Education

Why no teacher at the top?

The culture of business reshapes the world of education, in Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s Children First reform efforts. If the news is as good as city leaders say, why are so many people worried?
Read more at City Limits weekly.

Racial inequality at the city’s top schools: This gap’s not closing

More than 30,000 students a year take the entry exam for the city’s prestigious “specialized” high schools. About 5,000 earn offers of admission. Why do these students’ ethnic and demographic makeup differ so dramatically from the balance of the city’s students? And why won’t the Department of Education permit evaluation of potential […]

Barack Obama in Brooklyn (via remote)

Spend January 20, 2009 at the International High School at Lafayette, an all-immigrant high school in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, with students from more countries than the US has states.
Story and images at City Limits weekly.

Can leadership be taught?

The New York City Leadership Academy trains untested principals to take over, and turn around, struggling city schools.
Sandra Stein, CEO of the Leadership Academy, defends the reinterpretation of business practices for the education-leadership environment, in this question-and-answer featured in City Limits weekly.

Progress reports fuel parent, advocate ire

The first round of Department of Education Progress Reports incited hot debate, in the City Council chamber and elsewhere, about how to define “progress” — and whether it’s possible to grade the city’s schools based on standardized test scores.
Read about a contentious hearing (and a beat-it-quick, side-door exit by the DOE’s accountability czar […]

Do cops belong in schools?

New York City’s School Safety Agents are charged with school security — but are not under the direct supervision of the NYPD, which hires them, or school personnel, whose buildings and communities they serve. The New York Civil Liberties Union’s School Safety Act aims to address the accountability gap — but hasn’t yet been passed […]

25 years later: A nation, still at risk

In 1973, the National Committee on Excellence in Education’s report “A Nation at Risk” famously described “a rising tide of mediocrity” in America’s schools. A quarter-century later, the tide hasn’t fallen: Only 70 percent of the nation’s high-school students — and at best, 60 percent of New York City high-schoolers — are graduating. […]

DOE policy shutters local businesses

Cost-conscious NYC Department of Education purchasing requirements mean that local publishers — including minority- and women-owned businesses who’ve worked with the DOE for a quarter-century or more — are prohibited from doing business with the DOE. Local laws, which govern city agencies, don’t pertain, because the DOE is neither fish nor fowl — neither a […]

Best of New York: Language School

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In an archipelago of classrooms scattered around Washington Square, NYU offers more languages, including courses in translation and interpretation, than any other school in New York.

Part of New York magazine’s Best of New York 2007 cover story; read the original on line.

The Influentials: Education

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New York magazine profiled New York City’s established and rising movers and shakers, including this short list of the most influential voices in public and private education.

School Profile: Bronx Health Sciences HS

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One of New York City’s much-heralded new, small high schools, struggling to retain students — and maintain order — in the face of daunting odds.

School Profile: The HS for Sports Management

In a disused church school in a desolate stretch of Coney Island, aspiring athletes
– most possessed of more drive than sheer talent — take the lessons of sports to the classroom.

School Profile: The New York Harbor School

A seafaring school set in the landlocked heart of Brooklyn, within the time-worn edifice that once housed Bushwick High School. In November 2006, the Harbor School learned it will relocate to Governor’s Island, where it will have its own dock, boats, and ferry service to the Brooklyn “mainland.”

School Profile: Leon Goldstein HS for the Sciences

A hidden gem on the edge of New York City, Leon M. Goldstein is a public high school that feels nearly suburban, on the campus of Harvard-by-the-Bay, aka Kingsborough Community College.

How to Rank a High School

Guidance for kids (and panicked New York City parents) facing a labyrinthine, daunting high school application process: Make smart choices that don’t feel like you’re gambling with your child’s entire future.