Latino and black students graduation rates and performance on national tests still behind whites

Among the major population groups in the nation's schools, the largest one-year gain in the graduation rate was among Latino students. According to a special analysis conducted by the EPE Research Center for Diplomas Count, the graduation rate for Latino students grew by an impressive 5.5 percentage points from the class of 2008 to the class of 2009, rising to 63 percent. By comparison, the percentage of African-American students graduating increased by 1.7 percentage points, to 59 percent, while the graduation rates for Asian-American and Native American students dropped slightly for the 2009 class. But Latinos' 63 percent graduation rate is still far short of the national average—and farther still from non-Hispanic white students' average graduation rate. And, despite some success in recent years at narrowing the gap separating them from white students on national tests of reading, mathematics, and science, Latino students' performance on those tests also falls below the national average.

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Buffalo school board must decide finalist for superintendent in public

Mary Pasciak Buffalo News blogger commented at the School Board committee meetings tonight,

"the board can discuss the candidates during an executive session of a meeting. But the board cannot reach a decision in executive session or in private. Decisions must be made in public, according to Bob Freeman of the Committee on Open Government."

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Dr. Pamela Brown expected to be named new superintendent of Buffalo schools.

If she garners the necessary votes from a nine-member Buffalo Board of Education, Dr. Pamela Brown with  twenty years of experience as an administrator in public education and  nearly the same amount of time as a bilingual educator  is expected to be named the new superintendent of the Buffalo Schools.
 Her background stands out from the other candidates, having obtained a doctorate from Harvard University, and experienced in large urban public schools such as chief academic officer in the Philadelphia schools.
But what places her ahead of the other finalist all being well-qualified to be superintendent is her experience serving on a negotiation team in the Philadelphia schools where a fair contract had been negotiated according to Jerry T. Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
 Jordan described Brown in a Buffalo News story as "smart, serious and focused." He added how veteran teachers "...found her "quiet knowledgeable and felt she was comfortable in their presence when she visited classrooms." That Dr. Brown, "...didn't interrupt...wasn't overbearing or officious.
Buffalo teachers have been without a contract since 2004, the last one negotiated in 1999 and teachers anxiously await a superintendent that is considerate of their point of view and experienced in contract negotiation. Dr. Pamela C. Brown no doubt stands out from the other two finalist in this area.
This blogger engaged her in a conversation in Spanish and found her to have native language fluency.
 The other two finalist, interim Super Amber Dixon is a formidable candidate has done an extraordinary job as interim especially ensuring Albany released funds to the PLA schools it denied back in December and for hammering out an "approvable" teacher evaluation plan with the union for the Albany bureaucrats. Likewise, Dr.Edward Newsome, Jr had impressive credentials as well. But Dr. Brown stands out in both her credentials, professional administrative experience and her background in bilingual education and multilingual education well suited for the Buffalo schools. The last school she served as chief academic officer in Philadelphia had 180,000 students almost mirrors the ethnic demographic enrollment of the Buffalo City School District.

The superintendent search...SAY YES, in the community

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Adequacy of Buffalo schools superintendent search questioned

Buffalo News education blogger, Mary Pasciak reported on Sunday, "The board's plans to reach a consensus privately regarding a candidate is not the only aspect of the process that raises concerns regarding its compliance with state law. Even the board's interviews of the candidates appear to have violated the open meetings law. The board conducted those interviews privately, without incorporating them into a public meeting."

Also, there were questions about the pace of the search between interviews, a 13 day span for selecting a candidate to lead a district where few students graduate. There has been criticism of Say Yes and Cascade, the consultants involved in the search for not presenting stronger candidates only two the third interim Amber Dixon. And no Latinos in the mixed of finalist considering its a growing population with the lowest graduation and highest drop out rates troubling. Yet, Dixon has scored points, strengthening her candidacy by presiding over a successful teacher evaluation plan with the Buffalo Teachers Federation. And Pasciak cited a group of local prominent supporters for Dixon from Erie 1 BOCES Superintendent Donald A. Ogilvie; BTF president Philip Rumore; and Regent Robert M. Bennett. Yet, officials in the state Ed Dept are more critical  criticising Dixon for stalling the teacher evaluation plan with Rumore to influence the Board selection of a new superintendent.

The last finalist interviewed on Tuesday, a decision made later in the evening. The public invited to meet Dr. Pamela Brown at 6 pm at Waterfront School.

