10 Queens Pupils Got Second Chance at State Test by Trip Gabriel - NYTimes.com

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Multiple choice: New York State’s fifth-grade social studies test was given Nov. 16 and 17. After students completed the test, which of the following should NOT have occurred:

(A) Students waited patiently to learn the results.
(B) Students enjoyed the week without worrying how they had done.
(C) Students received their test booklets back the next week and were allowed to answer omitted questions.

The correct answer is C, but that is what happened at a Queens elementary school after the principal ordered that 10 students get a second chance at the test a week after handing it in, an apparent violation of state regulations.

The principal, Karen Zuvic, told members of her staff at Public School 86 that she was making “an executive decision” to allow students to complete unanswered questions, according to several teachers and administrators at the school.

“There was an uproar because of course it’s not fair, and the teachers were quite upset,” said a teacher who was present. Ms. Zuvic, several recalled, told the group, “Not a word of this is to leave the room.”

Investigators from the city’s Education Department interviewed Ms. Zuvic and members of her staff last year after receiving a complaint, but some teachers, having heard nothing since, wondered if the case was being ignored. The investigation “certainly will be concluded and is still under way,” said Shael Polakow-Suransky, the deputy schools chancellor for performance and accountability. “I don’t think it will be that long.”

Across the country, states and school districts have pursued cases against teachers and principals suspected of cheating to raise students’ scores on standardized tests. Critics of testing point to the pressure on educators to produce results that are used to determine their merit pay, tenure and career advancement.

But the fifth-grade social studies exam — unlike the New York State math and English tests — is a relatively low-stakes test that does not figure into city or state accountability measures. For that reason, one P.S. 86 staff member said, Ms. Zuvic’s motive was less to improve her own standing than to allow students to raise scores that would be entered in their records.

Ms. Zuvic, 58, who has been principal since 2005, said in an interview that she had allowed the students to return to the test because each had omitted an entire section. She blamed teachers who were proctoring the test for failing to point out unanswered questions, as the state testing manual requires.

“The students prepared for this test, and they shouldn’t walk away with a lower score because a teacher didn’t do their job proctoring,” Ms. Zuvic said.

Allowing a second chance at a test is against regulations, and educators can lose their licenses as the ultimate sanction, according to a spokesman for the New York State Education Department. Principals are required to report irregularities to Albany. The 10 students’ test results at P.S. 86, out of some 220 at the school, have been invalidated.

In 2007, in its most recent Quality Review evaluation of P.S. 86, the city called Ms. Zuvic “an effective leader who is well respected by the school community.”

But in interviews, a number of staff members described their principal as an authoritarian who inspired fear. “The attitude is, if you don’t like it, there’s the door,” said one teacher, who, like others, refused to be identified for fear of retaliation.

Reflecting its immigrant neighborhood, Jamaica, the school’s 944 students speak more than two dozen languages at home, and more than 75 percent are poor, according to Education Department records. Despite the obstacles, the students have performed well on state math tests, scoring close to the state median. Performance on the social studies test — which asks questions like what method of travel was improved by Robert Fulton and what the stripes of the American flag represent — has been below the median.

When the principal learned that some fifth graders did not complete the test last fall, attributing the omissions to teachers, “that just drove her bananas,” one staff member said, adding, “She blew. ‘How dare they?’ ”

But some teachers disputed that the test had been proctored incorrectly and that students had omitted entire sections. One teacher said that after the students were told that they would be given extra time to finish the test, they were gathered together. “We went into my class,” the teacher said. “I said, ‘O.K., guys, turn to the last part.’ So they turned to the last part and they said, ‘We did this.’ So I thought, Why do I have you here? I said, ‘Flip through and see if there are parts you didn’t do.’ Each had one question that wasn’t done, or whatever.”

Bracing for 35 Likely School Closings Next Year by Sharon Otterman - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

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If you thought this year was a dramatic one for school closings — with 19 city schools shut in January over the objections of thousands of parents and teachers before being given a temporary reprieve by a court — wait until next year.

Not only does the city say it will try to close all 19 of those schools again, but it will also try to phase out 16 more, continuing its strategy of closing some of the city’s largest high schools and replacing them with small schools or charter schools.

On Friday, the city announced which of 34 schools on a state list of “persistently lowest achieving” schools it would keep open and try to improve — in a process known as transformation – and which it would most likely phase out beginning in the 2011-12 school year.

The 11 schools chosen for transformation can hire two new kinds of teachers — master teachers and turnaround teachers — who will earn up to 30 percent more than their regular salaries for training teachers in addition to their regular duties. Those premiums, and other school improvements, will be financed by $2 million a year in federal stimulus money over the next three years.

Principals at most transformation schools will be removed, according to federal rules that must be followed in order to receive the money, even though teachers will not be dismissed. That brought an angry response from the head of the principals’ union on Friday. (The city is lobbying to save principals who are making improvements.)

“Each school on this list has a different story,” said Ernest Logan, the head of the union, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. “Some have B’s on their school report cards; some have principals with strong principal performance reviews. At least one is on the list of Newsweek magazine’s best public schools of the year. All things considered, it makes no sense to suggest removing the principals of these schools while retaining all the teachers.”

