Weekly news round-up: science, admissions and rubber rooms

Posted by Lindsey at 12:57 PM

Early round-up this week -- our attempt to get to the news before we get to the grill.

Yesterday, we looked at No Child Left Behind and the second annual Learning Environment Survey results. Even though results were generally positive, three out of four students didn’t take an art class!

Good news for science in Harlem: Millions poured in for middle schools (as first reported on this blog), and hundreds of high school science students found worthwhile (and paid!) summer work in labs. PS 229 in Queens may grow their own environmental scientists – students there are certainly learning how to act green.

Bloomberg’s expensive Leadership Academy will now be added to the taxpayers’ bill, while a lauded principal (not an Academy grad) faces allegations of test score fraud. A few of his teachers might be yanked from the classroom and thrown into the rubber room, but they might not be there that long, according to a new agreement between the UFT and DOE. Is there a rubber room where we can stash daycare providers who have been stealing from the state? Or the students behind anti-Sikh hate crimes?

While the Times lauds a program to help students stay in school, the Daily News publicizes parents’ concerns over older and under-credited students sharing a school building with younger kids. The News also covers public schools that have been closed for good, and the Times showcases the last American high school for would-be Catholic priests.

Guess what? Pre-k admissions was a mess this year, and even paying top-dollar for private school doesn’t guarantee Junior will get into Harvard/Yale/Princeton. But a story about a pre-k program that appears to work wonders and Christoph Niemann’s charming illustrations celebrating his sons’ love of the subway system kick-off the holiday weekend on an aptly joyful note.

And the survey says...

Posted by helen at 4:02 PM

Mayor Bloomberg announced the results of the 2008 Learning Environment Survey this morning; not surprisingly, there's good news and bad news.

This second year of the survey generated a significantly larger response, especially at schools that scored poorly last year (targets of DOE response-generating efforts). Overall, parents report high levels of satisfaction with their childrens' education and teachers; teachers who responded say they're more satisfied, too, but some areas, like professional development, still fall short.

Of great interest to us is the student survey, which shows a kid-typical mix of answers. (Middle and high-schoolers were invited to participate; between 11% and 15% actually did.)

Learning environment, for kids, means the life of the hallway and the schoolyard--what's said too loud in the cafeteria and who bumps who in gym. Bullying, fighting, and adults who yell continue to be problems, kids say. About half feel they can't turn to adults at school for help; more than half say that students don't "help and care about each other" or "treat each other with respect."

Four in ten students report that their schools don't have enough variety, in classes and activities, to keep them engaged. And it's still really hard to be smart and cool: Almost half of the students the DOE heard from say that kids who earn high grades at their school don't get other students' respect.

Bottom line: The grown-ups seem happier than they did last year. The kids -- well, they're still struggling. They want more challenge, and they need more support.

The DOE plans to post citywide survey results and reports for individual schools this afternoon; we'll update this post with a link when they do. (Learning Environment Surveys and attendance account for 15% of each school's annual progress report.)