Chalkbeat

Donald Trump falsely claims migrants are displacing NYC students. The city has empty seats.

2024-03-05T23:12:29+00:00

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Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed this week that migrant students are displacing other children from New York City’s schools.

In fact, the city’s public schools have struggled in recent years with the opposite problem: too many empty seats.

Enrollment has ticked up slightly this school year, thanks in part to an influx of migrant students, though still remains about 9% below pre-pandemic levels. Education Department officials have said boosting school rosters is a top priority, as lower enrollment can lead to smaller budgets, mergers, and closures.

In an interview with the Right Side Broadcasting Network on Monday, Trump claimed without evidence that “we have children that are no longer going to school” because of the influx of migrants.

“I’m not blaming them,” he said. “I’m saying they put the students in the place of our students like in New York City. We have these wonderful students who are going to school — all of a sudden they no longer have a seat.”

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request to elaborate on his comments. There is no evidence that any students have been left without a school seat due to the arrival of new migrants, and an Education Department spokesperson said the claims were false.

“We will continue to work with students, families, and partners to ensure that newcomer students have what they need in our public schools and that our schools are well equipped to support these needs,” Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein wrote in a statement.

Immigration advocates also blasted Trump’s comments.

“The idea that we somehow don’t have space or that children are being removed from schools is just completely unfounded,” said Liza Schwartzwald, director of economic justice and family empowerment at the New York Immigration Coalition.

Trump, the likely Republican nominee for president, has sought to make immigration a centerpiece of his reelection campaign and has escalated anti-immigrant rhetoric, promising to revive a ban from some Muslim-majority countries and refusing asylum claims. He has also swept discussion of education into some campaign stops, claiming at a Saturday rally in Virginia that New York schools are overwhelmed teaching students who speak languages “that nobody ever heard of.”

Since the summer of 2022, Republican governors of southern border states have sent busloads of migrants to cities with Democratic leaders, including New York. Over that period, about 36,000 children who live in temporary housing have enrolled in the city’s public schools — including 18,000 this school year — many of them migrants. (City officials do not ask for a student’s immigration status when they enroll.)

The city’s Education Department is required by law to provide a seat to any school-age child who needs one regardless of their immigration status. Many school communities have worked hard to welcome migrant students and provide appropriate instruction in English and their home language.

And while there is no evidence that migrants have displaced other students, some parent leaders and other groups have protested the new arrivals.

In January, Brooklyn’s James Madison High School pivoted to remote learning for one day after migrant families were temporarily housed there because severe wind threatened tent shelters at Floyd Bennett Field that housed newcomers. The episode generated vitriol from some families and morphed into a talking point for right-wing pundits. But several students and parents were perplexed by the outrage and noted the disruption was minor.

“The hostility towards the migrants was definitely uncalled for,” senior Zola Zephirin told Chalkbeat. “These are people, they have families, they come here and attempt to make a better life, just like many of the students at Madison.”

Schools have sometimes struggled to accommodate newcomers. The enrollment process has been bumpy for some migrant families as the city scrambled to keep up, and schools often can’t hire enough bilingual educators, a long-standing shortage area. At the same time, city officials have tweaked the school funding formula to funnel more dollars to schools with more students living in temporary housing — which benefits schools with more migrant children.

For his part, New York Mayor Eric Adams has sent mixed messages about the influx of migrants. Last year he claimed the influx of migrants would “destroy” the city, drawing outrage from immigrant groups, and has blamed them for cuts to city services. But he also celebrated the uptick in public school enrollment, fueled in part by new arrivals.

Some advocates, including Schwartzwald, see parallels between Trump and Adams’ rhetoric and worry about the climate it creates for asylum seekers, some of which has reverberated in schools. Some students at Newcomers High School, for instance, have sought a name change in part because they fear the label “puts a target on us.”

“When Mayor Adams uses rhetoric where he — just like Trump — tries to create an ‘us’ and a ‘them’ — what he’s saying is not all immigrants are New Yorkers,” Schwartzwald said. “Anyone who comes to New York to make a life is a New Yorker as far as we’re concerned.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

After a letter protesting school food cuts, this fourth grader scored a trip to NYC’s test kitchen

2024-05-17T20:14:06+00:00

This story is part of the P.S. Weekly podcast, a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell. To hear the full audio version of this story, listen to our most recent episode.

When fourth grader Elsa Hammerman’s favorite dish disappeared earlier this spring from her school’s lunch menu — the result of budget cuts — she dashed off a letter to the head of New York City’s school food office.

Her plea, adorned with 13 hand-drawn chicken drumsticks, was polite but direct: Bring back the roasted chicken to P.S./I.S. 187 in Washington Heights. It didn’t take long for her advocacy to pay off. Within a few weeks, the dish reappeared in her school’s cafeteria.

“I was super happy, and I was like bouncing off of my friend’s shoulders, and she was like, ‘calm down, calm down,’” Elsa recalled. “Everyone was super excited to see that it was back.”

Elsa wasn’t the only student to complain about the cuts. Schools Chancellor David Banks pointed to the student outcry as a major reason officials ultimately restored many of the menu items after a $60 million cut forced the city to remove some of the most popular food from cafeterias. But Elsa’s letter also won her school a chance to weigh in on future dishes that could appear in hundreds of school cafeterias across the city.

Chris Tricarico, the senior executive director of food and nutrition services who received Elsa’s letter, invited her class to the Education Department’s school food test kitchen. About 1,500 to 2,000 students across the city visit every year to offer feedback on new menu items the city is considering for school cafeterias — and the visits are so popular that there’s a waitlist for principals to sign up.

“We were able to fit her in,” Tricarico said, “so her whole class could see that their voice, their concern, and their advocacy for school food was really important.”

Elsa Hammerman, a fourth grader at P.S./I.S. 187 in Washington Heights poses with a letter she wrote requesting that city officials reverse school food cuts.

Last month, Elsa and about two dozen of her fourth-grade classmates trekked to the department’s test kitchen in Long Island City, Queens, to try out four menu contenders: an egg and cheese sandwich, a cheesy pasta dish called manicotti, hummus, and a barbecue chicken slider.

The students, assembled in a mock classroom inside the warehouse-style building, sat at rows of desks while sampling each item. They tried the dishes without talking so they could develop opinions without influencing each other. Using a card called a plicker, which looks like a fancy barcode, they signaled their overall rating. If they held the card right side up, it meant they approved of what they just ate.

Roughly 200 students typically try each food item and about 75% have to approve before they’re added to school cafeterias.

Chantal Hewlett, the taste testing supervisor, stood at the front of the room to scan all the codes at once with her phone, which generated an instant tally of how many students liked the dish. Afterward, students shared more detailed feedback on worksheets and verbally during a group discussion.

“If you don’t like something, it’s okay, let us know now so we can fix it,” Hewlett explained to the fourth graders. “We take your comments and we share them with the company.”

Elsa and her classmates weren’t afraid to share their frank opinions of the food. The first dish, which looked like a dinner roll stuffed with eggs and melted cheese, was largely a winner.

“I really like the meal,” one student chimed in. “Usually eggs give me headaches, so the way that the egg was cooked, [it] didn’t like give me a headache.”

Eighteen of the 22 student testers gave the eggs a favorable rating.

The manicotti — tubes of pasta stuffed with ricotta cheese and topped with tomato sauce and a dusting of parmesan — was a different story. Eleven of the 21 students who tasted it shifted their barcodes sideways to give it a thumbs down.

“I didn’t like it, because there’s too much cheese, and it got stuck to the plate when I tried to eat it,” one student said. The ricotta cheese was a big drawback for many of the student critics.

School food officials emphasized that even the harshest student criticism is crucial. After all, if food that students don’t like ends up on cafeteria trays, they’ll toss it in the garbage. And student feedback is even more crucial as city officials experiment with more culturally diverse menu items and a wide array of vegetarian options on “meatless Mondays” and “plant-powered Fridays.”

As the test kitchen visit wound down, the fourth graders reflected on their experience. One student, Athena, said she typically relies on food sent from home.

“Now I think school lunch is better,” she said.

Another classmate, Benson, said Elsa’s letter might inspire him to push for his own favorite dishes.

“I really appreciate the letter that she made. And maybe I’ll make a letter, too,” Benson said.

What would it say?

“To bring fried chicken to the menu,” Benson replied.

To hear the full story of Elsa’s visit to the school food test kitchen, listen to the latest episode of P.S. Weekly.

Ava Stryker-Robbins is a senior at Beacon High School in Manhattan and an intern at The Bell.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Restorative justice funding could be cut by more than half as fiscal cliff nears

2024-05-14T23:20:47+00:00

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Thanks to an infusion of federal pandemic relief money, city officials bolstered programs that encourage schools to talk through conflicts with students rather than resorting to suspensions.

Federal dollars now represent about $8 million of the program’s roughly $13.6 million budget — funding that is set to expire this summer. Mayor Eric Adams recently allocated more than half a billion dollars to save several other education programs that were financed with one-time federal money. Restorative justice was not included.

Restorative justice initiatives, which prioritize peer mediation and other forms of conflict resolution, have been a key alternative to more punitive forms of discipline, advocates say. If the funding evaporates, they worry schools will increasingly respond to student misbehavior by removing students from their classrooms.

Those programs allow “students to resolve conflicts on their own and it keeps them within the school community,” said Naphtali Moore, a staff attorney at the school justice project at Advocates for Children, a group that has pushed to find new sources of funding for programs that received one-time federal dollars. “You’re also building relationships as well.”

The possible budget cuts come at a precarious moment: Concerns about student behavior have intensified in the wake of the pandemic, and suspension rates are on the rise, returning to pre-pandemic levels last school year. Education Department officials have not released suspension data for the first half of this school year, despite a city law requiring they do so by the end of March and several requests from Chalkbeat for the statistics.

Schools Chancellor David Banks previously said he does not favor “zero tolerance” approaches to school discipline, but has also stressed that misbehavior must be met with consequences. In congressional testimony last week, he said that the city swiftly suspended 30 students who engaged in antisemitic incidents as some campuses grappled with upheaval related to the Israel-Hamas war. The schools chief has faced pressure to address broader safety concerns on many campuses, as the number of weapons confiscated in schools surged in the wake of the pandemic.

Banks has not pursued formal discipline policy changes, but school leaders across the city received training this year that reinforced their discretion to suspend students, three principals said.

“The message was, ‘if you need to suspend students you can do that’,” said one Brooklyn high school principal who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “The tone was kind of different. When we first came back from the pandemic, it was more, ‘focus on restorative justice.’”

Advocates fear that the city may retreat from restorative justice programs. Those efforts gained steam under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who overhauled the city’s discipline code and presided over a significant drop in suspensions. Some educators contend those reforms created more chaotic classrooms in some cases.

This is not the first time restorative justice programs have faced an uncertain future under Banks. City officials threatened to cut the program’s funding in 2022 only to save it at the last minute. A group of student activists pushed the city earlier this year to dramatically increase funding for more holistic approaches to student misbehavior and mental health challenges, including restorative justice.

“Kids need more support than ever, but in terms of the funding, the support is less stable than it ought to be,” said Tala Manassah, deputy executive director of the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, which partners with hundreds of city schools on restorative justice and social-emotional programs.

Uncertainty over funding can make it difficult to offer training earlier in the school year or over the summer when they are more likely to be effective, Manassah added. If the funding is added at the last second, that means training may not ramp up until later in the school year when “folks are already overwhelmed,” she said. “You don’t want initiatives that seem like an add-on or more of a burden.”

Some Education Department staff are already bracing for cuts. “There will be less training, less opportunities for people to form teams and meet after school, less opportunity to pay students” to deliver restorative circles where school community members talk through conflicts, said one central office staff member familiar with the city’s restorative justice programming who spoke on condition of anonymity.

An Education Department spokesperson did not answer questions about the city’s plans for restorative justice funding.

Several advocates noted there’s still time to push the city to find new money, as the city budget must be hashed out with the City Council and finalized by July 1.

“We do have two months to push the negotiations to replace the federal dollars,” said Andrea Ortiz, the membership and campaign director for the Dignity in Schools Campaign, an advocacy group. “The budget’s not done.”

Update: After this story was published, Education Department officials revealed at a City Council hearing that they are spending less federal funding on restorative justice than initially budgeted. Officials allocated $8 million in federal funding for restorative justice this school year, not $12 million.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

To meet class size mandate, NYC officials look to virtual learning

2024-05-09T22:24:48+00:00

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To reduce New York City’s class sizes under a new state mandate, Education Department officials floated one option to help principals comply: virtual learning.

In a plan released this week outlining ways that schools could meet the law’s goals, the Education Department suggested that some students could “receive regular remote instruction, potentially reducing the overall impacts on space in schools.”

Spinning up a virtual learning program would be optional, and the plan does not force principals to choose any specific method for achieving the new caps. It suggests 11 other possible ways principals could free up space, including repurposing rooms not currently used for instruction; boosting the number of classes taught by assistant principals; running student schedules with staggered start times; and ensuring students are spread evenly across classrooms.

Virtual learning could be valuable on campuses that are tight on space as officials scramble to find ways to reduce class sizes, including lengthy and expensive construction projects or capping school enrollment.

Many schools and families struggled with virtual learning amid the chaos of citywide building shutdowns during the pandemic, but city and union officials are betting that more targeted applications can bear fruit. The Education Department now runs two remote schools, and saw success with a remote learning pilot, offering online classes to students who couldn’t take those courses at their schools. And the most recent teachers union contract has expanded schools’ ability to offer virtual learning.

The class size reduction plan is preliminary and subject to approval by the unions representing teachers and school administrators. And it’s unlikely that the state’s class size mandate will directly lead to a big increase in virtual learning in the short term, since only 40% of the city’s classrooms must comply with the new class size caps this September.

“We’re very confident we are going to be in compliance next year,” First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said during a meeting of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council on Thursday.

Under the law, classes must not exceed between 20 and 25 students depending on the grade level, and they also apply to virtual classrooms. Physical education and other classes involving performing groups are limited to 40 students. The law phases in over time, with 20% of classrooms per year required to comply with the new caps. All classrooms must be within those limits by 2028.

The city appears to be on track to meet the state’s requirements, and officials are requiring that all district superintendents increase the percentage of classrooms that are in compliance with the new caps by 3% next year.

“We are looking to make progress in implementing this law across the city, even as we are close to compliance for next year,” wrote Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle. “This includes putting $180 million in new funding into school budgets.”

Few schools signed up to offer virtual learning this year

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, who has pushed for class size reductions, has said that virtual options could help with space problems.

“You have less of a problem with programming your regular school day because you have less students in the building at any given time,” Mulgrew told Chalkbeat earlier this year. “It also gives you more classroom space to work with.”

The city’s virtual pilot program, allowing students to take classes from teachers on other campuses, was a boon for small schools that may have struggled to offer a full range of electives and advanced placement classes.

Under the expanded version of the program negotiated last year in the union contract, schools can offer classes during the regular school day or on evenings and weekends, allowing students to catch up on credits, pursue accelerated coursework, or go to school on a non-traditional schedule if they are working or have other responsibilities.

The contract said that 25% of high schools and 6-12 schools were eligible to offer virtual schooling this year, with all schools able to participate by the 2027-28 school year. Schools were required to sign up and neither students nor educators can be required to participate in virtual classes.

But a bureaucratic approval process created obstacles for schools to participate, according to union officials. Only 40 high schools are participating this year, though Education Department officials said 80 schools are approved for this fall with additional campuses still under consideration. (This does not include schools that allow students to attend virtual classes offered by teachers at other campuses.)

“Myself and the chancellor are more hands on now,” Mulgrew said, noting that middle and high schools are eligible to participate next year. “We both are frustrated with it.”

Walking back plan to force principals to prioritize teacher hiring

City officials also indicated that, at least for now, they will not require school leaders with vacant roles to prioritize hiring teachers over other positions — a move officials previously floated that would have constrained principals’ freedom to manage their own hiring decisions.

“We’re not eager to restrict principals’ and communities’ ability to hire who they think is most critical until we need to,” Emma Vadehra, the Education Department’s chief operating officer, said during the Thursday parent council meeting.

Some advocates have expressed worry that the city, which pushed back against the class size mandate, will not ultimately comply with the state’s requirements.

