Chalkbeat

As NYC preschool offers release, some families are left without a 3-K seat

2024-05-16T20:01:39+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams has vowed that every family who wants a seat in New York City’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds will receive one, despite recent cuts to city funding for the early childhood system.

But as the city distributed 3-K offers on Thursday, some families say they didn’t receive a seat at any of the programs to which they applied.

Diana Sidakis, a public defender who lives in Manhattan, said she tried to be savvy with her application. She spent hours extensively researching programs, compiled spreadsheets, attended tours, and eliminated any programs that seemed unlikely to admit her son.

Despite applying to 12 programs, the maximum number, Sidakis did not receive a seat for her child. She was waitlisted at all of them.

“Every kid needs education at 3 years old,” she said. “They’re socially and developmentally ready, and it changes the rest of their life. So for Mayor Adams to say that he can cut this program and every family who wants a seat will get a seat, it’s just such a fraud.”

Building up the free prekindergarten system was a signature initiative of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who leaned heavily on federal COVID relief dollars to expand preschool for 3-year-olds, aiming to make the program universal. That effort stalled under Adams, whose administration has justified funding cuts to the program by arguing that thousands of seats are sitting empty due to a mismatch of supply and demand in some neighborhoods. Advocates counter that the mayor has not invested in promoting preschool options to families.

This year, the city’s early childhood system has taken center stage in budget negotiations between City Council members and the Adams administration. Under a plan Adams proposed last month, the city would replace $92 million of expiring federal funding for 3-K with city and state funds — but it would not restore a separate $170 million in city funding that was cut from early childhood programs in November. Adams also promised to spend $5 million to help recruit more families to the city’s pre-K programs.

At a budget hearing on Wednesday, Education Department officials said enrollment in preschool programs, including the larger pre-K program for 4-year-olds, had grown to roughly 114,000 children. In total, there were about 53,000 seats in the city’s 3-K program, with about 44,000 filled.

Despite cuts to early childhood funding, Adams has remained adamant that “every child who wants a 3-K and pre-K seat will have access to one.”

In a statement Thursday evening, city officials emphasized that thousands of 3-K seats remained open and said the city would work with families who were not initially admitted to find nearby open seats.

“The mayor was clear: Every child who wants a seat will have access to a seat and he will keep his word,” said Amaris Cockfield, a spokesperson for City Hall. “The guidance sent to a limited number of families by New York City Public Schools, unfortunately, did not fully convey all the seats still available to New York City students.”

The city made offers to 94% of families who applied to 3-K on time, receiving approximately 43,000 applicants for about 52,000 seats across the city, according to city officials. The Education Department will send an “updated letter” to families about seats that remain open in 3-K.

Still, advocates were quick to condemn the mayor’s previous promises as some families received the news that they had not been offered a 3-K seat. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 20 families across the city had reached out to the advocacy group New Yorkers United for Childcare, informing them they had been rejected or waitlisted. Others told the group they were admitted to programs far from home, adding logistical challenges for parents seeking care for their young children.

“The impact cannot be understated: without free 3-K, childcare costs families an average of $20,000 a year per kid, with many spending more — a cost far too many families cannot afford,” said Rebecca Bailin, director of the group, in a statement. “Now, New Yorkers who are already facing a skyrocketing cost of living must decide whether to leave work and stay home with their child, drain their savings, or potentially leave the city altogether.”

Prior reports have shown a lack of access to affordable child care can have a significant impact on parents’ ability to work. More than half a million people did not seek employment in 2021 due to child care needs, and about 375,000 parents chose to leave or considered leaving their jobs due to the combined impact of the pandemic and a lack of affordable child care, according to a 2022 city report.

Sidakis said she’s unsure whether her family can afford to consider private child care options if she ultimately does not receive a 3-K seat that works for her family.

“It’s just an enormous, enormous source of financial and emotional stress,” she said.

“I really don’t want to leave the city,” Sidakis added. “I’m a public defender. I’ve devoted my life to public service. I want my kids to go to public school. I believe in public school. But this is really wrong.”

Alex Zimmerman contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Preschool funding, school food, and other key education issues take center stage at budget hearing

2024-05-15T22:39:24+00:00

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As New York City schools stand to lose nearly $1 billion in the next fiscal year, City Council members pressed Education Department officials on how the looming drop in funding could impact the city’s early childhood system, school cafeteria menus, and other key education programs.

The Wednesday hearing came as City Council members and Mayor Eric Adams continue to negotiate the city’s budget for the next fiscal year, which is due by July 1.

Last month, Adams unveiled a budget proposal that would see the city’s Education Department funding shrink by 2.4%, or $808 million, next year — largely spurred by the expiration of billions of dollars of one-time federal COVID relief funds. Despite that drop in funding, the proposed budget devotes half a billion dollars in city and state funds to preserve several education programs currently propped up by the expiring federal dollars, including money for hundreds of social workers, the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds, and new staffers working in homeless shelters.

Other programs that have relied on the federal funds, however, remain at risk.

Education Department officials acknowledged the difficulties presented by the expiring federal funds, noting that they’ve advocated for the continuation of all such programs. Specific decisions about which programs to devote long-term city funding to have been made by the city’s Office of Management and Budget, said Emma Vadehra, the department’s chief operating officer.

Questions also centered on how the city’s schools would be impacted by sweeping cuts that Adams has ordered city agencies to enact over the past year to help cover costs for services to an influx of migrants. Under that separate directive, the Education Department faces more than $700 million in cuts to city funding for specific programs next year, including roughly $170 million slashed from early childhood programs. (The city’s overall contribution to the Education Department’s budget would still rise by nearly $1.6 billion under Adams’ proposal, though it’s not enough to offset the vast drop in federal funding next year.)

Schools Chancellor David Banks told council members it’s been “very challenging” to select certain programs to prioritize.

“I mean, it’s like, ‘Which one is your favorite child?’” he said. “These are all wonderfully, amazing programs. We don’t want to lose any of them.”

Here’s a look at some of the key education issues that arose during the hearing:

Council member clashes with DOE over preschool programs

Though Adams’ proposed budget would replace $92 million of expiring federal funding for 3-K — the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds — it does not restore a separate $170 million cut to city funding for early childhood programs. City Council members repeatedly expressed concerns over that cut during the hearing, seeking further details from Education Department officials about the potential impact of reduced funding.

Building up the free prekindergarten system for the city’s 3- and 4-year-olds was a centerpiece of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. Under Adams, the sector has been plagued with problems, including declining enrollment and lengthy payment delays to community organizations running programs.

On Wednesday, Education Department officials contended those issues had been inherited from the prior administration. They pointed to some improving metrics in the city’s early childhood system, stating enrollment in such programs had grown to roughly 114,000 children. That was up from 97,000 children earlier this year, according to city data released in November. Meanwhile, the average processing time for payments for early childhood providers had decreased to roughly 11 days.

Officials added they’ve worked to shift existing seats to neighborhoods with higher demand.

Capacity for the city’s 3-K program is roughly 53,000 seats, with about 44,000 filled, according to figures shared by Education Department officials during the hearing.

In one particularly contentious exchange, Brooklyn Council Member Lincoln Restler questioned why Education Department officials were unable to say definitively how many seats the city’s preschool programs would be able to offer next year after the $170 million cut.

“These are the cuts that the mayor has proposed that he wants to implement to your agency: What would be the impact of them?” he said. “How many fewer seats would you have? This is like the most plain, simple, obvious question that we were going to get all day. I’m a little disappointed that we’re not getting a straight answer.”

Education Department officials said any reductions would be focused in areas where seats aren’t filled.

Restler also pressed department officials for details about the full release of a report on 3-K seats. City officials hired the consulting firm Accenture last year to “map out needs and seats” as the program grappled with thousands of vacancies.

Officials previously said Accenture would be paid $760,000 to compile the report. But on Wednesday, Education Department officials cited a significantly lower figure of “$350,000 or $250,000.” They did not provide a precise timeline for the release.

City officials did not immediately explain the discrepancy between the two figures.

Budget cuts prompt concerns over school food

City Council members also expressed concerns over how budget cuts to school food would affect students next year. A $60 million November cut to the city’s school foods budget sparked outcry earlier this year, as the reduced funding forced cafeterias to remove popular items like chicken dumplings and bean and cheese burritos from their menus.

Though the city later restored some of those menu items, council members questioned whether the lingering cuts would impact cafeteria menus in the coming school year.

“We are monitoring this very closely,” Vadehra said. “We are very invested in making sure all of these food options stay on the menu for students next year.”

City officials express concerns over state funding

Education Department officials noted multiple times during the hearing that although state funding for the city’s schools increased for the coming fiscal year, the city is getting less than expected. A change to the formula determining how much money is sent to districts left New York City schools with $126 million less than anticipated.

Over the coming year, the state’s Education Department will partner with the Rockefeller Institute to conduct a longer term examination of that formula, in hopes of implementing further changes, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last month.

“Our costs do continue to grow each year, which is why it’s important the state’s contribution — which is a lesser proportion of our budget now than it was 20 years ago — continues to increase,” Vadehra said.

City Education Department officials also told council members they had not yet received sufficient funding to fully implement a state law mandating smaller class sizes. But the department will continue to invest in hiring additional teachers and expanding classroom space to remain in compliance with the law, officials said.

An additional $180 million will go to school budgets, with around $135 million explicitly earmarked for compliance with the state class size law, Vadehra said. She estimated those funds would allow for hiring between 1,200 and 2,000 new teachers.

“Assuming those teachers can be found,” she added.

Education programs still at risk as fiscal cliff looms

City Council members drew attention to several education programs that have relied on expiring federal funds and are not included in the mayor’s proposed budget — including $65 million funding roughly 400 contracted school nurses, as well as millions of dollars to support restorative justice programs.

Education Department officials were unable to say during the hearing how many schools would be left without a nurse as that funding dries up later this year. Currently, every public school in the city has at least one nurse in the building.

Meanwhile, restorative justice programs, which aim to resolve conflict through peer mediation and other less punitive methods, are at risk of losing more than half of their current budget as the federal funds expire. Education Department officials said roughly $8 million of the $13.6 million committed to restorative justice programs this year comes from expiring federal dollars.

At the hearing, Banks encouraged council members to advocate for the funding to be restored.

“You all are still engaged in the process,” he said. “You can certainly, as you are engaged in this conversation and negotiations, push to make sure that [restorative justice] gets restored.”

In total, the city’s Education Department faces a gap of more than $200 million in expiring federal funds for education programming next year, officials said.

Alex Zimmerman contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Concerned about mental health, NY lawmakers and advocates want fewer school lockdown drills

2024-05-14T21:54:30+00:00

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Lawmakers, parents, and school safety advocates rallied in Albany on Tuesday, calling for the passage of legislation that would reduce the number of school lockdown drills required under New York state law.

It’s the culmination of a multi-year effort by advocates who want changes in state law, which currently requires public schools to conduct at least four lockdown drills each year. Proponents of the bill say that number was arbitrarily chosen and that conducting so many drills harms student mental health without providing clear safety benefits.

The bill — recently amended through negotiations — would lower the required number of drills to two, while still allowing schools the option to conduct additional drills. It would also mandate that drills are conducted in a “trauma-informed, developmentally, and age-appropriate” manner, with accommodations for students with disabilities, training for educators, and advance notice provided to school staff and parents.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon, the sponsors of the bill, joined other lawmakers, advocates, and mental health experts to call for changes to the state’s “excessive and ineffective” lockdown drill requirement.

“We don’t want kids to grow up normalizing and believing that this is just an everyday fact of life,” Gounardes said. “Lockdown drills are supposed to prepare students for an active shooter in the event that one enters the school, but our current approach is deeply traumatizing for kids — not to mention teachers and parents — and simply is not making them safer.”

Simon added there was no data to suggest that lockdown drills are effective, or to justify requiring four drills, when the state enacted its law in 2016.

“There is no excuse for us traumatizing and re-traumatizing our kids because we are worried,” she said. “We have to find a way to solve this problem that doesn’t put the obligation on them.”

As of 2016, lockdown drills occurred in 95% of public schools in the U.S., with at least 40 states requiring them, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates against gun violence. But the organization has advised against conducting them, pointing to the “collateral consequences to school communities’ mental health and wellbeing.”

New York remains just one of a handful of states that mandate four or more lockdown drills per year — meaning its students can experience twice as many drills as those in other states, according to an analysis from the Trace.

“Excessive drills increase anxiety and depression in children of all ages,” said Sheffali Welch, a member of Moms Demand Action and a New York City parent. “Haven’t our kids been through enough?”

There are some signs that concern over the impact of the drills is gaining traction in Albany. At a meeting last month, the New York Board of Regents discussed proposed amendments to state regulations related to school safety planning — requiring schools to establish procedures for notifying parents about drills and mandating that drills be conducted in “a trauma-informed, developmentally and age-appropriate manner.”

Though state lawmakers initially sought to lower the number of mandated drills to one and offer parents the ability to opt their children out of drills, both provisions were changed during negotiations over the bill.

Still, advocates see the growing momentum to pass the legislation as a win, and lawmakers noted Tuesday they’re hopeful the bill will pass this legislative session.

“Kids are gaining from this,” said Robert Murtfeld, a Manhattan parent who has been advocating for the law for years, in a phone interview ahead of the press conference. “It’s the best solution for everybody to move forward with this in New York.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools could lose 400 nurses as federal relief funds expire

2024-05-14T00:39:41+00:00

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New York City public schools could lose hundreds of nurses next year, as the city faces the expiration of billions of dollars in one-time federal COVID relief funds.

For years, many education programs have been propped up by the federal funds, including $65 million that supported roughly 400 contracted nurses, some of whom provide care at buildings that previously lacked a school nurse. But as that money dries up later this year, the future of those nurses and other school programs funded by the federal dollars remains uncertain.

Last month, officials announced the city’s Education Department would see its budget shrink by 2.4%, or $808 million, in the next fiscal year — largely spurred by the expiring federal funds. With the disappearance of the relief money, Mayor Eric Adams’ latest budget proposal allocated more than $500 million in city and state funds to preserve some of the programs it funded, including hundreds of social workers, staffers in homeless shelters, and preschool for 3-year-olds. Others, however, remain at risk.

Currently, every public school has a nurse or school-based health center, according to city officials. If a school nurse calls out sick or is otherwise unavailable, then a contracted nurse is deployed to that school to provide coverage.

“We’re grateful to the stimulus funding that has allowed us to ensure every school has a school nurse on site, and we will continue to advocate for and prioritize this need through the budget process,” said Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department.

Prior to the pandemic, at least 137 schools serving roughly 70,000 students did not have a school nurse, according to Advocates for Children, an organization that works on behalf of low-income families.

Without a school nurse in the building, kids with particular health needs like those with asthma or diabetes are at a higher risk of experiencing complications, said Anna MacEwan, a former school nurse who previously worked at a K-12 campus in downtown Brooklyn. It also shifts further responsibilities onto teachers, she added.

“You have to have a nurse in the building … to manage all the things that come up,” MacEwan said.

Nurses also provide families with additional peace of mind, said Noelia Gomez, an after-school program director with Good Shepherd Services, a nonprofit organization that supports children and families.

“Having nurses gives families a safeguard,” she said. “Somebody that they can trust — that’s going to care for their child like they would at home.”

She noted her program serves more than 500 students at P.S. 246 in the Bronx, each of whom may at some point need medical attention or support.

“It’s a very scary thought,” Gomez said. “What happens if the nurse isn’t there?”

With the mayor’s proposed budget still subject to negotiations with the City Council, advocates and local lawmakers are continuing to push for funding for initiatives that have relied on the federal dollars. The city must finalize its budget by July 1.

Council members will discuss the city’s Education Department budget at an Education Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

LISTEN: An exclusive interview with schools Chancellor David Banks

2024-05-01T10:00:00+00:00

In this special episode of P.S. Weekly, student reporters Shoaa Khan and Jose Santana spoke to Chancellor David Banks about a range of issues facing the city’s schools — from efforts to expand how Black history is taught in the classroom, to the harms of social media, and the continued use of academic screening in the high school admissions process.

Banks, who oversees New York City’s sprawling school system, emphasized the importance of the “Hidden Voices: Stories of the Global African Diaspora” curriculum that the city unveiled in February.

It’s one of several curriculums to come out of the city’s Hidden Voices initiative — Banks signaled more loom on the horizon.

“We’ve got others coming up for the Latino community,” he said. “We’re working on several others as well, particularly in light of what’s going on right now in the Middle East and what’s happening in Israel and Gaza.”

And as New York City’s schools have remained among the most segregated in the nation, Banks touched on the difficulties of implementing integration efforts, particularly as families remain fiercely divided over practices like academic screening.

“It’s a complicated issue,” he said. “For me, I have not spent a lot of time on it because I recognize that as chancellor, you can’t do everything. … The major issue for me has been around how do I ensure that no matter where you are, that you have a good school experience, you learn to read well, you learn to think critically, and you can have a great life for yourself.”

Listen to the full episode to hear his thoughts on academic screening, student mental health, cell phone usage in schools, and even his upcoming podcast.

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Be sure to drop a review in your app or shoot an email to PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org. Tell us what you learned today or what you’re still wondering. We just might read your comment on a future episode.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell. Listen for new episodes Wednesdays this spring.

Read the full episode transcript below

Shoaa Khan: Can I hold it?

Sanaa Stokes: Yeah.

Shoaa Khan: Hey, everyone. So we’re going up the stairs to Tweed Courthouse, and, I’m here with Sanaa, and Santana, and Jose, and I’m super nervous. Super quiet, super pretty. Looks like a castle, and I’m nervous.

Santana Roach: We’re currently walking down some really beautiful architectural stairs. It’s quite...

Sanaa Stokes: In this special episode of P.S. Weekly, a few of us went down to the Tweed Courthouse in lower Manhattan, where New York City’s Department of Education is headquartered, to talk to the person who makes decisions on the issues we talk about on this podcast every week.

Chancellor David Banks: All right, you ready? All right. My name is David Banks. I’m a proud product of the New York City public school system, and I currently serve as chancellor of the New York City public schools.

Santana Roach: For those of you who don’t know Chancellor Banks, he was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams in January 2022. In simple terms, he’s the head of the Department of Education for the City of New York. He oversees policies for the largest school system in the nation.

Sanaa Stokes: When we first started this podcast, we knew we wanted to speak to Chancellor Banks, considering his powerful position at the DOE. We were very excited that he agreed to meet with us. As New York City high school students, we asked him questions about things that matter to us, like the new Hidden Voices curriculum, which elevates diverse stories, often left out of the history books.

Santana Roach: Academic screening for selective high school admissions.

Sanaa Stokes: And interestingly enough, his future podcast.

Santana Roach: We talked about all sorts of topics with Chancellor Banks, including some breaking news.

Chancellor David Banks: I’ve never said this to anybody. I love pajamas. Like when I’m done at the end of the night, I have to go to all kinds of events. I’m a pajama guy. I love to put on nice, warm, comfortable pajamas.

Sanaa Stokes: You’re listening to Pierce weekly. The sound of the New York City school system. I’m Sanaa Stokes, a junior at the Professional Performing Arts High School.

Santana Roach: And I’m Santana Roach, a senior at Frederick Douglass Academy.

Sanaa Stokes: So here’s an edited version of the interview led by our fellow student reporters Shoaa Khan and Jose Santana.

Shoaa Khan: Good morning. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. Let’s get started. So we would like to know more about your Hidden Voices curriculum. This is something that you’re really passionate about. Your announcement comes at a time where schools are trying to restrict what we learn about race. So what is your message to New York City students and teachers and others around the country about why this curriculum matters?

Chancellor David Banks: My message to teachers, administrators, students all around the nation is that to have a real education, you must be exposed to the contributions of many different cultures. And I’m thrilled. We just recently announced, as part of our Hidden Voices initiative, the Global African Diaspora curriculum. That really is all about the contributions of Black folks inAmerica and to the world, and that the history of Black people did not start at slavery in the United States, but that we have a history that goes back thousands of years. And the hidden voice is really our profiles on a wide range of different individuals in history where we were able to teach you about history, sometimes through the lens of some of these people, most of whom you’ve never heard of. And so that’s why I’m excited about Hidden Voices. We —we’ve already launched Hidden Voices for the Asian American Pacific Islander community.

Chancellor David Banks: We’ve launched Hidden Voices, for the LGBTQ community because it’s really important that everybody have an idea and understanding around these communities. We’ve just launched one now for the global African diaspora. We’ve got others coming up for the Latino community, and we’re working on several others as well, particularly in light of what’s going on right now in the Middle East and what’s happening in Israel and Gaza and that war. It’s really important for more of our kids to have a deeper understanding about Jewish history and the Holocaust, because I think when you understand that and you appreciate what the Jewish community has gone through, you have a different level of respect and understanding. Similarly, those of, Muslim background and the Palestinian cause, it’s important to understand what their history is and what their contributions have been to the world and to this nation. And so, yes, we have a message to send to the nation that exposure to history is critically important to the building of the consciousness and of the mind.

Shoaa Khan: So, is there some kind of system or how are you going to, like, measure how much impact this has had in schools?

Chancellor David Banks: You know, we’ve got certain measures that we have in place now, just with respect to some of the assessments that we give to our kids. And any of these curriculum that we roll out have their own kind of built in assessments that are tied to that. But I think much more broadly than just exams that are given in school, I think about a societal impact. I think about how do we reduce a level of hate and ignorance in our nation and in our world? When I go and I visit schools and I see kids who lock arms, who have-- who come from very different cultures, very different backgrounds, and have an appreciation for one another, that’s how I see an overarching assessment. It’s greater than a test that you would take in class. But ultimately the greatest assessment is how we change society and how we get young people to be more accepting of one another. That’s what I’m pushing for.

Shoaa Khan: So how should us as students advocate for change and what we want to see in the curriculum?

Chancellor David Banks: I, you know, listen, some of these things that we’ve put into the curriculum, into hidden voices and a passport for social studies. Which, lifting up a lot of these issues, are coming directly from our students and our teachers. I mean, they are the ones that have been raising it to us to tell us this is what we think we need for our experience. I’m a big believer in student voice. You know, a lot of kids who are experiencing serious challenges with their own mental health. And so one of the things that we did, working with the New York City Department of Health, they recently announced the formation of something called Teen Space, which is a mental health initiative where high school kids who are going through some things, maybe suffering from some form of depression or mental challenge, can call and get real support in real time. This is a new initiative, and that’s coming from kids who kept saying that to us. I visited so many schools and kids would tell me mental health is such a huge issue.

Chancellor David Banks: So keep lifting your voices. I remember when I was in high school, I led a walk-out at high school, and I marched everybody out of the back door to a building. I remember when I got outside, I said, “Okay, now what am I supposed to do?” And hundreds of kids followed me outside. And I remember the assistant principal came over to me and said, “if you would have just asked for a meeting, we would have met with you and discussed all of this.” See, so sometimes, just do that. Show up at public forums. We have something called the Panel for Educational Policy. We have those meetings every month, and we talk about real issues of the day. There are not a lot of kids who show up for that. But if students started showing up for that, you’d be amazed how much your voice would really be heard. We look to hear the voices of young people. So a lot of ways to do that.

Shoaa Khan: Yeah. So this is kind of on a different branch. But according to the UCLA Civil Rights Project, New York has the nation’s most segregated school system today. So how do you feel about that?

Chancellor David Banks: I think there’s a lot of research that says that the more integrated school experiences that you can create for kids, the better it is for them. They get exposed to different cultures, much like what I talked about a little bit earlier, exposure, learning about other people, making new friends with people who have different cultures is really a good thing. The challenge in a place like New York is creating those systems, because many of our kids and families live in very segregated places. So while the city is diverse, we’re diverse in that we have so many people who live here from different places, but many of them live in isolation from each other, and then they go to school in isolation. Thus, integration is a good thing. It’s a serious challenge to implement, and we have some districts in the city which have done this district 15. Brooklyn has done a great job with some of their integration efforts. There’s been a wide range of resistance to that as well. So yeah, it’s a complicated issue. And for me, I’ve not spent a lot of time on it because I recognize that as chancellor, you can’t do everything. Generally when people were asking about integration efforts, historically, that question was about how do you get more black kids into predominantly white schools? That’s historically what I meant, because that was what my experience was.

Chancellor David Banks: I grew up in southeast Queens, in pretty much all Black neighborhoods, and everybody was trying to go to better school districts and the better school districts, quote unquote, really meant going to the more whiter, more affluent neighborhoods because those schools seemed like they had everything. I’m trying to make sure that wherever you happen to be your district, your neighborhood has all the great stuff that anybody else has. In New York City, I asked people, I said, “What’s the percentage of students who are Black students who go to New York City public schools?” Most people tell me, “I don’t know, 50%, 40, 50, 60%.” It’s only 24%, and it’s dropping every day. It’s very different than it was years ago. White students in New York City public schools is only 15% and dropping every day. So the two Black and white, historically who made up the school system, are the ones who are in decline. And the groups that are on the upswing are Asian and Latino. Asian is 17% and growing, and Latino is 41%, and climbing significantly every day.

Chancellor David Banks: So we’ve got to be clear also about when we say diversity and integration. Who are we talking about? But the major issue for me has been around how do I ensure that no matter where you are, that you have a good school experience, you learn to read well, you learn to think critically and you can have a great life for yourself? I think an integrated school helps in that, but it’s a human’s task to kind of get to that place. And while we’re doing that, that I can help to deliver so that they can-- they can have a great, great school experience.

Santana Roach: We’re going to take a quick break, but stick around for the rest of this interview with Chancellor David Banks.

Shoaa Khan: We hope you’re enjoying listening to P.S. Weekly as much as we enjoy making it. We spend a lot of time after school planning each episode, setting up and conducting interviews, cutting the tape, writing scripts. It’s a long process and totally worth it. But here’s the thing. We don’t have a bunch of money or millions of followers, so we’re counting on you, loyal listener, to help us get the word out. So take a few seconds and send this link wherever you’re listening to three friends so they too can enjoy P.S. Weekly. Thanks for your support!

Sanaa Stokes: Welcome back! Our weekly reporters have been speaking with Chancellor David Banks. Let’s get back into it.

Shoaa Khan: So you mentioned integration a lot. And, you know, I think as high schoolers, we can all kind of speak on this, that a lot of segregation happens because of, like, the high school admissions process. Like, for example, the academic screening; students are separated based on their GPAs or their seventh-grade GPAs. So we are curious, like, why do you support this kind of process?

Chancellor David Banks: Well, to the contrary. One of the things that we have been working to do here is, to reduce the amount of separation that happens as a result of these kinds of screens. When you look at the specialized high schools as an example, there’s not a lot that I could do about that. You know, schools like Bronx Science, Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech. Their admissions policies are really determined by the state, not by me. And even in the administration prior to my coming here, as they sought to try to change that, tremendous resistance from families who said, “We want to maintain those academic screens”. And you’ve got to understand and appreciate that everybody does not have the same opinion. You know, and sometimes I talk to people and there’s almost a righteous indignation because they have their opinion. It’s strong and they don’t understand why you would see it any way differently than they would. Well, the reality is that this– this is New York City and people have lots of different opinions. I try to honor as many of their voices as I can possibly do. I see that as my role, not to impress upon them what I think, that somehow my opinion is greater than theirs. No, I try to facilitate honest dialogue and honor the voices of everybody.

Shoaa Khan: So I think I’m going to pass it to Jose now.

Jose Santana: We’re going to go to some additional topics we have. One of them is school start times. Last year I reported a story about school start times, and I found that lack of sleep is a major, not just physical, but mental health issue for teens across the nation. And the sleep experts I spoke to all agree that high schools in particular should start later. So would you consider a policy to push start times back as other cities and states have done?

Chancellor David Banks: I absolutely will consider it. I’m making a note of it right now. The research is very solid, particularly for older students like yourself, the high school students. Getting in a little later start, even an extra hour where you get that extra hour of sleep, is important. Now here’s the challenge for it, because there are lots of conditions that are in place. If we start school later for the students, that means we’re starting school later for the teachers as well. Many of them would say, “We think it’s a good idea,” and many of them would say, “That doesn’t work for us.” Because school is not just about the kids. You can’t have a school without students, but you also can’t have a school without teachers. So there are lots of these kinds of things that have, because this has come up before as something for us to look at. The science is very clear. Giving high school kids more sleep time is better for their brains. Thus, the reason I wrote it down again. I want to take another look at this and try to push on this a little bit more. I think every high school student across the city would be thrilled if we said, high schools are going to start like an hour, an hour and a half later than what we typically start now.

Jose Santana: Appreciate that. Yeah, and I’ve also looked at research that shows that the teachers themselves would benefit in terms of sleep from a later start time.

Chancellor David Banks: Send me some of your research, too. I’d like to see what you’ve come up with already. I think what I can do certainly is to share the science with all the schools, encourage folks to try to get started later, start to have conversations with our union partners, our labor partners, and, say, “Let’s see if we can have a framework that pushes back a later start times for high schools.” And let’s see. But we would even then, we would still need to have community hearings. We’d have to hear from other parents as well. A lot of people that that would affect. So there are a lot of issues here, but it’s certainly an issue worth taking a look at for sure, Jose.

Jose Santana: All right. So the mayor has spoken repeatedly about the harms of social media and phones on teenagers. And the health department is recommending that students not have a phone until the age of 14. Are you considering a city-wide policy to restrict phone usage in schools?

Chancellor David Banks: We’re taking a look at all of it right now? I would really love to know what you guys think about that. And so we’re gonna have to create some real forums, with young people to hear directly from them about this, because that’s a huge issue. There’s a lot of research that’s coming in now. It’s still coming in about social media, the access to social media, that the brain almost needs a break from it. Some kids are fully addicted to their phones. The question is, now what can we do about it? I would imagine there would be a tremendous amount of pushback from kids if we were to try to take their phones during the day, but you say, is it a fight worth having if we ultimately look at the science and say, the science says it’s going to be better for you. But I don’t know yet, so I’ve not made any decision on it. I’m just starting to look at it, and maybe you all can help me and think about how we can do a forum with young people and kind of hear their opinions.

Jose Santana: Absolutely. Yeah, I know in my school, from what I’ve seen, students want their phones all the time. And my school actually used to have yonder pouches, but they don’t have it anymore because of the difficulties that were in place in my school. But if you were a principal today, what would be your direct take?

Chancellor David Banks: So I would talk to students, I would talk to parents, and then I would talk to teachers. And collectively seeing what the feedback would be from that, and then trying to make the best decision going forward. I couldn’t tell you right now what that decision would be.

Jose Santana: Yeah. Appreciate that.

Shoaa Khan: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Those are all the questions that we have. We hear that you’ve been planning, reporting a podcast, or working on a podcast. So when is that coming out?

Chancellor David Banks: We haven’t really started yet, so they keep telling me it’s coming soon. But we have the studio, we got all the equipment. It’s ready to roll. But this is the best podcast that I’ve done. But I’m hoping that we can get going because I think a lot of people would probably listen and want to know what the Chancellor’s thinking. And it’s not just for me.

More than that, it’d probably be me interviewing and speaking to a wide range of other people. Some students, some teachers, some parents, but some cultural icons who are out here, people in the music industry and hip hop industry. And you know, who’s your favorite teacher and how did school shape you? Business leaders, lots of people. So we have lots of ideas and we have a lot of stuff laid out. We just haven’t started yet.

All right. We’re good.

Santana Roach: Thank you so much.

Chancellor David Banks: Thank you. You’re fantastic. Wow.

Shoaa Khan: Thank you.

Sanaa Stokes: Well, there you have it, our conversation with Chancellor David Banks. Is there anything that stood out to you about the conversation, Santana?

Santana Roach: Yeah. I think when he was emphasizing the importance of student voice and advocacy, it was really powerful and really interesting to hear that, especially coming from Chancellor Banks himself.

Sanaa Stokes: I thought it was really awesome to see how much he supported us and the work that we’re doing through P.S. Weekly. I also thought it was really interesting when he said that he’d look into further research about pushing back school start times.

Santana Roach: I think a lot of students would appreciate later school start times.

Sanaa Stokes: I know I would.

Santana Roach: Before we go, here’s the Chalkbeat bulletin with news you may have missed over spring break.

Alex Zimmerman: I’m Alex Zimmerman, a reporter from Chalkbeat. Here’s a recap of the week’s biggest education stories.

Mayor Eric Adams released a budget proposal that will save several education programs that were on the chopping block. The mayor will maintain funding for hundreds of social workers, an expansion of preschool for three-year-olds, internship and career preparation programs, and other initiatives that were paid for with about 500,000,001 federal dollars. The Education Department’s budget would still be about 2.4% smaller next year because the city is not replacing all of the federal money that is expiring. A final budget must be negotiated with the City Council by July 1st.

Adams will also continue mayoral control of the city schools for the next two years, a deal that was struck between the governor and lawmakers in the state budget.

Finally, a new report by the city comptroller found that 560 public schools took on water during Tropical Storm Ophelia last September, far more than previously known.

To stay up to date on local education news throughout the week, go to chalkbeat.org/newsletters and sign up for the New York Daily Roundup.

Santana Roach: That’s our show for today. We’re back next week with a special episode in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.

Sanaa Stokes: Until then, class dismissed.

CREDITS

Sanaa Stokes: P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between The Bell and Chalkbeat, made possible by generous support from the Pinkerton Foundation, the Summerfield Foundation, FJC, and Hindenburg Systems. This special episode was hosted by me, Sanaa Stokes.

Santana Roach: And me, Santana Roach. We were also producers for this episode, along with.

Shoaa Khan: Shoaa Khan.

Santana Roach: And...

Jose Santana: Jose Santana

Santana Roach: With reporting help from Chalkbeat reporter [Julian Shen Barrow] and [Alex Zimmerman].

Sanaa Stokes: Our executive producer for the show is [JoAnn DeLuna].

Santana Roach: Executive editors are [Amy Zimmer] And [Taylor McGraw]. Additional production and reporting support was provided by [Sabrina DuQuesnay], [Mira Gordon], and our friends at Chalkbeat.

Sanaa Stokes: Special thanks to our interns [Miriam Galicia] and [Makenna Turner]. Music from Bluedot sessions.

Santana Roach: Thanks for tuning in.

Sanaa Stokes: See you next time.

Amid growing calls to end legacy admissions, New York considers banning the practice

2024-04-29T15:36:56+00:00

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Some New York lawmakers, students, and advocates are calling for colleges in the state to end the practice of legacy admissions, which grants additional priority to the relatives of alumni.

Proponents of the “Fair College Admissions Act” say giving preference to students whose relatives attended an elite institution overwhelmingly favors white, wealthy families. The bill would prohibit the use of legacy admissions for undergraduates by colleges and universities in New York, while establishing financial penalties for those who refuse to comply with the law.

The push for the bill follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that overturned affirmative action, significantly hindering the nation’s colleges and universities’ ability to consider race during admissions.

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a sponsor of the bill, called legacy admissions “a form of affirmative action for students of immense privilege.”

“At institutions that do use legacy, the admissions rate at some of the most exclusive schools is four times greater for legacy students versus non-legacy students,” he said. “And 75% of all legacy students come from the top 10% of wealthiest families in the country.”

Nationwide, nearly 30% of higher education institutions consider legacy status — with that figure rising to over 40% in New York, according to a report by the advocacy group Education Reform Now. And in 2022, a study found a growing number of adults believed legacy status should not play a factor in admissions, including more than 70% of both Democrats and Republicans.

At schools where legacy admissions have long been the norm, opposition has continued to surface on campuses. At Cornell University, students have passed multiple resolutions calling for the university to end the practice.

“It’s a fundamentally wrong and unfair practice,” said Claire Tempelman, a senior at Cornell who helped introduce a 2021 resolution urging the university to end legacy admissions. The Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action last year only added to the urgency around the issue, Tempelman said.

“It’s ridiculous that even though you’re getting rid of affirmative action, you’re still keeping what is essentially affirmative action for the wealthy,” she added. “It’s this hypocrisy that makes legacy admissions just seem even more untenable.”

Jonathan Lam, a freshman at Cornell, said he’s been particularly concerned about the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision. As a child of Vietnamese refugees, he said he received significant help navigating college admissions from Thrive Scholars, a nonprofit organization that supports students of color from low-income communities.

“If we’re going to overturn affirmative action, and say that these DEI academic programs are problematic and controversial, then it also puts a lot of these organizations that supported students like me at risk,” he said. “It adds this urgency to the need to have a conversation about not just temporary solutions to supporting BIPOC and first-gen students, but also understanding the education system.”

It’s a cause that has earned the support of major advocacy groups in the state. The New York Coalition for Fair College Admissions — which includes the NAACP New York State Conference, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Education Reform Now, and other groups — has repeatedly called for the practice to end.

“The gutting of affirmative action makes ending this practice for New York even more of a racial-justice imperative,” said Jake Martinez, deputy director of NYCLU’s Education Policy Center. “When you think about the wealth that these families have … Low-income students, first-generation students don’t have those same resources.

“So wealthy families have not only the resources for college readiness, but also an upper hand through legacy admissions,” he said.

In May, high school and college students from across the state will travel to Albany, urging lawmakers to pass the legislation as part of a youth lobby day, Martinez added.

Other states are also considering changes to the practice. In Virginia, state lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year that barred public universities from giving preferential treatment to the relatives of alumni and donors. Meanwhile, in 2021, Colorado became the first state in the nation to ban legacy admissions — though the broader impact of that change remains unclear.

And in New York and elsewhere, some institutions have voluntarily stopped considering legacy status in admissions. Last year, NYU removed a question asking whether applicants were the children of alumni from its application — with the college affirming that legacy status does not play a role in admissions.

Under the proposed New York law, colleges that continue to consider legacy status in admissions would face a financial penalty — with the money collected being funneled into the state’s tuition assistance program for low-income students.

“All of these institutions benefit from New York state dollars,” Gounardes said. “We should not be funding exclusionary practices.”

With the state budget now enacted, he is hopeful that lawmakers will move to address legacy admissions. There’s been general support for the bill among colleagues in Albany, according to Gounardes.

“It may seem small, but it strikes at the notion of fairness and justice,” Gounardes said. “To allow a student to get into one of the most elite schools in the country just because their parents went there … That just seems inherently unfair.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Albany extends mayoral control for 2 years, tweaking NYC’s education panel

2024-04-20T19:38:18+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams is set to retain control of the city’s school system for another two years, as part of a finalized budget deal between state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Under the deal, Albany officials will have a hand in selecting the head of a city education panel, and New York City officials will enter into firmer commitments on adhering to a state law requiring smaller class sizes. But observers — including a member of the panel — remain skeptical that changes to that panel will have a significant impact on the city’s schools.

For months, an extension of mayoral control in the budget seemed an unlikely prospect in Albany, as lawmakers repeatedly argued that the future of New York City’s school governance structure should be determined outside of the budget process.

But earlier this week, as last-minute negotiations over the late budget ensued, Hochul continued to push for a mayoral control extension. On Saturday, lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature passed a budget bill including the two-year extension.

“I want stability in the city,” the governor said during a Friday press conference. “I want the parents and children and teachers to know that the governance mechanism that’s been in place for many, many years will not be politicized. It will not be a political football for the next few months.

“Sometimes, you just have to step back and say, ‘We want to get this done,’” she added. “And I have a knack for figuring out who to bring together and what has to happen.”

The $237 billion state budget finally neared completion on Saturday, nearly three weeks after its April 1 deadline. It allocates roughly $36 billion in funding to the state’s schools — as well as $2.4 billion to help New York City support the recent influx of asylum-seekers and other migrant families. Hochul will still need to sign the final budget into law.

For more than 20 years, the city’s mayoral control system has largely relied on the mayor’s power to select a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

As part of the deal struck this week, the board will grow by one member — with the chair of the PEP appointed from a set of nominees selected by Albany officials. Senate and Assembly leaders, as well as the chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, will nominate candidates to oversee the panel, from which the mayor will select a chair.

The city’s Education Department will also be required to make firmer commitments to meeting a state law mandating smaller class sizes — a major priority for many lawmakers that passed as part of the last mayoral control deal. That means the city will be required to construct more school buildings, as well as maintain levels of funding needed for schools to shrink class sizes.

Despite those changes, some lawmakers were displeased with the extension.

“The proper way to do this is a thoughtful deliberation and hearing more voices in the process — taking into account more opinions from education stakeholders — and that’s exactly what we had planned to do immediately after the enactment of the budget,” said state Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, on Friday. “As it turns out, the governor was very insistent on including this issue, and the governor has a great deal of influence during the budget making process.

“So this decision making was clearly rushed,” he said. “It’s not best practice, but this is where we are.”

Mayoral control extension follows detailed state report

The agreement comes on the heels of a nearly 300-page state Education Department report on mayoral control, which compiled testimony from five public hearings and detailed the history of New York City school governance.

That report, which City Hall referred to as a “sham,” did not advocate directly for extending or overturning mayoral control. But it noted a majority of speakers at public hearings wanted to see the system reformed, adding they felt unheard and excluded by the current structure.

It also highlighted a series of recommendations that arose during the public’s testimony, including potential tweaks to the makeup of the PEP and a commission to consider longer-term reforms to the city’s school governance structure.

On Friday, Liu hinted that longer-term changes to the system based on the findings of the report could come in 2026 instead, when mayoral control next expires.

“It’s a long-term study over the past 20 years, and the findings and the insight that this report provides are not going to change in the next year or so,” he said. “We are going ahead with a short term extension, so you can read between the lines there.”

Education panel tweak unlikely to have major impact, observers say

The extension comes as a win for Adams, who will now retain control over the city’s schools for the entirety of his first term. In recent weeks, Adams and his administration have made repeated pitches for an extension — with schools Chancellor David Banks lobbying lawmakers in Albany and threatening to resign if the system was overturned.

Still, the PEP will see one change under the deal. Currently, the chair of the panel is elected by its voting members, a majority of which are appointed by the mayor. Under the new system, the panel will grow from 23 to 24 members, though the mayor will still retain a majority. And though the mayor will hold the final decision over who leads that panel, Adams will now choose from a pool of three candidates determined by Albany officials. (If the mayor rejects all three candidates, Albany officials may submit up to two additional sets of three nominees.)

It’s a move lawmakers say could introduce more independence from the mayor to the role.

On Saturday, Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, praised Albany officials “for their work on behalf of the children of New York.”

“Today’s state budget requires New York City to provide every school with the funding it needs to lower class sizes - a critical investment in our public schools,” he said in a statement. “While more work needs to be done on mayoral control, the introduction of independent leadership to the Panel for Educational Policy provides more checks and balances in school governance.”

But some remain skeptical about the potential impact of the PEP change.

Vanessa Leung, who served as chair of the PEP for eight years under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, said having a more independent chair could lead to “a shift in the balance of power.”

But she added it will be especially difficult for that chair to effectively oversee a 24-member PEP, maintaining relationships across its members and with the city’s Education Department.

It’s “a huge lift for one person, who may not have the time and flexibility needed,” she said.

The change to the PEP “in practice is pretty benign,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Though the chair holds some power over the panel’s agenda, he believes it’s likely that state officials would be “accommodating to the Mayor.”

“On the other hand, the Regents & Legislature stepping into a direct NYC school governance role is extraordinary, unique in the state and, as far as I know, the country,” he said in an email.

It’s a move that Jonathan Collins, a professor of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, noted runs counter to the findings of the state Education Department report.

“The report shows us that NYC parents and stakeholders have major concerns about how accessible and responsive the current local governing board is to their concerns and needs,” he said in a Friday email. “They want more local control, and for the time being, they’re likely getting even less.”

Collins added the shift in chair selection could give Albany leaders some influence over the city’s policy agenda.

But skepticism about the impact of the change was shared even among current members of the panel.

“If we keep the same number of mayoral appointees, at the end of the day whoever picks the chair is not going to impact how votes play out,” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a current PEP member appointed by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “It doesn’t really improve the dynamics of the panel, or respond to the hundreds of people that participated in mayoral control hearings talking about ending mayoral control.”

She expressed disappointment with the rapid nature of recent mayoral control negotiations — particularly in light of the recent state Education Department report.

“It’s just really, really frustrating that folks aren’t looking at the big picture,” Salas-Ramirez said. “Here we had an opportunity to really create some transformative change on how New York City public schools are governed — to create a more democratic structure, to move towards something that people are actually asking for.

“And we’re literally encapsulating it in a one week debate,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Most NYC high schools lack newspapers. A new journalism curriculum could help change that.

2024-04-18T13:00:00+00:00

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Katelynn Seetaram, a junior at Pace High School in Manhattan, never had much interest in journalism.

But when she was placed in a journalism class her freshman year, she was stunned at just how much the course could teach her. She learned to question narratives that spread on social media. She developed a stronger sense of media literacy. And she became more skeptical and curious about the stories unfolding around her.

Now, it’s a potential career path that Seetaram hopes to pursue after graduation.

“That one class really led me to what I want to do with the rest of my life,” she said.

Seetaram is just one of the many students, journalists, and educators pushing for others to have the same opportunity. On Thursday, the New York City Youth Journalism Coalition will hold a day of action at City Hall, urging City Council members and other city officials to support more journalism programs across the city’s schools. It’s part of their launch of a “Journalism for All” initiative that includes a newly developed high school journalism curriculum that will roll out in the 2025-26 school year.

The day of action — a collaboration with the Council’s Black, Latino & Asian Caucus — will underscore that many students across the city lack access to high school journalism programs, particularly for students who are Black and Latino. And in the afternoon, Council Member Rita Joseph, who chairs the Education Committee, will introduce a resolution supporting the initiative.

Roughly 73% of the city’s high schools do not have school newspapers or student-run websites, according to a 2022 study by Geanne Belton, a journalism professor and director of the high school journalism program at the City University of New York’s Baruch College.

While more than three-quarters of the schools with the highest concentrations of white and Asian American students had student publications, the same was true for just 8% of schools with high concentrations of Black students and 16% of those with large shares of Latino students, according to the study. Schools with higher rates of poverty were also far less likely to have a student publication.

The inequities mirror trends in the broader industry. A 2018 survey found that journalists of color made up just 22% of the workforce.

“This isn’t only a journalism challenge — this really goes to the heart of civics and democracy,” said Jere Hester, the director of editorial projects and partnerships and acting director of the Local Accountability Reporting program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. “What we really want to do is institutionalize journalism instruction in New York City.”

With funding from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the school has been able to develop a new high school journalism curriculum. The class will teach students the basics of reporting, writing, and producing stories, as well as tackling issues around civics, ethics, misinformation, and more, Hester said. It will also offer opportunities for students to experiment with different reporting mediums, including audio, video, and data journalism. (Revson is supporting a CUNY journalism student summer intern at Chalkbeat.)

Hester hopes students who take the class will be inspired to develop student publications at their high schools — or to participate in ones at schools where they already exist.

“I would love to see all these students become journalists someday,” he said. “Realistically, that’s not going to happen. But we do know that the skills and the inspiration that they get through doing this kind of work at the high school level is going to help them in all kinds of careers.

“Beyond all that, this is a way to help empower students,” he added. “To show them from this age the value of getting involved.”

In the months leading up to the day of action at City Hall, student organizers have been busy reaching out to Council members and raising awareness of the city’s youth journalism gap, said Derry Oliver, a senior at Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill High School.

The hope, she said, is to garner support from Council members and government officials, helping to spread journalism programs to districts and schools across the city. It’s a topic close to home for Oliver, who, despite taking an early interest in journalism, has not had access to a school newspaper.

“One of the things that will make me really happy is to see that other students behind me don’t have to suffer like I have,” Oliver said.

For those without access to journalism classes or publications at their school, the experience can be frustrating.

Fredlove Deshommes, a junior at Brooklyn’s Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, tried to start a publication at her school, but said her efforts repeatedly stalled due to lack of resources.

Camila Sosa, a junior at Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, said the absence of a student publication at her school has limited her opportunities to explore her interests in journalism and writing — and for students to amplify their voices more broadly.

“It’s insane to me that a lot of kids don’t have the opportunity to use publications as a way to express themselves,” Sosa said. “I hope that what we’re doing here actually makes a change.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

A ‘universal FAFSA’ law could be adopted in New York as budget negotiations continue

2024-04-17T17:57:25+00:00

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T’Kai Harvey, a sophomore at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, didn’t see college as an option for most of her life.

“I come from a very low-income community in the Bronx,” she said. “So I wasn’t going to go to college and financially burden my family.”

But in her senior year of high school, Harvey learned about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, through her school, working with a counselor at her school who helped her complete the forms and secure the financial support she needed to fund her education.

Now, Harvey, along with other advocates and some lawmakers, is calling for a “universal FAFSA” law requiring all high school students to complete a financial aid application or submit a waiver opting out by the time they graduate.

The push has gained some traction in Albany, where a proposed law seeking to establish the requirement could be included in the state budget expected later this week. Gov. Kathy Hochul included a universal FAFSA policy in her budget proposal earlier this year, and on Monday, Hochul announced her administration would send letters to high school seniors with tips on completing the FAFSA, while urging principals to ensure students have the resources they need to access financial aid.

But some school districts have expressed concerns about taking on the added responsibility without additional resources, complicating the ongoing negotiations.

To Harvey, the proposed law is critical because she saw peers at other schools who were never informed about the FAFSA and missed out on significant financial aid as a result.

“I know I could have been one of the kids that didn’t have the opportunity to go to college, had I not been told,” said Harvey, a student advocate with uAspire, an organization that advocates for college access for students from underrepresented communities. “There’s a lot of federal aid that gets left behind because students aren’t filling it out.”

Calls for Universal FAFSA in New York follow the adoption of the policy in several other states. They come as recent data has shown local students losing out significant federal funding and as the fumbled rollout of a new version of the federal form this year has spurred headaches for students and counselors across the country.

In 2023, graduating students missed out on more than $225 million in potential Pell Grants by not completing the FAFSA, according to an analysis by the National College Attainment Network. And studies have shown students who complete the FAFSA are far more likely to attend college.

“So many students don’t even fill out the FAFSA, and as a result, they don’t even consider the possibility of pursuing higher education, because they think it’s out of reach,” said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a sponsor of the bill. “The data that we saw in NY: Leaving $200 million on the table in eligible financial aid grants … That is a staggering number.”

Financial aid forms can be confusing for families

Under language put forward in a bill earlier this year by Gounardes and Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, New York would require all public, charter, and private schools to enact “a universal financial aid policy,” meaning all students would be mandated to submit a FAFSA or Tuition Assistance Program, or TAP, application during their senior year. Students would also be able to submit a waiver opting out. (Those who do not complete an application or opt out would not be prevented from graduating.)

Proponents of a universal FAFSA law note that students can encounter barriers to filling out the complex financial aid forms, especially for those whose parents aren’t able to help.

“Many first-generation college students are navigating the financial aid process on their own,” said Anika Van Eaton, vice president of policy at uAspire. “Embedding this key step towards pursuing college and gaining knowledge of one’s financial aid eligibility within the high school experience is so crucial.”

Jacobson, the Assembly sponsor, noted many households haven’t encountered forms like the financial aid applications before.

“FAFSA is difficult — it’s difficult even if you’re a CPA,” he said. “There’s no question that students need help in doing this.”

For Melody Garcia, a senior at Hunter College who graduated from a public high school in Queens, their first experience filling out the form was difficult. Questions about assets, income, and other aspects of their financial situation quickly became confusing to Garcia and their mother, who does not have a college degree.

“There are so many different things that you need to fill out,” said Garcia, who uses they/them pronouns. “It looks like you’re doing taxes, and I just didn’t understand that.”

Garcia was able to get help from counselors at South Asian Youth Action, a community organization that works with schools in Queens and Brooklyn. But without that support, they would have felt lost, they said.

Still, Garcia is hopeful that a universal FAFSA policy would mean more students could find help at school.

“If it was mandatory, schools would have to set aside time for this, and really make sure that students know where to go,” said Garcia, who is an advocate with Young Invincibles, an organization that works to amplify youth voices and has called for New York to adopt a universal FAFSA policy.

Some schools concerned about FAFSA law

Some school districts worry, however, the bill would create an additional burden for them, particularly if it comes without any funding or other support. It’s become one of several issues that lawmakers and Hochul continue to discuss as negotiations over the state budget persist.

Bob Lowry, deputy director for the state’s Council of School Superintendents, said while they have supported voluntary efforts to encourage FAFSA completion, they remained concerned over the specifics of the potential new law.

Proposals from the Senate and Hochul would require school districts to obtain documentation from families that students had completed their financial aid applications or opted out — an added task for schools. Some school districts are also concerned about requirements to notify high school seniors about financial aid applications at least four times during the school year, as well as having to provide access or referrals for additional support in completing the FAFSA.

“Our greatest concern is with the potential expectation that schools will have the capacity to assist students and families with FAFSA completion,” Lowry said in an email.

Lowry instead favored language included in the Assembly’s budget proposal last month that does not make FAFSA completion a requirement, but directs the state to develop additional resources for students, including compiling lists of organizations that offer assistance with the FAFSA. Schools would be required to distribute those resources and conduct an annual presentation to students.

Gounardes said the goal is not to “take a prescriptive approach,” letting school districts determine how to approach the forms with their students.

“A lot of the other states that have done this have not required significant infusion of additional resources,” he added. “Though we are certainly very open to that conversation, were it demonstrated to be a necessity.”

Current FAFSA problems highlight bill’s need, lawmaker says

Gounardes believes the need for the proposed law has been heightened by nationwide issues with the FAFSA this year.

The “Better FAFSA” was intended to simplify the process through which students receive financial aid. But rollout of the new form has been plagued by glitches and errors, stoking fears that a significant portion of the Class of 2024 could ultimately end up not attending college.

Though Gounardes believes the issues will be solved for future application cycles, he added the impact of this year’s problems could be far-reaching.

“This debacle is proof as to why universal FAFSA is so important,” Gounardes said. “How many students are going to hear or assume that because it was a disaster this year, ‘Oh it’s not worth my time anymore. I’m not even going to bother.’

“That could not be further from the truth,” he said.

And while the city’s Education Department did not comment on the proposed law, it emphasized its commitment to ensuring students had adequate postsecondary support — particularly in light of issues this year.

“While there is continued concern about the impact of this year’s FAFSA difficulties, we have bolstered our support for students completing FAFSA,” Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement.

This year, the city has provided additional training to counselors, hosted remote advising sessions for families, partnered with organizations on FAFSA completion events, and distributed multilingual FAFSA guides, Tull said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Albany to send $35.9B to NY schools as negotiations over mayoral control continue, Hochul says

2024-04-15T23:41:42+00:00

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Gov. Kathy Hochul said a preliminary budget agreement would allocate roughly $35.9 billion to New York schools — a record high — as state lawmakers closed in on a deal on Monday.

Though Hochul announced “the parameters of a conceptual agreement” on a $237 billion state budget, she said that Albany leaders had not yet finalized negotiations over mayoral control. Hochul told reporters she was pushing to extend New York City’s 20-year-old governance model — a move that would keep Mayor Eric Adams at the helm of the nation’s largest school system.

“There’s still time to see if we can get this worked out,” she said. “There’s a lot of complications with that.”

The city’s school governance structure, which expires on June 30, gives the mayor the power to select a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts. In a budget proposal earlier this year, Hochul had called for a four-year extension of mayoral control.

In 2022, lawmakers struck a deal to extend mayoral control for two years, despite Hochul pushing for a longer extension.

For months, lawmakers have argued the future of the city’s polarizing school governance structure should be determined outside of the budget process. But during last-minute negotiations on the two-weeks-late budget, the possibility of extending mayoral control reentered discussions.

“We have had some very positive conversations, but obviously, the devil’s in the details,” Hochul said. “So that’s why I’m being very careful and saying that this is a conceptual agreement, not the entire budget.”

In a statement, State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, said, “The governor is pushing the issue in budget negotiations and a short-term extension of mayoral control may be included along with stronger accountability measures for meeting class size requirements.

“The mayor wants what he calls mayoral accountability,” he said. “So he should agree to being held accountable.”

Adams praised the preliminary budget agreement in a statement and said, “We will continue to fight for New Yorkers on crucial issues, especially preserving mayoral accountability as we advocate to support public school children and families.”

Schools to see $1.3 billion increase in funding

The looming budget agreement would represent a $1.3 billion increase in school aid, allocating roughly $500 million more to New York’s schools than Hochul proposed earlier this year, according to figures she shared on Monday.

It’s the highest level of school aid in history, and comes as the governor and lawmakers have clashed over the state’s funding formula.

Hochul’s earlier proposal included two controversial changes to Foundation Aid, the state formula that calculates how much funding each school district receives and sends more dollars to higher-need districts. The adjustments proposed altering how the formula accounted for inflation and modifying a provision that prevented districts who saw enrollment drops from losing money.

That prompted pushback from some lawmakers and advocates who argued against changing the formulas at a time when the city’s schools and districts across the state face the end of billions of dollars in one-time federal COVID relief funds, which are set to dry up in September.

