Barr today announced a partnership to bring Green Dot, the most prominent charter school operator in Southern California, to New York City.

Green Dot has gained widespread visibility as it currently operates ten public charter high schools in Los Angeles’ highest-need communities that vastly outperform comparable traditional public high schools. The success of Green Dot is based on its “Six Tenets of High Performing Public Schools” calling for public schools to: (1) be safer and no larger than 500 students each; (2) implement a college preparatory curriculum for all students; (3) empower principals, teachers, parents and students to own all key decisions related to budgets, curriculum and hiring; (4) add more dollars to classrooms and significantly increase teacher pay; (5) value and support parent participation; (6) stay open later for community use. (more…)

June 25, 2007

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Young and Restless

Filed under: Education by Leo Casey @ 3:05 pm

The Daily News is running an interesting series on “what happened” to a group of students who began school together thirteen years ago, in a gifted Kindergarten class in Harlem’s P.S. 36. If they had stayed on schedule, all of the students would be graduating this June. The challenges were immense — one girl had seen both of her parents murdered — but most have persevered. Not every story ends well, but those that do will move your heart.

June 22, 2007

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Ed Sector Changing of the Guard

Filed under: Education by Leo Casey @ 9:47 pm

Sara Meade is leaving Ed Sector for greener pastures. As a consequence, her distinctive and intelligent voice will no longer be heard at The Quick and The Ed. That is a real loss for them and for all of the educational blogosphere.

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Diane Ravitch On The Misguided “Pay The Student” Plan

Filed under: Education NYC DOE by Leo Casey @ 2:58 pm

We don’t know if they’re still standing at Tweed after Diane Ravitch’s critique of the plan to pay poor students for their test scores, but they’re certainly trying to figure out what hit them.

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Do New Orleans Charter School Teachers Need Unions?

Filed under: Charter School Education by Leo Casey @ 2:22 pm

Poor Albert Einstein.

A longtime member of the American Federation of Teachers and an outspoken advocate of teacher unionism and social justice causes, Einstein has had his good name attached to a New Orleans charter school that has been engaging in practices that are the antithesis of his strongly held values. [Einstein was a charter member of AFT Local 552 at Princeton University.]

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, an Einstein Charter School Board meeting erupted in controversy over the school administration’s use of “harsh corporal punishment” and the abrupt, unexplained firings of four of the school’s teachers. [Apparently, the board had not even been informed of the firings.] (more…)

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Vouching For Vouchers: Parental Satisfaction And ‘Exit’ Counts, When You Want It To Count [Updated]

Filed under: Education Other Topics by Leo Casey @ 11:04 am

Far too often, educational policy debates have the feel of one of the three card monte games one sees on New York City street corners during the summer.

In 2004, the Republican Congress established a voucher program for students in Washington DC public schools. The United States Department of Education just issued the first of the annual studies that are mandated by the law, Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After One Year.

As today’s New York Times reports, the study found that students utilizing the vouchers and attending private schools [two-thirds of which were parochial Catholic schools] “did not show significantly higher math or reading achievement.” (more…)

June 19, 2007

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Money Can’t Buy You Learning

Filed under: NYC DOE by Leo Casey @ 6:46 pm

“I don’t care too much for money,” the Beatles tell us, “cause money can’t buy you love.” Hell, even hyper-capitalists like Warren Buffet know that. You can buy “a million dollars worth of sex,” but “you can’t buy a million dollars worth of love,” Buffet tells us with some irritation at this shortcoming of human existence.

Indeed, a society which places value on human dignity prohibits the commodification of certain intrinsically human qualities and entities — our liberty, our bodies [in whole or in part], and our intimate personal relations [notwithstanding Mr. Buffet's purchases].

Learning is one of those intrinsically human qualities that can’t be bought: it is part of who and what we are as human beings. The fuller we realize our human potential, the more we learn. Every good teacher knows that the essence of our job lies in nurturing the love of learning in our students, in helping them learn how to realize their human potential. (more…)

June 18, 2007

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City to pay kids for good test scores

Filed under: Education Testing by Maisie @ 5:11 pm

Oh yes, you read it right. Mayor Bloomberg is launching a pilot program that will pay some New York City public school students to get good test scores–both on the standardized tests and on the new interim assessments. Read the press release here.

This is part of the Mayor’s new poverty-fighting initiative. A “conditional cash transfer” plan rewards poor people for certain desired behaviors. Modeled after a similar program in Mexico City, it pays families, for example, $25 a month if their 4th graders attend school 95 percent of the month ($50 a month, half to the parent and half to the student, for middle schoolers good attendance.) It pays $50 to the parent if their elementary school student gets a library card, and it pays $50 to the high school student who gets one.

But they haven’t tried this angle in Mexico: NYC families are to get $300 for their elementary students ($350 for middle schoolers) who reach proficiency or improve by some set amount on the standardized tests. In addition, high school students get $600 for each Regents test they pass and family and student split $400 when the student graduates.

There’s more.

(more…)

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