By Geoff Decker and Stephanie Snyder Chalkbeat NY "Students who attend the low-performing schools at the heart of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s school turnaround initiative are twice as likely to have a low-rated teacher as their peers in an average ... Continue Reading
The Gap Between Rich and Poor Schools Grew 44% Over a Decade
April 6, 2015 by
By Jill Barshay The Hechinger Report "The growing gap between rich and poor is affecting many aspects of life in the United States, from health to work to home life. Now the one place that’s supposed to give Americans an equal chance at life — ... Continue Reading
Union Loses, Kids Win
March 18, 2015 by
The Editors Observer Opinion "The state’s public school children were well served last week when a state Supreme Court justice on Staten Island, Philip G. Minardo, allowed a lawsuit against tenure rules to proceed. Unions representing state and ... Continue Reading
Why Weak Teachers are so Hard to Fire
March 17, 2015 by
By Katharine B. Stevens New York Post "Parents who claim teacher-dismissal laws violate their children’s constitutional right to a “sound basic education” won a big victory last week when a New York City judge, Philip Minardo, denied a move to ... Continue Reading
Teachers With Few Years on the Job, Wrong Credentials are the Norm at Many Poor NYC Schools
March 17, 2015 by
By Ben Chapman, Nolan Hicks, Larry McShane New York Daily News "Most of the students in Banana Kelly High School's class of 2015 have been at the school longer than the majority of its teachers have been on the job. Students at the Bronx ... Continue Reading
Campbell Brown: Political Attacks on Common Core Are Driven by Pandering
March 11, 2015 by
The Washington Post At the Conservative Political Action Conference this week, the supposed evils of the Common Core educational standards were front and center. So, too, was an unmistakable case of pandering. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) ... Continue Reading
The Farina Method of Purging Bad Teachers
March 10, 2015 by
By Eliza Shapiro Capital New York "Carmen Fariña has been talking a lot about bad teachers recently. The schools chancellor, who defined her first year on the job as a mission to restore “joy” and “respect” to the classroom, has, of late, been ... Continue Reading
The Teacher Who Believes Math Equals Love
March 9, 2015 by
By Cory Turner nprED "Sarah Hagan has a passion for math, and the pi-shaped pendant to prove it. The 25-year-old teaches at Drumright High School in Drumright, Okla. The faded oil town is easy to miss. Fewer than 3,000 people live there, and ... Continue Reading