Chalkbeat

Education news. In context.

Chalkbeat

Turnaround

NEW MOMENT

Tennessee
April 25, 2018

Tennessee’s struggling state-run district just hired the ‘LeBron James’ of school turnaround work

Sharon Griffin’s new job is to better the state’s Achievement School District and use her experience to strengthen the relationships with local districts across the state.

Superintendent search

Tennessee
April 24, 2018

‘I can’t wait to get started,’ says Sharon Griffin on leading Tennessee’s Achievement School District

Sharon Griffin, a longtime leader at Shelby County Schools, will be the next leader of the state’s turnaround district.

Road map

Colorado
April 7, 2018

What’s next for Colorado schools ‘on the clock’? This bill would show the way

Colorado's school accountability law is silent about what should happen if students still aren’t learning in the years following state intervention.

Priorities and pushback

Colorado
April 2, 2018

A heated debate over the desire for a traditional high school in far northeast Denver boils over

“Everything we do is threatened by the idea of opening a new high school in the far northeast."

back in town

Tennessee
March 8, 2018

Back in Memphis, founding superintendent of Tennessee’s turnaround district says the effort needs more time

In town this week for a philanthropic event, Chris Barbic told Chalkbeat that he expects low-performing schools absorbed by the state-run district to see more progress.

moving forward

Tennessee
February 1, 2018

State turnaround district ready to hand off Memphis middle school to charter

Students at Westside Achievement Middle School likely will start next school year under a new operator.

charter talks

Tennessee
January 18, 2018

Hopson weighs charters as school turnaround tool for Shelby County Schools

The Memphis superintendent's comments hint at a potentially significant shift for a district that has battled openly with the charter sector over students.

No time to play

Colorado
January 12, 2018

Will recess cuts boost learning? One struggling Colorado district wants to find out.

A suburban Denver school district on a state-mandated improvement plan has cut recess time for elementary students in a bid to devote more time to instruction.

Big gains

Colorado
August 18, 2017

No. 1: This Denver turnaround school had the highest math growth in Colorado

The school also had the eighth-highest growth on state English tests.

Time will tell

Indiana
November 30, 2016

Is one year enough time to make a bad school better? Experts are divided.

Whether or not one year of test scores says much about a school depends on who you ask.

Failure to launch

Colorado
May 17, 2016

Freeing failing schools from bureaucracy hasn’t worked as hoped. So why is Colorado still doing it?

The state's 2008 innovation law was considered an education reform policy win.

Spreading Joy

Colorado
January 27, 2016

Inside McGlone Elementary, a rising Denver turnaround school with even higher hopes

“I’m really proud of everything our school has done,” principal Sara Gips Goodall said. “It’s still not enough.”

no holds barred

Colorado
January 21, 2016

Aurora Central grad: ‘Stop feeling sorry’ for poor kids

Former Aurora Central student advocates for better student-teacher relationships and college prep courses.

broken

Colorado
January 12, 2016

At Aurora’s struggling schools, teachers say they don’t know how to teach state standards

Among the recommendations to fix some of Aurora's most at-risk schools: Give more planning time to teachers and rethink how English language learners are taught.

exit strategy

Tennessee
July 17, 2015

Chris Barbic, founding superintendent of state-run Achievement School District, to exit

Barbic’s impending departure comes at a time of transition for the district, which has an ambitious goal of turning the state’s weakest schools into its best.

Turn It Around

Colorado
June 18, 2015

Why Denver Public Schools thinks “Year Zero” may be the answer to rocky turnarounds

Denver is hiring principals for its turnaround schools a year ahead of time to give them a chance to learn about schools before starting improvement efforts.

Growth Model

New York
May 4, 2015

Now aiming for 200 community schools, city unveils a plan to get there

The plan offers a way for community schools predating de Blasio's efforts to benefit from the new attention and resources being devoted to the model.

