Joe Williams' Blog
November 12, 2007
Gotbaum Panel On NYC Mayoral Control Is Thinner
Elizabeth Green has a great story in this morning's New York Sun on several high-profile departures from Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum's commission studying the future of mayoral control in the City that Never Sleeps.
Stephen Berger, Herman Badillo, Frank Macchiarola, and Kathryn Wylde all have stepped down, presumably, the article notes, because Gotbaum has been so critical of Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein that the commission won't be fair.
Wylde told the newspaper:
"I realized that because the commission is convened by an elected official who frequently is in a position where she feels she has to speak out on current education issues, that it's difficult to separate the work of her commission from her advocacy positions."
Uh, yeah. That is the public advocate's job. Wasn't that obvious when they asked these people to serve on the commission?
Posted by Joe Williams on November 12, 2007 9:23 PM
Free Al Wolting!!!
I'm sorry for continuing to play the role of the chief apologist for teachers union leaders who get quoted saying idiotic things, but somebody's got to do it.
Last week, I was sticking up for Washington Teachers Union vice president Nathan Saunders for supposedly saying that "money should be used to serve children, not fire administrators." I noted how the news report paraphrased his remarks and that anyone with a brain would understand that no one could possibly say something so stupid.
This week we're bailing out Indianapolis Education Association President Al Wolting, who is all over the blogosphere for his remarks to WISH TV 8 in Indianapolis indicating that his union played a role in unseating Mayor Bart Peterson because of the mayor's strong support for public charter schools.
Lots of bloggers have been all over this. But give Wolting a break. He was clearly talking out of his ass school.
Continue reading "Free Al Wolting!!!"....
Posted by Joe Williams on November 12, 2007 9:22 AM
November 8, 2007
Gyurko Gone Wild?
OK, it's not quite Goldstein Gone Wild, but the UFT's Jonathan Gyurko (who used to be the charter school czar in the NYC Department of Education) has a blog post today on EdWize about the union's partnership with Green Dot to do a charter high school in the South Bronx. A very interesting development: Essentially, for example, you have the nation's largest teachers union local endorsing a common-sense, site-based labor contract which doesn't have things like set working hours and is focused on results.Posted by Joe Williams on November 8, 2007 4:12 PM
November 7, 2007
Election Day Action
Vouchers go down in Utah (no surprise), Bart Peterson goes down in Indianapolis (big surprise), and the Dems win the state Senate in Virginia (pleasant surprise.)Posted by Joe Williams on November 7, 2007 12:58 PM
November 5, 2007
School Report Card Mania in NYC
After reading in the Sunday NY Times about the bad grade that IS 289 was going to be getting in the controversial new report cards issued by New York City's Department of Education, my dad got on the phone from out in suburbia and inquired whether that was the middle school my oldest son attends.
It isn't, but I thought the question was interesting. When people out in the 'burbs are starting to keep tabs on individual school performance, it's gotta mean we're in for an unprecedented round of self-relection/self-flagellation as a city about what is really going on in our 1,400 schools. Success will no doubt be applauded, but what about failure? Are we going to have the guts to get real about what we do with schools that we know haven't been getting the job done for years? Will Mayor Bloomberg have the guts, or will he cave to the kind of unproductive political pressure which lets failure simmer for as long as possible?
For what it's worth, my son's elementary school got a 'C,' which is tremendous considering just a few years ago it couldn't have possibly deserved a passing grade. It took an outright revolt on the part of parents and teachers to get a very nice but very ineffective principal out of the school. There's a long way to go, but there is hope that we all will be leaving that school in better shape for the next generation of kids than we found it. But it could still use some tough love.
My older son's middle school got an A, but it is hard to do cartwheels over that since it requires top test scores in order for a child to enroll. If it didn't get an A, something would be seriously wrong with its ability to effectively cream!
Interesting note: My oldest son in the A school has struggled academically since the day he stepped foot in the place. He breezed his way through the other C elementary school (which, as I said, should have been a D or F back when he was there) but was significantly underprepared for the challenges of middle school. Meanwhile, my youngest son is breezing his way through the C school.
I almost think we should send the kids to private schools at night, just so that we can survive the city's public schools by day.
UPDATE: The early NY Times story notes that 50 schools got F's.
UPDATE II: Regarding my night school idea for my kids, a former NYC teacher commenting on Eduwonk suggests online learning as a way to deal with the substandard education kids are getting. I suppose that's one idea.
UPDATE III: NY Sun also has an early version of this story here.
Posted by Joe Williams on November 5, 2007 11:58 AM
The Andy And Sara Show At EdWeek
DFER board members Andy Rotherham and Sara Mead will join KIPP Ujima Village Academy's Jason Botel in answering questions in an on-line chat on policies promoting quality and growth in the charter school sector. It is tomorrow from 4 to 5 p.m., but you can upload your burning questions now.Posted by Joe Williams on November 5, 2007 11:52 AM
Russo On The Move
Alexander Russo has moved his blog from EdWeek over to Scholastic, and he's already got the skinny on the Ohio teacher who took topless pics with a cheerleader at a high school booze fest. (Alexander, you can't say I don't ever link to you dude.)Posted by Joe Williams on November 5, 2007 11:13 AM
