Lafayette High School class of 2012

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

37% blacks in prison high school drop-outs!

Public schools across the United States are described as "pipelines" to prison" evident in sociologist Dr. Betty Pettit's new book, Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress .  Her thesis is rooted in the fact that locked up away in a box, this prison population is not counted in the official statistics. Thus, the data on black progress is skewed when the black prison population is not factored in. And black high school completion rates have not changed since 1990s. The black high-school dropout rate, if you include the population behind bars, is 40 per cent higher than it would be otherwise. That means that “black men have experienced no improvement in high-school completion rates since the early 1990s.”

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

Daredevil Wallenda brings pride to Niagara Falls

Daredevil Wallenda brings pride to Niagara Falls

Dr. Pamela Brown, new superintendent of schools Buffalo City School District!

Dr. Pamela Brown in a 7 to 2 vote named the new superintendent of Buffalo Schools. Two board members President Lou Petrucci , Park District rep and Jason McCarthy, North District did not vote for Brown. No public discussion was held before their decision. The board room was packed tonight, the 50 or more in the audience applauded approvingly after the board announced the appointment of Dr. Brown. Voting for Brown, were board members: Mary Ruth Kapsiak, Central District, Sharon Belton Cottman, Ferry District, Roz Taylor, East District, Ralph Hernandez, West district, Florence Johnson, at Large and John Licata, at Large. Fran Wilson, Chief Academic Officer, presided at the board meeting tonight. McCarthy acknowledged and thanked Amber Dixon on behalf of the board for her interim work in the district the last nine months.

State Ed to release SIG funds, district given ok to carry it over for summer school activities only

Buffalo school teachers in buildings across  district voted on a teacher evaluation plan acceptable  to the state education department bureaucrats.

The state stopped  SIG funds back in January when the district and union had not sent an "approvable" teacher evaluation plan they had signed off on in the previous SIG application for Race to the Top funds.

The  new plan similar to the one written in March includes provisions for allowing teachers extra points as much as 2, to compensate for second language students and the attendance of severely absent students  added to the elementary schools not just secondary as previously agreed.

As a result, state released $5.6 million SIG funds that has to be used by June 30th.

"At this time, [the state] is allowing [the district] the ability to carry over funds to support summer activities only," he said. "When [the district] has an approved [teacher-evaluation] agreement for 2012-13, the district may apply to carry over the remaining funds into the 2012-13 school year."

That plan has to be in place by July 1.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

Unions want Cuomo to allow parents to see teacher evaluations  

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

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.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

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."

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

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

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

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.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

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.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4