UPDATED: C4E round 2

Posted by Tanner Kroeger at 9:00 AM

The DOE has set dates for a rapid second round of Contracts for Excellence (C4E) public hearings, where parents, community leaders and advocates can speak out on C4E funding, which by law must go to students with the greatest needs, particularly students living in poverty and English Language Learners (ELLs).

Chancellor Joel Klein's initial push to persuade Albany to redirect portions of C4E money incensed advocacy groups, including the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which stresses that C4E funds are meant to support and not replace city spending. But since the forceful resolution of the 2008-09 schools budget, the $63 million once in question is now budgeted "entirely within the mandates" of the law, according to the DOE.

This second round will take up school-based plans for spending developed by principals and school leadership teams. DOE sources say revised proposals will post to the DOE website next week; we'll let you know when the links are live, so you can see what's on deck at your child's school.

The second round is scheduled as follows:
* Staten Island on Tuesday, July 29
* Queens on Tuesday, July 29
* Bronx on Wednesday, July 30
* Brooklyn on Wednesday, July 30
* Manhattan on Wednesday, July 30

Got any questions? Let us know.

Budget restores cuts, primes city for C4E debate

Posted by Tanner Kroeger at 11:25 AM

The City Council agreed with the mayor on a $59.1 billion budget last night that restores $129 million in proposed education cuts. The agreement comes days away from the July 1 deadline. The teacher’s union, which had been vocal in its opposition to proposed budget cuts, applauded the agreement.

“I’m very proud of the education community,” said Sarah Morgridge, of city council education committee chair Robert Jackson’s office. “People moved beyond their own school. They stood together and looked at the bigger picture.”

On the funding front, many will now turn their attention to Contracts for Excellence (C4E). Morgridge said she wonders if Bloomberg et al are posed to push City Council and the state “to take the strings off C4E funding.” C4E funding is the fruit of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) settlement with the state, and therefore, protected by law.

With the city's budget now on the books, keep track of the C4E debate with our calendar, and, of course, this blog.

Four down, Queens to go in C4E v. DOE - Round 1

Posted by Tanner Kroeger at 2:08 PM

As the last gathering in the opening round of Contracts for Excellence public accountability hearings, tonight’s hearing in Queens could get heated. The final meeting will come 24 hours after a reportedly intense session in Manhattan, where, according to one attendee, protesters marched out of the hearing at 7:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the mainstream press is picking up on the hearings. Jennifer Medina posted on the Times' City Room blog, while the Post focused on Chancellor Klein and C4E spending.

We'll follow the C4E and budget-cut hearings as they unfold; let us hear from you if you attend or have something to say.

Budget-heavy week begins

Posted by Tanner Kroeger at 10:28 AM

More than 1,000 students, educators and concerned citizens marched outside a rain-soaked City Hall yesterday in protest of proposed budget cuts to New York City’s public schools. Others organized against the budget cuts online, meanwhile, directing an onslaught of emails to City Council members.

These two protests kicked off a busy week on the budget front. Tonight there is a public accountability hearing in Manhattan at 6:30 p.m. to evaluate the city’s use of Contracts for Excellence funding. And tomorrow, a similar hearing will take place in Queens.

Money, money, money!

Posted by Insideschools Blog at 2:00 PM

On top of admissions jitters, stormy weather and Brooklyn’s new IKEA opening, a busy week on the budget and funding fronts is ahead of us. Stay up-to-date with the Insideschools calendar as we plow towards the summer break.

Today the Keep the Promises Coalition is holding a rally against the budget cuts at 4:30 p.m., when protesters will attempt to encircle City Hall. Protesters should meet along Broadway before marching to City Hall. In an email this morning, Betty Zohar, Brooklyn’s UFT parent and community liaison, estimated some 1,500 protesters will attend.

Tomorrow and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., the city will conduct public hearings in Manhattan and Queens, respectively, to discuss the DOE’s use of Contracts for Excellence (C4E) funding. Chief among its many goals, C4E funding aims to reduce class size and to bolster instruction for students with the highest needs, which include students living in poverty, English Language Learners and special-education students.

Parents, students and community members who wish to testify at the C4E public hearings should sign up at 6 p.m. The Manhattan hearing will be at Fashion Industries High School; in Queens, at I.S. 230.