“Any plan worth the paper it is printed on must project how many classes will be reduced each year, using which levers, and with what results,” Leonie Haimson, executive director of the advocacy group Class Size Matters, said in a statement. “This document fails on every account.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed reporting.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Pro-Palestinian educators stage die-in after Chancellor Banks testifies on antisemitism

2024-05-09T03:35:33+00:00

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Dozens of pro-Palestinian educators and parent leaders staged a die-in outside the Education Department’s Lower Manhattan headquarters on Wednesday, just hours after New York City’s schools Chancellor David Banks testified at a congressional hearing focused on antisemitism.

In a nod to the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, a handful of protestors in white jumpsuits splashed with red and gray paint sprawled across the steps of Tweed Courthouse. They laid behind toppled school desks littered with stuffed animals, children’s books, and other classroom materials.

The image was a stark contrast to the congressional hearing earlier in the day that focused almost exclusively on the experiences of Jewish students and educators. Organized by NYC Educators for Palestine, the protest focused on an open letter the group wrote to Banks, raising concerns about the city favoring pro-Israeli perspectives and punishing those who support the Palestinian cause.

“We have seen a constant live stream of dead babies on our social media, this impacts us collectively, and it personally impacts the Palestinian students and educators who have lost family in this genocide,” a protester said, reading from the letter.

The open letter was endorsed by several groups, including the Movement of Rank and File Educators, a social justice-oriented caucus within the teachers union; the parent community education council representing Brooklyn District 14; and, Teachers Unite, a group that focuses on racial justice.

“These hearings, and the culture of intimidation they create,” the reader continued, “make our schools and communities less safe.” (Israel has been accused of genocide in an international court, though the country’s leaders strenuously deny the allegation.)

Wednesday’s hearing was conducted by the same committee that has felled multiple college presidents. Republican members of Congress grilled Banks about how his administration has responded to a handful of specific incidents, including a chaotic student demonstration at Hillcrest High School where students demanded a pro-Israel teacher be fired.

Banks conceded that “there have been unacceptable incidents of antisemitism in our schools” but defended the city’s response to them, noting officials have taken disciplinary action against students and educators.

Still, Banks said that the city’s public schools are also contending with Islamophobia, a point that drew virtually no attention from lawmakers. Out of 281 incidents of religious bias in the city’s schools since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 42% involved antisemitism, while 30% targeted Muslim students, Banks said.

In response to a question from a local lawmaker about whether the city could simultaneously combat many forms of bias, Banks responded: “Not only can we, but we must.”

Banks’ assertion that the city has taken swift disciplinary measures against some students drew concern from the New York Civil Liberties Union. In a statement, Executive Director Donna Lieberman urged Banks to “recognize that both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel speech, including contested political slogans, are protected speech.”

She emphasized that the city should not punish students for speaking out.

Banks believes education can help tackle tensions

In the days leading up to the hearing, Banks said that education is part of the solution, pointing to the curriculums the Education Department is creating focused on Jewish and Muslim history and set to arrive in schools by the end of next school year.

One educator who attended the protest welcomed that approach, though she fears repercussions for talking with students about the Israel-Hamas war. More than 34,000 people have been killed by Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip in the wake of Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 Israelis.

“I would love this conversation to be happening in classrooms because students need to know they’re part of a historical moment,” said Sarah Elshafie, a Manhattan middle school teacher. But she said there is a culture of fear around teaching the subject.

“Principals at large have not supported educators in teaching this as a conflict,” Elshafie said.

The protest included several rounds of chants, including, “how many children have to die before you hear their freedom cry” and “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” — a controversial message that Banks told lawmakers would not be tolerated in the city’s schools. Some Palestinian activists see it as a call for freedom and equality, while some Jews see it as a call for the elimination of Israel.

Clash at protest between pro-Palestinian group and pro-Israeli parent

The protest proceeded peacefully, with a small group of police officers insisting only that a narrow path along the Education Department’s steps remain passable.

But nearly two hours into the demonstration, a pro-Israel parent sat on the Education Department steps in the middle of a throng of protestors holding a postcard-sized image of a woman with the tagline “murdered by Hamas.”

The parent, Rachel Fremmer, a member of the Citywide Council for High Schools, said she was there to attend a previously scheduled meeting at the Education Department’s headquarters. She said she often carries the image with her.

After the police unsuccessfully tried for several minutes to convince her to leave the protest, three officers grabbed her by the arms and legs and carried her a few feet away, though they did not handcuff or arrest her.

Asked why she sat in the middle of the protest, Fremmer said: “I want them to see it,” referring to the hostage card she carries. “I’ve had people literally cover their eyes when I show them a hostage photo.”

The police then whisked Fremmer into the Education Department building so she could attend the parent council meeting.

Rachel Fremmer, a member of the Citywide Council for High Schools, attempts to sit in the middle of the protest. She holds a photo of someone with the tagline “murdered by Hamas.” Police forcibly remove her but no arrest pic.twitter.com/ymCRml4Uu7
— Alex Zimmerman (@AGZimmerman) May 8, 2024

The group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators immediately drew a comparison to the police response on college campuses that has led to hundreds of arrests and concern among high school students who are preparing to attend college next year.

“Where was that energy on college campuses in New York City?” Tajh Sutton, the president of the District 14 parent council in Brooklyn, said to the assembled crowd. “Why don’t our children elicit the same respect?”

Tensions between parent leaders at the protest offered a glimpse into how intractable the issue may be for Banks and other school leaders. Sutton, for instance, has faced backlash for supporting a student walkout calling for a ceasefire and is being investigated under a relatively new rule regarding the conduct of parent leaders.

Banks is “a district leader that is looking to solve a very unique policy problem, which is to essentially implement peace,” said Jonathan Collins, the associate director of the Center for Educational Equity at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Collins said the challenges will only multiply if student-oriented protests grow.

“Banks was hesitant to support the idea of students exercising their rights through protest, but that’s a critical form of political expression,” he said of the chancellor’s testimony. “What happens as students want more than structured civil dialogue?”

Julian Shen-Berro contributed reporting.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

As Chancellor Banks heads to Washington for antisemitism hearing, NYC is on the offensive

2024-05-07T21:09:55+00:00

All eyes will be on New York City schools Chancellor David Banks on Wednesday as he is set to testify before a Republican-led congressional committee about antisemitism in K-12 schools.

It’s the same committee that has skewered college presidents of elite universities— high-profile hearings that led to the resignation of presidents from Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, and marked the start of Columbia University’s encampment.

New York City schools appear to be on the offensive as Banks heads to Washington, D.C., joined by school officials from Maryland’s Montgomery County and Berkeley, California. All three are liberal-leaning districts with sizable Jewish populations that have faced alleged antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and their leaders are likely to face heated questioning from the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Some New York City teachers have made national headlines after being targeted by students with antisemitic speech and other threats. Meanwhile some educators who have expressed pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel sentiments have said they’ve faced harsh discipline from school administrators and have been threatened by parents.

In recent days, Banks has emphasized that the Education Department has assembled an interfaith council and developed curricula on Jewish and Muslim history. This fall, the Education Department will launch a Holocaust teaching guide created in partnership with the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Next spring, city schools are expected to expand its “Hidden Voices” series — which celebrates the stories of diverse people often left of history books — to include Jewish and Muslim Americans.

The city has also held training for middle and high school leaders on how to navigate “difficult conversations” and met with all principals to review the disciplinary code, the city’s anti-bullying program, and crisis de-escalation techniques.

Those efforts have won mixed reactions from principals. One Brooklyn high school leader said he appreciated the “difficult conversations” training.

“We talked a lot about norms and community values, taking an inquiry stance, doing a lot of listening,” said the principal, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak. But he also wondered whether the training would be effective if it isn’t sustained over time.

“There are just so many competing priorities,” he said. “It just depends on what’s in the public eye at the moment.”

Many teens have complained that they’re hungry for information and critical dialogue on the crisis in the Middle East, but their schools are struggling to respond. Earlier this school year, students and staff from some schools in the nation’s largest school system staged a walkout calling for a ceasefire. More than 34,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli bombardments began after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, according to reports.

Some NYC teachers feel unsafe at their schools

At Origins High School in Brooklyn, a teacher, who is Jewish, alleged that her school was rife with antisemitism, with little response from administrators. After Education Department officials refuted the claims, the teacher, Danielle Kaminsky, filed a federal lawsuit last week claiming that students marched through the campus chanting “F— the Jews,” drawing swastikas on a Jewish student’s property, and exclaiming to a Jewish teacher that they “want to kill all jews.”

Kaminsky has since transferred to another school, according to the New York Post, which reported that she spoke last week at a congressional briefing in advance of Wednesday’s hearing.

“Students and staff deserve to be safe and respected in their school and Origins High School is no different. We will review this lawsuit,” Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said in a statement.

In another incident that garnered national media attention, a raucous student demonstration erupted at Hillcrest in November after students saw a Jewish teacher’s social media picture with her holding a sign saying “I Stand With Israel.” Karen Marder posted it shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The students tried to get into her classroom as they called for her to be fired. Marder was elsewhere in the building when that happened, but dealing with the trauma and press coverage around the incident will still take time to heal, she recently wrote in a USA Today piece she penned with American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten.

Although she was given the option to transfer to another school, Marder decided to return to Hillcrest.

“I stayed to use the experience to connect, to listen, learn, debunk misinformation and combat intolerance,” she wrote. “I had to understand what messages they were absorbing and where they were coming from. I had to answer their questions, address their fears and confusions and simply be there.”

On Tuesday, ahead of the hearing, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to school districts around the country reiterating their obligation to protect Jewish and Muslim students from harassment and hostile school environments while also respecting students’ free speech rights. The letter laid out examples and described when political speech might cross the line into attacks targeted at national origin or shared ancestry.

Worries the hearing will focus on ‘viral moments’

Michael Mulgrew, head of New York City’s teachers union, praised the chancellor’s response to the various incidents here, saying any time there’s been an issue, “we have jumped on it very seriously and quickly.”

Ultimately, Mulgurew said, it was up to the adults to step up.

“How do we use this horrendous, horrible situation that’s going on, with all the adults yelling at each other with everything going on in Palestine and in Israel? And how do we try to use this as an educational opportunity to say, we can have a better world,” he said.

Banks told reporters last week he believed that Wednesday’s hearing would focus more on “viral moments and empty soundbites and cheap political talk” than substantive solutions.

“Trying to create gotcha moments is not how you ultimately solve problems that you really, deeply care about,” he said. “I would ask for Congress to figure out a way to bring people together from across the nation to help to solve for this insidious level of hate.”

Erica Meltzer contributed.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Hundreds of NYC schools have space to reduce class sizes, teachers union contends

2024-05-07T21:02:49+00:00

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New York City’s teachers union released an analysis Tuesday that contends hundreds of schools have enough space to meet the requirements of a state class size mandate.

About 856 schools have sufficient classroom space in their buildings to reduce class sizes under new state caps that were passed into law in 2022, the analysis shows. The union estimates that the city would need to hire about 3,000 additional teachers to reduce class sizes at these schools.

The union’s report only looked at the 1,300 city schools that receive federal dollars that support low-income students. Union officials said they focused on those schools because the state’s class size law requires the city to prioritize high-need campuses, though the law will apply to all schools once it is fully phased in. (The city operates about 1,600 public schools.)

Under the law, classes may not exceed 20 students from kindergarten through third grade, 23 students in grades 4-8, and 25 students in high school (physical education and other classes involving performing groups are limited to 40 students). The law phases in gradually with 20% of classrooms per year required to comply with the new caps until all classrooms are covered in 2028.

The United Federation of Teachers was a key player pushing for the stricter class size caps, pointing to research that shows students benefit from smaller classes, though the union has raised concerns about whether the city intends to comply with the law.

“For the schools that we know have the space, it should be much easier to do this — it really is just a question of hiring additional teachers,” Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president, said during a press conference on Tuesday outside the Education Department’s Manhattan headquarters.

But education officials and experts stress that complying with the new mandate will be a challenging and expensive undertaking that involves difficult tradeoffs. About 40% of classrooms already meet the caps, meaning dramatic changes aren’t needed to comply with the law during the first two years of implementation. Things get more complicated after that.

The city will need to ramp up teacher recruitment, spending between $1.3 billion to $1.9 billion annually to hire thousands of additional teachers on top of the 3,000 to 6,000 educators who are typically hired each year, according to projections by the city and the Independent Budget Office.

“Hiring teachers, and especially in this labor market, isn’t always the easiest thing to do,” said Matthew Chingos, an Urban Institute researcher who has studied the impact of the class size law. Schools that are forced to spend more of their budgets on teachers may be constrained in funding for other programs or roles such as deans, aides, or counselors, he added.

Plus, city officials say about 500 campuses do not have enough space for additional classrooms to comply with the new caps, forcing tradeoffs such as capping enrollment or constructing new buildings at a cost city officials say could reach between $22 billion and $27 billion.

Experts have also noted that the law requires directing resources to schools with relatively lower poverty rates because high-need schools are already more likely to already have lower class sizes. Last summer, the state’s education commissioner raised concerns about the law’s equity implications.

Mulgrew acknowledged that implementing the law will get more challenging after next school year, but downplayed the notion that schools may have to cap enrollment or cut programs.

“We don’t want students being turned away, we don’t want you closing programs that work,” Mulgrew said. The union chief also waved away equity concerns about the law. “All children in New York City should benefit from this,” he said.

City Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said officials “have been in constant engagement” with the unions that represent teachers and principals, which must both sign off on the city’s class size reduction plans.

“The law required that 20 percent of classes meet the class size mandate this year, and we met that requirement,” Styer wrote. “We will continue to stay in compliance with the law.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

College campus unrest has some NYC high schoolers rethinking their next steps

2024-05-02T00:48:48+00:00

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As tensions reached a boiling point on college campuses in recent days over pro-Palestinian student protests and encampments, many New York City high schoolers were watching closely.

For juniors and seniors weighing their college plans, the events are offering critical information about the cultures of the campuses they may soon be joining — and in some cases swaying their decisions.

And some have been directly affected by the fallout from the protests and overwhelming police response at City College of New York and Columbia University.

The High School for Math, Science, and Engineering, known at HSMSE, is located on the Harlem campus of the City College of New York, steps away from a student-led tent encampment that NYPD officers raided late Tuesday night, sparking violent clashes with protesters and leading to nearly 200 arrests.

As the tumult arrived at their doorstep, the high school canceled in-person classes Wednesday, following the lead of City College.

“I think the way a college reacts to such a big issue like the protests right now can be kind of indicative of the way they react in the future,” said Gabriela Picazo, an 18-year-old senior at HSMSE, who plans to attend Brown University next year, one of the few colleges that reached a deal with protesters to end its tent encampment.

Students at HSMSE said the pivot to remote classes Wednesday posed some challenges, particularly for last-minute preparation for Advanced Placement exams that start this week. But they understood the decision was meant to keep them safe.

“It’s kind of dystopian seeing this area that’s supposed to be a safe space where we go eat and relax being flooded with cop cars and all the hostility there,” said one senior at the school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share his opinion on the situation freely.

Students were expected to return to in-person classes Thursday, but were told not to enter the campus quadrangle during the school day, according to a notice from the school’s principal obtained by Chalkbeat.

New York City’s public school system has seen its own controversial student protests, including a raucous demonstration at Hillcrest High School over a teacher posting a photo holding an “I Stand With Israel” sign, and a citywide walkout in support of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Protests and backlash prompt reflection on college plans

The protests on campuses across the country, as well as the response from administrators and law enforcement at colleges, have been top of mind for New York City high schoolers preparing to enroll in college. Many have been particularly gripped by the response at Columbia and City College, prompting some Jewish and Muslim students, as well as other applicants, to reconsider their options.

Seniors at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the Bronx (left to right): Kennedy Betances, Safa Al-Omari, and Hawa Fisiru.

Hawa Fisiru, a senior at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the Bronx, plans to attend Columbia this fall. The university’s history of student activism was a selling point: Fisiru participated in Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and helped collect food for residents affected by a Bronx apartment building fire that killed 17 people in 2022.

Fisiru decided to enroll before pro-Palestinian student protestors launched an encampment, but said she’s “glad to be part of a student body that is, you know, really doing things.”

Despite the upheaval there, Fisiru is not having second thoughts about committing to Columbia. She received a full scholarship, and remaining in the city will allow her to stay close to family.

Still, Columbia’s response has left her concerned about what the mood on campus will be when she arrives this fall.

