New York Outpaces 10 Other Cities in Gains at Schools; Knights of the South Bronx

1) This is great news overall, and esp. for NYC.  While there are always good arguments that Bloomberg and Klein could have done/could be doing more, relative to other big cities, I think they're in the vanguard of shaking up the bureaucracy, welcoming charter schools, negotiating away some of the most outrageous, restrictive nonsense in the teachers' contract, etc., so it's no coincidence that NYC is showing greater progress than comparable cities.

"The real news here is not that we score below national averages; we know that, most of the nation knows that," said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a lobbying group for urban districts. "The real news is we are gaining ground on the rest of the country. The real question is not whether urban districts can improve, but how fast can we do it?"

2) This looks like a great movie: ''Knights of the South Bronx,'' premiering Dec. 6 (8 p.m. EST) on A&E, based on a true-life tale about how a teacher uses chess to inspire inner-city kids.  The movie is based on PS 70, a Teach For America placement school, and portrays the real tale of the Bronx elementary school children who were led to success in national competitions.

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December 1, 2005

New York Outpaces 10 Other Cities in Gains at Schools

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
and ELISSA GOOTMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/education/01cnd-scores.html?hp&ex=1133499600&en=829bb9c07f35585c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

BOSTON, Dec. 1 - New York City has made substantial gains in narrowing the gap in achievement between black and Hispanic students and their white counterparts, largely outpacing 10 other large urban school districts, according to federal reading and math scores in fourth and eighth grades that were released here today.

The scores, part of the National Assessment of Education Progress, often called the nation's report card, measured math and reading skills in 11 of the country's largest urban school systems. The scores are a subset of results from nationwide testing that is regarded as the country's best measure of school performance.

Overall, the results showed the urban districts making substantial progress in math and very limited gains in reading compared to 2002 and 2003, when the big-city schools were previously tested. In fourth-grade math, for example, eight of the 10 districts tested in 2003 posted significant gains in 2005. In eighth-grade math, four of the 10 made gains.

New York City's strongest results overall were in fourth-grade math, with the number of students scoring at the basic level up 6 points to 73 percent from 67 percent in 2003. New York was also the top urban district in reading in both fourth and eighth grade among students eligible for free and reduced lunch, an indicator of social and economic disadvantage....

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New York Times

 

November 30, 2005

 

Ted Danson Makes Chess - Inspired Movie

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Filed at 2:59 p.m. ET

 

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-AP-on-TV-Ted-Danson.html?pagewanted=print

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- ''Knights of the South Bronx,'' an A&E movie premiering Dec. 6 (8 p.m. EST), is based on a true-life tale about how a teacher uses chess to inspire inner-city kids.

 

It's star, Ted Danson, found himself inspired as well.

 

His love of the game, long dormant, was rekindled, he says, and his skills definitely enhanced.

 

''It takes the computer a lot longer to beat me than it did!'' exclaims the actor, who had played the board game as a kid, but rarely since.

 

Even more so, he adds, he was moved greatly by the real tale of the film's inspiration, chess expert David MacEnulty, who taught the intricate board game to Bronx elementary school children, nurturing them to success in national competitions.

 

Executive producer Diane Nabatoff approached Danson by sending him a video of a TV news piece about MacEnulty, and the actor recalls that he and his wife, actress Mary Steenburgen, were ''in tears'' after watching it....