The Receivers at the Gates

New York
March 30, 2015

Budget deal gives city tight timeline to fix troubled schools before others could step in

If the mayor's “Renewal” program fails to turn around the city’s struggling schools, the chancellor might have to yield control to outside groups.

think again

Colorado
March 19, 2015

Aurora Central High students: we’re not a failing school

Three junior girls say the state should look beyond Aurora Central's test scores to see the true value of the school.

tick tock

Colorado
February 18, 2015

Aurora chief will propose changes for struggling Central high school

The district's goal: come up with a local solution that will better student outcomes before the state intervenes.

a second look

New York
October 23, 2014

Two years after escaping closure, a Bronx high school works to improve

Two years after a proposal to close Alfred E. Smith CTE High School was nixed, the school's principal has worked to increase attendance rates and morale, while still facing a number of big challenges common to low-performing schools.

Arne Duncan

Tennessee
September 10, 2014

Memphis school improvement efforts in spotlight as Duncan finishes back-to-school tour

"I moved to Memphis thinking I’d change lots of lives every year. But really, my life has been drastically changed," said teacher Brittany Ordue.

Steel City Turnaround: Part 1

Colorado
August 12, 2014

As the state’s accountability clock ticks down, a district struggles to move forward

Pueblo City Schools, which enrolls nearly 18,000 students, is the largest in the state to near the end of the state's accountability clock. Unless Pueblo’s most recent test scores — which will be released later this week — reflect significant gains, officials will have just a year to get the district into the state’s safe zone.

Say You'll Be There

Colorado
January 31, 2014

On an upward trajectory, Adams 14 reaches out to community to earn back trust

Commerce City school officials hope by proving they've put in the initial work to boost academic achievement, the community will follow. They want the community's help in creating the necessary political and social environment to push the district over the finish line as it races to beat the Colorado "accountability clock."
Colorado
January 24, 2014

Report: Colorado needs more, better turnaround leaders

Finding principals to successfully lead turnaround efforts in Colorado schools is proving difficult, according to a report issued this week by the Donnell-Kay…

ASD

Tennessee
January 14, 2014

Green Dot prepares to “transform” first school in Memphis

A conversation with Green Dot's Megan Quaile about why Green Dot chose Memphis, about finding the right people to turn around a high school, and on why Green Dot prefers to refer to it as "transforming" rather than "taking over" a school.
Tennessee
January 13, 2014

Tennessee earns mixed reviews on national education report card

Tennessee schools ranked low in academic achievement and school finance, but high in other policy areas in Education Week‘s annual Quality Counts report, released last week. Meanwhile,…
Colorado
January 10, 2014

Pueblo City Schools’ superintendent to retire

Pueblo City Schools Superintendent Maggie Lopez will retire at the end of the school year, the district announced today. The retirement marks the end of…
Colorado
December 18, 2013

Report: Poor oversight on Colorado turnaround effort

Fewer than half of all schools that received federal grant money in the first three years of the School Improvement programm outperformed the state average growth percentile, or how the state measures academic progress by students and their academic peers, a report from A+ Denver found.
Colorado
November 13, 2013

State board to hear options for turnaround schools as ‘clock’ runs short for two

For the first time, the State Board of Education is hearing specific recommendations about its legal options and mandates when a school district is deemed failing for five years.
New York
May 16, 2013

After appellate court ruling, city finally hangs up 'turnaround' bid

The city is finally, officially calling off its quest to close 24 schools that a labor arbitrator ended nearly a year ago. After an arbitrator ruled that the city's plans to overhaul the schools using a process known as "turnaround" violated its contracts with the teachers and principals unions, the city filed suit, arguing that the issue wasn't fit for arbitration in the first place. A judge quickly ruled against the city, and the school closure plans were halted for the year. But the city appealed again, and today, the state's Appellate Court ruled again that the city's arguments were without merit. "The arbitrator neither exceeded his powers ... nor violated public policy in resolving the merits of the parties' disputes,” read the ruling by the panel of judges.
New York
November 26, 2012