“I would have loved to, like, you know, have a calm freshman year, but I can’t help what’s going on, and I support what the students are doing,” she said. “I feel like they’re fighting for humanity and for what is right.”

But Safa Al-Omari, who is also a senior at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, is still deciding where to attend college. She has been leaning toward attending City College, though she’s also considering Hunter College.

Al-Omari, who was born in Yemen and came to the United States in 2016, said she wants to do more research about City College’s response to pro-Palestinian protesters before making a final decision.

“Being Middle Eastern, I have a lot of feelings about what’s going on,” Al-Omari said. “I would not want to go to a college that is arresting students based on them speaking for people who are suffering.”

Meanwhile, a Jewish family told CNN they opted against Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia, even though it had been their child’s first choice.

Bronx senior Kennedy Betances is also trying to decide between City College, which offered a generous financial aid package, and Fordham University, which she feels might be a better fit, since she hopes to become an environmental engineer.

She wants to learn more about the reaction to student protesters on each campus before making a decision.

“I can also see myself involved in activism on campus, and I wouldn’t want the institution that I committed to, that I’ve worked at, that I’m taking out student loans for, to just like, essentially turn their back on me, and leave me in the dust,” Betances said.

Picazo, the HSMSE senior planning to attend Brown University next year, was disheartened by news that dozens of student protesters were arrested last December at the university. But she was encouraged to learn that Brown struck a deal this week with student protesters to end a recent encampment without police involvement.

“It does kind of reassure me about the community that I’m going to join in the future,” she said.

Her classmate, 17-year-old senior Orlena Fella, said being so close to the City College protests has made her realize she wants to be around some of that same political activism when she’s in college.

“I started to realize that I do hold some value in just having that space for discourse and having students that do take a side or share out their perspective and feel comfortable doing so,” she said.

For some high school juniors getting ready to apply to college next year, watching sharp backlash to pro-Palestinian student protestors at some colleges could also raise uncomfortable questions about how they should approach their own college applications.

One Brooklyn high school junior, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize her college applications, said she’s involved with the Palestine Club at her high school, but is wary of including that on her resume because she fears it will hurt her application.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to said to not because colleges may ‘throw my application out the window,’” she said.

The tumult on college campuses comes as the city school system faces its own ongoing questions about its handling of student protests and antisemitism.

Schools Chancellor David Banks is slated to testify next week before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce — the same Republican-led committee that recently grilled Columbia President Minouche Shafik on her response to campus protests.

In recent days, Banks has touted a number of efforts to address bias and educate students about the conflict, including an anti-hate crime curriculum, initiatives to teach Jewish and Muslim history, and a review of the discipline code with city principals.

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.

NYC’s test opt-out rate doubled in the wake of the pandemic

2024-04-26T17:59:24+00:00

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The epicenter of New York’s test refusal movement has long been outside the five boroughs, taking root in whiter and more affluent school districts, particularly on Long Island.

But since the pandemic, the share of families opting out of the annual state tests has more than doubled in New York City — even as the statewide rate has fallen.

The opt-out rate on the state English language arts exam in New York City grew from about 4% in 2019 to 8% in 2023, the most recent data available.

Across the state, the refusal rate dipped from nearly 19% to just below 14% over the same period, according to a recent analysis of district averages conducted by Olivia Ildefonso. She studied the opt-out movement as a graduate student and is CEO of a company called North Arrow that produced an interactive map that tracks test refusals in New York. (The analysis focuses only on the reading tests, though officials confirmed the New York City trends are similar for both the reading and math tests.)

There does not appear to be a single explanation for why the city and state opt-out rates are trending in different directions. Some educators and observers suggested families may have begun to see tests as optional, or even question their value.

The grades 3-8 exams were canceled entirely in 2020. When they came back in 2021, families had to opt in, a reversal of the traditional policy that students must take them unless they explicitly opt out. Only 20% of New York City families opted in to take the exams that year, compared with about 40% across the state.

“During the pandemic it was like, ‘Wait, my kids don’t have to take these tests?’” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, an East Harlem parent who serves on the Panel for Educational Policy and has opted her son out of state testing for years. “The conversations I’ve been having with families is: ‘Why is it worth it for our kids?’”

Notably, there did not seem to be a larger-than-usual organizing effort in the city to persuade families to sit out the exams, said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who has studied school assessment data.

“I’m kind of puzzling over this,” Pallas said of the higher opt-out rate in the wake of the pandemic.

The opt-out movement initially gained steam a decade ago, when state test scores plunged after they were aligned to the Common Core, part of a national effort to get states to adopt tougher reading and math standards. Many educators were furious about being evaluated based on those scores.

Opt-out rates have historically been highest outside the city, and the movement has long been associated with more affluent suburban districts. Last year, roughly a quarter of Long Island districts had refusal rates above 50%, according to Ildefonso’s analysis.

Test refusal remains lower in New York City, and many campuses with high opt-out rates are in progressive pockets in Brooklyn and Manhattan. But there is also evidence that city families from a wide range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds are opting out.

In District 4, which covers East Harlem, the opt-out rate more than doubled in the wake of the pandemic to 9.4%. Some families in the neighborhood told Chalkbeat in 2022 that they saw other caregivers opt out at schools where that was not previously the norm, especially in the wake of significant learning disruptions and mental health challenges tied to school closures.

“When compared to the rest of the state, the opt-out movement in NYC is fairly representative of the overall city population,” said Ildefonso. “I imagine that people’s reasons for participating are just as diverse.” (State officials do not release demographic data about which students opt out of exams. Ildefonso compared the demographics of the city’s 32 local districts with their opt-out rates.)

Refusal rates in the city’s charter sector remain low, but ticked up over the past four years from about 1.3% to 3.3%.

At Harlem Link Charter School, where 95% of students are Black or Latino and most come from low-income families, school officials saw a notable increase in families opting out of state tests. More than 13% opted out of the ELA exam in 2023, up nearly 5 percentage points from 2019, state data show.

Dan Steinberg, the school’s co-principal, said families have been probing the school more about how the tests are used, such as whether they play a role in the school’s promotion decisions (they don’t). He also noted that the city’s decision to eliminate the use of state tests for middle school admissions could be contributing, as the school runs through fifth grade and many students apply to district middle schools.

“It feels like a number of factors converging,” he said. “Families seem to just be asking more questions since COVID about the assessment in general.”

Although federal rules require that at least 95% of students in grades 3-8 sit for the exams, state education officials have generally shown little appetite for taking punitive action against schools or districts. A spokesperson for the state’s Education Department did not return multiple requests for comment on the city’s rising test refusal rates.

Long Island City mom Whitney Toussaint said she opted her son out of the fourth grade language arts test last year because of negative experiences with test prep. Her son, who receives special education services and has trouble decoding words, came home in tears after he struggled to finish a practice test.

“I didn’t want to take his confidence from school so I opted him out,” she said, noting that her son still took the math exam. “I’m going to do anything to make my son feel empowered and confident.”

Toussaint said her son’s reading skills have improved thanks to private speech and occupational therapies the family arranged on top of services at school. He felt confident enough to take the state reading tests that were administered this month.

Still, Toussaint, who is also the president of the District 30 parent council in Queens, said she’s noticed more families talking about their right to refuse the exams. “Once people know they have that option, they’re going to take it,” she said.

City Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein emphasized that the state tests offer “valuable insight” into student performance, but the city is “committed to honoring parents’ decisions on participation.” She also noted the city’s opt-out rate dropped slightly last year, though data for this year’s exams is not yet available.

Kemala Karmen, a long-time parent activist with the grassroots group NYC Opt Out, said rising refusal rates could be connected to the city’s decision to deploy additional reading and math assessments to gauge student progress. “People are sick of their children having so much testing,” she said. She also suggested that families may have taken a more active role in their children’s educations during the pandemic and in the aftermath of racial justice protests.

Karmen is hopeful that the momentum continues, but she emphasized her group still receives reports of caregivers facing unwelcome pressure to take the state exams.

“We’re not cracking open the champagne yet,” she said. “It’s still not easy to opt out in New York City.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

560 NYC schools were affected by torrential downpour in September, report finds

2024-04-25T19:24:53+00:00

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About 560 New York City public schools were affected by torrential rainfall last September, far more than previously known, according to a report released this week by the city comptroller.

As Tropical Storm Ophelia pelted some parts of the city with more than 8 inches of rain, public school buildings contended with leaky roofs and flooded basements, cafeterias, and classrooms. One Brooklyn elementary school was evacuated thanks to a smoking boiler.

On the day of the storm, Education Department officials said about 150 schools experienced flooding. That number grew to 336 campuses in the days after the storm, as school staff continued to flag problems. The new report, released by Comptroller Brad Lander, cites city data that indicates 560 schools were affected by the heavy rain in some capacity.

About 350 of those school buildings — or roughly a quarter of all campuses — required cleanup or repairs outside the regular school day, said Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle. The remaining buildings faced problems that were minor, such as open windows that allowed rain to seep in and could be addressed by mopping, she added.

After the Friday storm, “over 95% of all clean up and repairs were completed by the following Monday and all buildings were able to open,” Lyle wrote in a statement. The department did not respond to a question about the cost of the cleanup and repairs.

The comptroller’s report dinged the city’s lackluster communication about the storm, including at the Education Department. The school system did not communicate with families effectively in advance of the storm and “parents were confused about whether school would be in session that day,” the report found. It also noted that guidance about dismissal procedures and after-school activities was posted on the department’s website around 2:30 p.m., after many schools had already let out.

City officials also sent mixed signals to school leaders. At a press conference hours after the school day began, Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor David Banks said schools were operating under a “shelter in place” order. But as Chalkbeat previously reported, that message was never directly sent to school principals. Banks later acknowledged flaws in his agency’s communication that day.

“Schools, like the rest of the City, must do the work to be more prepared for extreme storms, which are increasing in both frequency and intensity,” Lander said in a statement. “The Department of Education must do better in directly notifying our families before the next weather emergency hits.”

Lyle, the Education Department spokesperson, said the school system has “worked to continually improve our communications to staff and families” pointing to the city’s response to a recent earthquake.

“The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff, particularly during a crisis, is our top priority,” she wrote.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

As NYC’s education budget hits a fiscal cliff, Adams saves several school programs

2024-04-24T21:51:44+00:00

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New York City public schools would see its budget shrink by 2.4%, or $808 million, next fiscal year under a more detailed budget presented by Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday.

The smaller budget is largely the result of expiring federal relief dollars, and Adams’ proposal saves a slew of programs that were on the chopping block because they were financed with one-time money that flooded into city coffers in the wake of the pandemic.

Officials announced last week that they will use more than $500 million in city and state funds to keep hundreds of social workers, new staffers working in homeless shelters, and an expansion of preschool for 3-year-olds, among other initiatives.

“We inherited fiscal cliffs,” Adams said during a rally outside City Hall on Wednesday. “We had to continue to fund these programs in a real way.”

Overall, the city’s contribution to the Education Department’s budget would rise by nearly $1.6 billion under Adams’ proposal, though not enough to completely offset the $2.4 billion drop in federal funding next year. The state’s contribution is set to increase by $202 million. The mayor’s proposed operating budget for the department is $32.2 billion.

Advocates and City Council leaders have praised Adams’ efforts to find funding for programs that were operated with one-time money. But he has also faced criticism over the past year for ordering sweeping cuts to city agencies to help finance services for an influx of migrants.

Those reductions have not been fully reversed, and the Education Department faces over $700 million in cuts next year under that directive, including $170 million less for early childhood programs and the elimination of vacant non-classroom positions.

Adams’ budget replaces expiring 3-K funding, but advocates say it’s not enough

Adams has faced significant blowback for scaling back the city’s ambitious plan to offer universal free preschool programs for 3-year-olds, also known as 3-K, a promise made by Mayor Bill de Blasio and financed with the one-time federal dollars.

Adam’s budget replaces $92 million of expiring federal funding for 3-K, but does not restore the broader $170 million cut in city funding for preschool programs. Schools Chancellor David Banks said during a City Council hearing last month that those cuts are “extremely hurtful to the entire enterprise of early childhood” and predicted that they would be restored.

But even without replacing those early childhood cuts, Adams insisted on Wednesday that every family who wants a 3-K seat will have access to one. Officials are now planning to spend $5 million on outreach efforts to get the word out about the program, though Adams previously argued that vacant slots suggested the program needed to be “right-sized.”

“How do you have 23,000 vacant pre-K, 3-K, seats and we see that as a great program?” Adams said. “No. A great program is when we place those babies in those seats.”

Early childhood advocates were skeptical that the mayor’s efforts would be enough to guarantee every child a seat. They pointed out that the $92 million commitment to replace federal funding for 3-K expansion is for one year only, though city officials said they’re looking for longer-term funding sources.

“Without further investments in the child care system, the City will not be able to fulfill the Mayor’s crucial promise,” Gregory Brender, the chief policy and innovation officer at the Day Care Council, wrote in a statement. “The Executive Budget remains a perilous proposal for New York City’s early childhood education system.”

Advocates also pointed out that the city has only partially replaced federal funding that Adams used to bolster special education preschool programs, even as officials acknowledged last month that hundreds of students with disabilities don’t have access to seats to which they’re legally entitled.

The Education Department’s budget could still change

The mayor’s budget is still subject to negotiations with the City Council, which must pass a final budget by July 1.

Advocates and local lawmakers are pushing for Adams to fund a handful of other initiatives whose funding is not guaranteed after this year.

Those include restorative justice initiatives that encourage peer mediation and other methods of resolving conflicts to reduce punitive methods like suspensions; a mental health program for students at 50 high-need high schools; and a program that offers subsidized child care for undocumented families. City Council officials also pointed to the need for more funding for school building upgrades, as fewer than 1 in 3 of the city’s schools are fully accessible to people with physical disabilities.

“We are relieved that many of the education programs supported with federal stimulus funding are no longer in jeopardy,” Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children, an organization that works on behalf of low-income families, wrote in a statement. “We urge City leaders to go further to prevent the loss of other critical supports that students and families need.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams commits $500 million to partially avert fiscal cliff for NYC schools

2024-04-19T17:01:03+00:00

Mayor Eric Adams is cobbling together more than $500 million in city and state funding to plug a hole in the Education Department’s budget left by the federal COVID relief funding that’s expiring this year, he announced on Friday.

The money will prop up a range of education programs that were set to be cut because of the disappearing federal dollars, including hundreds of social workers, an expansion of free preschool for 3-year-olds, and new staffers working in homeless shelters.

By far, this marks the city’s largest commitment to date to replace the dwindling pandemic aid. Adams previously found $80 million to continue funding Summer Rising, the city’s summer school and recreation program, for one year.

Adams indicated that the city was able to restore programs through a variety of funding sources, and he credited the city’s “strong fiscal management” and “booming” economy.

“We are sticking our fingers in the cushions of our couches, finding every quarter we can find,” Adams said at a press conference Friday at P.S. 34 in the East Village, flanked by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, D-Queens, and schools Chancellor David Banks.

“We won’t be relying on temporary funds,” he added. “You can’t have a ‘cross your finger’ government and hope for the best.”

The announcement came as city officials were pushing state legislators to finalize a deal extending mayoral control of city schools, a major priority for Adams.

The city received more than $7 billion in one-time federal education funds during the pandemic and is spending roughly $1 billion of those dollars this school year on ongoing initiatives that ran the risk of being cut when the federal aid expired this summer.

The $514 million dollar commitment will temporarily stave off some of those cuts for another year, while making longer-term investments in other programs. It won’t, however, cover the entire $1 billion fiscal cliff set to hit this summer, meaning significant cuts are still expected.

The final, adopted budget agreement between the City Council and Adams isn’t due until June 30, leaving time for changes.

Still, Council Speaker Adams, who has sparred with her former Bayside High School classmate Mayor Adams in recent months over budget cuts to schools, libraries, and more, struck a celebratory note Friday.

“If I could still do backflips like when we were in high school, this would be the moment,” she said.

15 programs get new sources of funding

City officials committed to new funding for a total of 15 programs currently funded by federal aid.

The initiatives that will get committed city funding for more than one year include: roughly 450 social workers and 60 school psychologists; dozens of school staffers who work with families in homeless shelters; 113 new community schools that partner with nonprofits to provide extra services to families; new internship and career preparation programs in high schools and new literacy initiatives, including Banks’s signature NYC Reads program and dyslexia screening, according to city officials.

The city will also give multiple years of dedicated funding to bilingual education programs, an expansion of the Public Schools Athletic League, and translation and interpretation services.