The 11 schools selected for transformation are:

• Automotive High School
• Bread & Roses Integrated Arts High School
• Brooklyn School for Global Studies
• Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School
• Cobble Hill School of American Studies
• Flushing High School
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School
• Long Island City High School
• Queens Vocational and Technical High School
• Unity Center for Urban Technologies
• William E. Grady Career and Technical Education High School

The additional 23 schools on the state’s “persistently lowest achieving” list that will most likely be phased out and replaced with new schools are:

• August Martin High School
• Beach Channel High School
• Boys and Girls High School
• Christopher Columbus High School
• Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology
• Grace Dodge Career and Technical Education High School
• Grover Cleveland High School
• High School of Graphic Communication Arts
• Jamaica High School
• Jane Addams High School for Academic Careers
• John Adams High School
• John Dewey High School
• John F. Kennedy High School
• Metropolitan Corporate Academy
• Monroe Academy for Business/Law
• Newtown High School
• Norman Thomas High School
• Paul Robeson High School
• Public School 065 Mother Hale Academy
• Richmond Hill High School
• Sheepshead Bay High School
• Washington Irving High School
• W.H. Maxwell CTE High School

Additional schools that the city says it will attempt to close again next year, after having been prevented from doing so because of a lawsuit from the N.A.A.C.P. and the teachers’ union this spring:

• Frederick Douglass Academy III (middle school)
• Global Enterprise High School
• Monroe Academy for Business and Law
• School for Community Research and Learning
• New Day Academy
• Academy of Collaborative Education
• Kappa II
• Academy of Environmental Science High School
• Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence
• Public School 332
• Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School
• Choir Academy of Harlem High School

Queens Middle School Principal Knocked Out by Student's Punch by Joe Mollica and Yoav Gonen - NY Post

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The principal of a rough-and-tumble Queens middle school that has made headlines for its violence in recent years was knocked down and out by a student's flying fist, witnesses told The Post.

Longtime JHS 226 principal Sonia Nieves had to be taken to a hospital for a head injury Thursday morning after she intervened in a cafeteria squabble between two teens -- one of whom landed a punch squarely in her face.

The 15-year-old girl was arrested and charged with assault, cops said.

Although there were differing accounts as to whether Nieves was actually the intended target, students said violent incidents at the South Ozone Park school -- which last August was placed on the state's "persistently dangerous" list -- were a dime a dozen.

"There are fights here everyday. This school is out of order," said eighth-grader Nyeema McFarland, 13. "They don't know how to control students here."

Both city and state education officials insisted that the school has already seen improvements this year through the added supports that were mandated by the school's designation as persistently dangerous.

Additional reporting by Kirsten Fleming

Schools Fixed Grade Surveys by Yoav Gonen - New York Post

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More than 60 principals were urged to keep surveys rating their schools away from "toxic" students who might bring the results down, according to a smoking-gun document obtained by The Post.

The surveys, completed by more than 800,000 students, parents and teachers last spring, account for 10 percent of a school's A-through-F letter grade this school year.

A poor rating can be used to justify the removal of a principal or the closing of a school in the new high-stakes era of accountability ushered in by Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

Among the "suggestions" in the document, posted online by a Department of Education achievement director, was to "keep the surveys away from toxic person(s)," taken to mean troubled students.

Principals were also advised to have school staffers help parents not only with translating a survey, but with "filling it out," and to urge students and teachers to complete the surveys following "fun" events. Another suggestion was that principals boost return rates by making the surveys mandatory homework assignments.

The document went online in January, six weeks before the second annual Learning Environment Survey's distribution. The site was a support and resource center for 66 schools in an autonomous network overseen by Empowerment Schools CEO Eric Nadelstern.

Parents in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan told The Post of allegations that principals falsely warned that their schools would lose money if the surveys were unfavorable and that staffers guided -and even changed - answers on the anonymous forms.

"Where's there's a will, there's always a way," said Hector Nazario, president of the District 4 Community Education Council in Harlem. "Some schools' [surveys] project something that is actually not."

Education officials expressed confidence in the integrity of the survey process, but acknowledged that the online document went too far.

"Some of the suggestions in the posting demonstrate poor judgment, and we have taken it down," said Department of Education spokesman Andrew Jacob. "We have also made it clear that schools cannot require anyone to take the survey or influence responses."

yoav.gonen@nypost.com

Dog Bites Man at Tweed by Gail Robinson - Gotham Gazette - The Wonkster

I would encourage one and all to visit the original Gotham Gazette site and leave a comment on this conflict of interest and self-serving veiled attempt by the DOE to further control and de-legitimize our public school system....

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The thin wall — more like a tissue curtain really — that separated the New York City school’s Leadership Academy from being a public agency now has disappeared entirely.

Last week, the Department of Education announced that the privately funded, city inspired program to train people to be principals in city public schools had been awarded the city contract — yes — to train people to be principals in city public schools. Three other places bid on the contract but, according to the Sun, the department would not disclose who they were. So now the academy wil get about $10 million of public money a year to inculcante prospective principals with the ideas of former GE chief executive Jack Welsh.

The results of this process were not exactly surprising.

In the April press release announcing the bidding, Klein was quoted as saying, “I congratulate the Leadership Academy for developing a system of principal training that so clearly benefits students.” As skoolboy, filing it for Eduwonkette, wrote. “The DOE had a competitive bidding process to award a contract to an organization that Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein had created and publicly supported over the past five years.”

Although the department has billed the academy as a success, other analyses have questioned the efficacy of the program. A review by the Post last fall found about half of the schools headed by Leadership Academy principals last year received grades of C, D or F in the school report cards issued in 2007. One quarter of all failing schools, had principals who went to the Leadership Academy. At the other end, 23 percent of all city schools got A’s — but only 15 percent of those led by Leadership Academy graduates got the top grade.

“Here’s where an independent research verification group, an idea that’s been batted around for the next iteration of mayoral control could play an important role,” wrote Insideschools.org this spring. ” It’s entirely possible that Leadership Academy grads are more skilled than other principals. But we just don’t know…. The DOE has an interest in making Leadership Academy principals look successful, so those principals might have received assistance in addition to the academy training. In addition, an independent research board might design an experiment that looked at variables other than test scores.”

And, while they’re at it, maybe they could tell us who those other three bidders were too.

High Test Scores, and Criticism, Follow a South Bronx Principal by Elizabeth Green -- The New York Sun

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A South Bronx elementary school that adopted the motto "The Best School in the Universe" on the strength of soaring tests scores is being investigated for allegations that teachers helped students cheat on state tests.

