[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger natbell and crossposted from Edwize.]

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.

[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Leo Casey, and crossposted from Edwize.]

New York Measuring Teachers by Test Scores: so reads the headline on the front page of the New York Times which announces the NYC Department of Education's secretive pilot project to use value added statistical measures of student standardized test scores to examine the performance of teachers. The teachers and their schools will not be informed that they are the subjects of this study.

The DoE's "value added" project is a fundamentally flawed exercise which can not possibly deliver what it promises. It is being pursued, with the full knowledge of its flaws, because technocratic ideology trumps sound educational practice at Tweed. Moving forward with such a flawed project is extraordinarily irresponsible because "value added" -- the idea that one should measure how much academic progress students have made, rather than just their absolute academic standing -- holds promise as an useful tool in the repertoire of schools and educators. But the way in which it is being recklessly pursued by Tweed will cast discredit on the entire enterprise.

[I hope this letter proves interesting. It was sent from UFT President Randi Weingarten to Mayor Bloomberg on Jan. 4 objecting to his inclusion of teachers in his plan to reduce by 20 percent the number of parking permits issued to all city employees.]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

It was deeply troubling to learn – through media coverage – of your plan to reduce by 20 percent the number of parking permits issued to all city employees.

On the numerous occasions we have raised the need for more parking for teachers, we have been repeatedly told that this is a collective bargaining issue. If increasing parking availability is a bargaining issue, then clearly, reduction is as well. Now you have apparently chosen, by fiat, to move forward a plan that would penalize the hardworking men and women who teach our city's kids.

I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to what Joe Williams (of the horribly misnamed Democrats for Education Reform) set as his New Year's resolution, but he starts off the year with a post accusing New York City Councilman Robert Jackson of "pimping himself" (Jackson is also Chair of the City Council's Education Committee). Here's what Jackson said, that Joe Williams disagreed with.

Stay classy Joe

[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Jackie Bennett, and previously posted on Edwize.]

What is going to happen in our New York City high schools now that Joel Klein has based 55% of the high school progress reports on the number of courses students take and pass. Consider this: if students don’t pass, the school’s grade will suffer, and punishment may follow. Klein will fire principals and close the schools.

And to make things worse, Klein has also sent out signals that it’s a good thing when schools find creative ways to give a student credit. For example, Klein instituted a policy of seat-time credit (credit recovery, as it’s euphemistically called) wherein students who fail a class because they didn’t do much work can hand in a project of some kind to a different teacher after the course is over, and have that grade reversed.

[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Leo Casey, and previously posted on Edwize.]

On the Disney Company's corporate website, the reader will find a honor roll of teachers from across the United States who have been recognized by the American Teacher Awards, starting with the first class of 1990 and concluding with the last class of 2006. A close examination will reveal that there is no teacher listed as the 1992 honoree in the category of Social Studies. Two of the three Social Studies finalists are listed, but the teacher who was actually named Social Studies Teacher of the Year is missing.*

[I hope this post about education funding proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Maisie.]

It took 13 years, but the Campaign for Fiscal Equity forced the state to start spending on poor children. After dickering while a whole generation of children passed through the school system, the state finally relented and allocated $7 billion in new education spending over the next four years. Real money. The possibility of real change.

So why does it feel as if nothing's changed--or it's changing in tiny increments? Where are the small class sizes? What's up with universal pre-K? Why aren't our middle schools restructured? What happened to serious mentoring of new teachers? And where are all the new school facilities?

Wait, they say. Rome wasn't built in a day. But on the other hand, Rome might not have taken this long to build either. Patience, they say. (And you should have learned that in pre-K. But we don't have pre-K! Well, you should have learned it anyway.)

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president:

Acting on behalf of its more than 1.4 million members, the AFT executive council on Wednesday endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, citing her proven ability to advance our nation's key priorities, and her bold plans for a stronger America.

"Our members have told us that they want a leader they can trust to strengthen public education, increase access to health care, promote commonsense economic priorities and secure America's place in the world," said AFT president Edward J. McElroy. "Hillary Clinton is that leader."

Chris Bowers at Open Left calls it, "the biggest endorsement of the campaign for me so far." Here's a longer quote:

[I hope this post about the changes to No Child Left Behind proposed by Congress proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Maisie.]

Lest you think that the debate over reauthorizing No Child Left Behind is hard-to-follow/wonkish/a tempest-in-a-teapot or anything like that, note that Jonathan Kozol today entered his 76th day of a partial hunger strike over NCLB.

In protest over that law, Kozol, the widely-published, passionate advocate of educational equality, has taken himself into the realm of serious danger.

He's sick of NCLB. Mandating math and reading tests and punishing schools and students who do not meet their targets is "turning thousands of inner-city schools into Dickensian test-preparation factories," Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page quoted Kozol as saying. It has "dumbed down" school for poor, urban kids and created "a parallel curriculum that would be rejected out-of-hand" in the suburbs.

[I hope this post about the changes to No Child Left Behind proposed by Congress proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Jackie Bennett in response to a New York Times editorial.]

Every corner of the educational community has protested the consequences of No Child Left Behind, including that the law has narrowed the curriculum and unfairly penalized schools already making progress.

In spite of that, an editorial in the NY Times defends the status quo. Referring to proposed NCLB revisions, the Times complains that the changes will "allow schools to mask failure in teaching crucial subjects like reading and math by giving them credit for student performance in other subjects."

Yet, just one paragraph earlier the Times has this to say: "Faced with poorly educated workers at home — especially in science — American companies are increasingly looking abroad."