Another shock wave is likely to spread through the Rochester school district tomorrow when the New York State Education Department releases the scores from the new, more rigorous Common Core curriculum. While some educators are saying that the test scores are not going to be good, others are putting it more bluntly, saying that the […]
Rochester school district
Posted inNews & Opinion
RCSD Superintendent Vargas won’t concede to charters
If the Rochester school district doesn’t start improving soon, charter schools will become the dominant force in the district, city schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas said in a recent interview.
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Tim Mains: ‘I was the gay teacher’
Tim Mains was still new to teaching in the early 1970’s when he walked into his class in the Greece school district one day to find the word “faggot” written on the blackboard. That and a series of other events led him to come out of the closet to his students and peers at a […]
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Changing my mind about charter schools
Right now, 10 charter schools are operating in the City of Rochester. Soon, you can expect to see more. The Farash Foundation plans to award up to $1 million in grants to spur charter growth in the region. While the grants will be available to selected charter schools in Monroe and Ontario Counties, nearly all […]
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Surveys frustrate teachers
Students, teachers, principals, and parents in the Rochester school district recently participated in comprehensive districtwide surveys. The questions were tailored to each group’s relationship to the district. For example, students were asked about their teachers’ instruction, responsiveness, and classroom demeanor. | The New York State Education Department required the surveys as part of the teacher […]
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Ruth Scott and the rising tide
Ruth Holland Scott remembers sixth grade as a broken string of recesses. Scott’s teacher at her small, segregated school in Albion, Michigan, often slept through class, Scott says — waking only when students pestered her. “The guys would take these long poles that you used to raise and lower the windows and lift the wig […]
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RCSD redux
In his effort to save city schools, Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas is turning to three former high-level district administrators: Ray Giamartino, Ralph Spezio, and Suzanne Johnston. | Giamartino will serve as chief of school transformation, where his primary task will be to move some of the lowest performing schools in the state to schools […]
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City schools’ disgruntled customers
While many of the city school district’s problems are linked to severe child poverty, some are caused by plain old bad management and a culture of apathy.
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Running out of time
Significant cuts to All City High’s teaching and non-teaching staff have set off alarms about that school’s survival, but there’s much more to it. The cuts have also ignited a much larger concern about the future of the Rochester school district and the role that charter schools will play in that future. All City High’s […]
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Tim Mains lands schools superintendent job in Jamestown
The Jamestown school board has appointed Tim Mains – a longtime educator, politician, LGBT activist – as superintendent of that city’s public schools. Jamestown’s gain is a loss for Rochester. He’ll oversee a much smaller school district than Rochester’s, and one that isn’t facing nearly the same level of difficulties. But the move could be […]
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Budget hangover
Compared to some past budget deliberations, the city school district’s budget for 2013 to 2014 passed without much fuss. But to close a $50.2 million budget gap, Superintendent Bolgen Vargas made a cut that has some students, teachers, and parents worried. Even some board members are apprehensive about the cuts they approved. The new budget […]
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Elections: Who’s in, who’s out
Incumbent Cynthia Elliott says she’ll keep fighting to stay on the Rochester school board, despite losing the party’s backing.
