Carol Burris on grants for charters to share their "successful" practices

Carol Burris has been the principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, N.Y., for 12 years. South Side is ranked as one of the top high schools in the country by Newsweek every year, and in 2010, she was named the NYS Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York.  She is one of the co-authors of the principals’ letter against evaluating teachers by test scores, which was signed by more than one third of all New York State principals, and more recently, a petition asking Governor Cuomo to end highstakes testing, which has received over 9500 signatures.  She has written many opeds in the Washington Post Answer Sheet, including Why “school reform” is a misnomer.

Today she received an email from the NY State Education Department charter school office, publicizing a $500,000 competitive grant program for charter schools to disseminate their “best practices” to public schools.

You can check out her reply below.

From: NYSED CHARTERSCHOOLS [mailto:CHARTERSCHOOLS@MAIL.NYSED.GOV]
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 4:49 PM
To: PUBADMIN@listserv.nysed.gov
Subject: 2013-2016 New York State Charter School Dissemination Program 

Dear District School Leaders:

We are pleased to announce that the New York State Education Department has launched a competitive grant program called the 2013-2016 New York State Charter School Dissemination Program.  The purpose of this grant competition is to provide funds to support the dissemination of effective practices and programs that have proven successful in New York charter schools.  Up to $500,000 will be awarded to charter schools that are willing to partner with a district school or schools. While district schools are not eligible to apply as the lead applicant, they are able to apply in partnership with a charter school, and all funding must be used to directly support the district school.     

Information regarding the application process can be found here:  http://www.p12.nysed.gov/funding/currentapps.html#nycs_dissemination. A direct link to the application portal can be found here: https://nysed-cspgrants.myreviewroom.com. An optional, but recommended, Letter of Intent is due February 22, 2013, and the full application is due March 15, 2013 at 3 p.m.

All questions about this RFP must be emailed to csdissem@mail.nysed.gov no later than February 27, 2013.  A questions and answers summary will be posted on February 15, 22, and March 1, 2013 to the following website:  http://www.p12.nysed.gov/funding/currentapps.html.   

From: BURRIS, CAROL
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 4:55 PM
To: 'NYSED CHARTERSCHOOLS'
Subject: RE: 2013-2016 New York State Charter School Dissemination Program 

I am the principal of an outstanding public high school. I would be happy to share what I know with a charter. Does the grant go both ways, or do you assume that only charters have something to teach?

Carol Burris on the Regents proposal for three different kinds of diplomas

Congratulations to Carol Burris, co-author of the principal letter critiquing the APPR, the new NY state teacher evaluation system. Her school, South Side HS in Rockville Center, was just named the second best high school in the state, according to US News and World Report, and it is one of few non-selective relatively diverse schools on the list.

Here is her explanation:  "We do great things by challenging all kids, supporting them and not sorting them."  It also can't hurt that her school has average class sizes of 17 (in math) to 23  (in social studies), according to its NYS report card.   Carol adds:

The typical class sizes for math, science and English are a bit higher than shown because we have every other day support classes in those subjects for kids who need them and those are twelve or fewer. We also keep our repeater classes (kids who failed Regents) under 12. You will never find an academic class in my school over 29 and 29 is rare.  Last year we were 16% free and reduced price lunch, and when kids have small class sizes, lots of support and high expectations they do very well.

Below, see her recent letter to the NY Board of Regents,  regarding their new proposal to create three different kinds of diplomas: CTE (vocational), regular and STEM.

Carol explains: “No matter how you cut it, it is tracking and we have a history of segregated classrooms that resulted from that practice.  This is not an argument against CTE programs or STEM programs.  This is an argument for preparing all of our children for college and career, and not watering down expectations and hope by forcing kids prematurely down different paths”

Burris Letter to Regents Tisch