Bill Thompson, the former head of the Board of Education and son of a public school teacher, won the endorsement of the teachers union in the race for mayor. Union leaders said they were not looking to play it safe this election cycle.

“I’m there. I’m ready to work and nothing is coming through,” said Sean McManamon, one of the teachers encountering delays in the city’s new electronic scoring system. With teachers working overtime this weekend, education officials predict all the Regents exams will be scored by Monday.

New York City’s Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky talks with WNYC about the trends in the high school graduation rates, and how increased standards will affect graduation numbers going forward. Listen to the full interview here.

The city’s largest labor union is slated to make an endorsement in the mayoral race on Wednesday, after members of the United Federation of Teachers meet to consider the Democratic candidates who have been seeking the UFT stamp of approval.

After seeing high school graduation rates improve under his watch, Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the slight decline on Monday as a sign that the city is holding steady despite the state’s tougher graduation standards.

High school graduation rates for 2012 mostly remained flat for New York State, which education officials said should be considered a success given that most graduating seniors last year no longer could receive a Local diploma, and had to meet the Regents diploma standards instead. For New York City, the 2012 overall graduation rate dipped slightly to 60.4 percent from 60.9 percent in 2011 among those graduating in June while the numbers are slightly higher for those graduating in August of last year.

The debate team at the KIPP AMP charter school in Crown Heights only started four years ago, but it’s heading to the national tournament in Alabama this week for middle school debate teams.

The city’s Department of Education has withdrawn plans to develop the sites of two Upper West Side schools, after negative reactions from the community. But it is still exploring plans to lease the site of an East Side high school.

Gifted and Talented offers were finally sent to families on Friday, and just over half of the applicants received seats – a far lower percentage than in previous years. The Department of Education said that was largely because so many more children were eligible after scoring highly on the screening tests.

Critics of Mayor Bloomberg’s education policies are calling on the next mayor to put less reliance on standardized test scores. Five Democratic candidates have expressed support for the plan, which comes out less than a week ahead of when the teachers’ union plans to endorse a candidate.