No Child Left Behind podcast

NCLB Podcast @Education Law Association http://bit.ly/seqE1H

Pros And Cons Of A Mayoral Takeover Of Kansas City Schools | KCUR Public Radio

Brooklyn College education professor David Bloomfield says there’s no undisputed data on the success of mayoral control. “Mayoral control isn’t a panacea,” Bloomfield said. “Local people should depend on local circumstances for their decision.” http://bit.ly/rYCuGH

Sunday Schools: After “Household of Faith v. Board” @ GothamSchools.org

By refusing the church’s latest appeal in Bronx Household of Faith v. New York City Board of Education, 11-386, the United States Supreme Court today gave a final judicial green light to the Department of Education’s controversial ban on renting schools for religious services.

While only persuasive nationally, the now-final Second Circuit ruling settles matters for multiple states within this judicial circuit (New York, Vermont, and Connecticut) but only affects those districts that want to start prohibiting services (probably few, but includes New York City).

Haven’t we been here before? In 1998, the high court declined review of a similar Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. And, despite these decisions and others along the way, since 2002 Bronx Household of Faith has been holding services in P.S. 15 in the Bronx. The DOE estimates that dozens of churches now rent space for Sunday services, despite courts approving Chancellor’s Regulation D-180, Section 1(Q), prohibiting the practice. Can this really be the end?

Continued at http://bit.ly/tD7vew

American Public Education Law, 2nd Edition

Proud & Grateful: American Public Education Law, 2nd Edition just released!  http://bit.ly/uOAOFu and http://amzn.to/sb1jvQ

Higher Standards, Lower Stakes

Release of New York City “Progress Reports” and a plethora of other news from around the country reveal the tough truth that high-stakes accountability fails to raise academic achievement. Indeed, it leads to watering down the very standards its advocates espouse, merely producing talking points that politicians and administrators use to claim success in reaching empty benchmarks. . . .

continued at http://bit.ly/tV4NmJ

Legal Basics for Education Leaders @BAMRadioNetwork with Holly Elissa Bruno

http://bit.ly/tDutby

“More than 1 in 3 City Students Have Been Held Back” by Tiffany Lankes @Rochester Democratic & Chronicle

Those who repeat two grades have a near certain chance — 80 percent to 90 percent —  of never finishing high school. “The data on retention is clear that it’s  a marker for students who will eventually drop out,” said David  Bloomfield, a professor of education at Brooklyn College. “It’s the  obligation of educators to take students as they are rather than hold them back because they’re not at a certain level.” http://on.rocne.ws/t2WxP8

Leading With Integrity in a Dysfunctonal Education System (interview @ BAMradionetwork)

Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso and I discuss Cheating
bit.ly/sDdqo8

‘Unprepared’ City Grads Pack CUNY’s Remediation Rolls by Susan Edelman @NYPost

“giving out credits like candy” by the #NYCDOE; cost shifting from City to State http://nyp.st/nWaZLh

@NYPOST #CreditRecovery EDITORIAL: Cheaters Sometimes Win

Mayor Bloomberg likes to boast of the “gains” made in city schools during his tenure, but  the test scores and graduation rates he cites have long been suspect.

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Sheesh! It’s nothing more than — as one expert termed it — “approved  cheating.”

“This is simply a phony process for getting kids undeserved credits,” says  Brooklyn College education professor David Bloomfield. It makes a mockery of “real learning and subject mastery.”

Read more: http://nyp.st/qs2PsK