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.”
By Post Editorial Board
“The whole city should be just as outraged as Melissa Mejia, the William Cullen Bryant HS “grad” who revealed in Sunday’s Post that she’d been awarded a fraudulent diploma.
Well, the whole city except for the insiders who conduct (or just wink at) such fraud all across New York’s schools system.”
By Erik Engquist | Crain’s New York
“It’s inevitable: When New York’s standardized test scores are discussed, everyone focuses on the portion of students achieving proficiency. And, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo often points out, that number is under 40%.
“Thirty-one percent of third to eighth graders are proficient in English, but 99% of the teachers are rated effective; 35% of third to eighth graders are proficient in math but 98% of the math teachers are rated effective,” Mr. Cuomo boomed in his state of the state address in January. “Who are we kidding, my friends?””
New York Daily News Editorial Board
“Two of the city’s worst-performing schools are on track to get a desperately needed infusion of fresh teaching talent.
Give credit to Mayor de Blasio, Chancellor Carmen Fariña and leaders at Automotive and Boys and Girls high schools for taking a crucially important step forward.”
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 Jenny Sedlis
City & State
“The greatest single factor impacting a student’s ability to learn is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. But right now, parents across the state cannot count on a system that rates 95 percent of teachers across New York state as effective, despite the fact that just a third of public school students are considered proficient in English and math. Something doesn’t add up and something has to change so students across the state get the education they deserve no matter what school they attend. Central to that improvement is developing a better system to assess the educators.”