Several other big-ticket education programs funded by federal pandemic aid will get city funding for next year, but don’t have committed funding in future years.

Those programs include: A roughly $92 million expansion of 3-K, the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds; additional arts programs; the Learn To Work program that supports students at risk of dropping out; the Project Pivot program partnering schools with community organizations to reduce violence; and money to support the city’s “Affinity” high schools, which receive support from outside organizations like the Urban Assembly.

Adams has been dogged by criticism for scaling back proposed expansions to the city’s early childhood system, including former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to offer universal pre-K for 3-year-olds — a plan that relied on the one-time funds. Adams said the city will spend $5 million on outreach efforts for prekindergarten and 3-K as thousands of seats remain unfilled, and $8 million will go toward improving a portal for families applying for child care vouchers.

But officials have only committed to funding the 3-K expansion for one additional year.

“Our goal is to look for ways to fund it in the long term,” said Jacques Jiha, the city’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. For his part, Adams vowed that all families who want a 3-K seat will have access to one.

The city has also not reversed $170 million in cuts to early childhood education enacted in earlier versions of Adams’ budget.

Rebecca Bailin, the executive director of New Yorker United for Childcare, a group lobbying for expanded 3-K and pre-K, said the mayor’s decision “is a step in the right direction,” but “falls entirely short of the investment and infrastructure needed to fund a truly universal 3-K and pre-K.”

The city will also commit $56 million to increase the pay for providers of special education pre-K programs, which have long struggled to adequately pay staff and have seen major seat shortages as a result. Though that amount is less than the roughly $96 million in federal pandemic aid the city spent on special education pre-K this year, the city is separately committing $25 million for special education pre-K to create classes and help provide services in district schools such as speech and occupational therapy in an effort to rely less heavily on outside providers.

Adams had previously vowed to offer a pre-K special education seat for every child who needed one, which is required by law, but the city has still failed to provide seats for hundreds of students.

Cuts still ahead

New York City’s efforts to ease the impact of the fiscal cliff have been far more successful than other municipalities, according to Banks.

“Across the country, school districts are taking very painful measures to adjust to the loss of their stimulus funding,” Banks said, citing layoffs in Washington D.C., Houston, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. ”New York City has not laid off any staff, and there has been no reduction to school budgets.”

But there are still painful cuts likely ahead.

Among the items covered by stimulus money that city officials did not commit to propping up is $175 million in “hold harmless” funds to prop up the budgets of schools that lost enrollment during the pandemic. School budgets are usually tied to enrollment, but officials paused that practice during the pandemic and have been gradually phasing it back in.

That money went directly into the budgets of nearly 600 schools, with some receiving as much as $1.7 million more than they would have this school year.

Advocates for Children, a group that works with low-income families, has mounted an aggressive campaign to convince city officials to restore expiring federal dollars, and largely celebrated the mayor’s announcement.

Still, the organization pointed to some programs that remain in limbo, including restorative justice programs that offer alternatives to suspensions, some mental health supports, and an initiative that provides subsidized child care to undocumented families.

“Students and their families rely on these programs, and we cannot afford to lose them,” wrote Kim Sweet, the group’s executive director.

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.

LISTEN: A high schooler working at Bloomberg — plus ‘shotgunning’ college applications

2024-04-17T09:00:00+00:00

As many seniors are making decisions about their post-graduation plans, this episode of P.S. Weekly profiles two students giving us an inside look at their approaches to preparing for life after high school.

For years, the Education Department has prioritized putting all students on a path to college. And while Chancellor David Banks says preparing students for higher education remains an important goal — as many jobs require a degree — he is placing greater emphasis on exposing students to the workplace well before graduation.

In the first segment, student producer Christian Rojas Linares explores a new apprenticeship program through the eyes of Heidy Torres, a high school junior who works 16 hours a week for Bloomberg, the finance giant and media company. City officials are hoping to offer about 3,000 slots over three years through the Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship program, an ambitious effort to connect students to intensive work experiences that can stretch beyond high school.

For Heidy, the program is helping her think through what kind of career she might want. “Besides the fact that you’re earning money, you also know that, ‘Oh, I want to do this or I don’t want to do this,’” she says. “It gives you a new perspective.”

The second segment focuses on a student who has devoted enormous energy to getting into a top college — submitting 23 applications requiring 50 supplemental essays. Student producer Marcellino Melika spoke with Alex Calafiura, a senior at Manhattan’s East Side Community High School, about how he approached that daunting process and why he applied to so many schools.

Alex Calafiura, a senior at Manhattan’s East Side Community High School, applied to 23 colleges.

“You don’t really have any insight into what admissions committees [at] these schools are looking for,” Alex explains. “So you kind of just shoot your shot at as many schools as possible.” (Alex previously wrote an essay about his experience for Chalkbeat.)

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 in this episode 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

Marcellino: Welcome to P.S. Weekly… the sound of the New York City school system. PS Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat New York and The Bell. I’m your host this week, Marcellino Melika. I’m a junior at Francis Lewis High School in Queens. On today’s episode: the college admissions frenzy, plus: a new program that’s putting high schoolers to work, literally. But first!... A Chalkbeat news bulletin…

Mike: I’m Mike Elsen-Rooney, a reporter from Chalkbeat. Here’s a recap of the week’s biggest education stories:

On May 8, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks will testify at a U.S. House hearing on antisemitism. The committee overseeing the hearing is the same one that conducted the high-profile hearings last year with the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT.

Some school communities are pushing back on a mandated reading curriculum for elementary schools set to expand citywide next school year. They’re worried the changes threaten the things that make their schools unique, like teacher-created lessons. Meanwhile, the city is gearing up to overhaul curriculums for other grades and subjects.

And, New York City teens have launched a ‘Youth Civic Hub.” The new online portal aims to increase youth civic engagement and electoral participation. The platform is led by the nonprofit YVote and includes voter registration tools, internship opportunities, and more. You can find it at youthcivichub.org.

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.

Marcellino: Thanks Chalkbeat!

Marcellino: This spring, seniors have been anxiously awaiting letters in their mail–or email. Letters that will shape the next 4 years of their lives, and beyond.

Reaction 1: I look like trash but I got into NYU

Reaction 2: Oh! I got into Yale!

Marcellino: This annual spring ritual is characterized by stress. And this year is even more stressful than usual…

ARCHIVAL TAPE:

This is the time of the year where many high school seniors choose their

college, but millions are still in limbo to hear how much financial aid they can

Expect…

SAT

Yale University tonight is the latest school reversing course, now requiring

standardized test courses for college admissions after 100s of schools shifted

to test-optional in recent years…

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

In the summer of 2023, the supreme court struck down affirmative action

in college admissions…

APPLICANTS

The race is on… the mad dash of applicants across America hoping to get into

the college of their choice… you’re going against a lot of competitive

Candidates…

Marcellino: The changes and challenges in college admissions have led to an especially stressful spring for many high school seniors. But we are also seeing new ways that the school system is trying to connect students to careers — sometimes instead of college.

CLIP: CHANCELLOR DAVID BANKS TAPE ON “CAREER PATHWAYS”

We’re going to create, career pathways. Where every young person that goes to our schools is going to be guaranteed that they’re going to have the skills, to go to college, to get a good job, they’re gonna understand what it means to take their place, in this American society.

Marcellino (Host): Chancellor David Banks has been steering the school system to focus more and more on introducing students to the workforce–well before graduation.

So with all of these changes in college admissions and a school system that’s talking more about careers than college, we wanted to know: How ARE high schoolers dealing with the age-old question: What’s Next?

Today, you’ll hear from two seniors: one who is putting the EARN in LEARN through a new career-focused program, and another who took the college application game to a new level.

With our first story, here’s P.S. Weekly producer Christian Rojas Linares.

HEIDY AUDIO DIARY: Good morning. It is currently 7:17 a.m.. I am picking out my outfit of the day and decided to go with my favorite grey flared pants and an oversized shirt.

Christian: This is Heidy Torres, a high school junior at the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance.

HEIDY: I would get to school, go through daily school, routine my classes, and I would leave at 12:10 on the dot and then I would take the J train. And from there I would get to Bloomberg exactly around 1:00.

Christian: Bloomberg — the global financial and media giant, is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.

HEIDY AUDIO DIARY: Hello! It is currently 1:24 I am with my fellow apprenticee Keyla. Hi, guys. We are going to start work at exactly 1:30, which we will be taking on tickets and working with their issues.

Christian: Four afternoons a week, Heidy switches outfits — from student to employee — and works on Bloomberg’s internal Help Desk. Here’s how she explains her job:

HEIDY: I am in charge of basically, troubleshooting issues that employees have virtually. I don’t show up to their desk, I don’t troubleshoot myself. But virtually, you would help with, like installs for that employee or you would help them with like, oh, my PC isn’t working and you would like transfer that ticket to somebody who would actually go over there and help them with that issue.

Christian: I ask her THE important question…

Christian: How much does she get paid?

HEIDY: Currently I get paid 17 an hour

Christian: So you’re probably wondering,... how is a high school student working at Bloomberg? The short answer is: through an apprenticeship program her school offers.

HEIDY: At first I was skeptical. I wasn’t really into it. It was like taking a leap of faith, basically, and getting to be comfortable and knowing that you’re going to have to do some things that are out of your comfort zone, but then at the end it’s going to be good for you.

Christian: Heidy is one of hundreds of students citywide participating in the Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship. It’s run by a nonprofit organization called CareerWise New York that partners with dozens of New York City public schools.

NOEL: CareerWise was founded in 2019 based off of an organization called CareerWise Colorado.

Christian: This is Noel Parish, Vice President of K-12 Partnerships at CareerWise.

NOEL: We wanted to get this started in New York because I personally had students who I know could be successful and wanted to be successful, but who also just wanted a job right out of high school. Sometimes they wanted to do some college, sometimes they just wanted to work a little bit and then go back to college. and there really weren’t many options. So we started career wise with the goal of creating an options multiplier for young people where they could take multiple pathways to a successful career.

Cristian: What are the main misconceptions that people may have about apprenticeships?

NOEL: I think a big one is often the apprenticeship is confused with an internship. So the apprenticeship has required instruction that you have to do. It has on-the-job training that has to be delivered by a mentor. It has a certification that you have to earn at the end of the apprenticeship, and then students can often get college credit for it. They’re also paid opportunities. You’re part of the company. You’re a real employee. And so you’re able to say, you know, I have worked at Amazon for three years by age 19. So I think that’s one of the misconceptions.

Christian: And there’s another big one:

It’s an alternative to college. Sometimes the apprenticeship can be an alternative to college. It can also be part of your journey in college. And sometimes the two are combined. Like in health care, you have to go to college you have to go to college to become a nurse. And so that’s part of the pathway. Other occupations, like a project coordinator, that doesn’t require a college degree. And so you can do that with just apprentice training. And there’s also certifications you can get, especially in the technology field, that allow you to do certain jobs without a degree. And so it creates so many options.

Christian: CareerWise is a key partner in the NYC school system’s shift from the previous administration’s “College for All” initiative to a focus on what they call Career Pathways — kind of like routes to professions that students can explore.

NOEL: Our main ones are in technology, business, finance, and then we launched health care last year. And so within each of those pathways are different occupations, which are very specific jobs, things like a junior coder, junior graphic designer. We have a pre-nursing program, a radiology program, project coordinator, marketing, human resources. I think we have about 28 different occupations that students can choose from.

Christian: How many students are participating in the apprenticeship program?

NOEL: We work with about 70 high schools. 58 of them are part of the Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship Initiative that the DOE is currently running. There’s curriculum for ninth and 10th graders. So we have, you know, thousands of students taking that. But then in terms of apprenticeships, we’ve had over 650 students participate in a modern youth apprenticeship over the last five years.

Christian: CareerWise has high hopes to expand its apprenticeship program, and offer it to other schools on a waitlist. That will partially rely on having enough employer partners.

Christian: The NYC Department of Education has said they want to provide 3,000 apprenticeships over three years . It’s an ambitious goal, though the program would still reach less than 1% of the city’s public high school students.

Christian: I ask Noel how CareerWise evaluates success.

NOEL: The outcome that I’m most proud of is that it is truly an options multiplier. So we have a large percentage of young people who do decide to go on to college right after the program. We think that’s great. We’ve had a student who got accepted to, I think it was Yale, and he deferred his start of Yale for a year because he wanted to finish his apprenticeship at Amazon. We’ve had students who have gotten a job right out at 19, no college debt as a coder making like $109,000 a year. We have students that get hired as project cooordinators, that is the the successful outcome of the program.

Christian: So what is Heidy planning on doing after high school? Is she planning on going to college?

HEIDY: Um, yes, I do plan, but it’s going to be out of state. I don’t want to stay in here. I want to really explore and I want to see what there is.

Christian: what do you plan on studying?

HEIDY: I plan on studying forensic science. I love anything mysteries any true crime, but I would say I would go back to Bloomberg. If being a forensic scientist doesn’t work out cause they have so many other communities that I don’t know of yet, and I would love to be more on the production side of it, too.

Christian: Would you recommend the Modern Youth apprenticeship to someone who is undecided about their future?

HEIDY: I would say go for it, but you have to really stay committed to it like It’s going to take a leap of faith and it’s going to feel weird cause it’s new, but then you’re going to feel glad you did it because, besides the fact that you’re earning money, you also know that, oh, I want to do this or I don’t want to do this. It gives you a new perspective.

HEIDY AUDIO DIARY: Hello. It is currently 3:30 and I am about to enter my end-of-the-day meeting with my team. This is where we just talk about any tickets that we need help with So after that, I’m just going to finish up some of the tickets and like saving them for next week, and then that’s the end of the day.

Christian: The theme I heard from both Heidy and Noel?... Options. The program is designed to give students MORE options. A toolbox full of jobs to try out and see if you like… And the goal is that if you DO decide to go to college, you’ll have a better sense of why.

Cooking it up for P.S. Weekly, I’m Christian Rojas Linares.

Marcellino: Thanks Christian. Next up… producer Tanvir Kaur and I worked together on a story about a high school senior who knows his way around the college application process… After this quick break.

--

Alex: Uh, got to think about this. I always forget what I had for breakfast. Oh, This morning I had a croissant from my deli, and I went straight to school.

Tanvir: A few weeks ago, our host Marcellino spoke with Alex Calafiuria, a senior at Eastside Community High School in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Tanvir: We wanted to talk to Alex…because he wrote an article for Chalkbeat…about how he applied to TWENTY THREE colleges.

MARCELLINO: So, why did you apply to so many schools?

ALEX: I did it because I’m crazy. But actually, I did it because I really wanted to get the best shot possible at all of these amazing schools. And I’m really passionate about learning. And I believe there’s so many different colleges across the country, and I could see myself fitting in at so many of them.

Tanvir: But still… twenty-three?!

Alex: Okay, so there is this thing going around the internet for a while now. It’s called the “shotgunning” method.

Youtube Clip

And then there’s another strategy, one what I’d like to call the “shotgun

strategy” this is the one where you apply to many schools like fifteen or twenty

schools sometimes even more than …

ALEX: you don’t really have any insight into what admissions committees are these schools are looking for. So you kind of just shoot your shot at as many schools as possible.You should hope that one specific school has a need for someone with your application.

Tanvir: Okay, So… I have to admit. I also applied to a lot of schools. 26 of them…

Tanvir: I didn’t know what “shot-gunning” was–but that’s what many seniors are doing. As a first-generation student applying to college, I was anxious. I felt like by getting into a good university, my parents’ sacrifices would be worth it.

Tanvir: But… Applying to a lot of schools is not easy. How did Alex keep track of everything?

ALEX: Stay organized, because if you’re disorganized, everything’s going to fall apart really quickly. For me, I found that staying organized meant making spreadsheets, having documents of my essays, and just having a to-do list and making sure I was on track.

Tanvir: Alex had support throughout the application process from his school’s counselors. His school offered SAT prep, financial aid seminars, and helped seniors with other tasks. But ultimately, writing the 50 – yes FIFTY – essays came down to him…. alone…. tapping away at his laptop at the Seward Park Public Library… Spending HUNDREDS of hours in total.

ALEX: And knocking out one essay after the other after the other, and then somewhere halfway through you kind of just had this realization that what if this is all for nothing? Like, what if I’m sitting here writing these essays and nothing comes out of it? So those are tough times and I think they kind of make you lose motivation a little bit.