Several students who attended P.S. 48 said last week that teachers would examine their answers during official test administration periods and point out mistakes and how to correct them.

"They would give you the answers on the state tests," a graduate of P.S. 48, who is now in seventh grade, said. "You'd say, 'I need help,' and then they'd tell you what the answer was."

The Department of Education is also investigating cheating allegations at a nearby school, M.S. 201, which this year was taken over by P.S. 48's former principal, John Hughes.

Mr. Hughes moved to the middle school after running P.S. 48, to great acclaim. He told the Web site InsideSchools.org that he oversaw a 30-point jump on a math test in 2004, and that year Chancellor Joel Klein spoke at the school's graduation — reportedly while wearing a "Best School in the Universe" T-shirt.

The test scores subsequently oscillated, but the general upward trend won Mr. Hughes favorable profiles in the New York Times and on PBS, and he has developed a good rapport with a teacher-recruitment nonprofit, Teach For America.

In his first year at M.S. 201, scores have also shot up; the percentage of students passing math tests this year jumped by 17 points, and the percentage passing reading increased by nine points. (Citywide, scores rose by nine points in math and seven points in reading.)

Yet Mr. Hughes has butted heads with many of the teachers at M.S. 201, many of whom have not been invited to return next year when the school is restructured.

Some of those teachers said in interviews that they fear Mr. Hughes is importing a culture of cheating to their school.

In a recent letter to the Department of Education, a group of teachers reported that Mr. Hughes asked several teachers to help students during the state tests.

One teacher, Sandra Ameny, who came to M.S. 201 through Teach For America, said Mr. Hughes asked her to help her students on the math test, but that she refused.

"He asked me to guide my students to the right answers during the test, and I said that's helping them; I'm not supposed to do that. And he said, 'Well, just guide them towards the right answer,'" Ms. Ameny said.

She added: "He basically said during the exam that I should go over close to them, and for example if they mark 'D' and 'D' is not the right answer, tell them, you know, 'That's not the right answer, try something else,' and just keep guiding them until they get the right answer."

Ms. Ameny said that when she refused to follow his instructions, Mr. Hughes retaliated against her, making her working conditions miserable.

She said Teach For America has released her from its regular two-year commitment.

Reached via telephone last week, Mr. Hughes said he had no comment.

The executive director of Teach For America's New York City branch, Jemina Bernard, would not comment on Ms. Ameny's situation, but she said the group is maintaining its relationship with Mr. Hughes.

"Principal Hughes is a strong partner. We continue to work with him. We have several corps members at the school, and we look forward to working with him and our over 300 schools throughout the city to place our incoming corps," Ms. Bernard said.

Across the country, as standardized tests have become more important to schools — determining everything from whether schools close to teachers' pay — cases of cheating have become increasingly apparent. In Texas, a newspaper analysis by the Dallas Morning News last year found that more than 50,000 student test scores showed evidence of cheating.

In New York, the investigations of the South Bronx schools are among at least a handful of their kind. The Department of Education is also investigating a charter school inside its headquarters building after an allegation that an administrator violated rules by taking home state tests and possibly tampering with them.

The allegations do not always hold up on inspection; last year, a city investigator cleared the names of Brooklyn administrators who had been accused of cheating, saying the charges were brought unfairly by a teacher who had received an unsatisfactory rating.

A spokesman for the city teachers union, Ron Davis, said the union has observed other cases similar to those in the South Bronx, with teachers saying their principals are pressuring them to cheat.

"We've seen too many examples of principals pressuring teachers to help students cheat," the union president, Randi Weingarten, said in a statement. "We must allow zero tolerance for this kind of behavior by principals, and we must insist upon immunity for educators who come forward to report it."

Several staff members at M.S. 201 said they have long suspected cheating went on at P.S. 48. The school feeds its graduates into M.S. 201, and they said students from that school often come unprepared — despite having high test scores.

State tests in New York are graded on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest score. Teachers said that while many children would leave P.S. 48 having scored at a level 3 or 4, they would arrive with skills well below grade level.

"These kids didn't know how to write, they didn't know how to add," a math teacher at M.S. 201 who is leaving the school, Elizabeth Cano, said. "How could they be getting level 4?"

Ms. Cano said the discrepancy would be clearest when the teachers gave pre-tests in the first week of school. "They used to all get a level 1," she said.

A sixth-grader at M.S. 201. said that a teacher once looked over his shoulder and said, "Ooh, is that right? Is that the right answer?" encouraging him to erase and try again.

Meanwhile, 11 of 12 P.S. 48 graduates interviewed last week said they were coached during the state tests.

They said that teachers would look over their shoulders and instruct them to try again and again until they got answers right.

"They'd be like, 'Is that the right answer?' — until they make sure it's right," a sixth-grader said.

"When I was at 48, I never went to class, and I still passed the test," a seventh-grader said. "If you go to graduation, you pass."

Higher test scores could pay off for M.S. 201's teachers this year. The school is one of about 200 participating in a trial project to give teachers bonuses if their students perform well on state tests.

The bonuses average $3,000 a teacher.

Mayoral Control After Bloomberg - FORA.tv

Mayoral Control After Bloomberg - FORA.tv

The New School
New York
Mar 6th, 2008

Mayoral Control After Bloomberg: Who Rules the Schools?



Speakers include Christopher D. Cerf, Deputy Chancellor for Organizational Strategy, Human Capital and External Relations, New York City Department of Education; Carmen Colon, Executive Director, Association of New York City Education Councils; Ernest A. Logan, President, New York City Council of School Supervisors and Administrators; Alan Maisel, Member, New York State Assembly (D-Brooklyn); and Merryl Tisch, Vice Chancellor, New York State Board of Regents. Samuel G. Freedman, columnist, On Education, New York Times, and professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, moderates the panel.

