Well, well. Maybe turning around failing urban schools is harder than some education reformers would have us believe. Johns Hopkins University, in a much publicized move, took over the management of two failing Buffalo schools – East and Lafayette — last year. But now, according to the Buffalo News, it looks like the university wants […]
Rochester school district
Posted inNews & Opinion
Administration problems add to Vargas’s challenges
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas says he’s making progress in improving city schools, and results are coming. But he faces some serious problems that he says could roll everything backward: open resistance from the administrators union and several changes among top administrators in central office. Vargas is at a key point in his tenure with […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Feedback 8/13
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Rochester school board looks for answers at East
Updated version: Friday, August 1, 2014 The Rochester school board met yesterday to review a plan to improve East High School. The plan, put together by a team at East High, is supposed to be submitted to the State Education Department today for approval, but some board members said they needed more time to examine […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
California decision a game-changer
No matter how you look at it, yesterday’s decision by a California Superior Court Judge was a serious blow to teachers, their unions, and their anti-reform allies. In Vergara v. State of California, Justice Rolf Treu ruled in favor of nine parents, saying that the current set of laws that protect teachers discriminates against low-income […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
RTA ticked over testing
Rochester Teachers Association President Adam Urbanski rarely admonishes Superintendent Bolgen Vargas publicly. Vargas and Urbanski usually have each other’s back on most issues. But the RTA filed a class action grievance against the city school district last week, and in a phone interview yesterday, Urbanski was not so supportive of Vargas. The grievance concerns ELA […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Green light on UR plan with a warning
The Rochester school district can move forward with the University of Rochester to develop a plan to turn around troubled East High School. Rochester School Board President Van White received a letter today from State Education Deputy Commissioner Ken Slentz saying that the district now has until July 1, 2014, to submit a detailed plan […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Can anyone ‘turn around’ a Rochester high school?
I should be encouraged, I guess, that the University of Rochester is willing to consider becoming involved in the operations of East High School. I’ve been hopeful that local colleges and universities would try to help improve city schools, so if the UR interest pans out, that would be a good first step. But I’m […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
UR proposal tests school officials
Superintendent Bolgen Vargas and the Rochester school board ventured into entirely new territory this week. What happens next with East High School is going to pull back the curtain and tell us a lot about how effectively school officials really operate. It’s looking more probable that the school board will choose working with the University […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Segregation forever
It’s probably not a surprise to you, but here’s some news: Americans have turned our back on school integration. Actually, we turned our back on it a long time ago. This month’s Supreme Court decision on affirmative action policies in Michigan is just the latest evidence. Affirmative action has helped innumerable minority students get a […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Vargas looking for partner for East High School
This is a corrected version of this blog April 15, 2014 at 8:45 a.m. Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas is looking for a partner to run East High School. Working with an educational partner organization is one of the options the State Education Department gave the school district to rehabilitate the failing high school. The […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
It’s not East High’s fault
OK: the crisis in the Rochester school district has finally reached the level of absurdity. The academic problems plaguing the district’s largest school, East High, have continued for so long that the State Education Department has ordered the district to… well, DO SOMETHING. Turn the school into a charter school, close it and send its […]
