Au Hogan | The 74

“Last week, I was one of hundreds of New York City parents rallying outside City Hall to demand answers about teacher quality — and the city’s ‘Absent Teacher Reserve.’ As public school parents, citizens and taxpayers, we deserve to have our voices heard when it comes to the future of our children.

But instead of listening to me, or the voices of the other parents who came out that day, Mayor Bill de Blasio blew right past. He didn’t stop and listen; didn’t even break his stride. His dismissive reaction speaks volumes about how much he really cares about what real people think about the state of our public schools.”

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New York Post Editorial Board

“Mayor de Blasio rails against ‘inequality’ — yet he’s doing everything in his power to keep city schools unequal.

That’s what brought hundreds of parents to rally at City Hall Tuesday, demanding to know if the mayor is sending weak teachers to schools in poor, minority areas.

After all, the city refuses to say.

Backed by StudentsFirstNY, parents filed a Freedom of Information request last November, asking where teachers go when they leave the Absent Teacher Reserve system.

What’s the ATR pool? Well, when a school gets downsized or closed, its teachers must try to get another school to hire them. Good ones get snapped up — but, thanks to its labor contract, the city still has to pay the teachers no principal will take.”

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Heather Kays | Watchdog.org

“NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio smiled and looked over his shoulder as he hurried past more than 500 parents who gathered on the steps of New York City Hall to demand answers about placement of ineffective teachers in the city.

The parents booed and repeatedly yelled ‘Details!’ as de Blasio rushed out of city hall and past the rally without stopping Tuesday.

When asked how she felt about the mayor’s behavior, Darlene Boston, a parent attending the rally organized by StudentsFirstNY told Watchdog.org, ‘We felt angry. We felt disrespected. We’re the parents who voted for de Blasio and he ignores us and denies our children an education.'”

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The 74

“New York City’s failing district schools have cost 133,000 children their academic futures.

According to a new study reported in the New York Daily News, one-third of city students who have taken state math and English tests during Mayor de Blasio’s time in office have received the lowest possible score — a Level 1 out of 4. Almost all of these children are low-income children of color.

When students score a Level 1, it means they are not learning to read or do math. As a result, once third-graders score a ‘1’ on their state exams, they’re almost always stuck at that level for the rest of their academic career. In 2015, 70% of the fifth-graders who had previously received a 1 on their third-grade exams scored at this level yet again. This pattern was repeated for eighth-graders taking the 2015 math exams, with 70% of the students who received a 1 on their fifth-grade math tests remaining at that level.”

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The Wall Street Journal

“From an amicus brief submitted June 7 to the California Supreme Court in support of the plaintiff’s petition for review in Vergara v. California, a case challenging teacher tenure in public schools; signatories include Laurence H. Tribe, Michael W. McConnell and L. Lawrence Lessig III:

The statutes at issue impair the fundamental right to education. They categorically prioritize the job security of teachers—regardless of their competence—over the educational needs, interests, and rights of California school children. They do so despite the existence of other ways, more consistent with the educational rights of the State’s schoolchildren, to protect legitimate interests in teacher job security. The upshot of handicapping the ability to efficiently identify and remove grossly ineffective teachers, and providing institutional bias in favor of incompetent teachers, is to contract the marketplace of ideas within public schools by institutionalizing educational mediocrity. The California Constitution, however, establishes public schools for the benefit of children, not teachers, and the Education Clause talks about the right to public education as ‘essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people,’ not as a right essential to the economic security of the teachers selected by the State to make that right a reality.”

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Muhammed Akil | The 74

“In both private thought and public commemorations, many of us continue to reflect on the great life of Muhammad Ali. Rather than celebrate the man in general terms – the great athlete, the provocative speaker, the civil rights activist – let’s challenge ourselves to find the same courage he showed throughout his life to aggressively address our difficult social issues head on. We can choose to begin by acknowledging that education is the civil rights issue of our time.

Ali once stated, ‘A man who views the world at 50, the same as he did at 20, has wasted 30 years.’ This comment defines the importance of constantly evolving, developing, and not simply accepting ‘what is,’ but rather embracing ‘what could be.'”

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The Economist

“TO THE 11- and 12-year-olds in his maths class, Jimmy Cavanagh seems like a born teacher. He is warm but firm. His voice is strong. Correct answers make him smile. And yet it is not his pep that explains why his pupils at North Star Academy in Newark, New Jersey, can expect to go to university, despite 80% of their families needing help to pay for school meals.

Mr Cavanagh is the product of a new way of training teachers. Rather than spending their time musing on the meaning of education, he and his peers have been drilled in the craft of the classroom. Their dozens of honed techniques cover everything from discipline to making sure all children are thinking hard. Not a second is wasted. North Star teachers may seem naturals. They are anything but.”

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Alejandra Matos | StarTribune

“The Minneapolis school board approved a three-year contract with new superintendent Ed Graff.

Graff will begin his job on July 1 with an annual salary of $225,000, compared with $190,000 for former superintendent Bernadeia Johnson.

Last year, before selecting a new superintendent, the school board set a higher salary in an effort to attract high-caliber candidates. The average salary for an urban superintendent was $242,000 in 2014, according to the Council of the Great City Schools.”

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Rebecca Klein | HuffPost Education

“In America, the most rigorous classes, experienced teachers and moderate discipline practices tend to be reserved for white students, according to new survey results from the U.S. Department of Education.

The Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection surveys 99 percent of the nation’s public schools on issues related to the level of opportunity provided to their students. The survey, which is conducted every other school year, collects data about students’ access to classes, teachers and school discipline trends. The latest survey, which has data from the 2013-2014 school year, also collected data on issues like student absenteeism and the quality of education provided in juvenile justice facilities.”

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Nathan Strenge | MinnPost

“Not too long ago, I was teaching math at a public school just outside the Twin Cities. I loved my job, and I loved my students. Teaching advanced placement statistics, I worked tirelessly to foster strong relationships with students built on trust and high expectations. But when budget cuts rolled around in 2011, I was told I was being laid off. The principal expressed to me how disappointed he was – that he knew I was making a difference in our students’ lives. He fought as hard as he could to keep me, yet was met with one insurmountable roadblock: LIFO.”

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