--posted by Tanner Kroeger

More funds going to lower class size, highest-need kids in final Contract for Excellence

Posted by Philissa at 6:09 AM

After a long delay, news about the Contracts for Excellence has finally come down from Albany — and the verdict is good for advocates who pushed the state to maintain attention on small claze size and other goals of the original court case behind the new money. In the revised plan, the state required the DOE to shift $45 million to the highest-need schools, increase the funds aimed at class size reduction, and cut out the plan to spend $13 million in state aid on standardized testing. The new spending begins now, with the Post reporting that the DOE will hire 1,300 more teachers to reduce class size.

The chancellor said in a press conference yesterday that the new plan is "stronger and better," but he probably isn't thrilled about the Times headline above his quote: "City Bows to State on a School Improvement Plan." Still, as the Sun notes, the revisions are unlikely to change the main thrusts of the DOE's reforms, but at least the state has signaled that it's paying attention to what the DOE is doing and won't rubber stamp just any policy the DOE devises.

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity and the Alliance for Quality Education, which brought the original case to court, released a positive statement yesterday, with CFE Executive Director Geri Palast saying, "“After 13 years of CFE litigation, Governor Spitzer broke the Albany gridlock on school finance reform with the Contract for Excellence (also CFE) initiative that drives school aid to districts based on need, not politics, and makes clear that new money must be spent on high-needs students in low-performing school and on strategies proven to boost student achievement."

Regents may vote on Contract for Excellence today

Posted by Philissa at 7:35 AM

The word in the email pipeline is that the Regents may be voting today on whether to accept the city's proposed Contract for Excellence. When last we heard, the state had mysteriously delayed its approval timeline and parent advocates were calling on the Regents not to approve the contract as it was proposed because it did not adequately address class size issues, even though it was required by law to. We've heard from experts at the State Education Department that the state has serious questions about whether the DOE is really directing new funding where it's supposed to go — into schools with the greatest need.

Last month, the city's Independent Budget Office released an audit showing that despite $200 million in class size reduction money, most grade school classrooms were overcrowded and any decline in class size could be attributed to decreasing enrollment, not DOE efforts to reduce class size. So the Regents are wise to be skeptical of the DOE's newest promises as well, especially given the city's many new testing and accountability initiatives that require new funds. Let's hope the Regents hold the DOE to its word — and to the law — on class size and other improvements.

The Regents' meeting today (starting at 11 a.m.) and tomorrow is being broadcast online, so you can watch the discussion for yourself. Let us know what you see!

Student Thought: Contracts for mediocrity

Posted by Seth Pearce at 8:00 AM

Yesterday, the New York Sun reported that the "Contracts for Excellence" money has been delayed because the state is wary of the city's highly contested plan. Many say that the plan, which devotes the money to five categories which can be determined principal by principal, has given no clear plan on how to reduce the City's ginormous (I hope my English teacher isn't reading this) class sizes (but then again she'd know that it's hard to describe NYC's class sizes as anything other than ginormous) nor has it given enough money to be devoted specifically to that purpose. This great backlash, coming from students, parents, teachers and politicians, has resulted in a "standoff" between New York City and the state.

Last year, the NYC Student Union, having some sort of odd premonition of the city's future plans, lobbied Governor Spitzer's office about setting aside a good portion of CFE money to lower class sizes in New York City. Representatives of the Union also testified at the mandated DOE hearings on the issue and even blogged about it at the NYC Students Blog.

Class size is definitely an important issue (for reasons so numerous I'll have to write another post about it). But in shorter terms my main argument for more class size money has been this: whatever programs we have to better our classrooms, be they improving teacher quality, creating new and innovative curricula, or even working for more "time on task," will fail if smaller class sizes aren't realized. Even if they are good and well designed programs (which we definitely need), there is just something inherently impossible about teaching or learning in our current class size conditions. How can you really keep a class of 34 "on task"?

It seems that the DOE is honestly trying to fix a lot of problems with this new funding. I personally think its leaders have really good intentions. In NYC, however, none of those problems can be solved until we can remedy the class size crisis.

Contracts for Excellence update

Posted by Philissa at 9:56 AM

It's been a while since we took a look at what's going on with the Contracts for Excellence. You know, the city's plan to spend its education dollars that, if approved by the state, would mean more money for its schools? The plan that was presented in urgent public meetings back in July because the process was moving so fast? The plan that had some education advocates up in arms because it inadequately addressed class size and other issues that were the reasons for seeking more money in the first place?

The word from the state is .... nothing. The state hasn't yet announced whether or not the city's proposed Contract for Excellence has passed muster, and so new money hasn't yet started to make its way to the city. NYC Public School Parents blog has a letter from a parent asking the state not to release the money until the DOE revises the plan to include class size reduction. But whether or not you think the Contract for Excellence as the city proposed it ought to be approved, it would be nice to know the status of the process, wouldn't it?

