More than a dozen schools around the state initially designated as ‘struggling’ by the NYS Education Department have been making progress. Four of those schools are in the City of Rochester: East Lower School and Upper High School, James Monroe High School, and Northeast College Preparatory High School. The state says that all 14 schools […]
Rochester city schools
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Week ahead: A Teachout ruling, Marvin Maye hearing, and school district consultant’s report
A state judge may rule as early as today on whether Democratic candidate Zephyr Teachout meets residency requirements to run for governor and can appear on the party’s September primary ballot. Teachout is running a primary campaign against Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose reelection bid has the state party’s endorsement. Teachout and her supporters say Cuomo […]
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City students speak out about improving schools
Rochester school board President Van White began a town hall-style meeting yesterday with this message: the district is the lowest performing in the state. And he asked the adults in the room to give the nearly 60 students in attendance the front seats because he wanted to hear from the young people. The students, mostly […]
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Study challenges charter schools’ superiority
A new study seems to confirm what many traditional public school officials have been saying for years about student performance in charter schools: when all things are equal, traditional public schools and charters perform about the same. Forward Institute, a Wisconsin public policy organization, compared the Milwaukee school district’s state accountability report cards to those […]
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ASAR says ‘no confidence’ in Vargas
For the first time since it was established in 1980, the Association of Supervisors and Administrators of Rochester has voted “no confidence” in a city schools superintendent. At a press conference this afternoon, Deborah Rider, ASAR’s president, said that 87 percent of its members supported the no-confidence vote against Superintendent Bolgen Vargas. Rider cited a […]
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Rethinking school discipline
A recent New York Times editorial looked at the growing intolerance toward “zero tolerance” school disciplinary policies. Since the 1990’s, school districts across the country have been ratcheting up the punishment, including suspensions for what are often minor infractions. A three-year-old Texas study showed that nearly six in 10 public school students were suspended at […]
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New York’s City Council says enough testing
Former New York City education chancellor Joel Klein spent years extolling the benefits of high-stakes testing. But now, the NYC City Council is saying enough is enough. And they’re asking the state Education Department to forgo using student test results as a main assessment tool. The council, according to an Ed Week article, unanimously passed […]
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Imagination more important than testing, Ravitch says
As news of how US students’ scores on the most recent Program for International Student Assessment exams compared to their peers in many other countries, a kind hysteria set in. US students’ proficiency in math, science, and reading barely ranked in the top 20. While some education and business experts read the results as further […]
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Student behavior: Vargas dares to go there
When Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas presented his proposal for college-run schools last week, it was just one piece of a larger package of steps needed, he said, to improve student achievement. The full pac kage includes improving financial management to reduce the hand-wringing over budget gaps; working with BOCES to revive a technical careers program […]
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Poverty “excuse” gets a reprieve
The subject of school integration came up several months ago while I was researching a story. The idea of a metro school system, though heralded by many as one of the most promising ways to improve student performance in Rochester’s schools, was simultaneously dismissed by the people I was with. “Impossible,” “Will never happen,” and […]
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Brizard returns, kind of
He’s back, sort of. It’s been a few years since former city schools superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard left Rochester rather abruptly to become Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s schools chief — though he didn’t last long there, either. It’s no secret that some Rochester board members, teachers, and union leaders were happy to see Brizard go. Others, even […]
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Hodgins aims for city school board as a Republican
Mia Hodgins stood on Lake Avenue in front of Charlotte High School earlier this week to talk about running for one of three available seats on the Rochester school board. Hodgins is a Republican at a time when the city’s electoral history heavily favors Democrats — so much so that it’s often not feasible for […]