Among 24 schools city says it could close, some familiar names

Marc Sternberg, the Department of Education deputy chancellor in charge of school closures, said the city would consider whether to phase out 24 struggling high schools. Seven high schools that the city tried in vain to close last year are among the two dozen that the Department of Education might move to shutter this year. Department officials announced today that they had added 24 high schools to the list of schools they are considering closing. The schools join 36 elementary and middle schools already slated for “early engagement” meetings, the first step in the city's school closure process. The department named those schools in October but postponed the meetings because of Hurricane Sandy. The high schools were culled from 60 whose progress report scores made them eligible for closure under the city's rules. Their test scores, attendance, graduation rates, and readiness for college do not measure up to city standards, according to Deputy Schools Chancellor Marc Sternberg, the department official who oversees school closures, who said the schools' presence on the early engagement list indicates that they have deep problems to address. "What we see in a school that can't demonstrate the capacity to improve dramatically and to improve quickly is a calcification of the systems that lead to good schools," Sternberg told reporters in a briefing on the reports this afternoon. "The adults are not communicating clearly and well with each other, there's a lack of collaboration, a lack of organizational alignment that will enable the kind of instruction we know is important and necessary to lead to good outcomes."
New York
November 6, 2012

Dewey gets its building back, but longer-term problems remain

Smoke billows from John Dewey High School following the sound of an explosion on Monday night, during Hurricane Sandy. Credit: Sandra Aronowitz-Garron/Youtube Teachers from John Dewey High School reported for duty to Sheepshead Bay High School on Monday with a sinking feeling. Months after narrowly escaping closure, the school had struggled since September to settle on programs for its 1,900 students and, if that were not enough, its Gravesend building had caught on fire during Hurricane Sandy. Now they thought  students and staff would have spread out among three different school buildings, including Sheepshead Bay, for the foreseeable future. "It could be, without a doubt, another nail in the coffin," one teacher said about the planned relocation. "It's a whirlwind to be told to go here or there." The school’s staff spent Monday deciding who would report where on Wednesday, and creating new schedules for their students. Then, late Monday evening, teachers got a phone call from the Department of Education with unexpected news: Dewey would be able to reopen right away after all. Teachers said the phone call came as a welcome surprise, but some said they thought the location was the least of Dewey’s worries. Last week, Chancellor Dennis Walcott cited Dewey as one of the most severely damaged schools in the wake of the hurricane. And teachers said they had received no hints that the school would be ready to reopen any time soon, even after Principal Kathleen Elvin stopped by the building to assess repair efforts on Monday morning and afternoon. But department officials said the School Construction Authority had been able to install a generator and get Dewey’s boiler to work, making the building safe for students and teachers. The quick return was exactly what some teachers said they thought the school needed.
New York
October 18, 2012

HS of Graphic Communication Arts in crisis, staff members say

Staff members at the High School of Graphic Communication Arts say Room 310, where musical instruments, books, and other discarded materials are piled high, is a symbol for deep disorganization at the school this year. Manhattan’s long-struggling High School of Graphic Communication Arts was supposed to turn a corner this year. But instead, students and staff throughout the school say a recent string of poor leadership decisions is threatening the school's ultimate fate. The toilet plungers that students were told to wield as hall passes last month — until the Department of Education ended the practice — are a distressing symbol of much larger problems at the school, they say. A month into the school year, longstanding programs are in disarray, materials and personnel are languishing unused, and many students have had such inconsistent schedules that their teachers say they have learned far less than they should have by now. "They are all so off-track right now that the first projects we have, I can't really truly grade them as I normally would," one teacher said about students. "I'm going to have to try to make up the knowledge somehow, but I don't know how yet. They should be much further along than they are now." GothamSchools spoke with nearly a dozen newly hired and veteran staff members under the condition of anonymity, as well as other people close to the school. The staffers span the school's grade levels, program offerings, and organizational hierarchy. All said that the ultimate responsibility for the problems should fall on Principal Brendan Lyons, who took over at the school last year and was the department’s pick to lead it through “turnaround.” The aggressive overhaul process for 24 schools was halted this summer after an arbitrator ruled the city’s plans violated its contract with the teachers union.
New York
October 10, 2012

