Economy
Questions About Mayor's Plan To Run Youth Jails
Helen Zelon |
Few would deny that state-run juvenile detention facilities are flawed. But a Bloomberg bid to take control of some of those sites has raised a new set of issues.
Bronx
Ten Questions for Cathie Black
Helen Zelon |
How would the incoming schools chancellor—or you—score on a quiz covering the system she inherits, her predecessor’s reforms and the steep challenges awaiting her?
Education
A 'D' For Details: Should The City Release Teachers' Ratings?
Helen Zelon |
As a businesswoman prepares to take over the city’s schools, New York’s teacher rating system—itself borrowed from the business world—stirs controversy.
Education
Queens Race Defies Narrative Of Gay Rights, Reform
Jarrett Murphy |
Coverage of the matchup between Sen. Shirley Huntley and Challenger Lynn Nunes revolves around gay rights. But hospital closings, foreclosures and flooding are the issues closer to the district.
Bronx
In School, Homeless Kids Face A Different Test
Dale Eisinger and Alana Casanova-Burgess |
Homeless children struggle with more than reading and math. They’re challenged to stay connected to schools as their families search for shelter.
Education
Split Decision In Charter School Space Spat
Jarrett Murphy |
The state education department sided with parents against expanding a Manhattan charter school that shares space with a public school, but ruled for the city DOE in a similar Brooklyn case.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Closing Schools Won't Fix Them
Pedro Noguera |
The city’s Department of Education wants to close 19 more schools that aren’t performing well. But will that help disadvantaged students?
News
Worries About E-Voting Persist As Primary Looms
Adam Klasfeld |
Throughout New York State, county legislatures and election authorities have raised serious concerns about state and federal laws requiring them to replace lever machines with electronic systems before the September primaries. The advocacy group Election Transparency Coalition has a map showing over 20 counties that have passed resolutions or sent letters to the State Board of Elections opposing the transition. The election commissioners of Nassau County have filed a lawsuit to stop the transition to computerized machines on the grounds that the new machines are untested, faulty, owned by a corporate giant and prone to fraud. In New York City, however, the major concern is that changing the machines properly is going to be too expensive for the Board of Elections to afford amid budget cuts. George Gonzalez, the deputy executive director of the New York City Board of Elections, last month told a state Assembly committee that state and federal legislation is forcing the city to switch voting machines without providing “adequate financial and human resources” to implement the change.
News
Dig Deeper Into The Schools Debate
Helen Zelon |
Kindergarten teacher Alison Brackman of P.S. 230 in Kensington, Brooklyn, tells parents that there are two kinds of books: Meat-and-potatoes reads, which stay with you long after they’re finished, and potato-chip books – momentarily delicious, but utterly forgettable. Summer reading traditionally falls square into the potato-chip camp, but for readers still hungry for substance–especially with a focus on city schools–three recent books are worth a bite. Diane Ravitch’s The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (Basic Books, 284 pp., $26.95) itemizes New York’s premier education historian’s evolution in school-reform thinking. Long before it was fashionable, Ravitch championed data-based accountability and national curriculum standards, as part of the (first) Bush and Clinton administrations. Yet now that the reform pendulum has swung hard to the accountability pole, Ravich’s book recants her earlier positions, with meticulous explanations of why her beliefs have shifted.