The Buffalo News education blogger, Mary Pasciak reported $5.6 million in aid likely restored to six schools after State Education Commissioner John B. King issued a pubic statement he will approve the latest teacher evaluation plan, the Buffalo Teacher Federation and the district had agreed upon on Wednesday. King threatened to stop the SIG funds to the Buffalo schools in December after no "approvable" teacher evaluation plan was submitted to him by the required deadline as stipulated in the application both parties had previously signed with the State Education Department. Pasciak wrote, "under the proposed agreement, any teacher in a school where 20 percent or more of the enrolled students are not native English speakers will have 2 points added to their overall evaluation score, which is out of a possible 100 points. " Also, allowances in the attendance of chronically and severely absent students provided only in the section where 20% of the scoring exist. Buffalo schools to receive the funds are Dr. Martin Luther King, International School #45, Bennett, Burgard, Riverside, and South Park High Schools. The jobs of four attendance teachers at these high schools nearly lost as well until the district decided not to disrupt schools mid-year similar to 2005 when 15 of these teachers were laid off during a union dispute over health care insurance. That the district and BTF agreed on a teacher evaluation plan under the tenure of interim Super Amber Dixon moves her closer to seriously being the top contender for superintendent of Buffalo schools.

Superintendent finalists selected for Buffalo Schools

After much anticipation last night Buffalo Board of Education released the names of the 3 superintendent finalists for the Buffalo Schools vacant since former super James Williams had stepped down amid controversy last year.

School Board President Louis Petrucci announced the three after the School Board returned from executive session one hour later. Lee Pasquarella, head of Cascade Consultant Group was spotted in the Board room when they went into executive session and left after it returned public again.

The finalists were Edward Newsome, Pamela Brown and interim Super Amber Dixon.  Dixon on the job as interim is the top contender followed by Pamela Brown noted as a specialist in second language acquisition.  Formerly from the Philadelphia Schools, she is employed in the area of research in Massachusetts. Newsome doesn't appear to have the second language acquisition or bilingual education background of Brown.  His website cites his expertise in many areas of education but none in bilingual education.

Although a group of stakeholders meet with the finalists today, it's not open to the public or the Board interviews on Friday.  But there is a public reception today after the stakeholders meeting at Waterfront School downtown at 5PM . Some say the search process lacked transparency from inception. Yet, for the first time ever  the School Board allowed the public

into the Board room when the consultants were initially interviewed. Yet the public didn't show up.

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NY1 Exclusive: Memo Shows Company Aware Of State Test Errors - NY1.com

The New York State Education Department continued the $32 million 5-year contract to Pearson despite the errors it made in the recent English and math tests.
NY1 Exclusive: Memo Shows Company Aware Of State Test Errors - NY1.com

Gov. Cuomo raked in $450,000 in Buffalo at fundraiser, while talking about campaign finance reform

"Nothing says Reform like a $50,000 a plate contribution to a governor whose portfolio contains oil and gas holdings while he contemplates the expansion of hydrofracking. It's almost as comical as his Education Reform plan where the top two appointees to NYSED boast a whopping 3 years of combined classroom experience. Or the "state assessments" recycled and sold to NY for $32 million by Pearson (said by many to be his main donors for the 2016 campaign) none of which was without errors, including the infamous Pineapple section that was thrown out in its entirety. I hope the 450K he squeegied out of Buffalo's Brahmin yesterday is enough to cover the gap Cuomo will have come 2016 when he comes looking for a dime from organized labor whom he's thrown uner the bus and backed up over several times. Don't sell the NY condo just yet Governor." SEAN CROWLEY, EDEN, NY on Thu May 3, 2012 , Buffalo News comment.

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Buffalo schools funding increase, still hiring freeze and lay offs looming

State lawmakers modified the budget this week allocated an additional $200 million to the neediest school districts instead of doling it out on a competitive basis as Gov. Andrew Cuomo had previouly proposed. Buffalo would receive a 3 percent increase, including another $1 million in "bullet" aid targeted to high need districts. Still the district has a budget gap of under $40 million said Chief Financial Officer Barbara Smith, "they're trying to focus this year on cuts that impact the classroom minimally." The School Board passed a hiring freeze resolution along with offering a $10,000 retirement incentive to teachers. As usual the non-mandated areas suffer the most cuts that impacts the overall academic achievement of Buffalo schools children similar to 2005, when the librarians, school counselors and attendance teachers were laid off. While, librarians and counselors had to be recalled after they protested their wrongeful lay-off, the attendance teachers were not recalled untill six years later. This time lapse created a culture of absenteeism that continues to plague the district and was the subject of many studies and reports, including the district having to hire a consultant to study the problem last spring. If the attendance teachers are laid off again, the state would have to either take over the schools because too many schools will appear on the persistently low achieving list or the former proposal based on a network of charter schools revisited.