Update: Here's the link to NYC Public School Parents coverage of the letter from Ivan Lafayette that Patrick references in the comment.

Contracts for Excellence plan draws critiques from Council, public

Posted by Unknown at 2:26 PM

This morning the City Council's Education Committee conducted a hearing on the Department of Education's proposed plan to spend $228 million in state Contracts for Excellence funds. [See previous posts on this topic.] The hearing was organized by Councilman Robert Jackson, president of the Education Committee. Those testifying included officials from the Department of Education, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, and the teachers' and administrators' unions, among others. The hearing was basically an opportunity for council members to get information and, in some cases, to offer their thoughts on the DOE's plan; the plan does not require a signature of approval from the City Council to move forward.

Jackson directed the meeting, and the most interesting part by far was the first two hours, during which Chancellor Klein and Marcia Lyles outlined the DOE's plan and argued that it does, in fact, conform to Governor Spitzer's mandates. (Other testimony, of course, was also pertinent, but was very similar to what we saw during the public hearings on the plan.) Below are what I took to be some of the high points from that segment of the hearing.

• The DOE website has (finally) published a breakdown of Contracts for Excellence funding by district. Although this breakdown does show the amount of money to be spent on each of the five permitted "program areas" in each district (e.g. smaller class sizes, more time on task, etc.), Jackson complained that the document is hardly a comprehensive plan. Instead, it is simply aggregated, by district, individual schools' planned spending in each area.
  
• Jackson was frustrated that the DOE had not made substantive changes to its Fair Student Funding plan in response to the Contracts for Excellence requirements; instead, the department claimed that the plan already complied with the required mandates. In response, Klein argued that the same ultimate goals lie at the heart of both the Contracts for Excellence and Children First reforms, and that it is then unsurprising that Children First's Fair Student Funding didn't have to change much to comply with the state's requirements.
• In response to criticisms about the timing of the DOE's public hearings on the plan, Klein stressed the tight timeline his office faced in organizing the coming year's budgets, saying that "while, as noted, there is a near perfect symmetry between the substance of our reforms and CFE, we must all acknowledge the practical timing challenges related to fulfilling the mandate of the new legislation this first year." Klein said next year's process would be smoother and better advertised in advance.
  
• As with the rest of the Children First reforms, Klein emphasized the need not only for more money, but for that money to be spent well. He returned to this theme several times, using to respond to Jackson's skepticism about whether assessments could qualify for increased "time on task" and to Councilman Koppell's worry that arts education would be neglected in the absence of specific Project Arts allocations.
• Jackson and Klein debated the effectiveness of team teaching as a way to reduce class sizes. According to Klein, the Contracts for Excellence regulations allow adding an additional teacher to a classroom as a means to reduce class size. Although he agreed with Jackson that this measure may not be ideal, he said that, in the absence of more space (which will take time under the new five-year capital improvement plan) it was sometimes the only option.
  
• With respect to class sizes, a point of contention was whether CTT classes should count as such a reduction. CTT, or Collaborative Team Teaching, places special education students in a class with regular students, and the class is taught by two teachers, one of whom is certified in special ed. The DOE plan includes CTT classes in its class size reduction plans. Geri Palast, of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (one of the organizations that sponsored the lawsuit from which the Contract for Excellence funds resulted) criticized this view of CTT classes, saying that CTT programs targeted classes with special needs and autistic students, not students in large classes, and that the funds were therefore not going toward the "highest needs students" as the CFE law requires.

There was, of course, much more covered than can be summed up in these highlights, but these are the significant points that weren't already seen during the public hearings. Have more questions about specific testimony or content? Leave a comment and I'll post some more info.

Spitzer's office sheds light on NYC funding plan

Posted by Unknown at 10:26 AM

More on Contracts for Excellence: Yesterday Manuel Rivera, the Deputy Secretary of Education for New York State, spoke during the CPAC meeting at Tweed. Unsurprisingly, many of the questions from committee members focused on New York City's plan to meet the state's Contracts for Excellence requirements.

Ultimately, education policy in New York State is governed by the Board of Regents, whose members are elected by the State Assembly. The Regents select and hire a Commissioner of Education to oversee the State Education Department (currently Richard Mills). The governor's office, however, has substantial influence over education policy and control over the resources going to education. The Deputy Secretary of Education (Rivera) heads up education in Governor Spitzer's administration.

