The Innovative Educator Instigates

I mentioned the whistle-blowing Department of Education blogger, Lisa Nielsen. This is what she looks like. Her blog is called The Innovative Educator. The latest post says, "Attention is Influence."

What do you think? Should DOE employees -- including principals and teachers -- be allowed to publicize their professional-but-personal blogs on their e-mails signatures?

Today: Mugging, Crowding, Whistle-Blowing

Today I have a story on walking home from school, which, due to threatened muggings and assaults, can be a production.

I also have a story up about a DOE staffer-turned-whistleblower who is challenging a new district restriction on -- blogging! It is a rare story in which the DOE press office had zero comment. UPDATE: a link to the blog of the staffer, Lisa Nielsen, here.

In the Times, Elissa Gootman has a close look at Lower Manhattan's pupil jam, introducing a term I hadn't heard before: "the hold list," which is where a child is put if there is no room for her at her zoned public school.

And there are more details on the new downtown elementary school in Greenwich Village.

Elsewhere...
The D.C. Schools Chancellor, Michelle Rhee, has fired the principal at the school her children attend, the Washington Post reports. She cites our schools chancellor here, Joel Klein, as a mentor.

West Village Will Get New School

A new public school is coming to the West Village, thanks to help from the Rudin family, a city school official just confirmed.
This is just in time for the Community Board 2 meeting on school overcrowding tonight at P.S. 41.
*Update: more here.

Five Questions from The New Teacher Project

Remember the New Teacher Project? It's the nonprofit that pulled the curtains on a private, seven-month long dispute between the UFT and the DOE over hiring practices — and getting editorial boards to chime in on its side, such as the Post today.

Now TNTP is trying (once again, it was the point of their first report, too) to resolve the Absent Teacher Reserve dispute. This morning they sent out "A Call for Solutions" outlining five main questions, providing TNTP's answers, and asking the city and the union to answer back on where they stand.

Here are the questions:

1. Should mutual consent be required for each teacher placement?
2. Should excessed teachers be required to search for positions?
3. Should there be a limit on the amount of time a teacher can spend in the ATR?
4. Should teachers be permitted to earn tenure while serving in the ATR?
5. What should be the policy for teachers who spend an extended period of time in the reserve pool and are not hired despite interviewing for many positions?

Now the question is, Will either group write back?

Latest SCI Arrest is a Clay Aiken Impersonator

Yesterday when I received the latest account from the Department of Education's office of the Special Commissioner of Investigations (maybe the most bloated title of all time?), I realized there was a photo attached. I thought, Why? Do we really need to see the face of the 23-year-old that allegedly sent gross text messages to a 10-year-old boy?
This morning I get my answer from papers pop-culture-savvier than I. The 23-year-old man, Colin Leahy, is really "American Idol" contestant and YouTube celebrity Colin Leahy!

New York Headlines

• The second annual Contracts for Excellence fight has begun. Unsettled question: Does the acronym really have to be "C4E"? 4 the love of English Language, why?
  
• The Daily News sees the rubber room and Absent Teacher Reserve battles as one giant Randi-Joel screamout. Each boss wants the other to stop the "P.R. campaign"/"grandstanding" first. Then they can get down to business.
  
• Dewey (High School) Defeats Lafeyette (High School) -- Which Comes Back and Defeats Dewey, is the gist of Sam Freedman's column today. The big idea is that phasing out large, troubled high schools such as Lafayette is bad news for nearby high schools, such as Dewey, which are forced to take on their lost flock.
  

Are Teachers Too Protected?

A school war is on, and New York City may have started it. The latest bomb is a report from the D.C. think tank Education Sector concluding that many teachers believe they are actually too protected by their union -- to the point that ineffective teachers end up trapped in classrooms. The money conclusion:

Half of teachers (49 percent) agree that their union “sometimes fights to protect teachers who really should be out of the classroom.” And nearly half (46 percent) say they “personally know a teacher in their building who is past the probationary period but who is clearly ineffective and shouldn’t be in the classroom.”

Could Ed Sector's report change UFT President Randi Weingarten's mind on whether test scores should be allowed as factors for tenure, or whether members of the Absent Teacher Reserve should really stay on the city payroll for life?
One thing to consider: The report also found teachers are more likely in 2008 to say unions are essential than they were in 2003. That goes along with idea that with more "accountability" comes more retribution -- and more need for protection against it.