Hochul noted Monday that the budget deal would include an adjustment to how the formula accounts for inflation, but added the latter of her proposed changes would not go into effect.

“If left unchecked, the formula would have grown roughly 5%,” said Blake Washington, the state’s budget director. “Instead, it’s going to grow approximately 2.8%.

Meanwhile, the state’s Education Department will partner with the Rockefeller Institute to conduct a longer term examination of Foundation Aid with hopes of changing the formula next year, Hochul said.

“State law requires us to keep everybody at the same level every year, regardless of whether they’ve had population loss or whether their needs have changed,” she said. “There’s got to be a better way.”

The state budget will also allocate $19 million to new mental health supports for children and expand the state’s Tuition Assistance Program, according to Hochul.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

After 4.8 earthquake shakes New York, schools continue operations as normal

2024-04-05T15:54:52+00:00

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New York City schools were sent reeling Friday morning as a 4.8 magnitude earthquake reverberated through the city and other parts of the region.

As of around 12 p.m., no injuries had been reported in the city’s schools, and officials had received no indication that any school buildings were compromised, according to the city’s Education Department.

Schools across the city were continuing operations as normal following the 10:23 a.m. incident, officials said.

Many schools sent messages to families Friday morning, assuring them that students remained safe. At some schools, recess was moved inside, as a city emergency alert advised residents to remain indoors. (A later alert warned aftershocks may be felt, but said New Yorkers could continue usual activities.)

At a press conference with other city agencies, schools Chancellor David Banks said he was attending an event at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts when the earthquake struck.

“We’ve instructed all of our school principals to continue operations and dismissal as normal,” Banks said. “We ask the schools, staff, and families to remain calm and to model that for all of our students, all of our children.”

Parents do not need to pick up their child early, and after school programming will continue as normal, he added.

Education Department officials noted building response teams were assembled shortly after the earthquake “out of an abundance of caution,” and that the department had been in close collaboration with other city agencies to ensure student safety. Schools would communicate with families if any conditions were to change, officials added.

Classes briefly disrupted across the city

In the immediate aftermath, some schools, students, and educators were left rattled by the earthquake.

“Kids are freaked, staff is freaked,” said Kiri Soares, principal of the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in Brooklyn. “We’re sending out messages to families, staff, and kids to check in with them and reassure that we are stable and physically OK.”

But Soares said the school remains “mentally stressed from all the disruption,” adding a broken pipe that occurred prior to the earthquake had flooded several classrooms, ramping up the chaos.

Anna Nelson, an assistant principal at Bronx Latin, said she was in a ninth grade algebra class when the desks started shaking. The school uses Yondr pouches to lock up cell phones during the school day, but Nelson said they let students un-pouch their phones after the earthquake to text their families and let them know they were safe.

The school notified parents that recess and lunch had been moved indoors, but that otherwise school operations were continuing as normal. Though classes were disrupted for about 15 minutes, Nelson said students quickly regained focus.

Still, she added, there was little immediate communication from the city’s Education Department in the aftermath of the earthquake. And while her school remained indoors, a neighboring school evacuated their building, according to Nelson.

“I think there was just a wide variety of directives happening across schools,” she said. “A very quick message to everyone and all schools — like key stakeholders — would be really helpful.”

Around 12 p.m., the city’s Education Department sent a text notification to parents, assuring them students remained safe and that school dismissal would proceed as normal.

The earthquake was felt across parts of the East Coast Friday, with its epicenter just north of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In Philadelphia, for example, schools were continuing operations as usual, with no reported injuries or building damage, said Monique Braxton, spokesperson for the Philadelphia School District.

Alex Zimmerman and Carly Sitrin contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NY state education officials unveil 300-page report on mayoral control. Here’s what they found.

2024-04-09T21:29:22+00:00

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State education officials unveiled a highly anticipated report on New York City’s polarizing school governance structure on Tuesday — compiling months of public testimony and decades of the city’s history into a nearly 300-page document.

In the report, state officials did not directly advocate for or against extending Mayor Eric Adams’ control of the city’s schools, instead outlining a series of broader findings and recommendations from the public.

Those findings could have major implications for ongoing negotiations in Albany about mayoral control. The report comes as part of a deal state lawmakers struck in 2022 — extending Adams’ control for two years, while giving Albany time to assess the effectiveness of the long-standing system.

Since September, the state’s Education Department has worked with the CUNY School of Law to conduct a study of school governance models. The department also held a series of public hearings across the five boroughs, soliciting feedback from the public. The results of both efforts were included in the report.

At a press conference hours before the release of the report, Adams questioned the methods employed by the state’s Education Department. He took particular issue with the involvement of the CUNY School of Law, suggesting the school was biased against him due to an incident last year when graduates turned their backs on him during a commencement speech.

“So I’m concerned: Is this more political?” Adams said. “Or is it about the way we have done it and what Chancellor [David] Banks has done?”

He also questioned whether the testimony at public hearings was truly reflective of a city as large as New York.

In response to the mayor’s comments, JP O’Hare, a spokesperson for the state’s Education Department, said “we believe the report speaks for itself.”

“This report is a thorough, research-based presentation of school governance models in New York City and elsewhere that meets the law’s requirements with fidelity,” he said. “As intended by the legislature, the report provides thoughtful information and testimony concerning mayoral control of schools.”

Later in the day, after the release of the report, Education Department First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg called the report “disappointing” and a “missed opportunity” for failing to adequately highlight the city’s progress in closing achievement gaps compared to the rest of the state during the period of mayoral control.

Here are some of the key findings of the state’s report:

NYC model unlike most others in nation, according to report

Mayoral control, which centralizes power over the city’s schools in the hands of the mayor, has been regularly extended since 2002. The system gives the mayor the power to choose a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

That model is unlike most others in the country, according to the state report.

Nationwide, a majority of public schools are governed by elected school boards or superintendents, rather than those appointed by a mayor. But even among cities with similar school governance structures, New York City’s model grants more power to the mayor, according to the report.

In other U.S. cities with mayoral control systems, appointments are in some cases picked from a list of names designated by a nominating panel, or require the approval of a city council. The report looked at school governance structures in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and Yonkers — finding New York City’s model granted the most power to the mayor, followed closely by Yonkers’ system.

Calls for reform in public testimony

Over the past two decades, mayoral control has faced both fierce critics and ardent defenders.

In the report, state officials noted that a majority of speakers at public hearings sought reforms to the current system — expressing that they felt unheard or excluded by the current school governance structure. Further, speakers felt that centralizing authority in the hands of the mayor and chancellor resulted in an ill-suited “one-size-fits-all” approach to the nation’s largest school system.

Many members of the public pointed to the PEP, arguing that the disproportionate number of mayoral appointees created a system that lacks sufficient “checks and balances.” Others raised concerns over a lack of continuity in programs and policies whenever a new mayor comes into office.

But the report also acknowledged that few people have called for a return to the local school board model that predated mayoral control. Defenders of mayoral control have argued that the current structure allows for more effective and accountable leadership than the previous school board system.

Research ‘inconclusive’ on school governance

Research, meanwhile, remains unclear when it comes to school governance models, according to the report. While some studies suggest that mayoral control can garner more resources for schools and increase efficiency, others found “persistent issues with inefficiency and the misuse of resources.”

The report stated research has found “no conclusive relationship between school governance structures and student achievement,” as well as “little evidence that any governance structure has reduced longstanding inequities in educational access and attainment among students.”

Still, Adams, Banks, and other officials have pointed to test scores and other metrics in defending the current system.

“Clearly, what you see is sustained improvement in graduation rates and proficiency rates for our students,” Weisberg said Tuesday.

He pointed specifically to shrinking gaps between New York City students and the rest of the state on standardized exams over the past two decades and called it a “missed opportunity that the report didn’t compare and contrast.”

The report does, however, have an extensive section on the test score gaps between city students and the rest of the state’s, which have shrunk significantly since 2005, according to data in the report. But researchers were cautious to draw any kind of causal link between mayoral control and the shrinking gaps, noting that there are a number of other factors that influence test scores and that it’s nearly impossible to distinguish the effects of a specific education policy from the effects of mayoral control as a whole.

Weisberg countered that it’s valid to compare the results of city students to kids in the rest of the state taking the same test as long as you take demographics into account.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for City Hall also emphasized graduation rates and test scores had risen in the years since mayoral control was adopted and called the report a “sham.”

After report, debate over mayoral control will continue

In recent weeks, as lawmakers continued deliberations over the state budget, Banks ramped up his arguments for extending mayoral control. In meetings with lawmakers and public comments, he argued that his track record over the past two years warranted an extension.

But lawmakers have repeatedly pushed back on efforts to include an extension in the upcoming state budget. Some had also refrained from weighing in on the future of the city’s school governance structure before the release of the report.

In a statement Tuesday, State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, noted the report would be “invaluable in legislative deliberations and decision-making.”

“We are highly appreciative of Commissioner Betty Rosa and her team of educational professionals at the State Education Department and look forward to thoroughly digesting their findings and recommendations as we take up the important matter of school governance in NYC once the state budget is enacted,” he said.

In addition to its findings, the state report highlighted a series of recommendations from the public’s testimony — including potential tweaks to the makeup of the PEP, and to the roles of Community Education Councils and School Leadership Teams, in order to strengthen the input of local communities in the city’s decision-making process. Members of the public also called for a commission to consider longer-term reforms to the city’s school governance structure.

David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, called the report “a mild reprimand of the current system,” adding it “is careful to couch its recommendations as what came out of the hearings, rather than some sort of independent consensus for what should be done.”

Still, “the three-word summary of the report is: ‘We want change,’” he said. “What that change is, is left out.”

Meanwhile, the recommendation to establish a commission to study longer-term reforms could actually offer mayoral control “a reprieve,” Bloomfield said, noting “it has the effect of extending mayoral control in the near term.”

And as discussions over the future of the city’s school governance structure continue, the precise impact of the report remains unclear, said Jonathan Collins, a professor of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

“If you were looking for a clear referendum on the impact of mayoral control, you’re looking for the wrong thing,” he said, adding the report showed widespread feelings of a disconnect between the needs of kids and the city’s decision-making processes. “But, if you read this report as a clear rejection of mayoral control, I would temper expectations. While we can see at-length the issues with public engagement, there isn’t clear evidence that NYC schools are doing poorly as a result of being under mayoral control.

“Ultimately, though, Governor [Kathy] Hochul and the state legislature will have to decide if the juice is worth what’s been a major squeeze,” Collins added.

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

As eclipse arrives, NYC students and families share in once-in-a-generation learning experience

2024-04-08T22:24:41+00:00

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New York families flocked outside Monday afternoon, eager for their kids to take part in a once-in-a-generation learning experience.

Across the state and other parts of the country, a total solar eclipse darkened the sky, offering a momentary opportunity to engage directly in the science behind the cosmic event.

Though the city was not in the direct path of totality, New York City families could still see the unique phenomenon unfold as the moon passed over the sun. The next total eclipse in the state will not occur until 2079, according to state officials.

On a grassy field behind the New York Hall of Science in Queens, hundreds gathered to view the eclipse. Kids enjoyed museum activities like “astronaut training,” which had them completing tasks while wearing thick gloves that mimic real-life astronauts’ gear. Others played on the lawns, tossing Frisbees or slotting in pieces on giant Connect Four boards while upbeat music blared from a DJ station.

Kamilah Jemmott, left, and her 9-year-old son, Kori, traveled from Suffolk County to view the eclipse on Mon., April 8, 2024 at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York.

By the late afternoon, the festive spirit gave way to quieter observation as families put on their protective glasses and turned their gaze toward the sun. The eclipse, which began just after 2 p.m., reached its peak by roughly 3:30 p.m. and faded by the evening.

Tanya Keitt, a Brooklyn mom, said she rushed from Flatbush to her 8-year-old daughter’s school in Williamsburg, whisking her away right as classes let out.

As huge astronomy buffs, Keitt said they’ve tried their hand at engaging with space before. Recently, she got a telescope from her local library to watch a meteor shower with Mahalia, her daughter, on their roof. But to their disappointment, it was blocked by light pollution.

“We’re so excited to see something today,” Keitt said. “Me and my dad were really into the stars. I shared stars with him, and he shared them with me, so I’m really excited to do this with my daughter. It’s just really special.”

Kamilah Jemmott brought her two kids to Queens from Suffolk County to experience the eclipse.

An avid science fan, 9-year-old Kori had been planning the trip for more than a year, Jemmott said.

“First, I heard that the sun can go dark,” Kori said, explaining his excitement. “Then I found out shadows can grow sharper.”

He purchased his eclipse glasses in 2023 and brought them to Queens on Monday, and he wore a homemade eclipse shirt.

“It’s super cool,” he said. “I’m literally going to tell everyone when it’s full.”

As the eclipse neared its peak, parents sang along to Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and families watched the phenomenon unfold.

From left, Joseph, Elijah, and Melissa Matias pose for a photograph while viewing the eclipse on Mon., April 8, 2024 at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York.

Elijah Matias, a fourth grader at P.S. 108 in Queens, said “his favorite thing is science.” Though he had an idea of what the eclipse would look like from online clips and video games, he was thrilled to see it firsthand, bouncing with excitement as he talked about what he was seeing.

Joseph Matias, his father, said he pulled Elijah out of school early to make sure he got to witness the eclipse.

“It’s once or maybe twice in a lifetime,” he said. “And it’s a good family experience to share.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC to open 9 new schools this fall. Here’s what to know.

2024-04-04T23:11:41+00:00

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Nine new schools will open this fall in New York City, aiming to provide families with more choices on where they enroll their children, schools Chancellor David Banks said Thursday.

The new schools will offer a mix of elementary, middle, and high school programs across three of the city’s boroughs. They include a Brooklyn outpost of the successful Bard Early College High School, a Queens high school for careers in film and television, a project-based elementary school modeled on the progressive Brooklyn New School, and the city’s first Montessori-inspired public school.

Banks said the new schools are a way to address the “serious hemorrhaging” of students in recent years, with enrollment falling by more than 100,000 students, despite ticking back up slightly last year.

“Parents and families are looking for a wide range of special schools that are appealing to them, and that’s what we’re delivering,” he said. “My goal here … is to provide school experiences that will draw more families to our schools.”

But the announcement comes as officials grapple with myriad complex, interlocking issues — expiring federal relief funds, dwindling enrollment in some of the city’s smallest schools, and a state law mandating smaller class sizes that will demand significant resources to implement.

While celebrating the launch of the new schools, Education Department officials said they were designed to fulfill the needs and desires of local communities.

“These nine schools really push the boundaries of traditional education models,” said Shawn Rux, senior executive director of the Education Department’s Office of New School Development and Design. “They are cutting edge. They are unique. And they are directly responsive to what we know and continue to hear from our students and communities about what they need.”

Five of the schools will be housed in new buildings that will open this fall, with another joining a school on a site that opened last September, said Nina Kubota, president of the NYC School Construction Authority. It’s part of a total 24 new buildings opening for the city’s schools this year, adding 11,000 seats citywide, she added.

The city had proposed more than $7 billion to expand school capacity and fund the construction of more than 80 buildings, according to the Education Department’s 2020-24 capital plan. The latest capital plan calls for nearly $5 billion to address capacity issues, including class sizes, overcrowding, and “infusing fresh resources into schools, communities, and neighborhoods.”

The development of the new schools in some ways runs counter to the recommendations of a working group tasked with advising New York City’s public schools on complying with the state law capping class sizes. In December, that group unveiled its 55-page report, which advised the city against opening new schools in shared buildings — instead suggesting that resources be directed to existing, underutilized schools to provide new programs and services.

In recent years, shrinking enrollment at some schools has pushed the city to consolidate, merging communities to shield them from the effects of their dwindling size.

On Thursday, First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said the department was working to revamp existing schools and introduce new programming, in addition to its development of new schools.

“It isn’t just about new schools, but they’re an important piece of the puzzle,” he said. “All of this has to happen within the context of the law around class size. We’re going to have to comply, and believe me, we are keenly focused on how we are going to do that.”

Here’s a look at the nine new schools coming to the city this fall:

Motion Picture Technical High School, Queens

Motion Picture Technical High School in Sunnyside will offer ninth-12th grade students a chance to explore potential careers in the film and television industry. The school will provide students with immersive training in video production, post-production, and production-design — aiming to broaden access to the industry and empower diverse filmmakers, according to the city’s Education Department.

Bard High School Early College, Brooklyn

Bard Early College is poised to launch a new campus in East New York, offering families in the borough access to the network of coveted public high schools that allow students to earn an associate degree by the time they graduate.

The Bard model allows students to take courses with college instructors, and engage in small, writing- and discussion-based seminars. It has highly sought-after sites in Manhattan and Queens with a new site in the Bronx that opened in September.

M.S. 644, the Bronx

M.S. 644 will offer a middle school education focused on debate, multilingualism, and experiential learning in the south Bronx. The school will push students to question and challenge what they learn.

M.S. 428, Brooklyn

M.S. 428 in Sunset Park will offer middle school students a dual language program in both Chinese and Spanish, according to the city’s Education Department.

M.S. 407, Brooklyn

M.S. 407 will offer a medical and STEAM focused middle school experience in District 20, allowing students to immerse themselves in curriculum across disciplines.

P.S. 413, Brooklyn

P.S. 413 will offer an inclusive learning community for elementary students in Bay Ridge, with students “on track to enrich their local and global communities in different careers, including law and medicine,” according to the city’s Education Department.

P.S. 331, Brooklyn

P.S. 331 will offer elementary students in Bay Ridge an education with an emphasis on “empowering graduates with a profound understanding of entrepreneurial pathways, sensible financial knowledge, and proficiency in strong communication and technology skills with a dedicated focus on a world language,” according to promotional materials.

P.S. 456, Brooklyn

P.S. 456 in Downtown Brooklyn will follow the model of the Brooklyn New School, offering “inquiry-based curriculum centering on exploration, problem-solving, and becoming change agents,” according to the city’s Education Department.

P.S. 482 Albee Square Montessori Public School,Brooklyn

P.S. 482 Albee Square Montessori Public School in Downtown Brooklyn is the first Montessori-inspired public school in the city, according to the city’s Education Department. It is designed to provide an equitable learning experience, allowing children to explore subjects in multi-age classrooms.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC 5th graders receive middle school offers, as city considers changes to admissions process

2024-04-03T22:26:22+00:00

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Amanda Rinzel, a parent and educator who lives in Brooklyn, spent her spare moments on Wednesday nervously refreshing her MySchools account, waiting for the news of where her fifth grade son would attend middle school in the fall.

It was the family’s second time going through the middle school admissions process, but in some ways, this year felt different from her first experience. Her older son, a seventh grader at the Professional Performing Arts School, had always been interested in musical theater — making the Hell’s Kitchen school, which accepts students from across the five boroughs via audition, “an obvious choice.”

Stanley, her younger son, is “more well-rounded” in his interests, said Rinzel, who lives in District 17. They ended up ranking the Brooklyn Green School, a boroughwide program in nearby District 16, as their top choice. It drew them in with an administration that seemed especially receptive to student needs, as well as its strong arts and athletics programs, she said.

On Wednesday, Rinzel was elated to learn Stanley had been admitted to his top choice school.

“Middle school can be so hard,” said Rinzel, who teaches at a middle school in the Bronx. “It just seems like a happy place, and I’m so excited for him to be in a school that is uplifting.”

For many families, the Wednesday placements marked the end of the city’s middle school admissions process. In December, fifth grade families across the city ranked as many as 12 middle schools as they submitted their applications.

Over the next week, the city’s Education Department will host three virtual sessions for families to learn more about offers and waitlists.

Unlike the city’s notorious high school admissions process, many middle schools across the city feature district programs that are open only to students who live in the area — with some zoned schools only allowing applicants from within a smaller subset of the district. Other programs offer boroughwide admissions, allowing all students who live in the borough to apply, while other schools allow any student in the city to apply.

Some middle schools also use academic screens to determine admissions, sorting students as young as nine based on their grades. Those screens were initially paused during the pandemic, then brought back in some districts at the discretion of each of the city’s 32 local school district superintendents.

Further change to the admissions process may be on the horizon.

For months, the city’s Education Department has been floating a potential change to the process at parent leader meetings — soliciting feedback on a possible shift that would allow students to apply widely outside of their district. Students applying to schools in their own district would still have priority for seats, according to discussions at various meetings.

Still, it may be some time before any changes are enacted.

In a statement, the city’s Education Department confirmed its Office of Student Enrollment was considering possible changes.

“One of the potential changes we are exploring with parents, advocates and educators is allowing students to apply to middle schools outside of their districts,” a spokesperson said. “Conversations are ongoing and no decisions have been made.”

For Rinzel, a citywide process would have meant more options for her and Stanley to consider. She added they may have looked at more schools beyond their district and borough.

More options for students could also mean a more equitable system, opening up seats at schools that may have more resources than those close to home, Rinzel said. But still, she noted that traveling outside of the borough to attend school each day could add potential safety concerns for young students.

“There are a lot of factors that parents and kids have to take into account if they’re applying citywide,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Pronto ocurrirá un eclipse solar. Así es como los maestros y estudiantes de Nueva York pueden aprovecharlo al máximo.

2024-04-01T19:56:53+00:00

Read in English.

Familias y educadores de Nueva York: Marquen sus calendarios: una experiencia de aprendizaje única en la vida está a punto de ocurrir.

El 8 de abril, habrá un eclipse solar total en algunas partes del estado, y se espera que el fenómeno sea parcialmente visible en la ciudad. Es un acontecimiento sumamente raro, y los funcionarios estatales dicen que el próximo eclipse total en el estado será en 2079.

Nueva York es uno de los 11 estados que se encuentran en la trayectoria directa del próximo eclipse, y los oficiales estatales anticipan que miles de personas viajen al norte del estado para disfrutar de este espectáculo único.

“El epicentro que el mundo estará vigilando será en el gran estado de Nueva York”, dijo la Gobernadora Kathy Hochul en una rueda de prensa reciente. “Es la oportunidad de Nueva York de estar en el centro de la acción”.

Para los estudiantes y las escuelas, el eclipse ofrece una oportunidad inigualable de interactuar directamente con la ciencia que hay detrás del cosmos.

En toda la ciudad, algunas escuelas están haciendo planes para sus comunidades. Central Park East II de Manhattan, por ejemplo, tendrá un evento acto sobre el eclipse en colaboración con organizaciones de la comunidad. Y la P.S./I.S. 48 de Staten Island tendrá un evento para ver el eclipse con gafas de seguridad, moon pies, un planetario inflable y mucho más, según el Departamento de Educación de la ciudad.

Así es como los maestros, estudiantes y familias pueden aprovechar el inminente eclipse solar.

¿Cuándo será el eclipse solar?

El eclipse solar comenzará en la tarde del lunes 8 de abril alrededor de las 2:00 p.m., alcanzará su punto máximo más o menos a las 3:25 p.m. y terminará poco antes de anochecer.

Aunque el eclipse no pasará directamente sobre la ciudad de Nueva York, será parcialmente visible en sus cinco barrios. En partes del norte del estado, como Syracuse y Rochester, se espera que el eclipse pase directamente por encima, cubriendo el sol completamente.

¿Cómo los maestros y estudiantes pueden ver el eclipse de manera segura?

Los expertos advierten que no se debe mirar el sol directamente durante un eclipse solar, ya que puede causar daños permanentes en los ojos.

En cambio, para ver el eclipse de manera segura debes ponerte gafas protectoras diseñadas para un eclipse solar o usar un método indirecto, como un proyector que enfoca la luz a través de un agujero del tamaño de un alfiler y proyecta una imagen que se puede mirar sin riesgo.

Pero la necesidad de equipo de seguridad no hace que el eclipse sea inaccesible, dijo Georgette Williams, directora de programas educativos del New York Hall of Science en Queens.

“Los educadores tienen la oportunidad de crear distintas cosas para ver el eclipse con artículos domésticos muy sencillos, como cajas de cereal o papel higiénico”, dijo ella. “Esto no es algo que limita el acceso dependiendo del estatus económico. ... Todo el mundo puede ver este eclipse. Se nos da muy bien la ciencia sin mucho costo”.

Por ejemplo, para los educadores o las familias que estén interesados en crear sus propios proyectores caseros, la NASA tiene una guía en línea que usa cartulina y papel de aluminio.

Quienes estén en Staten Island también pueden asistir a uno de tres próximos eventos en la Biblioteca de Huguenot Park, donde se crearán visores caseros.

El New York Hall of Science también tendrá un evento para ver el eclipse y repartirá gafas certificadas a los asistentes.

¿Qué lecciones pueden mejorar la experiencia?

Williams sugiere que los educadores se adelanten al eclipse con lecciones sobre la ciencia que hay detrás, señalando que en el museo trabajan con los niños más pequeños en actividades de modelado. Un estudiante modelará el sol y otro modelará la luna para así demostrarles a los demás el paso de las sombras.

“Con los estudiantes mayores se puede hablar de cómo los científicos usan un eclipse para estudiar el sol”, añadió. “Cuando el eclipse es total — y la iluminación se reduce — tenemos una oportunidad de estudiar aspectos del sol que no podemos ver mientras emite toda su radiación”.

El Departamento de Educación del estado también ha recopilado recursos para educadores y escuelas que incluyen formas de conectar la enseñanza sobre el eclipse con los estándares de aprendizaje de Nueva York.

Las familias también pueden informarse sobre el próximo eclipse en uno de dos eventos en las bibliotecas públicas de Manhattan, organizados por el departamento de astronomía de la Universidad de Columbia. (En el evento se repartirán gafas para el eclipse solar, según informa la Biblioteca Pública de Nueva York)

Para más información, Williams recomienda que lo educadores y estudiantes consulten la Red Nacional de Educación Informal STEM, que publica información, actividades y otros recursos escolares en línea.

¿Qué pasa si el eclipse no se puede ver por nubes o mal tiempo?

Si hay mal tiempo que impide ver el eclipse, los maestros y estudiantes podrán ver el eclipse en una transmisión en directo de la NASA.

Aunque Williams lo llama “premio de consolación”, agregó que de todos modos puede realzar el aprendizaje en las escuelas.

“Si estás participando en las actividades y al mismo tiempo viendo el fenómeno ocurrir, creo que eso es más poderoso que una actividad aislada”, nos dijo ella. “Aunque no lo estés viendo en el cielo, verlo en una transmisión en directo es genial”.

Traducido por Milly Suazo-Martinez.

Julian Shen-Berro es un reportero que cubre la ciudad de Nueva York. Comunícate con él enviándole un email a jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Banned books make up the sophomore English curriculum at this NYC high school

2024-04-03T09:30:00+00:00

This story is part of the P.S. Weekly podcast, a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell. Listen for new episodes Wednesdays this spring.

Amid a nationwide surge in attempted book bans, one Queens school is taking the opposite approach.

At the Academy of American Studies in Queens, 10th grade students take a Regents-level English class devoted to the study of books that have historically faced challenges or bans — with students reading works like Elie Wiesel’s “Night” and Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club.”

“All the teachers who teach it really try to tie in when and how these books were challenged historically,” said Amy Weidner-LaSala, an English teacher at the school. The course can help show students “how we open our minds and accept new things through literature,” she added.

It’s the second year that the class has been offered, said Weidner-LaSala.

The course comes at a time when efforts to restrict student access to books that deal with topics of race, gender, and sexuality are on the rise. During the first half of the 2022-23 school year, PEN America reported more than 1,450 cases where students saw access to individual books restricted or diminished in school libraries or classrooms nationwide — a 28% jump from the six months before.

Though a handful of districts in a few states saw a large share of book bans, the organization reported cases in 66 school districts across 21 states, including New York.

While historically book bans have come from both sides of the political spectrum, recent years have seen a surge in attempts from conservative movements and actors, said Shannon Oltmann, a University of Kentucky professor who has studied censorship and book banning. Those efforts have heavily targeted books that feature LGBTQ characters, as well as characters who are Black, Indigenous, or other people of color.

Yet for many students, those stories can be hugely important, especially in a city like New York, with a school system that’s home to more than 80% students of color.

“Having access to stories that look like their lives, that reflect the experiences they’ve had, help them feel seen, help them feel empowered, and help them to be more confident and resilient throughout life,” Oltmann said. “A lack of these resources, then, does exactly what you might think: It creates spaces where kids feel unsure, unwelcome, unsafe.”

Oltmann believes classes that focus on banned books can offer a unique learning opportunity.

“It has the potential to be really powerful, to teach kids about whose voice matters and doesn’t matter, whose voices are challenged or seen as intimidating or threatening,” she said. “It can also teach them about political power and the ways that it can be wielded.”

Tabassum Akter, a 10th grader at the Academy of American Studies, said her class on banned books has delved deeper into intense topics than previous English classes she’s taken. So far, her class has read William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” and Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner.”

“It makes you think about the world more,” Akter said. “These books were books that you weren’t allowed to read at one point.

“It’s important to know why they were banned and why they should be read,” she added.

Still, Akter hopes that the class will go further as it continues to develop, incorporating more contemporary works into the syllabus.

“Most of the books that we read are very old,” she said. “I wish we got to read more modern books and things that can apply to our current society.”

Courses designed around frequently challenged books have also cropped up at colleges and universities around the country.

To Ansley Erickson, a professor of education history at Columbia University’s Teachers College, the rise of banned books courses follows a tradition in American education. When schools and other institutions have historically denied education to young people on topics like sex education or Black history, communities have formed their own spaces to share knowledge, Erickson said.

“It’s not just ironic to respond to book bans by having this class — it’s actually, truly part of the tradition of American education,” she said. “People will find ways to learn what they need to know, and book banning efforts really can’t stop that.”

Tanvir Kaur is a high school senior at the Academy of American Studies in Queens and an intern at The Bell.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

As budget deadline looms, NYC chancellor visits Albany to pitch mayoral control

2024-04-03T00:02:06+00:00

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Schools Chancellor David Banks traveled to Albany on Tuesday, meeting with state legislators to make a last-minute pitch for including an extension of mayoral control in the upcoming state budget.

The visit came just days ahead of a looming state budget deadline, and the release of a highly anticipated report on the city’s school governance system.

For more than two decades, control over the city’s school system has been centralized in the hands of the mayor. That system, which is set to expire on June 30, has been hotly debated in recent months, with a series of public hearings offering New Yorkers the chance to weigh in on the city’s school governance structure.

Critics of the status quo have argued that the current system places too much power in the hands of a single figure and diminishes local community input. Defenders of the system, like Banks, often argue that centralizing decision-making allows for a more effective and accountable system than the fractured school boards that preceded it.

Some educators who spoke at the hearings pointed to Mayor Eric Adams’ budget cuts to the city’s Education Department in arguing against the current system.

Still, Banks said in Albany that he based his case largely on his own record — arguing that he and Adams have earned an extension after their two years at the helm of the nation’s largest school system. He pointed to his sweeping literacy curriculum initiative, how the city’s schools have handled an influx of migrant students, as well as other major policy initiatives during meetings with lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Sen. John Liu, who chairs the New York City Education Committee.

It’s the second time in recent months that Banks has made the case in Albany for extending mayoral control. He appeared at a budget hearing in February. Last month, he told reporters he had “no interest” in continuing in his role if state lawmakers overturn mayoral control.

During a press briefing Tuesday evening, Banks acknowledged that the visit had been partially spurred by the approaching state budget deadline.

Gov. Kathy Hochul included a four-year extension of mayoral control in her initial budget proposal, but that prompted criticism from some lawmakers, who argue the city’s school governance structure should be determined outside the budgeting process. State lawmakers also omitted mayoral control from their budget resolution.

Lawmakers and Hochul have until Thursday to reach a budget agreement, though the deadline has already been extended once and can be pushed back again.

“I’m certainly hopeful that they can get it in the executive budget,” Banks said. “It may be a long shot, but it’s certainly part of the reason why I decided to come up here.”

His conversations with lawmakers frequently turned to an unreleased state Education Department report on the effectiveness of New York City’s mayoral control system, Banks said. That report, initially expected by March 31, is now expected to be released next week.

Some lawmakers have said deliberations on mayoral control should wait until after the release of the report.

On Tuesday, Banks said he was “anxious to see the report.” He added that during discussions, lawmakers did not suggest alternatives to the current system or advocate for a dramatic overturning of it.

“They’re ultimately going to have to make their decision,” he said. “I’m not saying that I’m confident one way or the other. I just feel good that we had an opportunity to come up and state our case.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

City Council calls for reversals of cuts to early childhood programs, more money for school food

2024-04-01T19:07:25+00:00

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New York City Council members unveiled their response to Mayor Eric Adams’ budget proposal on Monday, calling on the city to reverse recent budget cuts and provide millions of dollars in additional funding for school food, early childhood education, and other programs.

Adams’ preliminary city budget cut about $100 million in funding from the city’s schools in January. Those cuts — though less severe than anticipated — came on top of roughly $600 million in cuts announced in November.

Under the mayor’s proposals, early childhood education programs have seen steep cuts in recent months — with roughly $170 million slashed. Though schools Chancellor David Banks hinted at a possible reversal last month, Adams later put a damper on that prospect.

The council’s April budget response calls on the Adams’ administration to restore that funding — and to increase the number of seats offered in the city’s 3-K and prekindergarten programs through an added $45 million investment.

“Together with housing, early childhood education has risen to the top for working and middle class families,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said at a Monday press conference. “We need to strengthen our early childhood education system, which has been beset by bureaucratic challenges and undermined by budget cuts.”

In the budget response, council members said their assessments had identified significantly higher tax revenues and available funds than projected by the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget — opening up further funds to restore proposed cuts and replace expiring federal relief funds.

“Against all odds, New York City’s post-COVID economy has proven to be durable and resilient,” said Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan. “We maintain that the administration’s blunt cuts were never necessary in the first place, and we’ll be fighting for and expecting to see full restorations across the board, from 3-K, to CUNY to our libraries, to our cultural organizations, and everything in between.”

Council members called for $60 million for the city’s school food program — including $17 million to restore cafeteria staffing to pre-pandemic levels, among other items.

Earlier this year, budget cuts led schools to scrap popular cafeteria menu items, including student favorites like cookies, chicken dumplings, and bean and cheese burritos. The decision sparked a backlash from students and families, prompting the city’s Education Department to reverse course on some of those changes.

With federal relief funds set to dry up this year and the city’s schools facing a looming fiscal cliff of more than $1 billion, City Council members are seeking additional funding to protect programs and services propped up by federal dollars.

For example, council members called for $33 million in funds for the city’s Learning to Work program — a long-standing initiative that is currently supported by the expiring federal funds. The program, which pairs alternative schools with community organizations to help students get back on track to graduate, has been called a lifeline for high-need students who enroll in transfer schools and evening classes.

Council members also sought to replace expiring federal funds for preschool special education programs and services, community schools, school social workers and psychologists, restorative justice programs, shelter-based community coordinators, and more. In total, council members called for about $550 million in city funding to replace expiring federal relief funds, according to a press release.

Among other investments, council members called for an additional $9 million in funds for Promise NYC, a free child care program for low-income, undocumented immigrant families — which would bring total funding to $25 million.

The council’s budget response is a required step in the city’s ongoing fiscal planning process. Council members and the mayor must reach a budget agreement by the end of the fiscal year in June.

The mayor’s executive budget — the next milestone in the process — is due by April 26.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

A solar eclipse is coming. Here’s how NYC teachers, students can make the most of it.

2024-03-26T19:40:56+00:00

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New York City families and educators: Mark your calendars — a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience is just around the corner.

On April 8, a total solar eclipse will occur across parts of the state, with the phenomenon expected to be partially visible in the city. It’s an exceedingly rare event, and state officials note the next total eclipse in the state will not take place until 2079.

New York is one of 11 states in the direct path of the upcoming eclipse, and state officials expect thousands to travel to northern parts of the state to experience the unique spectacle.

“The epicenter that the world will be watching will be in the great state of New York,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul at a recent press briefing. “This is New York’s chance to be in the sun and the limelight.”

For students and schools, the eclipse offers an unrivaled opportunity to engage directly with the science behind the cosmos.

Across the city, some schools are making plans for their communities. Central Park East II in Manhattan, for example, will hold an eclipse event in collaboration with community-based organizations. And P.S./I.S. 48 in Staten Island will host a viewing with safety glasses, moon pies, an inflatable planetarium, and more, according to the city’s Education Department.

Here’s how teachers, students, and families can take advantage of the looming solar eclipse.

When is the solar eclipse?

The solar eclipse will begin on the afternoon of Monday, April 8 around 2 p.m., reaching its peak by about 3:25 p.m. It will end by the early evening.

Though the eclipse will not pass directly over New York City, it will still be partially visible across the five boroughs. In parts of upstate New York, like Syracuse and Rochester, the eclipse is expected to pass directly overhead, temporarily eclipsing the sun in totality.

How can teachers and students safely view the eclipse?

Experts warn against directly looking at the sun during a solar eclipse, noting that it can cause permanent damage to your eyes.

Instead, to safely view the eclipse, you should wear protective glasses designed for a solar eclipse or use an indirect method, like a pinhole projector, which focuses light through a pinhole to project an image that is safe to look at.

But the need for safety equipment doesn’t make the eclipse inaccessible, said Georgette Williams, director of education programs at the New York Hall of Science in Queens.

“Educators have the opportunity to create different things that they can use out of very simple household items like cereal boxes or toilet paper,” she said. “It’s not something that limits access based on economic status. … Everyone can view this eclipse. We’re very good at science on the cheap.”

For educators or families who are interested in creating their own pinhole projectors, NASA has an online guide that uses card stock and aluminum foil, as one example.

Individuals in Staten Island can also attend one of three upcoming events at Huguenot Park Library, where pinhole viewers will be crafted.

The New York Hall of Science will also host a watch party on the day of the eclipse, handing out certified eclipse glasses to those who attend.

What lessons can enhance the experience?

Williams suggests educators preempt the eclipse with lessons on the science behind it, noting that at the museum, they work with younger kids to do hands-on modeling activities. One student will model the sun, while another models the moon, allowing them to teach students about the passing of shadows.

“With older students, you can talk about the ways that scientists use an eclipse to be able to study the sun,” she added. “During totality — because the light is lessened — it actually gives us an opportunity to study aspects of the sun that we wouldn’t see when it’s emitting its full radiation.”

The state’s Education Department has also compiled resources for educators and schools, including ways instruction on the eclipse can be connected to New York’s learning standards.

Families can also learn about the upcoming eclipse at one of two upcoming events at public libraries in Manhattan, hosted by Columbia University’s astronomy department. (Solar eclipse glasses will be provided at the event, according to the New York Public Library.)

For more, Williams recommends educators and students look to the National Informal STEM Education Network, which posts information, activities, and other school resources online.

What if clouds or bad weather block the eclipse?

If poor weather conditions block visibility, teachers and students can still tune into a NASA livestream of the eclipse.

Though Williams calls it “a consolation prize,” she added it can still enhance the learning happening in schools.

“If you’re engaging in the activities and you’re seeing the phenomena happening, I think that’s more powerful than a standalone activity,” she said. “So even if you’re not seeing it in the sky, watching it on a livestream is still pretty cool.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

As state tests go digital, some NYC educators are apprehensive

2024-03-25T10:00:00+00:00

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As testing season rapidly approaches, some New York City educators are worried that their students — and schools — aren’t fully prepared to swap out paper exams for a computer-based model.

But ready or not, this year the city’s fifth and eighth graders will do just that, as the state embarks on the next step in a multi-year phase-in of computer-based testing.

The annual exams measure student performance in reading, math, and science, testing the state’s third through eighth grade students. Though more than 16,000 kids took the exams on computers last year, next month that number will skyrocket to well over 140,000 students in the city.

English exams will take place between April 11-19, while the math tests will occur between May 7-17. Science tests, which are only taken by fifth and eighth grade students, will take place between May 15-17.

It’s the first major step in the three-year transition, with fourth and sixth grade students set to ditch paper tests next school year, followed by third and seventh graders by spring 2026. State officials have said computer-based testing can make the assessments more efficient and flexible, as well as opening a pathway to computer-adaptive testing that adapts questions based on student responses.

Over the course of the school year, the city has stressed the importance of ensuring students have access to devices — making them available to schools upon request and expediting repairs to non-working devices, according to the city’s Education Department. Officials said they have also taken proactive measures to bolster connectivity at schools administering computer-based exams.

Across the city, an additional 185 schools have opted into digital English exams for some portion of their third, fourth, sixth, or seventh graders, while 166 schools have done so for math.

Students with disabilities that impact their ability to use a keyboard may also receive assistive technology or other accommodations, city officials said.

But still, the prospect of digital exams has spurred concerns among some educators, who fear students could see drops in performance, especially among those who lack access to technology at home, potentially widening gaps between students.

And in the wake of a citywide tech meltdown last month, some remain skeptical that digital exams will run smoothly.

“I’ll be completely transparent,” said Kiri Soares, principal of the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in Brooklyn. “I don’t feel prepared at all.”

Computer-based tests open new opportunities

To Howard Everson, a member of a technical committee advising the state on the transition, the shift to computer-based testing is an opportunity for New York to catch up with other states.

At least 48 states have successfully implemented some form of computer-based testing for state exams, according to a 2022 state memo.

“The vast majority of kids are using some sort of online device in their classrooms,” said Everson, a professor of educational psychology and psychometrics at the CUNY Graduate Center. “We think that it’s going to be a benefit in the long run. … The things you can do on a two-dimensional piece of paper and what you can do in a multi-dimensional computer are worlds apart.”

Computers allow for more innovative testing models, with questions that, for example, ask students to move information around a screen or interact with graphics, he explained.

“Multiple-choice, fill-in-the-bubble tasks are an artifact of the past,” he said. “How we measure these underlying abilities in reading and in math is going to be much more imaginative.”

Computer-based testing can also lessen the burden on schools, allowing for more efficient grading and quicker results, Everson said. Though he doesn’t expect to see any notable performance drops as a result of computer-based testing, results of the exams will be closely monitored. For Everson, concerns are more centered around potential technical difficulties.

“Those have been the most ongoing sorts of problems that we’ve seen in other states over the years,” he said. “But from what I understand from my colleagues in the city system, they’re ready for it.”

Educators worried about digital literacy skills

For eighth graders at the Institute of Math and Science, Soares worries the shift to computer-based testing this year will cause performance to drop across the board.

“It’s testing them not on the knowledge per se, but on their digital literacy under very stressful situations,” she said. “When you start testing kids’ digital literacy, you really start wading into the inequities of our culture.”

Martina Meijer, a fourth grade teacher in Brooklyn, worries that students across the city have not received sufficient instruction in using technology.

Her school has opted into computer-based testing for grades three and four. Though every student has a device issued by the school, just 14 out of 22 students have laptops, while others have been using tablets for digital activities, according to Meijer. By the time state exams arrive, those students will switch over to laptops, but their skills may be limited.

In particular, Meijer fears students will struggle on open-ended response questions, which at times ask students to write essays.

“Typing is something that, like anything, gets better with repetition, explicit instruction, and with practice,” she said. “Some of my students have computer access at home and have been online, but for the most part, my students are hunting and pecking. The volume that they can generate on a typed essay is significantly shorter than anything that they can write.”

Meijer has been taking time out of lessons to help students develop digital literacy, but added she’s concerned by the lack of a citywide plan to help kids foster those skills.

“There’s no systematic approach,” she said. “This continues to be something that is dumped onto the shoulders of teachers.”

Some studies have found students tend to do worse on exams taken on a computer or tablet. But research isn’t definitive, according to Michael Russell, a professor of measurement, evaluation, statistics, and assessment at Boston College. Though many states have already switched over to a computer-based model, there have been different outcomes across the country.

“There’s a lot of factors that influence it,” he said. “If a state is very aggressive in putting out practice tests, and encouraging teachers to have students interact with the interface, that typically decreases any kind of effect you’re going to see.”

The design of the test interface and the test itself can act as further variables in the process — with some questions, such as those that call for lengthier written responses, more likely to present challenges to some students, he said.

Still, the shift to computer-based testing can be beneficial for those who are comfortable with the technology, he added.

More than two decades ago, Russell conducted research on the impact of switching to computer-based testing for writing assessments. Students who had extensive experience with computers tended to see a positive impact, while those with little prior experience saw the opposite occur.

“If you’re a teacher that’s concerned about this, give your students an opportunity to practice — have them do it twice,” Russell added. “So that the only thing that’s really new to them when they’re going to take the test is the content of the test itself.”

In January, more than 3,800 schools across the state participated in a simulation of computer-based exams, with over 750,000 student test sessions submitted, said JP O’Hare, a spokesperson for the state’s Education Department. That allowed students to gain familiarity with the system and helped schools evaluate the readiness of their internal systems and hardware, he added.

An online question sampler is also publicly available, offering further opportunities for students, educators, and families to become familiar with computer-based testing, O’Hare said.

Even if kids are ready, will the tech be?

For some teachers in the city, digital literacy has been less of a concern. One eighth grade teacher in District 9 said his students are particularly tech-savvy, even as they’ve suffered from learning losses and difficulties with engagement as a result of the pandemic.

“They are whizzes with laptops,” said the teacher, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak by his school. “These kids might have a career as hackers.”

Still, the District 9 teacher is concerned about the logistics of shifting to computer-based testing. He said it’s always difficult to find enough working Chromebooks for his class, with between a quarter and a third of them typically experiencing technical issues on a given class day.

His school also experiences issues with internet connectivity about once or twice a week, the teacher added.

“It’s all a little bit anxiety-inducing for a teacher,” he said.

Meijer shares those concerns, noting that in other digital assessments, her class has experienced disruptions in internet connection.

Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department, said any families concerned about the shift should reach out directly to their schools.

The move to computer-based testing is part of a broader trend occurring in schools, with students and teachers regularly using technology during the school day, according to city officials.

“Our students continue to live in a more digital world,” Lyle said. “Both in and out of the classroom.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC graduation rates remained essentially flat last year, according to new data

2024-03-21T19:27:31+00:00

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Graduation rates in New York City remained essentially flat last school year, decreasing by roughly a percentage point from the previous year to about 82.8%, according to data released by the state’s Education Department on Thursday.

It follows a similar trend occurring statewide, as New York’s overall high school graduation rate dipped slightly from 87% to 86.4% last year.

Students in the class of 2023 entered high school in the fall before the pandemic and saw their first years dramatically disrupted by school closures, remote learning, and social distancing. The data represents a slight reversal from those who entered high school a year prior — with data from 2022 showing about a more than 2% uptick in graduation rates in the city, and about a single percentage point rise statewide. Students in recent years benefited from some relaxed requirements as officials sought to avoid punishing those whose schooling was upended by the pandemic — with Regents exams initially canceled and later reinstated with a policy that made it easier to appeal low scores.

Over the past decade, the state’s graduation rate has jumped by 7.3%, rising from just over 79% for students who entered high school in 2010, according to state officials.

“Despite this trajectory, additional work must be done to improve outcomes for all students, especially our most vulnerable populations,” JP O’Hare, a state Education Department spokesman, said in a statement. “Our goal is to enable schools to provide different levels of support to each student based on what they need to be successful. The Department remains committed to removing barriers to opportunity for students and providing a foundation for educational excellence and equity to serve New York’s diverse student population.”

New York City officials, meanwhile, held up the numbers as evidence of the success of mayoral control.

Before this type of school governance system was implemented 20 years ago, graduation rates hovered around 50%, NYC schools chancellor David Banks said in a statement. Mayoral control, he said, “has improved transparency, streamlined decision-making, ensured equitable funding across the city, and enabled systemwide, transformational programs like NYC Reads.”

Disparities in graduation rates across different demographic categories remained largely the same in the city in 2023.

White students saw just over a two-point drop, with about 86.7% graduating on time. Meanwhile, Black and Asian American students saw slightly smaller dips of just under half a percentage point, with rates of 80.3% and 91.7%, respectively. Graduation rates for Latino students remained virtually unchanged at about 79.8%.

Students with disabilities and those learning English continued to graduate at significantly lower rates. For those with disabilities, the rate dropped by just over half a percentage point to about 63.6%, while students learning English dropped just over five points, to a rate of about 61.8%.

Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, noted data from recent years showed fewer students graduating with advanced diplomas, despite upticks in overall graduation rates. He also questioned how recent graduation trends persisted despite “the extraordinary chronic absenteeism” experienced during the pandemic, adding “how much students learn is strongly related to how much instruction they receive.”

“Contrasting attendance and graduation rates raises the familiar question of what a high school diploma in New York signifies,” he said. “Is it a good measure of how much a student has learned, or that student’s readiness for life after high school? This inconsistency raises tough questions.”

The latest data comes as state education officials remain engaged in a multi-year effort to rethink what knowledge and skills high schoolers should be required to know upon graduation. As part of that effort, a 64-member Blue Ribbon Commission presented a set of recommendations in November to the state’s Board of Regents.

Among the 12 recommendations, the commission called for increasing the number of assessment options beyond the Regents exams, allowing students to demonstrate their learning in other ways, such as performance-based assessments, capstone projects, and experiential learning. The commission also called for expanding access to career and technical education, better aligning the state’s learning standards with college and career expectations, and more.

But it will still be some time before any of the recommendations are adopted. In a press briefing at the time, State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa called the commission’s findings “a blueprint,” and noted timelines for implementation would be unlikely to come before this fall.

In his Thursday statement, O’Hare noted the state’s Education Department is “currently working to develop proposed guidance and programmatic and regulatory changes” related to the initiative.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools will no longer require 5-day COVID quarantines, following CDC guidance

2024-03-18T22:07:29+00:00

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New York City schools will no longer require a five-day quarantine for those who test positive for COVID, according to new guidance issued to principals and posted online Monday.

Educators across the five boroughs have been eagerly awaiting an update for more than two weeks, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ended its pandemic-era guidance that urged individuals who tested positive for COVID to isolate for at least five days.

Since March 1, the federal agency has instructed people to remain at home until their symptoms improve and they have not had a fever for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication. The CDC still advises people to take precautions over the following five days, including wearing a mask, social distancing, and testing.

Education Department policy directs those experiencing COVID symptoms to isolate themselves from others and get tested. Like the CDC, the city now recommends students and staff stay home until symptoms have improved and they’re fever free for 24 hours without the aid of medication. The department also urges students and staff to wear a mask and take other precautions for five days after returning to school.

For those who test positive for the virus but exhibit no symptoms, “there is no need to stay home, but precautions outlined in the updated guidelines should be taken upon return to school,” according to the email sent to principals.

The new policy for schools also matches the city’s Health Department guidelines.

The elimination of a minimum isolation period is the latest in a series of changes that have loosened COVID-related restrictions in schools — as federal and city health authorities have moved to treat the virus more like the flu and other common respiratory infections. Last spring, Mayor Eric Adams announced that proof of vaccination against the virus would no longer be required for city employees and school visitors. And schools previously sunsetted masking requirements, vaccine mandates for student athletes and prom attendees, as well as daily health screenings and in-school COVID testing for students and staff.

The city’s public schools will continue to provide COVID tests in school upon request, according to the email sent to principals. (As of this month, the federal government has ended its free COVID test distribution program, and the city’s public libraries are no longer distributing free tests.)

Schools staff will still be able to take up to 10 days off for COVID-related absences without dipping into their sick days this year, according to the United Federation of Teachers, which emailed members about the updated guidance Monday evening.

COVID cases have fallen steadily since mid-January, after the city saw an uptick in cases over the holidays. As of March 14, there were about 22 cases per 100,000 people, according to New York City’s daily average of the last seven days from the Health Department. That was down slightly from the week before and had fallen from roughly 87 cases per 100,000 people in September.

Though the city’s Health Department tracks cases by age group, the spread of the virus is no longer publicly reported by school. In September, the city’s Education Department scrapped a map tracking the daily number of cases among students and staffers across schools.

The city’s Education and Health departments did not respond to multiple requests for the city’s COVID guidance for schools in recent weeks.

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC chancellor said he’d resign without mayoral control. His threat could add fuel to critics.

2024-03-15T20:20:00+00:00

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New York City schools Chancellor David Banks made headlines this week saying he had “no interest” in continuing in his role if state lawmakers enact sweeping changes to the city’s school governance structure.

That statement, some observers say, is likely to harm his cause.

For months, Banks has served as an ardent defender of the polarizing mayoral control system, which centralizes power over the city’s schools in the hands of Mayor Eric Adams and is set to expire on June 30.

The comments represent an escalation of the chancellor’s rhetoric on mayoral control. They come just weeks before the expected March 31 release of a state Education Department report on the city’s current school governance structure that Albany lawmakers say will help inform if and how they extend mayoral control.

Earlier this week, state legislators chose not to include an extension of mayoral control in their budget proposals — an initial rejection of the four-year extension sought by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Lawmakers have argued the city’s school governance structure should be determined outside of budget negotiations.

The school governance structure has been regularly extended over the past two decades and has largely relied on the mayor’s power to choose a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

In prior years, lawmakers have tweaked mayoral control to weaken the mayor’s grip on the PEP. In 2022, for example, they adjusted the system so that PEP members could no longer be removed for voting against their appointer’s wishes, making it harder to remove a panelist for opposing proposals from City Hall. At the same time, the board also expanded from 15 to 23 members, with the mayor appointing 13 of them and retaining the majority.

But recent months have seen repeated calls from critics of the school governance structure to go a step further and remove the mayor’s ability to appoint a majority of members.

On Thursday, Banks told reporters that such a change would render his position ineffective.

“If you don’t have the majority of the vote, you don’t have the power, because that means now you have to negotiate for every vote that you’re trying to do,” he said. “That’s politics. I do not think that that would be good for the school system. I certainly did not sign up for that.”

Banks added he had “no interest in serving as a chancellor in a system where you don’t really have the authority to make real decisions.”

Observers expressed surprise at the chancellor’s comments, noting they could very well fuel critics who argue the system excludes community voices.

“His reasoning shot himself and the mayor in the foot, regarding the assumption of autocratic rule,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. “He gave opponents of mayoral control good reason for calling out the lack of openness to other points of view.”

Banks opens himself to criticism from opponents

Banks voiced “the quiet part out loud,” said Jonathan Collins, a professor of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

“What usually attracts superintendents or chancellors into these roles under mayoral control is, of course, the autonomy — the ability to make sweeping reforms without a lot of political barriers,” he said. “But you still see these administrative figures give lip service to the idea of connecting with communities and making reforms that are rooted in understanding the needs of kids across a district.”

In his two years at the helm of the nation’s largest school system, Banks has staked his legacy on overhauling the city’s approach to literacy, requiring all elementary schools use one of three curriculums. His curriculum mandates have also reached prekindergarten and ninth grade algebra and will likely continue to expand.

To Bloomfield, the Thursday comments suggested that Banks “believes the knee jerk reaction of non-mayoral appointees would be in opposition” to proposals from the chancellor.

“The idea that he doesn’t think he could convince a majority of the PEP — no matter how constituted — to buy into his leadership is shocking,” he said.

Some members of the PEP also felt blindsided by the chancellor’s comments.

Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a PEP member appointed by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, said she’s had productive conversations with Banks, though they don’t always agree. Salas-Ramirez added he should know that she and the other non-mayoral appointees are working with the city’s Education Department to improve its schools.

“What do I believe? Do I believe in the man that sits down and talks to me, or do I believe this person that’s showing up at press conferences and saying the opposite?” she said. “I’m still a little perplexed, and wondering how he believes that after hearing comments like that we can continue to genuinely engage with each other as the state is having these conversations around mayoral control.”

Banks’ comments suggest fears over mayoral control’s future

To Collins, the comments signal the chancellor feels “a high degree of uncertainty” over the fate of mayoral control.

And though Bloomfield does not expect the comments from Banks to significantly influence the decision by lawmakers, he noted they still hurt the case for renewal.

“It’s apparent from his extreme rhetoric that he sees mayoral control in danger,” he said. “But he did the effort for extension a disservice by holding his own chancellorship hostage.”

Meanwhile, Adams doubled down on the chancellor’s opposition to reforming mayoral control during an interview on PIX11 on Friday.

“I am not going to have a pseudo mayoral control. I want to be held accountable for improving our educational system,” he said. “That’s what the chancellor wants. ... Let us continue the good work that we are doing. Don’t let politics get in the way of our pupils.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

In face of student mental health crisis, City Council wants to expand peer-to-peer support

2024-03-12T23:08:01+00:00

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To help address the city’s ongoing youth mental health crisis, New York City Council members are looking to expand student support groups and tap peer-to-peer connections.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams will announce three new proposals during her State of the City address on Wednesday, directing the city to increase support for peer mental health programs in schools.

The proposals come as recent years have seen an uptick in students grappling with severe mental health challenges, both locally and across the country. For many students, the pandemic upended day-to-day life, isolating them from their peers, and in many cases causing financial or personal loss within their families. Educators have continued to report lingering behavioral concerns years after students returned to the classroom.

The share of New York City students who reported suicidal ideation had jumped to nearly 16% in 2021, while about 9% of local high school students reported they had attempted suicide that year. That was up from about 12% a decade prior.

