Successful Grant Writing and the DOE

A few years ago, I was on the grant-writing committee at My Kid’s school.  We found many grants for lovely programs that we weren’t eligible for due to lack of space.  For example, one enticing program gives instruments to public schools for music programs.  It was just what we were looking for.  But, we weren’t eligible because one of the requirements was a dedicated music room with a lock on the door in which to keep the instruments.  Too bad.  So sad.

That is exactly the sort of beneficial arts program the NYCDOE is suffocating with it’s policy of counting students and counting classrooms and deciding that there is plenty of room to implant a second or third unrelated school into a building because on paper there are plenty of “underutilized” classrooms where they can squeeze in another charter school.

My Kid’s school used to have a dedicated music room but it had to be turned into a regular classroom, along with the science room and an art room, as a result of increased enrollment.  The homeless music teacher now wanders from classroom to classroom pushing a cart.

There is also something to be said for the simple act of getting up and walking into a different room to perk up a school day.

We’re holding another PTA fundraiser! Hooray! Hooray! Lets Raise Lots of Money to Stay the Same!

I wish the fundraisers at my daughter’s school were for real extras like cheerleader uniforms or choir trips.

Instead, the PTA raises money to pay for teachers aides, capitol improvements, school supplies, staff development and enrichment programs so that the principal can devote more of the budget to salaries and avoid laying off teachers and staff.  That’s how it’s done in New York City.

At another school I know of, the PTA raised funds to build a brand new library for the school.  But, the students can’t use it because the principal doesn’t have enough money in her budget to hire a librarian.

My Kid is lucky.  She goes to a “rich” school.  It’s not that rich.  It’s a smallish public school with a smallish number of families available to answer the appeal.  But, it is rich enough school that the PTA can get away with sending out a letter flat out asking parents to make up the $1000 per student shortfall –cash if you have it– in order to bridge the gap between the current budget and the projected budget after the Mayor and Governor’s next round of education cuts.

This week alone there are five different fundraisers at My Kid’s school.

There was a fundraising dance on Friday night where parents donated all the food and drinks and then paid to get in.

There was the form I filled out this morning impulsively spending over fifty dollars on personalized labels that my only child does not need just because it was a fundraiser for the school.

The school play later this week is a fundraiser.

There will be a fundraising bake sale  to which I am asked to bring cookies and then give my child cash with which to buy said cookies.

And on top of that please write a check for as much as you possibly can if you don’t want the principal to lay off any of the staff or teachers.

There’s no big bang for our bucks.  All we can hope for is maintaining the status quo.

Where’s the excitement in that?

So we took our kid to another middle school test/interview today

My 10-year-old did not want spend Sunday afternoon at another test and interview at another school since that was already the focus of her Saturday.

We went to the school and were directed to the cafeteria where we turned in copies of our children’s report cards and signed in.

The children’s names were called and they were taken away somewhere and we, the parents, were welcome to stay in the cafeteria and wait for them or leave the building to go find a coffee.

Yesterday, parents weren’t even allowed in the building at the citywide gifted and talented school.   We were told; “Back away from the door and clear the sidewalk.”

Today, we talked with friends of other children going through the same process.

One dad said his daughter is over it.

Now we’re starting to protect our children.

We force them to go through the interview or test or audition if we have a good feeling about the school.  But, at this point, the dad said, if he has doubts about the school and his child is completely fried (the kids are getting sick for normal winter flu seasons and for reasons of stress) they might just blow it off.  Mostly we don’t do that because it’s not like we’ve got a lot of choices and if we can get any more information about the school by going through the admissions process we want to do it.

I wanted My Kid to go to that school today.  It’s a school I think is right for her.

My Kid did not want to go.  It’s not her first choice.  She doesn’t understand that she might not get into her first choice.

We talked to the other parents, one of whom teaches high school in Harlem.

Fellow parents who work as public school teachers don’t have any  more information about the middle school application process that I do which I find somewhat unnerving.

