Online Education in America

Excerpts from a parent listserv on the topic of tonight’s mayoral control deathwatch party.
Did mayoral control really expire today? A Daily Politics reader says it might have.
Business leaders in Chicago have concluded that Arne Duncan’s reforms failed. (Via Russo)
A space fight in Red Hook between a district school and a charter school rages on. Norm [...]

It looks like Governor Paterson’s 7 p.m. extraordinary session failed to renew mayoral control. Mayor Bloomberg has already put out a statement (read it in full below) condemning lawmakers for “being held hostage to partisan politics.”
We’ve published a guide to the uncharted territory of a post-mayoral control world. Here’s a summary:
1. The borough presidents and [...]

The City Council passed a resolution today calling on Mayor Bloomberg to add two Muslim holidays to the school year, a proposal the mayor has repeatedly opposed.
For over a year, a coalition of Muslim New Yorkers has lobbied the Department of Education to change its policy. The mayor has said he does not favor including [...]

An “eviction notice” for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is held up by end-of-mayoral-control celebration organizer Nicola DeMarco.

Only a handful of New Yorkers showed up to an afternoon-long party planned to celebrate the end of mayoral control.
The seven people who gathered outside Tweed Courthouse at 4:30 p.m. today were outnumbered by members of the press, but [...]

Talks are underway between City Hall and the city’s borough presidents to craft a plan for what to do if mayoral control expires tonight — but it’s not yet clear that Mayor Bloomberg will cooperate with plans to reconvene a Board of Education tomorrow.
Asked if Bloomberg has indicated whether he would appoint the two board [...]

As Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg warn of “total chaos” and ominous “uncharted territory” if mayoral control expires tonight, another, less-frenzied possibility is emerging. The possibility hinges on the success of efforts underway right now to produce a compromise mayoral control bill in the Senate, according to a spokesman for the Campaign for Better Schools, [...]

Courtesy of the Bronx borough president’s office

No one can accuse Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. of being unprepared for the possibility that mayoral control will expire tonight. Diaz just named his potential appointee to the theoretical Board of Education.
That person is Dr. Dolores Fernandez, a professor of urban education at CUNY’s Graduate Center [...]

National Journal’s new Education Experts Blog asks the experts: What’s the best use of stimulus money?

Mayor Bloomberg appeared via satellite at a press conference in Albany today. I watched via webcast.

As Governor Paterson said he will give the state Senate a last chance to operate at 7 o’clock tonight, Mayor Bloomberg outlined his plan for what happens if mayoral control expires at midnight. The plan was, by his own admission, [...]

The NYCLU and Sikh community members demanded protection against discrimination at a press conference this morning. They said their push could be helped if mayoral control is revised.

Mayor Bloomberg refused to take questions on mayoral control at a press conference this morning, and two school-related groups staged protests outside City Hall and Tweed Courthouse [...]

Arrived at NECC in time for the morning keynote debate about whether or not bricks and mortar schools impede learning. It wasn’t a great question to begin with, because I don’t think anyone really thinks it’s an either or, either online or face to face, but a combination that’s going to emerge from this. I [...]

With mayoral control set to expire in just 15 hours, some are developing contingency plans. Others are planning to party.
A group is planning to celebrate the end of mayoral control with a party in the park next to the Department of Education’s Manhattan headquarters, beginning at the perhaps-premature hour of 4:30 p.m. The law does [...]

Peer review – teachers working with struggling colleagues — is helping to improve or weed out ineffective teachers in Montgomery County, Maryland, reports the Washington Post. The union is cooperating.
. . . Of 66 Montgomery teachers in peer review in the 2008-09 school year, 10 are being dismissed and 21 have resigned or retired. Five [...]

A state judge ordered the senate to convene today, but there’s no indication it actually will. (Times)
Sampson says mayoral control is on the Dems’ back burner anyway. (GothamSchools, Daily News, Post)
A new study finds the city used money meant for high-need schools to fill budget gaps. (Daily News)
The city launched its annual free-summer-lunch program for [...]

A state judge ordered the senate to convene today, but there’s no indication it actually will. (Times)
Sampson says mayoral control is on the Dems’ back burner anyway. (GothamSchools, Daily News, Post)
A new study finds the city used money meant for high-need schools to fill budget gaps. (Daily News)
The city launched its annual free-summer-lunch program for [...]