Gotham Gazette

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Education

Education

  • Why the Charter School Proposals by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Shouldn’t Be Controversial

    children school

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Recently, a group of charter school supporters received media attention by protesting at an Elizabeth Warren

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  • Letter to the Editor: Next Step for New York College-in-Prison Program That Turned My Life Around

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    Stacy Burnett, the author (photo: College & Community Fellowship)


    To the Editor:

    Regarding "New York College-in-Prisons Program is Flourishing" (Dec. 3): I am proof there can be no rehabilitation in prison without education, and that restoring Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) funding for college-in-prison participants must be a top priority if New York is serious about building safer communities.

    In 2013,

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  • With Push from Cuomo and Funding from Vance, New York College-in-Prisons Program is Flourishing

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    (photo: Bard Prison Initiative)


    In February 2014, early in his first reelection year, Governor Andrew Cuomo made what proved to be a bold proposal to reduce recidivism by creating opportunities for higher education in state prisons, seizing on an enduring problem at the intersection of social and criminal justice reform efforts. But he had misjudged the political landscape and the announcement was met with significant backlash followed by an uncharacteristic reversal for the seasoned New York powerbroker.

    It took nearly four more years, and litigation with the world’s largest

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  • Assembly to Evaluate Mayoral Control of City Schools for First Time Under Recent Reforms

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    Mayor and Chancellor testify in May (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photo Office)


    Just six months after the state Legislature approved a three-year extension of mayoral control of the New York City school system, stretching well past the end of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s term, the state Assembly is holding a hearing later this month on whether the mayor’s stewardship has been effective.  

    The hearing will be held in New York City on December 16 by the Assembly’s education committee and will be, according to a ...

  • More Testing is Not the Answer for New York City Students, But Smaller Classes Could Be

    bdb schools

    DOE Chancellor Carranza & Mayor de Blasio (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    The Department of Education rolled out new standardized testing for thousands of students across New York City last month. For now, the new tests are supposedly targeted to low-performing (aka low-scoring) schools, but all signs point to the expansion of additional standardized testing citywide.

    More standardized testing is the exact opposite of what New York City should be doing to help students and, if anything, these new tests could actually hurt our most vulnerable students. Piling

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  • An Excellence Escalator for State School Funding

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    (photo: the governor's office)


    Our broken system of school finance is currently the subject of roundtables led by the State Senate's new Democratic majority. The hearings are focused on reforming the Foundation Aid formula that determines the bulk of state aid to local districts.

    Broken? According to the Alliance for Quality Education, the gap between the average per pupil spending in the 100 wealthiest and 100 poorest school districts has grown to a record $10,218 per pupil. These stark differences are reflected in teacher

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  • As New York Rethinks High School Graduation Requirements, Under-the-Radar School Group May Offer a Model

    voter student reg

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    In a process likely to last years, the New York Board of Regents is considering changing high school graduation requirements, which may include revising or creating a substitute for the Regents exams. To graduate, most students must currently pass five Regents exams. But while the education policy-setting board recently announced its exploratory plans, another path to a New York high school diploma already exists: a set of performance-based tasks that test students on an array of skills meant to be more in line with college- and

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  • What's The [DATA] Point? 16,000 - The Future of Gifted & Talented Schooling in New York City

    whats the data point


    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 79 -- 16,000, with David Tipson of Appleseed & City Council Member Robert Cornegy [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    cornergy tippson wtdpMayor de Blasio's School Diversity Advisory Group recently released its second and final set of recommendations to integrate the city's schools and

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Recommendations from the Mayor's School Diversity Task Force & What Comes Next

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    (photo: Rob Bennett/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Setember 4, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Recommendations from the Mayor's School Diversity Task Force & What Comes Next

    gonzales treyger wbaiMayor de Blasio's School Diversity Advisory Group recently released its second and final set of recommendations for how to desegregate and improve the city's schools. The panel made

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  • Why It’s Time to Re-think Bloomberg Era Gifted & Talented Programming in New York City

    maybdb dance movement

    (photo: Rob Bennett/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s School Diversity Advisory Group (SDAG), on which we served, released its second report calling for all students to have access to enrichment opportunities as a forward-looking replacement for the city’s antiquated system of “gifted and talented” education programs. This provoked a significant volume of responses from a variety of stakeholders who have come to see G&T programs as legitimate and needed. But it is essential that anyone considering what the SDAG is recommending have

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  • New York City is Waist-Deep in a School Desegregation Conversation - How Did We Get Here?

    maydbd district15

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Earlier this week, the School Diversity Advisory Group (SDAG) released its second and final set of recommendations to integrate city schools, a significant development in the current chapter of the city’s response to deep racial and economic segregation in its school system, which is the largest in the country and home to 1.1 million students.

    This chapter began in 2014, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education and Bill de Blasio’s first year as Mayor, when ...

  • What's The [DATA] Point? 118,997, the Growing Charter School Sector in New York City

    whats the data point


    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 78 -- 118,977, the Growing Charter School Sector in New York City, with James Merriman of the New York City Charter School Center[You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    jam merr podJames Merriman, the CEO of the New York City Charter School Center, joined the podcast to discuss the state of

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  • School Diversity Group’s Second Set of Recommendations Expected Soon; Will Take on Admissions Policies

    district 15 div plan announce

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Following the city’s adoption of 62 recommendations targeting diversity and desegregation in public schools, a new report expected this month from the same advisory group will aim to tackle the tough topics of screened admissions and gifted and talented programs.

