Results tagged “randiweingarten”

United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten is reportedly stepping down from her position next week, according to Daily News sources. Weingarten is also the president of the American Federation of Teachers (the UFT's parent union) and a union source said, "It's hard to maintain a foot in both jobs." Another source said, "Many of us are unhappy that she's not completing her term. We would like to see her negotiate a new contract," referring to how teachers do not have a contract with the city yet, "With all the things she's agreed to, I hope we're getting something for this. She's agreed to back off on mayoral control. She did a complete 180." UFT COO Michael Mulgrew is expected to take Weingarten's place until an election can be held in 2010. And Weingarten also made Page SIx today, "They could be the lesbian power couple of all time: Randi Weingarten, the new president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers, is dating Hilary Rosen, former head of the Recording Industry Association of America, who appears on CNN and is Washington, DC, editor-at-large for the Huffington Post."

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chanceller Joel Klein happily announced that New York City elementary and middle school students "made significant gains at every grade level on the State’s annual math test, substantially narrowing the achievement gap with students in the rest of New York State." Now, 81.8% of city student are at or above their grade-level math standards, compared to 88.9% statewide. of students in the rest of the State.

Randi Weingarten, who has led the United Federation of Teachers, the union that representing over 200,000 people who work in the schools (from teachers to nurses), was elected to lead the national teacher's union, the American Federation of Teachers, yesterday. Weingarten ran unopposed and has made it clear she wants to revoke the No Child Left Behind law, suggesting instead that schools should help the entire family, through a range of social services, to improve students' chances at success.

Mayor Bloomberg's announcement that he would reduce the number of parking permits for civil servants by 20% has annoyed yet another group. Joining police officers, fire fighters, and other emergency workers are teachers.

City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein characterized last year's assessment test scores as "good," but critics say that they represent a lack of progress and a failure of Mayor Bloomberg's efforts to reform city schools. City kids' scores stayed flat on national assessment exams in math and reading, with a slight improvement in 4th graders' math scores and a drop in 8th graders' reading scores. "New York City’s eighth graders have made no significant progress in...

Mayor Bloomberg and United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten announced a new plan rewarding teachers whose schools improve student achievement. Two hundred high-needs schools will be eligible for the program, and if the schools improve, then the bonuses will be distributed through a committee to the teachers.

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water main break on Pacific St. in Brooklyn, an armed robbery on Jamaica Ave. in Queens, and a burn victim on West 165th St. in the Bronx. Spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy reportedly accomplished many feats during his life, but still died at his home in Queens, NY. A fight among members of a group of men, who were turned away from a Chelsea nightclub because they didn't meet...

Well, this is disturbing: The City Comptroller's office audited ten high schools in the city and found that they did not report 41% of the violent/disruptive incidents that occurred. Schools are supposed to file information about incidents, which range from vandalism to assaults, through a computer system so the state has the information, part of the No Child Left Behind law. The state then uses that information to determine which schools are dangerous, persistently dangerous, etc.

Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Klein, City Council Speaker Quinn, and other city and school officials celebrated the first day of school yesterday with an appearance at P.S. 53 in the Bronx. P.S. 53 was selected because it will be receiving almost a half million dollars more in funding, due to Bloomberg's "fair student funding reforms."

While the jury is still out on whether Mayor Bloomberg's improvements to the public school system have really worked, he, along with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and School Chancellor Joel Klein, announced new initiatives to help middle schools improve academic performance and provide better resources for students, parents, and teachers alike - plus $5 million to fund them. The money will go to the 50 lowest-performing middle schools, so they can staff up with guidance counselors, offer mentoring programs to less experienced supervisors, and offer Regents-level classes.

The Post updates the story about the kid whose mom wants him held back a year! Anthony Hassell's father Victor Raimo called Post reporter Chuck Bennett to complain about his estranged wife's tactics discussing their son's 60.53 seventh grade average.

If you have kids, we sure hope they like taking tests. Not only do they face regular tests in classes, but the city is set to expand their regimen of periodic tests for the 1.1 million students in the city's public schools. The tests, which the city is paying $80 million over five years for, will be administered 5 times a year for students in the grades 3-8 and four times a year for high schoolers. Students in the 3-8th grades are only taking periodic tests 3 times a year now, while high school students don't take them at all. While the tests currently cover only math and English, they will be expanded to include science and social studies. The new system will also allow for faster feedback on student performance and for administrators to track teacher and student progress.

Randi Weingarten=Sandra Froman? Mayor Bloomberg had some fighting words for those who criticize his handling of the public schools. He compared his critics to the National Rifle Association: "You always do have the problem of a very small group of people who are single-issue focused having a disproportionate percentage of power. That's exactly the NRA." He also accused the UFT of wanting to roll back reforms:

There's the political power of people who just want to pander when they come out and they find something wrong with everything. There are the newspapers that can never find anything good enough. They're in favor of change but they've never yet in their whole publishing history seen a change that was good enough.

The city is giving IBM an $80 million contract to create a supercomputer to track public school students. Accrding to the Daily News, computer's program will be called "ARIS" - "Achievement Reporting and Innovation System" - and will be able to track a student's biographical details, education needs, education history, test scores, etc., and provide up-to-the-minute information. From the News:

The [interim tests student take will] measure whether kids have mastered specific skills, such as multiplying fractions or distinguishing fact from opinion, at different times of the year.