If enacted, the new proposals would require the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to work with community-based organizations to develop a toolkit for those seeking to start clubs that promote student mental health, while also mandating the city to develop and offer peer-to-peer mental health training for public schools and students, according to a spokesperson for Adams.

The proposals would also create a pilot program for social work students from CUNY programs to support mental health clubs in schools that need professional or clinical supervision.

Peer-to-peer support models have gained traction at schools both locally and nationwide. Mental health clubs and other peer support programs can help raise awareness of mental health issues at school, while reducing stigma around seeking help, advocates and experts have said.

City and state officials have tried for years to address mental health concerns. In 2023, the city launched a free virtual therapy program for teenagers ages 13-17, and in February, it joined the hundreds of other municipalities and school systems that have filed lawsuits against major social media companies, alleging their practices have fueled the nation’s youth mental health crisis.

City Council members are also considering a bill that would require the city’s Education Department to warn middle and high school students about the dangers of social media each school year.

Still, despite these efforts, the city’s schools could lose hundreds of social workers when federal relief funds dry up later this year.

At a town hall in District 28 in Queens on Monday, schools Chancellor David Banks pointed to mental health as one of the key issues facing students across the five boroughs.

“Our kids went through a lot during the pandemic,” he said. “As they have re-entered school and tried to find a sense of normalcy… It has been a harder transition for some kids than others, and we are constantly faced with those challenges.”

Meanwhile, in Albany, Gov. Kathy Hochul has referred to mental health as “the defining challenge of our time.” Earlier this year, Hochul proposed expanding state funding for youth-driven peer support programs in schools, among other mental health policy initiatives.

In a statement Tuesday, a spokesperson for the city’s Health Department said “the city has made mental health a priority” and the department looked forward to “future discussions about how to continue improving care in the city.”

Officials from the city’s Education Department did not immediately return a request for comment on the proposals.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Match day: High school offers bring excitement and anxiety to NYC’s eighth graders

2024-03-07T23:57:34+00:00

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For years, Anthony Block De Jesus, an eighth grader at the School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Brooklyn, has been dreaming of a career on Broadway.

He’s hopeful that he’s on his way: He learned on Thursday he’d been admitted to the vocal performance program at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan, as well as the theater program at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn — two of his top ranked choices in the application process.

“The two choices are so strong, and so good, and have so much promise for a kid that wants to do Broadway, so he cannot go wrong,” said Monica De Jesus, his mother. “It’s a real blessing to us.”

Anthony was one of the thousands of eighth grade students across the five boroughs anxiously awaiting their high school placement on Thursday — one of the final steps in the city’s notoriously complex admissions process.

High school matches came months after eighth graders had narrowed down the city’s more than 400 high schools with 700 programs to roughly a dozen top choices. Some schools have extra hurdles for admissions such as essays or portfolios. And then there are the eight specialized high schools where a test is the sole basis for admissions, and LaGuardia, the famed performing arts school whose audition and application process is separate from other arts schools.

Families often describe the admissions process as stressful and confusing to navigate. It can also feel inequitable, as those with more resources can afford to hire consultants and tutors, while devoting more time to touring and evaluating the many options.

Still, the results can be exciting as students look ahead to their time in high school.

Marcia Abrams said she and her daughter Nomarra, an eighth grader at the Brooklyn Green School, were “happy and confused” after receiving their offer. They immigrated to the city about two years ago from Guyana, and it’s been difficult to make sense of the city’s many schools, Abrams said.

Nomarra, who wants to be a lawyer, said she was nervous throughout the admissions process. But she was thrilled to learn she’d been admitted to both of her top choices: Brooklyn Technical High School and Midwood High School.

“It’s hard to choose between the two,” Nomarra added.

NYC’s high school admissions process is notoriously complicated

There are a host of factors that come into play for admissions. Students receive a random number, often referred to as a lottery number, which admissions experts say is used as a sort of “tiebreaker” if there are too many eligible students vying for the same seat. For selective schools, the city also uses seventh grade GPAs to sort students into different tiers for admissions priority.

More than 40 high school programs also participate in the city’s “diversity in admissions” program, setting aside a certain percentage of their seats for students from low-income families or in temporary housing, for instance. Students with disabilities are also admitted through a different round than general education students.

The city’s Education Department did not immediately share the percentage of students who were admitted to their top choice schools, nor did they release demographic data on students admitted to competitive screened schools or the highly selective specialized high schools.

Last year, of the roughly 73,000 high school applicants, nearly half were admitted to their top choice school, while about 75% were admitted to one of their top three picks. About 95% of applicants were admitted to one of the 12 schools they ranked in their application, according to city data.

About 26,000 of last year’s eighth graders took the exam for the city’s specialized high schools, with roughly 4,000 of them getting offers based on the test, and once again the number of Black and Latino students remained small. Just 3% of the offers last year went to Black students, and 6.7% went to Latino students despite those students making up about 65% of the city’s school system.

Mixed emotions on match day

For families across the city, Thursday’s news brought a mix of tears and excitement. Many have already turned to waitlists — which students are automatically added to for all programs they ranked higher than the one they received an offer to — as “beacons of hope,” said Elissa Stein, an admissions consultant who runs High School 411.

But she added it’s often a “long shot” to receive an offer through the waitlist.

Some families also found a sense of relief in knowing the outcomes. In anticipation of their offer letters, some parents commiserated in social media groups the night before over the immense stress— sharing clips of songs that expressed the overwhelming trepidation, like “Tomorrow” from Annie or “One Day More” from Les Misérables.

Anthony felt increasingly nervous as Thursday approached, worrying he’d be rejected from LaGuardia, De Jesus said. She decided to pull him and his brothers out of school on match day, distracting him with board games and other activities in an attempt to deflate the tension.

“I said, ‘Listen, even if you don’t get in, everything is going to be okay, and you are going to do great things,’” De Jesus said. “We just tried to make an environment like: This is just another day. We’re gonna take it as it comes.

“But we’re very excited for him,” she added.

One Queens family, though, hardly felt the match day jitters. Dennis Kelly said his son, William, didn’t have much of a reaction to learning he’d been admitted to the University Scholars program at Francis Lewis High School in Fresh Meadows.

“We really haven’t talked about it a lot,” Kelly said. “He came home, we got the letter, and then he ran back out” for his crew team practice in Port Washington, Long Island.

William had also been accepted to Brooklyn Tech, but it wasn’t an option they were considering, Kelly said. Instead, they’ll choose between Francis Lewis and a few Catholic schools that William had been accepted to, including one on Long Island.

“We know people that are pressuring their kids like, ‘If you don’t get into Stuyvesant, your life is over,’ and we’ve never felt that,” he said. “It is what it is. He’ll be fine. He’s always done well.”

Still, Kelly was glad to be nearing the end of the admissions process.

“There’s so many options, and everybody gets so crazy,” he said. “I almost feel like there’s too many choices. How am I supposed to look at 400 high schools and decide which one my kid should go to?”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

As concerns over antisemitism in schools continue, a new resource helps NYC teachers address questions

2024-03-05T20:01:15+00:00

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As New York City schools grapple with a rise in Islamophobic and antisemitic rhetoric — and high-profile incidents at some local schools have stirred fierce controversy — a new resource for teachers seeks to help address questions over antisemitism.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan has developed an FAQ on antisemitism tailored to educators — with questions pulled directly from what members of a school partnership program heard during their time in the classroom. The guide aims to help teachers across the city navigate discussions about the history of antisemitism and its connections to the current moment.

“All of it is coming from a curious place, and wanting to know more about the history,” Mallory Bubar, director of education and outreach at the museum, said of the questions students are raising in the classroom. “[The FAQ] is a reference point for teachers and something they can share with their students as well.”

The new resource comes as tensions have flared across the city over devastating violence occurring thousands of miles away. In October, Hamas militants killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 240 hostages, with about 130 still captive, according to reports. In response, Israel has conducted a deadly and destructive bombardment of Gaza, fueling a humanitarian crisis and killing over 30,000 Palestinians — including thousands of children — according to local health authorities.

In recent months, both Muslim and Jewish students have told Chalkbeat they’ve seen an increase in hurtful and derogatory comments on social media and at school. A November state review found Islamophobic and antisemitic rhetoric each rose by more than 400% on social media.

Several high-profile incidents at local schools have also garnered media attention, and responses from city officials. In one recent instance, a teacher at Origins High School in Brooklyn alleged the school had seen rampant antisemitism, with little response from administrators.

The city’s Education Department has fiercely refuted the claim. On Tuesday, First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said there were incidents in which students at the school said “inappropriate things,” but he added students were disciplined, and the principal created space to discuss difficult issues in the aftermath, including partnering with the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

“The central claim that was in the initial article about Origins — about students rampaging through the hallway, many of them chanting antisemitic slogans — we can find no evidence of that. None. Zero. Including from educators who were in the hallways on that day,” he said, adding it’s “not helpful to demonize and paint with a broad brush students at an incredibly diverse school.”

The city’s Education Department has taken some broad steps to address concerns across the school system. In January, schools Chancellor David Banks announced all middle and high school principals would receive training “focused on navigating difficult conversations,” while the city would also update its diversity training to more deeply address antisemitism and Islamophobia.

In a museum press release Tuesday, Banks noted the city would be sharing the resource with school communities.

“The need to educate the next generation about antisemitism feels more urgent now than ever, and we are proud and grateful to be longtime partners with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in this important work,” he said.

The FAQ includes information about the history of antisemitism, tracing its origins in antiquity to the Holocaust and to the present moment. It also identifies common antisemitic tropes.

“These tropes and these stereotypes that still exist are rooted deeply in history,” Bubar said. “The hope is that if we provide that historical background, there’s a better understanding of what people might be encountering today.”

The need for the FAQ became clear through the work of an existing partnership with the city’s schools, Bubar added. Last year, participants in the Holocaust Educator School Partnership — a museum program that trains local college students to provide a lesson on the Holocaust and antisemitism in public schools — began encountering questions about antisemitism that neither they nor the teachers felt equipped to answer, she said.

“That’s where these questions came from,” she said. “These were the questions that our interns were being asked in the classroom.”

The program is operating in 52 schools this academic year, working with more than 13,000 students, Bubar said. The museum also expects about 50,000 students to visit on class trips over the course of the year, she added.

Though the museum’s FAQ focuses on antisemitism, it notes in a statement that the organization “opposes antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hatred, including hatred on the basis of ethnicity, religion, nationality, and other shared group identities.”

It also invites educators to contact the museum with feedback on the FAQ by emailing education@mjhnyc.org.

“We want the feedback: What’s working for teachers? What’s working for students? What else would they like to have included in there?” Bubar said. “Because this truly is being created from what teachers are encountering in their classrooms — and we want it to remain that way.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Deadline extended for NYC summer youth jobs program. What families should know

2024-02-29T17:01:12+00:00

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This story was updated to reflect the new deadline, March 15.

Sixteen-year-old Martha Martin’s reason for applying to last year’s New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program was simple.

“I had nothing to do over the summer,” she said.

But to her surprise, she loved the work.

Through the program, Martha was employed as a teacher’s aide in Bay Ridge, taking care of 3-year-olds. With the extra income, Martha was able to pay for her books and school supplies for the upcoming school year, while giving some extra money to her mom to help her family.

Now, Martha, an 11th grader at Pace High School in Manhattan, is considering a career in early childhood education.

“I realized that I like working with kids, and probably see that in my future,” she said. “I never expected myself to actually be working with kids, but I’m so glad that I did.”

What Martha experienced last summer mirrors that of thousands of other young people across the five boroughs. The Summer Youth Employment Program, also known as SYEP, has for decades provided the city’s youth with paid opportunities to explore potential career pathways.

But for those who want a chance to participate this year, the deadline is fast approaching: Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, March 15. The city extended the deadline by two weeks.

The application period was moved up from last year’s mid-April due date to allow for earlier enrollment and to give community-based providers and worksites more time to prepare, according to officials.

In recent years, the program has expanded, with Mayor Eric Adams adding 25,000 seats in 2022 — bringing it up to 100,000 spots in total. Last year, the program also made a commitment to matching LGBTQ+ youth with “supportive work opportunities.”

City officials have praised the program, noting participation can improve school attendance, reduce incarceration rates, and help keep young people safe over the course of the summer.

Applicants are asked to indicate three areas of career interest among a wide range of industries, as well as three providers they want to work with.

Where can I apply?

Young people can apply online at: https://application.nycsyep.com/ApplicationPages/NYCIDLogin

Who is eligible?

The program is open to New York City residents between the ages of 14 and 24 who are legally eligible to work in the United States.

Participation in the program is not based on income, and applicants are not required to submit any documentation related to parental income.

Though undocumented youth aren’t eligible for the program, they and others who face enrollment obstacles are eligible for a smaller Department of Youth and Community Development program known as SYEP Pathways. It offers summer project-based learning to a number of young people.

That program, which had more than 800 spots last year, recruits through local community-based organizations, and young people interested in participating can check with their local organizations, according to officials.

The SYEP Pathways program has been praised for offering opportunities to undocumented youth, but has also raised some concerns that pay is inequitable compared with SYEP. Last year, the program provided participants with a stipend of about $500 for 60 hours of project-based learning.

How much will I earn? What will I be doing?

Programming and pay for the Summer Youth Employment Program vary based on the individual participant’s age.

Participants aged 16 and older will be assigned to work 25 hours per week for six weeks, earning $16 per hour. Meanwhile, younger participants will work about half as many weekly hours and earn up to $700 over the course of the program.

Younger participants are assigned projects by one of the more than 40 participating community-based providers, offering them a chance to explore future career opportunities and develop leadership and other skills over the course of the program.

Older participants are matched to a worksite based on their interests. Work sites can range between public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Last year, the program saw youth placed across nearly 18,000 worksites in industries that included finance, fashion, philanthropy, technology, arts, engineering, health care, legal services, real estate, transportation, advertising, hospitality, media, retail, and more.

Some young people who face particular barriers to employment — like those who are justice-involved, NYCHA residents, experiencing homelessness, attending District 75 schools, and more — also qualify for tailored experiences.

Am I guaranteed a spot?

The program has 100,000 spots, but applications typically exceed that number. The city fills the majority of seats by random lottery, according to DYCD. As of March 1, more than 140,000 people had applied.

Last year, more than 176,000 people applied for a spot in the program.

How long does the program run?

The program runs for six weeks in July and August.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Hidden Voices: NYC launches Global African Diaspora curriculum

2024-02-29T22:37:06+00:00

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Schools Chancellor David Banks on Thursday announced the launch of a curriculum meant to uplift the stories of Black people and their contributions to American and global history.

The new resources are part of the city’s Hidden Voices initiative, a multi-year effort that began through a partnership with the Museum of the City of New York and intends to teach New York City students about individuals from diverse backgrounds who often aren’t part of history books and whose stories risk being overlooked.

Called “Hidden Voices: Stories of the Global African Diaspora,” the instructional material “delves into the perspectives, experiences, and impact that peoples of African descent have had — and continue to have — on United States and world history,” according to the city’s Education Department. The first of two volumes launched Thursday.

“We have thousands of years of history and contributions that we have made — not simply to New York, not simply to this nation, but in fact to the world,” Banks said during the announcement at St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn. “Everybody needs to know about the contributions that Black people have made in this nation and to the world.”

The Hidden Voices curriculum is one of several efforts across the city to broaden the scope of how Black history is taught in schools.

The city has rolled out a prekindergarten-12 Black studies curriculum across roughly 10 districts as part of a pilot program in recent years. That curriculum was developed through work by the Education Equity Action Plan Coalition — a group of educators, nonprofits, and government leaders. Meanwhile, an Advanced Placement course in African American studies is being taught in nearly 60 schools this year as part of a national College Board pilot — with a broader rollout planned for the fall.

The lessons in the new curriculum were developed in partnership with academic institutions, scholars, and community leaders, according to Deputy Chancellor Carolyne Quintana. It’s intended to be incorporated into the city’s social studies curriculum, which is used in more than 90% of schools.

“In a city this diverse, it’s critical that our students see themselves reflected in the lessons that we teach in our schools,” Quintana said. “Black history should not be limited to February, nor should it be limited to the Black community.”

Emphasizing the importance of teaching Black history in the city’s schools, Banks pointed to a conservative backlash that has arisen in other states in response to efforts to teach the material. In Florida, for example, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has blocked student access to the AP African American studies course. In recent years, communities across the country have seen efforts to limit teaching about race and racism in the classroom.

“We’re here to tell the truth and to teach the truth,” he said. “Black history is American history. Period. Full stop.”

Sonya Douglass, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who helped develop the city’s Black Studies curriculum, praised the release of the Hidden Voices curriculum.

“The Chancellor’s leadership and commitment to teaching the truth through his support of Black history and Black studies curricula is bold and historic given the forces that want to censor what is being taught in schools,” she said.

Other Hidden Voices curriculums have featured stories from Asian American and Pacific Islander history and expanded narratives of individuals who broke norms or expectations of gender and sexuality.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Concerned about teacher shortage, New York officials consider expanding ways to get certified

2024-02-28T00:43:59+00:00

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As New York grapples with a teacher shortage, state education officials are debating additional paths to becoming certified — including options beyond obtaining a master’s degree.

Under current regulations, educators must obtain their master’s degree within five years of entering the classroom. That’s the only way teachers can stay in their jobs — and New York is one of only three states that requires teachers to obtain them in order to retain certification, according to state officials.

The master’s degree requirement can pose a significant financial and time-consuming burden early in a teacher’s career, while research does not necessarily show clear improvement in terms of the quality of teaching, officials said at a Board of Regents meeting earlier this month.

State education officials discussed possible alternative ways of fulfilling the requirement, including obtaining National Board certification, a highly regarded credential from a national teacher-quality group, or completing a set of graduate coursework that totals an equivalent number of hours to a master’s degree program.

But officials emphasized the master’s degree would remain an option.

“Some of the folks who have expressed opposition to this have said, ‘We’re getting rid of the master’s degree,’” Jim Baldwin, a senior policy advisor at the state’s Education Department, said in an interview. “We’re not getting rid of the master’s degree.”

Education officials considered the potential change as one of a set of possible reforms to the teacher certification process, aiming to strengthen and diversify the educator pipeline, streamlining the process of entering the field, and making it more equitable.

Other possible reforms discussed by state officials included expanding certification exam options and reducing barriers for teachers who want to become certified in an additional subject area. They’re also considering creating a pathway for teaching assistants to become certified teachers, streamlining the process for college professors who want to transition into the teacher workforce, and simplifying the process for school administrators seeking certification.

The February meeting involved no formal proposals, and any action by the Regents is likely a ways off. But the discussion comes amid other changes aimed at recruiting more educators to the field, particularly teachers of color. In 2022, the Board of Regents voted to remove the requirement that prospective teachers take the controversial edTPA — a national assessment that some argued acted as a barrier to diversifying and expanding the educator workforce.

“The way that we have the master’s degree requirement positioned in New York does create particular burdens for individuals of color,” Baldwin said, pointing to a 2019 report on teacher diversity. “The importance of students being able to see people who look like them in front of the classroom, in the principal’s office, providing leadership in the school district and the schools — it’s critical in terms of the future of our public schools.”

Moving away from a required master’s degree

Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington and an expert on teacher certification, said he understands the argument for moving away from a master’s degree requirement.

“There’s no research showing a generic master’s degree either makes you better and/or is associated with teachers being better,” he said.

But Goldhaber added that data is complicated by a variety of factors, including that generally the most common master’s degree educators obtain is in educational administration, an area of study that prepares educators to transition into roles in school administration and does not necessarily improve their abilities in the classroom.

Currently, any master’s degree will fulfill New York’s requirement, though a set of credit hours must be completed within particular content areas. State officials also discussed changing the requirement to specifically mandate a degree in pedagogy or the content area in which a teacher is seeking to become certified.

Though some past studies have shown a master’s degree in math or science could predict more effective teachers in those subject areas, Goldhaber noted the research has generally been limited. There’s “better evidence that getting National Board certified is associated with higher levels of teacher effectiveness than getting a master’s degree,” he added.

Still, Goldhaber noted adding flexibility around the requirement might not shift the needle dramatically.

“There’s a very strong incentive for people to get a master’s degree — whether it’s a requirement or not — and that is that you’re on a higher lane on the salary schedule,” he said.

During the February meeting, Regent Frances Wills, who represents counties just north of the city, said she hoped the state could help people understand the alternative pathways would “provide similar rigor” to a master’s degree.

“It will still be costly in the sense that people do have to pay for some of these things,” Wills said. “But it can get to, perhaps, a better, more expansive way … of demonstrating what you can do.”

Addressing a teacher shortage

The discussion came as the state and the country have grappled with a shortage of teachers, as many educators left the profession over the course of the pandemic. In New York, state officials said superintendents have struggled to find enough certified teachers, and teacher preparation programs have seen a steep decline in enrollment.

Across the state, 80% of school districts have at least one staff member teaching a subject without the proper certification. For one-third of school districts, 5% or more of staff members are doing so — a figure that has doubled since 2019, according to state officials.

The city has largely been spared from the effects of the shortage, but it still has seen declines in its pool of educators. The city’s schools will also need to hire an influx of new teachers in the coming years, with more than 10,000 new teachers required in order to comply with a state mandate reducing class sizes, according to estimates.

“We really have a crisis in terms of the supply of teachers — not just currently, but as we look out over the future,” Baldwin said. “We have seen significant drops in the number of individuals who are entering teacher preparation programs in the state.”

He noted the state’s current requirements make it difficult for certified teachers from other states to seek employment in New York, as well as for teachers in the state to transition into teaching new subjects.

Baldwin said the state is looking to reconcile differences between New York’s teacher preparation programs and those in other states, while also reforming the process for teachers to transition into new roles such that they get appropriate exposure to the subject matter without it “bogging them down with duplicative requirements.”

Jeffrey Matteson, a deputy commissioner at the state Education Department, stressed that regardless of any changes, school districts would continue to hire qualified teachers.

“No matter what we’re proposing here as far as certification pathways and professional certification, school districts go through hiring processes, they vet these people, they have to go through a background check, they’re not just put in front of the classroom,” he said. “So this isn’t a blowing up of the system, where a bunch of unqualified people are going to be forced upon school districts.

“This is about getting school districts more options for the people that they can select to put in front of the classroom,” he said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC students, advocates call for school-based restorative justice, mental health funding

2024-02-23T20:06:06+00:00

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During a lesson on the Black Lives Matter movement in her first year of high school, Lexi Greenberg was shocked to hear two students in her class making insensitive and offensive remarks.

“I left the lesson feeling angry and alone,” she said, noting she was the only Black student in the class. Lexi approached staff at Millennium Brooklyn High School, where just 14% of students are Black, and asked for the students to be suspended.

Instead, the school counselor and principal urged her to meet with the students before the school pursued any potential disciplinary action.

She was reluctant at first, but Lexi said meeting with her classmates helped her quickly realize they’d spoken from a place of ignorance, rather than harm. They were “extremely apologetic and regretful,” and after the meeting, they became her first friends in high school.

Lexi, now a senior, remains close with those students today, and is a founding member of her school’s Restorative Justice Action Team.

“None of the wonderful things that have happened to me in high school would have happened if I had pushed for suspension,” she said. “I made a choice to listen and see the people on the other side of the problem instead of burying myself in resentment and hate, and that opened me up to a whole new universe of joy and acceptance.”

Lexi is one of the dozens of students urging the city to increase funding for restorative justice — a philosophy rooted in providing students and staff space to talk through conflicts without resorting to more punitive measures. She shared her story Thursday as part of the “Dignity in Schools” coalition, a group of New York City students, families, educators, and advocates that are calling for the city to invest millions of dollars in restorative justice and mental health programs in schools, while diverting funding away from policing.

Roughly 30 students gathered in Manhattan at the YA-YA Network, a non-profit organization that promotes youth advocacy, to launch their new budget campaign. It comes amid broad fiscal concerns surrounding the city’s school system.

Though Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday that a planned third round of budget cuts will no longer be necessary, previous cuts have slashed more than $700 million from the Education Department’s budget for the next fiscal year. Meanwhile, the school system stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars as federal pandemic relief funds will soon expire.

“What is unconscionable is that we’re in the midst of a youth mental health crisis,” said Tina Zeng, a Brooklyn high school senior and YA-YA student organizer. “Having these proposed budget cuts will have devastating impacts on restorative justice, student mental health … and so much more.”

As part of the campaign, the coalition is urging city officials to protect critical programs propped up by the federal funds, and make further investments in restorative justice programs.

In particular, the coalition called on the city to protect $21 million invested in restorative justice programs, $5 million that went toward mental health services, and $77 million that helped hire counselors, social workers, and mental health professionals.

Students also called for $75 million to support hiring school-based restorative justice coordinators at 500 high schools — increasing by an additional $55 million annually for three years — as well as $75 million to hire community members into positions that support schools, such as youth advocates, parent coordinators, paraprofessionals, community outreach coordinators, counselors, and social workers.

Under the investments the campaign is seeking, $10 million would also be put toward restorative justice training, curriculums, and other school-based resources and opportunities.

The coalition wants the city to redirect more than $400 million in school police funding to other school resources — calling for the city to stop all recruiting and training of new school police officers and end funding for new or existing student surveillance and scanning equipment. Students argued that police are ill-equipped to defuse tension and conflicts in schools, and that their presence disproportionately harms students of color and others from marginalized communities.

Tensions between students and school-based police officers can often be fraught, and advocates have long pointed to data showing Black and Latino students can be disproportionately subjected to police interventions in the city’s schools.

One student who spoke at the campaign launch said despite having school safety agents and a robust surveillance system on campus, it still took roughly 15 minutes for an officer to arrive when a fight broke out, and students had to work to defuse the situation in the meantime. When the students involved returned from suspension, the dispute continued.

Some schools have moved toward embracing restorative justice practices in recent years. Still, city data showed suspensions spiked during the last school year, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department, said in a statement that the department would continue to prioritize restorative justice.

“Education and safety is at the core of all we do,” she said. “We continue to prioritize our restorative justice work, as well as programs like Project Pivot, which puts additional funding in the hands of our schools to engage independently selected community organizations directly, made up of individuals from the very communities they serve and in accordance with participating schools’ needs.”

City Councilmember Rita Joseph, chair of the council’s education committee and an attendee of the Thursday campaign launch, encouraged students to continue their work and help sway her colleagues in City Hall.

“You already got me,” she said. “But we have 50 other people we need to bring on board.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

How an AP African American studies class is helping Brooklyn students see themselves in history

2024-02-20T22:08:01+00:00

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Until her junior year, Brooklyn high school student Afag Sidahmed never enjoyed history classes.

“I was so sick of learning about Europeans,” she said. Her courses rarely focused on Black history, with the exception of Martin Luther King Jr.

But this year, a new course offered at her school, the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women, has changed her feelings about the subject.

“When I heard about AP African American Studies — and the word African was in there — I was like, ‘Wow, I am taking this class,’” she said.

In 2022, the College Board rolled out its first Advanced Placement course in African American studies through a pilot program at 60 schools across the country. This year, the program expanded to nearly 700 high schools nationwide, with 59 of the city’s schools offering the course locally.

Next year, the course will officially launch, allowing any high schools to offer it. Nearly 160 additional high schools in New York City have already expressed interest in the course, though that number will likely shift as schools develop their plans for the next school year, officials said.

The materials covered in the class have spurred controversy in some states. Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state’s schools wouldn’t teach the class and alleged it violated a state law that restricts how race and racism are taught. And when the College Board later released a revised curriculum that had removed much of the criticized content, others protested the organization had buckled under political pressure and watered down the course.

Still, despite being enmeshed in a national political dispute, educators in the city and across the country have emphasized the vital role the class can play in schools and the value it can bring to students.

At the Institute of Math and Science, 32 students across two classes are taking the course, both taught by teachers Kelly Preston and Martine Mercier. Inside their fifth-floor classroom, the walls are decorated with a timeline of Black history that spans thousands of years, and the flags of nations in Africa and the Caribbean. A class constitution encourages students to ask questions, value each other’s opinions, and express any disagreements respectfully.

For Preston and Mercier, the focus of the class has been on student-led discussions and engagement. Typical lessons rely almost entirely on students analyzing primary sources in small groups, instead of more-traditional lectures.

“Kids should be active agents of learning,” Preston said. “They’re not passive absorbers taking in what we tell them. They can create that understanding for themselves, and we want them to feel that agency, and feel empowered in their educational experience.”

Students look to primary sources

In one February class, Preston and Mercier used a hypothetical scenario to segue into a lesson on the Great Migration, a period in the 20th century when millions of Black people moved from the rural South to urban areas in other parts of the country.

Students considered what conditions would prompt them to leave their school for another — whether they’d do so based solely on negative treatment, or if a viable alternative school would be needed to pursue a new environment.

Afterwards, students turned to historical documents, discussing in groups of three or four. Preston and Mercier walked between tables, listening in, posing additional questions, and urging students to explain the reasons for their answers.

Mercier said she and Preston are prioritizing “having the students not always look to us to affirm whether they’re correct or not, but look to each other and look to other sources to affirm what they’re thinking.”

Alizett Tavarez, an 11th grader at the school, explained how she inferred the meaning of the Great Migration through clues from paintings by Jacob Lawrence, a 20th century American painter whose work documented aspects of the Black experience.

“The first thing that caught my eye was how in each of the paintings they have signs that show Chicago, New York, and St. Louis,” she said. “The next picture said tickets, tickets, tickets. It made me assume they were traveling north.”

During the discussion, students often turned to other figures and moments in Black history, drawing connections to Harriet Tubman, Black Wall Street, the Harlem Renaissance, and more.

When Preston and Mercier asked students to consider why so many individuals chose to migrate north, one student spoke up.

“For real freedom,” said Esha Azam, a 10th grader. “Because after slavery ended, the South created the Black Codes, literacy tests, and Jim Crow laws,” she added, referring to various laws that states adopted to restrict the rights of Black Americans to vote or own property, for example, and to enforce racial segregation.

More powerful than just an exam

The AP course pilot is one of several ways New York City educators are working to broaden the scope of how Black history is taught in schools.

Sonya Douglass, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and director of the Black Education Research Collective, helped develop a pre-K-12 Black studies curriculum that has been offered recently across roughly 10 districts as part of a pilot program. Douglass and others worked to develop the curriculum with the Education Equity Action Plan Coalition, a group of educators, nonprofits, and government leaders.

“So far, we have seen a lot of enthusiasm among educators, community members, and students — the older ones of which say, ‘This is long overdue,’” she said. “What we’re really excited about at the K-12 level is basically generations of young people who will have access to this information.”

The AP African American studies course has prompted further discussion and excitement among local communities, Douglass said. For educators who are tackling the material for the first time next year, it’s critical to approach it with “cultural humility,” she noted.

“No matter your background, even if you are of African descent, many of us don’t know this history,” she said. “Just taking that learner’s stance is so important.”

Preston and Mercier have also shared advice for educators in recent months, speaking about their experience leading the class on a local panel with other Brooklyn schools, and at the national College Board Forum in November.

The two educators suggest teachers who are new to the course embrace the work and trust their students.

“It’s not easy to roll out a brand new course — especially one that centers stories and narratives that haven’t always been highlighted,” Preston said. “It’s a lot of learning and unlearning you’ll need to do. … But really, trust the kids. The kids can do this. They can interrogate sources. They can create understanding for themselves. They can have meaningful, effective conversations.

“You just have to figure out how to support them in doing it,” she added.

Kiri Soares, principal of the Institute of Math and Science, praised Preston and Mercier for developing a successful model for the course in its first year at the school. But Soares noted she’s worried fewer students will be able to take the course if it isn’t able to count as a U.S. history credit toward a student’s graduation requirements. (The city’s Education Department said the class is credited as a humanities elective.)

Soares’ hopes for the class hinge less on the results of the AP exam in May — which will be offered for the first time this year — and more on what students can gain from the content covered within it.

“My goal in this course in particular is to have them see themselves written into history,” she said. “That is a disruptor to the history that their families have had, and it’s pretty amazing and more powerful” than a top score on an exam.

For some students at the school, the class has accomplished just that.

“It always ties back somehow to your roots,” Alizett said. “You always learn more than you expect.”

“You definitely learn about your ethnicity in the classroom,” added Amna Sobahi, an 11th grader. “Like I don’t even need a DNA test anymore — I have Ms. Kelly.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

As NYC eyes more mergers, one Upper West Side middle school navigates a newly combined community

2024-02-15T18:18:45+00:00

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Walking through the halls of Lafayette Academy, an Upper West Side middle school, Principal Brian Zager greeted each student by name.

The building on West 93rd Street was especially quiet that November morning, with seventh graders out on a field trip to Central Park.

In classrooms, eighth graders worked on finishing their high school applications. On the third floor — a space shared with the Manhattan School for Children — students in the dual language program practiced their French.

Lafayette Academy, where Zager has served as principal for the past decade, has prided itself on its small school community, allowing students and staff to develop close bonds. This year, the school saw its student body grow by roughly a quarter to about 200 students as Lafayette merged with West Side Collaborative, a small progressive middle school serving higher shares of students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. The move spurred ample protest from both school communities last year, even as officials said it could shield them from the negative effects of shrinking enrollment.

But in the halls of the newly merged school, that tension was no longer palpable. Each class has a mix of students from the two former communities, Zager said.

Lafayette Academy has about 200 students after its merger with West Side Collaborative.

Leadership at the school has remained optimistic about the outcome of the merger, praising the benefits of bringing staff and students from disparate communities together. But some families expressed concerns over whether the city’s Education Department provided adequate funding to support the larger and more diverse student population, while others continue to protest the decision to merge the schools at all. Some West Side Collaborative families remained unhappy that Lafayette kept its building, principal, and name.

Morana Mesic, a parent and former PTA president of West Side Collaborative, transferred her son to another school after the merger was approved — calling it a closure.

“We’re at a point where we wish that we never stepped into West Side Collaborative,” Mesic said. “Because it hurts that much more to be back in the same old public school system.”

Trying to stave off enrollment losses before a merger is needed

As the city continues to grapple with steep enrollment losses suffered during the pandemic, officials have warned more school mergers may loom ahead. At least half a dozen more proposed school mergers will be considered by the city’s Panel for Educational Policy over the next two months, according to its website.

“It’s hard to figure out how people can run a full comprehensive high school with 80 kids as your entire school,” schools Chancellor David Banks told Chalkbeat in November. “And we have schools with those numbers.”

West Side Collaborative had just 75 students last year, less than half of Lafayette’s roster. About 46 of its students moved into Lafayette’s building this year along with eight staffers, making up about a third of the newly merged school’s employees. (Others from West Side Collaborative’s 20-person staff were transferred to other schools or retired, according to the city’s Education Department.)

Despite its dwindling size, West Side Collaborative fostered a passionate community over its years in operation. Amy Stuart Wells, dean of the Bank Street Graduate School of Education, said there was a disconnect between outside perceptions of the school and the quality of education it provided.

Despite the enrollment losses the school was facing, it had strong support for students and a robust project-based, student-centered approach to learning, said Wells, who studied West Side Collaborative as part of a project on diverse public schools. Wells worked with the school to help shift the narrative by developing promotional materials like brochures, but she said it can be challenging to combat outside perceptions.

“In the school choice processes, sometimes schools get labeled as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ particularly in the parent networks,” she said. “It’s hard to change that narrative and that framing, even if there’s some really, really good work going on within those schools.”

With time, the losses became especially steep. In the five years preceding the merger, West Side Collaborative had seen a 58% decline in enrollment.

Still, community members sought another solution. In the months leading up to the merger, parents and staff at West Side Collaborative fought against the proposal, arguing that its approval would in effect see their institution closed.

The school served overwhelmingly Black and Latino students, with more than 80% of students living in poverty, according to city data. Some community members felt uneasy about merging with Lafayette Academy, a school with a higher share of white students and fewer students from low-income backgrounds.

In some ways, the merger served a goal that has proved elusive in one of the nation’s most segregated school systems. It provided a path toward further integration in District 3, which encompasses both schools. The district is one of a handful in the city that has remained focused on integration. Last year, the school district won a federal grant to help foster diverse schools.

Meanwhile, some parents at Lafayette expressed concerns over the lack of concrete details on how staffing and other decisions would shake out.

Despite the pushback from families at the time, Superintendent Kamar Samuels said he viewed the schools as a good fit to merge because they shared “a student-centered approach” to instruction.

“Both schools had staff that cared deeply about the progress of all students, but in particular, the most marginalized students in the school,” he said.

Finding a balance when schools join together

The Upper West Side merger isn’t the first time two demographically distinct schools were joined together. In 2020, for example, the city approved a proposal to move the Academy of Arts & Letters, a disproportionately white school in Fort Greene, into P.S. 305, a majority-Black school in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Pilar Ramos, principal of the merged school, said it took time for the two communities to come together as one, particularly as the onset of the pandemic turned classes virtual. To avoid privileging one school over the other, the communities worked together to come up with a new name, referring to themselves as “Arts & Letters 305 United,” Ramos said.

“When people feel like they’re going to be included — that we’re together for something that’s going to be greater than what it was on its own, I think that’s an important part of a merger,” she said. “We’re not going to be just one school or the other, or just as good as one school or the other. We’re going to be better than both of them.”

At Lafayette, Zager said his work began even before the merger was approved. He met with parents and students from West Side Collaborative before the vote and in the months leading up to the school year, trying to alleviate any concerns or anxieties they might have about the move.

Families from both schools were afraid of losing their school identities, he said. But months into the school year, Zager noted the students haven’t had trouble acclimating. A few former West Side Collaborative students were even elected to student council, he said.

“When it comes down to the kids, there’s this innocence that just finds its own way to fly,” he said.

Although it was controversial, the merger also created more integration in District 3 by bringing together the two school communities.

To Shawn West, a dean at Lafayette, the small school environment has allowed the merged community to develop bonds quickly.

“We feel like we’ve known these kids for two years,” he said.

Staff came together ahead of the school year to build team cohesion, swapping best practices and working to align their approach for the coming year, Zager said. He’s hoping to incorporate further elements from West Side Collaborative into the school, pointing to student-led conferences as one example.

“It’s been a great experience,” Zager said. “When it comes to it, I now have more children, and I have more staff, all of which I love. I think they are great additions to the community.”

But some parents at the school raised concerns over whether the city’s Education Department had allocated enough resources to properly support the newly merged community, and alleged communications at the time of the merger had been misleading.

Last spring, district officials indicated the merged school might be eligible to receive federal dollars to support low-income students, depending on its combined enrollment. But this year, when parents learned the school didn’t qualify — and that the federal funds were allocated based on enrollment numbers as of October in the prior school year — they questioned why district officials hadn’t made it clear from the outset. Parents also argued those figures didn’t account for newly arrived migrant students that both schools had taken in during the year. (During the last school year, West Side Collaborative qualified for the federal funds, but Lafayette didn’t.)

One parent at the school, who requested anonymity, praised the principal and his staff for “working hard with everyone to make both student bodies feel as one,” but worried the school might not have sufficient funding to support its increased enrollment, particularly as the city’s Education Department faces significant budget cuts.

“The challenges come with the fact that there are now larger classes, and more students at more diverse levels from both communities,” the parent said. “What I’m concerned about is that the DOE has taken the approach that once the merger is approved, they can move onto the next agenda item.”

Mesic, the former West Side Collaborative parent, transferred her son to West End Secondary School, though she said it has paled in comparison to the community they lost. She also helped other families navigate the transfer process, as unhappy parents sought to leave the merged community ahead of the school year.

In total, about 17 students from the former West Side Collaborative did not enroll in the merged school this year — or about a quarter of the incoming seventh and eighth grade classes.

Despite the challenges in the months that led up to the merger, Samuels believes it has been successful so far. He noted his office is in the same building as Lafayette, meaning he can watch students and staff interact each day.

“In a perfect world, we’d have had more time to engage,” Samuels said. “But the process and the outcome that we have had has really been a model for other people possibly to look at.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Clock is ticking for NYC families: Millions in pandemic food benefits may expire next month

2024-01-22T19:09:20+00:00

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Millions of dollars in unused NYC pandemic food benefits could begin to expire in February, as the deadline for families to use them rapidly approaches.

The funds — known as the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer, or P-EBT — were sent to all New York City public school families in several rounds over the past four years. They’re intended to help cover costs for meals that would ordinarily be provided at school.

Last year, the state distributed multiple rounds of the benefits, including $120 per child for the summer of 2023, as well as at least $391 per child for the summer of 2022 and the 2021-22 school year. (Funds from the latter disbursement could total as much as $1,671 per child based on COVID-related absences or remote-learning days during the year.)

Now, the latter of these funds are set to expire for families who have not used them.

David Rubel, an education consultant who has followed the food benefits closely, fears thousands of families may soon lose benefits they’re not even aware they have.

“Imagine if tomorrow morning we read that the major food pantry programs lost half of their budget,” he said. “We’re really talking about something of that magnitude.”

Rubel’s concerns stem in part from data he obtained through a request under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, which state officials confirmed. For P-EBT benefits issued for the summer of 2021, nearly 600,000 students across the state never redeemed the money, the data showed.

That meant roughly 27% of the more than 2.2 million students who received the benefits never used them — with the expired benefits totaling roughly $222 million.

And for the expiring benefits from the summer of 2022, more than 263,000 recipients in New York City had not used the benefits, according to data shared by Rubel. That meant more than $100 million in potential food benefits were at risk of expiring.

Rubel worries the state hasn’t conducted sufficient outreach to inform families about each round of the funds. He said he’s urged state officials to request an amendment to the program timeline from the federal government.

The state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, or OTDA, which oversees the P-EBT program, said the expiration of the funds was based on federal statutes and regulations.

“The deadline cannot be extended,” officials said in a statement.

In a handful of other states, officials have amended their P-EBT programs to effectively extend the timeline for families to use their benefits. In California, for example, officials allowed households to request a restoration of their benefits if they had expired without ever being spent.

New York officials, however, said they had no plans to seek federal approval to amend the P-EBT program.

Here’s what families should know:

When will benefits start to expire?

P-EBT benefits automatically expire 274 days, or about nine months, after they were last used. More than 60% of the summer 2022 benefits were issued to families last May, meaning those who have yet to use them will see their funds start to expire in February.

Whenever families use the benefits, the timeline will reset and they will have another 274 days before the funds are at risk of expiration.

How can families replace their cards?

Families who have lost their P-EBT card can get a replacement by calling 1-888-328-6399.

Why are some families not using the funds?

Since the pandemic began, OTDA has issued more than $6.3 billion in P-EBT benefits, with about 60% going directly to the existing accounts of households already receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Others received the funds on state-issued P-EBT cards.

The state maintains detailed information about the benefits on its website, and operates a phone helpline at 1-833-452-0096.

OTDA officials previously told Chalkbeat they’ve conducted extensive public outreach and worked with advocacy groups to help raise awareness of the food benefits. The state’s Education Department has also distributed messaging about the benefits to local school districts, officials said.

Families with valid phone numbers on file with their school district should also have received a text message whenever new benefits became available, according to state officials.

Some families, however, said they never received such text messages, and others have struggled to access the benefits.

“We should be striving for 100%,” said Angela Trude, an NYU professor who has studied food access and government benefits. “We want everybody to use the benefits.”

Trude said she’s worked with families who falsely assume that using food benefits could take money away from others who are in greater need, or that the government will eventually ask them to return the funds.

It’s critical to combat these misconceptions, she said, while also communicating that all families should use the benefits.

“If these families feel like they are taking away, then instead of not using them, they can actually buy nonperishable foods and donate them to community organizations and food pantries,” Trude added.

Rubel believes nearly all of the expired benefits from the summer 2021 disbursement occurred among families who are not SNAP recipients, as SNAP households received the benefits in their existing accounts and could keep spending as usual in order to use them.

For families who have been able to take advantage of the benefits, advocates have said they can be hugely consequential. Rachel Sabella, director of No Kid Hungry New York, said P-EBT funds “can be the difference between a child going hungry or having a healthy, nutritious meal.”

“We know families are hurting — 3 out of 4 have told us it’s been harder to afford groceries than in 2022 — so we hope every household eligible for P-EBT takes advantage of this benefit,” she said in a statement. “We know how important it is to get the word out about these funds before they expire, and urge families to check their EBT accounts and keep their cards handy.”

New York needs more outreach, expert says

Wendy De La Rosa, an assistant marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied government benefits, said New York and other states should be doing more to effectively reach families.

Using text messages to notify families about their benefits is a “fundamentally flawed” approach, according to De La Rosa.

“Scams are through the roof, and every security expert is telling us to be scared,” she said. “In what world would we think that a single text message — often coming from an unknown number — would meaningfully increase uptake?”

For students experiencing housing instability, she added, phone numbers on file with school districts may be inaccurate or outdated.

“It has to be a text message, and an email, and a letter, and phone calls, and actually figuring out, ‘Which parents have we not reached?’” De La Rosa said. “And then making a concerted effort to reach them so that everybody is informed.”

Some families also respond better to certain messaging around benefits. Increasing the degree of ownership families over the benefits can spur more to use them, De La Rosa said. Families are more likely to make use of benefits that are framed as something they are entitled to, rather than those that are seen as a program meant to help them.

A permanent summer food benefits program on the horizon

Despite her concerns, De La Rosa said she’s pleased to see New York among the states that have opted into a permanent federal summer food benefits program. Across the country, 9.5 million students who would have been eligible for the benefits will likely go without them this year, after at least 12 states declined to participate in the program.

“When you put it in that context — where you have families in some states experiencing child hunger because the legislators didn’t want to implement this policy — then of course New York is ahead of the curve,” she said.

This story was updated on Feb. 14 with new data on unused benefits from the summer of 2022.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Film, health care, and Bard early college: New high schools coming to Brooklyn and Queens

2024-02-02T20:34:39+00:00

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Attention, New York City families: Three new high schools may soon join the hundreds of secondary school options across the five boroughs.

A Bard High School Early College may be coming to Brooklyn, while Queens is getting a career and technical school focused on the film industry as well as a school aiming to create a pipeline to health care jobs.

Schools Chancellor David Banks previewed the schools at a budget hearing in Albany this week, holding them up as examples of strong partnerships with outside organizations, as well as the many career pathways offered to the city’s students.

“This is not your father’s vocational ed stuff — this is not shop class,” he said during the Thursday hearing. “These are highly rigorous, credentialed programs. When kids come out with these kinds of credentials, they can step right into the 21st century workforce and put themselves in a position to be on the track to the middle class and beyond.”

In Brooklyn, Bard is poised to launch a new campus, offering families in the borough access to the network of coveted public high schools that allow students to earn an associate degree by the time they graduate.

The Bard model gives students an opportunity to take courses with college instructors, as well as engage in small, writing- and discussion-based seminars. Its Manhattan and Queens locations are highly sought-after, and it just opened a site in the Bronx in September.

“The demand to get into the school is simply overwhelming,” Banks said of the new Bronx location during the hearing. “And we have plans to open up a Bard in Brooklyn as well.”

The proposed expansion into Brooklyn is slated to be considered at a Feb. 27 meeting of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, a board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

If approved, the new Bard location at 301 Vermont St. in East New York would open in the 2024-25 school year, taking on a ninth and 11th grade class, according to city documents. The new school would serve roughly 150 students in its first year, scaling up over time to reach a full enrollment of approximately 500 students — with admissions priority given to students in East New York’s District 19, Brownsville’s District 23, and other neighboring Brooklyn school districts.

Meanwhile, in Queens, two new schools will offer students a chance to explore career pathways before graduation.

Motion Picture Technical High School will allow students to wade into the film and television industry. Opening in September at a temporary site in northern Queens, the school comes as a collaboration with the Roybal School of Film and Television Fund and offers students a chance to explore aspects of the industry, such as cinematography, editing, sound design, set construction, special effects, and post-production, according to the city’s admissions portal.

The school will open with about 100-200 ninth graders for its inaugural year, giving priority to students who live in Queens, according to its website. It follows an educational option admissions process, meaning the school sets aside seats for students at different academic levels to promote academic diversity. (It is hoping to move into a new building in Woodside, at 53-16 Northern Blvd. in the 2025-26 school year.)

The school aims to create pathways into the industry for underrepresented communities, and notes its proximity to the city’s film and television studios will help students obtain hands-on experience.

Queens will also see the addition of a health careers high school in the coming years through a partnership with Northwell Health, according to Bloomberg Philanthropies. The school comes as part of a Bloomberg initiative to establish public high schools across the country that graduate students directly into health care careers.

Expected to open by 2026, the school will offer students “robust academic programming, specialized healthcare classes, work-based learning at the partner health system and the opportunity to earn industry-valued credentials and certifications,” according to a Bloomberg press release last month. The Queens program will be one of 10 established across the country by the $250 million Bloomberg initiative.

The new schools come as Banks has described expanding career and technical education options for students across the city’s schools as a major focal point of his administration.

A spokesperson for the city’s Education Department said details about the new schools would be released at a later date.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools would lose $131 million under proposed changes to state funding formula, officials say

2024-02-01T23:26:29+00:00

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New York City schools could lose out on $131 million under proposed changes to the state’s school funding formula, officials said Thursday at a budget hearing in Albany.

Because of a change Gov. Kathy Hochul included in her proposed budget last month, the city could see less money than anticipated. Schools Chancellor David Banks expressed concerns at the hearing.

“This does not help us at the level that we expect,” he said. “There’s certainly now additional adjustments we’re going to have to make at the loss of revenue.”

Overall, the city’s schools are poised to receive roughly $13.3 billion from the state for the upcoming fiscal year, representing a more than $340 million increase in state aid from last year. But city officials were caught off guard that the number was lower than they expected.

Typically, state funding accounts for more than a third of the city’s Education Department budget.

Concerns over the state funding formula come as Mayor Eric Adams has significantly cut the budget for New York City schools, chopping nearly $550 million from the city’s Education Department budget for this fiscal year, as well as another $100 million for next fiscal year.

At Thursday’s hearing, which focused on the K-12 education portion of the state’s budget, several lawmakers questioned the governor’s decision to alter the state’s Foundation Aid formula, particularly as school districts across the state prepare for the expiration of billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funds later this year.

The formula calculates how much funding each school district receives and sends more dollars to higher-need districts. Lawmakers committed to fully funding it for the first time in 2021 — a decision applauded by education officials and advocates.

Hochul’s budget proposal introduced two controversial changes to Foundation Aid. The first would alter how the formula accounts for inflation, shifting to using a 10-year average rate in calculations instead of a single, recent year. It would also modify a “save harmless” provision that prevented districts that saw enrollment drops from losing money.

In total, the state’s education budget would increase by roughly $825 million under Hochul’s proposal, short of the $1.3 billion increase previously anticipated. Her proposal marked the start of negotiations with lawmakers over how the state should allocate its funding in the next fiscal year, which begins in April.

Much of Thursday’s hearing centered on how the Foundation Aid changes could impact districts across the state.

State Sen. Shelley Mayer, of Westchester, who chairs the Senate’s general education committee, noted the change to how the formula accounts for inflation meant the city’s schools would receive approximately $131 million less in funding.

State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said the funding changes that compensate for enrollment losses could harm 337 school districts, including many in rural parts of the state.

“We do not support this decision,” she said. “It’s been so abrupt and the conversations have not taken place. Our position has been that in order to do this, we really should have a three- to five-year plan, where we have opportunities to get a new formula, where we have opportunities to look at the impact across the entire state.”

Rosa and the state’s Board of Regents have called for revisions to the formula, including the funding of a $1 million study on how the formula can be improved.

Concerns over Foundation Aid also surfaced at a Wednesday meeting of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, a board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

“Everyone here should write to their state legislators and urge them to reject this change in the formula for Foundation Aid to ensure that not just NYC but every district in the state receives the Foundation Aid that they deserve,” said Lara Lai, a senior education policy and organizing manager from the office of city Comptroller Brad Lander.

But Hochul and her staff have defended the proposed changes.

“There has been a significant loss in population for certain school districts,” Hochul said last month. “For us to be wed to the same formulas based on population from 2008 without adjusting for either need or population increase or decrease — it doesn’t make sense.”

On Thursday, Budget Director Blake Washington argued the governor’s approach had “a sense of urgency.”

“Kicking the can for another three to five years is a very easy way to address this issue,” he said.

During the hearing, state Sen. Jabari Brisport, of Brooklyn, floated the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy in order to increase funding for the state’s schools — something Hochul previously told reporters she would not consider.

Other controversial topics addressed by lawmakers at the hearing included whether to continue the city’s mayoral control system and how the city’s schools were preparing to meet the state’s mandate to reduce class sizes.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Millones en beneficios de comida por la pandemia podrían caducar el mes que viene

2024-01-31T17:57:05+00:00

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Millones de dólares en beneficios de comida por la pandemia en Nueva York que no se han usado podrían empezar a caducar el mes que viene, ya que la fecha límite para que las familias los usen se está acercando.

Los fondos — conocidos como Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer, o P-EBT— se enviaron a todas las familias de las escuelas públicas de Nueva York en varias rondas durante los últimos cuatro años. El propósito de los fondos es ayudar a cubrir los costos de las comidas que de otro modo serían recibidas en la escuela.

El año pasado, el estado distribuyó múltiples rondas de fondos, incluyendo $120 por niño para el verano de 2023, y por lo menos $391 por niño para el verano de 2022 y el año escolar 2021-22. (Los fondos de este último pago podrían ser de hasta $1,671 por niño según las ausencias relacionadas con el COVID o los días de aprendizaje remoto durante el año.)

Ahora, el último pago está por caducar para las familias que no los han usado todavía. En octubre, al menos 90,000 beneficios en la ciudad no habían sido canjeados por las familias, lo que significa que al menos $35 millones estaban en riesgo de caducar.

David Rubel, consultor de educación que ha seguido de cerca los beneficios de comida, teme que miles de familias perderán dentro de poco tiempo los beneficios que quizás no sepan que tienen.

“Imagínate que mañana por la mañana leamos que los principales programas de distribución de alimentos perdieron la mitad de su presupuesto”, dijo. “En realidad, esa es la magnitud de lo que estamos hablando”.

Las preocupaciones de Rubel surgen en parte por los datos que pidió y obtuvo bajo la Ley de Libertad de Información del estado, y que los funcionarios estatales confirmaron. Los datos mostraron que para los beneficios P-EBT emitidos para el verano de 2021, casi 600,000 estudiantes en todo el estado nunca canjearon el dinero.

Eso significa que más o menos un 27% de los más de 2.2 millones de estudiantes que recibieron los beneficios nunca los usaron — un total de beneficios sin usar de aproximadamente $222 millones.

A Rubel le preocupa que el estado no haya tenido suficientes actividades para informar a las familias sobre cada ronda de los fondos. Dijo que les ha pedido a los funcionarios estatales que soliciten al gobierno federal una enmienda a los plazos del programa.

La Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance del estado, o OTDA, que supervisa el programa P-EBT, dijo que el vencimiento de los fondos se basó en estatutos y regulaciones federales.

“La fecha de caducidad no se puede extender”, dijeron los funcionarios en una declaración.

En otros estados, los funcionarios han enmendado sus programas P-EBT para efectivamente extender la fecha límite para que las familias usen sus beneficios. En California, por ejemplo, los funcionarios permitieron que los hogares pidieran el restablecimiento de sus beneficios si se habían caducado sin que las familias los usaran.

Los funcionarios de Nueva York, sin embargo, dijeron que no tenían planes de pedir una aprobación federal para enmendar el programa P-EBT.

Esto es lo que las familias deben saber:

¿Cuándo empezarán a caducar los beneficios?

Los beneficios de P-EBT caducan automáticamente 274 días después de la última vez que se usaron, es decir, unos nueve meses después. Más del 60% de los beneficios del verano de 2022 se distribuyeron a las familias en mayo pasado, lo que significa que los fondos de quienes no los hayan usado todavía s empezarán a caducar en febrero.

Cuando las familias utilicen los beneficios, el plazo para caducar empieza a contar desde 0 nuevamente y tendrán otros 274 días antes de que los fondos corran riesgo de vencerse.

¿Cómo las familias pueden reemplazar sus tarjetas?

Las familias que hayan perdido su tarjeta P-EBT pueden obtener una de reemplazo llamando al 1-888-328-6399.

¿Por qué algunas familias no están usando los fondos?

Desde que comenzó la pandemia, la OTDA ha emitido más de $6,300 millones en beneficios P-EBT, de los cuales cerca del 60% han ido directamente a las cuentas existentes de hogares que ya estaban recibiendo beneficios del Programa de Asistencia Nutricional Suplementaria (SNAP). Otras familias recibieron los fondos en tarjetas P-EBT emitidas por el estado.

El estado mantiene información detallada sobre los beneficios en su sitio web y opera una línea de ayuda: 1-833-452-0096.

Los funcionarios de la OTDA le dijeron anteriormente a Chalkbeat que han llevado a cabo una extensa campaña de información para el público y han trabajado con grupos de defensa para ayudar a crear conciencia sobre los beneficios de comida. El Departamento de Educación del estado también envió mensajes sobre los beneficios a todos los distritos escolares locales, añadieron los funcionarios.

