Adam Masin
New York Daily News
“New York parents won an important victory in March when a judge ruled that a lawsuit could go forward against New York’s teacher tenure and firing laws for violating children’s constitutional right to the education they deserve.”
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.
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.”
By Katharine B. Stevens
New York Daily News
“In a little-noticed legal action Wednesday, the state teachers union is once again attempting to toss out the teacher tenure lawsuit launched last July, which argues that New York’s laws protecting educators from termination violate children’s constitutional right to a “sound basic education.””
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.”
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.”
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.””
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.”
By Gerson Borrero
City & State
“As the unresolved battle surrounding the New York State assessment of students’ academic achievement rages, City & State Editor-at-Large Gerson Borrero discusses the issue with Derrell Bradford, Executive Director of the New York Campaign for Achievement Now and a member of High Achievement New York.”
By Carl Campanile
New York Post
“Two-thirds of New Yorkers say student results on Common Core exams should be used to rate teachers, according to a poll released Monday.
Of the 67 percent of voters who support linking test results to teacher evaluations, 39 percent said the results should count for 25 percent of an educator’s score, 19 percent it should cover half the grade and 9 percent said it should count more than 50 percent, the Sienna College Poll found.”