Bloomberg, Black, and Klein
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s designation of Cathie Black as the next schools chancellor offends almost everyone.
To educators, Black’s lack of education credentials (like Joel Klein’s) shows Bloomberg’s basic disrespect for their profession. How would physicians react to the designation of a publishing executive as Surgeon General, or lawyers to Black’s designation as U.S. Attorney General? Continue reading
Posted in Mayoral control, Schools
Tagged Cathie Black, Cathleen Black, Joel klein, mayoral control, Mike Bloomberg, NYC Schools Chancellor
Sometimes it’s easy to tell a story. Here are the first two items in the October 29th “Rise & Shine” story listing on the education blog GothamSchools.org.
* SUNY wants to try fixing failing charter schools instead of shutting them down. (Post)
* The city says it is considering closing up to 47 schools this year. (GS, Times, Post, WSJ, NY1)
And they say that Albany is dysfunctional?
Posted in Schools
Tagged charter schools, Joel klein, Mayor Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg, NYC public schools, nyc schools
Since July, 2004, when Public Law 108-271 changed the name of the General Accounting Office to the Government Accountability Office, “accountability” has dominated discourse in our political arena.
When a disaster hits, whether it’s a construction crane collapse, a gas line explosion, an oil platform disaster, a municipal budget shortfall, or the perceived failure of the nation’s educational system, editorial writers, politicians, and pundits pile on, demanding “accountability.” Continue reading
Posted in Mayoral control
Tagged accountability, Joel klein, mayoral control, Michael Bloomberg
Source: NYC DOE
We like standardized tests almost as much as Bloomberg and Klein do, so we’ll give you a multiple choice quiz:
Question 1: Which of the following headlines — all triggered by the same Department of Education school ratings press release — is the most attention-grabbing?
(a) “Schools Get Report Cards From City Education Dept.”
(b) “With Standards Tightened, Far Fewer New York City Schools Receive a Grade of ‘A’”
(c) “Just 5% of city’s elementary/middle schools got Ds and Fs this year in new progress reports”
(d) “Progress Absent at Most Schools”
(e) “Grade shock: Regular schools top charters” Continue reading
P.S. 217 Odyssey photo courtesy Matthew Septimus
Rick Hess, education guru at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, says that the whole point of giving parents a choice between charters and traditional public schools is to create competition, which forces both to improve. One form this competition takes is in how they recruit new students. Charters don’t seem to have to jump through the same hoops as TPSs do. We witnessed this recently in Flatbush. Continue reading
Posted in charter schools
Tagged American Enterprise Institute, Brooklyn Dreams Charter School, Edison Project, Joel klein, Judith Brandwein, Magnet Grant Program, Mayor Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg, Michael R. Bloomberg, national heritage academies, New York charter schools, NY Charter schools, NYC public schools, nyc schools, P.S. 217, rick hess, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Broad Foundation
Wednesday’s New York Times ran a front-page story on some Harlem public schools that are responding to pressure from charters by aggressively marketing themselves. Such marketing typically includes school tours for prospective parents, augmented by postcards and brochures, with most campaigns [amounting] “to less than $500, raised by parents and teachers….”
The Times story tells how prospective parents touring P.S. 125 with its principal, Rafaela Espinal, showed appreciation for the low number of students they saw in each classroom and the school’s impressive physical amenities, which include a rare swimming pool. But some parents, according to the Times, still weighed sending their child elsewhere. Continue reading
CityPragmatist 