The 74

“It’s frustrating to listen to Chancellor Carmen Farina talk about the state of New York City public schools, because the school system she talks about in press conferences is so far removed from the reality that so many kids face every day.

My son attends P.S. 289 in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, a chronically struggling school where just one in four children are passing the state’s math and English Language Arts proficiency tests. I constantly worry about his academic needs — the school’s curriculum, the lack of accountability within the classrooms, the poor quality of his teachers and the ongoing need for additional instruction time for his struggling classmates. I’m not alone in my concerns that the children in my community are not receiving a quality education. In fact, a group of P.S. 289 parents have come together to demand change.”

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Education Week

“New acting U.S. Secretary of Education John King used his first major speech, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to call for continued attention to educational equity, even as states and school districts prepare for new flexibility on K-12 accountability.

The Every Student Succeeds Act—the latest iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—seeks to restore major control over K-12 to states and place major restrictions on federal power when it comes to standards, testing, accountability and more.

But King said Monday that the federal government retains key authority to ensure equity for all students—and he expects to use it.”

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New York Post

“The city’s infamous rubber rooms have rebounded.

In one of the ‘reassignment centers,’ 16 exiled educators sit in a city Department of Education building in Long Island City, Queens, including a dozen packed into one room — where they do virtually no work.

They listen to music, do crossword puzzles, chat — and as this exclusive Post photo reveals, doze on the taxpayer’s dime.”

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The 74

“I grew up in the shadow of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. You could say every black kid born after 1960 did. While the jackboot of outright racism in America was being lifted from the neck of people of color during this time, black parents, mine and others, were always beating into me that the repressive reality of Jim Crow and burning crosses was our recent — not our ancient — history.

When you ignore the past you’re doomed to both repeat it and learn nothing from it. And in looking back at King’s famous letter from the Birmingham jail, the similarities between the era’s quest for black freedom and the current battle to improve education for black children rings similar. So it has to be asked: Have the white moderates he spoke of then turned into today’s white progressives who oppose change in education?”

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New York Daily News

“Students in the city’s more affluent neighborhoods are improving math and English skills at higher rates than those in low-income areas, creating a “proficiency gap,” according to a new report obtained by the Daily News.

While researchers at the Manhattan Institute found that state test scores in English Language Arts had improved by 4 percentage points and math proficiency had jumped 6 percentage points, the gains were spread across the city.”

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The 74

“The contingent of lawyers for the teachers union were openly dejected. That much was clear just from standing behind them on the long line to pick up coats at the United States Supreme Court. That wait gave them plenty of time to relive their colleagues’ oral arguments in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.

Justice by justice and argument by argument, their hopes for preserving compulsory union dues in the public sector had just crumbled.”

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Chalkbeat NY

“After proposing renovations to Penn Station and $200 million to revitalize upstate airports this month, Governor Andrew Cuomo plugged “community schools” as a way to reform the criminal justice system.

That’s the only mention Gov. Cuomo has made of public schools in a series of policy proposals released in advance of his combined State of the State and budget speech this Wednesday. The lead-up to this year’s speech is vastly different from last year, when the governor promised an aggressive education agenda — and delivered over the next several months.”

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Politico New York

“ALBANY — As state education policymakers struggle to overcome the intense controversy the Common Core has generated, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has retreated from the new learning standards.

Cuomo advocated for higher education standards his 2010 campaign for governor, though he hasn’t always called for the Common Core by name.

His careful wording and indirect influence over education policy, which is set by the Board of Regents, have given him the flexibility to keep some distance from the debate and step into the conversation when it suits him, as when he campaigned for re-election.”

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TNTP Blog

“Can teachers be forced to give money to a union they don’t support? That’s the question at the heart of a case the Supreme Court hears on Monday—a case that could send shockwaves through the entire public education system.

Back in 1977, the Court ruled that all teachers who are represented by a union—even those who don’t actually want to be members—can be required to chip in part of every paycheck to cover the costs of collective bargaining. Now, in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a group of California teachers are challenging these so-called ‘agency fees.’ These teachers want nothing to do with their union, and claim that the First Amendment gives them the right not to contribute a single penny to support it. If the Court agrees, unions across the country stand to lose millions of dollars a year in guaranteed revenue—potentially enough to cripple their operations.”

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The New York Times

“When Mayor Bill de Blasio took office, it seemed like the start of a bright new day in the relationship between City Hall and the people who run New York City’s schools.

Rather than close struggling schools, as his predecessor Michael R. Bloomberg had done, Mr. de Blasio promised to support them. In November 2014, he and his schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, announced a program to funnel resources, training and social services into 94 of the lowest-performing schools.”

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