Continue reading "Super Computer for NYC Schools, or Super Folly?"

In the Mayor's Mid-Year Management Report, data shows that public school crime is up 21% between July and October2006. Three hundred forty eight major crimes were counted, vs. the same period in 287. The biggest increase has come from grand larceny - there were 197 more in the July-October 2006 period vs. 119 in J-O 2005. The Mayor's criminal justice coordinator John Feinblatt said, "There are more laptops, there are more Blackberries, there are more cell phones, and the smaller they are, the more mobile they are, the more they're vulnerable to theft." Another target: Purses. He also added that there were five more days of school in the 2006 period, and said the increase, per the Sun, "amounted to neither a rash, an outbreak, or an epidemic."

The Reverend Al Sharpton announced the "shopping for justice" protest march he's been talking about since the shooting of Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman, and Trent Benefield by the police.

"Many will be shopping for trinkets and toys. We will be shopping for justice and making a moral appeal to this city and this nation. The fact that we are going on probably the most visible street in the world tomorrow, you don't have to talk to be heard. You just got to show up."

The Department of Education will start to close five struggling high schools beginning next September. The schools are Urban Peace Academy and School for the Physical City in Manhattan and Samuel J. Tilden, South Shore, and the embattled Lafayette in Brooklyn. The DOE attributed the closings to, as the Daily News put it, "dismal graduation rates, consistently low test scores and lackluster demand."

It took the city and teachers' union three years to agree on their last contract - with the teachers working for two years without one. So, for the next negotiation, it looks like things have gone a lot more swimmingly, as the city and teachers union have tentatively agreed on a new deal. The new contract has wages increase 2% during the first year and 5% during the second, with minimum salaries rising to $45,530 in October 2008 when the new contract would take effect. Maximum salaries would increase from $93,416 to $100,049.

Officials all over New York got some bad news yesterday: Reading and writing scores of students drop dramatically between fifth and sixth grades. State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said, "Despite improvements in elementary school over the past several years, the Grade 3-8 results show substantially lower achievement starting in the sixth grade. The neediest children require more support. The problem is literacy in the middle grades. These results demand improvement in curriculum, instruction, and professional development.” And it's going to be a big problem - here's the NY Times on the federal issue:

The steady erosion of student achievement through eighth grade offers a particularly bleak outlook on New York State’s chances of meeting the goal of No Child Left Behind, which seeks 100 percent proficiency in reading and math among all categories of students by 2014 and imposes sanctions on schools and districts for failing to make annual progress.

"The thing here that people should be outraged about are the people that marched with Roger Toussaint across the bridge. What kind of message does that send to our kids?" That's a veiled refernce to teachers union head Randi Weingarten if we ever heard one! At any rate, Toussaint said he was treated decently in jail - no lawsuits over that.

If you're going to protest going to jail after leading an illegal transit strike for three days, then you might as well with the Reverend Al Sharpton, teachers union head Randi Weingarten, and about a thousand other supporters. And according to plan, many members of various unions are starting to view Roger Toussaint as a martyr, versus the main guy who inconvenienced the city (well, it's him and MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow). Toussaint headed off for his ten day jail stand in a big way: Rally outside the Brooklyn courthouse where he was sentenced and a rousing march over the Brooklyn Bridge. Some of what Toussaint told his supporters (and the news crews):

"Jail has no terror for me compared to the shame I would have felt if we would have simply swallowed the authority's miserable prestrike offer!"

Continue reading "Toussaint Goes to Jail After Brooklyn Bridge March"

Public schools have a terrible records with their students and bathrooms. If it's not inadequate bathroom supplies like toilet paper in the stalls, it's making students clean up other kids' poo. Oh, yes. WNBC reported that two six year olds at a Bronx charter school were punished by the principal for misbehaving, their penance being to clean up a mess another student made in a bathroom. The children's parents claim that their sons had to clean feces and are accusing the United Federation of Teachers - who run the school - of poor governance. UTF President Randi Weingarten tried to defuse the situation slightly, saying, "We think what happened is there were papers strewn in the boys bathroom. Some people think there was something under the paper, some people think there wasn't. But the bottom line is this: Kids should not be cleaning up in a bathroom."

What the hell is happening in Queens? Two women were attacked by the same man yesterday morning, while a man fleeing someone was shot in a diner. In the first incident, Queens reading teacher Jill Brogan was outside PS 86 in Jamaica when Frank Cabrera demanded her purse. Brogan only had keys to a Dodge Durango SUV and handed them over, and Cabrera took them but knifed her twice in the abdomen anyway. He drove off, abandoned the car at the Queens Supreme Court, and then tried to steal nurse Patrice Klein's car. A court officer stopped Cabrera, who had already punched Klein in the eye, and he was taken into custody. All this unfolded within a half hour! Brogan is recovering at a hospital; teachers union head Randi Weingarten criticized Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg for not visiting Brogan there.

: Gothamist's imagining this conversation Mayor Bloomberg with some students at Queens Vocational High School in Long Island City. Seriously, how must it be to sit next to the Mayor at lunch? Probably difficult to eat, since all the media is watching your every move.