List of DoE
(Department of Education) terms
Prepared by Michelle Noris, March 11, 2013
School vs. program
– a school has a separate, dedicated principal; a program has the same
principal as the rest of the population of a school. A program may or may not have a separate Assistant
Principal. While programs are not
usually split sited, schools are.
D75 schools are often in multiple sites with the same principal, but
different assistant principals in each location.
Building vs. school
– a building is defined by its physical location and a school is defined by its
administration/principal.
Sometimes a building houses a single school. Sometimes buildings have two or more co-located
schools. Some buildings are
referred to as campuses and may have four small schools in them.
Co-location – a condition
where two or more schools share one building. They will share spaces like the library, gymnasium,
auditorium and cafeteria. They
will have different times of day allocated to use the shared space. They may have different entrances and
usually have different stairwells allocated to them. This relationship is negotiated
between principals and is watched over by a committee of stakeholders in the
building. The relationship can be
great or terrible, depending on the principals and the populations of the
school.
Charter school –
a school funded with public money that follows some, but not all, of the rules
that a public school follows.
Charters must administer the same tests, but they can use different
curricula. They do not typically
employ union teachers, but they can.
They may occupy public school buildings or they may choose not to. A charter may be assigned public school
space ahead of public school needs.
They are never zoned, so they use a lottery system for
applications. There is a wide
range of charter schools with a wide range of performance. Historically charter schools have
avoided students with IEPs and ELL students. The lottery system is difficult to access for parents who
cannot read and/or write.
Articulation – a
process by which a student moves from the rolls of one school to another
without applying. An example is
when the students from PS 150 automatically move to PS/IS 122.
Qualifying vs.
competing for seats – qualifying for a seat means that a student has
demonstrated that they meet or exceed some qualification. This is often a specific test score, or
associated percentile. The number
of needed seats will vary from year to year. Competing for a seat means that a fixed number of seats are
allocated and the students with the top scores are offered seats until they are
gone. A student may qualify, but
not be offered a seat in the competing model.
City wide vs.
district wide Gifted and Talented – in elementary school, the DoE uses
testing to determine a percentile for a student’s ability. They do not administer IQ tests, but
use a combination of aptitude and school readiness tests to rate students. City wide is defined as 97th
percentile and above, but in reality only a fraction of the 99th percentile are offered
seats in a city wide classroom.
The district wide cut off is 90th percentile. As a result many students in a district
wide program have qualified for a city wide program, but were not offered a
seat. City wide programs generally
accelerate and district wide programs enrich the curriculum.
Leadership academy
– this is where principals of new schools often come from. In an existing school with existing
assistant principals, one often moves up.
In the case of a new school the DoE has a farm system of people who want
to be principals. They get
training, and often “intern” as resident principals in an existing school to
learn the ropes.
Zones – a school
zone is a geographic area that is defined and includes the school itself. In a zoned school, the students who
live in the zone have rights to attend the school that exceed the rights of
non-zoned students. Zones can be
changed, but re-zoning needs the approval of the CEC. The CEC cannot propose a change. Only the community superintendent can. Some districts have no
zones. Some have a combination of
zoned schools and choice schools, some are all lottery. District 30 is a zoned district with
some schools having choice as another route of enrollment. Note that no high schools are zoned.
Community
superintendent vs. district superintendent – New York State sees the Chancellor
as the community superintendent for all of New York City. Each of the 32 geographical districts
have two district superintendents, one for K-8 and one for high school.
Office of Portfolio
Planning – a central DoE office that is charged with significant changes of
utilization. They open schools,
close schools, add grades and remove grades (also called truncation) from
schools. If you want to open a new
school, you need OPP to work with you.
Office of Student
Enrollment – a central DoE office that is charged with enrolling students
in school and all of the policies that go with it. They do G&T testing. They decide on methods for selecting students for choice
schools and choice programs within zoned schools. Once you have a school, OSE decide how the students will be
selected for and enrolled to your school.
CEC/CDEC –
Community (District) Education Councils are required by New York State
law. 9 members are elected by the
K-8 PTA/PA presidents in each district, every two years. Elected members must have a child in
K-8 in the district to run for office.
2 members are appointed by the appropriate borough president. One member is a high school student in
a leadership position at a high school in the district, selected by the K-8
district superintendent. The
position is unpaid and the members are not employees of the DoE. The CECs hold hearings on all OPP plans
in a district. The CEC votes on
all zoning and rezoning in a district.
Interestingly, the CEC holds hearings on high schools, but parents in
high school have no voice in selecting the CEC members.
PEP – Panel for
Educational Policy votes on all significant changes of utilization, all changes
to the chancellor’s regulations and all major contracts let by the DoE. The PEP is made up of 13 members – 8
appointed by the mayor and one appointed by each of the five borough presidents. These are paid positions.