New York City could get $25M for turnaround this year after all

Three of the 24 schools that the city tried to close and reopen this summer could undergo "turnaround" after all. Under the aggressive form of the federally prescribed school overhaul process that the department tried to carry out, all teachers at the struggling schools were required to reapply for their jobs. The city set no quota for rehiring, but the requirement that no more than 50 percent be rehired in order for the schools to qualify for federal funding was widely known. An arbitrator ruled in June that the city's version of turnaround ran afoul of its contract with the teachers union. But three of the schools — some of the smallest proposed for turnaround — turned over more than 50 percent of their teachers last year anyway, so they meet the federal requirements for funding. The schools are Bread and Roses Integrated Arts High School, J.H.S. 22 in the Bronx, and M.S. 126 in Brooklyn. Now, the city has asked for turnaround funding for them and for 15 other schools that it is shutting down through its regular closure process. Under that process, used for years, one school phases out while others phase in in the same space.
New York
September 20, 2012

Walcott visits ex-turnaround schools without addressing turmoil

Dennis Walcott, with Principal Magdalen Radovich, students, and several officials from the Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation, announced an AT&T grant to fund Flushing HS after-school programs. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott has quietly visited several former "turnaround" schools in recent weeks, but he has done so without calling attention to the fact that the city planned to close them until just a few months ago. During the first week of school, Walcott made unannounced visits to two of the schools in Brooklyn. At John Dewey High School, where large-scale scheduling problems are prevailing, he shook hands with students one morning. He stopped by William Grady Career and Technical High School, which was removed from the turnaround roster in April, the same day. Neither visit made his public schedule, and department officials said they had nothing to do with the schools' ex-turnaround status. Instead, the stops were like many that the chancellor, an avid school visitor, has made outside of public view, the officials said. And on Wednesday, he shared the stage with the new principal of Flushing High School at a press conference heralding a substantial grant from AT&T to the Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation, which runs an after-school program at the school. Working in about 150 city schools, SASF was only the second group, after the YMCA of New York, to receive a grant through Aspire, a $250 million AT&T grant program aimed at boosting college readiness among high-need students. The grant will help SASF hire staff to support its program at Flushing, which includes targeted efforts to help incoming ninth-graders make up academic ground. Speaking to the students and staff who attended the press conference, Walcott praised SASF and said, "We expect success from all of you to not just achieve but to achieve at a high level. To do that you need to support great teachers, you need to support great leaders, we need to support families, not-for-profits, the generosity of corporate giving." But he did not acknowledge the turmoil the school had gone through in recent months as the city tried to close and reopen it using the turnaround process. Nor did he note the school's leadership change, made in turnaround's early stages. And after the press conference, Walcott ducked out without talking to reporters. A department spokeswoman said he was late to a meeting and would be taking questions over email instead, but the spokeswoman did not respond by day's end.
New York
September 11, 2012

With federal funds lost, city sending trainees to stronger schools

Chancellor Dennis Walcott talks to teachers at M.S. 223 while principal Ramon Gonzalez looks on during a visit last week. M.S. 223 is working with nine teaching residents this year. A program to train and keep new teachers inside some of the city's most struggling schools is expanding to include better-performing schools as well. The New York City Teacher Residency launched last summer at two schools that were receiving federal funds earmarked for overhauling struggling schools. The point of the program, city officials said at the time, was to create a talent pipeline for schools that have trouble attracting teachers. But because the city and its teachers union did not agree on a new teacher evaluation system by a state deadline, the funds were cut off in January. The city is going forward with plans to double the size of the residency program anyway, but instead of sending new residents only to struggling schools, it is also directing them to schools that the city has touted as success stories. And it is picking up the bill out of the Department of Education's regular budget. The department opened the program to stronger schools in order to expose the teachers-in-training to a wider range of "best practices" and mentorship from experienced teachers, officials said. "Think, what would it actually be like if these teachers were trained at a successful school instead of at a failing school?" said Ashley Downs, the special education director at M.S. 223 in the Bronx who is helping to mentor that school's nine residents.
New York
August 21, 2012