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office, one of his top priorities was to repair the city's ailing public schools. The state gave him control of the school system five years ago and must soon decide whether to extend that power to future administrations.

Are the schools more accountable today? Are students and teachers more successful? Are parents more fully engaged? Are principals more effective? What is the track record of mayoral control - and should it continue after 2009? - The New School

See previous blog posts:

Who Rules the Schools? Mayoral Control After Bloomberg - The New School Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy

Forum Debates Mayor's Control Of City School System - NY1: Top Story

My Testimony before City Council on Mayoral Control and School Governance

School Control: To Tweak or Not to Tweak? - Gotham Gazette - The Wonkster » Blog Archives

Heated Debate at New School Discussion of City Schools Control by Erin Einhorn - NY Daily News

Mayoral Control Is Strangling Public Schools - Letter to the Editor by David M. Quintana - Leader-Observer

NYC Public School Parents: What's Wrong with Mayoral Control by Leonie Haimson NYC Public School Parents blog...

School's "New" 'Sexual Norms by Melissa Klein - New York Post

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March 16, 2008 -- The city is spending $203,000 to make sure all students are learning about the same birds and bees.

Until now, the content of sex-education classes was decided by individual schools - with some principals abstaining from programs completely.

This year, the Department of Education is trying to fix that, introducing a standard Health Smart program that focuses heavily on contraception and learning to say no.

But if you're a student now, you might miss out. The Post has found that since November, only about 120 of the system's 385 high schools have sent teachers to be trained in the new Health Smart curriculum. Teachers from 44 of approximately 590 schools with middle-grade students have received the training since January.

And the DOE does not know which schools are actually teaching Health Smart, since it does not yet have a system in place to track whether it has been implemented, said Lori Benson, director of the Office of Fitness and Health Education.

Still, Benson said, she was pleased with the pace of the training and expected the curriculum to be fully implemented by June 2009.

Even with the new guidelines, however, sex education is not mandatory, and principals pick what, if anything, students learn. Middle- and high-school students are required to have six lessons each year in HIV and AIDS.

The new curriculum includes lessons on nutrition, physical activity and other topics. It emphasizes abstinence to middle-school students, though there is some discussion of birth-control options. Older teens get an expansive overview of contraception and lessons on remaining disease-free, resisting sexual pressure and preventing HIV.

Studies have found that high-school students in other states who went through the sex-ed lessons, called "Reducing the Risk," remained abstinent longer than those who did not. Those who did have sex were more likely to use birth control than other teens.

The lesson plans come at a time when the city's teen birth rate is on the rise and federal statistics show that 26 percent of girls between ages 14 and 19 have at least one common sexually transmitted disease. Almost half of all public high-school students report they have had sex, according to the Department of Health's latest statistics.

Dana Czuczka, associate vice president of government affairs at Planned Parenthood of New York City, said the DOE's efforts are a good first step.

"We believe it's time that we treat sex ed as seriously as we treat math or social studies," she said. "Our hope is that every kid will be taught sex ed in every grade every year."

melissa.klein@nypost.com

So Why is This Principal Smiling? by Yoav Gonen - New York Post

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CLASS ACT: Principal Jeffrey Scherr (above), of Francis Lewis HS in Queens, successfully handles...overcrowding with dance class in the hallway...early-morning lunches and...lively music to keep throngs of kids moving between periods

March 10, 2008 -- When you're in charge of the city's biggest high school - with nearly 4,500 students jammed into a building meant for 2,600 - it takes some flexibility to make it work.

Judging by the performance of Francis Lewis HS in Fresh Meadows, Queens - including a remarkable 80 percent graduation rate, a more than 90 percent attendance rate, and 13 student applications for every open seat - fifth-year principal Jeffrey Scherr has been doing his stretching.

His space-saving tricks - by necessity, he argues - include holding the first lunch period at 9 a.m., allowing cheerleaders and dancers to practice in a hallway nook by the cafeteria, and holding so-called "Polar Bear Gym" outside unless the temperature falls below 35.

"There's nothing wrong with teenagers in athletic suits running track or playing handball" when it's cold, said Scherr, who has worked with the Department of Education for more than 35 years. "I just don't want to be in a position where I have to play 'Polar Bear English.' "

With the student population at more than 170 percent of the building's intended capacity, there aren't many space-saving measures left to be tried.

Walls have been added to divide classrooms in half; the teachers' lounge and woodshop have been converted into classrooms; and eight student-filled trailers are parked out back.

But the administration and staff still look for ways to make things more manageable.

During the infamous human traffic jams that crawl through hallways in between periods, Scherr pipes music over the school's public-address system to keep things moving.

Teachers and staff also encourage students to take advantage of the benefits of being at such an enormous school - including classes in 10 foreign languages and more than 30 sports teams and dozens of student-led clubs.

"There's something for everyone - which I think makes everyone more positive," said Trinel Torian, 18, a senior and editor of the school's newspaper. "I have no problem with the larger class sizes."

Many students said they also relish the school's diversity - which is nearly 50 percent Asian with a mix of white, black and Hispanic kids.

"I have friends of almost every ethnicity," said sophomore Marc McDonald, 15, who listed Egyptian, Irish, Chinese and Korean students among them.

"With so many people, you make so many friends," added sophomore Ayman Ghanim, 16. "There's really nothing bad about it."

While the trend under Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has been to close large, failing high schools and carve them into smaller, more manageable schools, there is no indication that Francis Lewis HS has any reason to fear a similar fate.

And that's fine with Scherr, whose school earned a "B" grade in October on its first-ever report card.