We brought our kids in for testing because we could.  Some of the schools offer a single hour with less than a weeks notice with the invitation for an interview.  That’s not enough time to change work schedules.  The kids are not old enough to get to the interviews by themselves.

Does the DOE set it up this way to separate the children of professionals from the children of the poor???

Most of the parents at the school today are professionals.  How do working class shift workers, restaurant workers and store clerks get their kids into a “good” school.  What if English isn’t their primary language?  The DOE prints the middle school directories in multiple languages.  But, that’s not where we get our information.  Gossip and rumors and grapevines is how we find out how to apply to the more selective schools.  Single parents who works even regular hours (much less multiple jobs or shift work) and drops their kids off early and picks them up from the aftersschool program at 6:00 pm.  How do they get their information about things like how many schools to rank on your application.  It’s not obvious.

The DOE application says rank the schools.  I would have ranked all the schools if I hadn’t been told by other parents not to rank all the schools.  I was told by other parents not to list any school on the marking form that l I didn’t want her to go to because if you list it on your form your child can be sent to that school, even if you don’t want your child to go to that school, because of an unworkable commute for example.

The Best Thing

The Best Thing, the very best thing, –about these weird random, open to all of New York City, middle school application process events—- is the opportunity to reconnect with the parent-friends who we met for the first time when our kids were in preschool or Pre-K or Kindergarten…

or…

church school, or soccer, or Girl Scouts, or FLL Robotics, or ice skating, or…pretty much anything we’ve ever done…

It’s a meet and greet…

OMG!

Today at NEST+m I ran into Marea!  Our kids were in Pre-K together.  Then we both left the school where our kids were in Pre-K together.  We the adults look the same.  In our eyes, our children who went to Pre-K with each other look the same.

And yet…

The kids, our kids don’t recognize each other…

We are so happy to reconnect.

Our kids are oblivious…

Lined up around the block to take a test to get into middle school–WTF?!

Standing in line waiting with our kid who has a ticket to take the test to get into NEST+m, one of the most selective public schools in all of New York City.

Thousands will take the test.

60 or maybe 80 or, at the very outside–100 students AT MOST will be invited to enter 6th grade class at this school.

And yet…

Here we are.

Even if My Kid’s test scores are in the top 1 percent of  all the kids who apply to get into this school she might not get in.

There might be 200 or even 300 kids who test in the top 99.9 percent of all the kids who take the test.

That won’t increase the number of seats available in this school at this time.

I can’t believe we are even participating in this charade.

One chid from my daughter’s elementary school got in last year.

His mother was taken by surprise when he came out of the test and said of the (IQ) test saying “That was fun!”

They invited him in!

I hear it was a hard 3-month-long adjustment to the new culture!

That’s where he goes now!

I don’t think that will happen for my child.

She’s a bit more layered and complex, not easily quantified in a one-hour test…

I don’t think she’ll get in…

She might…

I don’t know what we would do if she does get in…

My Kid said she doesn’t want to go to that school.

The 7th graders do 11th grade math.  Do I even care or want My Kid to do that?

It seems impressive.   But, do I want to actually live in the same apartment as a 12-year-old who stays up nights to keep up with high school math?

Do I???

Back when I was looking for a Kindergarten for My Kid, I knew did not want her to have so much homework that we wouldn’t be able to continue to enjoy New York City as a family…

So it doesn’t make any sense for me to make her apply to that school now!

Does it????

Back then, I knew my kid…

Back then, I never even tried…

Back then, one of my mommy-friends paid cash-up-front  for an appointment to have her kid tested to see if her 4-year-old was eligible for a gifted and talented seat…

Back then, my friend’s 4-year-old lay on the floor crying and my mommy-friend had to reschedule the test…

Back then, I knew my street-smart Brooklyn toddler would not be willing to go into a room alone with a complete stranger.

(She didn’t even like the idea that a man named Santa Clause may have come into our apartment and changed things around while we were asleep!)

So why are we were this morning standing in line just because we have a ticket?!

My Kid doesn’t even want to go to this school!

But, it’s a good school!