    The two reports come from the Department of Education’s School Diversity Advisory Group, which Mayor Bill de Blasio formed in 2017 amid increasing demands that he take significant steps toward desegregating the city’s highly

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  • New York City Comptroller Wants to Start Country’s Largest Teacher Residency; Here’s 3 Ways to Make it Successful

    maybloomberg totalschools

    (Photo: Edward Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Late last month, New York City Comptroller (and likely 2021 mayoral candidate) Scott Stringer proposed allocating $40 million a year to run the nation’s largest teacher residency program in New York City. According to an ...

  • Preparing Our City’s Youth for the World of Work Through CareerReady NYC

    may first richard buery deputy

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In recent years, New York City has racked up a series of impressive gains within the systems that prepare our youth for work and careers. The question is whether this progress will be enough for the city’s youth to navigate a rapidly changing labor market and achieve steady work and economic security. 

    While the economic expansion of recent years has swept many young adults into the workforce, most of these new workers are not on pathways to upward mobility. Part of that is the

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  • What's the [Data] Point? 98,000, Addressing New York City School Overcrowding

    whats the data point


    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 77 -- 98,000, with CBC's Riley Edwards  [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    ep77 riley edaCitizens Budget Commission recently released a new report -- Cut Costs, Not Ribbons -- about how to address

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  • Struggling with Overcrowded Schools and Large Class Sizes, City Advances $8.8 Billion Plan

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    Mayor de Blasio & others break ground for a new East New York school (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Some days, it can be hard for Arthur Goldstein to walk down the hallway of Francis Lewis High School in Queens, where he teaches English as a second language. Goldstein’s school is one of 25 overcrowded schools in the 26th school district, and has a utilization rate of 207 percent, according to a 2018 Department of Education ...

  • 'We're Moving Now': City Pursues School Desegregation Measures, with Major Looming Test

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    Chancellor Carranza & Mayor de Blasio (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced on June 10 that the city will adopt 62 recommendations focused on diversity and integration in public schools, focusing on middle and elementary schools, from the Department of Education’s School Diversity Advisory Group, a new step toward school desegregation as many students, families, educators, and others have waited years for the city to make progress.

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  • At Stonewall 50, Ensuring Students Know the Real Story of Our City and See Themselves in Its History

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    Council Member Daniel Dromm, the author (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    New York City is among the most diverse places in the country. It is home to more than 3 million foreign-born residents, 200 languages, 80 religious affiliations, and countless

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  • Approved by City, ‘Culturally Responsive’ Charter School Alleges State Bias Against Plan to Expand

    ember charter2

    (image: @EmberCS_BedStuy)


    [Update (6/3/19): shortly before the Board of Regents meeting on Monday, June 3, Ember Charter School's application to expand was added to the agenda]

    [Update (6/5/19): the Board of Regents sent application back the city DOE with comments, no final decision has been made]

    The founder of a black-led charter school in Brooklyn with a focus on African and African-American cultural education is alleging the New York State Education Department (SED) is surreptitiously blocking the school’s

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  • As Public School Parent Leaders, We Say Don’t Raise the Charter Cap

    students with signs

    (photo: Governor's Office)


    There has been much discussion that the state Legislature and Governor Cuomo may raise the cap on charter schools, especially since the sub-cap of 235 charter schools in New York City has now been reached. As public school parents and co-chairs of the Education Council Consortium, which represents the elected parent leaders of Community Education Councils across the five boroughs, we overwhelmingly oppose raising the cap

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  • Social Workers for Homeless Kids is Not the Place to Skimp

    mayor bdb edu

    (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


    Last year, nearly 38,000 New York City students arrived in the classroom having woken up in a shelter. That’s more students than the total enrollment of the Buffalo public schools, the next largest school district in the state.

    Many had been exposed to domestic violence, one of the driving forces of homelessness. Many were forced to transfer schools mid-year, some multiple times, after being placed in a shelter in an entirely different borough. Some were in placements with no kitchen or laundry machine. More than half missed

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  • A Solution in New York City School Turnaround is Simpler Than We Think

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Recently, amid a debate about a jarring lack of diversity in New York City’s specialized schools, jaw-dropping news broke. A RAND Corporation Report, commissioned by the Department of Education, showed that despite roughly $750 million spent on fewer than 100 “Renewal Schools,” the needle fundamentally failed to move on student outcomes.

    Extraordinary resources were expended. Real results never

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  • Where Top City and State Officials Stand on Raising the Charter School Cap

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    Gov. Cuomo at a charter school rally (photo: governor's office)


    After several new charter schools were approved last month, the cap on such schools allowed in New York City was reached. New York State has a cap on the number of issuable charters, which allow a group to start a new charter school, the controversial, privately-run, publicly-funded schools that mostly proliferate in the five boroughs and educate roughly 10% of the city's 1 million students. Within the larger cap, there is a sub-cap for charters that can be issued for schools in New York

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  • Ending the Shortage of Black Male Teachers in New York

    ashley schools

    (photo: New York City Department of Education)


    Every day I stand in front of my classroom, filled with black and brown faces, intensely aware that I am the only black man teaching at my school -- but I am hardly the only one that feels this. New York City schools employ fewer black male teachers today than 20 years ago; only 3.7 percent of city teachers share my identity.

    Without male teachers of color, thousands of students walk into schools each day where not even a single adult shares an important part of their identity. These students are missing out on

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