After rueing SIG funding loss, city will give schools $18 million

A month ago, city officials said 24 struggling schools would have to miss out on costly school improvement programs because they were ineligible for federal "turnaround" grants. Now the city plans to pony up its own funds. In a release to reporters this afternoon that was short on details, officials said the department would allocate $18 million to the schools as "one-time transitional support" to make up for the loss of $30 million School Improvement Grants. City efforts to secure federal funding for these schools have been tense since the State Education Department yanked the funding from them and other schools late last December as a consequence for the city and union's unresolved teacher evaluation negotiations. To secure the funds, the city proposed to have 33 schools, later reduced to 24, undergo a stringent reform regimen called turnaround, which would have required the city to replace at least half the teachers at each school. To hit that quota, the city proposed closing the schools and re-opening them after replacing some teachers through a contractual process called 18-D. But an independent arbitrator ruled that those plans violated the teachers' contracts, and a court upheld the ruling in July. That ruling effectively made the city ineligible to receive the federal "turnaround" aid.
New York
July 31, 2012

City hands long to-do list to principals of ex-turnaround schools

For principals, August is usually a time for putting the final touches on staffing and curriculum decisions for the year — and for sneaking in a long-awaited vacation. The principals of 24 schools that the city tried to "turn around" will spend the month putting their schools back together. The turnaround process would have meant new names, shaken-up staffs, and new programs for the schools. But those changes were undone when an arbitrator ruled earlier this month that staffing plans for the schools violated the city's contract with the teachers and principals unions. Now, on the last day of July, the schools' principals are finding out which teachers intend to return in September, according to a letter they received from the Department of Education this evening. The letter, which the city released to reporters, offered the most detailed guidance the principals have gotten yet about how to proceed after months of uncertainty and disorder. In the email, the department official in charge of turnaround offers instructions ranging from what to call their schools in formal communications (by their original names) to what to do with all of the files generated by the hiring committees that were reviewing teaching candidates for the overhauled schools (lock them in a filing cabinet).
New York
July 31, 2012

City dissolves fleet of "master" and "turnaround" teachers

The teachers union's victory in a legal fight over the city's "turnaround" plans kept thousands of teachers at 24 struggling schools from losing their positions. But it has also put another group of teachers at risk. They are the "master" and "turnaround" teachers, a cohort of experienced educators selected to put in extra hours helping their colleagues in exchange for extra pay. The positions were funded through federal School Improvement Grants, but without turnaround or another overhaul process in place at the schools, those funds will not flow to the city. Last week, just after the city's final bid to reinstate turnaround failed, the 71 master and turnaround teachers got a letter from the Department of Education telling them to look for other positions. The demise of the elite positions has given rise to yet another city-union dispute centered around the schools formerly slated for turnaround.
New York
July 27, 2012

With "turnaround" dead in the water, city releases plan details

Even as city officials swore that they had not set any quota for rehiring at schools it was trying to shake up, they were assuring the state that the schools would replace at least 50 percent of teachers. The assurances were made in nearly 800 pages of documents submitted to the state in March as part of the city's application for federal School Improvement Grants. The city released the original application Thursday, four months after submitting it and two days after a State Supreme Court effectively torpedoed the city's bid for the funds. The documents include a letter addressed to State Education Commissioner John King from the deputy chancellor overseeing turnaround, an outline of the plans, and a 770-page tome on changes the city proposed for each of the 24 schools, along with the city's justification for planning to close each of them. The release did not reflect changes that state and city officials said were made throughout the spring. The city also released a shortlist of programs on Thursday that it says are now at risk after an arbitrator ruled that the city's plans for staffing the schools violated its contracts with the teachers and principals unions. Much of the application's content for each schools mirrors the proposals the city released when it began preparing the schools for closure. But a separate section outlines just how changes at each school would meet federal requirements for "turnaround," the overhaul process that the city was proposing.
New York
July 25, 2012

