A federal panel says the Department of Education discriminated against the principal of a Brooklyn dual-language school by forcing her to resign, when critics accused the institution of indoctrinating students into service for jihad. According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission the DOE “succumbed to the very bias that creation of the school was intended to dispel and a small segment of the public succeeded in imposing its prejudices on D.O.E. as an employer.” more ›

An Upper East Side building houses two seemingly segregated elementary schools: one for mostly black and Latino kids, one for mostly white and Asian kids. Since 1959 it's been home to P.S. 198 (aka Straus), a school that serves local children—24 percent are black and 47 percent are Latino. But go in the front door and you'll find yourself in the reportedly "serene" hallways of the Lower Laboratory School (P.S. 77), a gifted and talented program where 69 percent of the student body is white or Asian. The old sign for Straus hangs out front, but kids from that school enter through the back door. more ›

In its latest assault on the Department of Education’s Rubber Room (a long-term city holding area for bad teachers) the NY Post has published a list of its top offenders. That is, those who have been there the longest, get paid the best and have committed the most disgusting and reprehensible crimes (fondling, lewd comments, sexual assault, etc.). One put his hands down the pants of a special-ed student in 2003. One impregnated a student, who he met when she was 13. And we all know Rubber Room poster boy Alan Rosenfeld, who loves looking at his students’ rears. All get generous salaries and don’t work at all; in total they cost the city $540,000 each year. With out further ado, the “dishonor roll” as well as comments from the Schools Chancellor and Teachers Union President are after the break. more ›

And now for this week’s installment of Stories from the Rubber Room: today meet Francisco Olivares, a Queens math teacher who knocked up and then married his 16-year-old student, then decades later sexually molested two 12-year-olds and one more student, according to the Department of Education. Like that rich gross lawyer guy profiled last week, he’s sat for years in the Rubber Room, all the while draining the city’s coffers in ever-growing increments. more ›

Yesterday, the re-formed Board of Education voted unanimously to keep Schools Chancellor Joel Klein in control of the school system. The board's first meeting in years was, the NY Times reports, "not the chaos Mr. Bloomberg had predicted if mayoral control of the schools lapsed." And the Daily News notes, "Predictions of anarchy failed to materialize as the first day of summer school passed without the Soviet-style dysfunction Mayor Bloomberg predicted." more ›

Since the State Senate has been deadlocked for weeks, legislation giving Mayor Bloomberg control of the school system expired—forcing an emergency meeting of the re-formed Board of Education today. According to CityRoom, the Board's seven members are "three deputy mayors, three sympathetic allies of the mayor, and one wild card from the Bronx." The Daily News adds the Board "is expected to give [Schools Chancellor Joel] Klein authority over the school system -- essentially keeping Mayor Bloomberg in charge." more ›

A 14-year-old honor student tells the NY Post her direct pleas to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein about her safety at her school were ignored—until she was injured. Kimselle Castanos, whose family also repeatedly asked for a transfer, gave Klein a letter detailing how she was "terrorized by a band of teens at the Foreign Language Academy of Global Studies," back in December. He asked her to e-mail him, which the 14-year-old did, sending a total of 25 e-mails (from 12/22: "I am scared about what they are going to do to me") but without reply. Last month, the bullies, who attend a special education school in the same building, found her in the cafeteria: "A girl yanked Kimselle's ponytail so hard she heard a crack in her neck." Kimselle was transferred to the Bronx Leadership Academy; the Department of Education says her family never provided documentation of the threat and that it had been in contact with them. But, Kimselle, who wears a neck brace and whose parents plan to sue, wonders, "I don't understand why it took me getting hurt." more ›

Last month, a Queens kindergartener was handcuffed after a temper tantrum at PS 81, prompting his parents to threaten a lawsuit. Now a lawyer representing Dennis Rivera and his parents reveals they are filing a notice of claim against the city for $15 million. more ›

After a parents of a rejected student filed a class action lawsuit, the Department of Education asked a federal judge to overturn a 1974 ruling that set in place quotas to keep the school 40% minority and 60% white. The DOE wants the court to overturn the ruling immediately so the 2008-2009 will be quota-free. more ›

One of the Stuyvesant High School students seriously injured in last Saturday's Vermont van crash has returned home to New York. Junior Lucia Hsiao, a member of the girls' junior varsity track team, had suffered serious neck injuries but was able to "gingerly walk" to her room on her own. The Staten Island resident is wearing a halo around her head and will require a lot of rehab, but her dad said, "It could have been worse. She's done with the first step of recovery." more ›

Yesterday, the Daily News revealed that an East Harlem high school principal told teachers to effectively pass more students. Principal Bennett Lieberman's report card stated: "If you are not passing more than 65% of your students in a class, then you are not designing your expectations to meet their abilities. You are setting your students up for failure, which in turn, limits your success as a professional...most of our students ... have difficult home lives, and struggle with life in general. They DO NOT have a similar upbringing nor a similar school experience to our experiences growing up." more ›

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... more ›

The city is showing the door to a daycare facility that has called P.S. 122 its home for 26 years. The Children's Liberation Daycare Center (CLDC), which serves 88 kids between the ages of 2 and 6, is going to court later this month to object to its ejection from the building, with no plan for the daycare center's return. The CLDC shares P.S. 122 with three arts organizations and it's the city's Dept. of... more ›