Las familias con números de teléfono válidos registrados en su distrito escolar también deberían haber recibido un mensaje de texto cada vez que había beneficios nuevos disponibles, según los funcionarios estatales.

Algunas familias, sin embargo, dijeron que nunca recibieron mensajes de texto, y otras han tenido dificultades para tener acceso a los beneficios.

“Debemos lograr un 100%”, dijo Angela Trude, profesora de la NYU que ha estudiado el acceso a comida y beneficios del gobierno. “Queremos que todo el mundo aproveche los beneficios”.

Trude dijo que ella ha trabajado con familias que suponen falsamente que usar los beneficios podría restarles dinero a otras familias más necesitadas, o que el gobierno en algún momento les pedirá que devuelvan los fondos.

Es crítico combatir estos conceptos erróneos, dijo ella, y a la vez comunicar que todas las familias deben utilizar los beneficios.

“Si estas familias sienten que les están quitando a otras, entonces en vez de no utilizarlos, pueden comprar alimentos no perecederos y donarlos a organizaciones comunitarias y despensas de alimentos”, añadió Trude.

Rubel cree que casi todas los beneficios caducados del desembolso del verano de 2021 ocurrieron entre familias que no son beneficiarias del SNAP, ya que los hogares del SNAP recibieron los beneficios en sus cuentas existentes y pudieron seguir gastando como de costumbre para utilizarlos.

Para las familias que han podido aprovechar los beneficios, los defensores han dicho que pueden tener enormes consecuencias. Rachel Sabella, directora de No Kid Hungry New York, dijo que los fondos del P-EBT “pueden ser la diferencia un niño que pasa hambre o uno que tiene una comida sana y nutritiva”.

“Sabemos que las familias están sufriendo — 3 de cada 4 nos han dicho que ahora ha sido más difícil poder comprar alimentos que en 2022 — así que esperamos que todos los hogares con derecho al P-EBT aprovechen este beneficio”, dijo en una declaración. “Sabemos cuán importante es dar a conocer estos fondos antes de que caduquen, y les pedimos a las familias a que revisen sus cuentas de EBT y tengan sus tarjetas a la mano”.

Nueva York necesita más programas de información, dice un experto

Wendy De La Rosa, profesora adjunta de marketing en la Wharton School de la Universidad de Pensilvania que ha estudiado los beneficios públicos, dijo que Nueva York y otros estados deberían hacer más para comunicarse de forma eficaz con las familias.

Usar mensajes de texto para avisarles a las familias sobre sus beneficios es un método “fundamentalmente defectuoso”, según De La Rosa.

“Las estafas están por las nubes, y todos los expertos en seguridad nos dicen que tengamos miedo”, dijo. “¿En qué mundo pensaríamos que un solo mensaje de texto — que con frecuencia proviene de un número desconocido — va a lograr que más gente lo reciba y capte?”

Agregó también que, en el caso de estudiantes con vivienda inestable, los números de teléfono que están en los archivos de los distritos escolares pueden tener errores o no estar actualizados.

“Tiene que ser un mensaje de texto, y un email, y una carta, y llamadas telefónicas, aparte de realmente determinar ¿A qué padres no hemos llegado?”, dijo De La Rosa. “Y luego hay que hacer un esfuerzo concertado para llegar a ellas y que todos estén informados”.

Algunas familias también responden mejor a cierto tipo de comunicación cuando se trata de beneficios. Lograr que las familias sientan más de los beneficios son suyos puede hacer que los aprovechen más, dijo De La Rosa. Es más probable que las familias usen beneficios presentados como un derecho, que los presentados como un programa de ayuda.

Programa permanente de beneficios de comida de verano a la vuelta de la esquina

A pesar de sus preocupaciones, a De La Rosa le satisface que Nueva York está entre los estados que han optado por adoptar un programa permanente federal de beneficios de comida en el verano. En todo el país, 9.5 millones de estudiantes que hubiesen sido elegibles para los beneficios probablemente se quedarán sin ellos este año, ya que por lo menos 12 estados no quisieron participar en el programa.

“Cuando se pone en ese contexto — que los niños de familias en algunos estados están pasando hambre porque los legisladores no han querido adoptar esta política — es evidente que Nueva York les lleva ventaja”, dijo ella.

Julian Shen-Berro es un reportero que cubre la ciudad de Nueva York. Comunícate con él enviándole un email a jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Educators railed against mayoral control at hearings. What comes next?

2024-01-30T23:26:05+00:00

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As the state’s Education Department studies the effectiveness of New York City’s 20-year-old system of mayoral control, locals aired their views at five hearings held across the boroughs over the past two months.

Over the hours of testimony, a clear theme emerged: Most of the educators, parents, and other community members wanted to see it revised or overturned.

Many voiced grievances against the educational policies of Mayor Eric Adams and his predecessors, arguing the current system places too much power in the hands of the mayor and diminishes the voice of local communities. Meanwhile, defenders of the system, like schools Chancellor David Banks, contended that centralizing decision-making allows for a more effective and accountable system than the fractured school board approach that the city once relied on.

Mayoral control is set to expire on June 30, and the speakers hope their words might influence lawmakers who will soon determine who gets control over city schools. Some observers remain skeptical about whether the hearings will sway negotiations over the city’s school governance structure — particularly as Gov. Kathy Hochul has already called for a four-year extension of the current system.

Troy McGhie, a teacher at Curtis High School in Staten Island, called for further limitations on the mayor’s power over schools during a Monday night hearing in Staten Island. He cited Adams’ recent education budget cuts and his pushback on the state’s mandate to reduce class sizes in New York City schools.

“It’s become quite evident over the years that mayoral control — the way that it is now — is out of control,” McGhie said.

But though dissatisfaction with the current system has been consistent across the hearings, speakers have voiced a range of opinions on how state lawmakers should alter it.

“There’s lots of folks who don’t like some aspects of the current system,” said Jeffrey Henig, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “But there’s way less consensus about what the alternative should be.”

Future of mayoral control remains unclear

Adams questioned whether the testimony was representative while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.

“I’m not a mathematical genius, but having five testimonies or hearings and at most you got 500 people, that’s not a reflection of our school system,” he said. “We have a public school-reared chancellor, public school-reared mayor. We have transformed the school system in what we are doing, and I think we need to continue the success.”

The current school governance system — and critiques of it — predate Adams by decades. Driven by feelings of dissatisfaction with elected school boards in the 1990s, the push to establish mayoral control took hold in a handful of major cities across the country, including New York and Chicago.

In New York City, the system began under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2002, and has been regularly extended in the years since. In Chicago, where mayoral control of schools was established in 1995, the city will transition to a fully elected school board by 2027.

But even with years to look back upon, it can be difficult to determine the impact of the school governance structure.

“That’s been very difficult to decipher empirically,” Henig said. “Partly because of the variation in forms it takes, partly because it’s been hard to separate mayoral control from the particular individuals who had mayoral control.”

There are an enormous number of factors influencing how students perform in school, said Sandra Vergari, a professor of education policy at the University at Albany.

“I would question anybody who claims mayoral control doesn’t work, or traditional school boards don’t work,” she said. “How do you isolate governance as being the thing that really explains student achievement?”

The governance system has largely relied on the mayor’s power to choose a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

Over time, tweaks to the system have lessened the mayor’s degree of control. When lawmakers extended it in 2022, for example, they adjusted the system so that PEP members could no longer be removed for voting against their appointer’s wishes, making it harder to remove a panelist for opposing proposals from City Hall. At the same time, the board also expanded from 15 to 23 members, with the mayor appointing 13 of them and retaining the majority.

Calling for deeper changes in school governance

A number of the speakers at the recent public hearings have called for adjusting the PEP’s makeup so the mayor no longer appoints a majority of its members — alleging the panel has served as a “rubber stamp” for the mayor and schools chancellor.

Having a system where a board has “an oppositional mindset to the chancellor,” however, might not be most effective, said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

“There will always be a substantial number of opponents to controversial decisions,” he said. “You do want an effective and broadly representational decision-making process, but how that plays out in terms of the decisions themselves is, I think, wholly based on individual circumstances and not predictable through the governance system.”

Bloomfield has instead advocated for the City Council to take on an oversight role in the city’s school governance system.

Some have called for a longer term approach to changing the city’s school governance structure. The Education Council Consortium, a grassroots group of parents, advocates, and other community members, has urged the state to form a commission made up of parents, students, educators, researchers, and advocates to develop recommendations for a new system.

“It’s a very complicated system, and those who have been involved in this work for a long time know that sometimes changes are made, and there are unintended consequences,” said Jonathan Greenberg, a parent leader who serves on the group’s board. “It’s really important to get a wide swath of people in the room over time to see what we can do to balance out the various needs that different stakeholders have, and learn from the mistakes of the past.

“But the one guiding principle for us is this idea of a more democratic system,” he added.

A school governance overhaul may be unlikely, some observers say

Though Monday marked the conclusion of the public hearings, it will still be some time before the state’s findings are released. The state Education Department’s forthcoming report is expected to be finished in March — and in the meantime, some lawmakers have stressed deliberations should wait until after the release of the report.

State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the senate’s New York City education committee, said the study would examine 20 years of mayoral control in the city, as well as the experiences of other school systems that have reversed course.

“I heard a tremendous amount of opinion and insight from a wide range of stakeholders about how to improve our system of school governance at the public hearings, and look forward to receiving SED’s final report in the Spring,” he said in a statement.

Some observers remain skeptical that lawmakers will implement sweeping changes.

Bloomfield said he expects mayoral control to persist largely as it exists now, with potential tweaks to lessen the mayor’s degree of control.

“I don’t see the appetite in the legislature for any massive change in school governance,” Bloomfield said. “Certainly nothing that the governor says shows that she wants any large change.”

Regardless of which governance structure the city adopts moving forward, Henig noted a longer-term system could benefit the city’s schools.

“No matter how you feel about the existing structure or its earlier iterations in New York, the fact that the rules of the game are constantly up in the air and awaiting what the legislature is going to do this time,” he said, “I think there’s a cost to that kind of uncertainty.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

More than 90,000 NYC students haven’t spent recent pandemic food benefits, data shows

2023-10-20T21:20:02+00:00

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Families of more than 90,000 eligible children in New York City have not redeemed recent allotments of pandemic food benefits, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat.

That means at least $35 million dollars in potential benefits remain unused and could expire early next year, with New Yorkers losing out on the federal funds.

The funds — known as the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, or P-EBT — have been disbursed in several chunks since 2020 to help cover meal costs for families whose students usually receive free meals at school. Because New York City’s public schools have universal meals, all families are eligible regardless of household income.

This year, the state distributed multiple rounds of funds, including $120 per child for the summer of 2023, as well as at least $391 per child for the summer of 2022 and the 2021-22 school year. (Though funds from the latter disbursement could total as much as $1,671 per child based on COVID-related absences or remote-learning days during the year.)

In total, the state has issued roughly $5.4 billion in P-EBT benefits since 2020, with about 60% of benefits issued directly to low-income families who receive federal benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Advocates have praised the program for providing critical support across New York, especially as the effects of the pandemic placed additional strain on struggling families.

But among non-SNAP families, more than 90,000 students in the city had not redeemed funds from the 2021-22 school year and 2022 summer allotment, according to state data shared by education consultant David Rubel and confirmed by the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Among families who were receiving P-EBT cards for the first time, 41,271 had not spent any of the funds. For those with existing P-EBT cards, 49,465 had not used the benefits, either.

Liz Accles, executive director of Community Food Advocates, expressed concern over the high number of families who had yet to use the funds. She worried some may have encountered difficulties accessing them, while others may be unaware they exist or choosing not to use them.

For many in the city, the P-EBT program has been a “lifesaver,” she added.

“The vast majority of New York City public school families are struggling financially to make ends meet, and the cost of groceries is significant for everyone,” Accles said. “We hope that everyone will redeem the benefits.”

Rubel obtained the data earlier this month through a request under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, prompted by concerns that many families might be unaware of recent disbursements — especially those with limited English proficiency. He said he’s followed P-EBT news closely, but he wasn’t aware of the summer 2022 disbursement until he came across a related Chalkbeat article.

“If I didn’t know about it, what about the families of the other million children in our public school system,” he said, adding he worried many families may have lost or discarded their P-EBT cards. “There’s a lot of money here sitting on the table.”

All households with phone numbers on file with their school district should have been notified by text when benefits became available, according to OTDA. Those receiving benefits for the first time were provided additional instructions about how to activate and use their P-EBT cards. Families receive another text if benefits remain unused six months after receiving them, state officials said.

The state’s Education Department also issued messaging about the benefits to all school districts in New York, officials added.

Still, for families who haven’t heard about the benefits, have forgotten, or have otherwise yet to redeem them, there’s still time to spend funds from the recent allotments.

Here’s what families need to know:

Who is eligible?

All families with children who attended K-12 in the city’s public schools during the 2021-22 school year were eligible for food benefits allotted for that year and the summer of 2022. Those who attended school last year were also eligible for the summer 2023 benefit. Those in charter, private, and other schools, or prekindergarten, who received free meals through the federal school lunch program were also eligible.

Families were eligible regardless of their immigration status.

How were benefits distributed?

Families that receive SNAP, state Temporary Assistance, or Medicaid benefits got their disbursements directly added to those accounts.

All other eligible families received funds on a P-EBT card, which was issued with their first allotment of benefits.

How can you replace your state-issued P-EBT card?

Those who have lost their P-EBT card can get a replacement by calling 1-888-328-6399.

There is no deadline for requesting a replacement card, according to state officials. Though if one is needed, officials suggest requesting one as soon as possible.

What can you use P-EBT for?

The benefits can only be used to purchase food items.

When do the benefits expire?

P-EBT funds are available to families for 274 days, or about nine months, after being issued.

Each time a family spends some of the funds, the remaining balance is valid for another 274 days, state officials said.

Why should you consider using the benefits?

All families should spend the benefits, regardless of their financial status, Accles said.

P-EBT benefits, like the federal stimulus checks that were distributed across the pandemic, provide community benefits that extend beyond the food they purchase, she added. While the funds can help cover groceries and other meal costs, their use also bolsters the local economy.

“There is a dual purpose to this,” Accles said. “It’s in everyone’s interest for those dollars to be used.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Hochul proposes more than $800 million funding increase for NY schools, 4-year extension of mayoral control

2024-01-16T19:03:49+00:00

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Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a more than $800 million increase in funding for the state’s public schools, while also calling for a four-year extension of New York City’s polarizing mayoral control system.

The proposals came Tuesday as Hochul presented her $233 billion 2025 state budget, building on the hundreds of policy initiatives announced last week in her State of the State address. Her budget proposal also set aside $10 million for teacher training to support a statewide literacy initiative that Hochul hopes will encourage schools to adopt new curriculums.

The governor’s call to extend New York City’s centralized school governance structure is in some ways unsurprising. She advocated for the same extension in 2022, though lawmakers eventually approved only a two-year extension and tasked the state’s Education Department with compiling a report on how effective the system has been.

But her support for mayoral control comes just months before the release of that report, and follows a series of public hearings in New York City where the status quo has been hotly contested. Scores of educators have flocked to the hearings to call for the system to be revised or overturned, citing grievances with the educational policies of Mayor Eric Adams and his predecessors.

Outside of the education budget, Hochul’s proposal also called for $2.4 billion to provide shelter and other basic services to migrants and asylum seekers — including providing humanitarian aid to New York City. That funding would draw $500 million from the state’s reserves, Hochul said. She also proposed millions to support mental health programs and services.

Hochul’s budget proposal marks the start of negotiations with lawmakers over how the state should allocate its funding in the next fiscal year, which begins in April. During a press conference after her budget presentation, Hochul affirmed to reporters that she would not consider raising income taxes to increase spending on schools or other issues, regardless of what lawmakers propose.

Here are the education highlights from Hochul’s budget presentation:

Increase to school aid, though smaller than previous years

Hochul wants to spend $825 million more on the state’s schools — a 2.4% funding jump from last year’s budget. That increase would bring the state’s total education tab to more than $35.3 billion — the highest level of state aid in history.

New York City would receive $13.3 billion under the proposal — a funding increase of roughly $341 million, or about 2.5%, according to figures released by the state.

The bulk of the spending jump comes from a proposed $507 million increase to Foundation Aid, the state formula that calculates how much funding each school district receives and sends more dollars to higher-need districts. Lawmakers committed to fully funding the formula for the first time in 2021, with districts seeing the additional funding phased in over three years.

The proposed increase to Foundation Aid was driven largely by inflation, but came as a smaller jump than previously anticipated.

Hochul’s budget proposal included two changes to Foundation Aid, according to the state’s budget director, Blake Washington. The first would alter how the formula accounts for inflation, shifting to using a 10-year average rate in calculations. It would also modify a provision that prevented districts who saw enrollment drops from losing money.

“Seventy-five percent of the districts that would experience a change under this recommendation have lost more than 20% of their pupil count since the Foundation Aid formula was adopted,” Washington said.

Hochul’s Tuesday proposal represented a more modest increase in school funding than in recent budgets — and less than the $1.3 billion increase that the state’s Board of Regents called for last month. Last year, for example, the state budget increased school aid by $3 billion.

“As much as we may want to, we are not going to be able to replicate the massive increases of the past two years,” Hochul said in her budget presentation. “No one could have expected the extraordinary jumps in aid to recur annually.”

An additional $20 billion had been funneled to schools over the course of the pandemic between federal and state aid, Hochul said, noting that K-12 enrollment had declined over the past decade.

In a statement, Alliance for Quality Education, a school funding advocacy group, questioned the governor’s decision to change the Foundation Aid formula, noting the budget proposal contained $475 million less in school aid than previously anticipated.

“We agree there needs to be an update to the Foundation Aid formula, but it must be a process involving the State Education Department and engaging communities, with the goal of more accurately capturing students’ growing needs, not as a penny-pinching budgeting strategy,” said Marina Marcou-O’Malley, the group’s interim co-executive director. “What now remains to be seen is which districts the nearly half a billion dollars that we expected to see in the Governor’s proposal for schools were taken from.”

Hochul’s proposal also comes as the city’s schools and districts across the state face the end of billions of dollars in one-time federal COVID relief funds, which are set to dry up in September.

Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York, urged the state to commit further funding to support school districts that have relied on those funds to prop up essential programs.

“New York City alone is spending around $1 billion per year in expiring federal funding to pay for 450 school social workers, 3-K expansion, legally mandated preschool special education programs, 75 shelter-based community coordinators, community schools, 60 psychologists, bilingual programming, literacy initiatives, and more,” she said in a statement. “While we appreciate that the Governor is proposing to increase overall education funding, this moment in time demands more.”

Call to extend mayoral control

With the current New York City school governance structure set to expire on June 30, Adams will return to Albany this legislative session to make his case for retaining control of the city’s schools. With Hochul’s budget proposal Tuesday, it appears the governor remains the mayor’s ally in that effort.

Her budget called for a four-year extension of the current school governance structure, which gives the mayor the power to select the schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the city’s Panel on Educational Policy, or PEP, which votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

But that system has faced heavy critique at public hearings held by state education officials across four boroughs in recent months. Speakers who have called for the current system to be amended have repeatedly asked for further checks and balances to be placed on the mayor’s power, particularly when it comes to the PEP.

At a hearing in the Bronx last month, Naveed Hasan, one of five PEP members elected by the city’s parent councils, alleged his own role on the panel was “a farce.”

“The majority of the members on the PEP are appointed by the mayor and never act independently, always approving whatever City Hall finds politically expedient,” said Hasan, who represents Manhattan. “My role on the PEP is rendered meaningless under a rubber-stamp panel under mayoral control.”

Meanwhile, defenders of the current system — like schools Chancellor David Banks — have argued it creates accountability by centralizing decisions. They say it represents an improvement over the previous system, which relied on a fractured and sometimes corrupt collection of school boards across the city.

If enacted, the proposed four-year extension would represent the longest one-time extension of mayoral control since former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s time in office. Though the system has been renewed regularly (with some tweaks) over the past two decades, former Mayor Bill de Blasio repeatedly failed to secure the lengthy extension deals that had been given to his predecessor. (Bloomberg received extensions of six and seven years.)

In a statement Tuesday, state Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, criticized the governor’s decision to weigh in on mayoral control in her budget proposal.

“School governance and whether mayoral control should be continued or replaced by a more effective system must be informed by the [state Education Department] study,” he said. “It’s simply premature and senseless to lump mayoral control in with the state budget.”

Regardless of how the city’s school governance structure moves forward, Liu previously told Chalkbeat that lawmakers should seek to establish a more permanent system this year.

Reevaluating it at two- or four-year intervals is “destabilizing for the school system,” he said, adding, “There needs to be more certainty in the eyes of educators as well as families.”

Higher education, swimming instruction, and other initiatives

Hochul’s budget proposal also earmarked millions of dollars to support several policy initiatives that would impact the state’s young people.

It provides more than $200 million in new, recurring funding for state- and city-operated college campuses, commits $150 million to creating equitable opportunities for swimming instruction, and invests millions of additional dollars across multiple mental health initiatives.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams reverses cuts to community schools program, finds city funds for Summer Rising

2024-01-12T18:42:40+00:00

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New York City is backing down from millions in proposed funding cuts for its community schools program, while committing more permanent funding to Summer Rising, Mayor Eric Adams said Friday.

The announcement reverses a fraction of the steep cuts Adams ordered in the fall, as he blamed the city’s bleak financial picture largely on the ongoing influx of asylum seekers and other migrants — an assessment other elected officials have pushed back on.

At the time, Adams directed the city’s Education Department to slash nearly $550 million from its budget, with more cuts anticipated this month and in the spring.

The November cuts included about $10 million from community schools that support families with out-of-school needs. Separately, nearly $20 million for Summer Rising — a pandemic-era, free summer school program that served roughly 110,000 students last year — was cut from the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development budget, which jointly runs the program.

Both programs had been largely propped up by federal COVID relief funds.

Though officials referred to the investments in both programs as “restorations” on Friday, only community schools will see a reversal of the November budget cuts. The $20 million cut from the DYCD budget still remains in place, officials clarified after the announcement.

For Summer Rising, though, the Education Department will now use city funds to cover its roughly $80 million portion of the program’s tab, which had previously been supported by federal stimulus dollars. In past years, the program cost about $350 million to operate, according to estimates at the time.

Officials previously said the November cuts would mean reduced hours and no Friday programs for some middle-schoolers. Asked during the press conference whether the announcement meant a reversal of those potential reductions, schools Chancellor David Banks said, “That is certainly our expectation,” though added they were “still engaged in the planning process.”

Education Department officials later clarified they were “working towards trying to restore that.”

Adams said the $80 million in Summer Rising funding, as well as restorations to roughly 170 community schools, came thanks to “strong fiscal management.”

“We want to be extremely, extremely clear: We know it takes an entire city to raise a child,” Adams said. “Through community schools and the Summer Rising program, we’re giving our young people a chance to learn and grow.”

But despite the restoration to community schools, the bulk of the cuts to the city’s Education Department will remain.

Adams’ cuts to education funding have garnered fierce pushback, including a lawsuit by the city’s teachers union, which referred to them as “draconian.”

In a statement Friday, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew called the mayor’s decision to reverse some of the cuts “a step in the right direction.”

“Now, the city needs to walk back the other proposed education cuts,” he said.

Budget analysts have previously said the cuts are greater than the expected costs to serve asylum seekers, and an analysis by Comptroller Brad Lander found the city collected nearly $8 billion more in revenue last fiscal year than anticipated.

Scores of educators also flocked to public hearings on mayoral control in recent weeks to decry the cuts to education, citing them as evidence against the city’s school governance structure and urging state officials to revise or overturn it.

On Friday, Banks credited the funding changes to what he called “mayoral accountability,” a term frequently used by supporters of the current school governance structure — arguing again that the city should retain its system.

The Friday announcement — first reported by the New York Daily News — follows a reversal of other budget cuts in recent days, including to the NYPD, FDNY, and the Sanitation Department.

The city’s schools still face steep budget cuts and looming fiscal challenges. Since the start of the pandemic, the federal government has provided the Education Department with about $7.7 billion in one-time pandemic aid — but those funds will dry up in September.

Adams, who is expected to unveil his preliminary budget on Tuesday, was careful to temper expectations.

“We do not want it to be taken as a signal that the city is out of the woods,” he said. “We are not.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Correction: This story initially said the potential reduction in Summer Rising hours for some middle-schoolers would no longer be necessary, and that the November budget cuts to the program had been restored. City officials clarified after the press conference that the cuts remained in place and hours could still be reduced.

$30 million federal grant to create 6 magnet high schools across Manhattan and Bronx

2024-01-12T22:22:23+00:00

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New York City has won $30 million in federal funding to create six magnet high schools across Manhattan and the Bronx, Education Department officials announced Friday.

Over the next five years, the city’s goal is to create an “innovative, theme-based program that provides college access, rigorous instruction, and enrichment activities” at six existing schools in hopes of attracting a more diverse group of students, according to the department’s two grant applications for the U.S. Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program.

Three schools in the Bronx — the Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, the High School for Teaching and the Professions, and the Bronx High School for the Visual Arts — will be turned into magnet schools and serve about 1,800 students in grades 6-12. The schools are in districts that span the Eastchester, Kingsbridge, Jerome Park, Van Nest, and Hunts Point neighborhoods of the Bronx.

The three Manhattan schools that will become magnet schools are Esperanza Preparatory Academy, City College Academy of the Arts, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School. The goal is to eventually attract about 1,725 students in grades 6-12 to the schools, whose districts span the Upper East Side, Chelsea, East Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood.

City officials claim it’s the first time they’ve been awarded such grants for high school.

Both applications say the aim is to reduce “isolation among Hispanic students” by “attracting a more racially diverse population through unique thematic programs which offer early college access coupled with career pathways and a strategic, aggressive, and targeted approach to outreach and recruitment.” At City College Academy of the Arts, for example, 95% of its students are Hispanic, according to public data; at the Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, 81% are.

New York City has previously been awarded federal magnet grants for elementary and middle schools, but the outcomes haven’t always worked out according to plan. Queens parent Amanda Vender wrote about how a federal magnet grant aimed at integrating her son’s Jackson Heights middle school couldn’t contend with various systemic obstacles, including enrollment-related issues capping students who lived outside of its zone.

Sean Corcoran, an education professor at Vanderbilt University who has long studied New York City’s high school admissions, pointed out that as early as 1992, there’s a study that references career magnet high school programs, though it appears the city didn’t call them magnet schools back then.

Regardless, in some ways, many high schools in the city have actually been “magnets” for decades, Corcoran said.

“What differentiates magnet schools nationally is that they are schools of choice and have a specialized curriculum, such as a theme or career focus,” he wrote in an email. “NYC has universal high school choice, and most of its high schools are themed. So, NYC has long been doing what other ‘magnet’ schools around the country were established to do.”

Magnet schools are “diverse by design,” he said, and began to appear in the 1970s and 1980s to curb white flight from large urban school districts.

“The evidence on whether they accomplished this is mixed, but the principle lives on,” he said. “NYC has also been experimenting with diversity in admissions policies which formalize what magnet schools have been doing for years. Taken together, I’m glad to see the city get federal recognition for its efforts to attract and retain a diverse student population in its high schools.”

Nyah Berg, executive director of New York Appleseed, an organization that advocates for integrated schools, said her organization was “generally encouraged” to see more funding devoted to encouraging diversity and desegregation.

“Magnet programming is an imperfect tool, and oftentimes its intention to mitigate the causes of segregation are lost to other goals or lack of strategies to further integrated learning environments,” Berg wrote in an email.

That, she said, is why leadership on the issue remains important.

“Many of my concerns lie in that our current leadership may not take this opportunity to truly couple their support for rigorous instruction and enrichment with the need to desegregate its public schools,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Applications are now open for NYC’s free preschool programs. What parents should know

2024-01-10T22:41:59+00:00

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New York City families: Applications to the city’s free public preschool programs are now open.

The application period began Wednesday and will remain open until March 1, according to city officials. Parents have about two months to submit applications to preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, with offers scheduled to release in May.

The city’s 3-K (for 3-year-olds) and pre-K (serving 4-year-olds) programs offer free, full-day educational programming in public schools as well as community-based organizations. (“Full day” means 6 hours and 20 minutes.) They can be hugely beneficial to families, saving them thousands of dollars in child care costs.

Research has found preschool programs can have positive impacts on a child’s development, academic performance, and health.

Making pre-K universal for the city’s 4-year-olds is widely considered former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s crowning achievement. He aimed to do the same for the city’s 3-year-olds, but never had the full funding in place to make 3-K universal, relying on temporary federal COVID relief dollars to expand the program. But in recent years, enrollment in pre-kindergarten classes has fallen significantly, and thousands of seats in the city’s program for 3-year-olds have gone unfilled. The sector’s challenges have also grown as a result of budget cuts and the looming expiration of federal COVID relief funds.

Here’s what families need to know:

How to apply

Parents can apply in three ways:

Online at MySchools.nyc;
Over the phone by calling 718-935-2009 Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.;
Or in person by going to a family welcome center.

The city’s Education Department will also host virtual information sessions to help families learn more about the admissions process, officials said.

Families can attend virtual sessions either by visiting this link and entering a passcode posted here, or by calling 646-931-3860 and entering the following conference ID: 939 3029 2133.

The first virtual session will take place Thursday at 2 p.m., with others scheduled over the coming weeks. Interpretation services will also be offered, according to city officials.

Other virtual information sessions:

Jan. 18 at 6 p.m.
Jan. 23 at 6 p.m. in Spanish
Feb. 7 at 2 p.m.
Feb. 15 at 6 p.m.

How preschool programs have changed

The city’s early childhood programs have undergone changes in recent years, with Mayor Eric Adams stepping back from an expansion to 3-K planned by his predecessor, while vowing to ensure the city offers enough seats to preschool students with disabilities.

The city has also moved toward a single curriculum.

Though data released in November showed enrollment in the city’s public schools rising slightly for the first time in eight years, figures remain below pre-pandemic norms.

The number of children attending pre-kindergarten programs has declined by more than 12,000 since the pandemic began, with about 56,900 children enrolled as of this year. Despite growing demand for 3-K programs, thousands of seats remain empty.

Some declines may have been caused by outside factors, like birth rates falling nationally over time or families leaving the city as housing costs have risen. But advocates have also complained that many 3-K programs are only available between 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., making them difficult for working parents to take advantage of.

Education Department officials have noted that seats in some areas are in higher demand, adding the city has worked to shift unfilled seats to areas with greater need.

City officials have put money toward addressing the enrollment losses and empty seats. Last year, officials said the city would pay a consulting firm just over $760,000 to help determine how to allocate 3-K seats across different neighborhoods. And in the fall, the city moved to spend $21 million on a two-year ad campaign to provide families with information about enrolling in public schools.

Programs brace for budget cuts

The sector is likely to face further challenges ahead, as the city’s Education Department undergoes budget cuts, and as federal COVID relief funds are set to expire in the fall. In November, Adams directed the city’s Education Department to cut nearly $550 million from its budget, with further cuts still expected.

An analysis released Wednesday by the city’s Independent Budget Office showed those cuts would reduce the overall budget for 3-K and pre-K by $82 million beginning in 2025 — with 3-K facing an additional loss of $10 million each year in 2026 and 2027, after the expiration of federal funds.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Mental health, literacy, college access: Hochul’s 2024 education agenda

2024-01-09T20:11:06+00:00

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Improving student mental health services, urging school districts to adopt new literacy curriculums, and expanding access to the state’s public colleges and universities are among the education initiatives that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hopes to accomplish this year.

Hochul outlined her priorities for the year on Tuesday during her annual State of the State address — a speech that governors deliver each January. She pointed to a series of key policy proposals, including those that could impact children across the state, while emphasizing the need to strengthen public safety and mental health services in particular.

But some critical education issues were absent from the more than 200 initiatives outlined by state officials on Tuesday. Hochul noted her plans for addressing “the toughest fiscal issues” facing the state — including providing care for the influx of asylum-seeking and other migrant families — would come when she presents her budget proposal next week.

Here are the education policy highlights from Hochul’s State of the State address:

More school-based clinics and limits on social media

On Tuesday, Hochul referred to mental health as “the defining challenge of our time,” blaming pandemic isolation and the “toxic algorithms that govern social media” for fueling a crisis among the state’s young people.

“When schools closed during the pandemic, kids turned to social media to stay connected with friends and families,” she said. “But a darkness lives on those platforms.”

Hochul’s proposed initiatives would take a two-pronged approach to addressing student mental health — bolstering access to resources at schools, while seeking to limit the potential negative impacts of social media.

The governor wants to make on-site mental health clinics available to any school that desires one. The clinics offer students a place to receive services from mental health professionals. The proposal would build on past efforts by her administration to increase the availability of such clinics. In November, Hochul announced more than $5 million had been awarded to support 137 school-based mental health clinics across the state, including more than 80 at high-needs schools.

Hochul has also called for expanded funding for youth-driven peer support programs, as well as intensive care programs that support students who need daily treatment.

State officials, including Hochul, have also pushed for legislation that would impose restrictions on how social media companies interact with minors. Under two proposed bills, social media companies would be unable to offer algorithmically devised “addictive” content to minors by default, while giving parents the ability to block access to the sites between certain hours, and limiting the companies’ ability to collect and sell the personal data of minors.

Guaranteed college admissions for top students

To expand access to higher education across the state, Hochul has proposed automatically admitting top-performing high school students to the state’s public colleges and universities.

Under the proposal, students graduating in the top 10% of their high schools would be guaranteed admission to one or more selective colleges in the State University of New York system. A similar proposed program at City University of New York campuses would further expand access.

Other higher education priorities included increasing completion rates of federal financial aid applications, broadening outreach around food stamp benefits at public colleges, and driving up voter participation on college campuses.

A reading curriculum shakeup

During her Tuesday speech, Hochul referred to her recently announced plan to change how students across the state learn to read. The governor hopes to move schools toward embracing the “science of reading,” an established body of research about how children learn to read.

As part of her plan, the state will support programs that emphasize phonics lessons, which explicitly teach the relationships between sounds and letters and are backed by research.

Hochul has also proposed investing $10 million to partner with the state’s teachers union, training 20,000 educators and expanding efforts from the city and state university systems to help educators learn about the science of reading.

New York City has already adopted its own sweeping literacy curriculum mandate that is largely in line with Hochul’s proposal. Curriculum overhauls can be difficult to enact, and it remains unclear whether the governor’s proposal will prompt significant changes statewide.

Swimming safety, food insecurity, and other initiatives

Outside of the classroom, Hochul has also prioritized programs that seek to support families and young people across the state — including efforts to prevent drownings, tackle food insecurity, and expand access to child care.

State officials said drownings have reached record highs in recent years, becoming one of the leading causes of death among children. Racial disparities have persisted in drowning deaths, with Black children experiencing drowning death rates roughly three times higher than their white peers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To address this, the state will provide funding to renovate and construct pools in high-need neighborhoods, build “pop-up pools” during the summer months, and offer reimbursements to municipalities for costs related to hiring and staffing lifeguards, among other initiatives.

The city has also aimed to expand access to swimming facilities and programs, with a “floating pool” set to open next year.

The state has also opted into a federal meals program that provides families who usually receive free meals at school with funds to help cover food costs during the summer. That program is estimated to provide more than $200 million in federal benefits to about 2 million children in the state, officials said.

Hochul also called for continued investments in child care programs, noting the state will continue to use underutilized federal pandemic funds to provide grants to help such programs retain and hire staff.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

School funding, mayoral control, class sizes: Education issues to watch in Albany’s new session

2023-12-22T18:52:09+00:00

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With New York state’s legislative session set to begin in January, lawmakers are preparing to tackle a slate of contentious issues that could hold serious ramifications for New York City students.

The fate of the city’s school governance structure will once again be up for renewal, pushing Mayor Eric Adams to make his case in Albany for continuing mayoral control.

School funding may also play a major role in lawmakers’ discussions, as some education officials have called to overhaul the state’s school funding formula — and as New York City and other districts grapple with a looming fiscal cliff, with federal COVID relief funds expiring in the fall.

School safety initiatives, updates to the state’s learning standards, and other legislation likely appearing during the next session may also impact New York City students.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest education issues lawmakers could tackle:

Mayoral control in the hot seat again

After a two-year extension, mayoral control is set to expire on June 30, and legislators will need to decide whether and how New York City’s school governance structure should change.

Mayoral control — which consolidates power over the city’s school system in the hands of its mayor — has been regularly extended over the past two decades, but has faced some tweaks along the way. Under it, the mayor has the power to choose the schools chancellor and appoint a majority of people to the city’s Panel on Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

A forthcoming state Education Department analysis of mayoral control, which solicited public comments as part of its review process, will be key to discussions of how the city should move forward, said state Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the senate’s New York City education committee.

Whether lawmakers seek to continue mayoral control or adopt a new school governance structure, Liu said the city needs a more permanent system, noting that reevaluating it at two- or four-year intervals is “destabilizing for the school system.”

“There needs to be more certainty in the eyes of educators as well as families,” he said. Another critical consideration, he added: “Mayoral control should transcend whoever the mayor happens to be.”

Though public hearings have featured fierce criticism of the current system, some observers aren’t expecting sweeping changes.

David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, expects mayoral control to largely continue, with possible changes to lessen the mayor’s degree of control, like potentially granting additional oversight or power to City Council members or the city’s elected parent councils.

“It’s hard to imagine at this point what a radical change would look like,” Bloomfield said.

Other large cities have also grappled with their school governance structures in recent years. In Chicago, where mayoral control of schools was established in 1995, the city will transition to a fully elected school board by 2027.

Debate continues over school funding formula

Several years ago, in a major victory for state education officials and advocates, lawmakers committed to fully funding Foundation Aid, the formula that sends extra money to high-needs districts such as New York City. Since then, the conversation has shifted toward how to update the formula itself.

While the state already sends more money for schools with high-need students, the Board of Regents recently called for more than $250 million to revise the formula, proposing to update how students in poverty are counted, among other changes. The Regents have also called for $1 million to conduct a longer term study on how the formula can be improved.

State Sen. Shelley Mayer, a Democrat who chairs the senate’s general education committee, said she supports a cautious approach. She is in favor of funding further study, but hopes to better understand what potential changes would mean for school districts across the state before taking more definitive action.

“We have to know both how much it would cost the state, and also who would get less money than they currently get,” she said.

Expiring federal relief funds will dominate discussions

Both Liu and Mayer expect the looming fiscal cliff to play a major role in budget discussions during the next legislative session.

In recent years, about $7.7 billion in one-time federal pandemic aid has padded the city Education Department’s budget, helping to maintain critical initiatives like expanded preschool and summer enrichment programs. The funds have also helped schools hire social workers, psychologists, bilingual educators, and shelter coordinators, who have helped newly arrived migrants navigate the city’s school system.

But that money will expire in September, leaving many of those initiatives in jeopardy.

(Separately, Adams has directed the city’s Education Department to cut nearly $550 million from its budget, with further budget cuts still expected.).

Advocating for additional education funding as the state develops its budget will be her organization’s top priority, said Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, a group that supports the city’s most vulnerable students.

“We need the state to step up and help to save some of these important programs,” she said. “All options need to be on the table.”

Liu said, “It may not be possible for the state alone to make up the entire altitude of that cliff. But maybe we can make it a more gradual downhill, instead of a sudden drop.”

Class size law remains a sticking point

The state law to reduce class sizes at schools across the five boroughs, which will phase in smaller class sizes each year up to 2027, garnered praise from teachers and education advocates. But Adams and other local officials have expressed concern over the city’s ability to meet the requirements.

At a recent town hall in Brooklyn, First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said the city would comply with the law, but warned that it would “require very painful tradeoffs.”

When asked whether lawmakers will consider amendments to the law if petitioned by city officials during the next legislative session, Liu said, “We will continue to watch this closely.

“It’s lamentable that they continue to hem and haw about this,” he said, adding it was “absolutely essential” for the city to meet the class size mandate.

Other legislative priorities:

An effort by some lawmakers last spring to reduce the number of school lockdown drills mandated under state law is expected to resurface. Parents have argued the drills harm student mental health without clearly proven safety benefits.
As the state’s Education Department seeks to further update learning standards, Mayer hopes to tackle how to educate students about the history behind modern-day conflicts. She’s alarmed that many students have learned about the Israel-Hamas war largely through social media and is deeply troubled by reports of rising antisemitism and Islamophobia. She believes schools need more support to robustly address these and other instances of discriminatory behavior. “We cannot have students afraid to go to school because they wear a yarmulke or they wear a headscarf,” she said. “I don’t have the answers, but we’re going to have to have answers.”
Other efforts — like a universal free after-school pilot program, potential shifts to literacy instruction, the state’s ongoing transition to zero-emission buses, and more — are also expected to arise in the next session.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

$9.6 million headed to NYC schools serving homeless students after funding formula change

2023-12-18T23:01:36+00:00

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New York City will send more than $9 million in additional funding to schools serving high shares of homeless students, after updating its policy for how students living in temporary housing are counted, according to the city’s Education Department.

The change comes after Comptroller Brad Lander sent a letter last month warning roughly 21,000 students were at risk of being left out of the city’s school funding formula.

The formula sends additional money to schools that serve a disproportionate share of students with disabilities, English language learners, and students who live in temporary housing. Schools saw their budgets adjusted based on how many students with disabilities and English language learners they served as of December this year. But for students living in temporary housing, the formula previously relied on data from Dec. 31, 2022.

With an influx of asylum-seeking and other migrant families entering the city’s shelter system over the past year, that meant schools serving higher shares of homeless students could miss out on millions in additional funding, Lander said.

But at a town hall in Brooklyn last week, officials from the city’s Education Department said the formula had been tweaked to allocate about $9.6 million in additional school funding.

“Folks should start seeing that,” said schools Chancellor David Banks. “That is happening in real time.”

The city’s Education Department confirmed it had updated school funding allocations for students in temporary housing to use enrollment figures as of Oct. 31.

“Due to the influx of newcomers, we’ve taken a hard look at our policy and revised it so we can more quickly provide resources to our schools to support our newly arriving students,” said Nicole Brownstein, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department “We are pleased to say the funding was allocated to schools in early December.”

In a statement Monday, Lander praised the decision.

“This will reduce resource scarcity in schools with new arrivals and help ensure all students get the support they need,” he said.

Education Department officials also noted that prior to midyear budget adjustments, $17 million had also been distributed to schools experiencing higher than anticipated enrollment growth.

Officials did not immediately say how many additional students living in temporary housing were included in the school funding formula as a result of the change.

Though the city’s population of homeless students has long remained high, it surged to nearly 120,000 with the influx of asylum-seeking families last year — a record high for the city.

Concerns over the funding formula came as the city experienced broad financial challenges. The Education Department has been forced to cut nearly $550 million from its budget, as the city prepares for the looming expiration of federal pandemic aid next year. Schools where enrollment numbers fell short of projections also faced midyear budget cuts for the first time in four years.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

How 4 NYC high school students say AI-powered tools are changing their education

2023-12-14T12:45:05+00:00

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Kangxi Yang, a junior at Staten Island Technical High School, was surprised last year when her Advanced Placement Computer Science teacher encouraged her to use ChatGPT — an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that some educators fear offers students a powerful agent for cheating and plagiarism.

Her school had warned students against relying on ChatGPT and other AI tools to complete their writing assignments, but Yang’s teacher showed them how to use the chatbot to debug their code, allowing them to quickly diagnose and correct their errors.

“You can ask the AI tool to explain what is wrong with your code, so that you’re also learning from it,” she said. “It was a really good tool for that class.”

New York City school officials have grappled this year with how to respond to the new technology, and ensure that it does less harm than good.

In January, New York City schools blocked ChatGPT on school devices and networks, citing “negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content.” But a few months later, the city reversed course, with schools Chancellor David Banks proclaiming the city’s schools were “determined to embrace its potential.”

Today, just over a year after the tech group OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the public, some students at New York City high schools report widespread use of AI-powered chatbots among their peers. The same patterns appear elsewhere, too: In one national survey from July, 44% of teenagers said they were likely to use AI-powered tools to complete their schoolwork for them, even though a majority considered it cheating.

While some in the city have used the tools as tutors to help break down difficult concepts and work through challenging assignments, others have looked to them as a shortcut for easy answers. And though some tutoring companies have seized on the opportunities afforded by AI, experts warn the virtual tools can at times provide incorrect information or perpetuate societal biases.

Here’s how four high school students say AI-powered tools have changed the way students engage with their schoolwork:

An added resource at home

At Staten Island Tech, Yang hasn’t encountered many teachers who are strictly against using AI-powered tools.

Earlier this year, when her English class read “The Scarlet Letter,” a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, students were assigned a group project analyzing the book. Part of the assignment included designing a letter “A,” which the main character of the novel is forced to wear on her clothes.

Kangxi Yang, a junior at Staten Island Technical High School.

For groups who weren’t confident in their artistic abilities, Yang’s teacher noted students could use images generated by AI based on their prompts.

Yang hasn’t personally seen many students at her school use AI tools to cheat on assignments, though one of her peers did submit an AI-generated application to her underwater-robotics team.

At home, Yang has used Bard, an AI-powered chatbot developed by Google specifically as a learning tool for teenagers, to gain new insights into her coursework. It includes safety features aimed at preventing access to unsafe content for younger users.

“For A.P. U.S. History, I have to do daily textbook readings, and a lot of the concepts I’m not sure about,” Yang said. “I search up certain terms to help me understand what they mean, or just to help me understand the materials better.”

AI tools have been a useful resource at home, Yang said, but they shouldn’t become more prevalent in the classroom.

“There’s a reason why a teacher is right in front of you,” she said.

AI spotlights anxieties about grades

Emily Munoz, a senior at Truman High School in the Bronx, said that at her school, fear hangs over the discussion of AI-powered tools. (Munoz is currently a Student Voices fellow at Chalkbeat).

“People are scared to talk about it,” she said. “Even teachers, they’ll get AI checkers to see if you’re using it in your essays.”

Those checkers are “not always accurate,” she said.

Emily Munoz, a senior at Truman High School in the Bronx.

Munoz said she understands why her teachers are concerned. Some students at her school have looked at ChatGPT and other tools as an easy way to get their essays written quickly — a use that diminishes originality and harms their ability to learn, Munoz said.

At the same time, she worries some students have been falsely accused of using AI tools.

The problem stems not from the ease of access to the tools, but from the extreme focus on grades and academic success, Munoz said. If her peers didn’t feel so much pressure to score well on assignments and instead emphasized simply learning, they might be less likely to turn to tools like ChatGPT, she added.

“Even before AI, people would sometimes take other people’s essays,” Munoz said. “Or people would just search online, and they’d find something there and take it.

“AI is just bringing these issues to the table,” she said.

Ease of AI shows need for curriculum change

Benjamin Weiss, a junior at Midwood High School in Brooklyn.

Benjamin Weiss, a junior at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, said that he’s “very annoyed” with the way students are taught, and that student use of AI shows what’s wrong with the curriculum.

The emphasis on standardized testing at his school has meant a lot of assignments are geared toward exam preparation — work that Weiss said can be easily solved by AI-powered chatbots.

“All of it is kind of like: We read the textbook, we memorize the textbook, we answer test questions,” he said.

Some history assignments, for example, have asked him to regurgitate facts without calling for his own interpretation and analysis, he added. While many of his peers have welcomed the use of the tools, Weiss believes they spotlight inherent flaws in the educational system.

If more of his schoolwork involved project-based learning and assignments that helped foster critical thinking, Weiss said, students would be less inclined to use AI.

“For the most part, it’s really a convenience thing,” he said. “It’s just so easy to use these tools.”

Peers have gloated that using ChatGPT on homework means they “can work smarter, not harder,” according to Weiss.

Some teachers have been open to students using AI-powered tools in a limited capacity, but others have adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward them, Weiss said. From speaking to administrators, he knows his school is considering how the tools can be further incorporated into classrooms, and how it can better adapt to the new technology.

Weiss hopes AI will spur an open dialogue at schools across the city.

“This is just a great time to revisit the conversation about how we want to teach students,” he said. “What’s the optimal solution for students and also for teachers who don’t want to punish students and who want to teach with more creativity?”

AI poses ethical questions in class

Enkhdari Gereltogtokh, a junior at United Nations International School in Manhattan.

At United Nations International School, a private school in Manhattan, 11th grader Enkhdari Gereltogtokh has had to contend with the ethics of artificial intelligence in several ways.

In her English class this year, Gereltogtokh read “Klara and the Sun,” a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro that is narrated by a robot developed to serve as an “artificial friend” to a teenage girl.

“It’s very interesting in how it thinks about the juxtapositions of artificial versus natural,” she said of the book.

That theme has persisted in her own interactions with AI-powered tools. When her English teacher encouraged students to see how ChatGPT’s literary analysis compared with their own, Gereltogtokh noticed clear distinctions between how humans and AI understand writing.

She asked it to analyze a passage from the book that described the narrator processing overwhelming emotions.

“ChatGPT said, ‘Since she’s curled into a ball, this represents her wallowing in grief,’” she said. “It’s very surface level. It’s not the level of depth I would get from asking a person.”

Meanwhile, in her Theory of Knowledge class — a part of the International Baccalaureate program — students debated what constituted true artificial intelligence, considering how human influences could program biases and stereotypes into the tools.

Despite the flaws of tools like ChatGPT, Gereltogtokh said many students “use it all the time,” sometimes plugging in essay prompts and memorizing arguments ahead of in-class writing assignments, or even searching for answers to questions as their teachers are posing them in class.

Last year, she added, a group of 11th graders were caught using AI-powered tools to generate essays on “The Great Gatsby,” a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, after each of them wrote about “Alfonso.”

“There’s no character named Alfonso in ‘The Great Gatsby,’” Gereltogtokh said.

Though she sees the value of using AI-powered tools as personalized tutors, she fears those who rely on them too heavily risk losing their own critical thinking skills.

“When you use it too much, I can’t really tell what are your genuine thoughts and feelings, and what you just took from a chatbot,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Special education data and the teacher pipeline: NY education officials share budget priorities

2023-12-12T17:10:53+00:00

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New York’s Board of Regents has called for increased investments in the state’s information technology infrastructure, a bolstered educator pipeline, and additional money to update the state’s learning standards.

As part of its annual state budget proposal, members of the board outlined its priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, before lawmakers return to Albany for the next legislative session. The proposal, unanimously approved Monday by the Regents, provides a set of recommendations for Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature. Hochul is due to issue her own budget recommendations in January and ask lawmakers to approve a 2024-25 fiscal budget later in the spring.

As its top priority, the Regents asked for $4.3 million to update the state education department’s aging IT infrastructure, as well as an additional $16 million for state data systems — much of which would support a special education data system to help identify where certain programs were lacking or had extra capacity, officials said.

The infrastructure investments are critical in order to maintain secure and stable systems that will facilitate the department’s work across all other education issues, officials said.

The Regents also sought to address teacher shortages that have impacted New York and other states by seeking nearly $4 million over three years to bolster and diversify its educator recruitment pipeline.

Though New York City hasn’t endured the kind of severe teacher shortages that have hit other parts of the state and the country, its pool of educators shrunk by roughly 2,000 last year, according to city data as of September.

The Regents asked lawmakers to devote an additional $1.4 million to update the state’s learning standards, particularly in literacy and health, and to better align them with culturally responsive-sustaining education practices. The proposed funding comes after a state commission tasked with rethinking the state’s graduation requirements included updated learning standards among its proposed changes.

The board also called for more than $250 million in funding to modernize Foundation Aid, a formula that sends state money to its roughly 700 school districts. While the formula already sends more money for schools with high-need students, proposed revisions would update how students in poverty are counted, among other changes.

Other priorities included:

funding expanded access to career and technical education and early college programs;
ensuring special education services are fulfilled;
creating statewide hybrid high school programming for students in juvenile justice settings;
supporting library construction;
assisting the state’s long-term transition to zero-emission buses;
translating assessments for students who are English-language learners.

New York City budget concerns prompt discussion

During the board’s Monday discussion of its priorities for the next legislative session, Regent Shino Tanikawa raised concerns over the looming financial challenges many school districts face, as federal pandemic aid is set to dry up next year.

With that fiscal cliff on the horizon, Mayor Eric Adams has directed the city’s Education Department to cut its budget by nearly $550 million.

“In New York City alone, there are going to be many critical programs that will be eliminated,” Tanikawa said, pointing to social workers, expanded pre-school and summer enrichment programs. “If we don’t ask the state to step in to continue some of those programs, our students are at risk of slipping back to where they were three years ago.”

Regent Roger Tilles also emphasized that concern. He expressed fears over how the influx of asylum-seeking students in New York City would continue to impact New York’s schools.

“I’m at a loss,” he said. “I don’t know what the answer is. I have no idea what we should be doing, but I know the state should be doing something.”

State officials noted that while the current state funding model does not account for enrollment spikes during the school year, the budget proposal recommends adding additional midyear funding to support schools experiencing rapid growth.

“We have got to be careful, because it isn’t just, ‘How do we replace the federal funds?’” said State Education Chancellor Lester Young. “It is also in the context of: How were those funds used?

“Part of what we want to do is have a more informed approach,” he added. “It’s not going to be solved just having one meeting.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools conduct remote learning practice ahead of winter recess

2023-12-06T22:42:57+00:00

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New York City public schools families: Get ready to log into remote classrooms this week as the city prepares for potential weather-related or other school building closures.

Families may have already received communications from their schools urging them to sign into online accounts and take other steps to prepare for possible remote learning days. The guidance comes just weeks before the winter recess and as the city has endured several severe weather events this year.

“We are striving to ensure that students have the tools that they need to avoid interruptions in their learning in the face of emergencies, including inclement weather,” said Chyann Tull, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department. “We will have students at every New York City Public School practice logging in and engaging in remote activities in their classrooms to make for smooth transitions in emergency situations.”

Students will still attend school in person on the day of their remote practice, according to city officials. The practices across the city’s 1,600 schools are expected to take place by Friday.

Since the onset of the pandemic, remote learning has been an alternative to canceling classes on days when the weather prevents students from traveling to school. In New York City, that meant the end of snow days as the city seeks to ensure it meets the state mandated 180 days of instruction per year.

Last year, the New York City area saw one of its mildest winters in history. While the National Weather Service forecasts a warmer than average winter across the region this year, the city’s schools have already experienced other major weather-related disruptions.

In June, wildfire smoke drifting into the city from Canada impacted schools, with city officials first canceling all outdoor activities before turning to remote learning.

A torrential downpour in September brought more than 5 inches of rain to the city’s schools, flooding 150 school buildings and complicating commutes for thousands of students and schools staff. The city did not cancel in-person learning during the storm — a decision that sparked criticism from some parents and educators.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Mayoral control comes under fire at Bronx public hearing

2023-12-06T17:24:44+00:00

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Parents, educators, and others at a Bronx public hearing voiced their concerns about New York City’s long-standing mayoral control system with a resounding message: the system should end or be revised.

Common themes emerged among the more than 40 speakers during Tuesday night’s hearing at DeWitt Clinton High School. Many pointed to the instability of hinging major education policies on an elected official who can change as often as every four years, while also criticizing sweeping school initiatives helmed by current and former mayors.

The hearing was the first of five that state officials are hosting in each borough through January, offering families, educators, school staff, and others an opportunity to weigh in on the city’s mayoral control system. (The hearings are in-person and live-streamed.) It comes as part of a comprehensive state review of New York City’s school governance structure, which is set to expire on June 30.

That means that Mayor Eric Adams will need to return to Albany in the next legislative session if he hopes to retain control of the nation’s largest school system.

Christina Cover, a Bronx special education teacher and literacy coordinator, spoke at the hearing in praise of the city’s ongoing literacy curriculum overhaul — one of the Adams administration’s most significant educational policies. But despite feeling that initiative was important, she urged the city to adopt a community-based school governance model.

“This initiative — like the many initiatives before — risks being stopped completely with the start of a new mayoral administration,” she said. “Mayoral control, for better or for worse, ties educational initiatives to wide scale and massively funded mayoral campaign cycles.”

She continued: “Not everyone votes for a mayor on educational issues. School accountability during mayoral elections is hardly accountability at all.”

Speakers criticize Bloomberg, Adams educational policies

In arguing against the current system, other speakers pointed to what they saw as harmful mayoral decisions.

Sandy Wong, a kindergarten teacher at P.S. 30 in the Bronx, said her community suffered under the policies of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who in 2002 became the first chief executive to gain full control of the school system. She decried Bloomberg’s decisions to close many low-performing schools and champion charter school alternatives, and worries now that Adams’ call to cut nearly $550 million from the city’s schools budget will further harm her students.

“The teachers and parents in our school district are always putting their hands in their pockets to pay for basic school supplies like pencils, erasers, erasable markers, glue sticks, and paper,” she said. “My students, particularly those from marginalized communities, are disproportionately affected, falling behind their peers and other school districts.”