On NY1, "turnaround" survivors discuss the possible aftermath

From left to right, teachers Dan Mejias, Mike McQuillen, and Lori Wheal speak to NY1 host Errol Louis about turnaround at their schools. M.S. 22 Principal Linda Rosenbury is obscured behind Mejias. When three teachers and a city principal sat down with NY1 reporter Errol Louis on Tuesday evening, they had just learned that the city's final chance to "turn around" their schools had fallen short. The decision meant that, contrary to the city's intention, their schools' names won't change. And even if the teachers had been told not to return — none of them had been — they could. It also means that a two-year experiment in using federal funds to fuel extra programs at the struggling schools has almost certainly come to an end. Receiving the funds, called School Improvement Grants, was contingent on turnaround, but an arbitrator concluded that the city's plans violated its contracts with the teachers and principals union. Appearing on Inside City Hall, the teachers — all part of an advocacy group that has clashed with the unions — said picking up the pieces would require more than simply blaming the UFT for suing over turnaround, and one even gave an impassioned defense of the union. The teachers also warned that the schools might actually be in worse shape this fall than before they first received the federal funds in 2010. "Morale just crashed when we got those letters" telling teachers they had to reapply for their jobs, said Lori Wheal, a "master teacher" who was told she could stay on at M.S. 391 but is leaving for the policy arena instead. "We lost several effective educators."
New York
July 24, 2012

Judge ends year's turnaround saga with a fast, firm "no" to city

PHOTO: Caroline BaumanTeachers union attorney Adam Ross and Secretary Michael Mendel talk to reporters after the judge ruled to uphold the arbitration. The Bloomberg administration's Hail Mary effort to shake up the staffs at 24 struggling schools fell short today when a State Supreme Court judge shot down the city's request to move forward. An arbitrator, Scott Buchheit, ruled late last month that the city’s hiring and firing decisions at the schools — key aspects of the Department of Education’s "turnaround" plans — violated the city’s contract with the teachers union. The schools were not closing, Buchheit ruled, so the city could not invoke article 18-D of the contract, which sets out staffing rules for schools that are shut down. In a lawsuit filed quickly afterwards, the city contended that Buchheit had overstepped his bounds. Lobis signaled earlier this month that she thought the city was unlikely to win that argument when she rejected its request to be allowed to continue rehiring and replacing teachers at the schools while she considered its appeal. Today, after listening to city and union lawyers lay out their cases for 45 minutes this afternoon, Lobis retired to her chambers with a warning that she might return with a decision today. Seven minutes later, she emerged to say that she had come to a conclusion: The arbitrator's decision would stand. "I could spend weeks trying to tease out an erudite decision," Lobis said, but she added that all parties sought a speedy resolution and the legal issues at stake were not complicated. The city will appeal Lobis's decision, according to a statement from Michael Cardozo, the city's top lawyer.
New York
July 24, 2012

Before turnaround hearing, unlikely principal comes to city's aid

A screenshot from the online petition linked to in an email urging a State Supreme Court judge to allow the city to "turn around" 24 struggling schools. Twenty-four hours before city and union lawyers were due in court for yet another hearing about turnaround, a Bronx principal launched an email campaign to boost the city's case. Sarah Scrogin, principal of East Bronx Academy for the Future, sent an email titled "Love NY? Fix our schools!" Monday afternoon to a network of "Friends, Fellow Educators and New Yorkers." The email asks recipients to sign on to a petition or forward a letter supporting the city's bid to overhaul 24 schools. That bid was rolled back late last month when an arbitrator ruled that the hiring and firing process being used at the schools violated the city's contract with the teachers and principals unions. Today, the city is asking a State Supreme Court judge to overturn the arbitrator's decision. Scrogin's letter urges the judge, Joan Lobis, to look beyond the legal dispute she is charged with adjudicating. "In the coming weeks, as the judge ponders her final decision and weighs the legal issues before her, we ask her to weigh also the value to which we hold the futures of our city’s children," Scrogin writes in the email, which multiple people forwarded to GothamSchools. "We believe she must want the best possible teachers and schools for them." The petition link takes recipients to a form titled "NYC Signatures July 2012" that asks for a name, email address, school, and borough. The petition does not include the names of people who have signed on. Scrogin said today that she could not comment until she secured permission from the Department of Education to speak to reporters. But as the hearing got underway this afternoon, she distributed a list of 93 signatories by email. The signatories included 19 city principals and 12 city teachers, many from Scrogin's school. They also include dozens of "concerned citizens" and people outside of the city school system, such as the manager of labor relations for the NFL.
New York
July 24, 2012