What this means for New York City's Contracts for Excellence plan is that, while Rivera will not decide whether or not the complies with the law-- that job lies with the Regents and Mills-- he will be in a position to offer input on the matter at the state level.

Because the City's plan will not be formally submitted until July 15, and the Regents enforcement criteria won't be decided until well after that, Rivera refrained from saying outright whether he felt the plan complies with the law.

Rivera did, however, shed light on why the period of public comment-- and the notice for it-- was so short. New York's Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling that the state had to increase funding for New York City last November, and Spitzer proposed his Contracts for Excellence plan in January. That plan was not passed by Congress until April, leaving very little time to implement it for the coming year's budget. Rather than delay the funding for an additional year-- as some members of congress wanted-- Rivera said the Governor's office preferred to implement the law immediately to get more money flowing into New York City's schools as soon as possible. This did not leave affected districts enough time to gather sufficient public input and devise a full plan for compliance, so the law allowed for temporary emergency regulations this year, with the understanding that those regulations would change before next year's budgets are submitted.

So the bad news is that there is little parents can do this year to influence the City's Contracts for Excellence spending plan. However, by getting involved at the state level as the Regents decide how the Contracts for Excellence plan will be enforced in the future, constituents can have a greater say over how the public input process will work in the future.

Public frustrated, some furious, over DOE spending proposal (updated)

Posted by Unknown at 8:31 AM

At the Contracts for Excellence hearing in Manhattan last night, dozens of parents, teachers, advocates, and students voiced harsh criticisms about the Department of Education's plans to spend this year's record increase in state education funding.

The funds, which are a direct result of a joint lawsuit against the state by two non-profit organizations, will result in over $1 billion in additional money for New York City schools during the coming school year. Of that total, $228 million is required to conform to Governor Spitzer's Contracts for Excellence mandate, meaning the money must be used to accomplish one of five specific goals, including smaller class sizes and more "time on task" -- i.e. longer days or more days in the school year. (For more on the history of this issue, check out our previous posts on the topic.)

Last week Chancellor Klein announced his plan for spending the Contracts for Excellence money, essentially claiming that the City's new Fair Student Funding system would automatically meet the requirements of Contracts for Excellence, and nothing more needed to be done. The plan did, however, specify how much money will be used to address each of Spitzer's allowed spending categories. This week the DOE is conducting hearings throughout the City, gathering public comment on the plan, and at last night's hearing in Manhattan the comments reflected serious disenchantment with the plan.

Geri Palast of Campaign for Fiscal Equity (one of the groups that brought the original lawsuit) stressed the need for specific commitments in the plan. "The City's plan is overly broad and is not specific enough," she said, and she asked the city to post individual schools' plans on the DOE's Contracts for Excellence webpage.

Many speakers criticized the lack of serious public input for the DOE's spending plan. The press release detailing the plan and the schedule for public hearings was published July 5, and the plan must be submitted to the state by July 15, leaving only ten days for public comment of any sort. The short notice, and the fact that the hearings are occurring in July-- when education is not at the forefront of many parents' minds-- drew sharp criticism.

Others bemoaned the lack of a long-term plan to comply with the Contracts for Excellence requirements. Leonie Haimson-- a parent and blogger for NYC Public School Parents-- said the plan is in "flagrant violation of state law" because there is "absolutely no five-year plan to reduce class size, as mandated by the Contracts for Excellence."

But the most common criticism by far was the need for more focus on reducing class sizes. Of the $228 million governed by the Contracts for Excellence requirements, the plan classifies $111 million for class size reduction, hiring an additional 1,300 teachers for the coming year. However, it's unclear how much this will actually reduce class sizes, since we don't know how many of those teachers will have their own classrooms. Additionally, Haimson and many others have noted that even if every teacher were to have their own new classroom, average class size across the city would only fall by between .3 and .8 students. The DOE, for its part, provides only the following clarification: "By investing in class size reduction, the DOE projects first-year class size reduction that exceeds the annual rate of reduction over the last five years." Seth Pearce, a senior at Laguardia and representative of the New York City Student Union, also stressed the need for smaller classes, saying reduced class size is "instrumental to improving teacher quality." His complete comments can be read here. Ben Shanahan, of Hunter College High School, also weighed in-- see his comments at NYC Student Word.

For a more complete discussion of the class size reduction plan's criticisms, read Haimson's post on the topic. Otherwise, check back here for continuing coverage.

