By JENNIFER MEDINA New York City is beginning to measure the performance of thousands of elementary and middle school teachers based on how much their students improve on annual state math and reading tests. To avoid a contentious fight with the teachers’ union, the New York City Department of Education has agreed not to make public the reports — which described teachers as average, below average or above average with various types of students — nor let them influence formal job evaluations... Read Full Story

By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ Roland G. Fryer Jr., a Harvard economist, has often complained that while pharmaceutical companies have poured billions of dollars each year into studying new drugs and Boeing devoted $3 billion to develop the 777 jet, there has been little spent on efforts to scientifically test educational theories. Now Dr. Fryer has quit his part-time post as chief equality officer of the New York City public schools to lead a $44 million effort, called the Educational Innovation... Read Full Story

WOOLSEY WRITES: It’s me, I did it MEA CULPA! MEA CULPA! I allowed students to use their cell phones in my class. Before your gasp of shock, please read my explanation below. My Senior Government class is engaged in a unit about democracy. The culminating activity is to put into practice what they have learned in the unit. Part of this is to lobby for real change in the school. In order to create their proposals they must contact all sorts of outside agencies, schools, and educational... Read Full Story

Flawed report cards mean big bucks for some lucky teachers!!!! By JENNIFER MEDINA Teachers at 89 elementary and middle schools will receive bonuses of several thousand dollars each, based on the progress their schools made on report cards released this week, Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced on Thursday. The bonuses, which total $14.2 million and will go to slightly more than half the 160 high-poverty schools the city deemed eligible, are part of Mr. Klein’s efforts to boost pay-for... Read Full Story

Princeton Review's Kanarek, however, said eighth grade is too late to begin pulling together a college prep portfolio."Eighth grade is not the key year for college assessment. That's sixth grade," he said." By Gale HollandLos Angeles Times Staff Writer August 8, 2008 High school students already face a battery of standardized tests on their way to college. Now, the college testing frenzy is reaching into middle school. The College Board, which owns the SAT, PSAT and other tests, plans to... Read Full Story

By Patrick Hedlund When students return to school next week at the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex, a new face will greet them in the halls of Chelsea’s largest public high school. BREC’s newest principal, Nancy Amling, has been busy preparing for the 2008-’09 school year since it was announced at the end of June that she would be taking over at the beleaguered institution. Her appointment came following a difficult year for BREC, which has recently come under scrutiny for poor grades... Read Full Story

By Paul Von Blum At this time of year, thousands of academically accomplished students enter selective higher education institutions like mine, beginning their arduous journey toward bachelor’s degrees and beyond. They have stellar grade point averages, high SAT scores, and impressive records of community service. The vast majority also have completed Advanced Placement courses in high school, providing them with college credit and ostensibly preparing them for the rigorous academic work... Read Full Story

The school year of 2008-09 will be very different. Our budget constraints will be felt this year. In the past teachers at QHST could go about their day either apathetic to the fiscal problems or we were sheltered from the outside world from creative administration of the budget. This will no longer be the case. The same year that “Teacher’s Choice” is reduced 40% we are told that the supply line in the budget has been cut in half. Another change is in the faces here at QHST. We have three... Read Full Story

Stuck in an elevator with 11 social studies teachers and being the obvious fat guy isn't fun. It was a million degrees. One of the passengers was "elevator expert guy". Every five minutes he would explain that we could just use our credit card to hit a release switch. One man was real upset with the doorman (William Gomes) who refused to call the FDNY. Apparently doorman are not allowed to call anyone... Its not in their job description. After several calls to NYPD, and FDNY we were saved... Read Full Story

To all those in favor of critical thought, You have most likely heard about the situation in the Bronx at IS 318. On May 13 six classes of 8th graders staged a boycott in protest to being forced to take another standardized test, one of over two dozen this year. They boycotted one of the practice tests. An 8th grade social studies teacher, Douglas Avella, was falsely accused of instigating the students to boycott, and he is already in the rubber room and likely to lose his job entirely. READ... Read Full Story