Why is the New York City school system so diverse overall and so segregated on a school-by-school basis? You could blame residential segregation. But you’d be wrong.
The Community Schools Initiative could make real progress at addressing the complex social pressures that low-income students face. But if test scores determine the fate of those schools, a UFT activist argues, they are unlikely to succeed.
Nearly 15 percent of public-school students are Asian yet fewer than 6 percent of teachers are. With growing evidence that students benefit from seeing teachers who share their background, there are calls for more effort to address barriers both cultural and practical.
Critics target the city’s eight specialized schools for using a single test to determine who gets to enter. But other selective public high-schools use a confusing mix of admissions policies that raise their own questions about transparency and fairness.
It’s unfair to public schools that lack funding for art, music or updated books. It goes against the recommendation of the city’s security experts. And it might be unconstitutional. But other than that, the bill to provide public money for private-school security guards is a great idea.
The effort to compel the DOE to release the information is part of a years’ long effort by the Community Education Council of District 2 to turn what is often an opaque, confusing and infuriating process into one of greater fairness and greater transparency, CEC members say.
For any school strategy to work, kids have to show up. And one in three children in the South Bronx misses a month of school every year.
Some say public schools have failed the poor. Others believe poverty is an obstacle that education alone can’t tackle. A new research center seeks to shape NYC’s education policy to recognize the way poverty affects young brains.
DOE is keeping the sessions closed while it appeals a judge’s order to open them up.
And what does a recent report tell us about how to diversify it?
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