Rise & Shine: School year starts with eyes on the mayor's race

  • UFT campaign materials tell members that Bill Thompson promised retroactive raises; he has not. (Post)
  • Thompson did promise to make a seat on the Panel for Educational Policy for a parent. (GothamSchools)
  • Diane Ravitch, Michelle Rhee, Kim Sweet, and others offer schools tips to the next mayor. (Daily News)
  • Education has been a big issue in the city’s mayoral election so far, as it surely will continue to be. (WSJ)
  • Joel Klein says he wants an “education reformer” who supports charter schools as mayor. (Daily News)
  • Some schools that were flooded during Sandy last year still don’t have working fire alarms. (ABC 7)
  • The city announced a $13 million expansion of its “Out-Of-School Time” initiative. (Daily NewsNY1)
  • Slow bandwidth at some schools could impede the city’s rollout of an online textbook store. (Daily News)
  • This year, the state won’t mandate that all students who failed state tests get extra help. (GothamSchools)
  • The Daily News says the UFT only wants diversity at specialized schools to mask teachers’ failures.
  • Major crimes in city schools fell by a wide margin last year, as we reported last week. (Daily News, NY1)
  • Anecdotal reports suggest that more parents nationally are opting out of tests, but data are scarce. (AP)
  • The first educator tried in Atlanta’s cheating scandal was acquitted of wrongdoing. (TimesWSJAJC)
  • School districts nationwide, including here, are starting the year with new security procedures. (WSJ)