Judge Bars 'Intelligent Design' From Pa. Classes; City Officials Put Academy for Principals Under Review
Mr. Klein said in an interview that he was committed to keeping the program going, though at a slightly scaled-back level. He said that even though some candidates did not make it, the program infused the system with well-trained leaders and brought in more black men as principals. Many academy graduates, he said, were placed in tough schools, replacing poor principals that he described as "place-holders."
"I think it's made enormous sense," Mr. Klein said, "and, quite frankly, it's an enormous lever of reform."
But others are raising serious questions about whether the program, with a cost of $160,000 to $180,000 per principal, is worth the money, particularly if the city itself has to assume some of the cost. "Unfortunately, the number of recruits now assigned as principals is not impressive," Betsy Gotbaum, the public advocate, said in a statement yesterday.
Judge Bars 'Intelligent Design' From Pa. Classes
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- "Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.
Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when they ordered that its biology curriculum must include the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said. Several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives even while professing religious beliefs, he said.
The school board policy, adopted in October 2004, was believed to have been the first of its kind in the nation.
"The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy," Jones wrote.
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Junior High School 8 in Queens and Middle School 22 in the Bronx were sorely in need of a steady hand when they were assigned leaders fresh out the New York City Leadership Academy, the elite, $70 million principal-training program that was at the core of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's efforts to remake the school system.
Now, more than a year after Shimon Waronker became principal, M.S. 22 has fewer fights in the hallways; test scores have risen; and most students come to school wearing their new uniform of khakis and white shirts. But at J.H.S. 8, the principal, Adrienne Lloyd, was transferred to a different school last February after tensions with teachers grew so serious that the teachers' union gave her a symbolic "shame award."
The contrasting stories show that two and a half years after the academy was created as the most expensive and ambitious principal-training program in the country, its record is decidedly mixed. Of the 180 candidates who entered the academy, only 113 are now working as principals.
Thirty-three candidates dropped out or were counseled to leave before the training was over. Others graduated, only to be placed in administrative roles other than principal.
With the academy's private financing set to run out at the end of the school year, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and the other members of its board of directors are expected to begin shaping the program's future - from its financing to its scope - at a meeting today.
Mr. Klein said in an interview that he was committed to keeping the program going, though at a slightly scaled-back level. He said that even though some candidates did not make it, the program infused the system with well-trained leaders and brought in more black men as principals. Many academy graduates, he said, were placed in tough schools, replacing poor principals that he described as "place-holders."
"I think it's made enormous sense," Mr. Klein said, "and, quite frankly, it's an enormous lever of reform."
But others are raising serious questions about whether the program, with a cost of $160,000 to $180,000 per principal, is worth the money, particularly if the city itself has to assume some of the cost. "Unfortunately, the number of recruits now assigned as principals is not impressive," Betsy Gotbaum, the public advocate, said in a statement yesterday....
posted by Whitney Tilson at 12:13 PM
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