January 31, 2008

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Everything Old Is New Again: The “New” Principal Selection Process

Filed under: Guest Bloggers NYC DOE by Peter Goodman @ 12:41 pm

[Editor’s note: Peter Goodman blogs at Ed in the Apple, where this post originally appeared.]

Is it true that a young Tweed MBA was perusing yellowed files in the bowels of Ed Central and came across a folder entitled, “Board of Examiners” … and shouted, “What a great idea … testing for competence before you hire someone!”

The announcement that Tweed would prescreen principal applicants is sad. (more…)

January 30, 2008

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Calls for Change at UFT Governance Forums

Filed under: NYC DOE by natbell @ 3:44 pm

The UFT has begun gathering input from the community about mayoral control of city schools and what it has meant for the city’s 1.1 million school children. The law that temporarily authorized centralization of the system has been in place for six years, and is scheduled to sunset in 2009.

A union task force is holding hearings in each of the five boroughs, where parents, community members and other stakeholders are evaluating whether the law should be continued, modified in some way, or allowed to expire. The community’s input will help the union develop its own position on the law. (more…)

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Carnival of Education

Filed under: Roundup by Steve Perez @ 12:26 pm

This week’s Carnival of Education is up - check it out!

Can’t get enough? Check out these recent carnivals from the Columbus Education Association and Eduwonkette.

January 29, 2008

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Bush’s Final State of the Union Address

Filed under: Education by Steve Perez @ 4:41 pm

Bush delivered his final State of the Union address last night. Included in the speech was a push for No Child Left Behind and a plan to use tax dollars to send children to private or religious schools. What did you think?

UFT President Randi Weingarten was quoted in the New York Times coverage, and her full response is online. The Drum Major Institute and the AFL-CIO have more. Go read it.

(more…)

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Merrick’s Successful “Market Failure”

Filed under: Charter School by Jonathan Gyurko @ 12:46 pm

An overwhelming majority of employees at Merrick Academy Charter School in Queens petitioned to join the UFT and bargain collectively in November. Just this past week, the UFT and Merrick’s board of trustees agreed to the composition of the school’s bargaining unit. And the Public Employment Relations Board determined that sufficient interest was demonstrated through representation cards to certify unionization. All this sets the stage for contract negotiations, which we anticipate will be cooperative and expeditious. (more…)

January 27, 2008

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Kennedy, Obama and NCLB

Filed under: Education by Leo Casey @ 9:57 pm

The New York Times reports that Senator Ted Kennedy will endorse Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama at a campaign rally tomorrow.

There is an important education subtext — No Child Left Behind — to the Kennedy endorsement. His endorsement of Obama follows on that of Representative George Miller of California. Kennedy was the main Democratic sponsor of NCLB in the Senate; Miller its main Democratic sponsor in the House. Both men have indicated that they want to reauthorize the law without any meaningful reforms — particularly, proposed changes that would provide relief from excessive standardized testing and unrealistic Annual Yearly Progress benchmarks.

There is a growing consensus among NCLB hawks like Kennedy and Miller that Obama would be much more amenable to their position. Of the Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton has been most outspoken in her criticism of the current version of the law.

January 26, 2008

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Apologies Or Apologists? More On Tweed’s “Value Added” Pilot Project

Filed under: Education NYC DOE Teaching Testing by Leo Casey @ 8:18 pm

Over at the Quick and the Ed, Kevin Carey offers to apologize to us for Ed Sector’s caricatures of our arguments on Tweed’s “value added” pilot project. But Carey is unwilling to take us at our word, not prepared to accept that we meant what we said when we wrote that value added measures “hold promise as an useful tool in the repertoire of schools and educators,” and that “the way in which [value added] is being recklessly pursued by Tweed will cast discredit on the entire enterprise.” He knows our true intentions better than we do. To prove our bona fides, he insists that we answer a series of hypothetical questions about possible uses of value-added measures.

Let’s cut to the chase here. (more…)

January 25, 2008

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Move over, Imelda Marcos

Filed under: New Teacher Diaries by miss brave @ 4:42 pm

[Editor’s note: Miss Brave is the pseudonym for a first-year elementary school writing teacher.]

Today I asked a second grader (ESL, mind you) if I could meet with him.

“Indeed!” he replied.

I asked my ESL first graders what we call those three dots that look like periods (correct answer: ellipsis).

“Lipsticks!” they called out.

I told them I would miss Alejandro, who apparently moved to Long Island.

“The friendship is in your heart,” one of them told me.

(more…)

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Sol Stern on Reform: Incentivists vs. Instructionists

Filed under: Education by Jackie Bennett @ 12:33 pm

Ever the independent thinker, Sol Stern is turning heads in some circles with a recent essay in City Journal. Stern has been a prominent voice for vouchers and other forms of school choice, and so blogosphere attention has focused on the conclusion he announces in his title (School Choice is Not Enough), a conclusion viewed as traitorous by conservatives and libertarians who see choice as the solution to our education woes.

But Stern’s essay is worth reading for what it says beyond vouchers. With a healthy skepticism toward New York City’s failing market-style policies (paying kids for scores; offering minimal support while forcing schools, like jackals, to compete), Stern wonders

… why so many in the school reform movement and in the business community celebrate New York City’s recent record on education. Is it merely because they hear the words “choice,” “markets,” and “competition” and think that all is well? If so, they’re mistaken.

(more…)

January 24, 2008

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Mayor Should Re-Route Bus Contracts to Save Money

Filed under: Education Funding by James Callaghan @ 4:54 pm

If the mayor truly wants to find some fat to cut in the Department of Education budget, he can start by bidding out the school bus contracts, which, because of political clout and corruption, have not been bid since 1978. (more…)

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