Tanvir: This is a reality for many seniors. While I was applying, I also wondered, what if it was all for nothing? What if I had spent more time with my family and friends–instead of spending days and nights working on college applications? But, you can’t fall into the rabbit hole of what if’s.

Tanvir: A week or so after Marcellino spoke with Alex, he sent me a voice memo.

ALEX: And this was my reaction, March 28th at 7 PM as I heard back from

Yale

VOICE MEMO ALEX:

[Multiple voices screaming yelling]…I made it. I made it!... YEAH! YEAH! Let’s go! My boy’s in Yale!… Alright!

Tanvir: Congratulations, Alex! Your hard work definitely paid off.

Tanvir: As for me, I am anxiously waiting for my FAFSA application to be processed. The process has been difficult but it’s important to remind yourself that your self-worth is not determined by acceptances or rejections. Admissions officers are looking at papers, not people. They don’t know your personality, that you are kind. Or, that you always brighten a room with your smile. College is not the only journey. It does not define who you are. There are many ways to achieve your definition of success.

Tanvir: If you don’t believe me–here’s Emmy-award-winning audio producer – Stephanie Foo – in her recent Instagram reel…

Stephanie Foo CLIP: I really wanted to go to Stanford. That was the plan. And I failed all of my classes and I graduated with a 2.9 GPA. So suffice it to say, I did not go to Stanford. Now I have one of these.

Tanvir: You can’t see, but Stephanie picks up her Emmy Award.

Stephanie Foo CLIP: And I also have this–which is a NYT’s best-selling book. And I have worked at places like This American Life, and I’ve written for like the NYTimes. And nobody ever really cared where I went to school. Who you are in high school and where you go to college do not define the rest of your life. You still have a lot of future ahead of you. And everything will be fine. I promise.

Tanvir: This is Tanvir Kaur reporting for P.S. Weekly.

Marcellino: If you are a high school senior, what was your experience applying to colleges? If you’re not going to college, what is the alternative path you are taking & been like? Email PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

Marcellino: That’s our show for today. We’re off next week for spring break, but we’ll be back with a new episode on May 1st. You won’t want to miss it. Our team sat down with Chancellor David Banks himself…

Episode BANKS Clip Preview:

Chancellor Banks: What is a fun fact that most people don’t know about Chancellor Banks? I would say watch this I’ve never said this to anybody …

Marcellino: Until then… class dismissed!

Marcellino: PS 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 episode was hosted by me, Marcellino Melika.

Producers for this episode were: Christian Rojas Linares and Tanvir Kaur, with reporting help from Chalkbeat reporter Alex Zimmerman

Our marketing lead this week was Salma Baksh.

Our executive producer for the show is JoAnn DeLuna.

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.

Special thanks to our interns Miriam Galicia and Makenna Turner

And also thanks to our amazing team of volunteer mentors.

Music from Blue Dot Sessions.

And the jingle you heard at the beginning of this episode was created by the one and only:

Thanks for tuning in! See you next time!

AOC, Bo Dietl, and advocates for selective schools: Here’s who David Banks met as NYC schools chief

2022-10-24T23:06:47+00:00

David Banks became the leader of New York City’s school system in January at a moment of crisis, with the omicron variant fueling an explosion in coronavirus cases that sent student attendance plunging.

Yet aside from a flurry of COVID briefings that tapered off after a few weeks, Banks’ first three months in office were dominated by introductions with key elected officials (34 meetings), school tours (21 visits), media requests (14 interviews), and meetings with other government, corporate, and nonprofit leaders, according to a copy of his calendar provided through a public records request.

He wasted no time setting up meetings with politicians — from city councilors, state legislators, and borough presidents to national figures. Just days after taking office, he seems to have met with Hillary Clinton, an early supporter of the Eagle Academy schools Banks helped launch in 2004. On Feb. 1 he appears to have met with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, on Zoom. (Those people are listed on Banks’ schedule as AOC and HRC. A department spokesperson declined to confirm their identities; representatives of the two politicians did not respond.)

Banks also sat down with Bo Dietl, a retired police detective who has worked on behalf of longtime Trump advisor Steve Bannon, former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, and shock radio personality Don Imus. During his unsuccessful run for mayor in 2017, Dietl tweeted that the teachers union has “hijacked our classrooms” and educators should be required to pass drug tests.

The chancellor’s calendar does not explain why Dietl landed a meeting with the schools chief on Feb. 7 at the education department’s downtown Manhattan headquarters, though he is friendly with Banks’ boss, Mayor Eric Adams.

Reached by phone, Dietl declined to say what the two spoke about. “Any business I do is my business,” he said, adding a string of expletives before hanging up. (An education department spokesperson declined to say what they discussed.)

The schedule obtained by Chalkbeat reveals who had the chancellor’s ear as he began navigating his first job running a school system. In his first 89 days, from January through March, he met with union officials representing teachers, cafeteria workers, and crossing guards. He kept in touch with his successor at The Eagle Academy Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the Eagle Academy schools.

The records come with some important caveats. The calendar does not include every conversation the chancellor has, including off-the-cuff or impromptu meetings, or discussions over email. It appears to be heavily redacted, with many pages left blank.

City officials said some information was redacted from the schedule for privacy reasons, including details that could reveal parent or student identities. Information that could reflect deliberations about policy were also excluded. Many of the entries do not include meeting descriptions or even the full names of the people who attended.

The schedule also reveals who isn’t meeting with Banks regularly. The mayor, for instance, does not appear on Banks’ schedule for sit-downs. An education department spokesperson said the mayor and chancellor speak one on one “several times a week” and the chancellor participates in a leadership call every morning with the mayor. Officials did not say why those meetings don’t appear on his schedule.

Banks’ calendar does not include any conversations with advocates for school integration, an issue Banks has not prioritized. (Still, he met with some integration advocates before officially becoming chancellor and a spokesperson said he met with advocates after his first three months.) Representatives of the principals union do not make an appearance on the schedule. Nor do any previous chancellors.

“Chancellor Banks keeps a busy schedule of formal meetings with a diverse group of educators, school leaders, parent leaders, elected officials, and community leaders,” education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said in a statement. “Additionally, these meetings are augmented with informal calls with leaders from across the city.”

Styer noted that the COVID briefings that appeared didn’t end but were later included as part of a daily call with the mayor.

It also took the agency seven months to respond to Chalkbeat’s request for Bank’s calendar for his first three months in office, longer than it took other agencies to produce the mayor and his chief of staff’s schedules for six months worth of activities.

Still, the records provide some insight into Banks’ early days in office. Here are five other takeaways:

The schedule is a reminder that Adams has elevated members of Banks’ family to key roles. Banks’ fiancé Sheena Wright, who is also deputy mayor for strategic initiatives, appears on the schedule seven times. The reasons for many of Banks’ meetings are not listed, though two meetings with Wright focused on summer school and employment opportunities, which expanded this year to serve thousands more students. Another meeting included Lester Young, the chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, though the topic is not listed.

Banks met with his brother Phil Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety who was previously named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a corruption case when he was a top police official. The brothers discussed school safety issues at a meeting in January attended by at least one other education department official. They participated in a meeting on “school telehealth” in March with the health commissioner and another deputy mayor — and met to talk about “physical education” in April, according to Phil Banks’ schedule. (David Banks’ calendar does not list any meetings with the police commissioner.)

Parent leaders who favor selective admissions have the chancellor’s ear. On March 10, Banks met virtually with 15 elected community education council members — all of whom were endorsed by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education or are members of that group. PLACE NYC advocates for policies that sort students by academic ability and Banks recently announced plans to double down on selective admissions at middle and high schools after the city eased up on those policies during the pandemic.

Lucas Liu, president of the parent council in Manhattan’s District 3 who attended the March meeting, said he couldn’t recall what was discussed, but said Banks has generally been more receptive. Banks is “asking for input and what we think the solutions should be,” Liu said, noting that participants attended in their capacity as parent council leaders. “Even getting meetings with [former Chancellor] Carranza’s senior people was a challenge from a PLACE perspective,” he added.

But others haven’t felt as heard. NeQuan McLean, the community education council president in Bedford-Stuyvesant, met with the chancellor on March 30 to pitch a series of community conversations about school and neighborhood violence. Banks has spoken repeatedly about the topic and recently announced an anti-violence initiative, but McLean said the specific community events he envisioned have not come to fruition. “They never followed up on my request,” he said. “I think people need to have a real conversation about safety.”

Banks made an appearance at an exclusive club frequented by the mayor. Adams often spends time at Zero Bond — an exclusive, members-only club in NoHo — and Banks made an appearance there at 7:30 p.m. on March 7. The mayor’s schedule does not show whether he was there that evening and a spokesperson declined to say. The mayor and chancellor were scheduled to visit Adams’ alma mater, Bayside High School, the following morning.

Some union officials are not a regular presence. Banks met with representatives of the teachers union twice, though city and union officials did not say if the union’s chief, Michael Mulgrew, attended. He met twice with Henry Garrido, the head of District Council 37, which represents cafeteria workers, crossing guards, and other school staff.

A notable absence: representatives of the city’s principals union. Mark Cannizzaro, who helms the principals union, wrote that he “talks regularly” with Banks, but wasn’t sure if he had any formal meetings with the chancellor during his first three months in office. A department spokesperson said the chancellor speaks with the principal and teachers union leaders regularly, but did not say why that isn’t reflected on the schedule.

You can find the chancellor’s schedule here. Spot anything interesting on the calendar that we didn’t include? Let us know at ny.tips@chalkbeat.org

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams cuts $100 million from Education Department, despite partial reprieve

2024-01-17T00:12:06+00:00

A new round of budget cuts announced Tuesday won’t hit New York City schools as hard as Mayor Eric Adams initially outlined, but will still add up to more than $100 million for next fiscal year, including further cuts to early childhood education.

Adams said last fall that the Education Department, like other city agencies, would have to trim its budget by 5% of the city’s contribution in January, following a previous 5% cut in November.

But during Tuesday’s announcement of the preliminary budget, Adams said the city’s fiscal situation has significantly improved since last fall, thanks to higher-than projected revenues and lower-than-projected spending on supporting the influx of migrants and asylum seekers.

As a result, several city agencies including the Education Department got full or partial reprieves from this month’s 5% cut. New cuts to the Education Department totaled about 0.6%, according to budget officials.

Still, the Education Department will face more than $100 million in new cuts starting next fiscal year, on top of the $600 million in cuts announced in November.

The new cuts include $50 million from the city’s prekindergarten and 3-K programs. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio dramatically expanded the free program for the city’s 3-year-olds using an infusion of one-time federal pandemic aid, but 3-K struggled to fill the new seats. Adams already announced in November a $120 million cut to the early childhood education budget next year, and the new $50 million cut outlined Tuesday could involve eliminating unfilled seats, according to budget documents. Budget officials said Tuesday that about 30% of 3-K seats are unfilled.

Those reductions represent “the biggest cuts to early childhood in more than a generation,” said Gregory Brender, chief of policy and innovation at the Day Care Council of New York, an organization that represents roughly 200 child care centers and other programs. “When you look at the magnitude, it’s hard to not see it having a drastic effect on services for children and families.”

Brender acknowledged that some seats are unfilled, but argues the city should be doing much more to fill them, especially given the high cost of child care and the city’s broader affordability crisis that is driving some families away.

The new cuts also include $51 million in reduced spending on non-staff costs in some central offices, according to budget officials. They didn’t elaborate on what those cuts will entail.

Advocates have raised alarms that a smaller Education Department budget could affect a range of day-to-day services. Hundreds of fewer staff on hand could mean it will “take longer for immigrant students to get a school placement, for students who are homeless to get a bus route, and for students with disabilities to get services,” Kim Sweet, executive director at Advocates for Children, said in a statement.

Additionally, though the city’s Education Department is expecting to chip in $80 million to run Summer Rising — which had largely been funded through federal COVID relief dollars — the popular program will still see a big cut. The Education Department runs the morning instruction while the Department of Youth and Community Development oversees the afternoon enrichment, which is run by community based organizations. The city is calling for a $20 million cut from DYCD’s budget for the program.

Aside from Summer Rising, the preliminary budget offers no other commitments to use city money to replace expiring federal pandemic aid – leaving the fate of hundreds of social workers, staffers supporting homeless students, and other programs up in the air.

“At a time when we have a youth mental health crisis, record-high student homelessness, systemic violations of the rights of students with disabilities, and an increase in newly arrived immigrant students enrolling in our schools, we cannot afford to roll back these important programs,” Sweet said.

Overall cuts to Education Department less than expected

Adams attributed the rosier fiscal picture to “responsible and effective management,” including previous cuts that helped balance the budget as well as the city’s new policy limiting shelter stays for migrant adults and families. That directive, which forces people staying in shelters to either reapply for space in a different shelter or find an alternate housing arrangement, has slowed the pace of migrants entering the shelter system, Adams said.

In the days leading up to Tuesday’s preliminary budget release, Adams had reversed several of the cuts announced in November, including a $10 million cut to community schools, citing the improving fiscal conditions.

But critics have contended that the budget situation was never as bleak as Adams claimed, and have accused the mayor of implementing unnecessarily draconian cuts to ramp up the pressure on the state and federal governments to increase aid to the city.

“Setting your house on fire and then putting it out doesn’t make you a hero,” Ana Maria Archila and Jasmine Gripper, co-directors of the New York Working Families Party, said in a statement.

Adams’ preliminary budget announcement came the same day that Gov. Kathy Hochul released her own budget plan, which includes $2.4 billion in aid to the city to provide housing and other basic services to migrants.

Adams said the city is still reviewing Hochul’s budget. He floated the possibility of canceling another round of budget cuts that’s supposed to come in April if aid from the state is sufficient.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Top NYC education official insists schools won’t get leeway on curriculum mandate due to demographics

2024-04-12T00:33:14+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

A top Education Department official said on Thursday that schools would not have leeway to skirt a new reading curriculum mandate based on student demographics.

“There’s no difference in how we’re implementing based on demographics of kids,” First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said after a Brooklyn superintendent suggested otherwise. “That’s actually a pretty disturbing suggestion.”

New York City is requiring all of its elementary schools to begin using one of three reading curriculums, Chancellor David Banks’ signature education initiative to improve literacy rates.

But Chalkbeat reported Wednesday that District 15 Superintendent Rafael Alvarez recently told families that his district would have more flexibility than District 19, which is also in Brooklyn. Most children in East New York’s District 19 are Black or Hispanic and come from low-income families. About 38% are considered proficient in reading based on state test scores. By contrast, fewer than half of students in District 15 — which runs from Cobble Hill and Red Hook to Park Slope and Sunset Park — are Black or Hispanic or live in poverty. Roughly 63% are proficient readers.

“We have a different community,” Alvarez said in response to parent concerns about the curriculum mandate at a Community Education Council meeting last month. “It’s the reason why there’s flexibility around how we’re using the curriculum — because we don’t have the same demographics where all of our kids need it verbatim with fidelity every day.”

Asked about those comments, top education officials said that there may be certain situations where teachers take different approaches to implementing the curriculum materials but stressed student demographics would not play a role.

“There’s all kinds of areas where we need our educators, our teachers, and our principals to customize for their kids,” said Weisberg, the Education Department’s second-in-command.

Reaction to Alvarez’s comments underscores the tension superintendents are facing, as some parents and educators raise concerns that the new mandates will brush aside materials that make their schools distinctive, including project-based approaches or other teacher-created curriculums.

Superintendents are directly appointed by Banks, who has empowered them to hand down curriculum mandates for the schools they supervise. Some have issued directives in a wider range of grade levels than initially required by Banks’ literacy overhaul.

Alvarez, who attended the press conference, did not directly address his earlier comments about student demographics, but said he is “100% on board” with Banks’ literacy mandate.

The approach in District 15 might look different from District 19 because leaders there began implementing a standardized curriculum before the latest mandate from Banks, Alvarez contended, and it will take teachers time to get used to new materials. He also stressed that district leaders are looking “to find ways to integrate project-based learning” into the newly mandated curriculums.

District 15 Superintendent Rafael Alvarez at the Education Department's Lower Manhattan headquarters.

Banks also did not wade directly into Alvarez’s comments, though he said the superintendent is doing “an amazing job.”

Some families have called for waivers to the new curriculum mandates, and Education Department officials initially suggested that a small slice of schools with high test scores could be exempt.