City and teachers union return to court in turnaround saga today

The city and the teachers union are back in court this afternoon to argue over the fates of 24 so-called turnaround schools. Late last month, an arbitrator found that the city’s hiring and firing decisions at the schools — key aspects of the Department of Education’s turnaround plans — violated the city’s contract with the teachers union. With just weeks to go before the school year starts, the city is rolling back those plans and telling teachers and administrators who had been cut loose how to reclaim their positions, in accordance with the arbitrator's remedy. But the city doesn't want to give up the chance at using the turnaround model. So it is still arguing that the arbitrator overstepped his bounds and asking the State Supreme Court to overturn his decision. Two weeks ago, Judge Joan Lobis rejected the city's request to be allowed to continue rehiring and replacing teachers at the schools while she considers the appeal. At the time, Lobis signaled that she did not think the city would be likely to win the case in the end. That's what a city attorney who specializes in labor relations also told GothamSchools before the first hearing with Lobis.
New York
July 11, 2012

Administrators warn of leadership vacuum at schools in limbo

A day after the city lost its latest bid to move forward with its plans to overhaul the staffs of 24 "turnaround" schools, school leaders say they are sitting on their hands as they await guidance from the Department of Education. Reiterating comments he made during a Monday radio appearance, Chancellor Dennis Walcott said today that his goal is for the schools to open smoothly this fall, according to SchoolBook. He also said he would meet with their principals next week. But administrators at the schools today said they had heard nothing concrete. The department has declined to comment on its plans for the schools since a judge ruled on Tuesday that the city would have to reinstate teachers and principals cut loose from the schools while it appeals an arbitrator's ruling blocking the staffing changes. The teachers and principals unions said their members have not gotten any updates on how they can reclaim their jobs at the schools. And administrators at some of the schools say they can't see how the next school year can open smoothly when it's not even clear who is in charge right now. "We'd really love to get back in there and do what we do," said one administrator who was ousted last month but is now entitled to return. "I should be preparing stuff for the year. Seeing what kids didn't graduate, why they didn't; calling up kids who didn't come to summer school; attendance outreach; planning freshman orientation — it's a million things we'd be doing. And I'd be doing regular hirings, because we had a lot of retirements this year." The department's preferred principals were in place at 18 of the 24 schools before the end of the school year, and they cannot be displaced. But at six schools, principals from the 2011-2012 school year can reclaim their jobs under the arbitrator's ruling.
New York
July 10, 2012

Judge rules that city must reinstate staff at turnaround schools

Lawyers for the UFT spoke to reporters about the union's short-term court victory outside of New York State Supreme Court today. Legal battles between the city and the United Federation of Teachers are typically long, drawn-out affairs. Not today. In just 40 minutes this afternoon, Judge Joan Lobis of the New York State Supreme Court made up her mind about the city's request to suspend an arbitrator's ruling in the UFT's favor while she considers the city's formal appeal. There will be no restraining order, Lobis ruled. That means that hiring and firing decisions that have been made at 24 struggling schools that the city was trying to overhaul will be reversed. The Department of Education will have to reinstate hundreds — and possibly thousands — of teachers and administrators cut loose from the schools as part of the "turnaround" process. "They no longer have an excuse for not complying with the arbitrator's award," Ross said about the city. Asked by reporters about the education department's immediate plans for allowing the teachers to reclaim their positions, Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg said, "Talk to the law department." The city's top lawyer, Michael Cardozo, said in a statement that he was confident that Lobis would side with the city as the case moves forward. The hearing was a first step in the city's appeal of a ruling handed down two weeks ago by an arbitrator who found that the city's hiring and firing decisions — a key aspect of the Department of Education's turnaround plans — violated the city's contract with the teachers union.
New York
July 9, 2012

