Dewey21C

Tag: NYCDOE

  • The New York Observer: Teaching the Arts on the Cheap

    When I was interviewing for my position at The Center for Arts Education, I called a senior NYC education official to seek advice. My friend at the NYCDOE was very enthusiastic about the prospect of my being hired, until eerily, the issue of arts education advocacy came up. I asserted that a major area of…

  • A Moment of Clarity: Test Scores in New York State Are Recalibrated

    Many of you have no doubt heard the great news over the past few years about rising ELA and math test scores in the New York City Public Schools. But wait, there was more: test scores were rising all across the state, no matter what the intervention. The New York State Department of Education has…

  • NYC Teacher Layoffs Averted?

    Even with the state budget in flux, this morning the news broke that the City will cancel proposed teacher layoffs, choosing instead to cancel proposed salary increases for the next two years. Emails started to fly, with people cheering the good news. But not so fast, The city was in the middle of contract negotiations…

  • Guest Arts Education Blogger, Jon Deak: Creating Music with El Sistema, Part Six

    Click here for Part Five Caracas, 13 de Abril, 2010 Having been so blown away by the rehearsal of the Simón Bolívar orchestra the previous Friday (see Part Three), and totally involved with planning these Young Composer classes, one might excuse me if attending the concert of the Mahler 7th Symphony this Tuesday evening would…

  • Proposal to Scorch the Earth in Toledo Public Schools

    There are times when the little policy matters seems irrelevant. Who cares if a subject is declared “core” by your state department of education or USDOE? Take a good look at this story coming out of Toledo. It is a rather stunning example of how a school district is proposing the elimination of all certified…

  • American Teacher Magazine on Arts Education: Part Two

    Last month the American Teacher Magazine, which has a circulation of over one million, had a cover story on arts education.  They have followed-up on the cover story, with a series of pieces submitted by educators from across the country, about the value of arts education. Click here to read the March/April edition of the…

  • The School District Arts Czar: Mistaking the Piece for the Puzzle

    I was talking recently with a friend and colleague who expressed disappointment over how things turned out with the appointment of the arts education czar in her local school district. She spoke about how much effort went into advocating with district leadership for the creation of the position, how enormously high the hopes were for…

  • The True Nature of Mayoral Control Strikes Hard for 19 School Communities

    Sometimes people lose track of what mayoral control means, particularly the pure form that we have in New York City. In New York City, it means that the mayor controls the schools and can do whatever he wants, for he appoints the majority of the the local school board (the Panel for Educational Policy) and…

  • Reflections on the Possible Closing of My High School: Beach Channel High School

    It makes for a really great chest-beating sound-bite: “we just closed another low performing school!” It’s all the rage in New York City, at the USDOE, and at many other urban school districts: School Turnaround. And, although the term denotes a number of possible strategies, it almost always connotes the closing of a school. And,…

  • The Sweet Spot for Schools and Cultural Organzations

    I once had a colleague complain to me about the disparities in quality among those organizations providing services to schools. Some programs were great; others were terrible. Some artists where thoughtfully developed and supported to work in schools; others were simply booked into the gig. Some organizations spent a great deal of time on reflective…