92 posts tagged nyc department of education

Last year the mayor and the City Council matched the historic commitment that the state made to reverse the chronic, multi-generational under-funding of the New York City public schools by agreeing to a $2.2 billion increase over four years. The city broke that promise to kids.

At one level, high rates of teacher turnover reflect changes in society and the job market as a whole. But at another, conscious level, high turnover is a carefully cultivated policy practiced by districts, especially urban districts, throughout the country. We understand. The DoE can’t keep the new teachers it hires.

Read original... Watch video report... Thousands of current and retired teachers, as well as elected officials (and parents), packed the Hilton Saturday for the city teachers' union annual gala. One city official got the group's highest award, while others became the target of potshots for how they're running the city's schools.

Read original... NEW YORK — The family of a 4-year-old has filed a lawsuit against the child's teacher for taping the girl's mouth shut at school. The lawsuit in Queens Supreme Court says Angela Amedeo had her mouth sealed shut with Scotch tape for 10 minutes because the child spoke during "quiet time." The incident occurred Aug.

A week ago Eduwonkette posted about the New Teacher Project, “Why You Should Read the Fine Print in the New Teacher Project Report,” and I left a comment. I liked it, and reprint it here: I think we have more than the evidence we need to conclude that the Department of Education has structured hiring to be discriminatory.

ATRs. Attendance Teachers in Reserve. Teachers without jobs. There’s been a bunch of stuff written about ATRs in the last week and a half. I’ve read E-d-w-i-z-e (6 posts, five ours, the last is a must-read, and the “i” is by the NTP) and Eduwonkette (that’s 3 by E-kette + 1 guest by the NTP) and a few other blogs.

(apologies for my absence. The Real World intervenes without asking permission, without conducting a study…) Turnover among teachers in New York, especially new teachers, is high. It’s a long time we’ve been saying median years of service is 5, or under 5.

Read original... Read report... Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum is less than impressed that 78% of the city's parent coordinators did not return calls in a survey by her office. But Queens did better than most, she found.

Read Public Advocate Report... Summary: This survey, a follow-up to a 2004 report also conducted by the office, found that while small improvements in access to P.E. have been made, only 4% of third graders participate in P.E. class every day, as mandated by state law.

A few weeks ago the New York State Legislature passed, as part of a funding law, a restriction (for a few years?) that bars school districts from using student test scores in making tenure decisions. However, districts are allowed to evaluate how well teachers use student data.