Buffalo School Board meeting SIG funds coming and new girls charter school opening in fall

Buffalo school board meeting tonight and there is lots on the agenda. Three interesting items:

• Dr. Constance Moss, a retired Buffalo schools associate superintendent 2007, submitted an application to the SUNY Charter Schools Institute to open a charter school for girls fall 2013 with mission to improve graduation rates. The school is expected to open at the old Cantalician Center in the 3000 block of Main Street adjacent to the University of Buffalo, South Campus.
• President Lou Petrucci asked  interim Super Amber Dixon for update on the SIG funds. She replied a 3rd MOU submitted to State Ed folks on Friday afternoon last week that BTF President Phil Rumore, BCSA President Crystal Barton and she signed. A telephone call from State Ed on Tuesday informed district officials several issues had to be resolved before approved and three issues discussed that were sent over to the BTF at 3PM.  Rumore met with executive committee meeting and a decision made not to bring it for vote before the teachers no time to share it. Interim Dixon in touch with deputy commissioners in Albany and Regent Bennett and Rumore. District requested and got a postponement for a hearing  from 1 to 5 PM, Wednesday in Albany. Though they got a letter of rejection from State Ed yesterday the revised document sent to Rumore for his review Dixon told it was "now approvable." Dixon commented they have an extra week to return the SIG funds to the district. Latest word is State Ed "was willing to make sure Buffalo received these funds." We received verbal approval of the document that is now in front of Mr. Rumore. This she told the board at about 5:50 PM tonight. 
• Florence Johnson at Large requested copy of the presentation a few district officials saw at a Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) meeting Saturday. She wanted other administrators to see the process for staff development. She expressed concern about the evaluation process the funding involved and adding an assistant principal to help with the observations done several times based on 60% of the evaluation.

State Ed rejects Buffalo teacher evaluation plan

"Rumore was not able to answer a delegate's question about whether suspensions would be counted as absences, some teachers said. "A lot of delegates and a lot of teachers were very unhappy about how Phil Rumore handled the whole process," said Marc Bruno, a union representative at Riverside High School," in a Buffalo News story yesterday.

Suspensions can't be factored in as absences in any evaluation plans because it's impermissible in state education law.

Unfortunately, attendance teachers were not represented in  the Buffalo Teachers Federation delegate council meeting on Tuesday and at all meetings since September. 

The BTF leadership have not supported these teachers to organize themselves to elect a delegate chair.

And when an attendance teacher told BTF President Phil Rumore more could have been done to employ the laid off teachers in other job openings in the district instead of suffering for six-years after they were recalled in September 2011, Rumore responded by abruptly standing up from his chair at this meeting scheduled in his office on February 15, 2012.

When asked why he  ended the meeting, Rumore answered because "accusations were being made about the BTF."

One of the teachers upset with the behavior and reaction of the union president responded by telling Rumore if he is unable to listen to teachers concerns, he should consider retiring again look for another job.

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Assem. Ortiz Previews Somos Spring Conference

Assem. Ortiz Previews Somos Spring Conference
After several unions, including the United Federation of Teachers, New York State United Teachers and others didn't donate to the annual Somos El Futuro conference held in Albany this weekend, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo each donated $36,000 to make up for the shortage. Cuomo is appearing at the conference to pick up his "Visionary Leadership" award the group plans to give him, while Assembly member Felix Ortiz helped the governor when he voted for the infamous Tier VI legislation that continues to erode public pensions.

Obama and Republican governors agree on educational issues

"...Obama ...and  Republican governors have found common ground in a number of areas, including teacher evaluation systems with consequences, merit pay for teachers, holding teachers and schools more accountable for how much students learn, and charter schools, which are public schools run by an independent third party."

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Interim Super Dixon presented new attendance plan to union

Buffalo News blogger Mary Pasciak wrote today about the latest teacher evaluation plan that factors in student attendance district officials introduced to the Buffalo Teachers Federation on Friday.

Dixon,  "verbally outlined a fairly complex plan; it boils down to student attendance being measured on a schoolwide basis, and the dividing line is 85 percent average daily attendance.

In other words, schools where 85 percent or more students show up, on average, would have one growth target, while schools that fall below 85 percent average daily attendance would have a lower target."

Few elementary schools have an ADA below 85%, but all of the academic non criterion high schools except for Mckinley have ADA rates below 85%. Lafayette High School has the highest ADA  fluctuating from 83 to 85% this year.

The attendance office at Lafayette is open only three days a week because, the school does not have a full time attendance officer and the one assigned to the school is shared two days weekly with an elementary school.

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