New Study: Ignoring Teacher Performance in Layoffs Hurts Kids

August 10, 2015

Matt Barnum | The 74

Performance trumps seniority when it comes to deciding teacher layoffs — if the goal is to minimize negative effects on student learning.

A new study by Brown University professor Matthew Kraft finds that laying off teachers based on how long they have been in the classroom rather than how effective they are hurts student achievement in math. It’s the first evidence based on actual layoffs that the policy known as LIFO, or “last-in-first-out,” has harmful consequences for students.

Most NYC High School Graduates at CUNY Need Remedial Classes

July 5, 2015

By Aaron Short
New York Post

“New York City high school graduates who enroll at CUNY often aren’t ready for college, according to data showing the rising number of freshmen in need of remedial help.

An astonishing 78.3 percent of CUNY community college students who graduated from city high schools in 2014 enrolled in remedial courses this past school year, up from 77.6 percent the year before.”

America’s Promise to a New Generation

July 5, 2015

By Geoffrey Canada
New York Daily News

“In the 1960s, when I was a young boy growing up in the South Bronx, the poorest Congressional District in the United States, children around me were being lost to gangs, crime, drugs and lousy schools.

I, though, was sustained by a dream. My mother, a single woman, and my grandparents convinced me that if I went to school, worked hard and graduated from college, I could get out of the neighborhood, get a good job and live a “good life.””

Delay in the New Teacher Evaluations Can’t be the First Step in a Complete Cave-In

May 26, 2015

The Buffalo News Opinion

“That was fast.

Hardly six weeks after passing a new state budget that included important changes in the teacher evaluation system and aggressive deadlines for imposing them, the Assembly retreated en masse, voting 135-1 to slow it down.”

Assembly Panders to Teachers on Evaluations

May 25, 2015

Newsday Editorial Board

“The bill on education and teacher evaluations passed 135-1 last week by the State Assembly is almost certainly a dead end, but it may have set some sort of speed record. After all, the Assembly, Senate and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had agreed to a new evaluation plan less than two months ago.”

‘Opt-Out’ Becomes Anti-Test Rallying Cry in New York State

May 20, 2015

By Elizabeth A. Harris and Ford Fessenden
The New York Times

“BOICEVILLE, N.Y. — It started with a speech in the fall, to parents who had gathered in the auditorium to learn what to expect during the nascent school year.

“I spoke at the open house and said, ‘We hope you’ll opt out of the tests,’ ” said Heather Roberts, vice president of the Bennett Intermediate School parent teacher association. Last year, 92 percent of eligible students in the Catskill Mountains district that includes Boiceville took their standardized English tests. “Jaws dropped.””

61 Years After Brown v. Board of Education, Many Schools Remain Separate and Unequal

May 18, 2015

By Rebecca Klein
Huffington Post Education

“Decades after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared segregated schooling of black students unconstitutional, many American schools with high minority populations continue to receive fewer resources and provide an education that’s inferior to schools with large white populations.”

Partnership for Educational Justice