"There's no need to break up a school like this. It would be a tragedy," said the principal. "Some teenagers pick a big college, some pick a small college. I think it's nice that they can have a choice [in high school]."

yoav.gonen@nypost.com

Who Rules the Schools? Mayoral Control After Bloomberg - The New School Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy

Chancellor Joel Klein & Deputy Chancellor Chris Cerf Spun the Accomplishments of Mayoral Control Under Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein's NYC Department of Education to the High Heavens - followed by a lively and often spirited discussion by a prestigious panel of experts concerned with improving school results and achievements...Carmen Colon did an admirable job of voicing some of the parents concerns, but she was out-gunned by Chris Cerf...Cerf is a world-class s**t shoveler...he should be in the Bush Administration...he could even teach them a thing or two about propaganda...it's hard to believe..!

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office, one of his top priorities was to repair the city’s ailing public schools. The state gave him control of the school system five years ago and must soon decide whether to extend that power to future administrations. Are the schools more accountable today? Are students and teachers more successful? Are parents more fully engaged? Are principals more effective? What is the track record of mayoral control—and should it continue after 2009?

featuring a presentation by
Joel Klein, Chancellor, New York City Department of Education

SPEAKERS:
Christopher D. Cerf, Deputy Chancellor for Organizational Strategy, Human Capital and External Relations, New York City Department of Education
Carmen Colon, Executive Director, Association of New York City Education Councils
Ernest A. Logan, President, New York City Council of School Supervisors and Administrators
Alan Maisel, Member, New York State Assembly (D-Brooklyn)
Merryl Tisch, Vice Chancellor, New York State Board of Regents

MODERATOR: Samuel G. Freedman, columnist, “On Education,” New York Times, and professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

Fred Hochberg, dean of the New School's Milano School for Management and Urban Policy

NYC Chancellor of Schools - Joel Klein

New York Times Columnist - Samuel G. Freedman

Left to Right - Christopher D. Cerf - DOE, Carmen Colon - Parent, Hon. Alan Meisel - NYS Assembly, Ernest Logan - CSA, Vice Chancellor Merryl Tisch - NYS Board of Regents

Christopher D. Cerf , Carmen Colon, Hon Alan Meisel, Ernest Logan & Merryl Tisch

Event Program - Page 1

Event Program - Page 2

My thanks for the Photos to

Hakikulislam Khokon - Editor -Bapsnews

Fine Is Levied for Nepotism by Queens Principal by Sarah Garland - The New York Sun

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A man accused of using corporal punishment and intimidating a teacher while serving as principal of a Queens middle school has admitted new charges of nepotism and bucking the city's competitive bidding process, according to documents released by the city yesterday.

The city's Conflict of Interest Board found that Anthony Aldorasi, who headed I.S. 141, helped his sister get a job with a tutoring company that provides services to the Department of Education. He also awarded a contract for electrical repairs at the school to one of his tenants in a private building that he owns, without going through the city contracting process, according to the documents. Mr. Aldorasi admitted the latest charges and agreed to pay fines totaling $4,500, according to the papers.

He was fined $6,000 earlier in the school year in a separate investigation into charges that he used corporal punishment against his students and intimidated a teacher, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, Marge Feinberg, said.

In that case, the Department of Education sought his termination. As a tenured principal who has served as an educator in District 30 for 26 years and as a principal at I.S. 141 since 2001, he was able to appeal the charges and keep his job and his $136,000 salary.

The arbitration decision also required that Mr. Aldorasi be offered a principal assignment in District 30. Ms. Feinberg said the education department decided yesterday to reassign Mr. Aldorasi to the Queens Integrated Service Center temporarily, where he will perform administrative duties.

She said that, under the agreement Mr. Aldorasi signed with the Conflict of Interest Board, the latest charges could not be held against him. Mr. Aldorasi could not be reached for comment.

Queens Principal Accused Of Corporal Punishment Wants Job Back by Michael Meehan - NY1

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Watch video...


With word that a Queens principal isn't returning to their school, some parents say good riddance to a man they say is a tyrant. But a year after being yanked from the helm of a top-ranked school, the city school veteran tells education reporter Michael Meenan that he still wants his old job back.

“As far as running the school with an iron hand, I’m a strong disciplinarian. I believe that learning cannot take place unless you have order in the building,” says former I.S. 141 principal Anthony Aldorasi.

For six years, until February 2007, that's how Aldorasi ruled Intermediate School 141 in District 30. But no more. He's been collecting his $136,000 paycheck doing desk work over at Queens Plaza, while facing charges by some teachers and parents like Joan Morante that he's got an iron fist.

"My son was physically harassed by him. He singled him out at an assembly. He put my son in a separate chair way in the back, came up behind him and grabbed him by the shoulders, sat him roughly in the chair and spoke very harsh to him,” says Morante.

Aldorasi sees it quite differently.

"There was a child in the auditorium slumped over in his seat and I placed my hands on his shoulders and straightened out his posture,” says Aldorasi.

But a state arbitrator recently ruled that was corporal punishment. Along with one charge of intimidating a teacher it got Aldorasi a 10-day suspension and 1 $6,000 fine. Two other corporal punishment charges were dropped.

"After 26 years of sterling experience and a wonderful record, the best that I can tell you is that unfortunately allegations could be made by anybody,” says Aldorasi.

Aldorasi is entitled to reinstatement somewhere in district 30, but the schools chancellor says it’s not going to be I.S. 141.

That’s bad news for some parents who liked his style.

"You need some discipline in this world or lese the future’s gonna be a bunch of spoiled brats,” said parent Dennis Petropoulos.

Other parents who didn't want to speak on camera strongly opposed Aldorasi’s return. And Joan Morante says his replacement, Miranda Pavlou, is doing fine.

"There's been a big difference and very good ways with Ms. Pavlou as the principal," says Morante.

But Aldorasi says he deserves credit.

"We made it a very wholesome learning environment for all of our children," he says.

School officials say there'll be no final decision made on Aldorasi's placement until he serves his 10-day suspension. That starts this week.