Students in the Bronx scored the lowest rates of proficiency among the five boroughs on the most recent state reading and math exams, according to city data.

Mayoral control has been regularly extended over the past two decades, though often with tweaks. It has relied on the mayor’s power to choose the schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the city’s Panel on Educational Policy, or PEP, which votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

Adams retained both in a deal state lawmakers struck in 2022, but some changes weakened his level of control. One change, for example, meant PEP members could no longer be removed for voting against their appointer’s wishes, making it harder to remove a panelist for opposing proposals from City Hall. At the same time, the board also expanded from 15 to 23 members, with the mayor appointing 13 of them and keeping the majority.

Speakers who wanted the current system amended repeatedly called for further checks and balances to be placed on the mayor’s power, particularly when it comes to the PEP.

At the hearing, Naveed Hasan, one of five PEP members elected by the city’s parent councils, alleged his own role on the panel was “a farce.”

Schools Chancellor defends mayoral control system

One of Tuesday night’s few defenders of the status quo came from the Adams’ administration: schools Chancellor David Banks.

Banks, who referred to the current system only as “mayoral accountability,” admitted there was “no perfect governance system.” As someone who has worked in New York City public schools for decades — as a school safety agent, teacher, and principal — he said he’s seen improvements under the current structure.

“I know from firsthand experience the flaws of the previous system and the ways that our students suffered as a result,” he said. “Mayoral accountability, in contrast, is as close as we can get to a system that is the most manageable, least politicized, and most impactful.”

As the chancellor’s time expired, an audience member loudly booed.

Rebukes of the city’s mayoral control system long predate the Bronx hearing. Ahead of the public testimony, some used their positions on parent councils to voice their opposition.

In a resolution passed last week by the Citywide Council on Special Education, members called on the state legislature to end mayoral control, citing “a lack of checks and balances that would otherwise be provided by a democratically elected school board,” among other concerns.

New York City isn’t the only large school system grappling with its centralized school governance structure. In Chicago, where mayoral control of schools was established in 1995, the city will transition to a fully elected school board by 2027.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Essays, tests, auditions, frustration, stress: What it’s like to apply to high school in NYC

2023-11-30T21:24:27+00:00

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One mom called it hell. Another felt like she was drowning in information. Some stretched their budgets to pay for test prep and coaches for their children’s art portfolios and auditions.

Welcome to New York City’s high school application process, where parents — often moms — take on what amounts to part-time jobs to help their 13-year-olds find the “right” school.

Families have until Friday to rank their 12 choices from among 700 programs in 400 schools. Despite the vast array of options, families feel like they’re fighting for seats.

In many ways, they are. In talking to more than a dozen families of eighth graders about their admissions journeys, Chalkbeat found a handful of coveted schools repeatedly came up. And admissions data confirms that a small number of high schools are ranked on an outsized number of applications.

The top 15 schools represented about 20% of all the choices that eighth graders picked on their applications in 2021, according to an analysis by Sean Corcoran, associate professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University.

And this data doesn’t include the eight prestigious specialized high schools, like Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech, that require the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, or LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which requires auditions. Thousands of students apply to those schools through a separate process.

“When people are confronted with an overwhelming amount of information, they want to simplify things as much as possible. You start with the schools that everybody knows, with the best reputation,” said Corcoran, whose research focuses on how to provide information to families to help them expand their choices.

The odds can feel overwhelming. At Manhattan’s Eleanor Roosevelt, there were 37 applicants for every general education seat, according to stats from the MySchools directory. There were 27 applicants per seat at Bard Early College High School in Queens. (This school was the 18th on the popular schools list.)

As with so many things in the public school system, those with time and means often have an advantage, contributing to New York having among the most segregated schools in the nation. Families jockey for limited spots on tours. They go down rabbit holes in Facebook groups to figure out their children’s odds. And a whole cottage industry has developed around the process, including consultants advising on a good fit.

Below are stories from six families from across the city reflecting on the lengths they’ve gone to figure out their school rankings.

“It’s just like the college application process,” said southeast Queens mom Trina Mitchell. “But it’s high school! It’s insane.”

The experienced project manager

Carina Li, left, with her mom, Karen Li.

Karen Li is hedging her bets.

The day after Li’s daughter Carina finished seventh grade, Li enrolled her in an SHSAT prep course. Carina studied all summer and took the prep course until Nov. 8, when the Education Department administered the test in public middle schools across the city.

Carina also took the Test for Admissions into Catholic School, or TACHS, and will sit for Catholic school scholarship exams on Saturday.

Then there’s the application for LaGuardia High School. Carina started planning her visual art portfolio in July and was still working on it four months later. She needed to submit eight pieces (including a still life that she redid three times) and make a video explaining her choices.

Even with help from an artistic aunt, the process is a lot. In fact, it’s all a lot.

Studying for the SHSAT was “terrible,” and the practice tests were “horrible,” said Carina, who lives in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. The art portfolio was “very demanding.”

“People always think that you have to spend money to pay for SHSAT prep,” said Li, who works in tax reporting. She now realizes that many kids vying for arts schools have to work just as hard as those studying for the SHSAT, plus they’ve been taking pricey arts classes for years. “They dance when they’re in diapers.”

Li said she has felt like her daughter’s “project manager,” reminding her to study, keeping track of due dates, and obtaining transcripts and recommendation letters for Catholic schools.

She has had practice: She went through the high school application process a few years ago with her older daughter, who went to Brooklyn Tech. So Li knew she had to start researching high schools for her younger daughter in seventh grade.

Carina, a competitive swimmer, would also like to go to Brooklyn Tech, especially for its swim team. But the family isn’t pinning its hopes on one school.

On top of it all, Li sees her daughter feeling overwhelmed and tries not to add stress.

“All this will be over by Dec. 2,” Li said.

The community activist

Jason Sosa spent months on SHSAT prep.

Expensive SHSAT courses were out of reach for the Sosa family of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. But they still managed to find creative ways to get their son Jason test prep.

Jovita Sosa recently got a grant that helped fund a six-week summer SHSAT test prep course through the literacy-focused nonprofit she started 10 years ago, Grupo Juego y Lectura. Jason was one of roughly six students who met twice a week for the course.

The Sosa family also received study materials from an acquaintance who got into Stuyvesant after completing the city’s DREAM program, offering free test prep. Sosa was amazed at how much more detailed the study materials were than the free materials the Education Department offers.

“I can’t afford the prep that some other people are getting,” said Sosa, a paraprofessional.

Jason, who attends a Catholic school, had been studying independently about 20 minutes a day this fall using the DREAM workbook. He worked with a high school senior on math for an hour every Saturday and Sunday. He also signed up for a free TACHS test prep program through his school. Though Sosa said she can no longer afford to pay for Catholic school, Jason wanted to take the test in case he got a scholarship.

“I found the SHSAT as expected, challenging, but not out of my grasp,” Jason said. “I feel like I could’ve done a better job with taking more time to understand the questions, but being under pressure blurs your thinking.”

The experience brought out the activist in Sosa.

She wrote to her state senator who had boasted in a constituent email of securing millions of dollars for SHSAT prep, asking for help to make free DREAM workbooks widely available to children who can’t afford test prep.

Sosa is trying to remain grounded.

“I lived it with my oldest child. We stressed him out when he was younger,” she said. “You learn it’s not the end all.”

One family. Two kids. Many art programs.

The Doucette family on a recent trip to Walt Disney World. Zach and Lexie's older brother (standing behind the twins) went to LaGuardia High School.

“It’s hell.”

That’s how Upper East Side mom Caren Doucette describes the application process for her twins.

Lexie — who has ADHD and dyslexia — is looking at visual arts. Zach is interested in performing arts. While there’s some overlap between their schools of interest, Doucette estimates that she devotes at least two hours daily to the process (and more on weekends). She’s researching websites, comparing notes with other parents, sending questions to schools, and attending tours.

“If you don’t sign up in the first 24 hours, you miss a spot,” said Doucette, a tutor with a flexible schedule. “My days are spent on the computer scouring all of this, and my husband will take the kids on evening tours.”

Doucette is especially concerned about whether her daughter, who has specific learning needs, will land at a school that can support her.

Lexie bonded with her visual arts coach, who also has dyslexia. Zach, who enjoys musical theater, had a drama coach and a voice coach, who each charge about $150 an hour. He also completed a free bootcamp in August through the Education Department’s Summer Arts Institute, where he studied with an acting coach.

“It’s a financial commitment,” Doucette said. “It straps us, but we can figure it out.”

Lexie is in “priority group 3,” because of a low grade she got last year in math from an unsupportive teacher, according to her mom, who has complained to their middle school, Wagner. Zach is in “priority group 1,” but didn’t have a high lottery number — a reality she wanted to shield him from.

Lexie and Zach went on all of the school tours as well. Even though it can be hard for her 13-year-olds to focus during the tours, they “get a vibe” being in the schools, Doucette said.

But that means they’ve missed about five days of eighth grade so far. One week they had five tours in three days, and now they’re wrapping up auditions and interviews and writing essays.

“It’s really annoying and unnecessary and stressful and time-consuming and set up awfully,” said Zach. “We have multiple things that cut into our school hours.” He wasn’t excited about the 7 p.m. open houses either.

“It’s annoying,” Lexie agreed.

A mother and daughter navigate language barriers

When Nancy Sagbay enrolled her daughter Jaleen in kindergarten nine years ago, her main priority felt clear.

Sagbay, who emigrated from Ecuador before Jaleen was born, didn’t want her daughter to lose her native tongue. So Jaleen attended P.S./I.S. 218, a dual-language K-8 school near their home in the Highbridge neighborhood of the Bronx.

Nancy Sagbay, left, with her daughter Jaleen Sagbay.

Now Jaleen can read, write, and speak in Spanish and English, and averaged above a 90% in her classes last year, to Sagbay’s great pride.

But as Jaleen turns her sights towards high school, the choices — and the application process — feel a lot more complicated.

“No one is ready for so much information,” said Sagbay, who still struggles with English.

Sagbay works at a barbershop and is constantly asking colleagues and clients for school recommendations and advice, which she relays to her daughter, Jaleen said.

As Jaleen finalized her list, she crossed off some she’d initially been eyeing once she saw their four-year graduation rates on MySchools. The 13-year-old hasn’t been on any school visits, and three of the schools she’s considering — Columbia Secondary, her top choice, Bard High School Early College in Manhattan, and Beacon, which one of her teachers recommended — require essays and other prompts.

With just a week left before the due date, Jaleen still hadn’t started them and was getting “stressed and anxious,” she said. But teachers at her middle school gave her time during the school day this week to work on them.

“I feel like I could do it,” Jaleen said of the selective schools. “I like competition. If there’s competition for it, it must be a good school.”

Sagbay, however, is worried about commuting to Manhattan.

“I didn’t want it because the trains can be dangerous,” she said, “but she wants to explore, to see people outside (her neighborhood).”

For now, they’re compromising: Jaleen is including some schools closer to home on her list.

They’re also compromising on academic focus. Jaleen is interested in art, but her mom has encouraged her to consider schools with a technology focus, since Jaleen is strong in math.

“One way or another,” Jaleen said, “she would … put that pressure on me to do better.”

The fierce parent advocate

Justin Mitchell playing drums for the NY Alliance Drumline.

What if a child’s performance in seventh grade did not reflect their abilities because of a series of extenuating circumstances?

Trina Mitchell demanded answers to that question on behalf of her son Justin.

Despite other public schools reopening after COVID shutdowns, Justin’s charter school in St. Albans, Queens, remained remote during his sixth grade year because of a problem with its roof, Mitchell said. Upon returning in seventh grade, his school lacked sufficient staffing to provide services mandated by his Individualized Education Program.

Mitchell’s letter to the Education Department through MySchools explaining the situation went unanswered until she brought it up again at an October high school admissions forum for families of children with disabilities.

The department agreed to rank Justin based on his GPA from the first semester of eighth grade.

“I didn’t give up,” said Mitchell, who works as a court clerk in Queens.

She was not able to prevail, however, in her quest to get a hard copy of the high school directory. She wanted it to mark up with sticky notes and carry around with her on tours for note-taking, “like a little bible.” She hoped it would help her discover new options.

The Education Department no longer prints hard copies.

Mitchell wished that things were easier, and that her son could just go to a zoned high school, but District 29 no longer has one. Nearby, the campus that housed Andrew Jackson High School — her husband’s alma mater — has been carved up into several small schools.

These schools read like a “country club” to Mitchell, boasting of tennis courts, football and soccer fields, and a track. Digging deeper, Mitchell said she found most students aren’t on grade level.

In general, she was concerned about the overcrowding of many Queens high schools and also was perplexed by all of the specialty programs, like law and STEM. Her son does well in science and is a good writer, but doesn’t have a career path in mind. He’s interested in being on the drumline and football team.

“For your average kid that doesn’t have a clue what they want in life, how do they lock into a program at 12 or 13 years old?” Mitchell asked. “The system is designed to cater to a kid who has it together and knows what they want to do.”

To stay or leave Staten Island?

Miles Curatolo-Boylan, left, and his mother, Lucia Curatolo-Boylan.

In drawing up their list of high schools to rank, Staten Island mom Lucia Curatolo-Boylan and her son Miles have been studying MTA schedules. By ferry or bus, he would commute more than an hour each way if he chooses a high school outside the borough.

Miles, the oldest of four, expressed an early interest in Staten Island Technical High School, a specialized school. But they’re casting a wider net.

They’ve toured schools across the city, including some Miles wasn’t thrilled about. They’ve considered Catholic high schools, too.

His deep love for illustration and drawing cartoons, as well as his interest in engineering, have helped inform the search.

But with some of his choices comes added stress — the anxiety over competition for coveted spots, the pressure of standardized tests and portfolios, as well as the reality of a long commute.

Curatolo-Boylan said she and her husband consider themselves lower-middle class, but still invested in getting Miles a tutor shortly before the SHSAT and TACHS, as well as paying for a few classes to help him strengthen his art portfolio. The standardized tests aren’t something that kids learn to tackle organically in school, she added.

“That’s a really difficult thing to stomach,” said Curatolo-Boylan, a private music teacher and acting and vocal coach who is also president of her local Community Education Council. “Knowing that there are kids that could really use that leg up in our community, especially here in Staten Island, and they’re never going to be able to afford that.”

Curatolo-Boylan said getting into public school here has always been stressful, but the “constant run-around of open house after open house” has been particularly grueling.

“So much of his life would change if he chose the city,” she said, referring to Manhattan.

With such a long commute, she knows he’ll leave early in the morning and return late in the evening. In a sense, this would mean letting go of him earlier than she anticipated, she said.

“It would be so exciting for him, and I would be so excited for him,” she said. “But at the same time, I think my heart might break a little.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

NYC withholding $11 million from schools serving homeless students, comptroller says

2023-11-21T23:19:11+00:00

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Just months after New York City changed its school funding formula to funnel more aid to homeless students, Comptroller Brad Lander warned roughly 21,000 students are at risk of being left out.

The city’s school funding formula also sends additional money to schools that serve a disproportionate share of students with disabilities and English language learners. But while schools will see their budgets adjusted based on how many students from those groups they are serving as of this December, data on the city’s homeless students will not be updated the same way.

In a letter last week, the city’s chief financial officer urged schools Chancellor David Banks to reverse a decision that would calculate funding allocations based on homeless student populations as of Dec. 31, 2022.

With a persistent influx of asylum-seeking families entering the city’s shelter system over the past year, using those figures would mean schools serving higher shares of homeless students could miss out on nearly $11 million in additional funding, Lander said.

Since last December, roughly 21,000 students in temporary housing have enrolled in New York City schools, with many enrolling in schools near shelters that will need additional resources, Lander said. He added the city already uses midyear enrollment data to adjust funding based on other student populations.

“So what is the educational policy reason for DOE uniquely denying funding to schools with new students in temporary housing?” Lander said. “Without other explanation, it appears that you are purposely creating resource scarcity in schools with new arrivals.”

The city’s Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A guide explaining the school funding formula notes that although funds for students in temporary housing aren’t part of the midyear adjustment of school budgets, the city’s Education Department “remains committed to supporting schools experiencing financial hardship due to the increase in new [students in temporary housing] admits.”

Concerns over school funding come amid the city’s broader financial woes, as the Education Department is set to cut nearly $550 million from its budget, and the expiration of federal pandemic aid looms over the next year. More than 650 schools also saw midyear budget cuts after enrollment numbers fell short of projections, though a majority of schools received extra funds after citywide enrollment ticked up for the first time in eight years.

The additional funds for students in temporary housing followed a task force recommendation to revise the city’s Fair Student Funding formula, which accounts for about two-thirds of school budgets. Under the formula, schools typically receive a baseline amount per student, with extra dollars added on top for students with additional needs.

Though the city’s population of homeless students has remained high for more than a decade, it surged to nearly 120,000 with an influx of asylum-seeking families last year. That was a 14% increase from the year before and a record high for the city, according to Advocates for Children, a group that supports the city’s most vulnerable students.

Roughly 1 in 9 students were living in shelters, “doubled up” with relatives or friends, or otherwise without permanent housing at some point in the school year, the data showed.

Using more recent enrollment numbers would help account for asylum-seeking students who arrive in the city and then transfer between schools, Lander said in the letter.

Advocates fear that school transfers could become even more common under a city rule implemented by Mayor Eric Adams last month. The rule requires families in some shelters to exit the system every 60 days, meaning they will need to find alternative housing or re-apply for shelter.

Adams later insisted the rule would not force children to change schools.

Students living in shelters were more than four times as likely as kids with permanent housing to transfer schools, according to data from the 2021-22 school year.

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

CUNY sees ‘enormous’ October application spike, as efforts to boost enrollment continue

2023-11-20T21:47:21+00:00

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An effort to bolster enrollment numbers at the City University of New York is seeing early signs of success, as the number of prospective students applying to schools in the system more than quadrupled last month.

Applications for the fall 2024 semester reached nearly 41,000 in October — a roughly 386% jump from the same time last year, when 8,420 students had applied, CUNY officials said last week.

Of those, more than 34,000 applications — or roughly 83% — came from New York City public school students.

The figures come as both city and state officials have worked to increase enrollment in the city’s network of public colleges, which saw dramatic downturns in student numbers during the pandemic, like many institutions across the country.

Systemwide, the number of enrolled students at CUNY schools fell about 17% over the course of the pandemic, with even steeper losses at the network’s community colleges. Overall, the number of students dropped from roughly 271,000 in the 2019-20 school year to about 226,000 last school year, though preliminary enrollment data shared last month indicated that decline had begun to level off.

To combat those trends, officials sent each senior expected to graduate from one of the city’s public high schools a personalized acceptance letter indicating they had a spot at CUNY and encouraging them to apply.

CUNY’s community colleges have open admissions for high school graduates, and the letters aimed to motivate those on the fence about applying to the network’s schools.

The college system also waived application fees for all NYC public school students for the entirety of October, while eliminating the cost for other high school seniors in the state between Oct. 16 and Oct. 31. The personalized letters included information about the fee waivers, which were also promoted via social media and an ad campaign, officials added.

About 88% of applicants during October received a fee waiver, up from about 52% at the same time last year, officials said.

It isn’t the first time the city’s network of public colleges has waived application fees for local students, but this year, the move came much earlier in the application process.

Schools Chancellor David Banks said he was “thrilled” by the application figures.

“The dramatic increase in applications tells us that our students heard the message: higher education is within their reach, and we have a place for them at our city’s university,” he said in a statement. “We look forward to seeing the impact of a CUNY education on the long-term outcomes for both our students and our city.”

CUNY application spike ‘an outlier,’ expert says

Though college applications have risen across the country this year, CUNY’s October jump in applicants was “enormous, and absolutely an outlier,” said Joshua Hyman, an economics professor at Amherst College who has studied higher education.

The two policy changes at CUNY appeared to complement one another, potentially amplifying the impact that either could have on their own, he said.

“The massive outreach in the letters by themselves would have had some impact,” Hyman said. “But there would have been those students who would have been excited about this, but for whom the application fee is a real barrier.”

And even among those who can afford them, fees can discourage potential applicants, said Philip Oreopoulos, an economics professor at the University of Toronto.

“Even a small fee, where you have to whip out your credit card or you have to get your parents to do that, can cause delays, can cause like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this later,’ and then it just never happens,” he said.

Applications were up last month even when compared to pre-pandemic figures, with the network receiving roughly 18,000 applicants as of the same time in 2018 and 2019, according to officials.

Any efforts to streamlining the application process can have significant impacts.

“When you make the process of applying easier, it can make the difference between someone going and not going,” Oreopoulos said.

Still, Hyman added, “There’s a big difference between applying and then ultimately enrolling.”

Though he expects to see enrollment increase next year after the spike in applications, Hyman said any growth would likely occur at a smaller scale.

Affordability can be major draw on whether to enroll

For students deciding whether to enroll in the network’s colleges, affordability can be a major draw.

Tuition at CUNY costs about $3,500 a semester for state residents at four-year colleges and $2,400 a semester for New Yorkers at community colleges, though roughly two-thirds of in-state students pay no tuition because of a combination of state and federal financial aid, according to the university.

Among graduates, 75% leave with no debt, officials said. CUNY forgave roughly $100 million in debt accrued during the pandemic.

With more students potentially enrolling next year, experts said it’s critical to ensure new students receive the support they need. Across the country, colleges saw more students dropping out since the onset of the pandemic, and traditionally disadvantaged students who may have been swayed to apply by CUNY’s outreach efforts could be at especially high risk.

Oreopoulos pointed to CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs initiative as one example of strong support systems. The program offers additional financial resources, academic structure, and direct support services to students seeking associate degrees within the network — aiming to help them graduate on time.

“It’s nice to see that CUNY is doing this combination of not only trying to help more get in, but also help more stay,” he said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Some NYC families struggle to use pandemic food benefits, as millions of dollars remain unspent

2023-11-15T00:08:41+00:00

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Myrna Mangual, a parent coordinator at P.S. 35 in the Bronx, hears from at least 10 parents a week who are confused about how to access pandemic food benefits.

The benefits — known as the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, or P-EBT — went out to all public school families and others in New York City, with several installments issued since 2020. Intended to cover the costs of meals usually provided for free at school, the funds have been praised by advocates, who have called the program a lifesaver for many of the city’s struggling families.

But for some of the parents Mangual works with, the money hasn’t been easy to use.

Those families aren’t alone, as tens of millions of dollars in potential New York City benefits remain unused. In the city, families of at least 90,000 eligible children had not redeemed a recent allotment of the pandemic food benefits as of last month, according to state data previously shared with Chalkbeat.

Those funds, which total at least $35 million, could begin to expire after December if they continue to go unspent.

Some families at P.S. 35 never received their state-issued P-EBT cards, while others say they didn’t see certain disbursements added to their accounts. When calling the state’s P-EBT helpline, some parents say they’ve had trouble reaching anyone who can provide assistance, often stumbling on the automated responses or experiencing long wait times to speak to an agent, before eventually turning elsewhere for answers.

Mangual, however, said she doesn’t know how to help the families at her school — where more than 95% of students come from low-income backgrounds and nearly a quarter are English-language learners, according to city data. She said she’s never received training on how to guide families through using the benefits.

“This is where my frustration comes from,” she said. “We know nothing.”

In total, New York’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, or OTDA, has issued $6.3 billion in P-EBT benefits, with about 60% going directly to SNAP households with existing EBT accounts, while others received the funds on state-issued P-EBT cards.

The state maintains detailed P-EBT information on its website and operates a phone helpline at 1-833-452-0096. OTDA officials said they’ve provided information on each phase of the benefits to the state’s Education Department, which then distributed that information to local school districts.

The city’s Education Department said it has promoted information about the benefits on its website as well as on social media, and referred families with questions to OTDA.

Still, parents, schools, and community organizations say there’s been a disconnect, and many families aren’t receiving the information they need to take advantage of the benefits. Difficulties accessing the funds come as the need for them is especially high.

Nearly 75% of New Yorkers felt it was harder to afford groceries than a year prior, while more than half worried they would be unable to pay their food costs if faced with an unexpected $500 expense, according to a survey conducted by No Kid Hungry New York in April.

Stephanie Wu Winter, a senior program manager for No Kid Hungry, stressed the urgent need for the benefits.

“We’re glad these programs are being stood up and recognize it’s no small task to administer them,” she said in a statement. “But there’s a clear opportunity to increase outreach to families and give them direct lines of communication to understand what benefits they’re eligible for and when they’ll receive them. There’s time to get this right, but only if we move quickly.”

Education consultant David Rubel wants to see ramped up publicity before it’s too late, fearing the unspent money could be roughly $46 million across the two most recent disbursements.

“Parents did not know they had more P-EBT dollars coming due to minimal publicity,” said Rubel, who obtained the data on unused benefits through a public records request.

Families say it’s hard to get help

Carol Jackson, a Queens parent, said she received a text message in July notifying her that she’d soon receive a P-EBT card in the mail, but it never arrived.

As a SNAP recipient at the time, she should have seen her P-EBT benefits added directly to her existing account, but Jackson added she wasn’t sure whether the benefits were ever provided there, either.

She tried calling the helpline, but couldn’t get through to an agent, she said.

Meanwhile, Lynn Lu, a Manhattan parent and professor at the CUNY School of Law, said she experienced difficulties accessing the benefits last year on one of her children’s P-EBT cards, after they switched schools. She tried calling for assistance to check the balance on the card or figure out how to get it replaced, but wasn’t able to get a clear answer.

As part of her work at CUNY, she teaches a law school clinic where they represent clients in maintaining public assistance, like SNAP. But even as a member of listservs discussing such benefits, Lu said she was only “dimly aware” that another disbursement of P-EBT funds had rolled out this fall.

“It does raise this question of: How is word getting out to the general public?” she said, adding she couldn’t recall her children’s schools ever saying anything about the pandemic food benefits.

All families with valid phone numbers on file with their school district should receive a text message whenever new benefits become available, according to state officials. But some families said they never received such messages, even if they got initial notifications about their P-EBT cards.

In a statement, Anthony Farmer, a spokesperson for OTDA, said the agency has “worked tirelessly” to distribute the benefits to millions of residents across the state.

“The agency also conducted extensive public outreach and worked closely with advocacy organizations across the state to ensure eligible families are aware of these benefits and could take steps to redeem them,” he said.

More recent allotments will continue to be sent out to families through the end of December — including the at least $391 per child sent out for the summer of 2022 and the 2021-22 school year, as well as the $120 per child distributed for the summer of 2023 — according to OTDA.

One school reports widespread issues

Officials at the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens say families at the school have not received P-EBT funds since the first disbursement in 2020. The school, which receives free meals through the city’s Education Department, serves students who are deaf from across the five boroughs.

Lori Glick, a social worker at the school, said families desperately need the extra support.

“There’s not enough food at home,” she said. “From the minute the announcement is made, they’re waiting for this money.”

State officials did not comment on the school’s specific situation, but said that not all children were eligible for all phases of P-EBT. For example, some of the allotments were based on COVID-related absences during the school year. Officials urged families with questions to call the P-EBT helpline.

Staff at the school said they remain unsure why families haven’t received more recent allotments of benefits.

“Honestly, it makes it look like we’re not doing something,” said Laura Cruz, the school’s director of pupil personnel services. “The families, they work with us, but then they get a little frustrated like, ‘What is Lexington not doing?’ And I don’t know if there’s something that we’re not doing.”

Community organizations report language barriers, other challenges

Both the P-EBT helpline and OTDA website offer information in languages other than English. Callers to the helpline can receive assistance from either an agent who speaks their native language or through an interpreter, while information posted online can be translated via a function at the bottom of the webpage, officials said.

But for some families with limited proficiency in English, using the benefits remains a constant struggle, said Wei Zhang, a program supervisor at the Chinese-American Planning Council.

Zhang works primarily with Chinese American families in Brooklyn who have children with disabilities and who have faced unemployment or been limited to part-time work since the onset of the pandemic. Many parents that he works with speak little English, making it hard for them to seek out help.

There’s been consistent confusion about how to activate P-EBT cards, how to use the benefits, and when more funds will be added, said Zhang, who has had to translate information about the benefits for families.

P-EBT can be particularly essential for those who earn just enough to be ineligible for SNAP benefits, added Mary Soriano and Sindy Rivera, senior case managers at WHEDco, a community development organization in the south Bronx.

“Pretty much all of their income is going towards rent, utilities, or child care,” Soriano said of the families they work with. “The pandemic EBT, as well as regular SNAP benefits, is what helps them feed their family — their children — every single day.”

But the vast majority of families they work with speak limited English, and some do not have consistent access to phones or computers, further complicating their ability to learn about and access their benefits.

Confusion surrounding the benefits has also been exacerbated by scams intended to steal them, like skimming or phishing, Zhang said. He’s seen families in Brooklyn lose their P-EBT benefits to such scams.

State officials have advised all EBT card holders, including P-EBT cardholders, to “remain vigilant” about potential scams. Taking basic precautions — like carefully inspecting point-of-sale devices, changing PINs regularly, and reviewing transaction history often — can help protect the benefits.

While the state received federal approval to replace stolen SNAP benefits in some circumstances earlier this year, P-EBT benefits are not eligible for replacement under federal guidelines, officials said.

Other states face P-EBT distribution issues

New York isn’t the only state to face hurdles in getting families to spend the federal benefits. In Maine, distribution of P-EBT cards this year spurred confusion among families and some school administrators. In California, nearly $1 billion in benefits remained unspent as of July. Meanwhile, in Mississippi, more than 14,000 families had their cards deactivated by mistake in 2021.

Benefit scams, too, have occurred across the country.

Though some families in New York City have encountered difficulties, most stress the benefits remain important.

Mangual, the parent coordinator, said she wished there were more avenues for parents to seek help. If schools had a point person to turn to for answers within their district, for example, it would be far easier to assist families, she said.

To Lu, the Manhattan parent, one of New York’s strengths during the pandemic was a pre-established “expectation that everyone is going to be able to get nutrition assistance through school, without any stigma.”

“That message is great,” she said. “But even when you do something helpful, there’s still going to be glitches.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s how NY Regents exams, high school grad requirements could change

2023-11-13T14:52:39+00:00

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The Regents exams, a rite of passage for New York students for more than a century, aren’t going anywhere.

But high school seniors in the coming years could see a big shift in what’s needed to graduate, with a slew of additional options to demonstrate mastery, as well as new subjects that could count towards their diplomas, including civic responsibility, financial literacy, and the arts.

A 64-member Blue Ribbon Commission, tasked more than a year ago with rethinking what knowledge and skills high schoolers should be required to know upon graduation, released its findings to the state’s Board of Regents on Monday.

Among its 12 recommendations is a move to further increase the number of assessment options beyond the Regents exams, offering students other ways to demonstrate their learning, such as performance-based assessments, capstone projects, and experiential learning. Other suggestions include broadening access to career and technical education, better aligning the state’s learning standards with college and career expectations, and enshrining instruction in culturally responsive-sustaining education practices in teacher preparation programs.

The recommendations also call for additional credit requirements in subjects like cultural competence, writing, STEM, and more.

But it may be some time before any of the recommendations are adopted.

In a press briefing last week, State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa called the report “a blueprint,” adding, “The real work starts with the design.”

State officials plan to take a “deeper dive” into each recommendation this summer, with hopes of developing timelines for implementation in the fall, she said.

State officials have debated future of Regents for years

The commission launched in 2022 after years of discussion over whether and how New York’s graduation policies should change.

In 2019, Rosa — then Chancellor of the Board of Regents — called for revising the state’s graduation requirements. She pointed to “stubborn gaps in achievement” that persisted between students of color, those with disabilities, English language learners, as well as those from low-income backgrounds compared with their white and more affluent peers.

Rosa is looking forward to a future of graduation assessments that are expansive — offering more options to students who may have struggled with the more traditional exams, she told reporters last week.

She hopes the new recommendations will establish a more inclusive learning environment, while building more opportunities for work-based learning and college readiness. She wants to move away from a “one-size-fits-all approach” and toward something “nurtures” students’ differences.

“Our students have different ways of demonstrating their knowledge,” she said. “What we want to do is uplift that.”

The future of Regents exams

The process of rethinking the state’s graduation requirements initially sparked speculation over the potential end of New York’s Regents exams, which have been offered since the 1870s and have been required of most students to earn their diplomas.

New York is one of a handful of states that still require exit exams, though research has found little evidence to show such exams improve student achievement.

Over the past year, the commission reviewed the state’s graduation requirements, as well as research findings, workforce trends, and community input. Members also considered graduation requirements, assessment options, apprenticeship models, and educational policies across other states and countries.

Parents and students involved in the process called for more flexibility in credit requirements and testing, according to the report. Many students reported feeling the Regents exams were not sufficient measures of student learning, calling for more project-based forms of assessments, as well as the option to replace the state tests with Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams.

Angelique Johnson-Dingle, deputy commissioner of P-12 instructional support, said the state’s Education Department is already working to identify such alternative options and pathways for students.

“We have students that suffer with test anxiety that at times makes it difficult for them to be able to truly show everything that they’ve learned,” she said. “This is just one way to help those students — to give them another option to be able to meet the requirements of high school graduation.”

Some schools have already embraced alternative options. New York City already has nearly 40 schools that are part of a “performance standards consortium,” or “consortium” for short, that receive waivers from the state to forgo Regents exams, and instead have students work on projects or experiments and present their findings to a panel of educators and experts in what’s known as a “performance-based assessment.”

Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York, called the proposed changes to diploma assessment requirements “an important step in the right direction. But her organization, which supports the most vulnerable students, is continuing to push for the state to unlink the Regents exams from graduation requirements, as many other states have done.

”There is no evidence that exit exams increase academic rigor or boost student learning, and they have been shown to increase drop-out rates, particularly for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds,” Sweet said in a statement. “We have worked with far too many students who had the deck stacked against them, yet persevered and completed their coursework and were prepared to move on to post-secondary life — only to be blocked from a high school diploma because of a single high-stakes exam.”

Meanwhile, Jacquelyn Martell, executive director of Education Reform Now New York, questioned whether the new assessments would be “objective” measures of whether students were prepared for college and careers after high school. The organization has advocated against changing graduation requirements, instead calling for the state to address systemic issues by further bolstering instruction in literacy, math, and other skills.

“New York must have true guardrails in place so when a high school senior receives their diploma, it’s not just a piece of paper,” she said in a statement. “Graduation needs to put our students on the path to success or they are doomed to failure.”

The commission’s recommendations additionally call for the number of diploma types to be reduced from three to one, while offering options to add seals or endorsements. Currently, the state doles out local, Regents, and Regents with advanced designation diplomas, which vary based on the number of assessments a student passed and the required passing scores.

In the report, commission members also developed a “portrait of a graduate,” or a set of attributes that New Yorkers should demonstrate upon graduation. Those included critical thinking, effective communication, cultural and social-emotional competences, innovative problem solving, literacy across content areas, and a status as a “global citizen.”

The portrait will serve as “the north star” of the state education system, according to the report.

Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and an expert in testing, said the skills demonstrated by the portrait extended further than what exams had traditionally tested for.

“What I’m most struck by is the sheer amount of work necessary to convert the [Blue Ribbon Commission’s] portrait of a graduate into a set of standards and measures,” he said in an email. “Inevitably, this broad array of competencies we desire in a college and career-ready high school graduate argues for multiple forms of assessment, well beyond what historically has been measured by the Regents’ exams.”

See the commission’s full list of recommendations below:

Replace the three diploma types with one diploma with the option to add seals and endorsements.
Diploma credit requirements must include: > civic responsibility (ethics); > cultural competence; > financial literacy education, including systems, personal finance, and the social-historical context; > fine and performing arts; > science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) credit(s); and > writing, including writing skills for real-world scenarios.
Ensure access to career and technical education (CTE), including internships and work-based learning opportunities for all students across New York State.
Move to a model that organizes credit requirements, including content area credit requirements into larger categories (e.g., mathematics and science courses could be included in the “STEM” category). This model must: > allow for a competency-based (proficiency-based) model to award credit; > allow local districts to offer unique options for students to earn course credits (these options must reflect students’ identity and experiences); >increase the number of elective courses that may be used to fulfill credit requirements; and > provide student choice in the options used to satisfy the diploma credit requirements.
Reduce and/or modify diploma assessment requirements to allow more assessment options. Such options must: > align with the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework; > allow students to demonstrate competence in multiple ways; > assess the attributes included in the portrait of a graduate; > be available to all students; > include writing, including writing skills for real-world scenarios as an integral part; > measure higher-order thinking skills; >meet the needs of all learners, including English language learners, students with disabilities, and other underserved populations; and > provide student choice in the options used to satisfy the requirements including performance-based assessments (PBA), capstone projects, and experiential learning.
Create state-developed rubric(s) for any performance-based assessments allowed as an option to satisfy the diploma assessment requirements. The Commission recommends convening P-20 teachers to develop performance-based assessment rubrics and create a curated collection of exemplars.
Create more specific, tailored graduation requirements to address the unique circumstances of certain groups of students (e.g., non-compulsory age students, newcomer students, refugee students).
Provide exemptions from diploma assessment requirements for: > students with significant cognitive disabilities and > major life events and extenuating circumstances (e.g., medical conditions, death of a family member, trauma prior to sitting for a required exam).
Pursue regulatory changes to allow the discretion to confer high school degrees posthumously.
Require all NYS teacher preparation programs to provide instruction in culturally responsive-sustaining education (CR-SE) practices and pedagogy.
Require that professional development plans include culturally responsive-sustaining education practices and pedagogy.
Review and revise the NYS learning standards to: > better align with college and career expectations, and update for family and consumer sciences, health, media literacy, and climate education; > emphasize higher-order skills and competencies (e.g., health education, communication, decision-making, time management, soft skills); and > use a culturally responsive-sustaining education (CRSE)/diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and accessibility lens in all subject areas, including history.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

As state reviews NYC mayoral control, officials to hold public hearings across five boroughs

2023-11-08T22:53:25+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams will need to return to Albany next year to retain control of New York City schools, but in the meantime, residents across the five boroughs have a chance to voice their opinions on whether mayoral control has been effective.

As part of a comprehensive review of New York City’s school governance structure, the state plans to hold five public hearings in December and January, offering families, educators, school staff, administrators, and others an opportunity to weigh in on the city’s mayoral control system.

The review comes as part of a deal state lawmakers struck in 2022 — extending Adams’ control of the city’s schools for two years, while giving Albany time to assess how effective the long-standing system has been — though efforts to reconsider the system date back years. It seeks to understand the overall effectiveness of the system, including study of school governance models and best practices used by other school districts and input from a broad range of community members.

The current mayoral control deal will expire on June 30, meaning Adams will need to renegotiate in the next legislative session if he hopes to retain control.

Mayoral control — which has been regularly extended over the past two decades — has relied on the mayor’s power to choose the schools chancellor and appoint a majority of people to the city’s Panel on Educational Policy, a city board of mostly appointed members that votes on major policy proposals and contracts. Though Adams retained both in the 2022 deal, other changes lessened the level of control the mayor holds over the city’s school system.

In one significant move, for example, PEP members could no longer be removed for voting against their appointer’s wishes, making it harder to remove a panelist for opposing proposals from City Hall. The board also expanded from 15 to 23 members.

Adams has criticized state lawmakers for approving only a two-year extension.

“We should not have to fight for mayoral control every two years,” he said in a June interview on Synergy TV Fusion. “All mayors from Bloomberg to de Blasio, they had it for four years. We shouldn’t wait until we have a mayor of color, then all of a sudden the rules have changed.”

The public hearings will take place in each of the five boroughs, and members of the public can participate by speaking at the hearing or submitting a written testimony. All hearings will take place in the evening and are accessible by public transportation, state officials said.

The state hasn’t yet released details on how to submit testimony or posted specific times for the hearings.

Though the 2022 deal initially called for the review’s findings to be released to lawmakers and the governor by Dec. 1, its completion was delayed due to funding concerns, according to a state Education Department spokesperson. The state’s Education Department is currently working with the legislature to secure additional funding, and plans to submit its final report by March 31, officials said.

In Chicago, where mayoral control of schools was established in 1995, the city will transition to a fully elected school board by 2027.

Here’s where and when the public hearings will be held in each borough:

The Bronx:

Dec. 5 at DeWitt Clinton High School at 100 W. Mosholu Parkway S.

Queens:

Dec. 18 at Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical High School at 165-65 84th Ave.

Brooklyn:

Jan. 11 at Boys and Girls High School at 1700 Fulton St.

Manhattan:

Jan. 18 at Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Complex at 122 Amsterdam Ave.

Staten Island:

Jan. 29 at New Dorp High School at 465 New Dorp Ln.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC high school applications are due next month. Here are 5 tips for navigating the process.

2023-11-03T22:06:46+00:00

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With a month left to go in New York City’s notoriously complex high school admissions process, families are striving to determine which of the city’s more than 700 programs across 400 schools will be a good fit for their students.

Families have until Dec. 1 to submit high school applications in a process that can be daunting for the tens of thousands of eighth grade families applying to public high schools. It can also feel inequitable, with some parents feeling that families who have more time and resources to devote to the process have an upper hand.

The process can take a lot of work. Schools across the city hold open houses, inviting families to tour the facilities and better understand what each institution offers. The city also offers other resources, like virtual admissions events and school fairs. Online resources, like InsideSchools, further help families assess their options.

At one recent city event — a fair held at George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School — Brooklyn families browsed dozens of options in their local community, chatting with current students and staff about what makes each school unique.

Mink Chung, a Brooklyn parent and a teacher at P.S. 20, The Clinton Hill School, said the process so far has been both “overwhelming” and “exciting.” For his son, he’s looking for a school with a wide range of programs for students with different interests.

“We don’t know what we’re looking for right now,” he said. “I mean, he’s 12 years old. So it’s a lot to be like, ‘Do you want an engineering school? Do you want a performing arts school?’”

Meanwhile, many schools at the fair highlighted their career and technical education, or CTE, programs, emphasizing to families that their schools could prepare students for a career after high school. Those programs have become increasingly popular, according to school representatives at the event.

For families still considering their options, here’s some additional advice from those who have gone through the process before, as well as those who help guide families through it:

Focus on fit, not names

“Everybody applying to high school is looking for that undiscovered gem,” Pamela Wheaton, an admissions consultant who runs SchoolScoutNYC, told Chalkbeat earlier this year. “Every time I work with parents, I try to make sure that they really explore beyond the ‘it’ schools, the schools that people are talking about.”

While many families know name-brand schools — especially the specialized schools like Stuyvesant or Brooklyn Tech, or some of the city’s selective schools like Beacon or Townsend Harris — there’s a lot more out there.

Admissions experts urge families to cast a broad net and focus on finding the right fit over gravitating toward schools that may already be on their radar.

Some schools, including large, comprehensive ones like Bayside, Francis Lewis, and New Utrecht, have “educational option,” or “ed opt” programs that admit students across academic levels to promote academic diversity. There are “consortium schools,” where students focus on project-based learning instead of Regents exams. The city’s “community schools” provide wraparound social services, often for the entire family, and other schools might have school-based health clinics, while some are dedicated to working with newcomer immigrants or kids who might be over-age and under-credited and have not been successful in other school settings. And there are a range of CTE programs, from ones that focus on health professions to robotics to food.

“Your child does not have to be in the school that gets 40 applicants per seat,” Wheaton said. “There are many other good options, and even if your child is waitlisted at 11 out of the 12 schools on their list, chances are that at the 12th school, they’ll be very, very happy.”

Ask questions at open houses

When touring many schools, it can sometimes become difficult to distinguish between them, said Queens parent leader Deborah Alexander, who went through the process three years ago with her son and is now doing it again with her eighth grade daughter.

She likes to ask students and educators, “What makes your school unique,” as a way that lets them share something that’s likely not in the official presentation. At one school, for instance, a student talked about how they had a teaching assistant program, where students worked for teachers and developed meaningful mentorships.

“It’s those little things that spark something,” Alexander said. “Otherwise these presentations run into each other.”

Other helpful questions include asking about advanced coursework, typical daily assignments, and whether students can leave campus for lunch, she added.

While some families focus on Advanced Placement, or AP courses, many schools offer other options. At some schools, there are International Baccalaureate programs that offer advanced coursework — and many students can enroll in College Now, which allows them to take CUNY courses.

Also, at some small schools that can’t offer a plethora of AP courses, they might participate in an initiative allowing their students to take online courses taught by public school teachers in other parts of the city from the comfort of their own school buildings and with supervision from an on-site staff member.

Stay organized

Elissa Stein, an admissions consultant who runs High School 411, recommends being organized, urging parents to take notes on tours, have a calendar, and save information schools may hand out.

“By the time that you’re done touring and have to revisit things in your minds to rank schools, it will all get mushed together into something you can’t decipher,” she told Chalkbeat earlier this year. “Being organized as you go will help you tremendously.”

Know the commute

Whether a family is willing to take public transit to commute to school, and how far they’re willing to travel, are some of the first questions that Sindy Nuesi, director of the Middle School Student Success Center at the Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, asks in her work.

“If you don’t feel comfortable with your child going on the train or the bus, then it really limits your options,” she previously told Chalkbeat. “I don’t encourage that necessarily, but I am going to support whatever the family decides.”

Families can also test out the commute to potential schools before applying to better understand what day-to-day travel to and from school would look like.

A 30-minute subway commute with a transfer in Times Square, for example, might feel more stressful for a kid than a one-seat, hour-long bus ride, Alexander said.

“The question isn’t how long is the train ride, but it’s about the ease of the commute,” she said.

Consider starting early

For seventh grade families, the admissions process can also offer an opportunity to learn more about schools ahead of the application cycle next year.

Parents often say the two-month window from when applications open and close is too tight to pack in enough research and open house visits.

Attending open houses or high school fairs, or compiling an early list of schools of interest, can give families more time over the summer to consider programs, test commutes, and think through all their options.

Moreover, seventh grade is a critical year: Selective high schools use seventh graders’ GPAs to determine admissions.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

As NYC middle school applications open, selective programs surge in one Brooklyn district

2023-10-11T22:51:31+00:00

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The number of middle schools across New York City using academic screens to sort fifth grade applicants continues to remain well below pre-pandemic levels — but in one Brooklyn school district, they’re growing dramatically.

This year, 78 middle school programs across 69 schools will screen applicants based on their academic records, according to Education Department data.

That was up from last year, when 59 of the city’s more than 470 middle schools selected at least some of their incoming sixth graders using their fourth grade academic performance. But it was still down when compared to pre-pandemic admissions cycles. For the 2020-21 academic year, 196 middle schools across the city screened at least some of their applicants.

The latest figures come as middle school applications opened on Wednesday.

Families and parent leaders have fiercely debated whether and how academic screens should play a role in middle school admissions. While some have called for more screened options and the inclusion of other measures of student performance, like state test scores, others warn the practice harms integration efforts in a school system that is already among the most segregated in the nation. Integration advocates add it is unfair to sort students as young as nine based on their grades.

The tension follows several years of pandemic-spurred changes to admissions, with academic screens initially paused, then brought back in some districts at the discretion of each of the city’s 32 local school district superintendents.

This year, District 20 in Brooklyn, which covers Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Borough Park, and part of Sunset Park, will more than quadruple the number of middle schools with academically screened programs. Alone, the district will be home to more than a quarter of the city’s academically screened middle school programs.

It will offer 23 academically screened programs across 14 schools — up from the three middle schools that offered screened programs last year.

Academic screens fuel debates across the city

Deciding to reinstate academic screens, or drop them, can be controversial. Debates across the city have sparked controversy this year, with parents split on many facets of the process.

District 20 is one of several across the city where the group Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, has established a stronghold on local parent-led Community Education Councils — with endorsed candidates winning all elected seats in the district. The group advocates for test-based and other selective school admissions.

Stephen Stowe, president of the District 20 CEC, praised the local expansion of screened programs.

“There is high demand for these programs,” he said, adding that many parents complained about long waitlists at the three district middle schools that used academic screens last year.

The “Superintendent’s Program,” a screened program adopted by about a dozen schools in the district, will align with the state’s new learning standards and offer accelerated learning in core subjects, Stowe added.

Others expressed concerns about the surge in screened programs. Nyah Berg, executive director of New York Appleseed, an organization that advocates for integrated schools, called District 20’s decision “an egregious policy to implement.”

“It’s literally a step back in time,” she said. “Trying to return to a status quo that was exclusionary and discriminatory for some of our most marginalized student groups in the city.”

“I’m enraged for the students and families in District 20 that have had opportunities potentially taken away from them, and access taken away from them, when they had just gained it for a couple of years,” Berg added.

Other districts have made smaller changes.

In District 2 — which covers broad swaths of Manhattan including TriBeCa, Greenwich Village, Gramercy, and the Upper East Side — screened programs will return to four zoned middle schools. It’s a reversal of a move last year to drop academic screens in the district, and the first time middle schools in District 2 will screen applicants based on their fourth grade academic performance since the onset of the pandemic. (Prior to the pandemic, about 18 out of 23 middle schools in the district screened at least some of their applicants.)

Schools using academic screens in admissions rank applicants based on their fourth grade GPAs in core subjects.

Families have until Dec. 8 to submit their middle school applications. Offers are expected to be released in April.

Here’s how many academically screened programs each district’s middle schools will offer. The data, provided by the city’s Education Department, does not include several arts programs across the city that rely on auditions, nor other programs that use “talent tests” to screen applicants, like computer and math, creative writing and journalism, and science programs at Mark Twain.

District 1: 1

District 2: 4

District 3: 1

District 4: 2

District 5: 3

District 6: 1

District 7: 1

District 8: 0

District 9: 1

District 10: 4

District 11: 0

District 12: 0

District 13: 0

District 14: 0

District 15: 0

District 16: 0

District 17: 4

District 18: 1

District 19: 0

District 20: 23

District 21: 0

District 22: 1

District 23: 1

District 24: 3

District 25: 3

District 26: 5

District 27: 2

District 28: 1

District 29: 5

District 30: 5

District 31: 4

District 32: 2

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

How an abandoned Brooklyn lot will become a future hub for student learning and urban agriculture

2023-10-10T21:15:58+00:00

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After a decade-long effort, the city will transform a once abandoned lot into a communal gardening and learning space for students and local residents in Brooklyn’s Bergen Beach.

The city broke ground on the 2.2-acre garden last year, and construction is now underway, said District 22 Superintendent Julia Bove, who has been working on the garden’s development for about as long as she’s been a superintendent. The concept came about after Carol Pino, a parent coordinator at P.S. 312, raised concerns about a nearby garbage-strewn lot, which was owned by the city’s Education Department.

“The community saw it as an eyesore,” Bove said. “We decided to make something that would be not only fitting for the students in the community but the adults in the community and the community at large.”

The distinction in scale is a key part of the project, and the community focus will set this “learning” garden apart from a typical school garden, officials said.

Having access to gardens or green spaces — from indoor windowsill gardens to outdoor vegetable beds — has become increasingly popular at New York City schools. Nearly 70% of public school buildings have access to such green spaces, with more than 1,200 schools reporting having a garden in the 2021-22 school year, according to the city’s Education Department.

But the ambitions for the Bergen Beach lot stretch beyond just an individual school, or even the district as a whole, officials said. Plans for the completed garden include a greenhouse, a fruit orchard, an outdoor classroom, a pollinator garden, a composting area, and a central space for farmer’s markets and other community events.

“Learning gardens are uniquely centered in communities, whereas school gardens tend to be insular to a particular school,” said Qiana Mickie, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture.

The effort represents a step forward in urban agriculture and a potential model for other communities across the five boroughs, Mickie said. Though a handful of other learning gardens exist across the city, this is one of the first instances of the city taking an underutilized neighborhood lot and transforming it into a community hub for learning and urban agriculture, she added.

“It’s a really good example of how we can reimagine what farm-to-school is in New York City,” Mickie said.

And the benefits extend beyond just the classroom, she added.

“It becomes a place of resiliency,” Mickie said. “There are some natural co-benefits that come with a learning garden: flood mitigation, stormwater mitigation, access to growing, places for respite and healing.”

Those qualities could be especially important as New York City faces the effects of climate change. P.S. 312, the nearby Bergen Beach school where the effort to build a learning garden originated, was forced to evacuate after severe rainfall and flooding recently caused a smoking boiler.

(The school reopened shortly after the storm, and the “vast majority” of water issues across city schools were “minor, requiring only mopping,” according to Education Department officials.)

A rendering of what the planned learning garden near P.S. 312 in Brooklyn will look like.

Brooklyn gets back to its agricultural roots

The project has been a community venture from the outset, according to Bove, who remembers begging local elected officials for funding years ago — a request that was met with generosity, she said. In 2020, local elected officials allocated $9 million in funds to the project, according to the city’s Education Department.

With a planned opening in September of 2024, the new garden aims to offer south Brooklyn students a hands-on learning experience. It comes as Mayor Eric Adams has made healthy living a key issue in his plans for the city’s students and residents — and as NYC has received both federal and state grants to expand investments in equitable and locally grown school foods.

The Bergen Beach project also harkens back to New York City’s urban agricultural roots, Mickie said.

“Our five boroughs, historically, were farms or gardens. There was even windowsill growing for folks that lived in apartments,” she said. “But over the years, we’ve gotten disconnected to that, and what happens with students is they start to not know the cycle of their food.”

The learning garden hopes to change that. Students working in the garden will have ownership over plots of land, giving them opportunities to determine what is grown, officials said.

Students will be involved from Day 1, helping to seed the garden and care for the plants, Bove said. Early work, such as planting trees in the orchard, will also give way to future opportunities for students, like apple-picking field trips.

“The students can form a committee and say ‘We’d like to grow snap peas,’ and then learn all about the care and the cultivation of snap peas,” Bove said. “Maybe another school wants to grow tomatoes and spinach. Whatever it is, the idea is that student voices will be heard.”

The goal is to create a space for students from not just nearby schools, but surrounding districts, as well as others outside of school communities.

“We really did not want it to just be a school’s backyard,” Bove said, noting the garden will include local community partners by design.

Residents at a nearby retirement home, for example, could come in on weekends to help maintain the crops while classes aren’t in session, she added.

“Local residents are not only assisting to sustain it during the times that students aren’t there, but that they too can eat the fruits and the vegetables and give back to a community that they have lived in for their whole lives,” Bove said.

And once open, the learning garden can serve as a model for other boroughs and communities seeking to build communal green spaces that students can take advantage of, officials said.

“I see it as one thing that’s really great for a school community and a neighborhood community,” Mickie said. “But it will also become a part of a larger cohesive network — growing the green spaces in New York City.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

From hip hop to ‘Top Chef’: How two NYC after-school programs teach students about healthy eating

2023-10-06T19:00:00+00:00

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Kevin, a sixth grader at P.S. 146 in Queens who hopes to one day work as a doctor, said he’s always tried to study nutrition.

But it wasn’t until he participated in the Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S., or Healthy Eating and Living in Schools, after-school program last year that he found an engaging way to learn about it at school.

The program, developed in partnership between Columbia University neurologist Olajide Williams and hip hop artist Doug E. Fresh, relies on music to help teach students about healthy eating.

Though the music seemed “old” in style to 11-year-old Kevin, the lessons still resonated. He remembers the theme song particularly well.

“It was different from classical teaching,” said Kevin. (Chalkbeat is using his first name only for privacy reasons.) “It had more of a fun approach than just sitting there staring at a blackboard.”

What Kevin participated in was one of two after-school healthy eating programs that are being studied as part of a partnership between the after-school provider New York Edge and Columbia University. About 300 students across 20 school sites were provided with either the Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S. program, or NY Edge’s Food Explorers program, with their nutritional choices tracked over the course of 10 or more weeks.

Through the partnership, researchers aim to learn if the educational interventions from these programs can help kids make healthier choices, particularly at chain restaurants.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has also prioritized establishing healthier eating habits among the city’s young people. Since the start of 2022, the city has committed $1 million to integrating food education into schools in coursework, after-school programs, and more, according to a recent report.

Most recently, the city started its “Chefs in Schools” initiative, partnering with Wellness in the Schools to develop plant-based, culturally relevant recipes and train New York City public school chefs.

“These meals will provide more than just nutrition,” Adams said at a Tuesday press conference. “They will expose our children to flavorful and healthy eating — because food has to taste good. No one wants to eat boring food.”

Nearly 40% of NYC public school children were overweight or had obesity, with childhood obesity disproportionately impacting Black and Latino students, according to 2019 data from the city’s Health Department. Childhood obesity also increased during the COVID pandemic, studies have found.

To address the situation, researchers aren’t necessarily trying to stop kids from eating at fast food chains, for instance, but to help them make better choices.

Nationwide, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires chain restaurants to post nutritional information about their menus. But Williams, who is the vice dean of community health at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, said research has found those listings tend to inform the decisions of educated and more affluent individuals at higher rates.

Meanwhile, people who come from lower-income backgrounds or marginalized communities tend to have their purchases driven by other factors, like cost.

“There was even a paradoxical effect where sometimes folks in these lower income communities deliberately purchased the highest calorie items as a way to maximize caloric intake per dollar,” Williams said.