Although some schools expressed interest in a waiver, officials said school leaders ultimately decided to stick with the mandated reading curriculums. A department spokesperson did not share details about that process, including which schools sought exemptions or what criteria the city might use to grant them.

For his part, Banks said he was disinclined to entertain exemptions, though he hinted he may consider them for the highest-performing schools.

“I don’t take well to principals — anybody else — who will say to me, ‘You know, we want an exception because we’re at 55% [reading proficiency], and our colleagues at 35%,’” Banks said. “You don’t get an award for that. We all need help — we all need to continue to support one another.”

The city is also preparing to launch an advisory group to offer feedback to curriculum companies based on schools’ experience with the materials, Deputy Chancellor Danika Rux said on Thursday, adding superintendents have been meeting regularly to discuss implementing the new curriculums and best practices.

The curriculum providers “make a whole lot of money from New York City public schools — and so we believe that they should listen to us,” she said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

LISTEN: Students speak out about special education

2024-04-10T09:00:00+00:00

This episode of P.S. Weekly dives into New York City’s notoriously complex special education system, which serves 1 in 5 students — or more than 200,000 children.

Students with disabilities have the right to customized support — listed on individualized education programs, or IEPs, or 504 plans — that spell out what accommodations they need, from smaller classes to frequent breaks. But securing a learning plan, and getting the services listed on it, can be an uphill battle.

Our first segment focuses on those challenges through the eyes of two Beacon High School students who have a common accommodation: extra time on tests. Beacon senior Zoe Lazaros tells student producer Ava Stryker-Robbins that they faced a monthslong process to get that accommodation.

“I would not have gotten through my junior year without it,” Zoe says. “But I’m now realizing, like, so many people don’t have access to therapy or a psychiatrist or a parent that will stand up for them. And even with that, it was almost impossible for me to get [a 504 plan].”

Stryker-Robbins also digs into the stigma and trade-offs students can face when they try to use extra time, including missing out on classroom instruction.

EVENT: Register for our virtual event to meet the students behind the new podcast

Next, student producers Santana Roach and Dorothy Ha explore the broader experiences of students with disabilities through short-form interviews at Frederick Douglass Academy II Secondary School and Stuyvesant High School.

“Not everyone wants to be treated, like, differently,” one student says. “No matter of your race, or gender, or even if you have autism.”

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 in this episode 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

Sabrina: Hey listeners, save the date! We’ll be having a virtual Zoom event on April 17 from 5-6 p.m.

It’s called Inside P.S Weekly: Meet the students and the adults behind the new podcast.

Join us on Zoom and learn how the podcast is made, how it can be used as a teaching tool, and how you could potentially have your voice heard on the show.

Check out the link in our show notes!

Bernie: Welcome to PS Weekly… the sound of the New York City School System. I’m your host this week, Bernie Carmona. I’m an 11th Grader at The Beacon School in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan. I’m very excited to be hostingBernieing the third episode of P.S. Weekly! P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat New York and The Bell.

Today we’re diving into an important issue… the struggle students with disabilities face in getting accommodations from their schools.

Bernie: But first the Chalkbeat Bulletin….

Mike: I’m Mike Elsen-Rooney, a reporter with Chalkbeat. Here’s a quick recap of the week’s biggest education stories.

A 4.8-magnitude earthquake shook New York City last Friday. Most schools were unscathed, but the gym at J.H.S. 218 in East New York, Brooklyn, was damaged and is temporarily closed. Officials said the rest of the building is safe.

Mike: Looming budget cuts this summer could jeopardize the jobs of 100 Education Department coordinators working in family homeless shelters. Advocates and families say that would be devastating when there’s a record number of homeless families and high rates of chronic absenteeism.

And there are 9 new public schools set to open in New York City this year. They include a new Bard Early College High school in Brooklyn and a high school in Queens focused on the motion picture industry.

Mike: To stay up to date on education news throughout the week, head to Chalkbeat.org/newsletters and sign up for the New York daily roundup.

Bernie: More than 200,000 students in New York City’s public schools have a disability classification–that’s larger than the ENTIRE city of Syracuse. These students are guaranteed a plan that lays out exactly what accommodations they need to learn; from a smaller class size to physical therapy. They’re called Individualized Education Programs–or IEPs. Others might have what’s known as a Section 504 plan.

504 plans are for students with disabilities who don’t need specialized instruction, but STILL need accommodations to learn. These accommodations can include sitting near the teacher, or having classroom breaks.

Bernie: Getting an IEP or 504 isn’t always easy. We drilled down into one common type of accommodation: extra time on tests. Our reporter Ava Stryker-Robbins found that students often face roadblocks and even unexpected consequences when trying to use their accommodations. She has the story…

Ava: Imagine you’re getting ready to take a test. You grasp your pencil and feel your heart beating as the teacher sets a timer.

Voice: Class, you may begin.

Ava: You hear the bustling movements of your class fade to silence. Everyone around you starts to scribble at a fast pace. And though you studied all night and knew the material through and through, you just can’t keep up. You try to stay focused. You try to go faster. But before you know it…

Voice: Time is up. Everyone put your pencils down.

Ava: You couldn’t finish as fast as everyone else; no matter how hard you tried. Zoe Lazaros, a 17 year old senior at the Beacon School, has had many similar experiences. Although they have ADHD, they went through school without any accommodations — like extra time — for many years.

Zoe: I think, at first, I had this kind of reassurance that, you know, I always kind of pulled through as a student, regardless if I was struggling in a class. And when that started kind of not working anymore, it felt very stressful. And also just generally helpless.

Ava: After years of constantly working long hours outside of school to stay on track, Zoe finally got their 504 two years ago during their sophomore year of high school. Getting it was not an easy process...

Zoe: It took probably around four months from the beginning of the process. Like, it wasn’t as long as I know some other people were, but it was definitely a draining process.

Ava: One of the first things Zoe had to do for their 504 application during the 2022-2023 school year was get on a Zoom meeting with their mom, their therapist, and a 504 coordinator at Beacon.

Zoe: There was a bunch of people kind of vouching for me and being like, you know, Zoe needs this. A lot of people don’t have that. So the fact that I had that and still it was difficult for me to get a 504 is really telling. So yeah, what ended up happening was we were on, like, this group Zoom call, and they said that they would not be able to give me a 504 cause my grades were too good. I felt very discouraged after that.

Ava: But a few months later, Zoe had to try again.

Zoe: I was failing three of my classes, and I wrote this very angry email to my 504 coordinator, and I was like, “Do you see my grades? I’m failing 3 classes. Will you help me now?” And she responded back to me and she’s like, “Yes, let’s have a meeting.” And I was like, “Girl…” It took me failing 3 of my classes, and my therapist, and my psychiatrist, and my mom, and like four months for them to approve the 504.

NARR: And it changed their life for the better.

Zoe: I’m so grateful because I would not have gotten through my junior year without it. But I’m now realizing, like, so many people don’t have access to therapy or a psychiatrist or a parent that will stand up for them. And even with that, it was almost impossible for me to get one. I feel very lucky.

Ava: Zoe is just one of many students who have had to endure a long process to get the accommodations they deserve. Every year, thousands of families face delays, according to city statistics. Families might feel like they’re fighting an uphill battle when navigating the notoriously complex special education system. And students often don’t get all the services they’re entitled to. Nearly a third of students who were referred and qualified for special education for the first time last year waited more than 2 months for an IEP meeting to be held.

Ava: And, even when students get IEPs or 504s, and are granted accomodations–they’re not always enforced. For example, when it comes to testing, students I spoke to said teachers sometimes forget, or resist giving students the extra time they need. The teacher also may not have received a student’s IEP or 504 documents outlining the accommodations a student is entitled to. Zoe explains…

Zoe: I had an experience in my forensics class last year where my teacher was basically like, “Oh, I don’t know where the school sent your 504 stuff. I haven’t gotten it, so you can’t use your extra time.” What? Like I have extra time. And so I have had experiences where, like, teachers discount extra time or like, are ignorant to it in some way. They’re like, “Well, I didn’t know that.”

Ava: Zoe isn’t the only one struggling from not being able to use their accommodations. Becca Sidi has experienced similar setbacks. She’s a senior at Beacon who’s had an IEP for ADHD since she was in elementary school. Her IEP entitles her to double time on exams, the ability to take tests in a separate room, tutoring, extensions on assignments, and more. One time, Becca said a teacher accused her and other students of cheating because of their extra time.

Becca: After a midterm, my teacher had gathered everyone who– who was an IEP student, and then he goes on to say something about how we got suspiciously higher test scores. I didn’t cheat, but in that moment, I just felt, like, scared.

Ava: Another one of Becca’s teachers told students that they would need to use all of their extra time in one sitting, meaning they would have to miss part of their next class.

Becca: I was missing other instruction. But at the same time, my teacher was also blaming me for missing other instruction. She told us, “Don’t you guys have class? Like, this is ridiculous.” And what everyone wanted to say to her in that moment was, “Well, I mean, this is your policy, and we’re not necessarily happy that we’re missing instruction either.”

Ava: For Becca, It’s not just teachers who don’t always understand the necessity of accommodations. Some students don’t either.

BECCA: I finished taking a calculus test once, and I think I overheard some people in the hallway talking about how someone who with an IEP, who was still taking the test. And then they were saying something like, “Oh, wow. Why does this person get extra time, this isn’t fair, like.” I feel like there are just some things that some people don’t understand or refuse to understand. I cannot stress this enough, like people have IEPs, not to have a leg up on everyone else, but to stay at the same level as everyone else.

Ava: While this may sound shocking to you listeners, this is daily life for me and so many of us among the nearly 20% of students who have IEPs across the city.

I reached out to the city’s Department of Education, as well as Beacon’s principal, for comment on the incidents students shared with me. Department officials emphasized that they regularly train staff to make sure students get the support they’re entitled to — including extra time. And 504 coordinators are required to complete training every year. Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein wrote the following in a statement: “We are steadfast in our commitment to ensuring all students receive their entitled accommodations in accordance with their IEPs and 504 plans.”

Ava: She added, “When a concern is raised, we work closely with the school support team until the family is satisfied with the resolution.” Johnny Ventura, Beacon’s interim principal, wrote in an email that “students who believe they’re not getting the right accommodations should report it to him so the school can investigate.” So why is this happening? Why might it take so long for students to get IEPs and 504s? And why are they sometimes not being enforced? To answer this I spoke to Dr. Ben Lovett, an associate professor of psychology and education at the Teachers College of Columbia University. We first discussed the benefits of extra time.

Ben: The primary reason that we give extra time or other accommodations is so that the student can get a fair score on the test. So if someone is not able to read quickly enough, then they wouldn’t be able to read the items on the test in time, and they wouldn’t be able to show the knowledge that they have.

Ava: So if there are benefits, why would some people be opposed to granting students extra time?

Ben: I’m not sure there are many people who are opposed entirely. I think there are some folks who think we need to be more careful about granting extra time. So we know that on standardized tests, having extra time can inflate scores artificially. And by that I mean they can actually suggest that someone has higher skills than they do. And that’s part of the reason that we want to make sure that we’re using decisions very carefully about who gets extra time, that it be done equitably, and that it be based on someone’s actual needs.

Ava: I ask Dr. Lovett about the process of granting students accommodations. He says there’s typically a school team that reviews a student’s diagnostic assessments. This can include 504 and IEP plans or evaluations done by psychologists and special educators. They also review other relevant student data, like their academic performance.

Ben: Things like the student’s current performance without accommodations to see whether or not the student is able to perform at a certain level without having extra time. Another piece of relevant data would be information from diagnostic tests where we look, for instance, at how fast someone is when they’re reading or writing, and we’re able to compare them to other kids of the same age.

Ava: What would you say the shortcomings of this process are?

Ben: I think the process, in general, is a good one. I think some school districts need more resources to follow the process, so there may not be a sufficient number of school psychologists or special education administrators to make sure that there’s not a long wait before things happen. So, for instance, the federal law requires that generally, within 60 days of a formal request for an evaluation, that the evaluation be done or contested. And so some districts aren’t able to meet those goals if they have insufficient resources in terms of staffing and things like that.

Ava: Because of the lack of resources, families who pay for private evaluations have a big advantage. These evaluations — which typically cost more than $6,000 — can lead to a two-tiered system. Those who can afford outside evaluations and understand how to navigate the system are more likely to get their children’s needs met, while the needs of many other students go unaddressed.

Ava: So, what’s the best way to ensure that extra time can be equitably enforced throughout New York City?

Ben: I would say having official criteria, having a decision tree or a flowchart of data where you ensure that folks who are getting extended time meet certain criteria and that you’re not just in, for instance, letting someone’s social advantage allow for accommodations would be important. Also, having that sort of database process protects students who may lack certain types of access and resources to be able to persuade or pressure a school for extra time to make sure that they can point to that process and say, I do have the data, I do have the evidence that I need this.

Ava: So Dr. Lovett believes we have a good system in place. But the most effective way to ensure students with disabilities get the accommodations they need, is to make sure schools have the resources necessary to accommodate them. It’s time to reallocate more resources into special education across New York City schools. Everyone deserves a quality education. No one’s disability should hold them back.

Bernie: Once again, that was our P.S. Weekly Reporter, Ava Striker-Robbins. We’ll be back, after a short break.

AD: Hey listeners! We hope you’re enjoying this episode of PS Weekly. We’ve got an assignment for you-- follow us on Instagram @bell.voices. And, we want to hear from you! Reach out to P.S. Weekly at the email address: psweekly@chalkbeat.org with comments, questions, and suggestions.

Bernie: Welcome back to P.S. Weekly. We’ve been hearing about how difficult it is to get specialized learning accommodations. Our producer Santana Roach roamed the school halls to chat with a few more students with IEPs and 504s.

Santana: I had the privilege of speaking with several students and a teacher from Frederick Douglass Academy 2 and Stuyvesant High School.

Santana: What do people often misunderstand about students with IEPs?

Jack: They assume that we’re all what’s the word “special.”

Kaiya: They think that we’re like different. They look down on us as if there’s, like, something wrong with us or, like, we’re disgusting. Not everyone wants to be treated like differently, no matter of your race or gender or even if you have autism.

Mr. Wheeler: To be brutally honest, I very much felt that the fact that I had an IEP meant that there was something wrong with me.

Santana: Who are some people advocating for students with IEPs?

Hana: There are lots of counselors who advocate for me and for other things that I might need.

Kaiya: Oh, the psychologist.

Jack: My guidance counselor.

Keimar: My mom and myself.

Santana: How has your IEP helped you?

Jack: I’ve been able to pass my classes because I have an IEP.

Giandre: I get extra time on the tests. It’s a great experience cause I don’t gotta rush. I can just take my time on test.

Jack: When I have an IEP, I can prove that I’m smart.

Santana: What would you like to share with our listeners?

Kaiya: Don’t judge a book by its cover because you never know what you might see inside the book.

Mr. Wheeler: The way to make sure that students with IEPs are treated the way they deserve is to make sure that the paperwork never takes precedence over the person.

Santana: Thank you to Jack Blake, Kaiya Baker, Hana Debrah, Giandre Sorey, Keimar Miller, and Mr. Isaac Wheeler for speaking with PS Weekly.

Bernie: Thank you Santana. Well, there you are, guys…that’s it for our third episode! Don’t forget to go to chalkbeat.org/newsletters– or click the link in our show notes –to sign up for the Chalkbeat New York morning newsletter. It’s the best way to stay informed on local schools coverage Monday through Friday. And drop us a review! 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.

Bernie: And P.S., we’re back next week with an episode about high school seniors making decisions about the future.

Alex: Someway halfway through, you kinda have this realization that “what if this is all for nothing? Like, what if I’m here writing these essays, and nothing comes out of it?”

Bernie: Until then… class dismissed!

CREDITS:

Bernie: PS 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 episode was hosted by me, Bernie Carmona.

Producers for this episode were: Ava Striker Robbins, Santana Roach, and Dorothy Ha, with reporting help from Chalkbeat reporters Alex Zimmerman and Mike Elsen-Rooney.

Our marketing lead this week was Jose Santana. Our executive producer for the show is JoAnn DeLuna. 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. Special thanks to our interns Miriam Galicia and Makenna Turner. And thanks, as well, to our amazing team of volunteer mentors.

Music from Blue Dot Sessions.

And the jingle you heard at the beginning of this episode was created by the one and only: Erica Huang.