– Michael Meenan

Principal Not Coming Back by Erin Einhorn - NY Daily News

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The Queens principal accused of corporal punishment and threatening a teacher will not return to the same school, Chancellor Joel Klein told the Daily News Tuesday.

Principal Anthony Aldorasi was removed from Astoria's Intermediate School 141 after the complaints were filed last year, and officials sought to fire him from his $136,745 post.

An arbitrator ruled last week that he deserved a less severe punishment - a $6,000 fine and a 10-day unpaid suspension - and ordered school officials to find him a job in the same district, No. 30.

"He's not going back to 141," Klein told The News, adding that he did not yet know where Aldorasi would be reassigned or if he would be offered a new deal instead. "We have to review our options."

Parents and teachers at IS 141 were planning a protest this week against Aldorasi's potential return.

Among other issues, they were concerned about students who had testified against him in his arbitration hearing.

"I don't think it would be the right decision to send him back into the school that he betrayed," said parent association treasurer Irene Diakogeorgios, who has two sons at the school.

An IS 141 teacher who had butted heads with Aldorasi said he was relieved he wouldn't be back.

"I would be angry if he came back to 141, because we've all seen an unbelievable transition from not wanting to come to work, to looking forward to coming to work on a Monday," said the teacher, who requested anonymity.

Aldorasi declined to comment.

eeinhorn@nydailynews.com

Parents Outraged By Return Of Queens Principal by Hazel Sanchez wcbstv.com

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Parents and teachers are not happy about former principal Anthony Aldorasi returning to IS 141 in Queens.

LONG ISLAND CITY (CBS) ― There's a controversy brewing at a Queens school.

A principal once removed because of allegation of physical, verbal and even sexual harassment will soon return to the school.

Now parents are threatening to pull their children out of class.

Parent Valerie Janian has strong opinions about former IS 141 principal Anthony Aldorasi.

"If he does come back I will take my daughter out from this school," Janian said.

Aldorasi was removed from the Long Island City school one year ago after the Department Of Education said he was found guilty of threatening a teacher and pulling the arm of a student.

Parents Joan and Alex Morante say in Nov. 2006, Aldorasi shoved their son into an auditorium seat.

"A 12-year-old boy to come to my home and say the principal touched me.," Alex Morante said. "That's crazy."

"If I have to change schools I will do whatever it takes to protect my son, my child from any kind of abuse," Joan Morante said.

The DOE tried to fire Aldorasi, but the tenured 26-year veteran of the DOE fought his termination in arbitration.

Last month an independent state arbitrator fined Aldorasi $6,000, but only suspended him for 10 days without pay. Now he has to be reassigned to a principal's position in the same Queens school district. And one of the openings is his old turf.

Some teachers, too frightened to show their faces, claim Aldorasi led with an iron fist and they're fearful of his return.

"He's a tyrant, very difficult to work for," one teacher told CBS 2 HD.

"We're all in a state of panic now," another said. "Nobody wants him to come back."

Teachers were told Monday that Aldorasi will return to the school next week. (© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NY Daily News - School principals make one last plea for better school grades by Erin Einhorn

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It's grade-grubbing season in city schools but it's not students trying to argue their way up from a C to a B. It's principals.

Public elementary and middle school principals last week received an early look at the letter grades - A to F - that the city plans to publicly brand on each school by the end of the month.

Principals now have a chance to lodge appeals if they think their school's grade is inaccurate.

Or, if they know the test scores, attendance rates and other stats behind their grades are correct, they'll have a chance to break the potentially awkward news to parents before it hits the headlines.

"They're getting time to basically sit down and explain it and roll it out to their faculties and their teams rather than have it happen through the pages of the Daily News," said schools spokesman David Cantor.

Officials estimate that 5% of schools will get F's, 10% will get D's, 30% will get C's, 40% B's and 15% A's.

High schools won't get their preliminary grades until at least next week.

Their final grades are due for public release in November.

While state officials, for years, have published lists of failing schools, the city is using a different method that could explode long-standing reputations - both positively and negatively.

Schools will mainly be graded on how they compare with schools with similar student populations on standardized tests, with 55% of a school's grade going to how much students improve from year to year.

Another 30% of the grade comes from a school's overall exam performance and 15% is for "school environment," including attendance rates and the results of student, teacher and parent surveys.

eeinhorn@nydailynews.com

village voice - Runnin' Scared: A Brooklyn Principal Lost Her Job and Now She Wants Justice by Maria Luisa Tucker...

village voice > news > Runnin' Scared: A Brooklyn Principal Lost Her Job and Now She Wants Justice by Maria Luisa Tucker:

When asked what she does for a living, Joyce Saly tells people that she took an early retirement from her 39-year career in the New York City school system. The reality, however, was that she was forced out abruptly after a cheating controversy.

Saly was principal of P.S. 58, a thriving elementary school in Carroll Gardens, when she was blamed for a testing scandal and cut loose in April 2006. For a year and half, the energetic 60-year-old has been doggedly trying to prove her innocence and simultaneously take down her former assistant principal, who she says is the real culprit of a test day gone bad.

"I knew a grave injustice was done, and that was my whole purpose here—to discover what they had done and expose it," says Saly.

Largely because of Saly's determination, what started as a cheating scandal over a fifth-grade test has snowballed into multiple investigations of alleged favoritism, scapegoating, and cover-ups. More than a year and half later, two of the investigations that sprouted from a simple testing issue still have no conclusion. All this despite the fact that P.S. 58's fifth graders (now in seventh grade) were never asked to retake the test at the origin of the controversy. As usual, the kids' education (isn't that still the mission of the education department?) has been overshadowed by the bureaucratic quagmire of personnel disputes.