Phase one of Stuy HS cheating inquiry ends in canceled scores

It's summer break, so Stuyvesant High School students probably weren't listening to the radio at 7 a.m. today. But if they were, 69 of them would have found out from Chancellor Dennis Walcott that they will have to retake the end-of-year Spanish exams they took last month. That's the number of students that Department of Education investigators concluded had received exam questions in advance via a text message from a classmate. Walcott announced during an appearance on the John Gambling Show that also touched on the schools thrown into limbo by an arbitrator's ruling last month and the Department of Education's new focus on college readiness. The first phase of the investigation, conducted by the department's internal Office of Special Investigations, looked only at student behavior and meted out punishments, including some suspensions, according to the city's discipline code, Walcott said. The next phase, he said, is to look at whether Stuyvesant's principal, Stanley Teitel, and his staff followed the appropriate protocol after learning about the cheating on the city exams. "We have to look at the process," Walcott said. "Once the allegation was made, what happened after that?" Teitel sent a letter to parents June 20 alerting them to the cheating and informing them that students suspected of cheating would lose some privileges, such as the right to leave campus for lunch. But the city did not find out about the cheating allegations for nearly a week after that letter went home.
New York
July 6, 2012

Arbitrator: City used "circular reasoning" to justify turnarounds

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's testimony before an arbitrator drove one nail into the coffin of the city's plans to replace or rehire teachers at 24 "turnaround" schools. Last week an arbitrator determined that the city violated the city's contracts with the teachers and principals unions when it moved to replace staff members at the schools. This afternoon the arbitrator, Scott Buchheit, released a detailed explanation of why he ruled the way he did. The city was trying to use hiring procedures set for closing schools and their replacements. But the unions argued that the turnaround plans were "sham closures" that would not result in new schools. Instead, they argued, the city was unfairly using contractual provisions about "excessing" to remove teachers and administrators it deemed unsatisfactory. In upholding the unions' grievance, Buchheit at times turns Bloomberg's and other city officials' words against them. He quotes a 2011 memorandum written by the Department of Education's chief financial officer, which said, "excessing is not a permissible way to deal with unsatisfactory teachers." Yet city officials said they intended to do just that from the start of the turnaround process, Buchheit determined.
New York
July 6, 2012

Schooled in activism, Grover Cleveland grad aims for law school

Grover Cleveland High School student Diana Rodriguez spearheaded student protest against her school's closure. Less than two weeks after graduating from high school, Diana Rodriguez is staying busy. The Queens teenager is up at 6 a.m. to go for a morning run, work her two summer jobs, and take driving lessons a few months before she is set to start college. It’s a heavy workload — but it's not the biggest responsibility the 17-year-old has taken on. This spring, she led classmates at Grover Cleveland High School in a fight for the school's life. The school was one of 33 the city planned to close and reopen using an overhaul process, known as "turnaround," that included changing the school’s name and replacing half of the school staff. Rodriguez was enraged. Already the senior class president, she sprang into action galvanizing her classmates to protest the turnaround plans. “I wouldn't stand for it,” said Rodriguez. “You can’t mess with my education – education is a right.” That was Rodriguez's rallying cry as she joined other students in schools facing closure across the city in a group called Student Activists United. The group turned out students for public hearings, called Panel for Educational Policy members who would vote on the closures, and even held an early-morning rally outside Mayor Bloomberg's Upper East Side home.
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