The focus on teaching students to navigate settings like chain restaurants is especially important as many kids in the programs live in “food swamps,” or areas with few healthy food options, Williams said.

“We’d love to have community gardens everywhere. I’d love everyone to get home and have a cooked meal,” he added. “But the reality is many people live in food swamps. They’re going to patronize food swamps, and it’s about how we get them to make better decisions within those swamps — within those limited choices.”

Getting creative in teaching kids about healthy eating

Williams believes that combining music and learning in the H.E.A.L.S program can help change eating choices.

“We all learn our ABCs through music, for example,” he said. “Our studies have shown that leveraging music creates not just immersion, but greater retention, greater learning, and a greater ability to influence behavioral change.”

Meanwhile, the Food Explorers program, which operates at New York Edge’s more than 120 school sites, targets different aspects around healthy eating.

It teaches students foundational nutrition facts, develops practical skills like using kitchen appliances, offers exposure to different cultural cuisines, and expands environmental wellness and agricultural knowledge, said Rachael Gazdick, CEO of New York Edge.

The program also incorporates fun and immersive learning experiences, like simulating the kinds of cooking competitions that students might see on shows like “Chopped” or “Top Chef.”

Gazdick recounted one such session she attended, where students prepared a vegetable pasta dish.

“I expected it to taste terrible, to be honest,” she said. “But they were so serious about it, and so good at preparing it. It was just phenomenal.”

The partnership is a critical step forward in understanding the impacts of each program, Gazdick added.

“Kids can’t perform in the classroom if they’re not feeling healthy, well nourished, and sleeping well,” she said. “All of those things tie into academic performance and overall joy in life.”

Studying kids’ food choices

How or whether students changed their dietary habits over the course of the two after-school programs was observed in two ways, Williams said. First, students were able to choose between different food options at the school sites, with options ranging from apples to Ring Dings. Nutritional information about the offered foods was posted clearly to simulate the menus they might encounter at chain restaurants.

Second, through a partnership with Applebee’s, students received vouchers for free meals.

Researchers tracked what students chose in each instance, though students weren’t aware their orders were being studied.

An initial pilot showed success in influencing student behavior, Williams said. Over the course of the programs, students generally chose more and more foods that had lower caloric intakes and higher nutritional values. Results of the broader study are expected to be finalized by the end of this year.

Students have also taken what they’ve learned in the programs and used it to teach their families, Gazdick added.

“You remember 100% of what you teach, but you only remember a certain percentage of what you hear,” she said. “Students continuing to cook, and take things home, and sharing it all with their parents is another level of this that is critical.”

Kevin, the sixth grader who participated in the program last year, said he’s been able to put the lessons into practice. He finds himself checking nutrition facts more often, sometimes finding sugar in products he didn’t expect, like milk.

“To be in the health field, you need to learn about the basic fundamentals about how to eat healthy,” he said. “I paid close attention, so maybe it can help me in the future with med school and other stuff.”

As for his trips to Applebee’s, Kevin said the program opened his eyes to the vast range in nutrition across different meals.

“Like the mac and cheese,” he said, “I felt that had too much sodium in it, so I chose more proper stuff.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Selective middle school admissions return to one Manhattan district after fierce debate

2023-10-05T20:16:00+00:00

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A Manhattan school district is reversing course, allowing some schools to screen middle school applicants for accelerated programs in the upcoming admissions cycle, according to a letter its superintendent sent to families this week.

It’s the first time middle schools in District 2 will screen applicants based on their fourth grade academic performance since the onset of the pandemic, when the city paused academic screens for middle schools.

Selective admissions for New York City’s 10-year-olds were later reinstated for this year’s incoming sixth graders in some districts, but at dramatically reduced rates.

Instead of a blanket approach across the city, schools Chancellor David Banks last year tasked superintendents of the city’s 32 local school districts to work with their communities to decide their middle school admissions guidelines. Manhattan’s District 2, along with about nine other districts that previously used selective admissions at some of its middle schools, opted to ditch screens.

This year, once again, the chancellor tapped superintendents to choose their admissions policies. The Education Department has yet to share the decisions of districts across the five boroughs.

Changes to middle school admissions have sparked debate across the city, particularly in District 2 — one of the city’s most affluent school districts, spanning such neighborhoods as TriBeCa, Greenwich Village, Gramercy, and the Upper East Side. Some families argue the elimination of screens reduces academic rigor in some classrooms, while others say practices like screened admissions harm integration efforts in a school system that remains among the most segregated in the nation.

District 2’s decision to drop screens last year spurred some ire in the area, where the group Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, has a foothold on the district’s parent-led Community Education Council — with endorsed candidates winning seven of the 10 elected seats. The group advocates for test-based and other selective school admissions.

For this year’s admissions cycle, which starts next week, District 2 will offer programs that select students based on grades at four zoned middle schools, Superintendent Kelly McGuire said in the Oct. 3 letter to families.

The four schools are the Sun Yat Sen Middle School (M.S. 131), Wagner Middle School (M.S. 167), 75 Morton (M.S. 297), and Baruch Middle School (M.S. 104), according to the letter.

“Over the past several months we have spoken with District 2 parents and families about middle school admissions,” McGuire said in the letter. “While there is a wide diversity of perspectives across our district, we have developed a plan that offers pathways for accelerated learning through screened programs, maintained sibling priority, and ensured that all students have access to every District 2 middle school.”

The programs would offer accelerated learning in core subjects, McGuire said. Several non-zoned schools in the district also offer accelerated academics and a pathway to Regents-level coursework, he added.

Students applying to the four schools can include the general program and/or the screened program on their child’s middle school application, according to the letter.

Schools using academic screens in admissions rank 10-year-olds based on their fourth grade GPAs in core subjects.

Parent council pushes for more academic screening

During a September meeting, some members of the district’s Community Education Council urged the district to reinstate academic screens at middle schools that had used them prior to the pandemic. About 18 out of 23 middle schools in the district screened at least some segment of their applicants for the 2020-21 school year, according to city data.

Leonard Silverman, president of the council, called the district’s decision “a good start.”

“If it comes down to four over nothing, we’ll take four,” he said. “This was the culmination of a lot of advocacy, and fighting, and pushing, and prodding, and parents letting their voices be heard.”

Some details about the screened programs remained unclear, he said, like how many seats they’ll have.

“I hope we’ll continue to expand these types of programs to meet the needs of all students — not just the higher performing students, but to slot kids into where they are academically,” Silverman said.

Silverman said he wished there had been more engagement with families in the district, adding he worried some parents had left district schools over a lack of screened middle school options.

A letter the education council sent to the superintendent last month also called for state test scores to be considered in the admissions process, arguing grades are too subjective a measure. But others contest the claim that state test scores are an objective measure.

Nyah Berg, executive director of New York Appleseed, an organization that advocates for integrated schools, said the district’s decision was “disappointing.”

“You’re talking about judging the educational attainment of students that are as young as 9 years old,” she said. “To narrowly put them on a track at that age, I think, is just fundamentally inappropriate for learning, for teaching — and it’s essentially a gatekeeping tool that can create haves and have-nots.”

Though just four schools in the district will see academic screens reinstated in this year’s admissions cycle, Berg remains concerned about its potential impact, particularly as it can take years to understand the effects of a policy change.

“I’m very wary of chipping away at progressive policies,” she said. “Whether we’re going backwards at a lightning speed or at a slower pace, it still means that we’re going backwards.”

The city’s Education Department has said middle school admissions will broadly operate the same as last year, though this week declined to provide specific information for each district.

Applications open on Oct. 11, giving families until Dec. 8 to submit. Offers are expected to be released in April.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC test scores: Roughly 50% proficient on reading, math exams, data shows

2023-10-04T23:37:34+00:00

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Roughly half of New York City’s third through eighth graders were proficient in reading and math, according to last year’s state test scores released by city officials Wednesday.

The scores provide a first look at student performance under new learning standards, after state officials revamped the tests for the most recent academic year. The tests, administered by schools across the state each spring, offer one measure of how students are faring.

Though 51.7% of the city’s third through eighth grade students were considered on grade level based on their reading exam scores, and 49.9% were on grade level for math, student performances diverged across grades.

Eighth grade students, for example, fared worse on math exams — with just 42.3% achieving proficiency, compared to 55% of third graders.

On reading tests, the opposite occurred, with 59.9% of eighth graders considered on grade level, compared to about 48% of third graders.

In a statement Wednesday, schools Chancellor David Banks called the results “encouraging,” pointing to an “upward trajectory” from last year’s exams, which saw roughly 49% of students pass reading tests and about 38% achieve proficiency in math.

“These results tell us: we’re on the right track,” he said. “We are making strides in our recovery from the pandemic, and we are going to build on this success this year and beyond.”

But state officials have warned against comparing the data to prior years, and the city’s Education Department acknowledged the results were not “directly comparable” in a press release Wednesday.

This past spring, students took new exams that followed the Next Generation Learning Standards, which were established after revisions from the controversial Common Core. The state also established new thresholds to measure student proficiency, which delayed public release of the test scores.

David Bloomfield, a professor of educational leadership, law, and policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, called the city’s framing of the results “nonsensical.”

“They need to go back to math class,” he said in an email. “Lack of comparability means this snapshot can’t be put into historical perspective.”

But even as the exams have changed, disparities continue to appear among student results.

About 77.6% of Asian American students and 70.2% of white students demonstrated proficiency their math exams, compared to 34.3% of students who are Black and 35.7% who are Latino. On reading tests, 72.3% of Asian American students and 69.5% of white students were on grade level, compared to 40.3% of Black students and 39.4% of Latino students.

Among students with disabilities, 21.7% demonstrated proficiency in reading and 24.4% did so in math. Among students learning English as a new language, 11.1% were on grade level in reading and 21.5% were in math.

Want to see how your school fared on the state exams? Use our searchable database below:

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

Torrential downpour floods 150 NYC schools, throws commutes into disarray

2023-09-29T17:36:02+00:00

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Torrential rainfall sowed chaos for many New York City schools Friday morning, flooding 150 school buildings and throwing commutes into disarray for thousands of students and staff.

Mayor Eric Adams announced a shelter-in-place order for schools around noon. An Education Department spokesperson said it would lift with dismissal.

“If you are at work or school, shelter in place for now. Some of our subways are flooded and it is extremely difficult to move around the city,” Adams said at a media briefing on the storm.

The downpour, which dumped 5 inches in some parts of New York City by early Friday morning, affected service on every subway line, delayed dozens of school buses, and prompted both Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul to issue a state of emergency. Friday’s attendance rate of 77% was significantly down from about 90% the day before.

Schools Chancellor David Banks said a total of 150 school buildings took on water Friday morning, and that one school, Brooklyn’s P.S. 312, was forced to evacuate because of a smoking boiler. Another Brooklyn school, I.S. 228 sent out a message asking parents to pick up students early, but Banks said the communication was premature.

The extreme weather led some parents and educators to question whether the city should have canceled in-person classes. Banks reassured families that schools were prepared to handle the storm.

“We have folks in our schools trained annually to prepare for days just like this,” Banks said, noting that schools were activating Building Response Teams in response to flooding. “While this was a tough day in terms of the rain, our kids are not in danger,” he added.

Many parents and educators reported that the rainwater had seeped into school buildings, flooding cafeterias and basements and leaking in through roofs, forcing students to move classrooms. On some campuses, children were soaked on their commutes to school, school staff reported.

“Some schools are being flooded from the basement up, and some are being flooded from the rooftop down,” said Paullette Healy, a parent leader in Brooklyn who said she’d heard from nine schools that experienced flooding. Several classrooms had to evacuate students, she added.

At P.S. 84 in Williamsburg, the school kitchen flooded, “which is a problem for our cafeteria workers and our kids,” said parent Jessamyn Lee. Fortunately, the custodial staff, she said, seemed to be able to “get the water intrusion under control.”

Meanwhile, at one Manhattan high school, rainwater leaking through a faulty roof forced students to move classrooms, complicating efforts to make up testing that had already been postponed because of tech glitches last week, according to a teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“My school is doing the best they can,” the teacher wrote. “This is just weather and issues out of our control and I feel for the kids.”

Principals received dismissal guidance shortly before 2 p.m., suggesting they make sure that staff and students were aware of alternate exit routes in case of flooding and that they communicate alternative exits to families. Most schools dismiss between 2:20 p.m. and 2:50 p.m.

Public School Athletic League activities were canceled, and principals could decide whether to hold Saturday programs, according to the email.

Concerns about commutes home from school

Meanwhile, for the hundreds of thousands of students and staff trying to get to school Friday morning, the commute was messy and in some cases harrowing.

“The street leading up to my school is completely flooded,” said Leah Ali, a student at Bard Early College High School in Manhattan. “As cars drive past, water reaches their headlights, and waves of water crash over students trying to make it inside.”

Alan Sun, a senior at The Bronx High School of Science, said the school has been affected by the storm. “The ceilings have been leaking water and the cafeteria is flooded,” he wrote in a text message. “Lunch is now being served in the auditorium.” Sun opted to eat in the hallway instead, as the auditorium was too crowded.

This is the corner of my school’s block.

Cafeteria and basement classrooms are flooded with this water. Families literally have to wade through toxic water to drop off their kids and pick them up.

Why does @NYCMayor never plan for emergencies that affect schools??? https://t.co/trhjCjFrsu
— Sarah Allen (@Mssarahmssarah) September 29, 2023

Morning disruptions on nearly every subway line left many students wondering how they’d safely get home.

“With train service suspensions, track fires, and stations flooded, commuting back home to Queens is a serious concern for me,” Ali had said in the morning.

At dismissal, she was still trying to figure out how to get home since her trains were delayed.

“I might be waiting at the station for a while,” she said. “Unfortunately, my school is a 15-minute walk away from the station, and buses aren’t working at the moment, so I’ll be taking an Uber there.”

Sun, who commutes to Bronx Science by subway, also said he was worried about the trek back to Flushing, Queens, at the end of the day. “I’m hoping the flooding in the subway stations won’t be too bad,” he wrote.

In her guidance to principals sent at the end of the day, Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership Danika Rux wrote, “Please ensure that your students who use public transportation have secured routes home.”

State and transportation officials said that getting the subways back up and running was a top priority, but that MTA buses were in operation and that the agency would deploy extra buses as a backup in case train service wasn’t restored by dismissal time.

The disruptions also affected students traveling by road.

The city’s Office of Pupil Transportation reported roughly 140 weather-related school bus delays as of 1 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Major roadways including FDR Drive were closed Friday morning, adding to concerns about disrupted afternoon commutes.

Banks said that the Education Department dispatched school buses early for the afternoon pickup, so they would be ready by dismissal time. School buses sit high enough off the ground that they are less likely to get stalled by roadway flooding, he said.

Mayor Adams defends NYC’s response

The city’s Education Department first addressed the weather conditions late Thursday night in a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, advising that schools would remain open Friday and suggesting that families and educators leave extra time for their commutes, take major roads, and not enter flooded subway stations.

No systemwide emails had gone out to teachers or parents as of 1 p.m. on Friday.

Several parents and educators said Friday that the city should have closed school buildings on Friday and pivoted to remote learning, similar to snow days, or at the very least improved communication about the risks.

“It’s quite a lapse in safety and concern when our phones send us messages about life threatening flooding and not to travel,” said the Manhattan teacher. “New York City is unprepared for major flooding as a result of climate change and this is more of the same examples we’re seeing.”

Adams defended the decision to keep schools open.

“This was the right call. Our children are safe in schools,” he said. “There is a big inconvenience when you close the schools.”

Climate change fears prompt worries for school infrastructure

The intensity of the flooding caught some parents by surprise. Avery Cole, whose 5-year-old daughter attends P.S. 11, said she wasn’t aware that the weather was going to be so severe until her phone started blaring with emergency alerts after she dropped her child off.

She also received a message from the school pleading for volunteers to help dry and disinfect its ground-floor classrooms “to prevent mold and save as much furniture as possible.”

Cole said she worries that school buildings aren’t prepared for more intense storms and wildfire smoke stoked by climate change.

“These storms are going to be more dramatic and frequent and schools are bearing the brunt of it,” she said.

Rohit Aggarwala, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, was blunt about the increasing threat of climate change to New York City.

“This changing weather pattern is the result of climate change,” he said, “and the sad reality is our climate is changing faster than our infrastructure can respond.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Applying to NYC’s screened high schools? Selection criteria remains unchanged

2023-09-28T17:04:08+00:00

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Eighth grade families eyeing New York City’s selective screened high schools take note: Applicants will once again be sorted into different priority groups based on their seventh grade GPAs in core subjects.

This year’s groupings are nearly unchanged from last year’s, according to the Education Department’s website.

The updated guidance, released Thursday, comes just days before applications open on Oct. 3.

The city’s months-long high school application process is notoriously complex, often spiking anxiety and confusion among families. It can at times feel inequitable, too, as families with more time and resources are able to better navigate the more than 700 programs across New York City’s 400 schools, parents say.

The criteria used to determine priority groups has been the subject of some controversy, with some families pushing for state test scores to be reinstated in sorting the city’s 13-year-olds. But test scores will continue to be excluded from the process.

This year, the process for screened schools will operate much the same as the last cycle, though the citywide grade averages required to sort students into each group are slightly different. Applicants can qualify for a group based on either a citywide or school threshold.

Here’s how students will be grouped this year:

Group 1: Those with final seventh grade course grades with an average of at least 94 qualify for the citywide threshold, as do students who are in the top 15% of their school, with an average of at least 90.
Group 2: Those with an average of at least a 89.66 average qualify for the citywide threshold (if they’re not in Group 1), as do those in the top 30% of their school with an average of at least 80.
Group 3: Those with an 82.75 average qualify for the citywide threshold, along with those in the top 50% of their school with an average of at least 75.
Group 4: Those with a 76.33 average qualify for the citywide threshold, along with those with seventh grade course grades in the top 70% of their school with an average at least 65.
All others will be in Group 5.

When there are more applicants in a priority group than seats available at a particular school, admissions decisions will be made based on each applicant’s random number — often referred to as a lottery number.

Those numbers will be available to families in their MySchools account on or after Oct. 3. Admissions consultants have warned against placing too much weight on them.

“Your lottery number isn’t your fate,” said Joyce Szuflita, a Brooklyn-based admissions consultant who runs NYC School Help.

Instead, it’s one part of a complex matching process with many variables, she said. And a worse lottery number doesn’t necessarily equate to not getting into a school an applicant might prefer.

“Somebody’s number eight choice is somebody else’s number one choice,” she added.

Some high schools may also require applicants to complete an additional assessment, like an essay. At such schools, the impact of the random number on admissions is further reduced.

Screened schools also set aside a number of seats for students with disabilities. Those seats are filled separately from the general education pool but follow the same priority groups among applicants with disabilities.

More than 40 selective schools also participate in a diversity initiative, setting aside a certain number of seats to students who are low-income, English language learners, or live in temporary housing. Again, those seats are filled following the same priority groups among applicants who qualify for the seats.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s complex high school admissions process opens Oct. 3. Here’s what families should know.

2023-09-28T17:09:08+00:00

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The new school year has barely begun, and already New York City’s notoriously complex (and often controversial) high school admissions process kicks off next week, lasting through early December.

The process can be daunting for the tens of thousands of eighth grade families applying to public high schools, and economic and racial diversity concerns remain at the city’s most selective schools.

Last year, nearly half of the city’s eighth grade applicants were admitted to their top choice school, while about 75% were admitted to one of their top three picks. About 95% of applicants were admitted to one of the 12 schools they ranked in their application, according to city data.

The months-long process can lead to heightened levels of anxiety and confusion for families. It often feels inequitable, with families who have the time and resources to devote to the process having an upper hand, parents say.

Details about tours and application requirements can vary from school to school, and information posted online can at times be slow to update. Meanwhile, the roughly two-month timeline and wide array of options, with more than 700 programs at over 400 schools, add further stress to the equation.

Joyce Szuflita, a Brooklyn-based admissions consultant who runs NYC School Help, called it “a scavenger hunt with too little time.”

For families who are going through the middle and high school application process simultaneously, it can feel even more overwhelming. “How can those families not blow a gasket?” she said.

When do applications open? What is the deadline for high school applications in NYC?

The city’s high school application process is expected to open on Oct. 3.

Registration opens the same day for the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test, or SHSAT — the sole metric by which eight of the city’s prestigious specialized high schools admit students.

The test will take place during the school day at public schools, with additional weekend test dates available for public school students, 9th grade testers, and charter/non-public school testers, according to Education Department officials.

Families will have until Oct. 27 to register for the SHSAT.

High school applications will remain open until Dec. 1, with offers set to release on March 7.

Meanwhile, middle school admissions are staggered by about a week, with applications opening Oct. 11 and closing Dec. 8. Middle school offers are expected to be released on April 3.

The city’s Education Department will hold several virtual admissions events in October. Many schools list their open houses and tours on the city’s MySchools directory. High school fairs are listed there as well.

How did NYC high schools admit students last year?

Schools across the city employ different methods of determining admissions, with various application requirements specific to each.

For admissions to the city’s selective screened schools, this fall’s incoming ninth graders were sorted into four different priority groups based on their seventh grade GPAs in core subjects. In cases where there were more applicants in a priority group than seats, selections were made based on a random number assigned to each applicant, often referred to as a lottery number.

Some schools also required admissions essays or auditions, which were further used to make determinations.

Other schools used open or educational option admissions, which primarily used an applicant’s random number for admissions, though some took into account additional criteria to create priority groups. (Educational option programs set aside seats for students at different academic levels to promote academic diversity.)

Will this year use the same application guidelines?

Screened schools will follow the same admissions process as last year, according to the city’s Education Department — though the grade averages for each priority group have shifted slightly.

Middle school admissions will also follow the same broad format as last year, officials said.

What do experts recommend to get started?

Sindy Nuesi, director of the Middle School Student Success Center at the Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, recommends families start by narrowing down the vast field of possible schools.

Nuesi advises families and students to first decide how far they’re willing to commute to school, or whether there are specific neighborhoods in which they’d like to attend school. From there, they can look for programs that fit their child’s interests.

“Even though a lot of students are still not too sure what they want, if they do have some particular interest that they really like, it narrows down the options,” she said, adding families can filter searches based on interest areas. “That makes it less overwhelming.”

Nuesi also suggests developing a relationship with your school counselor, who can help at each step of the admissions process.

Elissa Stein, an admissions consultant who runs High School 411, urges parents to look at the process holistically and not become fixated on a particular school or program.

“I always tell families that they should be taking things into consideration based on their child,” she said. “So think things through in terms of the size of the school, the things that they offer, the academic ranges, the commute, the building, the neighborhood — there are so many things that will make a school a good fit for your child or not.”

Opening your mind to exploring schools you’re not as familiar with also aids in the process, she added.

“There are schools that everybody knows by name and reputation,” Stein said. “But there are a lot of other schools that aren’t as well known that could be wonderful fits.”

What are some tips to avoid getting overwhelmed?

Staying organized, keeping track of important dates, and taking notes can help ease the process, Stein suggested.

Pamela Wheaton, an admissions consultant who runs SchoolScoutNYC, suggested families cast a wide net in their applications and take advantage of resources like InsideSchools, which posts information about schools across the city.

Families should also find ways to tap their communities. Parents can team up with other families to coordinate school visits, allowing them to cover more ground in the condensed timeline, Wheaton said.

What does your high school lottery number mean for admissions?

Last year, for the first time, the Education Department sent all families their lottery numbers — a string of 32 numbers and letters — at the beginning of the application process. Many families on Facebook groups sent around tip sheets on how to interpret the number to figure out where students fell to gauge their odds.

Education Department officials said families will be able to see their random numbers when they start their high school applications in MySchools on or after Oct. 3.

Szuflita warns against worrying too much about the number.

“Everybody calls this the lottery,” she said. “It’s not a lottery. It’s a match.”

Though the random number can be consequential, at many schools it is just one of many factors, Szuflita said. At some schools that require applicants to write essays, for example, the number is less likely to play a major role. And at the city’s eight specialized high schools, the number isn’t considered at all, Szuflita added.

“Your random number in this process is a tiebreaker,” she said. “When there are candidates of equal priority, then the random number comes into play.”

Ultimately, admissions consultants and counselors say to take a deep breath and trust that your student will land somewhere they can be successful.

“Be fluid, be calm, because everything will come in good time,” Szuflita said. “It will all be fine. There are so many great schools. There are so many worthy programs.”

Are you applying to high school this year? We want to hear from you.

If you are a NYC parent whose child is applying to high school this year, Chalkbeat wants to hear from you.

We’re interested in hearing about any concerns you may have as you embark on this process, and what kind of information would be helpful for your family in making decisions.

Please fill out the form below to let us know what’s on your mind as this year’s admissions season approaches.

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Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

A widespread school bus worker strike has been averted. Here’s what it means for NYC families.

2023-09-21T21:08:46+00:00

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New York City’s school bus workers have reached a tentative contract agreement with bus companies servicing thousands of routes — meaning a majority of families who could have been impacted by a strike will see uninterrupted bus services.

News of the agreement, which union officials and City Hall confirmed on Thursday, follows months of negotiation between the Amalgamated Transit Union and bus companies that contract with the city. New York City schools contract bus services with dozens of companies, and the union’s collective bargaining agreement with many bus companies expired at the end of June.

The tentative contract agreement, which secures services for thousands of bus routes that transport students to and from school each day, was first reported Wednesday night by the New York Daily News.

The terms of the contract must still be ratified by union members, according to union officials.

“We fought for the contract our members need and deserve to support themselves and their families, and so that there are enough skilled school bus workers to provide safe and reliable service to New York City families,” said Carolyn Rinaldi, chief of staff at ATU, in an emailed statement. “Our members are trained professionals. They are passionate and dedicated. Above all, they safely transport and attend to the most precious cargo in New York City — the children.”

The contract includes some guarantees on weeks of employment and medical coverage, as well as shorter progression to higher pay, among other things, according to the union.

Rima Izquierdo, an advocate and Bronx parent whose children take the bus to school, said she was grateful that a widespread strike appeared to have been avoided.

“That would have shut our city down,” she said. “And that would not have been good for anybody.”

What the contract agreement means for families

This year, some families returned to school as the potential strike fueled uncertainty over how their children would get to school. Though service continued as usual through the first few weeks of the school year, fear of future disruptions loomed.

Disruptions to school bus services disproportionately impact younger students, as well as students with disabilities and those who live in temporary housing.

The city’s Education Department previously estimated a strike would impact roughly 80,000 students across roughly 4,400 routes in the five boroughs, or more than half of the roughly 150,000 students who ride yellow buses during the school year.

About 25,000 of those affected would have been students with disabilities, officials said.

Now, a majority of those families should continue to receive services, though ongoing negotiations with the nonprofit school bus provider NYCSBUS and two other companies mean some families could still face strike-related disruptions, according to union officials.

“We are grateful that ATU Local 1181 and DOE-contracted school bus companies were able to come to a voluntary agreement,” a City Hall spokesperson said, adding it “will ensure continuity of service and peace of mind for the more than 80,000 students and their families who rely on these services, including thousands of students with disabilities.”

Why some families could still be affected by a strike

Negotiations with the remaining three bus companies could impact about 1,600 of the city’s more than 9,000 bus routes.

“That’s still a lot of kids,” said Lori Podvesker, director of disability and education policy at the non-profit INCLUDEnyc.

If each bus route carries even just 10 students, a strike would impact thousands of kids, Podvesker added.

“It’s really important if there is a strike, and in general, that there’s some kind of accountability system set up by the city that is school-based and keeps track of whether students miss services as a result of busing,” she said. “They need their services in order to access curriculum, and cumulatively, it builds up.”

Why families might see services disrupted without a strike

Even without a strike, some families may still experience issues with busing. The city’s vast school bus system often gets off to a rocky start, with families experiencing no-shows and long delays.

In a statement, Sara Catalinotto, the head of Parents to Improve School Transportation and a longtime transportation advocate, said her organization was “cautiously optimistic” that the settlement would include a wage structure that would help address staff shortages that lead to doubled-up bus routes that lengthen children’s commutes.

“A fair labor contract would be a step forward,” she said. “Much more is needed to repair the damage done by misplaced priorities and disconnected governance within NYC school busing.”

Izquierdo, the Bronx parent, remained concerned over the bus routes that could still be impacted as well as by the delays in bus service this year many have faced this year, including her own children.

“I feel like the least you can do for us is make sure our kids get to the building,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

As NYC COVID cases rise, one Brooklyn school adopts temporary mask mandate

2023-09-20T15:22:36+00:00

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Just weeks into the new academic year, a middle school in a Brooklyn charter network has reinstated a mask mandate amid a sudden surge in COVID cases, Chalkbeat has learned.

The move follows warnings from some health experts and weeks of steadily climbing case numbers in New York City — signs COVID will once again remain a factor in the nation’s largest school system.

The Brooklyn Prospect Charter School network last week notified families at its Windsor Terrace Middle School, located in Downtown Brooklyn, that a spike of cases among sixth graders prompted the temporary mask mandate. The requirement would last until each grade went five days without any new cases, according to an email sent to families.

Those precautionary measures continued into this week.

Tuesday, another email to families noted the school had seen “a severe spike of new cases across the building,” with “many students and staff being out sick.” That email said a mandate would remain in effect until further notice, requiring all staff members to wear masks, with students “strongly advised” to do the same.

“Throughout the pandemic, in accordance with public health guidance, we have done everything we can to ensure that our school communities are safe spaces of learning,” a spokesperson for the network said in a statement. “No one wants to return to a world where all students are required to wear masks to attend school and so we are following state health guidelines by encouraging students to wear masks while leaving the ultimate decision of whether to do so up to our students and their families.”

Network officials declined to say how many students or staff had tested positive, but said that Brooklyn Prospect has continually tracked COVID cases in its schools.

The impact of COVID on public schools citywide can be difficult to follow. This month, Education Department officials scrapped a map reporting daily case counts among students and staff in the city’s schools. They said schools no longer needed to report cases this year, though the city’s Health Department would continue to monitor cases among school-aged children. (Some individual schools might continue to track cases among their communities, but they no longer need to send the data to the Education Department.)

The Education Department maintains COVID guidance on its website, but little information has been distributed to families this year about protocols in schools. Charters, such as those run by the Brooklyn Prospect network, can create their own protocols.

Overall daily case numbers across the five boroughs have steadily risen in recent months, according to the city’s health department. The average number of new cases jumped from around 250 in June to roughly 1,300 as of September. Hospitalizations as a result of the virus have also spiked upwards, though both metrics remain well below their peaks earlier in the pandemic.

Still, even a modest resurgence in COVID cases could signal an additional challenge for schools, potentially worsening absenteeism rates that have surged in NYC since the pandemic began. Roughly 53% of public school students were fully vaccinated as of November 2022, according to the most recently available public data.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

Families have their students’ state test scores. But NYC will have to wait for overall numbers.

2023-09-13T21:42:38+00:00

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New York City families can now see their students’ state test scores from the last school year, though broader data has yet to be released.

The individual scores, released Wednesday as the first full week of school is underway, come later than usual. A change to the state’s learning standards, which required an overhaul of the exams and scoring, delayed the results.

Every spring, schools administer standardized exams in reading and math to third through eighth grade students. The test scores offer one look at how students are faring.

The 2023 exams followed the “Next Generation Learning Standards,” which were established after revisions from the controversial Common Core. The new standards sought to clarify previously vague language, such as outlining specific theorems students had to learn in geometry.

Since it was the first time the new standards were used, state education officials had to develop new “cut scores,” or metrics used to measure student proficiency.

State officials have yet to release overall data for kids across the city or state. But schools Chancellor David Banks said the city’s test scores were up in both reading and math during an appearance on ABC7.

State officials warned against interpreting the scores that were distributed Wednesday. They did not specify when they expect to release more comprehensive data, though noted teachers and principals had received reports over the summer on how their students performed on each test question.

The state’s Department of Education provided individual student test scores to districts and families for “programming and instructional services, as well as parent engagement,” Commissioner Betty Rosa said in a statement.

“After ensuring that all student results are accounted for and final data quality checks, the Department will release the aggregate data statewide by district, school, and other subgroups,” Rosa said. “As such, accurate inferences about how districts and the state are doing overall cannot be made until the data is finalized.”

The state Education Department also urged against making comparisons to prior years because the exams were changed to match the new learning standards.

“You wouldn’t compare your U.S. history class to your physics class, because it’s measuring something different,” said Zachary Warner, assistant commissioner of the department’s Office of State Assessment, in an interview last week.

“But with that said,” he added, “we do want people to look and say, ‘Are kids meeting the expectations of the learning standards?’ So you could look backwards and say, ‘Okay, on those standards, here’s how kids were doing. On the new standards, here’s how kids are doing.’”

Families can view their students’ test scores in their NYC Schools Accounts. (To set up their accounts, families need their child’s student identification number as well as an account creation code from their child’s school.)

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

First day of school for NYC: Smiles, sweat, and fears of a possible bus strike

2023-09-07T21:54:13+00:00

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Bronx student Avery Collazo began the school year on Thursday with an annual tradition: donning a bright blue T-shirt proudly exclaiming, “First Day of Second Grade.”

“He likes to stand out, to be a little different,” said Avery’s dad, Albert Collazo, who also brought a uniform shirt just in case.

The family joined dozens of others dropping off their children in the P.S. 121 schoolyard as the first day of school for New York City’s nearly 900,000 students brought out an array of emotions.

Some caregivers shed tears as they watched their kids walk inside the school building. Some kids smiled confidently; some shyly. There was also some sweat. High temperatures prompted a National Weather Service heat advisory, and the Education Department directed schools to limit outdoor activities after 10 a.m. Some educators and parents reported broken or non-existent air conditioners while some families were also concerned about overheated students on school buses.

Avery is enrolled in P.S. 121’s “gifted and talented” program, which pulls students from different neighborhoods. His mom, Elida, praised the city’s move to expand such programs, calling it “a great opportunity for a lot of other children.”

From left, Elida Collazo, Avery Collazo and Albert Collazo pose for a portrait on the first day of school at P.S. 121 in the Bronx.

Because the family has to travel outside of their zoned school to bring Avery to the program, they rely on a yellow school bus for transportation. Even though school bus drivers vowed to stay behind the wheel this week, families were still on edge about a possible strike, which could affect an estimated 86,000 students, or more than half of the children who ride yellow school buses.

“We’re definitely hoping no strike happens,” Collazo said.

For P.S. 121 mom Phyllis Moore, the new school year represented a fresh chance to get involved in her daughter’s education following her recovery from a stroke last year.

“I’m ready to be here, to get involved, to be on the school board, to do what I need to do,” said Moore. “We’re excited.”

Her daughter Lanyah, a fourth grader, has been in the school since kindergarten. She was excited to return to school with more age and experience, she said, but the 8-year-old was still nervous to find out who her teacher and classmates would be.

Schools Chancellor David Banks joined Mayor Eric Adams at P.S. 121, in the Bronx’s District 11, which is one of the districts in the first wave of the NYC Reads initiative. In a major shift in how the nation’s largest school system teaches its youngest children how to read, elementary schools in 15 of the city’s 32 local districts must switch to one of three literacy programs this year, with the rest following next year. District 11 selected EL Education, a curriculum that some schools in the area had already implemented.

“What I am going to be laser-focused on is ensuring every single child in the school system is on grade level no later than third grade,” Banks said. “The broader issue is, for even kids who don’t have dyslexia, they can’t read. And that’s because we haven’t taught them properly how to read.”

The push to change literacy instruction comes after years of attempts to improve the city’s middling reading scores — and after a widely used curriculum, which focused heavily on independent reading without enough explicit phonics instruction, was largely discredited.

Outside of P.S. 165 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, most parents said they hadn’t heard about the city’s curriculum mandate. The school, along with every elementary campus in District 23, is required to use a curriculum called Into Reading — by far the most common program that superintendents have mandated.

Sherifa Adams said her 6-year-old daughter Kaydence was already picking up reading skills, and Adams has mixed feelings about the change. “It’s first grade, so she’s already used to something,” said Adams, who learned about the curriculum mandate from a reporter. “I hope that this new reading curriculum only makes it better and not worse for her.”

The school plans to hold a curriculum night next week and will share more information about the new reading program with families then, an Education Department spokesperson said.

The literacy mandate may signal a wider effort to come, Education Department officials noted. The city is already pushing such changes for early education and ninth grade algebra. Some high school superintendents have opted to implement literacy instruction mandates on their own accord.

Students and families on the first day of school on Thursday at P.S. 165 Ida Posner in Brooklyn, NY.

Meanwhile, the city also continues to grapple with how it will accommodate the influx of children from asylum-seeking families. Banks announced Thursday that the city is hoping to address the chronic shortage of bilingual teachers by reducing a bureaucratic hurdle. For educators who are already certified in bilingual education but teach other areas, they will no longer lose tenure by switching subjects, Banks said. The move would affect about 500 teachers.

Despite the ongoing challenges, the first day of school also marked the tremendous progress that many of the newcomers have made since arriving last year.

At I.S. 93 in Ridgewood, Queens, one student who arrived in the country six months ago speaking no English made enough progress to enroll in an honors dual-language class this year. He was part of a team that won a classwide engineering competition Thursday, said his teacher Sara Hobler.

“This sort of thing is why I teach,” Hobler said. “It makes you take a step back for a moment and remember why you go through all the difficult parts of the job — for those looks on those kids’ faces when they realize they’re going to thrive.”

Busing woes, even without a strike

It has become all too common for students to have problems with yellow school buses, particularly on the first day of school. This year was no exception, as union officials continue negotiating with the city over a new contract. There were nearly 1,300 bus delays reported on the Office of Pupil Transportation’s website as of 4 p.m.

Brownsville mom Anika Smith said she received limited information about bus service and had yet to receive pick up and drop off times, even though her second grade son is entitled to transportation because of a disability.

Smith accompanied her son on Thursday to greet his teachers. Though the family lives a few blocks away from school, the mom said ongoing disruptions would be a “catastrophe,” forcing her to scramble to find relatives to help with transportation or rearrange her nursing shifts at a local hospital.

“I’m gonna have to take off a couple of days, switch around my hours,” Smith said. “I lose wages. I could get a write up … the hospital’s already short staffed.”

Outside her son’s school, P.S. 165, a staff member told a small group of families gathered in the schoolyard about the city’s contingency plans, including MetroCards or rideshare services for children with disabilities, those in temporary housing, or children in foster care.

Students and families arrive for the first day of school at P.S. 165 in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Naomi Peña, a mother of four children with dyslexia and co-founder of a Bronx-based literacy program, said her son’s bus arrived at their home just 10 minutes before his school was scheduled to start. By the time he arrived on campus, he was more than two hours late, meaning he missed his entire morning literacy block, she said.

The late bus – along with her daughter’s class having no working air conditioning – led to a disappointing first day of school, Peña said.

“It’s frustrating because I am just one parent that experiences these things, but it’s part of a larger ecosystem of hundreds of thousands of parents,” she said. “It shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t. Our kids deserve better, especially on their first day.”

Enrollment, mergers, and navigating the system

Over the past five years, K-12 enrollment has fallen by more than 120,000, which can have big consequences for schools since funding is tied to student headcount.

At Brooklyn’s P.S. 165, for instance, enrollment dipped below 200 students last year — one of a growing share of elementary schools in central Brooklyn and across the city below that threshold. Though small schools can be more expensive for the city to run on a per-student basis, several parents said there are benefits, too.

“With a small school environment, she will get the help that she needs,” said Crystal Salgado, referring to her 6-year-old daughter, Cianna. “The teachers actually know the kids.”

For her part, Cianna was so excited to be back at school that she zoomed past her mother into the schoolyard. She said she was most excited for lunch, preferably pizza.

Crystal Salgado and her 6-year-old daughter, Cianna, arrive for the first day of school at P.S. 165 in Brooklyn. Cianna hoped for a pizza lunch.

Some school communities began to see controversial mergers last school year, like one at Lafayette Academy, which joined with West Side Collaborative.

Despite opposition from both of these small Upper West middle schools, the proposal passed. Morana Mesic, a former PTA president at West Side Collaborative who opposed the merger, said her seventh grade son cried last night as the realization hit that he wouldn’t be returning to the small school that had felt like home. Instead, he’ll be attending West End Secondary School, a much larger 6-12 school on the Upper West Side that he transferred to over the summer.

“He’s going into a whole new environment all over again, so he did have a really emotional reaction,” she said. “He was anxious, frustrated, and scared, saying, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna be accepted.’”

Just over 30 blocks north, on the Upper West Side campus Lafayette shares with two other schools, families fanned into a crowded street, greeted by welcome signs and an energetic traffic conductor shouting, “Good morning! Good morning! Happy first day!”

Some students matched the excitement as they approached the building.

One Manhattan School for Children student said she couldn’t wait for “math, seeing my friends, writing, and anything I learn.”

Nearby, Jeanelle and Zaki Jarrah, stood next to their eighth-grader Finn. The family is new to the city, having just moved from Flagler Beach, Florida, a few weeks ago.

They said they were looking forward to their son developing closer connections in a smaller school environment. But they didn’t have a clear idea why they picked the Manhattan School for Children.

“We have absolutely no idea what we’re doing,” Jeanelle Jarrah said, laughing. “The school system here is so overwhelming.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school bus service will run uninterrupted next week, despite looming strike: union official

2023-09-02T01:14:26+00:00

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New York City’s yellow school bus services will not face disruptions from a bus worker strike next week as the new academic year begins, union officials confirmed Friday.

The news comes after weeks of tense negotiations between the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents about half of New York City’s public school bus drivers and attendants, and bus companies that contract with the city.

Public schools in New York City begin Sept. 7

In an email, Carolyn Rinaldi, chief of staff at ATU, said that while there would be no bus service strike-related disruption next week as the new school year gets underway, the union remains at the bargaining table “to fight for what our members deserve — a fair contract.”

“For now, routes will be serviced and negotiations are ongoing,” she said, “but time is running out.”

Word that bus service would continue uninterrupted, for now, is likely to be a relief to many of the tens of thousands of families who rely on yellow bus services to transport their children to and from school, especially as it comes just days before school starts. But with negotiations ongoing, a bus worker strike could still occur in the coming weeks.

Even without a looming strike, the city’s sprawling school bus system often gets off to a rocky start, with many families experiencing delays or no-show buses.

Education Department officials previously warned a strike could impact roughly 80,000 students across 4,400 routes in the five boroughs. That’s more than half of the roughly 150,000 students who ride yellow buses across approximately 9,000 routes during the school year.

A strike would also disproportionately impact the city’s youngest students, who can’t take public transit on their own, as well as those with disabilities. Officials estimated roughly 25,000 of the potentially affected riders are students with disabilities.

Earlier this week, amid growing concerns, the city’s education department released a set of guidelines detailing how families who rely on busing could navigate a strike.

Some of the city’s alternative solutions include prepaid MetroCards and free rideshare services. But such programs can require parents to accompany their children to and from school — a trip that isn’t always feasible for working parents.

One parent and public school teacher who relies on busing said earlier this week that the potential strike had filled them with anxiety.

Without school buses, they said, “We can’t figure out how to get our children to and from school safely, and maintain our jobs.”

Alex Zimmerman contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school bus strike looms ahead of new year. What families should know.

2023-08-28T20:45:29+00:00

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With a new academic year about to start, New York City schools are bracing for a potential bus worker strike that could affect tens of thousands of students who rely on yellow buses to get to and from school.

The possible strike comes amid continued negotiations between the Amalgamated Transit Union — which represents about half of New York City’s public school bus drivers and attendants — and bus companies that contract with the city. A strike could impact roughly 80,000 students across 4,400 routes in the five boroughs, according to the city’s education department.

That’s more than half of the roughly 150,000 students who ride yellow buses across approximately 9,000 routes during the school year.

About 25,000 of the potentially affected riders are students with disabilities, officials said.

Concerns over the potential strike have been brewing for weeks, after the union’s collective bargaining agreement with many bus companies expired at the end of June. But Monday, just days ahead of the Sept. 7 start of school, the city’s education department released a more detailed set of guidelines about how families could navigate a possible strike.

Here’s what we know:

Which students could be affected?

A school bus worker strike would disproportionately affect students who tend to rely on yellow bus services — including the city’s youngest students and those with disabilities.

It’s not clear yet which routes would be impacted. The city’s education department initially said it would release a map of potentially affected routes sometime this week, but Friday, officials said no map would be posted.

Families who are affected will receive an automated call, email, and text message from the city once a strike is confirmed, as well as on the first day of interrupted service, according to officials.

Even under normal circumstances, the city’s vast school bus system often gets off to a rocky start, with scores of families experiencing long delays or no-show buses.

And even if a strike is averted, it’s possible that the effects of the last-minute negotiations could ripple into the start of the school year. One source close to the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said school bus companies usually pick routes this week, but that isn’t happening because of ongoing negotiations.

How long could a strike last?

In a press release Monday, schools Chancellor David Banks said the city is “pushing for a resolution before the start of the school year,” but it remains unclear whether the strike will occur and how long it could last.

In 2013, a prolonged school bus worker strike saw services disrupted for more than a month, impacting more than 100,000 students and significantly driving down attendance rates in programs for students with disabilities.

What services will the city offer if a strike occurs?

Families impacted by the strike will be eligible for prepaid MetroCards through their school, allowing parents and students to travel to and from school on public transportation, according to the city’s education department. Families will receive four trips per MetroCard on MTA buses and subways each day during the school week.

Some affected students — like those with disabilities who are entitled to transportation services, or who live in temporary housing — will also receive access to a free rideshare service, which will provide a car to take them and a caregiver to and from school each day.

Ride-share services have typically been difficult for parents to take advantage of since they require parents to accompany their children to and from school. The car service would also provide a ride for the caregiver to any location in the five boroughs after drop-off, and pick them up there in the afternoon before returning to the school — an option which could make it more feasible for some parents.

One public school teacher in Fort Greene, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they worried about whether their two kids would be able to use the service, even though both would be eligible. They attend school about an hour away in Bensonhurst, where they receive specialized programming for students with autism.

“The earliest they’re allowed to be in the building is 7:30 a.m.,” the teacher said. “There’s no way I’m going to get them dropped off at 7:30 a.m., and take the hour ride, and still be there in time for my 8:10 classes.”

Some eligible families can also be reimbursed for transportation costs to get to and from schools in taxis or personal vehicles.

The city’s education department has not provided detailed information on how parents can access these alternative transportation services, but vowed to share further details before the school year begins.

Impacted families cannot opt for virtual learning if a strike occurs, but students will be excused for up to two hours of lateness caused by it.

Why are school bus workers considering a strike?

Union officials have been tight-lipped about the key sticking points in negotiations, though they have generally pointed to bread-and-butter economic issues.

“There has been a school bus workers shortage for several years,” Tomas Fret, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, said in a statement earlier this month. “Drivers, attendants and shop employees simply cannot make ends meet.”

School building shutdowns in the wake of the pandemic prompted the city to furlough thousands of bus workers, and officials have since warned of driver shortages and challenges with recruitment.

A union spokesperson declined to comment on the status of negotiations or detail their demands.

How did the most recent school bus strike end?

The 2013 strike largely centered on job protections. Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg was seeking new bus contracts to save money, and union officials wanted a guarantee that current workers could keep their jobs even if the companies they worked for did not win a new contract. (Bloomberg argued that the city was legally prohibited from making that promise.)

After a month, union officials called off the strike without winning job protections. The action was costly to bus workers, some of whom expressed frustration about the episode.

It remains to be seen how a strike this school year might play out in the court of public opinion. But some parent leaders who advocate on transportation issues have circulated a petition supporting the union’s demands for higher wages and detailing concerns about the city’s contingency plans.

Sara Catalinotto, the head of Parents to Improve School Transportation and a veteran transportation advocate, recalled that during the 2013 strike, “parent after parent testified their students had regressed and that they couldn’t get their kids to school under” similar transportation alternatives to what city officials are offering now: MetroCards and city-funded taxis.

“Those who remember it, the moment they heard the word strike, it’s a chilling feeling in your stomach,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Summer Rising has brought joy for some, boredom for others

2023-08-21T17:05:10+00:00

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For Paul Trust, a Queens parent, the first day of summer school came with a surprise.

Last year, his three daughters couldn’t wait to head to Summer Rising, the city’s free summer program, each morning, he said. They enjoyed activities like a slime truck, which came to campus with a hands-on laboratory, and the water slides set up in the school yard.

But shortly after the girls began their program at a new site this year, P.S. 60 in Woodhaven, Trust could tell something had changed.

“By the end of the first day, they were like, ‘I don’t want to go back,’” he said. “It was just outright revolt.”

Summer Rising, which runs at hundreds of sites for six to seven weeks in July and August, has been wildly popular, providing students in grades K-8 across the five boroughs with academics in the morning and enrichment activities in the afternoon. It helped reframe what summer school could look like, no longer reserved just for academically struggling kids. This year, the city rejected roughly 45,000 applicants, after the 110,000 available seats were filled. (Some of those applicants eventually got spots as seats freed up, though others were left scrambling for child care.)

Most parents heap praise on the program for helping students learn over the summer months and assisting families with a free child care option. Many are also hopeful that the program will continue next summer even as federal relief money — which funds a big portion of the program — dries up this year.

But while Summer Rising continues to garner praise, some parents at multiple school sites told Chalkbeat they decided to withdraw their kids from the program this year. They cited morning assignments that bled into the activity portion of the day and a lack of activities or field trips — which some site providers said were affected by severe weather. The program’s success had in part relied on its blending of learning and fun, and some worried that balance had shifted for their children.

For Trust’s daughters, their time outdoors was limited to a small fenced yard, he said. Sometimes, they remained indoors all day.

“It seems like they just sucked the fun out of it,” he said.

Despite their complaints, Trust kept them in the program — but he said he was unsure whether he’d enroll them again if the program returned for another year.

It’s been difficult to find buses that can transport students for field trips, said Tanya Walker, a middle school programs director at Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, a community-based organization that provides enrichment activities at some Summer Rising sites.

The overall program was successful this year, but Walker said that access to buses Monday through Thursday was limited, with few buses available on Fridays. While that issue wasn’t new, trips often fell on Fridays, as did weather-related problems this summer. Most of their sites this year were only able to do between two and three trips altogether.

“Two Fridays were rained out, and one Friday they had a heat wave, so they couldn’t do any outside activities,” she said. “Not being able to provide that experience really does change the momentum and the joy of summer camp.”

Nick Ferreira, senior vice president of youth development at the Child Center of NY, a nonprofit that provided afternoon activities at P.S. 60 and other sites, echoed that heat advisories and air quality concerns affected outdoor activities. He also said that sharing school sites across multiple programs and organizations could have limited outdoor time as well.

Most of their sites have been able to conduct roughly five field trips over the course of the program, he said

Citywide, however, schools this summer have seen more field trips across the board, increasing by about 1,000 trips to roughly 3,000 in total, according to the city’s Education Department.

“As summer comes to a close, we’re thrilled that students across New York City have engaged in critical academic recovery and exciting enrichment activities and field trips this year,” said Jenna Lyle, an education department spokesperson, in an emailed statement.

The city also made available a “full catalog of supplemental materials” to help teachers, Lyle said, highlighting Minecraft Education, coding and computer science, financial literacy, mindfulness, civics projects, and other project-based learning experiences.

Parents continue to report positive experiences

Established by former Mayor Bill de Blasio during the pandemic, Summer Rising has been funded largely through federal relief funds that are set to expire next year, leaving the fate of the program in doubt. At its inception, the program intended to help students transition back to school after remote learning. Mayor Eric Adams, who has voiced support for year-round school, has talked about the importance of the program to prevent what’s known as the “summer slide” when it comes to academics.

“Almost 40% of what children learn throughout the school year is lost during the summer months,” he said at a press conference in July.

“It doesn’t mean that the summer must be boring, but it means that part of the continuation of learning should continue throughout the summer months,” he said. “Those summer months of just doing nothing, just hanging out at the park or just going to the local corners to stand by, that does not happen in affluent communities.”

Education research has shown that students learn less during the summer months, but some researchers remain divided over whether they actually lose ground. Research does show that summer school programs can have a positive impact on kids.

For many families, the program has remained a valuable resource and positive experience.

John Haselbauer, a Brooklyn parent who enrolled his 8- and 11-year-old kids in Summer Rising again this year, praised the convenience of the program.

“It’s been great,” he said. “To be able to send kids and keep them occupied in the summer, rather than having to find some expensive camp, or having them stay home to watch TV or surf the internet.”

His kids have gone on field trips roughly once a week, Haselbauer said, and his oldest child found the academic portion of the day especially engaging and fun.

Leonari Jones said her 8-year-old son has loved his first summer in the program at Conselyea Preparatory School.

“By the time I pick up my son, he’s nice and tired,” she said.

Some parents withdraw from program

But despite positive experiences elsewhere, a Brooklyn parent at P.S. 139 said their children repeatedly spent all day indoors, complaining that the only programming involved watching television and playing in the gym.

Their one planned field trip — a visit to the Brooklyn Museum — was canceled on the day-of due to concerns over rain, the parent said.

The parent ultimately decided to withdraw their kids from the program, adding, “I didn’t want them to be miserable for the rest of the summer.”

Tajh Sutton, a Brooklyn parent leader, said she enrolled her 10-year-old daughter in Summer Rising for the first time this year. Initially excited, her daughter quickly soured on the program, as her days often began with individual worksheets and assignments that she didn’t find engaging.

Sutton said she understood the need for additional academic support in the summer months, but wished her daughter’s experience had involved more project-based learning and exploratory field trips or activities.

“I had transparent conversations with my daughter about why they had added so much academics in the summer, but it didn’t change the fact that she just wasn’t having a good time,” she said. “I know I can’t speak for everyone, but my daughter and her peers certainly didn’t respond well to it.”

Since she works remotely and had flexibility, she decided to withdraw her daughter from Summer Rising. She was happy to give it up for a family that needed the spot, she said, though she hoped the program could incorporate more fun into learning as well as bolster other supports for students, like mental health care and resources for vulnerable students.

“It’s not enough to just have somewhere for kids to go,” she said. “Yes, that’s important. It’s a dire need, and without it, the circumstances for families worsen that much more.”

She added: “But just because a child has somewhere to go, that’s not the whole story.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Debate over NYC high school admissions heats up at parent meeting

2023-08-10T02:55:39+00:00

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Debate over how selective New York City high schools choose their students erupted Wednesday night, as members of a parent advisory group called on the city to adopt more stringent academic screening.

The Citywide Council on High Schools, a group of parent representatives from across the five boroughs, considered a slate of recommendations on the city’s admissions process, including reinstating the use of seventh grade state test scores at selective schools such as Eleanor Roosevelt or the Clinton School in Manhattan and allowing such schools to once again set their own admissions criteria.

But some members of the public who spoke at the meeting protested the resolution proposing the changes — arguing the old system was confusing and opaque for families, and that the recommendations could stifle integration efforts in a school system that has consistently been among the most segregated in the nation.

The Wednesday night debate followed an especially divisive parent council election cycle. Earlier this year, candidates endorsed by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, won all of the elected seats on the citywide high school council. The controversial group staunchly advocates for screened school admissions. (One council member was appointed by the public advocate.)

The board, composed primarily of parents whose children attend selective or specialized high schools, passed the resolution 7-1, with the no-vote from the public advocate’s appointee. Though the board lacks the power to enact the changes, its recommendations come as the latest sign of continued debate over high school admissions. (Admissions to specialized schools, like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, are regulated by state law and were not part of Wednesday’s discussion.)

Schools have not used state tests in the admissions process for the past three years — and that change and others spurred by the pandemic moved the needle toward more diverse student bodies at selective schools.

For this fall’s incoming freshman class, students were sorted into different priority groups based on their seventh grade GPAs in core subjects. In cases where there were more applicants in a priority group than seats, selections were made on a lottery basis. More than 40 selective schools also participate in a diversity initiative, setting aside a certain number of seats to students who are low-income, English language learners, or live in temporary housing. There was a separate lottery for these seats.

The recommendations passed by the council call for the city to allow students to qualify for priority groups based on their grades or state test scores.

Parent arguments over admissions get heated

Tensions rose to a fever pitch during the meeting, as some parents who joined virtually argued with one another in the chat, and members of the public voiced contrasting views. In one particularly heated moment, council member Deborah Kross accused a public speaker opposing the resolution of “running a consultancy for districts.”

Kemala Karmen, the speaker, denied the allegation and said she was a parent and member of NYC Opt Out, a grassroots organization boycotting state tests. During her comment, Karmen said council members were elected amid low turnout and were not representative of NYC public school families.

“This message is for the chancellor, deputy chancellor, and whoever else it may concern: Do not mistake this vote and their resolution as representative of the wishes of families of New York school children,” she said.

Katrina Motch, a parent who said her two children had experienced the high school admissions process in 2019 and 2022, also opposed the resolution, noting the prior system had been particularly confusing and burdensome for parents.

