This reads like a satire from The Onion. Surely New York's finst pedagogical minds have tasks of greater import than bestowing corny names on established schools with perfectly servicable and recognized names. I wonder who is more mad: our eccentric mayor or the public servants who take his half-baked ideas seriously.

My sister, Julie, was one of the first charter students at Dewey when it was a truly innovative school. To toss in " academy" or "technology" to a school that resembles neither is false advertising. The Bloomberg administration is doing nothing more than whitewashing the issue that these are schools that are in need of more than a new name. They need educators who care, curriculum that is a challenge and not just to score better on standardized tests, students involved in the social affairs of the community and of the world and parents who are involved. That was Dewey's mantra and the original focus of Dewey HS... Now, you'll just have another lousy HS with a fancy name.

I can't tell you how silly these names are. Of course no one will use the full name, so Dewey will become Shorefront High School. It is a mouthfull to use the full name. Historically, Shorefront was just a working name for the school that was to become John Dewey High School. It was named that because of the educational philosphy of the school. Bloomberg is erasing a proud history of many schools. All of these schools were improving and this was done because of a political impass between the UFT and the City. We all mourn the loss of the proud histories of all of these schools.

Wonderful use of public money. While schools are suffering from five years of budget cuts, cutiing after school programs, cutting teacher positions, increasing class size, and cutting elective programs and Advanced Placement, there is plenty of money to spend on "new signs, letterhead, and marketing material."

And no one is ashamed?

Why not call every school Stuyvesant High at xxxxxx Csmpus ... I hope the City begins the inaugural ceremony with a rendition of Abbott and Costello's "Whose on First."

The Court will apply the sound legal principle of "walks like duck, talks like a duck," and toss the city plan.

This nonsense is so CLASSIC NYC DOE. Couldn't ask for more. Oh, to live in ANY school system other than this one.

In the second-to-last paragraph of this piece, stationery (meaning letterhead and envelopes) is misspelled as "stationary."

Why has it taken so long for the Times to write about what Bloomberg is doing? You could have been helpful.

I graduated from Newtown many years ago. It will always to Newtown. This is some of the dumbest stuff over. I hate Bloomberg more and more every day. With his policies, it was easier and less stressful for my daughter to get into college of her choice than it was high school (and we did some fancy foot-work to make sure she got into the HS and it's unique program - which I will not name).

I hope this works - for the sake of the kids - I hope this works. I received a call just yesterday from a former graduate of the Smith Residential Wiring program (she is 29 years old) who called to let me know she had just gone to contract on her first home. The success stories abound from a Vocational School whose graduates went on to higher education (over 73% of them) and whose graduates were sought after by some of the best businesses in the City of New York. What happened over the past 10 years since I cannot say but DOE policy certainly was partly to blame when in 1999 without conversation and certainly without consultation, Smith's screened programs were left mostly to the choice of the computer rather than the choice of student interests.
Hindsight is always clearer than foresight but rather than to jettison programs that did work, maybe for the future a better look at declining enrollment and what is going on internally in a specific school may save programs, improve the outlook for kids who want specific programs and may even save names that were synonymous with quality education.

Are they planning on closing every non-specialized high school? That seems to be the trend with this despot mayor.

Do you have students who are thinking about transferring to another high school?

If they have less than 21 high school credits, they are invited to come to an Open House at the Hunts Point campus of John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School (1239 Lafayette Ave, 10474, corner of Barretto St) on Thursday, May 31, 2012 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

If they have 21 or more high school credits, they are invited to come to an Open House at the Battery Park campus of John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School (17 Battery Place, 10004, at West St) on Thursday, June 7, 2012 from 11:00am to 2:00pm.

Agenda: Meet our graduates, speak to staff members and fill out an application. Tour the building and get information about qualifying for working in our internship program and joining our championship coed softball and men’s basketball teams.

So the end of progressive, Liberal education is at an end. In the case from my alma mater, John Dewey, it was more about teaching students how to teach themselves. That will no longer be the case, it is now teaching to a test, so that administrators can make more money.
I have seen our great nation get more and more conservative since the days of Reagan. History will show this to be a great mistake, and more than likely be the end of a free nation, where individuals have rights, and are respected for what they know, not who they know. It's all about who you know and who you kowtow to today. It's all about the corporate interests, and not about the interests of WE THE PEOPLE. There is more and more of this training people to pass a test, rather than teaching people how to innovate, learn on their own, and form great things. Our country can no longer be great, unless we teach the future generations how to think for themselves, and not teach them what to think from the people who run big business.

This is so embarrassing. I worked so hard to educate myself with all the degrees, hoop jumps and planning to be the best teacher I can be regardless of the population I teach and this is how the NYCDOE supports me? My students? Rather than examine what contributes to a school's struggles and/or failures, fingers point, doors close and new school names get hung over those around for decades? I can't even have a serious conversation about this anymore. I work at a supposedly "small school" with a title 1 population: classes are oversized, we have no art, music or health as mandated because there is no budget. We have no AP or Honors programs or after school clubs because there is no budget. We just lost our Advisory program because there is no budget. All these small schools are given proper funds to start, then each year they are asked to maintain (or do more) for less and less. Student successes start to decline as do graduation rates, quality of programs and teacher morale. Now it's all about numbers and penalizing schools that can produce enough graduates so we socially promote and pump 'em through. It all disgusts me. Bloomberg insisted that education is akin to business. But when you make a product, say, like apple sauce, and you get a rotten crop, you toss it to maintain quality. That doesn't work in our "business" - we must educate the poor, the wealthy, the low-skilled and the gifted equally, but unfortunately, the title 1 schools prove to be the sacrificial lambs when the wallet gets tight. Unbelievable.

If you check up on what Bloomberg is doing with the schools, he is getting rid of ALL teachers with fifteen or more years of experience. Those were the majority of the teachers not rehired in the middle schols along with the teachers with Common branches ot elementary school licenses. Anyway, I heard that the UFT won arbitration to stop the schools closings on June 29th 2012.