A story on the front page of today's NYT about the lingering remnants of NYC's infamous rubber rooms.  Too bad the good news about major progress was buried deep in the article:

Despite the difficulties of finding the teachers actual work, cases are moving much faster than before the April agreement, when lawyers for both sides, arbitrators and defendants all played a role in dragging them out, sometimes for years. In mid-November, there were 236 teachers and administrators still in reassignment, down from 770 when the deal to close the rubber rooms was signed.

Ms. Morgan, the city spokeswoman, said the city was on track to close all the cases that had existed before April by the end of the year, except for those involving arrests or special investigation.

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New York Teachers Still in Idle Limbo

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: December 7, 2010

www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/nyregion/08schools.html