Leonie Haimson comments on this NY Times piece, August 5, 2008
In this account, the paper of record does not appear to be quite accurate.
Excerpt: “Last fall, City Comptroller William C. Thompson, a likely mayoral candidate, issued an audit showing that in a sampling of schools, several crimes that were recorded in school records were never reported to the state or the police.”
Several crimes? The audit found that in the ten sampled schools, 414 – or 21 percent – of 1,996 incidents went unreported – including a rape.
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said,
"My office, as well as the City and State Comptroller offices, have found chronic under reporting of school safety incidents by the Department of Education and city schools. I applaud the Mayor, the Chancellor, and Commissioner for their work reducing crime in schools, but I would ask: What has been done in the past year to address the problem of chronic under reporting and the questionable school safety data that results from it?"
Our report documenting the chronic under reporting of crime stats is here: http://www.pubadvocate.nyc.gov/news/safety_report_021507.html
Where n0-bid contracts dare to go:
The NYCDOE signed a five-year, $12.5 million no-bid contract with Dr. Levine and his organization in 2003.
NY Times
Accusations of Sex Abuse Trail Doctor
If you can't beat 'em, bribe 'em
Washington Post:
Teacher Lobbying Raises Union's Ire
Educators Hired to Sway Colleagues To Back Rhee's Salary, Bonus Plan
A community group that supports D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's proposed salary and bonus package for teachers has hired a small group of instructors at $1,000 a week to lobby colleagues for the plan, drawing accusations from union leaders of interference with the collective bargaining process. Read more...
Thanks to Philissa Cramer at Gotham Schools for this item.
Turning lemmons into lemmonade
Teacher choice money is cut from $260 to $150. The UFT says that's a victory.
"I've just received an email from the UFT stating that Teachers' Choice funds have been reduced from $260 to $150." NYC Educator has a few more teacher choice words.
Where are the Edwize commentators bragging about this one?
Achievement gap, ashmievement gap
The controversy over whether the Klein/Bloomberg package has dented the achievement gap in NYC goes on with Elizabeth Green's piece in yesterday's NY Sun.
Eduwonkette led the parade with a series of articles. The latest, An Unchanged NYC Achievement Gap Hits the Papers (Plus, Joel Klein's Postmodernist Turn! is here, but head over and read them all.
Kelly Vaughan comments at Gotham Schools, Joel Klein doesn’t believe in statistical significance?!
For the few who don't know, Kelly has moved from 8 years of teaching to the other side of the fence as ed reporter and commentator. Teacher turned reporter seems to becoming a trend with all the bloggers out there and that is a very good thing. Smart reporters like Elizabeth Green have tapped into that source.
