Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Common Core

Common Core

  • DOE School Survey Shows High Marks, Contrasts with Public Polling

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    Mayor, Chancellor & Student (photo: Demetrius Freeman/Mayor's Office)


    In 2007, New York City administered its first comprehensive survey on school satisfaction levels among students, parents, and teachers in the city’s vast public school system. That year, the Department of Education received just under 600,000 responses. In 2016, with the survey in its tenth year, the number of responses

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  • Common Core Mistakes Worth Not Repeating

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    State Education Commissioner Elia visits a school (photo: @NYSEDNews)


    Political expediency is terrible policy.

    This idiom is crystal clear when it comes to the criticisms of the Common Core. To hear the cynics tell it, repealing the Common Core learning standards is as easy as 1, 2, 3; repeal them, increase scores, then everything is fine.

    But it is not nearly that simple.

    As policymakers

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  • The Wisdom of Primaries

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    Zephyr Teachout, in yellow, with "fractivists" (photo: @zephyrteachout)


    In her zeal to attach herself to Barack Obama at the recent Democratic debate in Charleston, Hillary Clinton at one point issued a somewhat unexpected line of attack. In advance of the 2012 campaign, Clinton charged, Bernie Sanders had "publicly sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama." 

    There's no disputing that Sanders did in fact express such a position, based on his concern that Obama was moving to the right during his first term. But during

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  • New York's Education Policy in Historic Disarray

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    Gov. Cuomo in May, 2015 (photo: Office of the Governor - Kevin P. Coughlin)


    The past several months have been one of the most tumultuous periods in New York State's educational history, culminating several years of false starts and disarray in education policy. It's not without precedent, though, and history has valuable lessons for New York today.

    Disillusionment and disavowal of recent educational practices
    In December, President

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  • What is Flanagan Looking for From De Blasio on Mayoral Control?

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    Sen. Flanagan, right, celebrates with the governor (Governor's Office via flickr)


    Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan has made it no secret that he lacks confidence in Mayor Bill de Blasio's handling of the New York City schools. Made clear when the state recently extended de Blasio's control of city schools for just one year, on Monday in a New York Post op-ed Flanagan

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