“In 2019, every single school had a different criteria, a different interview, a different thing,” she said, adding it created “incredible stress for parents.”

Others spoke in favor of the resolution, complaining that using lottery numbers within priority groups was unfair and that school grades were too subjective a metric.

Chien Kwok, co-president of PLACE, called the use of a lottery “entirely demotivating for children.”

He added: “Grades are subjective and outright fraudulent, used to hide the failures of the DOE to teach our children.”

High school admissions process remains in flux

The high school admissions system in New York City is notoriously complicated. It saw multiple pandemic-related overhauls, as COVID-19 upended many of the metrics used to screen and sort students. Prior to the pandemic, schools could set their own screening processes, meaning students and families had to search for the criteria at each school. Admissions requirements ranged from essays and tests to interviews — and information about how decisions were made was sometimes difficult to locate or unavailable.

About 20 of the most coveted selective schools — like Beacon High School and Bard Early College — continued to use their own assessments like essays or school-based tests during the last admissions cycle.

Council members said the city should reduce the use of lotteries in making admissions decisions by allowing the roughly 100 other selective schools to once again set their own criteria — stating that thousands of applicants were left with “unsatisfactory placements.” The last admissions cycle saw just under half of eighth graders admitted to their top choice school, with roughly 75% admitted to one of their top three schools, and 95% offered a spot at a school they listed in their application.

Integration advocates and families in favor of the recent changes have said the standardizing of admissions criteria and other pandemic changes helped make the process more accessible and removed barriers for students.

Those gains held fairly steady for this year’s incoming ninth graders. Roughly 32% of offers at selective schools went to Latino students, followed by 25% to Asian American students, 19% to Black students, and 17% to white students. Roughly 66% of the offers went to students from low-income families.

Citywide, roughly 41% of students are Latino, 20% are Black, 19% are Asian American, and 16% are white, according to enrollment data from last school year. About 72% are from low-income families.

To Nyah Berg, executive director of New York Appleseed, an organization that advocates for integrated schools, the aims of the resolution represent a step backwards.

“We’re talking about access to public schools, and I think people forget that,” she said. “To think that we need to stop having this lottery so we can make the schools more selective — they’re public schools. People should have as much access and opportunity as possible.”

Berg also questioned whether the board’s decision reflected the broader sentiment of New York City families.

“The majority of parents that sit on the [council] are parents of students at specialized high schools,” Berg said. “An overwhelming majority of students are not going to specialized high schools.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Some NYC school bus temperatures rose to over 100 degrees amid heat wave, parents say

2023-08-03T18:05:31+00:00

Brooklyn mom Anjeanette Stokes noticed a few times last month that her daughter came home from summer school sweating and exhausted.

At first, Stokes attributed her daughter’s occasional overheated condition to the especially hot weather, but then her bus driver called last month and said their vehicle had no air conditioning. With few summer options options close to their Bay Ridge home, her daughter, an 8-year-old with Down syndrome, rides a yellow school bus for about an hour from P.S. 130 in Kensington each afternoon.

As an intense heat wave struck New York City last week, Stokes said she pulled her daughter out of school one day out of concern about the bus conditions. On another, her husband took their daughter to and from school using the city’s public buses, which are air conditioned. (Ordinarily, they take her to school only in the morning, as their pick up time is too early, Stokes said.)

“It made me really nervous that she was getting so overheated,” Stokes said.

School bus temperatures during the summer months have long been the subject of complaints, persisting in recent years as New York City has seen record levels of heat. Last week, as temperatures spiked to over 90 degrees, advocates say the heat became even more severe inside of school buses.

Roughly 47,000 students are riding yellow school buses this summer, according to Education Department officials. The buses primarily serve children with disabilities or those in temporary housing.

Under city law, air conditioning on school buses is required for students with disabilities whose individualized education programs, or IEPs, specify it for health reasons — a policy that has frustrated other families still concerned about the effect that heat could have on their children. City Council passed an amendment to the law in June to include all students with disabilities by 2035, the same year by which New York City plans to convert to a fleet of entirely electric school buses.

In the meantime, the extreme heat has led some parents, like Stokes, to face a difficult choice: Pull their kids out of summer programs on hot days, or risk potential health concerns. The issue became even more prevalent last week, said Rima Izquierdo, a Bronx parent and advocate, as city officials urged New Yorkers to remain cool and hydrated amid a National Weather Service excessive heat warning.

“I have parents texting me pictures of the NYC warnings being like, ‘What do I do with my kid?’” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Do what you need to do. Do what you need to do — because if something happens to your kid, you gotta live with that.’”

Izquierdo said her kids have come home dripping with sweat every summer for more than a decade.

As a PTA president at P176X in Co-op City, a District 75 school serving children with disabilities, Izquierdo now conducts bus temperature checks at the campus every year, including a trip last week that found temperatures on some buses reached more than 100 degrees. Multiple buses they inspected did not have working air conditioning, said Tom Sheppard, a member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy who accompanied Izquierdo that day.

One bus, Sheppard said, had an internal temperature of roughly 110 degrees.

Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle said more than 90% of buses used for summer transportation are equipped with air conditioning.

“Any student who is mandated to have air conditioning on their school bus is transported on a bus equipped with air conditioning,” she said in an email.

“Access to air conditioning on buses will be a priority as we move forward,” she added.

Sheppard said the city should take steps to ensure every bus has air conditioning during the summer, adding if even 10% lack air conditioning, it could pose health concerns.

“If we’ve got thousands of buses on the road, that means we’ve got hundreds of hot ones,” he said. “That’s a lot of opportunity for our young people to have heat related issues.”

Some complaints get traction

Sara Catalinotto, founder of Parents to Improve School Transportation, said some parents have had success advocating for their students to get onto buses with air conditioning, but added not all parents know where to go or that an IEP can include an air conditioned bus.

“A lot of parents don’t know their rights. They don’t know these channels of communication,” she said. “And really, it should be prevented. It shouldn’t really have to be such a struggle.”

Education Department officials said they address cases where air conditioning is not required by an IEP on an individual basis, and place air conditioned buses on routes wherever possible.

Stokes, the Bay Ridge parent, complained to the Education Department’s Office of Pupil Transportation, or OPT, early last week. The situation was resolved by Friday, and her daughter now has a bus with air conditioning. But she remains shocked it is only required for students whose IEPs mandate it, especially when it didn’t come up in any of her daughter’s IEP meetings.

“To me, that’s like saying, you need to have access to a water fountain on your IEP,” she said.

And while Izquierdo, too, said she’s been able to resolve some individual cases through contacting OPT, she expressed frustration with the long timeline toward a broader change. Each summer, she said, her phone rings non-stop with concerns from parents at her school. She worries that little will change before the new law goes into effect in 2035.

“It shouldn’t take 12 years,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s how NYC families can find free summer meal sites

2023-07-27T21:30:11+00:00

For many New York City families, the summer months come with added stress, as kids are out of schools where free meals are provided each day.

Across the five boroughs, free summer meal sites are working to alleviate that concern — and thanks to a texting service, families can quickly find the nearest site for their children. So far, the city has served more than 3 million meals, a pace matching last year, according to the city’s Education Department.

Summer meals are offered at a range of public schools and other community sites, serving free breakfast and lunch to anyone 18-years-old or younger. Other locations include city pools, parks, camps, nonprofit organizations, and more.

Families can text “FOOD” (or “COMIDA” for a Spanish-language service) to 304-304 to receive a list of the nearest free meal sites. No registration, documentation, or identification is required to access free meals.

The texting service comes from No Kid Hungry, a national campaign of the organization Share Our Strength. It compiles information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state agencies, and school district websites, giving families convenient options nearby, according to a spokesperson for the campaign.

Families can also search city sites using an education department search tool.

Hunger issues have continued to impact families in the city, with nearly three-quarters of New York families reporting it was harder to afford groceries this past year, according to a recent No Kid Hungry poll.

In a statement, Rachel Sabella, director of No Kid Hungry New York, called the free meals program a “critical lifeline” for struggling families.

The texting service also includes information about how to get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, which if eligible can provide families with additional monthly funds for food. The city, however, has been the subject of a lawsuit over delays in processing SNAP benefits.

Free summer meals will be offered at city sites until Sept. 1. Meals must be eaten on site at most locations, though some allow pick-up.

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Across the summer months, the city typically serves more than 7 million meals, schools Chancellor David Banks said at a press conference last week.

“We serve at parks and pools and schools,” he said. “Wherever the people are, our office of school food nutrition is there responding to the need.”

This summer, New York City public school families will also receive $120 per child in pandemic food benefits, according to state officials.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

At least $120 in pandemic food benefits headed to each NYC public school family, officials say

2023-07-20T18:36:20+00:00

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New York City public school families: Hold onto your state-issued food benefits cards. Another allotment of $120 per child is headed your way soon.

The latest disbursement of funds — known as the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, or P-EBT — aims to help cover summer meal costs for families whose students usually receive free meals at school. Since New York City public schools have universal meals, all families are eligible regardless of household income.

The latest food benefits will roll out later this summer, though state officials didn’t provide a precise timeline. The benefits must be issued by Dec. 31, according to federal guidelines.

The funds follow prior disbursements in recent years, including funds of up to $1,671 per child that began rolling out earlier this year. Those funds were based on COVID-related absences or remote-learning days during the 2021-22 school year, as well as an additional credit for the summer of 2022.

In total, the state has issued $5.4 billion in P-EBT benefits since 2020, with about 60% of benefits issued directly to low-income families who receive federal benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The new summer installment will be the final round of P-EBT benefits for school-age children, state officials said.

In a statement, Justin Mason, a spokesperson for the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, said the agency has conducted “extensive public outreach” and “worked closely with advocacy organizations across the state to ensure all eligible families are aware of these benefits and could take steps to redeem them.”

Advocates have praised the program for providing critical support across New York, especially as the pandemic has placed additional strain on struggling families.

[More: Here’s how NYC families can find free summer meal sites]

In a recent survey, nearly 75% of New York families said it had become harder to afford groceries this past year, according to No Kid Hungry, a national campaign run by the nonprofit Share Our Strength.

“With so many New Yorkers struggling to pay for food, we’re relieved the USDA has approved the State’s plan to provide P-EBT benefits to eligible families,” said Rachel Sabella, director of No Kid Hungry NY, in a statement.

For those on a low budget, the USDA estimates a family of four with two school-age children would spend roughly $250 per week on food — or around $1,000 each month.

Who is eligible for P-EBT?

All families with children who attended K-12 in New York City public schools this past school year are eligible for the summer food benefits. Those in charter, private, and other schools who received free meals through the federal school lunch program are also eligible.

Families can receive the benefits regardless of their immigration status.

Do you have to apply for the food benefits?

The benefits will be issued automatically and families do not have to apply for them.

How do you get the benefits?

Families that receive SNAP, state Temporary Assistance, or Medicaid benefits will get their disbursements directly added to those accounts.

All other eligible families will receive the latest round of benefits on the same P-EBT card where they received prior installments.

What if you lost your state-issued P-EBT card?

Those who have lost their P-EBT card can get a replacement by calling 1-888-328-6399.

What can you use P-EBT for?

The benefits can only be used to purchase food items, and are available to families for 274 days after being issued.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

New York’s reading and math scores are delayed, state officials say. Here’s why it matters.

2023-07-18T23:13:05+00:00

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New York schools are expected to receive state assessment results late this year — a delay that may change how schools decide which students need additional academic support.

Each spring, schools across the state administer standardized exams in reading and math for third through eighth grade students. The results offer one look at how students are faring. For instance, they showed a steep decline in math scores in the city in 2022 as students faced severe pandemic disruptions, even as reading scores rose.

Under state regulations, schools must consider students who fall below certain scores for academic intervention services, but make final determinations based on a variety of factors and assessments.

The scores can also be one helpful measure for families and schools to identify ahead of the school year when students are struggling — arming parents with additional information as they may advocate for more resources. The scores can also help schools in making course and programming decisions.

This past spring, however, students took exams that followed new learning standards. The “Next Generation Learning Standards” were established after revisions from the controversial Common Core. Intended to clarify previously vague language, the new standards, for example, outlined specific theorems students had to learn in geometry, while the old standards stated only that students must be able to “prove theorems about triangles.”

State officials said more time is needed to analyze the results and develop “cut scores,” or thresholds for student proficiency, because it’s the first time the new standards were used.

The state department of education said results are expected to be released in the fall, but declined to provide a specific timeline. Last year, individual student scores were available to families and schools in August, though the broader, citywide figures weren’t publicly released until late September. (About 38% of third through eighth graders passed the 2022 math exams, while about half passed the reading tests.)

As a result of the expected delay, the state’s Board of Regents Monday adopted an amendment to state regulations allowing schools to bypass the required use of the scores to determine which students should be considered for academic interventions.

Those services are intended to help students who aren’t meeting the state’s learning standards with extra instructional time and support services.

Schools previously had to follow a two-step process to identify students in need of services. The first step involved considering all students who fell below an established threshold on the state reading or math tests. The second step required schools follow a locally-developed procedure to determine which students would receive academic intervention services.

Now, schools can opt out of the two-step process, instead relying solely on the locally-developed procedure.

According to state guidance, schools should consider multiple measures of student performance, including other assessments and psychoeducational evaluations — but must apply the same standards uniformly at each grade level.

It’s not the first time that schools will have flexibility to make such determinations without state assessment scores. The state previously gave such leeway to schools in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, as the pandemic saw state testing canceled or disrupted, according to state regulations.

When reached for comment, DOE officials said they would review the amendment.

The amendment was adopted as an emergency rule, with a proposal for permanent adoption expected in November after a 60-day public comment period.

Additionally, when state assessment scores are released this fall, the new standards will once again make it difficult to compare results to prior years. Changes to the exams over the past decade have made it impossible to track trends over time, as officials have warned not to compare results to prior years when aspects of the tests are modified.

If screened admissions remain the same as last year, the test results should not affect fifth and eighth graders as they head into admissions season. In New York City, public middle and high schools that screen students from admission did not consider state test scores for this year’s rising sixth and ninth graders.

“While we do not anticipate major changes to school admissions, we are in the midst of engaging with schools and families and want to hear their thoughts about improvements to our process,” education department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement.

Correction: This story initially said that test scores will not be considered for middle and high school admissions this year. The education department has not yet made its final determinations.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

‘It awakened a part of us’: How NYC students are turning the trauma of gun violence into action

2023-07-05T15:30:00+00:00

Leslie R., a recent Brooklyn high school graduate, still thinks about the February afternoon that three people were shot outside her campus.

She watched police gather at the scene from a window inside the Williamsburg Charter High School. Her brother, a ninth grader with no cellphone, had already left the building. She had no way to ensure he was safe.

“You shouldn’t have to worry about that,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to worry about somebody being shot, or somebody dying.”

Students and educators at the school continue to reel from that day, when violence arrived at their doorstep. A teenager, who didn’t attend the school, allegedly shot two students and a staff member. All three of the shooting victims survived. But the trauma of the incident has lingered among members of the school community.

In the immediate aftermath, reporters flocked to the scene to interview students — carrying cameras and microphones — an ordeal students described as further traumatizing as they tried to make sense of the situation. Though the overwhelming attention has for the most part faded, the community continues to feel its impact. (Some students’ last names are being withheld to protect their privacy.)

The school bolstered security efforts, installing metal detectors and conducting bag checks after the shooting. It brought in additional counseling services. Teachers gave space for discussion in class. And in the months that followed, the community stood unified in pushing for changes that could help prevent other shootings from happening at local schools.

While gun violence at schools remains rare, it often occupies outsized space in the minds of children. Young people in New York City also feel the impact of shootings in their larger community. As of April, roughly 20% of shooting victims in New York City this year were under 18, NYPD data showed. And between 2018 and 2022, the number of teenagers arrested and charged with murder grew at a rate twice as fast as adults, according to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services.

As high-profile school shooting incidents have spurred national movements over the past decade — mobilizing students to advocate for change — that trend has continued on a smaller scale locally, as students call for action to help make their neighborhoods safer.

For Williamsburg Charter High School, that meant holding a rally, with students making signs and performing, as they called for local changes they believe could help make their community and others safer. So far, their efforts haven’t resulted in any concrete changes, but that hasn’t stopped further action from teachers and students. The school is planning to hold another rally in the fall, along with encouraging students to write letters to legislators in a continued push for policy changes in New York.

The city has taken some steps to address concerns about youth-related gun violence: holding weekly meetings between school administrators and local police precinct commanders, bringing violence interrupters to schools, and creating opportunities for discussions between students and NYPD officers. This year, though the number of shooting victims in New York City has dropped by nearly a quarter from more than 700 last year, young people still feel the urgency.

“After the shooting, in some students, it awakened a part of us,” Leslie said. “This is the world that we live in. This is reality. So what can we do now to help?”

Students push for change, even as fear lingers

After the shooting, the school transitioned to remote learning for seven days, followed by the week-long mid-winter break and a phased-in return. During that time, teachers Alexandra Sherman and Ryan Fuller felt an urgency to take action.

“Something like this can’t just happen and we go on as usual,” Sherman said. “As a community, we needed to heal emotionally.”

It began with a petition calling for an end to gun violence, along with concrete measures — like expanded partnerships between neighborhood schools and the NYPD and legislation to support school-to-school information networks. The petition also called for improvements to violence interrupter coordination in the community, streamlining communication between schools and the groups who work to de-escalate potentially violent situations. They also called for expanded funding for schools’ social-emotional support and after-school programs, and job opportunities for young people. The petition has since garnered nearly 4,000 signatures.

From there, Shante Martin, an assistant principal at the school, connected with New Yorkers Against Gun Violence to organize the rally in March.

“I feel like the students gave us a push,” she said. “Because they were really like, ‘We need to do something.’ They kept reaching out, they kept emailing us, and telling us that we have to do something so that we can move forward.”

A student at Williamsburg Charter High School holds up a newspaper clipping about their rally against gun violence.

Witnessing violence or tragedies can often spur young people into action, said Sara Suzuki, a researcher at Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

For students who do get engaged, though, it’s critical they find support from their community, she said.

“The link between mental health and political activism can be negative, unless there is a supportive environment for the young person,” she said. “It’s not that if a young person gets engaged post-massive political event, that will automatically help them process that trauma or help them heal. It really needs to be in a supportive civic environment.”

At Williamsburg Charter High School, students encouraged one another to come to the rally, and to speak with social workers and other support staff, Martin said. To Sherman, the experience has brought the school community closer together. But the teacher still feels the aftereffects of the incident. She’s still on edge when hearing sudden loud sounds in her apartment.

The shooting weighs heavily on the students, too.

“That fear is still here,” said Arianna S., a recent graduate of the school. “Sometimes, we’ll be feeling wary about coming to school.”

Students seemed more subdued and anxious in the aftermath of the shooting, said Brittany Gozikowski, a social work counselor at the school. She saw a slight initial drop in attendance, too.

“A location where an incident took place can be triggering,” Gozikowski said in an email. “It can ignite overwhelming emotions that the body is naturally adapted to flee from. So that can look like skipping school, requesting to do learning remote, or finding a new school altogether. However, coming back to that space and finding it safe — finding a supportive community and people who care — that can be healing.”

She worked with some students and their families to “process the trauma,” she said. She helped them “take small steps toward eventually getting back in the building and not being hindered by anxieties.”

Anti-gun violence rallies in Bed-Stuy

At another school in Brooklyn, anti-gun violence rallies are an annual occurrence, featuring student poems and performances at Restoration Plaza in Bed-Stuy.

Middle schoolers at Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School have been holding walkouts and rallies against gun violence for eight years — an act that has given Tiayana Logan, the school’s director of enrichment, a “renewed sense of hope.”

Students and school staff gathered in the plaza last month, sporting orange T-shirts calling for an end to gun violence.

Neighborhood violence impacts everything from student mental and physical health to academic performance, Logan said, adding students are constantly considering how they can stay safe moving to and from school.

“These are things that 10-year-olds and 12-year-olds are thinking about,” she said. “It’s our job as school officials, as teachers and leaders, to reassure them every day that they will be safe.”

Sonali Rajan, associate professor of health education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, noted the impacts of gun violence on mental health can be devastating.

“It’s not just individuals who are shot and killed with firearms,” she said. “But even for children who survive a school shooting, who witness gunfire, who regularly hear gunshots, who have lost a close friend or family member to firearm violence — these are examples of indirect experiences with gun violence that absolutely shape a child’s sense of stability and safety.”

Both short- and long-term intervention are critical in helping children and teenagers process a traumatic incident, particularly as students may face multiple, compounding incidents over their time in school, Rajan said.

Diamond Smith, an alumni of Launch and recent high school graduate, has been thinking deeply about gun violence and its impact on her community for years. She remembers a time before students at Launch had a plaza to host the rallies — when they gathered just outside the nearby Applebee’s to make their voices heard.

Students and staff from Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School gather at Restoration Plaza in Bed-Stuy for their eighth annual rally against gun violence.

Smith was in sixth grade during the second rally, and since her time in middle school she has worked with Save Our Streets to help keep students safe from gun violence. To her, the anti-gun violence rally helped her understand what was happening in her community around her — a realization she equated to landing in a pool and needing to learn how to swim.

“I want to give kids a safe space,” she said of her work with SOS and as an after-school teacher for younger students. “Because out there isn’t always safe, maybe sometimes home isn’t safe, but you have somewhere to put all your emotions. When you come here, we’re here for you.”

Her time at Launch and with SOS helped crystallize her own goals beyond school. Smith, who will soon attend Albany State University in Georgia, hopes to help those who are struggling — first as a social worker, and eventually, as a lawyer.

“I want to do public service work. I feel like that is my path,” she said. “The gun violence work, the outreach, all of it — it made me realize that.”

‘The activist years’

Students at Williamsburg Charter High School watched in the weeks that followed the incident as more shootings occurred across the country — including one in Nashville that sparked national coverage. Seeing those incidents brought back memories of their own experience, and students said they empathized with the victims on a deeper level.

“It’s one thing to realize and know about it, and it’s another thing to experience it,” said Savannah F., a recent graduate. “It made me more aware of how much not only legislation is not doing enough for us, but also just how exhausted we are.”

It’s been challenging balancing advocacy work with their studies, college applications, and more — but it’s also helped fortify their interests moving forward. Leslie said she plans to work in government in some capacity after college to address systemic issues, including gun violence. For Arianna, this experience has given insight she’ll carry forward as she hopes to study psychology and work in counseling after graduation.

“I never envisioned having such a close connection to this topic,” Arianna said, noting their time in high school has also been disrupted by major incidents like the murder of George Floyd and the pandemic.

“It’s just mind boggling. We already didn’t have the best four years, because of COVID and everything in general. So we tried to make the best of it,” she said. “But I feel like the last four years have been the activist years.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

45,000 NYC students among the victims of MOVEit global data breach, DOE officials say

2023-06-23T23:00:08+00:00

Tens of thousands of New York City students were among the millions of victims who have had their personal information compromised through the recent MOVEit data breach, education officials said Friday.

A security vulnerability in the file-sharing software MOVEit — widely used by private companies and governments to safely transfer documents and data — has wreaked havoc in recent weeks as hackers accessed sensitive information across the globe.

Officials estimated roughly 45,000 students, as well as education department staff and service providers, were impacted by the data breach. For those affected, that could mean social security numbers, OSIS numbers, dates of birth, and employee IDs were stolen.

Roughly 19,000 documents were also accessed without authorization, including student evaluations and related services progress reports, Medicaid reports for students receiving services, as well as internal records related to DOE employees’ leave status.

City officials said they would notify individuals whose data was compromised “this summer,” though they did not specify a date. The kind of data impacted could vary from person to person, officials said. Those affected will be offered access to an identity monitoring service, which helps people track if their information is being used illicitly.

The department patched the software within hours of learning about the vulnerability and is working with local and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate the breach, officials said.

“Working with NYC Cyber Command, we immediately took steps to remediate, and an internal investigation revealed that certain DOE files were affected,” said Nathaniel Styer, an education department spokesperson, in an emailed statement. “Currently, we have no reason to believe there is any ongoing unauthorized access to DOE systems. We will provide impacted members of the DOE community with more information as soon as we are able.”

Nationally, the data breach has affected millions — as financial institutions and government agencies were impacted by the sweeping cyberattack.

It’s not the first time New York City students have been subject to a cyberattack. Roughly 820,000 current and former students had their information compromised last year after a security breach of a company used by schools for tracking attendance and grading.

In the aftermath, experts told Chalkbeat that families should change passwords associated with their child’s school accounts, monitor their credit, and watch out for scam calls and emails.

City officials said the DOE has not been subject to any threat or ransom, and none of its information has been published.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Google internships, data analytics course may soon be available at some NYC schools

2023-06-21T22:14:38+00:00

Want to get certified in data analytics before you graduate high school? Thanks to a new partnership between New York City schools and Google, students at some schools around the five boroughs may soon be able to.

The tech industry giant will serve as the first tech-anchor employer partner for FutureReadyNYC, a career-readiness initiative that serves roughly 7,000 students at 100 participating schools, Mayor Eric Adams announced at a Wednesday press conference.

Through the partnership, students will be able to learn tools like SQL, Tableau, the R programming language, and more through Google’s Data Analytics Certificate program — a roughly 240-hour online course that ordinarily costs $49 per month. Students will also receive opportunities for career programming, paid work-based learning experiences, and mentorship from tech professionals, according to city officials.

Initially, Google’s Data Analytics certificates will be available to students in FutureReadyNYC high schools that are launching data science pathways, a spokesperson for the city’s education department said. Google will also offer training to teachers to teach the courses. Paid work-based learning experiences, meanwhile, will be available to students who are in schools participating in the FutureReadyNYC, as well as Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship initiatives and career and technical education programs, officials said.

The effort comes as city officials seek to establish stronger and more equitable pipelines to careers in technology for students — working to bridge opportunity gaps that exist across the city. It coincides with a $19 million investment by the Adams administration in FutureReadyNYC, which operates at schools throughout the five boroughs — one part of a larger City Hall plan to create a more inclusive workforce, and a continuation of schools Chancellor David Banks’ broad efforts to expand career education.

“At the heart of what we want to accomplish is exposure — exposure is so important,” Adams said. “[Students] are coming from communities that historically did not have access to technology… They walk into a place and try to get employed, and then we ask the question, ‘Why don’t you have the skills?’ Because we did not build out the infrastructure and the pipeline for them to get the skills.”

Google has committed $4 million to expand tech opportunities in New York — with $250,000 devoted to student pathways work in the city and $500,000 to CUNY schools.

Through the investment, the company will be the inaugural partner for the CUNY Tech Equity initiative, helping expand opportunities and curriculum in technology at its campuses and growing the number of paid internships available to students.

Google operates its second largest office in NYC, employing thousands of people across two campuses in Chelsea and Hudson Yards.

Adams called the partnership, “A win for our young people, a win for our communities, a win for our city, and a win for innovation.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

More food education and plant-based foods: Here is NYC’s vision for healthier students

2023-06-06T19:36:03+00:00

Which New York City schools have cafeterias with salad bars? Which serve halal meals? Which have gardens?

The education department quietly launched a school kitchen dashboard last month, giving parents and students a chance to learn what their schools offer. The website is part of a larger vision Mayor Eric Adams shared Tuesday about teaching students more about healthy eating — his latest effort to steer New York students towards a better diet.

New York City’s food education report includes plans to expand education programs on nutrition, develop a greater consumption of plant-based foods, and establish further culturally responsive food options.

Those improvements will encourage students toward healthier foods, helping combat high rates of health issues in a city where nearly 40% of public school students are overweight or obese, according to the report. Officials noted childhood obesity disproportionately affects Black and Latino students, putting them at greater risk for chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma.

Currently, 815 of the more than 1,800 public schools in the city do not have a food education program, with particularly low rates among high schools. That means more than 40% of all public K-12 schools in the city lack a food education program — defined by the city as combining education strategies and environmental supports to motivate individuals to adopt healthier food choices and behaviors.

Food education “permeates learning and the student experience throughout the school day, as well as before and after school,” according to the report. “It can take many forms, from hands-on food preparation, school-wide assemblies, classroom-based learning, field trips to farmers markets or botanical gardens, school garden-based lessons, and more.”

City officials plan to develop a guidebook, convene a council, and offer staff and student training on food education in an effort to spread knowledge across schools.

Adams has repeatedly pushed to improve school food, introducing vegan lunches on Fridays shortly after he took office, and considering a ban on chocolate milk in schools — ideas that have not always been popular. His administration has also committed $100 million to cafeteria improvements and expanded halal meal services in schools, according to the report.

Tuesday, Adams relied on a common refrain in announcing the city report, once again claiming to have reversed his own diabetes through a change in diet. Adams, who follows a mostly vegan diet, has often turned to his own health struggles to explain the urgency of his food initiatives.

Schools Chancellor David Banks also recounted a story from his youth, noting how his own research in high school led him to cut red meat from his diet — a lesson he has passed onto his children.

“Children stop me sometimes in the street and say, ‘I want my pizza and my hot dog,’” Adams said. “But there’s going to come a time when these young scholars are going to look back at this moment, and they’re going to say this was the right thing to do.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school admission offers are out. Here’s what the numbers show.

2023-06-02T00:41:43+00:00

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Despite the stress of applying to New York City public schools, more children received offers to their top-choice schools across all grade levels, education department officials said Thursday.

New York City schools have long relied on the practice of sorting and screening many kids, leading to a Hunger Games-like mindset for many families. It has also resulted in one of the nation’s most segregated school systems.

This year’s offer data shows little change in terms of racial and economic diversity compared to last year.

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” said Nyah Berg, of the integration advocacy nonprofit New York Appleseed, who previously expressed concerns that changes to this year’s admissions cycle could lead to less diverse schools. “We have made a lot of progress over the past two years.”

As the pandemic forced many schools to drop or shift their admissions criteria, some schools have become more diverse. Though integration advocates had long been pushing for such changes, it only happened by necessity because attendance could no longer be held against students, and standardized tests were not administered as they typically were. Neither Mayor Eric Adams nor Chancellor David Banks has made integration a top priority.

“If we really want to create and foster diverse schools there’s a lot more to be done than tinkering here and there,” Berg said.

Still, she believed this year’s changes centralizing admissions for high school, in particular, made the process more transparent, and she’s hopeful the city will continue to ditch standardized test scores and attendance in screening applicants.

Here’s a snapshot of what offers looked like for different grades.

Status quo for specialized high schools

Once again, few Black and Latino students were admitted to New York City’s eight prestigious specialized high schools, which accept students based solely on a single admissions test.

Black and Latino students made up nearly 10% of offers for next year’s class, according to education department data released Thursday.

That’s about the same as the previous year and the year before that. Just seven Black students were admitted to Stuyvesant based on the admissions exam — and that number was higher than three other specialized high schools.

Black and Latino students make up about 66% of students citywide.

The small number of Black and Latino students at the city’s specialized high schools has long been the subject of fierce debate, with many blaming the disparity on the reliance of a single test for admissions. (The admissions method is governed by state law.) The Adams administration has made little indication that it plans to change the way students are admitted to these schools, largely considered the Ivy League of New York City high schools.

About 26,000 eighth graders took the Specialized High School Admissions test this year, down about 2,000 from last year, according to city data.

Little change at selective high schools

For admissions to other selective New York City high schools, little changed. The education department created a tiered system for the city’s selective schools — like Beacon, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Townsend Harris — based on seventh grade scores in core subjects. The changes were aimed to simplify the process but also raised the bar for scores needed to qualify for the top group, narrowing the group of kids with priority access to these coveted schools.

Banks stirred up controversy when discussing the shift: “If a young person is working their tail off every single day and they get a 99% average … that should be honored,” he said at the time. “You should not be thrown in a lottery with just everybody.”

There were some concerns that the changes would reverse some of the pandemic-era diversity gains seen when competitive schools could no longer rely as heavily on grades and other screening measures, like state tests scores and attendance. But more than 40 of these schools have programs that set aside a certain percentage of their seats for students from low-income families or in temporary housing, for instance. That meant if there were not enough students with top grades for “group 1” who met the eligibility requirements for a school’s diversity targets, such as a certain percentage of students from low-income families, then those seats went to applicants in the next tier.

Despite these shifts in selection criteria, the offers reveal that little changed in racial and economic demographics compared to last year when an 85 grade point average was the cutoff for the top tier instead of this year’s 90 GPA. Roughly 32% of offers at these schools went to Latino students, followed by 25% to Asian American students, 19% to Black students, and 17% to white students. Roughly 66% of the offers went to students from low-income families.

Overall, of the roughly 73,000 eighth graders across the city receiving offers this year, about 48% percent got into their top choice. That isn’t far from last year, when about 50% got their first choice or the previous year when 46% got their No. 1 pick.

About 75% applicants got into one of their top three choices, up two percentage points from last year.

The city extended offers three months earlier than last year. The goal, city officials said, was to let families know before private school deposit deadlines.

Number of screened programs drops dramatically at middle school

Following two years without selective admissions for New York City middle schools — as the pandemic upended state test scores and other screening criteria — Banks let each district’s superintendent decide whether to reinstate competitive middle school admissions.

Some families lobbied to bring back screens, while others pushed to ditch them, saying it was unfair to sort the city’s 10-year olds based on their academic performance from fourth grade.

After superintendents spent about a month deliberating with their communities, nearly all opted for fewer or the same number of screened middle schools as before the pandemic. Nearly 60 of 478 middle schools ended up reinstating screens for at least some segment of their incoming sixth graders based on their fourth grade marks; 24 of these programs used selective criteria for all incoming sixth graders.

That dramatically reduced the number of kids in screened middle school programs from about 16,510 getting such offers in 2020 to about 5,100 with offers for the coming school year, according to the data.

The breakdown of students by income in screened programs remained fairly steady, with about 60% coming from low-income families. The share of Asian American students jumped to 35%, up from 21% in 2020, likely based on the demographics of which districts opted for screened programs.

Overall, 74% of the city’s fifth graders received an offer for their top choice, and 92% got one of their top three choices.

Kindergarten offers slightly up

City data also reflected a slight increase in kindergarten applicants, with about 1,200 more children applying. Those figures included applications for spots in the city’s coveted “gifted and talented” program, which used teacher evaluations instead of the prepandemic exams to select preschoolers.

About 95% of families saw their children admitted to one of their top three choices this year — up 4% from last year — as more seats were available and as the city said it extended more offers to families interested in schools outside of their zone or district.

This year, applications to the gifted and talented program were included with general kindergarten admission. Officials did not release admissions data for the gifted and talented program Thursday.

In the past, the program has faced criticism for admitting small numbers of Black and Hispanic students.

The application process underwent multiple changes during the pandemic, with Adams and Banks reversing a plan to phase out the program and choosing instead to expand the track by 100 seats in kindergarten last year.

Applications up slightly for 3-K and pre-K

For the city’s youngest students, admissions data showed a slight uptick as the city saw more applicants and more children set to receive 3-K and pre-K offers.

Admissions to 3-K programs rose by 8% this year, as the number of applicants rose to roughly 41,600. That was up from just under 40,000 in 2022.

For families applying, 68% were admitted to their first-choice program, up 5% from 2022.

Nearly 61,000 children received offers to pre-K programs this year — a jump of 3% from the year prior. That came as applications were up more than 3,000 from 2022, though still well below pre-pandemic figures.

Among applicants, 84% were admitted to their first-choice program.

The numbers come as a consulting firm’s report found the city’s early childhood system — including 3K, pre-K, as well as infants and toddlers — currently had roughly 30,000 empty seats — many of which were not in areas where demand is high, according to officials. That meant some parts of the city would see waitlists for spots, while others had thousands of empty seats, officials said.

The city did not release the complete findings of the report Thursday, which it paid the firm Accenture more than $760,000 to conduct. But its prognosis echoes a common criticism from the Adams administration — that the supply and demand of seats have been misaligned in areas across the city.

Officials said that the findings pointed toward a need to look at enrollment projections and available seats within zip codes, redistributing seats to areas with higher demand.

Of the approximately 140,000 seats across the city’s early childhood system, between roughly 119,000 and 127,000 were projected to be filled in 2024-25, according to the report.

“The city is focused on matching seats to parent demand—and that’s not a bad thing—but they should also be working to increase parent demand, particularly among underserved communities where children currently have the least access to quality early education programs,” said Halley Potter, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. “The Adams administration has not provided the needed investments in outreach, and that, combined with the lagging effects of the pandemic disruption to early childhood settings, is a recipe for inequity.”

The city’s free prekindergarten program has struggled this year, as delayed payments have caused some providers to shutter. Some officials and advocates, including City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, have criticized the administration for its handling of the early education system.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Child care workers could receive up to $3,000 in bonuses, under new state retention program

2023-05-31T22:55:36+00:00

New York’s child care workers could soon receive up to $3,000 in bonuses under a new program Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled on Wednesday.

The state is earmarking $500 million in underutilized federal funds for child care workforce retention grants to help organizations keep staff and attract new workers. The goal is to support roughly 150,000 child care workers with bonuses ranging from $2,300 to $3,000, in addition to bolstering recruitment efforts, according to state officials.

Applications will open on July 13. (State officials are creating an online portal where applications can be submitted.)

Hochul hopes the bonuses can help address the “child care deserts” that became even more prevalent during the pandemic, with the closure of 2,000 child care programs and 20,000 slots statewide.

“This is happening in communities all over our state,” she said during a press conference at a Brooklyn child care center.

The lack of options for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers has affected parents nationwide, as tens of thousands of child care workers left for careers with better pay and in some cases lower stress. In New York City, advocates have pushed for higher wages for child care workers, as well as improving outreach to families so they know where to find spots for their kids.

Some in the child care sector worry that the bonuses won’t provide a sustainable solution for an issue that runs much deeper: The low wages in the child care sector make it hard for many staffers — largely women of color — to stay afloat.

Nora Moran, director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, said she was pleased to see Hochul and other state officials providing child care workers with some financial support.

“We hope these grants are easy to access, as that will help ensure that funds actually get to providers in a timely manner,” she said in an email. “However, the State does need a plan to address overall wages and not simply offer bonus payments. Child care workers are often paid low wages, and one time bonuses will not help ensure that these workers are paid a sustainable, living wage.”

Gregory Brender, chief policy and innovation officer at the Day Care Council of New York, also praised the grants, but urged the city and state to enact further measures to close gaps between community-based early childhood education staff and their public school counterparts.

Veteran certified prekindergarten teachers at community-based organizations can earn just 53% of their counterpart’s salary at a public school’s pre-K program, he said. An assistant teacher could sacrifice more than $235,000 over a 25-year career at a community-based organization.

This year, New York City’s free prekindergarten program run by community organizations has been rife with problems related to delayed payments, and is also reeling from declining enrollment. The city’s 3-K program has about 16,000 unfilled seats, according to Adams administration officials. Many City Council members blame the lack of outreach for that. This month, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and other elected officials called for changes to 3-K and pre-K programs, criticizing Mayor Eric Adams’ handling of the city’s early childhood education system.

The governor announced the retention program and other child care investments during a visit to New York City-based child care provider Vivvi, which operates seven campuses for children 5 and younger.

“Oftentimes, people think about child care deserts as being somewhere else,” said Charles Bonello, CEO of Vivvi. “But the truth is that New York has one of the most significant child care supply-and-demand imbalances in the country.”

He noted that families can spend more on child care than they do on housing, health care, food, or college. Monthly tuition at Vivvi ranges from $1,800 for two days a week to $3,600 for five days, according to a sponsored post run on the Brooklyn Bridge Parents website.

“Too often, working parents — especially mothers — are forced to make heartbreaking decisions to downshift or leave their careers altogether,” Bonello said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Scientist in residence helps Coney Island students see the city’s wildlife beyond pigeons

2023-05-19T15:03:55+00:00

Brooklyn seventh grader Mahima Peters-Paleja typically thought of rats and pigeons when picturing her borough’s wildlife. But now she’s got a glimpse of a more diverse ecosystem that surrounds her Coney Island middle school.

With the help of wildlife biologist Myles Davis, seventh grade students at Mark Twain Intermediate School for the Gifted & Talented have worked for months on a project monitoring animal activity in a nearby park through trail cameras.

Students worked with Davis to set up the cameras in December, and have since gathered hundreds of photos of birds, stray cats, and even a skunk. Those photos will be tagged and analyzed by the students, who will present their findings at a student showcase later this month.

“Now I know there’s a lot more wildlife, and I’m more open to seeing it,” Mahima said.

The project is part of the New York Academy of Sciences’ scientist-in-residence program, which has placed hundreds of working scientists in the city’s schools since its founding, with more than two dozen currently in schools helping students develop projects focused on science and math.

Aimee Kemp, a science teacher at Mark Twain, said the project has helped her students engage deeply in their work — with every creature caught on camera bringing a new wave of excitement to the class.

“Part of my goal is to have the students leave with an understanding of what it’s like to really be a scientist,” she said. “The scientist-in-residence program provides the opportunity for me to bring in a real scientist, and get the kids into the hands-on learning portion of fieldwork and experimentation.”

Students have been involved in the project from day one, helping develop and pose the research questions that drive their work, she said.

For some students, like Ryan Basha, it’s been an opportunity to envision what a career in the field could someday look like.

“I’ve had an interest in science since I was little,” he said. “And actually working with a scientist, I feel like it’s been elevated even more — because I get to know what it’d actually be like if I do become a scientist.”

A stray cat walks through a park near Mark Twain Intermediate School for the Gifted & Talented, captured on one of the trail cameras being used in a student science project.

For Davis, a native of Brooklyn who recently graduated from a master’s program in ecology and evolutionary biology at Columbia University, the partnership has been an opportunity “to share the information I wanted as a kid with other kids growing up in Brooklyn.”

“I was their age before and I was naturally curious about wildlife, that’s why I’m in the field I’m in now — but the only way I was able to get that exposure was through TV or going to the zoo,” he said. “The beauty of this project is that you realize these spaces that you grow up around have this insane wildlife diversity that you really can’t tell, because these animals come out at night. Unless you’re standing completely still in the park at 4 a.m., you won’t see them.”

He said the students’ project is a scaled-down version of his research across New York City, where he studies how factors like housing density and human activity affect mammals in the city’s green spaces.

Across parks in Brooklyn and Queens, Davis’ cameras have documented everything from skunks and raccoons to deer, foxes, and even coyotes. The students from Twain, however, did not see any rabbits, which were formerly plentiful in Coney Island and believed to have inspired the neighborhood’s name, from the Dutch word “konjin” for rabbit.

He hopes the students will leave the project with a new appreciation for green spaces, and with the knowledge that the city is home to a diverse ecosystem.

“I don’t expect all of them to become wildlife biologists,” he said. “But the lessons that they learn through applying these scientific techniques — like graph making or data management — they apply to any scientific field, or really any field where you’re using a computer.”

Students also noted they’ve developed a close bond with Davis.

“It’s been really cool,” said student Luke Braun. “We get the experience of what it’s actually like to be a scientist.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

At least $391 per child in pandemic food benefits is coming to each NYC public school family

2023-05-10T17:48:04+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

New York City public school families, regardless of income, will soon receive a new allotment of food benefits of at least $391 per child, according state officials.

Known as the Coronavirus Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, or P-EBT, the federal program aims to help families whose children typically receive free meals at school — and since New York City public schools have universal meals, all families are eligible.

The latest disbursement of funds — which could total up to $1,671 per child based on COVID-related absences or remote-learning days — is based on the 2021-22 school year and the summer of 2022. The rollout began in April, with most payments posting this month, according to the state. Officials expect distribution to continue through September.

Since May 2020, the state has doled out $4.3 billion in P-EBT benefits, including over $1 billion for the 2019-20 school year, and more than $3.2 billion for the 2020-21 school year and summer 2021, according to state officials.

Advocates have praised the program for providing families with much-needed support and boosting the local economy.

“We know that food insecurity prior to the pandemic was a major problem in New York City,” said Liz Accles, executive director of Community Food Advocates. “It’s only gotten exponentially worse since the pandemic, so any ongoing support is really essential.”

Who is eligible?

All families with children who attended K-12 in New York City public schools last school year are eligible for food benefits. Those in charter, private, and other schools, or pre-K, who received free meals through the federal school lunch program are also eligible.

Children under 6 years-old as of September 2021 who received federal SNAP food assistance in the months between then and August are also eligible for food benefits.

Families are eligible regardless of their immigration status.

How are benefits calculated?

All K-12 children who receive free lunch at school will receive a $391 summer food benefit. So will children under 6 years old as of September 2021 who received SNAP money in June, July, or August 2022.

For each month of the 2021-22 school year, families (including those with pre-K children) will also receive $21 per month that their child was absent or remote from one to five days of school. That increases to $78 per month that their child missed from six to 15 days, and $128 per month that they missed 16 days or more.

Children under 6 years old as of September 2021 who received SNAP food assistance will also get up to $310 in food benefits, with $31 distributed for each month they received SNAP money between then and June.

How are benefits distributed?

Most families will not have to apply to receive their benefits, according to the state.

The state will automatically distribute the money to students who were absent or remote for five or more consecutive days of school.

If parents want to indicate that an absence not automatically covered by the state was also COVID-19 related, they will have to submit a P-EBT Food Benefit application to the state. The online application will be available from May 15 until Aug. 15.

How do you access the food benefits?

Families who previously received food benefits during the 2019-20 or 2020-21 school years will receive the latest benefits on the same P-EBT card, while newly eligible children will be mailed a card.

Those who have lost their P-EBT card can get a replacement by calling 1-888-328-6399.

Families that receive SNAP, state Temporary Assistance, or Medicaid benefits will get their disbursements directly added to those accounts.

The money can only be spent on food items.

Why do the benefits matter?

Nearly 30% of New York parents worried their household would not have enough food, according to a poll of state residents conducted last month by No Kid Hungry, a national campaign run by the nonprofit Share Our Strength. Two-thirds, meanwhile, reported experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression in the past year due to food insecurity.

“We know that families with kids in public school are having to make very hard trade-offs right now, deciding between buying food or paying rent, purchasing clothes, or just keeping the lights on,” said Rachel Sabella, director of No Kid Hungry NY. “Our recent data indicates that the hunger crisis is worsening in New York, so supporting families with P-EBT funds they can use to put food on the table will be a lifeline for many New Yorkers.”

Accles noted the benefits are particularly important now that some pandemic relief programs have expired.

“When schools are functioning in full force, a child has access to two solid meals a day,” Accles said. “For a family struggling to make ends meet, that’s a significant amount of resources that a family could save.”

She urged families to treat the benefits as they would stimulus funding, noting that spending them supports families and bolsters the local economy.

“Spend it, use it, buy food that you need,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school enrollment projected to remain steady after steep pandemic losses

2023-05-08T21:10:10+00:00

For the first time since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, New York City’s public schools expect student enrollment to hold mostly steady across the five boroughs in the coming year, according to education department figures released Monday.

Projected enrollment is expected to drop 0.6% in K-12 across many of the city’s public schools, down from a more than 2% decline in the 2022-23 school year and just under 6% drop the year before.

The figures are estimates and will likely differ from the actual numbers, but they hold significant implications for schools since they are a major measure to determine their initial annual budgets. These figures do not include students attending homeschools, charters, or schools in a few special districts that don’t operate under the city’s funding formula.

Overall, the education department expects just under 767,500 students, down from roughly 772,500 students this year. The relatively small projected enrollment decline will likely insulate individual school budgets from big cuts next year.

More than 320 schools are expected to see at least 5% fewer students in the coming school year, down significantly from the roughly 540 who lost at least 5% of their students this year. Meanwhile, 190 schools are predicted to have increases of at least 5% next year, down slightly from nearly 210 schools that saw those gains this year.

Whether a school’s student population rises or falls has major implications for how much it receives through the city’s Fair Student Funding formula, or FSF. That formula uses enrollment and student need to determine how much money schools receive. Roughly two-thirds of school budgets flow through the FSF formula, which the city plans to adjust to greater benefit schools that serve more vulnerable students.

A DOE spokesperson declined to provide the overall funding expected to be distributed through the FSF formula in the coming school year.

But even with fewer schools seeing enrollment declines, the city continues to use federal relief funding to offset student losses. If enrollment holds mostly steady, city schools could still face budget cuts as those funds dry up. And other changes could impact schools, too, as Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has planned a roughly 3% cut in the DOE’s budget.

Ana Champeny, vice president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission, said it was “heartening that the enrollment decline appears to be moderating.”

But, the long-term trend of declining enrollment is continuing, she said. “Schools have been largely held harmless for Fair Student Funding budget reductions due to enrollment declines during the pandemic. Despite this slowdown, schools will still need to adjust to FSF funding that aligns with actual enrollment.”

Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters and a longtime advocate for smaller class sizes who fought budget cuts last year, said the steadying enrollment figures meant further cuts were unnecessary.

“With this minuscule decline there is no excuse for any cuts to schools,” she said.

Since the pandemic hit, city schools have lost more than 100,000 K-12 students. Those declines came as the city and the nation faced an exodus of students from public schools.

The city bases its projections on fall enrollment, recent trends, principal feedback, and other factors. But the estimates can sometimes be off. Heading into this year, officials anticipated a 4% drop, but the actual decline was smaller at about 2%. The city has also seen its enrollment numbers bolstered in the past year as families seeking asylum have come to the city and enrolled their students in local schools.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Lack of librarians hurt students, NYC educators say

2023-05-04T20:42:54+00:00

After New York City’s public libraries last week averted deep cuts that would have significantly reduced hours, some parents and educators are raising alarm about the state of libraries in the city’s public schools.

For years, advocates have warned that many students do not have access to a library or a certified librarian on their campus. The nation’s largest school system, with 1,600 schools, has roughly 260 certified school librarians, education department officials said.

And according to a Chalkbeat analysis of school budget item lines for librarians, a larger share of high-poverty schools had no librarian on budget. (Other schools may employ librarians whose salaries are paid outside of school budgets, like through a school’s PTA, which may not be reflected in the data.)

It’s an issue that’s developed over years, as schools have had to make difficult financial decisions in the face of declining funds, and as librarians say their work has been devalued in the public eye. New York City isn’t alone. In Philadelphia, for example, there were just 10 certified school librarians in 2020, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

But in the five boroughs, where more than 800,000 K-12 students attend the city’s public schools, other factors have come into play. Under state law, secondary schools with more than 700 students are required to have a full-time, certified school librarian, with part-time librarians required for those who fall below the enrollment threshold. (Charter and elementary schools are exempt from the requirement.) But as the city trended toward smaller schools under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the early 2000s, schools found themselves with fewer students and shared building spaces — with libraries sometimes losing out.

“The library is often a thing that’s on the chopping block, because it isn’t seen as essential as a cafeteria, for example,” said Emily Drabinski, president-elect of the American Library Association and a CUNY librarian. “I don’t blame principals for having to make those tough calls. … But it speaks to our failure to understand the contributions that school librarians make to learning at school.”

A Chalkbeat analysis also found nearly a third of the city’s schools with more than 700 students — which would meet the state’s requirement for a full-time librarian — did not have one listed in their most recent budget.

Not having a librarian comes with consequences, educators say

Jenny Fox, a parent and children’s book author, said she started looking into the issue when her son’s Brooklyn elementary school lost its part-time librarian.

“It’s a quiet problem,” she said. “Half the parents at our school didn’t even know we didn’t have a librarian — people just assume that comes with a school.”

But not having a library at school can come with consequences. Studies have shown students at schools with certified librarians on staff tend to perform better on measures of academic achievement. School librarians often help inspire a joy of reading, as well as help students develop critical research and media literacy skills.

“In New York City, we’re always promoting college and career readiness,” said Arlene Laverde, a school librarian at Townsend Harris High School in Queens and New York Library Association president. “But what college students do you know that don’t do research? If you have to learn research skills in college, you are now five steps behind the private schools that have school libraries and school librarians ready to help.”

Laverede, who has worked as an NYC educator for more than 30 years and in school libraries for half of her career, said she’s watched as the field has shrunk. She’s heard people chalk up her role to just “reading all day” — a warped perception that has had painful consequences as schools have sought to trim expenses over the years, looking for positions that appear expendable.

While the majority of schools have no librarians budgeted, schools serving students with higher rates of poverty were also less likely to have one, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. More than 81% of schools with poverty rates higher than 75% did not have a librarian staff member budgeted. That was roughly six percentage points higher than schools with lower poverty rates.

Lauren Comito, a librarian at Brooklyn Public Library and board chair of Urban Librarians Unite, has seen students without a library or librarian at their school come into her library seeking help. Libraries on campus offer a crucial space for student exploration, one that some are missing out on, she added.

“We say that we want kids and students and schools to develop critical thinking skills, we want them to develop research skills, we want them to be able to identify misinformation or go out and find their own answer,” she said. “That’s something missing in schools — that ability to explore without it being connected to a rubric, and libraries provide some of that.”

City program aims to bolster librarian pipeline

Mina Leazer, a librarian at Manhattan’s Seward Park Campus Library, transitioned from teaching into her current role through an education department program. Working as a librarian has allowed her to continue helping students, providing a space for them to not just read and relax, but also to come seeking advice or help with a wide range of questions, she said.

Leazer said she fears many students without campus libraries or librarians won’t become lifelong readers.

“If those habits aren’t formed in that critical moment, they’re not going to miraculously appear again,” she said.

The city is trying to strengthen the pipeline of librarians, who are “invaluable resources for our young people in developing literacy skills and fostering academic success and college and career readiness,” an education department spokesperson said.

The education department offers a “Teacher 2 Librarian” program, which partners with universities to help licensed teachers earn a master’s degree in library and information science and become state certified to work as a school librarian. There are 18 new candidates preparing to join the program, according to an education department spokesperson. The city plans to keep working to increase the number of certified school librarians in public schools.

But though some programs have successfully turned teachers into certified librarians, Laverde said she worries years of dwindling positions have also turned some away from the career path.

“In their mind, it’s a dead certification,” she said of prospective librarians. “Why am I going to invest money into this degree and for a school library certification if there are no jobs available?”

Zalykha Mokim, a school librarian at Newcomers High School, a Long Island City school that serves newly arrived immigrants who may be learning English as a second language, shares others’ concerns over the scarcity of certified librarians.

Mokim became a librarian last year after a decade teaching — after experiencing multiple schools without a librarian on staff, and seeing how children across the city lacked equal access to librarians. The low number of school librarians has disproportionately impacted students of color and students from low-income families, she added.

“Of course I’m concerned about it, but I’m also hopeful, because there is a cohort of librarians who are trying to bring advocacy and trying to bring it into this realm where libraries are seen as essential and necessary for a vibrant public school community,” Mokim said. “Libraries are not a luxury for our students. Libraries are a necessity.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Amid mental health concerns, new bill would allow NY students to opt out of lockdown drills

2023-04-26T18:50:46+00:00

New York lawmakers will seek to change the state’s school lockdown drill laws, as some parents argue the drills harm student mental health without clearly proven safety benefits.

Under state law, public schools must conduct lockdown drills at least four times each year. The new bill would drop the requirement to one, among other changes.

Though high-profile school shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, have raised further alarm among parents, educators, and school communities, some parents worry about the damaging effect that repeatedly forcing students and teachers to simulate an active shooter scenario could have on their child.

Two dads with children at a Manhattan elementary school spent the past year and a half pushing to reduce the number of drills and for more guardrails in how they are conducted and communicated with families.

In late 2021, Marco Pupo, a Manhattan parent, was shocked to hear his then-5-year-old son say his class had to lock their windows and hide because “there was a bad guy trying to get us.”

“Kids at that age, they don’t know how to differentiate between what’s real and what’s not,” he said, adding other parents said their kids came home scared or asking what to do if bullets came through the window. “I don’t think there’s any research that needs to be done to say that this is traumatizing for kids.”

Pupo and Robert Murtfeld, another parent at the school, have since advocated for changing the state law.

A new bill introduced by state Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, both of Brooklyn, on Wednesday would do just that.

If passed, their bill would require officials use a “trauma-informed approach” in the creation of lockdown drills — including lowering the required number of annual drills to just one, notifying parents at least a week in advance, and allowing them to opt their children out of the drill. It would also offer accommodations to students with medical conditions, and require schools provide students with “an age-appropriate explanation” of the situation.

For young students, that might mean using codewords during drills — like announcing that a raccoon had entered the building and students needed to remain in their classrooms.

“These drills are incredibly traumatizing for students,” Gounardes said of the current system. “They don’t actually help keep students safe, or make them feel safe, which are both incredibly important.”

The bill would also aim to establish comprehensive training for schools and educators leading the drills, after Chalkbeat last year found teachers across New York City received little to no training before conducting them.

Without a standardized method, lockdown drills can vary in length and content from school to school, or even classroom to classroom. They might, for example, involve teachers locking the door, covering any windows to the hallway, shutting off the lights, and telling students to sit quietly in a corner.

Research inconclusive on lockdown drill benefits

The research on whether the drills help protect students in an active shooter scenario remains inconclusive. But the past five years have seen more than 150 school shootings that resulted in injury or death across the country, spurring cities and states to engage in precautionary measures.