Flash back to December 2005: Saly was out on medical leave. Filling in was assistant principal Patricia Peterson, who was also the test coordinator for the school. An important state exam was a month away, and parents were getting anxious. A teacher would later testify that she got Peterson's approval to send home copies of an old test as part of a fourth-grade practice exam. When Saly returned from medical leave in January, she claims she found a stack of similar fifth-grade practice tests on her desk. She distributed the copies dutifully, she says, not thinking that anything was amiss. By this time, Peterson, the assistant principal and test coordinator, had jumped ship—she left P.S. 58 for a pay raise as coordinator of the region's Gifted and Talented program.

When the big test day arrived in January 2006, students and teachers realized the questions on the exam were suspiciously familiar. As it turned out, the practice test that Saly had passed out, as well as the fourth-grade practice test given out weeks earlier, contained some of the exact same questions as the current exam. At best, it was a careless mistake during a chaotic time at the school; at worst, someone had attempted to artificially inflate the kids' grades by giving them a sneak peek at the test questions. The education department investigated and issued a report that blamed Saly. Despite a significant outcry from parents, Saly was forced to leave. The education department then declared the case closed.

In the year and a half since her ouster, Saly has dug up documentation that, she says, proves her innocence. She has also tracked down records damning her second-in-command, Peterson, who was never investigated or punished for her role in the test snafu.

"They allowed [Peterson] to be above the law" because she was connected with higher-ups at the education department, says Saly. In fact, education-department records do suggest a pattern of preferential treatment. For example, Peterson was ushered into her new job in the Gifted and Talented program apparently without being technically qualified or even applying for the job. The education department has no record of Peterson's job application, and her appointment to the position was announced before the application period had ended, suggesting that she was allowed to bypass the selection process completely. Further, an e-mail from Human Resources explicitly stated that Peterson did not have the proper licensing for the job at the time of her appointment. Peterson did not return calls to her office seeking comment. (Since the regions were dissolved this summer, Peterson is now in a position at a Brooklyn learning center.)

Saly and a handful of her supporters repeatedly complained to the education department about these discoveries, as well as the inequity of the testing investigation, prompting two new investigations. According to an education-department spokesperson, investigators are looking into several claims: that the original investigation was done improperly; that Peterson did not have the proper licensing while she was an assistant principal; and that administrators allowed Peterson to bypass the regular selection process when they promoted her to a new job.

Saly says she expects to be exonerated next month, when she's been told that one of the investigations will finally conclude. The education department, however, won't confirm that time frame or comment on any of the allegations because they are, of course, part of an ongoing investigation. In the meantime, there's only one thing that the test-taking children of P.S. 58 could have possibly learned from all of this: school sucks.

NY Times: How Hard Can It Be to Teach? The Challenges Go Well Beyond the Classroom by David Herszenhorn...

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Published: July 11, 2007

One of my all-time favorite moments covering the New York City public school system occurred just before Christmas in 2003, at Public School 28 in Harlem. About 50 or 60 second graders, onstage in the school auditorium, serenaded Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein with a perfect rendition of “Feliz Navidad.”

When the singing stopped, Mr. Bloomberg applauded. “Children, that was beautiful,” he said. “Now, what I want you to do is say ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy New Year,’ first in Spanish, then in English.”

The problem was not a language barrier — nearly all of the children at P.S. 28 are bilingual — but rather the mayor’s notion that he could give four simultaneous commands to a group of 7-year-olds, as if they were his aides in the bullpen at City Hall or executives at his company, Bloomberg L.P.

Still, the students who had just finished singing so sweetly in unison dutifully tried to grant Mr. Bloomberg’s request.

“Meyeow, weow, eowah, eiwash, iwah,” they mumbled. Or something like that.

Working with children looks easy. It is not.

In four and a half years on the city schools beat, I have often repeated this anecdote to principals. And typically they chuckle, grateful for the recognition that many people, including the mayor, may underestimate how difficult it is to work in schools on a daily basis, and not just because of the intellectual challenges of teaching.

School professionals are called upon not only to educate children, but also to nurture curiosity and civic values, and even to teach the most basic manners. Once, while waiting to have lunch with my mother, now retired after more than 30 years as a teacher in a city elementary school, I stood in her school’s main entrance and watched a teacher walk by with her class, shouting: “Fingers out of your nose! Fingers out of your nose!”

Not only do professional educators have to know how to deal with children, they have to be clever about soothing an even wackier bunch: parents.

For example, on the first day of school last year, the principal of Public School 8 in Brooklyn Heights graciously invited parents to attend the first half-hour of class with their children.

And simultaneously, in a brilliant stroke, he ensured that few parents would actually go to class and disrupt the start of the day by setting out a lavish spread of bagels, doughnuts, juice and coffee in the school auditorium. By the time breakfast was done, it was time for the parents to leave.

Meanwhile, at Public School 101 in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, the principal decided that parents interfered too much on the first day of school, so she insisted on not telling them which teachers were assigned to which class until after the students were inside. A near riot ensued, and the principal later apologized for her “bad idea.”

The daily work in schools is so hard that most educators in the system do not distinguish between the chancellor’s office and the mayor, the labor unions and state government, the teachers’ contract and the federal No Child Left Behind law when they complain, frequently, that the “system” is against them.

Forces above and beyond school level often make the work in classrooms more difficult. And the work in classrooms is difficult enough.

My colleagues on tough foreign assignments often complain that 10 percent of the work is journalism and 90 percent, logistics — just getting to and from a given place in one piece. Education is a lot like this. Many of the obstacles are logistical, involving the physical and mental health of students and teachers.

On the day of Mr. Bloomberg’s visit to P.S. 28, nearly all the children in the audience were bouncing in their seats with excitement about seeing the mayor. But I remember one boy, 8 or 9 years old, who was fast asleep. Was he up too late the night before? Had he had any breakfast? And if I were his teacher, with 23 or more other students in my charge, would I have time to figure it out?

Even the weather is a challenge in schools.