Thanks for tuning in! See you next time!

As NYC’s literacy mandate expands citywide, some school communities are pushing back

2024-04-10T17:07:34+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Twelve-year-old Carlo Murray perched on his tiptoes to reach the microphone as he addressed education officials last month. He then unleashed a withering critique of his school’s reading curriculum.

“I love to read all sorts of books,” Carlo told the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, a group that approves contracts and other school policies.

But this year, his teachers are focusing on short passages, leaving him frustrated and bored.

“It feels like I’m getting half an ELA sixth grade experience, half the story, half a piece of writing, only half a curriculum,” Carlo, who attends the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, often called BSI, said to applause.

One by one, Carlo and a handful of his classmates took turns at the microphone to bemoan their experience with the school’s new literacy curriculum. Educators at BSI, along with elementary schools across the city, have been required to adopt one of three reading programs, part of a mandate under schools Chancellor David Banks to boost literacy rates by flushing out popular but increasingly discredited programs.

The BSI students’ strong reactions are notable in part because there has been little organized opposition to the reading curriculum overhaul, as many literacy experts, the city’s teachers union, and several major education advocacy groups have supported it.

But resistance may grow louder as the city has required all local districts to adopt the new reading programs by September, up from just under half this school year. Some parents and educators at schools gearing up to use the new reading materials this fall have started speaking out, arguing the curriculum changes could threaten to upend the project-based learning or teacher-created curriculums that make their schools distinctive.

“Phase two is going to be harder than phase one,” said Susan Neuman, a New York University professor and member of the city’s literacy advisory council. A handful of wealthier districts that also tend to post higher test scores than average — including Districts 2 and 3 in Manhattan and Brooklyn’s District 15 — are all part of the second phase. “It’s going to be very interesting to hear how they respond,” Neuman said.

Most popular curriculum is getting most of the criticism

The reactions at BSI could serve as a preview of worries starting to bubble up elsewhere.

Much of the criticism of the curriculum overhaul has focused on the program that 22 of the city’s 32 local superintendents are requiring in their elementary schools: Into Reading, from the company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, also known as HMH. The remaining districts are either using Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds, or EL Education.

Unlike the other two approved curriculums, HMH is built around an anthology-style textbook that includes passages designed to teach reading skills. Experts say the curriculum may feel easier for educators to quickly unpack than the other options, and it also includes a Spanish-language version. One review faulted the curriculum for not being culturally responsive, which sparked considerable criticism, though HMH has disputed the findings.

To some students at BSI, a gifted K-8 program with competitive admissions and reading proficiency rates that topped 90% last year, their main worry is that the new curriculum feels like dry test prep.

Adding to the concern, the local superintendent that oversees BSI has required middle schools to use HMH, a step further than the citywide requirement to use an approved curriculum in grades K-5 — though more schools may be soon heading in that direction. Banks has pledged to overhaul curriculums across a range of other subjects and grade levels, including high school algebra, a process that is drawing mixed reactions.

Sixth grader Penelope Naidich said her reading classes now draw on shorter texts that come from the HMH workbook rather than teacher-designed classroom conversations of full books. Last year, “we had a whole class discussion, like what happened in the chapter, how did it relate to the theme and the plot,” Naidich said in an interview. “The deeper stuff you’re not getting from these excerpts.”

Still, students and parents at BSI said teachers have recently had more freedom to teach full books, though not as many as in previous years. A representative for HMH wrote in a statement that the curriculum materials for middle school grades includes “numerous complete selections, long reads and novels, in addition to excerpts” and the program “is designed to be flexible so that educators can make decisions that best serve their students.”

The school’s principal did not return a request for comment.

Top education officials contend the curriculum overhaul is essential because the city’s traditional approach of giving schools freedom to pick their own materials has produced meager results: Roughly half of the city’s students in grades 3-8 are not considered proficient in reading, according to state tests.

Banks has laid much of the blame on “balanced literacy” programs, including a popular one created by Teachers College Professor Lucy Calkins. That curriculum encourages students to independently read books at their individual reading levels, an approach meant to foster a love of literature but which experts say is less effective for struggling readers who need systematic instruction. Teachers were also encouraged to use discredited strategies like using pictures to guess at words.

Schools Chancellor David Banks reads to children at P.S. 125 The Ralph Bunche School.

Neuman, the NYU professor, applauded the city’s efforts to move away from balanced literacy and reign in the hodgepodge of approaches schools have used. But she acknowledged some tradeoffs. “The whole idea behind this initiative is to lift the boats of the kids who have been traditionally left behind, and that means some of the advanced students might be subject to a simpler program,” she said. “Right now, that’s the cost.”

City officials initially indicated that a small slice of schools with reading proficiency rates above 85% could be eligible for waivers from the mandate — and some BSI parents have pressed for one. Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said some schools sought waivers, but ultimately chose to use their district’s required curriculum. She declined to elaborate on the process for granting waivers or if the city abandoned plans to consider them for schools with high test scores.

Reading instruction shift worries some parents in next phase

Beyond BSI, some educators and families at schools that are gearing up to implement new reading curriculums in September are also raising alarms.

Alex Estes, the parent association president at The Neighborhood School in Manhattan, said he’s concerned about the new curriculum’s impact. The school, which is in District 1, will be required to use EL Education in September.

With lots of material to cover in the new curriculum, Estes worries educators won’t have time for lessons they’ve prioritized in the past. The school has a particular focus on creating a welcoming environment for LGBTQ students and staff, including a social-emotional curriculum that delves into age-appropriate discussions of gender identity and pronoun use. Estes fears that the school will have to make difficult tradeoffs to make room for the new materials.

“If we take EL’s curriculum 100% and follow it to the T, it is not theoretical that we will lose time for our homegrown curriculum like our identity unit,” Estes said. “There are only so many hours in a school day.”

At a recent Community Education Council meeting in District 15, which stretches across a handful of neighborhoods from Park Slope to Sunset Park, some caregivers echoed that they were happy with their schools’ current approach to instruction.

Students use an EL Education workbook at P.S. 169 Baychester Academy in the Bronx.

District 15 will require schools with dual-language programs to use HMH. All others will use Wit & Wisdom, a curriculum known for building students’ background knowledge and lengthy units on non-fiction topics.

“Mandates in general don’t necessarily acknowledge what’s going well,” said Lauren Monaco, a parent at The Brooklyn New School, a campus that often bucks traditional mandates including state testing in favor of student presentations of deep dives into various topics. “I don’t want the baby to be thrown out with the bathwater.”

In response to families at the meeting, District 15 Superintendent Rafael Alvarez suggested teachers won’t be expected to implement every element of the curriculum right away and said there will still be time for independent reading.

Alvarez also indicated District 15 will have more leeway to implement the curriculum gradually compared with Brooklyn District 19, which includes East New York and used the Wit & Wisdom curriculum districtwide even before the new mandate.

One reason for the added flexibility is their differing demographics, he noted. The vast majority of children in District 19 are Black or Hispanic and from low-income families. About 38% are considered proficient in reading. In District 15, fewer than half of students are Black or Hispanic or live in poverty — and 63% are proficient readers.

“We have a different community,” Alvarez said. “It’s the reason why there’s flexibility around how we’re using the curriculum — because we don’t have the same demographics where all of our kids need it verbatim with fidelity every day.”

Many educators haven’t spoken out

Educators have largely not organized against the curriculum changes. But Emily Haines, a veteran literacy coach at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the Bronx, is trying to change that. She recently launched a petition to drum up support for letting schools pick their own materials.

“Communities should have a voice in choosing a curriculum,” Haines said. Her school covers grades 6-12, but her local superintendent in District 7 has also required that middle schools adopt EL Education, the same program mandated across the district in grades K-5. (An Education Department spokesperson declined to say how many superintendents have issued similar directives for their middle schools.)

Haines said her school currently uses Calkins’ program. She worries the new materials will leave less time for narrative writing, one strategy she uses to get to know her students. And though she acknowledges exposing students to challenging books is important, she’s concerned the new curriculum will force her students to read longer books well beyond their reading levels. About 55% of her school’s students are proficient readers, according to state tests, compared with 32% across District 7.

The Bronx educator said she’s heard from teachers who have privately complained about the changes but, “for some reason it’s not translating into pushback.” So far, her petition has fewer than 100 signatures.

She suspects educators may see little value in speaking out and might be hoping for light enforcement of the mandates. Some principals have indicated plans to sidestep the curriculum requirements.

“I think people are just waiting,” Haines added. “Banks and Adams won’t be around forever and we can go back to what we’re doing before.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Lawsuit seeking makeup services for NYC students with disabilities survives another legal challenge

2024-03-29T21:24:37+00:00

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A class action lawsuit seeking to fast-track makeup services for New York City students has once again survived the city’s legal efforts to quash it.

A federal district court judge, Andrew L. Carter Jr., initially dismissed the case in 2022. But even after an appeals court overturned that decision, city officials used a different legal maneuver to try to get the suit tossed. Carter ruled this week that the lawsuit can largely move forward.

The lawsuit — filed in November 2020 by the nonprofit group Advocates for Children — argued that thousands of children with disabilities missed out on key services after the city’s schools switched to virtual instruction. The city struggled to distribute functioning remote learning devices, leaving some students without consistent access to instruction or other support such as physical therapy, the suit claimed.

Under federal law, students with disabilities have a right to “compensatory services” if their schools don’t provide all of the specialized instruction or therapies listed on their Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs. But seeking those services can require families to file a formal complaint — and the system that oversees those claims in New York City is dysfunctional and beset by delays that often stretch hundreds of days beyond the 75-day legal limit. (The complaint system is under federal court supervision thanks to a different lawsuit.)

The goal of Advocates for Children’s lawsuit was to force the city to come up with a streamlined process outside of that backlogged system to award extra services for students with disabilities.

“We’re looking for something that’s not each parent fighting on their own for relief,” said Rebecca Shore, the litigation director at Advocates for Children. She said the current process is “costly and inequitable for families without attorneys.”

The case has faced years of legal setbacks and delays. Carter dismissed the lawsuit two years ago because the families involved in the litigation had not tried to first use the formal complaint process. “Plaintiffs must exhaust their claims before coming to federal court,” Carter wrote.

Advocates for Children challenged that decision and a federal appeals court ruled in 2023 that the case should not have been dismissed. But city officials once again tried to get the case tossed.

(In his ruling on Thursday, Carter also ruled that the state’s Education Department should no longer be a defendant in the case, writing that the original suit did not claim state officials were directly responsible for the lost services.)

A spokesperson for the city Law Department declined to comment on the decision. A city Education Department spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

The city’s education department has provided some students with disabilities additional services to make up for pandemic disruptions. The department offered after-school and Saturday sessions to families, though the rollout was bumpy and many families did not participate.

Shore said her organization still regularly hears from families whose children missed out on services during the pandemic and would benefit from additional tutoring or other help.

The Education Department “can’t be absolved of their responsibility to make up the services that were lost,” she said.

One of the appeals court judges who reviewed the case said during a 2022 oral argument that cases like these are frustrating because they can take a long time to resolve but students need makeup services quickly.

If the case drags on for years, many students affected by the pandemic disruptions will have aged out of the school system and won’t ever get the services they missed out on, even if the lawsuit is ultimately successful.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

139,000 NYC families submit applications to Summer Rising, far more than available seats

2024-03-28T20:02:52+00:00

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Roughly 139,000 families submitted applications for Summer Rising, New York City’s free summer programming — far more than the number of available seats.

“It’s a testament to this program’s continued popularity with families — and I can’t wait to see what the summer brings,” schools Chancellor David Banks told reporters after revealing the application numbers on Thursday.

The numbers mirror last year when 45,000 families were initially not offered a seat. The program once again has 110,000 slots, though a portion of those are typically reserved for children who are mandated to attend summer school. It’s possible additional seats will open later as not all families will accept an offer.

Launched in 2021 as a response to the pandemic, the Summer Rising program gives students in grades K-8 a mix of academic instruction delivered by Education Department teachers and enrichment activities supported by a network of community-based organizations that partner with schools.

This year, city officials moved the application process up by about a month so families are slated to receive offers in mid-April, leaving more time to plan. Last summer, thousands of families were forced to scramble for child care over the summer after learning in May that they didn’t have a slot.

Several groups of students are supposed to receive priority for Summer Rising seats, including certain children with disabilities, those who attend after-school programs operated by the Department of Youth and Community Development, children who live in temporary housing or foster care, and students applying to a summer school site housed in the school they attend during the regular school year. Still, falling into one of those categories still does not guarantee a spot.

Despite the program’s popularity, its future is murky. Summer Rising was initially funded with one-time federal relief funding that is now expiring. Mayor Eric Adams has infused the program with city dollars to help replace the federal money that has been spent, but he has also reduced its overall budget.

The cuts mean that middle school students will have fewer hours of enrichment, including no programming on Friday, which is when many sites planned field trips. You can find more details about the program’s hours and structure here.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Success Academy, NYC’s largest charter network, looks to open in Florida

2024-03-27T19:41:55+00:00

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Success Academy, New York City’s largest charter operator, is considering an expansion to Florida, a major shift in strategy for the network.

Success founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz said Wednesday she is in search of friendlier terrain for expansion.

New York has been “a rather hostile political environment” for charter schools, Moskowitz testified at a Florida State Board of Education meeting Wednesday morning. She later added: “I want to be in a place that’s high-growth, that’s high-innovation, that is welcoming to parental choice.”

The network’s decision to contemplate expanding beyond New York is a notable shift, as Success has operated schools exclusively within the five boroughs since launching in 2006.

Moskowitz previously outlined aggressive plans to expand to 100 schools locally, roughly double the number that the network currently operates. But Moskowitz and other leaders have faced strong headwinds. Charter schools have fallen out of favor with many Democrats and the sector faces a strict cap on the number of schools that are allowed to operate in the state. The legislature recently allowed 14 new charters to open in New York City, but have not signaled any plans to allow dramatically more than that.

Plus, the city’s charter networks have struggled with declining enrollment in recent years, including Success, though preliminary state figures show the network now enrolls about 21,000 students, erasing pandemic-era enrollment losses. Success is currently looking to open six new schools, according to the SUNY Charter Schools Institute, which oversees Success.

Florida officials, meanwhile, are rolling out the red carpet. The State Board of Education voted Wednesday to designate Success as a “School of Hope” operator, a program designed to attract high-performing charters to the state, offering funding for construction and other startup costs.

Enrollment in Florida’s charter sector has steadily grown in recent years, educating nearly 14% of students, or roughly 400,000 children, state data show. Charters are publicly funded, but privately operated schools.

In her testimony, Moskowitz emphasized that the network’s students are overwhelmingly low-income children of color and their test scores far outpace the city’s district schools — and even affluent suburbs. She also highlighted the network’s track record of preparing students to attend competitive colleges.

“This is exactly what we were envisioning: To have a charter school network to be able to come in and really serve those populations that are in need of this kind of academic rigor, of this performance,” State Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. said at the Wednesday hearing.

But Success has also been dogged by persistent allegations that school officials push out children who are more difficult to serve, including suspending them or dialing 911 when students are experiencing behavioral problems or emotional distress. In 2015, the New York Times reported that one of its Brooklyn campuses had created a “Got to Go” list of troublesome students. Success officials said the list was a mistake and have disputed that they systematically push children out.

It’s not clear how quickly Success might move to open schools in Florida or even if they will ultimately move forward with plans to do so. A Success Academy spokesperson did not elaborate.

“At a time when many schools are failing to prepare their students for college and the future, the prospect of bringing an alternative model with proven success to states committed to education reform and school choice, is something we think is worth exploring,” Moskowitz said in an emailed statement.

Success’ decision to pursue expansion surprised some of the network’s closest observers, including Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute who embedded in a Success school for a year and wrote a book about the network’s model.

Though he noted the network launched an effort to export its curriculum and management practices to schools across the country, Moskowitz “has long eschewed the idea of opening and operating schools outside of New York,” he wrote on Wednesday.

During his time at a Success elementary school in the South Bronx, Pondiscio said he saw teachers and administrators moved between schools during the year to address real-time needs, a practice that would be complicated if the network opens far away campuses.

“Help is a subway ride away, not 500 miles away,” he wrote.