Oh, Catholic League - it isn't even Halloween and you're getting ready for Christmas already! The Sun reports that the Catholic League sent a letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein questioning why nativity scenes cannot be displayed in schools. more ›

Debbie Almontaser, the erstwhile head and founder of Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran International Academy, will sue the city for violating her freedom of speech. She also claims Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein forced her to resign as principal under threat of closing the dual-language school. more ›

Back in March of 2003, Mayor Bloomberg opened up the City Hall Academy at the Tweed Courthouse. The school offered two-weeks "residencies" for students, giving them an "inter-disciplinary approach" to learn about NYC and its history. Mayor Bloomberg, who made education reform one of the cornerstone of his mayoral platform (it's a big part of his "national" persona, too!), had said, "The opening of City Hall Academy demonstrates our commitment to excellence, achievement, and innovation in the public school system. City Hall Academy will provide New York City children and their teachers a unique opportunity to study and participate in the cultural and historical fabric of the City.” more ›

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Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is many things. He's the head of the largest public school system in the country, he's a lawyer (he was a former Assistant Attorney General - biggest case: going after Microsoft) and he's a businessman (he was chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann). But who knew he was someone who should appear on The Colbert Report? more ›

After the Daily News revealed that a school officials actually forbade school deans to call 911 (in order to lower crime stats) only for a 14-year-old student who suffered a stroke to wait 90 minutes for medical attention, the Department of Education is launching an investigation. The News now reports that Schools Chancellor Joel Klein will launch a probe, saying, "We'll look into it and take appropriate action." more ›

Students of all ages are headed back to classes this morning. The NYC public school system is opening its doors this morning all over the city. Insideschools reminds us there are 1.1 million students and 150,000 educators in the system - and that quite a few charter schools have been open since last week! more ›

Mayor Bloomberg loves the arts and supports many arts and cultural institutions as a (billionaire) philanthropist. And yesterday, he made sure that NYC public school students get a chance to love the arts as well, by introducing ArtsCount, a way to make sure schools and their principals are offering arts programs "through accountability and quality improvement initiatives." more ›

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein offered his opinion of the Brooklyn school situation that raises questions about racial quotas set in place 33 years ago. Eleven-year-old Nikita Rau was rejected from the competitive IS 239/Mark Twain School in Coney Island because her admissions test scores were too low: Her 79 was lower than the 84.4 average score minority students need; white students may be admitted with scores of 77 or lower. more ›

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. more ›

Governor Spitzer and other state leaders finalized this year's budget, to the tune of $121.8 billion, just in time for tomorrow's deadline. While Spitzer has touted greater transparency with public process, the budget deal has been notable for negotiations taking place behind closed doors. The Times Union had Spitzer's opinion on the secrecy, "Do we all wish there had been more public articulation? You bet," but "said a 'wide chasm' between his plan and the Legislature's had to be bridged somehow." In other words, the Legislature didn't want to be steamrolled. more ›

The Daily News' series, School Bus Disgrace, is nothing short of amazing. There's just tale after tale of questionable behavior by school bus drivers - and that doesn't even include the drivers who have been convicted to convicted of attempted murder and other crimes. more ›

It's always great when surveys confirm what we know, because then it helps make us seem a little less crazy. amNew York reports on the NYC Transit Rider Council's bus survey that shows buses are typically 5 minutes and 15 behind their published schedules. The culprit is traffic and congestion that causes "bunching," which is when "one, two, or even three buses arrive at the same stop almost simultaneously." Another interesting finding: Some buses' signs say "Not in Service," "Subway Shuttle" and "Evacuation Center" even when they are running on their regular route! more ›

school begins seems to have settled down. The Department of Education apologized for the umpteenth time and even Mayor Bloomberg admitted that the changes didn't go very well (he did emphasize the savings were worth it). Of course, it's questionable how much the DOE will save after this mess. more ›

s fourth grade English exam. The NY Times takes up the cause, outlining the fight between parents and exam officials about how the exams overall might just be too nutty and stupid for their own good. Okay, not exactly in those words but if you listened to the passage, "Why the Rooster Crows at Dawn," you'd realize that it kind of does suck. Reading it is another matter, but the kids only got to listen to it twice. The story is mostly about a rooster in a barnyard with other barnyard animals, but a lot of the questions are about Brownie the cow! One student gave his memory of the question:

"I didn't think the test made that much sense. I felt good and confident when I was going to take the test. I listened to the story about the rooster (I couldn't look at it). They read it twice, I took all the notes I could and once I got to the big question I only had one thing I had recorded about the cow. I felt terrible. I didn't have the information to answer the question. I thought I had made a mistake, how could I have missed the information about the cow?"

Did the sidewalks and subways seem a little more crowded this morning? See more yellow school buses? That's because New York City public schools are open for the 2006-2007 school year. This year, the Department of Education is continuing to change, most notably with one-fifth of school principals becoming more autonomous (aka "empowerment schools") - they'll have more oversight over budgets, no more superintendents, but needing to meet DOE's performance goals. Here that principals with supers? You're empowered. more ›