Lockdown drills took place in 95% of American public schools as of 2016, with at least 40 states requiring them, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates against gun violence. But the organization advises against conducting them, citing the “collateral consequences to school communities’ mental health and wellbeing.”

New York State is among just a few states that mandate four or more lockdown drills per year — meaning students at its public schools may experience twice as many or more drills than students in other states, according to an analysis from the Trace.

“If you enter the school system as a 3-year-old, and you exit as an 18-year-old, you will have done 60 lockdown drills,” Murtfeld said. “This is not about making anyone less safe — this is about being smart about what is the best mediated solution.”

Instead of drills involving students, Everytown suggests schools use threat assessment programs, provide access to mental health professionals and social support, implement non-punitive disciplinary processes, and conduct emergency planning for teachers not involving students. Gounardes said the bill wouldn’t shut the door on the latter of these suggestions.

“Our bill doesn’t mandate or require that it has to be a student drill, or it has to be a live drill, or it has to be a simulated drill,” he said. “It very well could be that the collective wisdom of all of the relevant stakeholders is that the best way to do this is to have teacher-only drills… We’re not here prescribing that solution, we’re just saying that the [current] mandate is ineffective.”

Gounardes said he was optimistic about the bill finding support in Albany, adding it has backing from organizations like Moms Demand Action and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.

National landscape divided on drills

Some states have also looked to change their approach, with lawmakers in Maine considering an opt-out policy for parents and legislators in Illinois passing a similar law in 2021. Others have taken a different approach. In Texas, lawmakers have proposed investing more heavily in armed campus security, including a $25,000 stipend that would be offered to school employees willing to get trained to carry guns.

Murtfeld and Pupo said they understood the fears over gun violence and why the New York lockdown law was initially put in place, but added it was “not the solution.”

“It’s a math we unfortunately have to do between something happening in schools and the risk of creating a culture of fear that is being infused in our kids and traumatizing them,” Pupo said. “We wish we were not in the position where we had to make those decisions, but right now, with the knowledge that we have, this is what we think is the right thing to do.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Electric buses, green job programs: How NYC’s sustainability plan affects schools

2023-04-20T18:34:37+00:00

New York City public schools will draw more energy from solar panels and provide students with broader climate education and green job training programs.

Mayor Eric Adams touted these developments on Thursday when unveiling his new sustainability plan, outlining dozens of initiatives aimed at alleviating the harmful impacts of climate change and pollution.

By next month, the city expects to have more than 70 solar panel installations on school rooftops, with solar power providing more than 60% of the city’s public schools’ total annual electricity needs, officials said of the initiative that’s been underway for years.

And under the city’s new plan, more New York City students will have opportunities to train for green energy careers.

“While our children are preparing for the future, they’ll be doing it with power from the renewable energy sources of the future,” Adams said. “We’ve seen what climate chaos can do to our city — we’ve all lived through it, from Hurricane Sandy to Tropical Storm Ida — we know that lives are at stake.”

It’s an issue that has resonated with young people across the planet. A 2021 study found widespread anxiety over climate change among people aged 16-25 in 10 countries, including the U.S.

The plan tasks the city with implementing climate education in its classrooms across subjects and grade levels, as well as launching career programs for public school students interested in green jobs.

Those programs will launch by 2024 and offer more than 1,000 students work-based opportunities related to climate and sustainability, building on career readiness pilot programs that began this school year, according to the report.

The city’s efforts to bolster climate education will see the formation of a new teacher leadership team, offering educators climate education training, workshops, and other programs, according to the report.

The nation’s largest school system will also look to electric buses to shepherd students to and from schools. Following a timeline set by the state, New York City will launch a training program for electric school bus operators and develop a fully electric fleet by 2035.

The Climate and Resilience Education Task Force, a coalition of teachers, community educators, students, and environmental groups, issued a statement in support of the city plan.

“Young people deserve a meaningful education that prepares them to address pressing real-world problems, of which climate change is a top concern,” said Ellery Spikes, a high school student and a member of the coalition and the state’s Student Advisory Committee. “Climate education has the potential to empower the next generation of civic leaders and improve the futures of millions of young people.”

Other aspects of the sustainability plan include citywide initiatives like mandatory cooling requirements for new construction, expanded tree canopy cover, flooding resilience infrastructure, congestion pricing, and more. Reporters on Thursday peppered city officials with questions about how they would ensure the goals outlined in the sprawling, near 100-page plan came to fruition.

“When you see a job like this, it materializes,” Adams said, adding his administration has learned from prior mayors and their environmental efforts. “This is a long-term process.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

‘This would be a closure’: Two Upper West Side middle schools fight merger as city panel vote looms

2023-04-17T22:40:16+00:00

Two disparate small Upper West Side middle schools have found their fates intertwined as city officials seek to merge them, despite loud community protests.

One is a progressive institution serving overwhelmingly Black and Latino students, where more than 80% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The other is known for its French dual language program and has a significantly higher share of white students. Just under 60% of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Officials say the merger could help protect both schools, but to parents and staff at West Side Collaborative, the plan could mean a fatal loss of identity — as community members fear its leadership, approach to teaching, culture, and name could be washed away as it is absorbed into the larger school.

The progressive middle school has fostered a passionate community network, even as its size has dwindled to fewer than 100 students in recent years. The merger would see its students and faculty join Lafayette Academy, roughly half a mile away, in a move the city believes would shield students from funding concerns that stem from their smaller enrollment losses.

The merger comes as the latest sign that some of the city’s smallest schools are increasingly under threat even as families sing their praises, as the city faces steep enrollment declines and a looming fiscal cliff of federal relief funds. The Upper West Side fight follows a battle over a Washington Heights middle school earlier this year, and despite fierce pushback, the merged school may soon become a reality with the Panel for Educational Policy set to vote Wednesday.

Enrollment declines leave few options

Enrollment figures paint a stark picture. Over the past five years, West Side Collaborative has seen a 58% decline in enrollment, with further projected losses expected to shrink its current student body of about 75 students next year, according to city figures. Lafayette Academy, meanwhile, serves about 158 students. Because the city calculates school funding in part based on how many students enroll, a declining student population can mean a loss of funds, too.

“The merger is a reaction to a real trend — nobody will deny that enrollment across New York City is down,” said Paul Kehoe, a teacher at West Side Collaborative. “But in effect, this would be a closure.”

The school developed a set of progressive practices over decades, Kehoe said, like data-driven academic intervention services that catch students falling behind and a coaching period with student-led conferences to promote executive functioning and goal setting.

“The idea that you can pick up those practices and transplant them into another school and have them carried off with the same efficacy and deft touch that comes with experience is just not viable,” he said. “That’s just not a thing that happens.”

And at Lafayette Academy, community members said they were concerned by the lack of concrete details on how staffing and other decisions would shake out.

Stefania Puxeddu Clegg, a parent at the school, raised concerns about potential overcrowding with the influx of students a merger might bring, as well as the potential for Lafayette Academy to lose its small-school feel. And despite an email from the superintendent noting that Lafayette Academy’s principal would head the new merged school, Puxeddu Clegg and other parents remain concerned that such assurances were not included explicitly in the language of the proposal. (DOE projections also say the merger would not bring student levels over capacity in the school’s building.)

In a statement, a spokesperson for the city’s department of education said “meeting student needs” is at the “forefront” of any decisions.

“The district superintendent and his team have worked to engage the community in regards to this merger for months, and while it’s still in the proposal phase, if approved by the PEP, it is designed to give students the best access to new programs and additional supports,” the spokesperson said.

Tensions at both schools remain high

The clash between the school communities and the city surfaced at a public hearing this month, as parents from both schools repeatedly spoke against the merger.

“It was a disaster,” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy. “I was so optimistic, and then everybody at the joint public hearing was like, ‘Yep, we’re in opposition.’”

Though Salas-Ramirez understood community concerns, she added she expected the proposed merger to pass. “In terms of the numbers, it’s just really difficult,” she said.

A merged school could see a jump in funding, as more students are housed under one roof, and as the demographic shift could bring federal funding for low-income students to Lafayette Academy. Still, staff members may be excessed in the move, and it remains unclear how many families from West Side Collaborative would choose to enroll at the merged school.

“None of our parents want to go,” said Morana Mesic, a parent at West Side Collaborative and president of the school’s PTA. “If the merger goes through, our parents want a transfer.”

The relationship between the two school communities has been fraught with tension among parents, she added. In a meeting, Mesic said she took issue with Lafayette parents stating that the higher needs and lower test scores of students at West Side Collaborative might affect current students at Lafayette.

As an alternative to a merger, West Side Collaborative parents and staff have pointed to recent enrollment gains due to new students entering the city as asylum seekers have flocked to New York as one possible avenue to bolster the student body. But officials noted during the public hearing that those gains may not persist as families find more permanent housing.

Jeanie Ahn, a member of the local Community Education Council and a liaison for West Side Collaborative, said parents she’s spoken to have been overwhelmingly against the merger. The difficulty of the situation has been intensified by the expedited timeline of the process, she added. The first community engagement meetings about the merger took place in January.

“We are listening to the families and their concerns, but also understand the realities of the situation at both schools,” Ahn said, adding it would be ideal to have more time to develop a proposal that at least some affected families approve of. “If every single voice you hear from in both schools says this merger is not the solution, it’s going to be a really tough vote for the PEP.

“When it comes to these small, close-knit communities that are so tight, it really does feel like you’re breaking up families,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Dropout rates have ticked up in some states. How big is the problem?

2023-03-13T11:00:00+00:00

Just a few months into his senior year of high school, Niziere Clarke realized he wasn’t going to graduate on time.

He’d been struggling academically since COVID hit in the spring of his junior year. After an unsuccessful first quarter, Clarke, who lives in Toms River, New Jersey, started to spend more time doing freelance animation and digital art work and stopped engaging in his classes.

“Most of the time, I would log in, but I barely paid attention,” he said. When he finished the year without the credits he needed, he never returned.

Clarke, who is 21 and has since obtained his GED, is one of thousands of students who saw their time in high school disrupted by the pandemic. Those experiences have fueled concerns about a generation of students missing their shot at a high school diploma, especially as enrollment falls — and recently, several states have seen their dropout rates climb.

Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, and several other states reported jumps in their dropout rates this past year. This month, North Carolina officials said that the state’s dropout numbers were 17% higher than pre-pandemic.

But the scale of the problem remains hard to define. While a diploma is a definitive sign of high completion, classifying a student as having dropped out is a more ambiguous process that can take time and effort by staff — complicated by the fact that some students will take longer than four years to complete their requirements.

“We don’t really have a handle on the post-pandemic story yet,” said Robert Balfanz, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. “A little bit of this comes down to how much administrative effort a school puts into keeping their data up to date.”

For that and other reasons, experts caution against focusing too closely on the specific dropout rates themselves, which can lag years behind more reliable measures. Instead, they said attention should be on earlier indicators of academic struggle — and helping students like Clarke get across the finish line.

Clarke, who had felt on track before the pandemic, said his motivation evaporated as his community faded and he lost touch with teachers and friends. Things about senior year that had excited him, like upcoming performances with his school’s dance team, were suddenly stripped away.

“There was so much stuff that I really wanted to do during that time, but ever since COVID, I got pulled away,” he said. “Everyone just disappeared.”

What we know about today’s high school completion rates

For years, America’s high school graduation rates have trended up. Between 2010 and 2019, the nation’s average graduation rate rose from 79% to 86%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Meanwhile, the share of young people who were not in school and didn’t have a high school credential fell.

Across states, high school graduation rates held steady when the pandemic first hit, but dipped for the class of 2021. In 2022, states generally saw only slight shifts.

Dropout rates are messier. No recent federal data shows where the country’s dropout rate sits, and state and local district data reveals a varying picture. In Kansas, state reports show the dropout rate fell slightly in 2022, even as other areas saw upticks.

The numbers also don’t invite easy comparisons, as schools, districts, and states can use different criteria. In Michigan, for example, the dropout rate increased to 8.19% while Colorado’s went up to 2.2%, and the two figures are calculated differently.

Timelines for determining when a student has dropped out vary, too.

In Oregon, for example, education officials warned that an increase in its dropout rate from 1.8% to 4% last year came in part due to the suspension of a policy that saw anyone who missed 10 or more consecutive days automatically categorized as a dropout, the Oregon Capitol Chronicle reported. (Under the policy, students are only included in the dropout rate if they do not show up elsewhere by the end of the academic year, according to a state education department spokesperson.) When the policy was reinstated in the 2021-22 school year, the dropout rate included students who would have ordinarily been counted in the year prior.

And while a few states are seeing dropout rates inch upwards, that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer students are graduating. In fact, both Colorado and Michigan saw their graduation rates increase last year even as more students dropped out.

The seeming contradiction is due in part to how the figures are calculated. In Colorado, for example, dropout rates refer to how many seventh to 12th grade students disenroll from schools in a given year.

“The dropout rate gives us that pulse across a wider spectrum of kids, whereas the graduation rate is only giving us what happened to ninth graders that enrolled four years earlier,” Balfanz said.

Russell Rumberger, a former professor at the University of California Santa Barbara who studied school dropouts for decades, said indicators of students falling off course are more helpful.

Dropout rates, he said, are “not very good about telling the story,” he said. “The story is really about enrollment over time and attending school over time.”

Why students drop out

The dropout data may be unclear, but what is obvious is that the challenges of the pandemic threw some students off course. When classes became virtual in 2020, students suddenly needed a stable internet connection, a computer, and in many cases, an adult at home who could help keep them on track during the school day.

For students facing academic, mental health, or financial challenges, the situation became extremely difficult to navigate, said Megan Facer, a clinical assistant director at Youth Villages, a nonprofit that helps young people across the country experiencing emotional, mental, and behavioral problems.

“There just becomes this hopelessness,” she said. “They’re not incentivized to keep going to school, because it’s just too hard, and in fact they may never catch up.”

Those feelings met a job market that needed more workers, and some students found themselves entering the workforce — especially those who needed to support their families through an added income. And as some young people left education behind, it became harder to return.

“When we reopened, they had to decide, ‘Do I go back to school, where I wasn’t doing that great, and I don’t know what the relevance of it is anyway? Or do I stay in this $20- to $25-an-hour job?” said Steve Dobo, founder of Zero Dropouts, an educational social enterprise that works with school districts in Colorado. “A lot of them are choosing to stay in those jobs.”

Clarke, too, chose to prioritize earnings early in the pandemic, but he always wanted to continue his studies. He obtained his GED with help from LifeSet, a community program through Youth Villages and Preferred Behavioral Health Group that helps young people aging out of foster care or other children’s services. Now, Clarke plans to attend college in the fall to study computer animation.

But still, he admits that his plans were set back by the pandemic. Without the disruptions, Clarke knows he would’ve remained “dead focused” on reaching his goals.

“If COVID never happened, I would’ve graduated,” he said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Student behavior remains concerning amid COVID’s impact, educators say

2023-03-07T11:00:00+00:00

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More than a year after the nation’s return to in-person learning saw a surge of disruptive behavior in schools, educators say students are still struggling to adjust to life back in the classroom.

Disruptions after the long stretches of virtual learning ranged from smaller infractions to verbal and physical fights. Educators say those issues are still present this school year, but note many students are struggling in quieter ways, such as finding it hard to interact with their peers or engage in class.

“Last year, I was talking a lot about kids just walking out — it was a constant,” said Alex Magaña, executive director of Beacon Network Schools in Denver, Colorado. “But now, you see a higher percentage of kids that just sit there, not engaging.”

Behavioral challenges are not new to schools, but with the pandemic introducing additional trauma and stressors, educators fear they’ve become more prevalent. Even as some schools have strengthened support systems, teachers say it hasn’t always been enough to meet student needs — and experts warn the long-lasting effects on students are not yet fully understood.

In Chicago, schools saw a roughly 48% drop in serious or criminal misconduct at schools this year, but at the same time, more minor disruptive behaviors were on the rise. And while similar numbers are not available nationwide, nearly 70% of educators surveyed last fall said behavioral disruptions had increased since the 2019-20 school year, according to a report by EAB, an education consulting firm. (The survey drew from more than 1,000 educators across 42 states, but was not a nationally representative sample.)

Since 2018, the share of educators reporting frequent opposition and emotional disconnection among students saw significant jumps, according to the EAB survey. Those findings follow a May 2022 National Center for Education Statistics survey that found more than 80% of public schools had noticed slower behavioral and socio-emotional development in students amid the pandemic — and as educators on the EAB survey reported smaller but still notable increases in observed bullying and violence.

“Schooling was really inconsistent for a lot of students across the pandemic,” said Olivia Rios, an associate director at EAB. “They just haven’t had the chance, or the time, or the opportunities, to develop those skills that you need to sit in a chair and productively learn throughout the day.”

Of course, educators struggled with behavioral challenges well before the pandemic, she added. Indicators of student mental health, too, had been declining for years.

Rios said educators have told her this year has been less chaotic than the last, with students also exhibiting less severe disruptive behavior. But concerns remain over the long-term impact of the pandemic on students’ self-regulation skills, she added.

“The temperature has come down a little bit,” she said. “But even if the outbursts aren’t quite as big as they were last year, they’re still there, and we’re still having trouble resetting kids and getting them back into the mindset of being ready to learn.”

It’s an issue that some educators and students have seen locally, though experiences vary widely even within a school.

For 14-year-old Kiara Rodriguez, a ninth grader at Grover Cleveland High School in Queens, New York, this school year hasn’t felt different from the last. Many students still aren’t listening in class, and with friction between teachers and students, it can be difficult to focus, she said.

“I kind of want to go back to online school,” Rodriguez said. “It’s too much.”

Omar Ramirez, also a ninth grader at Grover Cleveland, has had a different experience. He said some students have been distracted, but the year has gone smoothly — adding he hasn’t seen any especially disruptive behavior around school.

“The students have been in control,” he said. “Nothing really crazy has been going on.”

Dan Walsh, principal of Kepner Beacon Middle School in Denver, said what teachers at his school are reporting “is more of a shift in the ratio.”

“Not that the behaviors that are happening are more intense, it’s just that the number of kids that are experiencing those challenges has increased,” he said.

Jennifer Spencer, a lead interventionist at the Distinctive Schools network in Michigan, said she’s seen widespread frustration from students as they attempt to navigate their classes after losing academic ground during the pandemic.

“They’ve lost that control and understanding that when they come to the classroom, they have to be ready to learn,” she said. “They’re just all over the place.”

And the impact hasn’t just been felt inside of the classroom. Danyelle Kimp, a teacher at Alcorn Middle School in Columbia, South Carolina, said students at his school have struggled to socialize with one another, even more than a year after returning to an in-person learning environment.

“Online communication was the norm for a year and a half,” he said. “So it just seems like some of the kids are awkward and don’t know how to interact with each other, let alone teachers or other adults.”

Alex Driver, a teacher at Pace High School in New York City, said he’s noticed an uptick in how many students struggle with social anxiety.

“There’s always been kids who are reticent to speak in front of the class,” he said. “But it’s probably five times as many these days.”

Though his students haven’t struggled with outbursts, he noted they’ve been more distracted, with cell phone use being particularly disruptive in class.

“There’s never been a period that goes by that I don’t have to say, ‘Put away your phone,’ like 15 or 16 times,” he said.

The EAB survey also highlighted a disconnect between teachers and school administrators when it came to addressing behavior issues in the classroom. It indicated that school administrators overestimated how much training staff and teachers had received — with more than 70% of administrators stating their staff had been trained in various behavioral management techniques, while 53% or fewer teachers reported that was the case.

Ben Court, a senior director at EAB, said ensuring teachers and administrators are on the same page is “the most important first piece of this puzzle.”

“One of the things that we know is incredibly important for students is consistent response from teachers between classrooms,” he said. “The more variation we have, the more chaotic it can be, the harder for them it can be to know how to respond.”

To Driver, the behavioral shifts in recent years have heightened the importance of support systems in schools.

“More kids than ever need the counselors at our school,” he said. “A lot of kids have trauma … but I have tons of kids who will ask to go see the counselor, and not because they’re in crisis. The counselor will say, ‘She just wants to talk every day.’”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Governors call for higher teacher salaries amid continued hiring struggles in schools

2023-02-23T18:50:30+00:00

Governors across the nation are calling for higher teaching salaries, seeking to bolster school staffs as many struggle to hire and hold onto educators.

The specifics of those proposals vary. But they have come from both Republican and Democratic governors in roughly a dozen states. Many governors discussed the issue during their State of the State addresses this year, according to the Education Commission of the States, which tracks education policy across the nation.

“What better way to strengthen our schools than to invest in the people on the frontlines of education – our teachers,” said Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, during his address. “Great teachers can motivate and change the trajectory of a student’s life. That is why my plan boosts starting teacher pay yet again.”

Delaware Gov. John Carney, a Democrat, said, “Right now, the competition for the best teachers in this region is more intense than ever.”

“We need to pay our teachers more to win the competition with surrounding states,” he added.

The calls come as states have experienced unexpectedly strong economies, and as schools have increasingly become a polarizing site for debates over how teachers approach certain subjects in the classroom. Their urgency is underscored as teachers have long been underpaid relative to others with similar educational backgrounds, and as high stress and other difficulties endured during the pandemic caused many educators to leave the field.

“When the revenues are there, and people are concerned about the pandemic learning loss issue, this isn’t the time for most politicians to run on a ‘I’m going to watch our pennies’ platform when it comes to schools,” said Jeffrey Henig, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

And for Republican governors in particular, the proposed salary jumps represent a defense against some political backlash.

“They are also trying to inoculate themselves against the charge that they’re anti-public schools because they’re simultaneously pushing school choice, vouchers, or tax-credit scholarship programs,” Henig added. “That provides an incentive for them to try to expand the pie rather than simply redistribute it.”

Governors have different abilities to change teacher pay. In most states, districts set teacher salaries, giving state legislators little direct influence, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit research and policy group. In others, states set both minimum salaries and minimum salary schedules, which rise based on years of experience and other factors. (Districts can still choose to offer higher pay than the state-mandated minimums.)

Governors have called for different methods of increasing salaries. In Tennessee, for example, Republican Gov. Bill Lee has proposed legislation that would see minimum salaries for teachers jump from $41,000 to $50,000 over four years. In Missouri, Republican Gov. Mike Parson has advocated for a program to temporarily boost teacher salaries, while in Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s proposal would see $50 million put toward merit raises rather than an increase to all public school teacher salaries.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont announced last week that he would introduce federal legislation to set a nationwide salary floor of $60,000 for educators, funded through changes to the estate tax. He called low teacher pay a “major crisis.”

For Republicans, pay raise proposals follow repeated criticisms of how teachers broach subjects of race, gender, and sexuality in classrooms. Those criticisms have garnered political upsides, drawing coverage and mobilizing their supporters — but they’ve simultaneously left state leaders open to rebukes for targeting institutions that remain especially popular at the local level.

State leaders tend to employ distinct messaging about education locally and nationally — with criticisms about schools and teachers unions centering on the nation’s education system, while discussions of local schools take a more pragmatic approach, Henig said.

“There’s this cleavage between what people say and think when they talk about schools in other places — there, they’re worried about teachers as ‘groomers’ and ‘What are they saying to my kid about gender?’” he said. “But when they think about their own teachers, their own schools, their own community, they’re much more likely to fall back on this traditional vision of the teacher as an ally of the parent.”

Though some education issues can be contentious, increasing teacher salaries tends to have widespread bipartisan support among voters, experts said.

More than 60% of parents, as well as 46% of Republicans and 70% of Democrats, felt public school teachers in their states should be paid higher than the current average, according to a national Education Next survey last year.

Competition between states spurs salary jumps

This year’s push is a continuation of trends that began in 2022, when many governors advocated for higher teacher pay, The 74 reported. Some states, like Alabama and New Mexico, enacted salary increases for educators, according to ECS’s state education policy tracker.

Competition between states can lead to a “bandwagon effect,” where one state raising teacher salaries can spur others to follow suit, said Sandra Vergari, a professor of education policy at the University at Albany.

“Moreover, states compete, and they’re ranked according to teacher salaries,” she said. “It doesn’t look good to be ranked low.”

Salary bumps have become more attainable as states experience continued economic growth, with some impacts of the pandemic receding. School funding is also reinforced by an influx of COVID-19 relief funds, which will sunset late next year.

Henig said most states have been “reasonably sensible” in treating the federal relief funds as a finite resource, and not allocating them toward expenses that will continue past their expiration.

But some are still worried. Michael Hansen, a senior fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, said colleagues are “genuinely concerned” about the impact of the looming fiscal cliff amid an uncertain economic future.

They’re concerned “that right now we’re talking about teacher shortages,” he said. “But in two years, we may be talking about teacher layoffs.”

Hansen said modest or temporary raises could be a more cautious approach. He said he supported all teachers receiving higher pay, adding that targeted raises focused on the highest need positions and settings could be especially effective at relieving hiring shortages.

“Of course, that’s not a popular position,” Hansen said. “Unions have consistently resisted this … unless it comes with other negotiated positions.”

And the stakes extend beyond just schools, Vergari said. Attracting more teachers can naturally bolster a local economy, with companies choosing to invest in more educated areas and higher pay encouraging more people to move to or continue to reside in the area.

“This isn’t just about educating kids, this is about the overall wellbeing of your state economy and your overall society,” Vergari said. “If you can’t recruit and retain teachers, that is a serious, serious problem.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

‘A growing wave of sadness’: Data shows worsening mental health crisis for teen girls

2023-02-14T17:41:20+00:00

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Nearly 60% of teenage girls reported feeling persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021, compared to just under 30% of their male counterparts, according to new high school survey data.

The disparities come as the share of students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness leapt from just over a quarter a decade ago to more than 40% in 2021. Mental health experts have warned of a crisis brewing among young people, as schools struggle to respond to a wave of new challenges spurred by the personal, academic, and economic losses of the pandemic.

“These data show a distressing picture,” said Debra Houry, chief medical officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the survey. “America’s teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence, and trauma.”

Female high school students were nearly twice as likely to struggle, according to the data. More than 40% of girls said they had experienced poor mental health in the past month, though just 18% of boys felt similarly.

Those disparities are consistent with mental health trends among men and women more broadly, with women about twice as likely to experience depression, said Tamar Mendelson, director of the Center for Adolescent Health at John Hopkins University.

While there’s no definitive consensus on the cause of the gap between female and male students, researchers have speculated that social media use and higher rates of bullying and sexual pressures and violence may contribute to greater struggles among girls, Mendelson said. The CDC findings showed teenage girls experienced bullying and sexual violence at higher rates than their male counterparts.

Mental health concerns were especially prominent among LGBQ+ students, with nearly 70% reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness compared to just 35% of students who identified as heterosexual. (The national survey did not include questions about gender identity, but will in the future, officials said.)

“We need to be looking structurally at what is happening in society that is creating these kinds of traumas and pressures on young people,” Mendelson said. “That ranges from structural racism, to economic oppression, to just the pressures that come with a society with so many inequities.”

Across all racial and ethnic groups, more students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2021 than in prior years.

These trends aren’t new. Similar gender and sexuality based mental health disparities were documented in CDC data released last year, and many of the trends in the report are a continuation of consistent declines in mental health over the past decade. And recent years have seen LGBTQ+ students reporting increasing hostility at school.

The new report also showed that nearly 40% of high school students do not feel connected to anyone at their schools — a factor which research has shown is linked to lower risks of substance abuse, mental health concerns, and other potential issues.

Female and LGBQ+ students were also less likely to feel connected to those at their schools than their male or straight counterparts, according to the data.

Feeling excluded or disconnected from peers can be “enormously stressful” for high school students, said Mark Van Ryzin, an education researcher at the University of Oregon who studies youth development and peer relations. It can both dampen student learning and exacerbate mental health challenges, he said.

“I would consider it to be a five-alarm fire if a school had 20% of students that felt that way,” Van Ryzin said. “But 40%, my goodness. It’s a testament to the times.”

In an effort to address the growing challenges, some schools across the country have added social workers, counselors, and other mental health resources, though many have struggled to overcome staffing shortages among mental health professionals. Schools have also taken steps to support students in the wake of gun violence and other traumatic incidents.

Collected in the fall of 2021, the data represents a snapshot of trends that may have shifted in the time since. Still, Mendelson said the findings point to the critical need for more mental health support for all students in schools.

“The findings really underscore the notion that we cannot ignore the mental health of young people — this is a critical issue,” she said. “And we’re ignoring it at our own peril.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

‘The person that I needed’: How one Florida counselor guides girls in her home community

2023-02-09T18:00:00+00:00

Sharayne Douglas never expected to become a therapist. Today, she works with teenage girls and their families in South Florida through the Pace Center for Girls — a nonprofit that provides free academic support, counseling, and other services to girls who have experienced trauma, some of whom have struggled with school, social interactions, or had previous involvement in the juvenile justice system.

Douglas’ work takes her to six different schools, where she works closely with students to provide highly individualized support. Her efforts come at a critical time, as the pandemic has intensified mental health challenges among young people — particularly girls.

Counseling wasn’t Douglas’ original plan. As an undergraduate student, she wanted to teach. But the same week she was rejected from a teaching program, she was recruited to a graduate school program that led her to become a counselor.

“I’m a person that believes in fate,” she said. “In my program, I began learning the art of therapy. I came to understand the need for people that looked like me — people from similar backgrounds who have had similar experiences to me — to be able to do this work.”

Though her graduate studies took her away from her home state, Douglas, who has a master’s degree in clinical psychology, has since returned to the community that raised her. And as a former camp counselor, she had long seen the importance of providing younger kids with a trusted mentor who isn’t a parent. Working with kids was a natural fit.

“It’s very cool to be a part of their support system in that way,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to focus on teens and children, and it just worked itself out.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How does your work intersect with schools in supporting the girls you work with?

I like to consider myself a part of the village that is raising these girls. They get familiar with seeing me at their school and at their home. Sometimes at Pace we have the liberty of picking our girls up and going to restaurants, grabbing food, or doing different activities. So they don’t just experience me in one setting, and because they know I’m fluid in how we meet and where we meet, I’m able to be an advocate for them, especially when it comes to school programs.

It really is a support that goes beyond just mental health treatment.

How has the pandemic affected your students and the issues they face?

I saw a big increase in risky internet behavior — not knowing if they’re talking to the right people — and an increase in cyberbullying.

A lot of the work that I’ve done as it pertains to the aftermath of COVID is really helping them understand what qualifies as a healthy relationship and what qualifies as a healthy friendship. In that space, a lot of girls were grabbing for companionship whether it be healthy or not.

I’ve also emphasized being okay with being alone, and what that looks like for them. We were forced to have alone time during the pandemic, but a lot of people were uncomfortable with that. So teaching them where these uncomfortable feelings come from and how we can make time by ourselves a little bit more productive.

What feels different about this school year compared to the last one?

There’s more of an emphasis on mental health challenges, period. It’s something that schools can’t really ignore anymore. A lot of the schools that I go to have their own forms of education set in place, and a lot of my students already know different coping techniques, such as deep breathing.

We’ve had an influx of referrals from different schools and community agencies because they’re understanding that more students could benefit from that one-on-one time.

What advice or strategies do you give students as they’re coping with difficult mental health challenges?

It varies depending on the student. I always like to say that I’m giving them things to put in their toolkits. That can look like going on YouTube and looking at different meditation regimens, different stretching they can do, and ways to distract themselves from intrusive thoughts.

A lot of it starts with psychoeducation — knowing that this is what anxiety is, this is what depression is. These are things that you already know you’re experiencing, but it’s actually been studied, and these are the ways that people are able to combat these different symptoms.

I also give my girls different creative activities. I’m not an art therapist per se, but we definitely have different art prompts. Some girls who don’t really like to draw or express themselves in that way, we do writing exercises. I’ve even had some of my girls create their own dances when they’re feeling anxious in the moment. So I try to utilize their interests and strengths and have them form their own coping techniques based on what makes them feel better.

How did your experiences in school influence the way you approach your work?

I always just try to be the person that I needed as a child.

One of the first schools I ever worked at was my actual elementary school. I remember having a student in fourth grade, and she looked like me when I was in fourth grade. She was getting bullied, and I got bullied in elementary school. A lot of kids that age don’t realize that things will pass; they have a very skewed view of what time is. So I was teaching her affirmations, giving her that hope that things will get better, and being that example, too.

In the therapeutic world, that’s when self-disclosure is helpful to tell them, “Hey, I was literally in your space some odd years ago, and I got past it.” It’s honoring what they’re going through but knowing they can get past it as well.

I’ve had the opportunity to work in my elementary school, my middle school, and my high school because I am from this community. I’m so honored to be able to bring my full self. I get to use the lingo that our girls use, and they understand it. We listen to the same type of music and the same artists. They see me as a real person that is going to help them and teach them, but we have fun as well.

It’s rewarding work in that way.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Biden calls for greater mental health care access in schools, limitations on social media companies

2023-02-08T03:40:52+00:00

Calling for increased mental health care access in schools, President Joe Biden pointed to social media companies as one factor contributing to the nation’s mental health challenges during Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

“When millions of young people are struggling with bullying, violence, trauma, we owe them greater access to mental health care at their schools,” he said. “We must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experimenting they’re running on children for profit.”

His comments come as some of the largest school districts in the nation have struggled to hire enough counselors and psychologists during the pandemic. Health officials have warned of a brewing mental health crisis, and schools across the country have sought to bolster access to telehealth and other resources.

Biden’s focus on social media companies follows a pair of lawsuits last month by two Washington school districts, which alleged such companies have fueled a mental health crisis among their students. The schools named giants of the tech industry — like Meta, Google, Snapchat, and ByteDance, the company behind TikTok — in the lawsuits.

Biden called for lawmakers to pass legislation limiting how tech companies can collect data from kids and prohibit advertising to minors.

He also touted other education measures — advocating Tuesday for higher teacher pay and expanded pre-K and higher education access.

Biden has attempted to increase funding for pre-K programs in prior legislation, but those proposals failed to gain traction among Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

Research has found some positive signs associated with pre-K programs, with one study noting those enrolled were more likely to graduate high school and enroll in college. Tuesday, Biden said “children who go to preschool are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to earn a two- or four-year degree, no matter their background.”

“When we made public education — 12 years of it — universal in the last century, we became the best-educated, best-paid nation in the world,” he said. “If you want to have the best-educated workforce, let’s finish the job by providing access to pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Community colleges see stabilizing enrollment after steep pandemic losses

2023-02-03T20:12:49+00:00

Community colleges saw enrollment begin to stabilize last fall after steep pandemic declines, fueled in part by more new students and a surge of dually enrolled high-schoolers, according to new data released Thursday.

The figures from the National Student Clearinghouse shed further light on COVID-19’s sweeping impact on higher education, as institutions around the country now seek to climb out of deep enrollment troughs, and as data reveals diverging trends across different demographics.

Bucking a multi-year trend, overall enrollment at community colleges crept up by just under half a percent in the fall — essentially flattening after years of falling numbers that predated even the pandemic. That change came in part thanks to a more than 6% jump in new freshmen enrolling at community colleges nationwide, but still leaves the schools well below pre-pandemic norms. It’s the first time either trend has increased in at least five years, according to the data.

Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, said the figures offered encouraging signs of recovery.

“Although freshmen classes are still well below pre-pandemic levels, especially at community colleges, the fact that they are swinging upward in all sectors is a positive indicator for the future,” he said.

Still, pandemic losses were steep, and depressed enrollment numbers continue to plague colleges across the nation — especially at community colleges. Undergraduate freshman enrollment fell by about 10% in 2020, but that number leapt to 17% when isolated to just community colleges.

“It’s encouraging that there’s some rebound on new enrollment,” said John Fink, a community college researcher at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “But that’s in the context of community colleges being in a deep hole.”

He added losses have been particularly severe among older adults and recent high school graduates, with more and more individuals choosing either not to attend college or to go into four-year institutions.

“If you think about who community colleges serve, they’re open access institutions that serve local communities; they enroll higher shares of first-generation students and low-income students,” Fink said. “So community college students are very sensitive to external pressures, through work obligations, family obligations, and financial obligations.”

During the pandemic, “there were a lot of factors pulling students away from community colleges,” he said.

Even before COVID-19, though, community colleges were seeing declines in enrollment for older adults and recent high school graduates. At the same time, community colleges have experienced explosive growth in high school students enrolling in their courses.

And dual enrollments fueled the stabilizing fall numbers, too, seeing a 12% spike. Without those students, overall enrollment at community colleges fell nationwide by between 1.5% and 2%, according to Shapiro.

“Certainly that makes a difference from a degree-seeking perspective,” he said. “[But] in the context of the health of the institution, those dual-enrollments do make a difference.”

To Fink, the dually enrolled students represent one path forward for community colleges, serving as a potential on ramp for their schools and others.

“In many states, high school students make up a quarter or a third or more of community college enrollment,” he said. “What we’re hearing from colleges is that over the years as these programs have grown, sometimes there hasn’t been a lot of intentionality around connecting the college’s mission of access and equity with the dual enrollment work.”

Research has found that such programs have been less accessible to students of color and students from low-income backgrounds, despite showing positive outcomes for those who are able to participate, Fink added. Colleges have begun to strengthen their relationships with Title I schools and take other measures to bolster accessibility.

That work can be especially important as data shows diverging enrollment trends for students of color.

While Latino and Asian American students saw enrollment numbers beginning to rebound in the fall, Black and Native American student enrollment numbers declined further. Those trends held steady across undergraduate enrollment as a whole, and at community colleges in particular.

Enrollment trends outside of community colleges also began to stabilize, according to the data. Overall, the nation’s undergraduate enrollment shrunk by just 0.6% in the fall, despite falling by more than 3% in each of the prior pandemic years. Nonprofit four-year colleges also shifted by a fraction of a percent, while public four-year colleges saw a decline of roughly 1.4%.

“There’s still a long way to go,” Shapiro said. “But I think this is clearly an encouraging sign.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Advanced Placement debate feels high-stakes for teachers of African American history

2023-02-02T19:16:30+00:00

Keziah Ridgeway has taught African American history at Northeast High School in Philadelphia for four years, calling it a “labor of love.”

“I say it is a labor because it is very daunting teaching African American history,” she said. “It’s a lot of trauma — a lot of events that can make you uncomfortable.”

Still, Ridgeway added, “It’s something that needs to be done.”

More teachers across the country are likely to confront this challenge in the years to come as the College Board rolls out its first Advanced Placement course in African American studies.

Already, the course has been thrust into the political fray. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state’s schools wouldn’t teach the class, alleging that it violated a 2022 state law that restricts how race and racism are taught. He and other state officials pointed to the inclusion of subjects like Black queer studies, the debate over reparations for slavery, and the Black Lives Matter movement in criticizing the curriculum.

Then, after the College Board released a final curriculum framework Wednesday that removed much of the criticized content, some protested that the course had been watered down — while educators who are piloting the class and others like it stressed the vital role it can play in schools.

“I compel anyone who has questions about this course to actually take the time to read the curriculum, spend time in classrooms, and talk to students,” said Melissa Tracy, a teacher at Odyssey Charter School in Delaware who is teaching a pilot version of the AP course this year. “What many students will tell you is, ‘This is the first time in my entire educational experience where I actually get to learn this content — because I was never taught it.’”

Tony Green, a teacher at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California who is participating in the pilot, said it’s a more comprehensive course than any high school class that has preceded it.

“This is the ideal situation for a teacher who’s teaching African American studies, because the resources have already been gathered,” said Green, who has taught Black history for decades.

The College Board has denied that DeSantis or any states influenced the revision process, saying the changes were pedagogical and based on feedback from educators, the New York Times reported.

National curriculum decisions are rare

Curriculum revisions, especially to a new course, aren’t unusual, noted Tambra Jackson, a professor and dean of the School of Education at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis who focuses on social justice in education. The College Board’s process of convening scholars and teachers at the high school and college levels to construct the course wasn’t unusual either.

“If this would have happened without the political fanfare, we might not be giving it that much attention,” she said.

What is different now is the intensity of the Republicans’ focus on how race and gender are taught in schools, and the way figures like DeSantis have turned critiques more often hashed out in state standards committee hearings into a political spectacle. Eighteen states have legislated or imposed changes to how race and racism can be taught since January 2021, according to Education Week’s tracker. Many have also restricted discussion of sexism and LGBTQ content. Schools also have faced a new wave of challenges to the availability of school library books.

“The political context where we’re in right now — there is this very direct, extreme focus on any kind of social awareness, on any kind of social action that focuses on how human beings in this country have been dehumanized, and there is an attempt to water down that history,” Jackson said.

“Because of all of that, on Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month, the announcement that this curriculum has been revised, and the revision excludes really important, key people and thought leaders — it is disheartening,” she said.

The curriculum framework for an AP course is in many ways a particularly vulnerable target for political opposition, since it is a rare piece of public schooling in America that is nationally standardized. Generally state bodies adopt standards that guide teaching of various subjects, while local school districts and school leaders choose textbooks and curriculum, and individual teachers make daily choices about what materials to use and topics to emphasize.

Textbooks in California and Texas, for example, vary in their treatment of topics like Reconstruction, the period immediately following the Civil War. And debates about topics like sex education, climate change, and evolution have flared in parts of the country for decades.

Debates about teaching Black history have a long history

In a number of cities, including Newark and Philadelphia, African American history is a curriculum staple.

Philadelphia has required all students to take an African American history course since 2005 in order to graduate. There, officials don’t shy away from teaching upsetting history. The district’s soon-to-be-updated curriculum will include a unit on one of the most fraught racial incidents in the history of Philadelphia: the city’s standoffs with Black activists who were part of the MOVE organization. In 1978 a police officer was killed in a shootout; in 1985, the bombing of the MOVE house by the police resulted in the deaths of 11 people, including children.

“Our official position is that we encourage teachers to approach controversial issues in the classroom,” said Ismael Jimenez, the district’s director of social studies curriculum who taught history in the district, including that course, for 12 years.

Established courses in many districts emerged from decades of activism and come with their own history of debate about how they should be taught. Last year, Detroit’s public school district chose new curriculum materials for its elective African American history course that the superintendent noted emphasized “strength, joy, and achievement,” without the frequent overemphasis on slavery as the starting point of Black history.

In Newark, New Jersey, where a 2002 state law required the teaching of African American history, the district didn’t offer a complete middle and high school curriculum on the subject until 2021 – nearly 20 years later.

Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele teaches history and Africana studies at Weequahic High School in Newark and now uses the district’s Amistad curriculum. “I’m appreciative of the conversation. I think it’s needed,” he said of the debate about the AP course content. “But it’s not something new.”

Whether to give space to figures some find radical is always a piece of that discussion, even in places with legal protections, he said. In other states, he knows those battles are even tougher.

“There’s still a struggle to factually document the history of Black people in this country,” he said. Often when schools introduce the subject, he said, “They want something safe, comfortable.”

Green said he wasn’t surprised to see the course spark national backlash, adding that historically, introducing an African American studies curriculum has “always been a struggle.”

He pointed to student movements in the late 1960s, where protestors clashed with university officials and police in an effort to establish ethnic studies programs. “It was definitely attacked,” he said of African American studies at the time, adding the efforts came under fire from local conservative leaders. “There was bloodshed behind the introduction of that curriculum.”

The College Board’s new curriculum suggests that many of the topics now gone from the course framework can still be the focus of student projects — with a sample list of topics including, for example, “Gay life and expression in Black communities,” and “Reparations debates in the U.S./ the Americas.” Tracy and Green, who are teaching the pilot AP course, both noted that a curriculum doesn’t dictate every move teachers make in a classroom.

“There’s still a lot of built-in flexibility,” Tracy said. “Although there may not be a very specific lesson on Black Lives Matter, there still is an opportunity for students to research it. And at the end of the day, I don’t know how you can not talk about it. How do you talk about the Black freedom struggle without talking about Black Lives Matter?”

To Jackson, Ridgeway, and others, the revisions remain disappointing — and suggest the organization folded to political influence.

“For a long time, before cities and school districts began to teach ethnic studies and African American history, our students were subjected to a history that was very much whitewashed,” Ridgeway said. “Removing these things is unacceptable. It waters down our history and it hides the truth from our students.”

What is still heartening, Jackson said, is that the years ahead could see more students than ever getting a deep exposure to the topic.

“The fact that we now have an AP African American history course, I think it’s a wonderful thing,” she said. “I think students will take it, they will be engaged, they will be excited about the content, they will share it with their friends, and their friends will want to take it.

“When people have access, it opens up new curiosities.”

Dale Mezzacappa contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Teach For America to cut a quarter of staff in latest shakeup

2023-01-20T23:12:36+00:00

Teach For America, once a centerpiece of the nation’s impassioned education reform debates, will cut more than a quarter of its staff by June.

The organization will reduce its staff by roughly 400 positions, according to a video shared with staff in mid-December. Officials this week acknowledged the internal shakeup, which comes after TFA’s 2022 cohort was its smallest crop of first-year teachers in more than a decade.

The organization projects its incoming cohort will be larger, and says it will focus more attention on supporting its alumni and on other programs, like a virtual tutoring fellowship. But the layoffs are a sign that the organization is on uncertain footing, occurring while TFA no longer places new recruits in 13 of the 51 communities it served a few years ago — like San Diego, where the organization now focuses on “alumni innovation.”

“We have to transform — all of us do,” CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard told Chalkbeat. “It’s hard, but we have to position ourselves to have the greatest impact for our kids. Period. End of sentence.”

Spokesperson Erin Bradley said the organization would have a “smaller and more agile team of about 1,000 staff by summer.”

The need for teachers is especially high, as schools across the nation continue to recover from the sweeping effects of the pandemic, and demand for TFA’s services hasn’t faded. But drivers of that demand have also appeared to disrupt TFA’s recruitment efforts in recent years, said Melissa Arnold Lyon, an assistant professor at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy.

“Right at the moment where districts are facing considerable staffing challenges in a very tight labor market, you might think a recruitment and training organization that helps districts fill hard-to-fill spots would be particularly useful,” she said. “But instead of TFA coming in and helping districts with these staffing challenges, TFA is shrinking.”

The reorganization will allow the company to lean more heavily into being a “full talent partner to our districts and schools,” Beard said, connecting alumni with jobs.

Teach for America has garnered staunch supporters and fierce critics since its founding in 1989. Its opponents say its structure — a relatively short training program paired with a two-year commitment — is inadequate. By relying on its recruits’ ambition and idealism instead of preparation, TFA contributes to high-needs students experiencing a revolving door of educators, critics say.

Its allies have lauded it as an innovative program that supplies school districts that struggle to fill roles with teachers, many of whom might not have considered becoming an educator otherwise. A number of studies have shown its teachers make a positive academic impact, though researchers have also pointed to high turnover rates.

The organization has diversified over the last decade, and says about half of its educators placed since 2014 are people of color.

It has also shrunk from its recent peak in the wake of the Great Recession, when a weak job market pushed TFA applications up. In 2013, the organization received roughly 57,000 applications and placed nearly 6,000 new recruits in schools.

Over time, that figure has steadily dropped. By 2022, new corps members had fallen to less than a third of that number.

TFA is not alone in finding it difficult to recruit. Traditional teacher preparation programs are also seeing numbers fall, and there is growing evidence that interest in becoming a teacher in the U.S. has diminished. Meanwhile, the pandemic has further complicated recruitment efforts.

But this year, the organization has seen some positive signs in recruitment.

This week, TFA’s president and chief operating officer Jemina Bernard told staff the organization had “a real shot of having about 2,000 incoming 2023 corps members this year” — a 25% increase from the number of teachers it ended up placing in 2022. Applications are also up 30% this year, Beard said.

The organization also pointed to its Ignite Fellowship, a virtual program pairing undergraduate tutors with schools, as another example of growing recruitment momentum. That program saw a 100% increase in its second year, sending 1,500 new undergraduate tutors into 74 schools, Bradley said.

And TFA is still attracting interest from major philanthropists like MacKenzie Scott, who recently donated $25 million, and Oprah Winfrey, who donated $1 million.

But public audits and financial reports show some signs that TFA has faced financial difficulties. In the last fiscal year, the nonprofit reported more than $274 million in operating expenses but only about $197 million in revenue. Its endowment and investments have also dropped steeply in value in recent years, which Beard attributed to being sensitive to the stock market.

TFA asserted it remains “a financially strong and healthy organization,” pointing to its endowment balance of roughly $200 million and an additional more than $200 million in cash and operating reserves.

In addressing staff this week, Bernard acknowledged that the organization would need to ensure “that what we spend and what we raise are completely aligned” in the coming fiscal year.

The recent layoffs are not the first time the organization has eliminated positions. In the 2021 fiscal year, TFA spent about $4.4 million on severance payments and related expenses as a result of a “strategic reorganization,” according to its most recent fiscal audit. Layoffs also occurred in 2016.

To Jack Schneider, a professor of education at University of Massachusetts Lowell, TFA’s meteoric rise — and its outsized role in debates about how to improve schools — came in part thanks to it embodying reform philosophies of the 1990s and 2000s. But as education politics change, and as schools seek to help students recover from the pandemic, debates about staffing feel beside the point, he said.

“Right now, the fight is between people who want to totally privatize education … and people who are fighting for the existence of public education,” Schneider said. “TFA in that context feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Now, some districts that once relied heavily on TFA have turned to other means of recruiting teachers.

One rural county in eastern North Carolina, for example, leaned on TFA recruits to make up about 20% of its teaching staff in 2015, according to a New York Times report. Today, Warren County Schools Superintendent Keith Sutton isn’t sure they have a single member still in the district. He’d welcome more, but has been told they aren’t available.

“If I can get a few years out of a recruit, I’m happy to get it,” he said. “It’s much more difficult for me to recruit high-quality candidates to a small rural community that doesn’t have the lights and the glitz and the glamor that a Raleigh, or a Durham, or a Charlotte does.”

Three TFA teachers left at the end of the last school year, but the district hasn’t been able to replace them, Sutton said. The district has partnered with historically Black colleges and universities and other universities, as well as other teacher training and international teaching programs, to diversify its recruitment efforts, he added.

“I don’t think we would ever find ourselves in the place we were before, where we were that reliant on TFA,” Sutton said. “But I would like to see it be more of an option for us.”

Correction: This story was updated to remove a reference to TFA’s Austin region.

Patrick Wall contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

As Seattle schools sue social media companies, legal experts split on potential impact

2023-01-17T11:00:00+00:00

A notable new lawsuit against social media industry leaders by the Seattle school district has left legal experts divided on how the case will unfold.

The complaint — which alleges that the school district and its students have been harmed by social media’s negative effects on youth mental health — could lead to sweeping changes in the industry, one expert said. Or, as others expect, it could fizzle out with little chance of winning in court.

Seattle Public Schools alleges that the companies — which include Meta, Google, Snapchat, and ByteDance, the company behind TikTok — designed their platforms intentionally to grow their user bases and “exploit the psychology and neurophysiology of their users into spending more and more time on their platforms,” according to a complaint filed earlier this month.

Kent School District in Washington filed a similar complaint within days.

If the evidence and argument put forward by the districts are sound, a win could usher in a wave of similar litigation by school districts across the nation, said Derek W. Black, an education law professor at the University of South Carolina.

“What’s on the line here is not the money,” he said. “What’s on the line is the court saying these groups are responsible and therefore they must stop this behavior. That’s what’s on the line: the mental health of the current generation and those that follow.”

Others aren’t so sure.

“It is not a winning lawsuit, and it shouldn’t be,” said Aaron Saiger, an education law professor at Fordham University.

Here’s a look at where the case stands and what legal experts anticipate the future may hold:

What the school district and social media companies are saying

Seattle’s school district has argued that social media companies are maximizing profit at the expense of the mental health of young audiences, who spend significant amounts of time on the platforms and report associating them with stress and anxiety, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, the social media companies named in the lawsuit emphasized their own commitments to teen and child safety.

“We want teens to be safe online,” said Antigone Davis, global head of safety at Meta, noting the company has developed parental supervision tools and other privacy and safety measures on teen accounts. “We don’t allow content that promotes suicide, self-harm or eating disorders, and of the content we remove or take action on, we identify over 99% of it before it’s reported to us.”

Spokespeople for Google and Snapchat highlighted similar steps they’ve taken to enhance safety for teenagers and children, like allowing parents to impose screen time limits or monitor whom their kids are connecting with on the platform. ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit seeks a court order labeling the actions of the company a public nuisance under Washington law, a term that applies to actions that endanger a considerable number of people. It asks the court to tell the companies halt the practices noted in the suit and provide financial compensation to the district.

How likely the case is to succeed

To Black, a school district is an unexpected plaintiff, but one he believes could have higher odds of success than individual families.

He drew comparisons to cases against the tobacco industry, which grew more successful as governments pursued lawsuits based on the harmful impact of the product on state healthcare systems. An individual might struggle to prove their negative experiences were clearly caused by the product but with broader trend data to refer to, the argument becomes more compelling, he said.

The focus on product design, rather than content on the platform, adds viability to the case, Black added.

“This isn’t just about holding the internet in general liable,” he said. “This is about specific affirmative actions that Google, YouTube, Facebook and others are taking.”

But others believe that it points to a common marketing strategy and doesn’t make a compelling case for legal liability.

“A lot of product marketers would love to addict their customers and do everything in their power to do so — that’s called product marketing,” said Eric Goldman, a technology and marketing law professor at Santa Clara University. “We don’t hold many services or products liable for addicting customers.”

Casinos, for example, aren’t held liable for gambling addictions, he said.

Saiger questioned whether the district had standing. Rather than tobacco cases, he felt it was more comparable to a school district suing a sugary food manufacturer for making children ill in their district.

“It’s a very long causation chain, and I don’t think the courts will be inclined to let the school district pursue it,” he said. “To say, ‘We’re service providers to children whose mental health is affected by thousands of things, and we picked you,’ strikes me as a very attenuated way to understand liability under the nuisance law.”

Goldman also questioned the timing of the case, noting that an ongoing lawsuit by dozens of families against social media companies has made similar arguments. That case, as well as the pending U.S. Supreme Court case Gonzalez v. Google, could have dramatic implications for the school district lawsuits, he said.

“I would assume the [school district] case is going to fail,” he said. “But the battle is taking place in the legislatures as well.”

What the case could mean — win or lose

Regardless of outcome, the case will attract additional media attention and public scrutiny, experts said. A win could spark other lawsuits and bring changes to social media companies, while a loss might spur litigators to shift tactics in future cases.

“If the evidence that’s in the complaint is true, it is one of, if not, the most important lawsuits to be filed during my lifetime,” Black said. “Because it stretches across so many states … This case, though it would have to be replicated elsewhere, is potentially a huge turning point that is equally significant for the entire nation.”

It’s complicated to think about what remedies are possible in the case, Saiger said. He believes social media offers a public good, unlike tobacco or asbestos, for example.

“A plausible remedy in the opioid case was to take the pills off the market,” he said. “That’s not a plausible remedy, in my opinion, for social media, because it has social value.”

Though the court could intervene and seek changes to social media companies’ business practices, such as insisting against certain marketing strategies or requiring stronger age verification, Saiger said such changes seemed more likely to come from a state legislative body.

Goldman added the court is unlikely to consider the benefits of social media.

“It’s not really the court’s job to try to balance that kind of evidence, particularly because the proponents of the benefits of social media might not be in the courtroom,” he said. “That’s what legislators are supposed to do.”

Some state legislatures have already taken steps in that direction. California lawmakers, for example, passed the Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, which imposes more stringent requirements that online services identify and protect minors on their sites.

Signed into law last fall, it faces a legal challenge from the tech trade group NetChoice, which includes major industry players like Google, TikTok, and Meta.

Still, if the school district case is able to proceed, the stakes could be enormous.

“If the plaintiffs tell their story to the judge and are successful, the consequences could be a radical reshaping of the internet,” Goldman said. “That’s a good reason for us to both be concerned about the lawsuit and to question whether or not this is the right way to solve the problem.”

What the science says about social media’s effects

As legal experts disagree about the viability of the case, the science, too, isn’t completely clear.

While research has drawn links between, say, social media use and anxiety or certain types of content and maladaptive behavior, it has not established a clear causal relationship between social media and worsening trends in youth mental health and depression, said Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer at the American Psychological Association.

“Is social media, by itself, and just kids’ normal use of it, solely responsible for the national trend we’re seeing in youth mental health? Probably not,” he said, adding he wasn’t commenting on the legal arguments. “From a scientific perspective we can’t say that, nor do I know that we could ever say that.”

The claim becomes murkier when accounting for other variables, like economic stress, increased divisiveness across the country, and changing depictions of mental health in media and popular culture. Further muddying the waters are potential upsides associated with social media use.

“On the flipside, kids are now using tech to have their primary interaction with other peers — and we do know there’s very deep research that shows that our interpersonal relationships have a very profound effect on our risk for mental health difficulties and even our physical health,” Prinstein added. “And we are seeing that kids are reporting pretty directly that their social media experiences are making them feel more isolated and lonely.”

So is social media fueling national trends in youth mental health?

“It’s just very hard to answer scientifically,” he said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org