That’s the argument!

It’s not like it’s 1969 and we’re standing to see the Rolling Stones at Altamont!

It’s not like we were in line to audition for American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance!

There’s no plane ticket to Las Vegas for the winners.

There’s no recording contract for the winners.

At the end of the test the best you can hope for is a seat in a middle school…

…which, as we well know, never goes well for anyone…

My Mommy-friend who has already gotten her offspring through college puts it all in perspective for me”

“It’s middle school.  You just want he her to survive–with her virginity intact.”

Aghhhhhhh!

I’m concerned about declining standards and don’t even care about test scores!

Yesterday, I heard from another parent that her daughter had gotten a letter inviting her to interview at the school my own daughter listed as her number one middle school choice and we have received no such letter.  The other parent said the interviews are tomorrow.

Today, I went to the school and talked to the parent coordinator.  She told me that indeed the interviews are tomorrow and that last week, a letter had been mailed to My Kid .  Tomorrow, is also interview day at two or more of the other somewhat selective public middle schools in the neighborhood, which my daughter and/or her classmates have listed as either their first or second choice on the official NYCDOE middle school choice application. These schools only interview for consideration, children who have listed that particular school as first or second on their official NYCDOE middle school choice application.

My daughter cannot interview tomorrow morning because during the first week of January, I went online and acquired for her a ticket to the 10:30 am entrance exam for the gifted and talented school in Manhattan. (Not the 8:30 am test. Not the 3:00 pm test.  Not the test given on another day.  Her ticket is for that test time and that time only.  It has her name on it.  A computer gave it to me and I cannot get another ticket.  I chose a time based on My Kid’s soccer schedule which, as of January 6, was the only conflict she had.

When I told the parent coordinator that my daughter was scheduled to take this particular test –which most of the 5th graders of most of the parents I talk to at drop-off and pick-up time at My Kid’s elementary school will be taking– the parent coordinator, at what My Kid hopes will be her middle school, had no idea what I was talking about.  She seemed never to have heard of this well-known public gifted and talented school, –which is listed in the back of every Middle School Directory for every district–  one of the Citywide MIddle Schools with School-Based Applications.

The essay my daughter is asked to prepare in advance of the interview at the the multi-district somewhat selective themed middle school in Brooklyn, is an answer to the following question:  “If you could make up one school rule that everybody would have to follow what would it be.”  Not, “Why are you interested in math, science and/or technology?” which was the question in previous years and speaks to this particular school’s stated theme.

Also today, I got an e-mail from the NYC Teaching Fellows reminding me to complete my application and get it in.  I started an online application some months ago on a whim, and have been getting regular updates about the application deadline extensions ever since.

I heard on NPR, that last fall only about 450 Teaching Fellows entered the New York City Public schools.   That’s less than a third of the number hired in previous years.  The news story implied that the lack of interest in the teaching profession might have something to do with the DOE hiring freeze that has been in effect since May 2009.

The NYC Teaching Fellows website lists minimum eligibility requirements, including an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0 (unless there are extenuating circumstances).  Today I was sent answers to common questions such as “Should I apply if my GPA is below 3.0?” and the new answer is “Yes.”

There will be a make-up interview sometime next week.

Cathie Black Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic

I read Cathie Black’s editorial in the Daily News today.

The focus on the interpretation of test score statistics seems an odd choice for the new Schools Chancellor, like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, given the host of other pressing issues affecting the daily educational lives of the students and teachers populating the public school buildings of New York City at this point in time.

As the parent of a child currently in the  middle of the “middle school choice” process, it seems pretty clear that the kind of middle school she attends will make or break her ability to get into a selective high school and/or pass the desired Regents exams in high school.

The father of one of my daughter’s classmates said he doesn’t want his daughter to attend a middle school that doesn’t offer Regents exams.  Many don’t.  Common wisdom has it that if a child wants to take advanced math in high school, they have to enter high school having already passed the Regents Algebra exam because otherwise there just won’t be enough time to get to take Advanced Calculus or whatever other course the student is hoping to take while in high school in order to be able to hit the ground running as a college student working towards a STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) career.