7/13 Update: NYC Public School Parents has links to the comments made by several more people Wednesday evening.

Parents: DOE's spending plan in "bad faith"

Posted by Philissa at 2:09 PM

Above: Parents at the press conference demonstrate the minor effect of reducing class size by less than one kid per class. Philissa Cramer/Insideschools.org

At this morning's press conference on the steps of City Hall, Robert Jackson, chair of the City Council's education committee, and small class size advocates railed against the DOE's "bad faith effort" to reduce class size, as outlined in the city's proposed spending plan. They also took aim at the DOE's "lack of transparency" with the hard numbers behind this initiative and others; in particular, they noted that it's unclear just how many of the 1,300 new teachers the DOE says it is hiring will have their own classrooms. Here are some sound bites from the press conference:

Jackson: "We said, where's the rest of the plan? ... You question [DOE officials], and most of the time they will not come up with answers. ... There's so much lack of transparency, I cannot tell [what's true] as chair of the education committee."

Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters: "We asked [DOE officials] how many new general education classes will there be? They couldn't tell us."

Noreen Connell of the Educational Priorities Panel: "What is the advantage of this bad faith effort? What can be gained by not reducing class size?"

Several people who spoke also decried the mid-summer timeline for responding to the DOE's spending plan, which could prevent people from being able to get information quickly and weigh in with their feedback. You can give feedback on the plan at five public hearings on the Contracts for Excellence this week. See the Insideschools calendar for details.

BREAKING NEWS: CFE press conference Sunday

Posted by Philissa at 6:45 PM

City Council Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson will be holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall at 11:30 a.m. Sunday to address the DOE's proposal for how to spend the long-awaited Campaign for Fiscal Equity money. Jackson was an original plaintiff in the case. According to the NYC Public School Parents blog, Jackson will be joined by representatives from a variety of other educational organizations, and all parents and children are welcome. Map

(Slightly) smaller classes on the way (updated)

Posted by Unknown at 6:27 PM

In an extension of our recent post about NYC's use of $1.03 billion in additional state education funding ($228 million of which must conform to Governor Spitzer's Contract for Excellence requirements), the Times reports today on Chancellor Klein's plans for the money.

Specifically, Klein talks about how the Department of Ed plans to fulfill the Contract for Excellence requirements with the required $228 million: $106 million of it will reduce class size by hiring 1300 new teachers. Other funding will extend class time and provide more resources for training and development.

This is the first I've heard about Klein and the DOE acknowledging that Fair Student Funding would meet the requirements for the state's Contract for Excellence requirements. Some, including Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, were less than thrilled with the announcement, the Times reports, calling Klein's planned class size reductions "so minimal as to be meaningless."

July 11 update: For criticism of Klein's plan, check out NYC Educator's post on the topic.

Does more state money really mean more accountability?

Posted by Unknown at 3:39 PM

Elizabeth Green at the New York Sun reports today about the City's use of the upcoming dramatic increase in state education funding, which are supposed to be used in accordance with Governor Spitzer's "Contract for Excellence" initiative. (For more on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity's lawsuit behind the increase and the details of the Contract for Excellence, see Green's article or the recent Insideschools piece on the parent letter to the Board of Regents.)

The city will see an increase of about $700 million for the 2007-2008 school year, and, in principle, this money must be spent on one of the five priorities outlined in Spitzer's Contract for Excellence, including reducing class size, providing after-school programs, and lengthening the school year. However, there are a number of loopholes that allow the money to be used for other purposes, such as charter schools and "experimental programs."

Green writes:

The state had reported in April that $317 million of the new funds would be governed by Mr. Spitzer's accountability plan, called the Contract for Excellence. But new numbers released Thursday will likely leave just $228 million to be governed by the contract's restrictions, a city spokeswoman, Debra Wexler, said.

Some are disappointed with this change, including Michael Rebell, one of the attorneys who brought the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, Green reports.

For an alternative view, check out the dissent by Joe Williams on the Dems for Ed Reform blog.

Parents urged to write Regents about funding by Friday

Posted by Insideschools Staff at 9:44 AM

Do you want to make sure that additional funds for New York City schools are being well spent? You can send a letter to the State Board of Regents telling them to require that the upcoming historic increase in education funding be used for the purposes it was intended, including small class size and full-day universal pre-kindergarten.

Two advocacy organizations have created an open letter to the Regents, which must be submitted by this Friday, June 22, before the Regents meet in Albany next week. The letter asks the Regents to put specific accountability requirements into state regulations.

Read more...