Chancellor Klein often says that one of his goals in restructuring the school system is to create the conditions needed for success. Many teachers would say that the conditions for success require, for example, air-conditioning in classrooms that can be so stifling that it is hard to breathe, let alone learn. In some wealthier neighborhoods, active parent-teacher associations may raise money to buy air-conditioners. But in poor neighborhoods, this is not possible.

Chancellor Klein, in an interview, said, “I’ve got plenty of high-needs schools with air-conditioning.” He said he wanted to provide teachers with terrific working conditions and also to be able to offer them higher pay to accept assignments in some of the city’s toughest schools.

“The most important thing in education is the quality of teachers,” Mr. Klein said.” The two major ingredients are what you get paid and a combination of working conditions and job satisfaction.”

A great principal and veteran teachers who can serve as mentors are among the ingredients that Mr. Klein said were needed to create “a dynamic positive feedback loop.”

In other words, happy, well-compensated, well-supported teachers make great teachers and great schools, even in the heat.

Joseph Berger is on vacation; David M. Herszenhorn recently completed four and a half years of covering education in New York City.

NY Post: Bugged Parents Get Action by Angela Montefinise...

July 8, 2007 -- Months after elected officials and parents complained the city was not doing enough to alert school communities about bedbug outbreaks, the Department of Education issued its first-ever policy to cope with the vermin.

Under the new protocols, principals must alert their school communities when bedbugs are found inside schools. Letters must be sent home, as well as the Department of Health's "Stop Bed Bugs Safety" fact sheet.

"We are giving principals the discretion to notify all or part of the community," said DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg.

Bedbugs don't breed in schools, Feinberg said, but are brought in on the clothing of students.

The critters usually show up in cooler weather, and cases are on the rise.

There were 34 cases at 24 public schools last October and November. There were 72 cases at 43 schools in January and February, according to the DOE.

Courier-Life: Canarsie HS Rallies to Save Their Principal by Michèle De Meglio...

Canarsie High School’s teachers are taking to the streets to protect their principal.

All this week, teachers are demonstrating outside of the school building to protest what they say is the city Department of Education’s (DOE) decision to remove Principal David Harris.

While a DOE spokesperson said she can’t comment on personnel matters and Harris couldn’t be reached by press time, Canarsie’s United Federation of Teachers (UFT) chapter leader said the department is letting the principal go.

“Principal Harris was recently notified by the DOE that he was being discontinued as of June 30,” explained K.S. Ahluwalia, who is also a biology teacher at Canarsie.

The news came as a shock to teachers who believe that Harris should have been given more time to turn the troubled high school around, as he has been principal for just two years.

In such a “short amount of time,” Ahluwalia said, “it’s not fair” to expect him to fix all of the school’s pre-existing problems.

Canarsie is on the city’s “impact” list, meaning it is one of the most dangerous schools in the five boroughs, and recently received a failing school designation when the state Education Department named it a School Under Registration Review (SURR).

In spite of these setbacks, the more than 60 teachers present at the first of the protests believe Harris is doing his best to improve Canarsie, which is located at 1600 Rockaway Parkway.

“We met collectively as a group and the staff voted that he’s an integral part of Canarsie,” Ahluwalia said.

“He’s made some good changes,” agreed Thea Platt-Glasser, a health education teacher. “He’s definitely improved safety. We’re infusing technology in the classroom more.”

“For the first time in a long time there’s been a principal who is actually a visible presence in the hallway. He’s receptive to students and teachers, he has an open door policy,” Ahluwalia said.

Even with the SURR designation, the state Education Department believed Harris should remain in charge, teachers say.

“We had the SURR committee come down,” Platt-Glasser said, “and they didn’t want Principal Harris to be removed. They wanted to give him a year to straighten out.”

With Harris leaving, teachers fear that additional changes are in store for Canarsie.

They wonder if DOE officials believe the school has had enough chances to improve and must now be closed and replaced with several small schools, which is what is happening at South Shore and Samuel J. Tilden high schools.

“They keep on closing these schools and turning them into little schools,” Platt-Glasser said. “We have teachers who are already transferring to other schools because of the fear that we’re not going to be open in September.”

Melody Meyer, a DOE spokesperson, said a meeting is scheduled for next week for regional administrators to discuss the future of Canarsie High School.

“We are meeting with the parents to address concerns and answer questions,”she said.

NY Daily News Editorial: It All Adds Up to Success...

Editorial

The city's public school children have scored impressive gains in mathematics, and there's every reason to believe that they are standing on the verge of even greater achievement.

In every grade from 3 through 8, more kids performed at or above grade level on the statewide math exam this year than did last year, and in every grade the number of students scoring at the lowest level fell substantially. Can you imagine what principals, teachers and pupils should be able to do when the school reforms engineered by Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein take full effect this fall - along with a big boost in education spending?

Overall, 65% of third- through eighth-graders tested as proficient, up 8 percentage points. That included a whopping 82% of third-graders and 74% of fourth-graders. Children in sixth and seventh grade posted double-digit gains, to 63% and 56%, respectively, Even eighth-graders, long mired in failure, improved almost 7 points to just under 46%.

At the same, time, less than 11% scored at the bottom, down 5 points, while the achievement gap among racial and ethnic groups narrowed. The percentage of black and Latino kids scoring at or above grade level increased at twice the rate as the scores among whites and Asians, and the percentage of those at the lowest level declined three times as fast.

Following the rise in English test scores released last month, the math exam confirms that Bloomberg and Klein's approach is getting results. Ending social promotion, winning teachers contract reforms that boosted instructional time and sending a clear message that schools must be held accountable for student performance have all contributed to improved learning.

Next year, Bloomberg and Klein are giving teachers the ability to closely track how well students are learning, so those who lag can get immediate special attention. And the mayor and chancellor are giving parents report cards that will grade how individual schools are working. The trends are moving in the right direction after years of stagnation, and the innate abilities of thousands of kids are finally being unlocked.