The mother of a student at the doomed to close Jamaica High School in Queens testified before a recent PEP meeting said that her son (who chose the school because of  specific accelerated academic and engineering programs that no longer exist) was accepted into an advanced placement math class only to find out after showing up for class the first day of school that it had been cancelled because the teacher had been transferred to another school.

From where I’m sitting, the problem isn’t how the tests are scored.  The problem is that there simply aren’t enough New York City middle schools and high schools that offer  the science and advanced math courses necessary to enable more students to take and pass the various Regents exams that “prove” they have acquired the prerequisite knowledge for college level work.

Cathie Black op-ed on college readiness: State must stop fiddling with cut scores, improve tests

BY CATHIE BLACK

Wednesday, February 9th 2011, 4:00 AM

Schools Chancellor Cathie Black Theodorakis/News  Schools Chancellor Cathie Black

“When Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, he inherited a dysfunctional school system and graduation rates that had been stagnant for a decade. Nine years later, New York City’s graduation rate is at an all-time high of 63%.

We should all be immensely proud of that progress. But we still have work to do to ensure that more of our students graduate and that they graduate with the skills to succeed in college.

That is why, for the past two years, the Department of Education has focused on increasing the rigor of our curriculum and working to introduce new assessments that measure whether our students are ready to succeed in college.

We are pleased that yesterday, New York State Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and state Education Commissioner David Steiner joined us in this discussion by acknowledging that the state standards have been too low. The state is, after all, responsible for setting graduation standards, creating the Regents exams, dictating how the exams are given and scored and, on top of it all, overseeing SUNY and CUNY, the state and city universities that define college-readiness requirements.

But if we are going to have a real conversation about college readiness – which we desperately need – it has to be about more than setting higher “cut scores” on the Regents exams. Right now, students are counted as passing the Regents exam with a score of 65. Everyone agrees that at this level, they’re not truly prepared to do college-level work.

In its analysis, the state argues that students had to score 80 on the Math A Regents test (primarily given to ninth-graders) to truly be ready for college-level work.

But there are better, more rigorous predictors of college success: One is whether kids master higher-level math courses by the time they graduate. Another is whether students take the more advanced Math B Regents test. Success or failure on that exam correlates much more strongly to whether students go on to succeed at the college level. In fact, students who took but actually failed the Math B Regents have a better chance of being on track at CUNY than students who earned an 80 on the Math A Regents.

The state erred in using only the Math A results for its analysis, and if we are going to get this right, we need a thorough analysis using the best metrics available.

While adjusting scores has some value, it is crucial that we also focus on taking steps that will actually help better prepare our kids for college-level work. That means having a curriculum that teaches students how to write critically, how to back up their arguments with facts and how to apply mathematics to real-world situations. And it means having rigorous assessments that align with the curriculum and measure if our students have mastered those skills. The current Regents exams do not offer that.”

Cathie Black Profiled in New York Magazine

Cathie Black is on the cover of New York magazine, a publication she once ran.

In the profile piece, she says, “I want to empower our principals because the empowerment of principals, I believe, is critical to the success of the system.”

But, when asked, ‘What powers do school principals currently lack?’, she gave an answer that sounded just like Sarah Palin in her 2008 interview with Kathie Couric:

“Well, too many people will say, ‘I don’t have the money.’ But the smartest principals will figure out ‘How do I reallocate my resources for things I think are most important in my own school?  The teacher evaluation, the… all of the work now in terms of curriculum development, for the core standards.’  This is going to be a game-changer.  But it’s a lot of hard slogging, also.  Then we have, with the new schools, wether they be charter schools or just new approaches… they’re very exciting.  But too many people are afraid of change.  They’re very wed to whatever they truly believe in.  So obviously there’s a lot of noise about that.”

And I’ll bet if you ask Cathie Black which of the many New York City Public elementary, middle and high schools she visits regularly, she’ll answer,  “All of ’em.”