Results tagged “schoolschancellerjoelklein”

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.

Schools Chanceller Joel Klein found the silver lining, when noting that city's results were higher, but teachers' union head Randi Weingarten say the overall results show class size in grades 4-8 need to be lowered.

It's high school musical time (and not just the Disney kind) but one Bronx high school has to put its production of Chicago on ice. Why? The school didn't bother to get the rights to the show, not to mention a clause that says the musical cannot be performed 75 miles within Broadway. You know, lest tourists find their way to the Bronx and want to buy tickets for a high school production. The company that represents the authors (John Kander and Fred Ebb), the Samuel French Inc., issued a "severe" cease-and-desist to the Herbert H. Lehman High School, disappointing the students who had been working on the show for months. The Daily News spoke to students who said they and teachers were crying. Principal Robert Leder said, "I'm partly guilty in that I never, ever thought of asking for permission - never ever." Hmm, let's hope the Samuel French officials don't look at Lehman high's previous musicals - what if they've been performing other musicals without permissions?

The death of Nixzmary Brown, the fourth death at the hands of abusive parents in recent months and whose abuse case was supposedly being investigated by the Administration for Children's Services, has led to an agency "shake-up": Three employees were suspended and three others were reassigned, with punishment to be determined. Of the employees who were suspended, one was the supervisor who let an investigation about possible abuse close, even though the 7 year old had missed 47 days of school, and the others were a supervisor and caseworker who, as Newsday puts it "oversaw the fiasco in which officials failed to gain the needed access to the victim's house." The social service workers' union rep criticized the actions, saying that more training is needed, not suspensions. ACS Commissioner John Mattingly also realigned ACS management, making his deputy commissioner the president of child safety and creating a Child Safety Task Forse.

News that the percentage of NYC public school fourth graders meeting state reading requirements have gone up 10 points was eagerly taken by Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chanceller Joel Klein as evidence that the Mayor's overhaul of the Board of Education - now the Department of Education, mind you - was a good thing. In fact, the Mayor and Chancellor headed to P.S. 33 in the Bronx, where the number of students meeting standards doubled to 83% (scores rose 47%), and the Mayor said, "Tonight, everybody in the city has a reason to have a smile on their face." Many of the biggest gains were in urban areas, especially amongst black and Hispanic children, but some suggest that because the Mayor's plans held back many third graders last year, and they would have dragged down this year's scores. And also, there were percentage gains across the state, so it's hard to say that the city is exceptional with its scores. The troubling news is that the percentage of eighth graders reaching state reading standards actually dropped in NYC.

- And, finally, the horrible allegations that a teacher forced Haitian students to eat their food on the floor with their hands at P.S. 34 in Queens. The teacher was trying to discipline the students and there are varying reports about what she said, but it was something like that since they were acting like animals, they would have to eat like animals or that they act like animals where they come from...either way, having thirteen kids eating off the floor with their hands sounds like bad news. There's an active investigation into the actions, but the NAACP is planning a protest.