Mayoral Candidates: Beware the Circling Vultures
I’m not a big fan of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, at least not since he burdened our schools in 2011 with the worst appointment since Spiro Agnew, that of a former publishing executive as schools chancellor.
But let’s not forget that Mr. Bloomberg also appointed Joel I. Klein, who succeeded in raising high school graduation rates for the first time in more than half-a-century.
He did so by closing failed schools, opening better new small ones, investing in leadership, empowering those school leaders to make the important decisions, partnering with the private sector, dismantling ineffective parts of central, putting more money into school budgets, and holding those of us who were privileged to work with the city’s schoolchildren accountable for the highest levels of student performance and achievement.
City Hall News Eric NadelsternAs a consequence, graduation rates soared to 65 percent after remaining stagnant at 50 percent since the mid-
But let’s not forget that Mr. Bloomberg also appointed Joel I. Klein, who succeeded in raising high school graduation rates for the first time in more than half-a-century.
He did so by closing failed schools, opening better new small ones, investing in leadership, empowering those school leaders to make the important decisions, partnering with the private sector, dismantling ineffective parts of central, putting more money into school budgets, and holding those of us who were privileged to work with the city’s schoolchildren accountable for the highest levels of student performance and achievement.
City Hall News Eric NadelsternTesting Takes Its Toll on Special Needs Students
It has been a challenging week for many third through eighth grade public school students in New York City, as they have started their days on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with the federally mandated English Language Arts exams. But as Gotham Schools reported on Wednesday, the week has been especially challenging for some students with special needs.
This year, test-taking time has doubled for all students. For those students with disabilities who are given more time to complete the tests, “testing can stretch as long as three hours on each day of testing. That means the students could spend more than half of the school day — and more than 18 hours total — on state exams this week and next,” Jessica Campbell reports for Gotham.
This year, test-taking time has doubled for all students. For those students with disabilities who are given more time to complete the tests, “testing can stretch as long as three hours on each day of testing. That means the students could spend more than half of the school day — and more than 18 hours total — on state exams this week and next,” Jessica Campbell reports for Gotham.
At I.S. 190 in the Bronx, Maribeth Whitehouse’s self-contained special education class of eighth-graders sat down to their reading exams at 9 a.m. Tuesday. Including the time it took to hand out the test, read directions, and take breaks, her students didn’t close their test books and head to