In addition to Success, five other charter operators are also designated as “Schools of Hope” in Florida, according to the state’s website: Mater Academy, RCMA, Democracy Prep Public Schools, IDEA Public Schools, and KIPP New Jersey.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools disband teaching and learning division, which oversees Banks’ top literacy initiative

2024-03-25T20:34:00+00:00

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In a major shakeup, the city’s Education Department is disbanding its division of teaching and learning, which oversees schools Chancellor David Banks’ centerpiece literacy initiative.

The deputy chancellor who leads that department is leaving at the end of the school year, according to a letter Banks sent to Education Department staff on Monday.

The announcement of Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning Carolyne Quintana’s departure took some staff by surprise. Quintana has been supervising Banks’ top education priority to reshape how the city’s elementary schools teach children to read, mandating that all elementary schools across the five boroughs are using one of three curriculums by next school year. The department has also been working to overhaul high school algebra programs.

“We are moving forward with dissolving the Division of Teaching & Learning and integrating its work into the Division of School Leadership under the leadership of Deputy Chancellor Dr. Danika Rux,” Banks wrote in a Monday letter to Education Department staff.

Banks signaled that the move was designed to put resources closer to schools — a pledge he made with Mayor Eric Adams when he first took the helm of the nation’s largest school district more than two years ago. He suggested some of the staff could be placed under the purview of local superintendents, who directly supervise principals.

The shakeup follows other efforts to give superintendents more power, with Banks previously assigning other Education Department staff who work in central offices to local superintendents’ offices.

“The superintendents are clearly in charge, and the content experts are subordinate,” one staffer who works in a superintendent’s office wrote in a text message, adding that they were “shocked” to learn of Quintana’s departure.

Shakeup could be logical for next phase of literacy push

Some observers are optimistic that the restructuring could help create clearer lines of authority and streamline the implementation of the curriculum changes. Before the latest shakeup, decisions about which curriculums to mandate and how to set up teacher training came from Quintana’s division. But the local superintendents who work with principals to implement those curriculums answer to Rux, the deputy chancellor responsible for school leadership.

There are challenges “having decision making split between the curricular choices and the implementation of those across two different deputy chancellors,” said Evan Stone, the CEO and co-founder of Educators for Excellence, a teacher advocacy group. The organization supported the Education Department’s push for a curriculum mandate, and Stone said Quintana is an “incredible leader.”

Another source involved with implementing the NYC Reads initiative said shifting responsibility for the program closer to the superintendents was logical now that districts have all chosen which curriculum to use and are focused on the daily work of helping schools adjust.

“This makes complete sense in terms of managing the NYC Reads initiative in particular,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Now we’re more into the implementation … and that falls on the superintendents.”

But other observers said that they are concerned that the reorganization will wind up shuffling many of the system’s literacy experts into superintendent offices where those leaders may not be able to deploy them as effectively. Education Department officials have not said how many staffers will remain in central offices or sent to local superintendents.

“Many of these district superintendents are just getting on board [with the new reading curriculums] and literacy is not necessarily their field of expertise,” said Susan Neuman, a professor at New York University who serves on the city’s literacy advisory council. She added the literacy council wasn’t in the loop on the shakeup which “came out of nowhere for us.”

Another department employee who works in a superintendent’s office said change could deliver needed manpower to help schools implement new curriculums.

“We don’t have the people to do that effectively on top of everything else,” the staffer said. Still, they added it was unclear who would be sent to their office and whether they would have relevant expertise.

The reorganization also comes at a delicate moment for Banks’ signature literacy initiative. The second half of the city’s districts will begin implementing the mandated curriculums in September, which requires a massive effort to train thousands of teachers. The initial rollout, which began this school year, has been bumpy so far with some teachers reporting that they have not received sufficient training on the new curriculum materials.

The overhaul of the high school algebra curriculum, which has drawn mixed reactions from educators, is also poised to expand next year.

Layoffs not expected

In his letter to Education Department staff, Banks indicated that the restructuring would not result in layoffs.

“I know change is hard,” Banks wrote. “I want to assure you that this restructuring is not a negative reflection of your work. In fact, we want to make sure that your hard work is as close to our students as possible.”

The teaching and learning division is staffed by about 2,000 people. The division includes hundreds of staff who oversee support for special education and multilingual learners; those people will not move to superintendent offices and will instead report to Rux.

Quintana did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the circumstances of her departure or whether she has another job lined up. The New York Post previously reported that Quintana was frustrated that she was paid less than a male deputy chancellor, though an Education Department spokesperson said that did not play a role in her departure.

“I want to thank the dedicated team of the Division of Teaching & Learning for their tireless work to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of students daily,” Quintana wrote in a statement. “It was an honor to lead you, and I will always be your ally in fighting for educational equity. I look forward to supporting this transition.”

Banks indicated the department’s Chief of School Support Miatheresa Pate will oversee the restructuring effort and will be the “interim executive chief” of teaching and learning during the transition period. The superintendent of Bronx District 10, Maribel Hulla, will move into the chief of school support role.

The chancellor indicated that Quintana will spend the remainder of the school year helping with the transition and advising him on “other key projects.”

Do you have inside details about the shakeup? Send us a tip to ny.tips@chalkbeat.org

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed to this story.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Programs for high school students at risk of dropping out face ‘catastrophic’ funding cliff

2024-02-28T21:58:52+00:00

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After one of Clara Delgado’s students gave birth late last year, she quickly arranged a home visit.

A staffer at Downtown Brooklyn’s Young Adult Borough Center — one of the Education Department’s evening programs for students who are behind in credits or can’t attend school during the day — Delgado arrived with a counselor in tow, donated baby clothes, and made sure the student could log in to Google Classroom to complete assignments remotely.

Delgado hoped the message was clear: The school would do whatever it could to help the teen finish the two classes she needed to graduate.

But staff like Delgado — along with funding for about 3,000 paid work slots — could soon disappear from a network of Young Adult Borough Centers and transfer schools that collectively serve nearly 15,000 students who have struggled at traditional high schools, are behind in credits, and are at risk of dropping out. That’s because a bevy of counselors, social workers, and internship coordinators, are paid through a city initiative called Learning to Work, which is predominantly funded by federal dollars that will expire at the end of this school year.

Educators and advocates say the services provided through Learning to Work are a lifeline for high-need students who enroll in transfer schools and evening classes. Those students include those who have struggled to pass classes at traditional schools, are caught up in the criminal justice system, are parents themselves, or are living in temporary housing.

To help get those students back on track, Learning to Work pairs alternative schools with community organizations that provide extra staff who help ensure students show up to school, get connected to social services, and even help craft college and career plans. It also funds thousands of paid internships, which can give students valuable work experience and create an incentive to attend school rather than dropping out to support themselves.

“A lot of [our work] is social-emotional,” said Delgado, a program manager at Good Shepherd Services, a nonprofit organization that partners with the Brooklyn night program. “They need somebody to take that off their plate so they can be successful with the academics.” The student who gave birth earned a diploma last month and plans to enroll at the Borough of Manhattan Community College this fall.

If the program’s funding is cut, Delgado said it will be a blow for students who have already struggled with the city’s education system. “It’s just someone writing them off again – they’re getting another back turned on them,” she said.

Jobs for students and staff could be lost

Learning to Work has existed since 2005, unlike other programs funded with federal dollars that were intended to address the pandemic’s fallout, such as Saturday programming for students with disabilities or expanded summer school.

But the city began using federal money to finance most of the program two years ago. Nearly 70% of Learning to Work’s budget, or about $32 million, now comes from one-time federal pandemic relief funds, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office. (The program faced a 25% cut in 2020, but its budget has since returned to pre-pandemic levels.)

Without an infusion from the city, “on July 1 these young people lose their support system and lose money they’re paying their bills with,” said Michael De Vito Jr., executive director of the New York Center for Interpersonal Development, which operates three Learning to Work programs across Staten Island and Brooklyn. “This is also going to cause layoffs of hundreds of nonprofit workers.”

Ariana Rivadeneira, 22, said the paid work experiences helped her re-engage with school and ultimately earn a diploma. Before the pandemic hit, she took on a job working at a veterinary clinic to help her mother pay rent after her parents split up. She began missing school and fell behind academically.

But after switching to West Brooklyn Community High School, a transfer school, the staff helped line up paid work experiences and training, including solar panel installation. There was suddenly less of a tradeoff between school and work.

Ariana Rivadeneira, 22, graduated from West Brooklyn Community High School in 2023.

“I was able to focus and redirect my whole education path to school,” Rivadeneira said. She graduated a year ago and now works as an EMT.

The work experiences helped Rivadeneira and her peers “experience what life could be for them – not just school, not just this responsibility of, ‘you have to graduate,’” she said.

Transfer schools could be hit hardest

The previous mayor, Bill de Blasio, made the decision to use one-time federal funding to support the Learning to Work program, but it’s unclear how Mayor Eric Adams will proceed. Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks have made career education a centerpiece of their agenda, and many advocates hope city officials will see the program’s connection to that work.

Still, community organizations worry that the program is not on the city’s radar, as Adams said in January that he “had no clue of the extent of how many programs were being funded by stimulus dollars” until he was briefed by Banks. And while Adams has restored some initiatives that were funded with one-time federal money, there are many remaining programs that are competing for city dollars, including preschool for 3-year-olds.

“We constantly have to remind people that we even exist,” De Vito said. “It seems like the network [of alternative programs] at large is just an afterthought.”

The city has not made a final decision about the program’s future, Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull wrote in an email. “We are engaging with Learning to Work providers as we plan for the future and recognize the importance of this impactful programming for our city’s young people,” she said. “We continue to advocate to our state and local partners to identify new funding to sustain these programs after this year.”

But even if the funding is restored in the city budget, which is finalized in June, some staff are already heading for the exits, as workers realize that funding for their jobs is uncertain, De Vito said.

If the cuts go through, they could add to an existing funding threat to the city’s network of transfer schools, which serve older students who are off track to graduate and may face smaller budgets next year. Enrollment at transfer schools was roughly 12% lower last school year compared with pre-pandemic levels, while traditional high school rosters fell just 2%. Federal relief funding that kept school budgets afloat despite enrollment losses is also set to expire.

With the possible cut to Learning to Work, one Brooklyn transfer school principal said the consequences could be “catastrophic.”

The principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that the community organization that partners with the school and is funded by Learning to Work, helps students with everything from getting clean clothes to lining up a paid internship “so they don’t have to choose between school and earning a living.”

Without those efforts, the school would have to entirely rethink its approach. “From the beginning our school has been designed with a [community organization] partner – not just as an appendage,” the principal said. “You can’t tear off a chunk of your school and assume that there’s some way to replace it.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Summer Rising will face reduced hours this year. Here’s what NYC families should know.

2024-03-04T22:22:20+00:00

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Applications for New York City’s free summer programming opened Monday to all children in kindergarten through eighth grade.

But in the wake of budget cuts ordered by Mayor Eric Adams, middle schoolers will face significantly fewer hours of enrichment programming this summer.

Launched in 2021 with federal pandemic relief funding, the Summer Rising program was designed to help students readjust to in-person learning and expand summer school opportunities beyond children who were traditionally mandated to attend. The initiative includes a mix of academic instruction provided by Education Department teachers and enrichment activities supported by a network of community-based organizations.

Summer Rising will once again include up to 110,000 slots — and is open to all New York City children currently enrolled in grades K-8, including those who attend charter or private schools.

But there will be a few changes this year. The application process is starting about a month earlier, with placements announced in mid-April, to give caregivers more time to plan for the summer and arrange child care if necessary. And families will now apply using MySchools, the sometimes glitchy website that manages the public school application process from prekindergarten through high school.

The most significant change, however, concerns reduced hours for middle school students.

Here’s what you should know about this year’s Summer Rising program:

How does the Summer Rising 2024 application work?

Using the MySchools portal, families can rank as many different Summer Rising sites as they want — choosing from roughly 360 options across the five boroughs. The seats are not issued on a first-come, first-served basis, so families can apply any time until March 25.

In line with the admissions policy last year, some students will receive priority for summer slots. That includes certain children with disabilities, those who live in temporary housing or foster care, children who are behind academically, and students applying for Summer Rising sites that are housed in their regular school.

What is the schedule for Summer Rising, and when does it start?

For students in grades K-5, Summer Rising operates 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from July 2 to Aug. 16.

For middle schoolers, Summer Rising will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. — two fewer hours — and will no longer operate at all on Fridays. The program for those children runs from July 2 to Aug. 8.

Some students with disabilities are entitled to year-round schooling and those programs operate during slightly different times. Children who attend schools in districts 1-32 generally attend summer classes from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. from July 2 to Aug. 12. Those who attend District 75 schools, which are for children with more significant needs, will attend 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. from July 3 to Aug. 13.

And those who attend programs for students with autism — including Nest and Horizon — attend 8 a.m. to noon from July 2 to Aug. 8.

Students with disabilities who attend school year-round have the option to attend the extended day enrichment programs operated by community organizations that run until 6 p.m. (or 4 p.m. for middle school). Interested families must apply through MySchools and students with disabilities in the categories listed above will receive priority for seats.

Why are there fewer hours for middle schoolers?

Summer Rising is one of a slew of programs initially funded with federal pandemic relief money that is now running out, forcing city officials to either find new funding to replace those expiring dollars or make cuts.

So far, Adams has done a bit of both. The mayor chose to keep the Education Department’s contribution to the program, which helps fund the academic portion of the day, using about $80 million in city money to replace federal dollars.

But the afternoon enrichment portion of the program is funded by a different city agency — the Department of Youth and Community Development. Adams cut $20 million of DYCD’s roughly $149 million contribution to Summer Rising, forcing reductions in programming for middle school children.

Some advocates worry that fewer hours, and the elimination of Fridays, will make the program less popular and hurt its quality.

“Friday was usually when they did field trips and things outside of the school building,” said Nora Moran, the director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, which represents community organizations that operate some of the city’s summer programming. She emphasized that community organizations are able to quickly restore hours if the city makes additional funding available.

“We’re certainly hopeful the mayor reverses his decision to shorten the program day,” she said.

How popular is Summer Rising in NYC?

In a city with few affordable child care options, Summer Rising has been quite popular. Last year, there were about 45,000 more applicants than available slots, officials said (though some of those children eventually won a seat).

Students generally spend their mornings on academic work and in the afternoon participate in enrichment activities, including art, science projects, and trips to cultural institutions. For elementary school children, the final week of the program is dedicated to enrichment activities and trips operated by community organizations.

Many parents have praised the program, noting it gives their children something to do other than expensive camps, watching TV, or spending countless hours scrolling the internet. But others have been disappointed and even pulled their children, citing boring assignments during the academic portion of the day, limited time outside, and few opportunities for field trips.

Here’s what parents told us about their Summer Rising experience last year.

What about students with higher needs?

Students with disabilities are supposed to continue receiving the services they need to access summer programming, such as health and behavioral paraprofessionals, and their schools must devise a “Summer Rising Accommodation Plan” before the program begins.

Still, not all services are available for the afternoon enrichment programming — such as paraprofessionals who help manage student behavior — and community organizations are instructed to provide support “as needed.” In practice, some advocates said community organizations aren’t always well-equipped to serve students with special needs, leaving some families to avoid the program entirely.

“The community based-organizations don’t necessarily have the knowledge, and skill, and staff to help support students with behavioral needs,” said Maggie Moroff, a senior policy coordinator at Advocates for Children, which helps students with disabilities navigate the special education system. “A plan from the school that is supposed to be put in place by the [community organization] leaves a whole lot of room for mistakes.”

Officials also noted that English learners will receive “instruction targeting language and literacy development to support them with grade-level content” during the morning sessions, including in small groups or one on one.

What’s the transportation situation?

Students who already receive yellow school bus service during the school year should generally receive bus transportation for Summer Rising. And students with MetroCards during the school year will continue to receive them for the summer.

But for students who ride the bus, there’s a catch: The city’s yellow bus service stops rolling at 3 p.m., so students who participate in the extended enrichment portion of the day until 6 p.m. (or 4 p.m. in middle school) will instead have access to a prepaid rideshare service.

A caregiver must accompany their child in the rideshare to and from the summer school site, which some advocates have criticized as inaccessible for working families who don’t have time to ride to and from a Summer Rising site at the end of the day.

“I think a lot of families opted to forgo the opportunity because they didn’t have a way of getting their child back home,” Moroff said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools bring back chicken dumplings, French toast sticks, burritos after outcry

2024-03-07T18:45:35+00:00

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Facing mounting criticism over cuts to popular school lunch items, New York City officials are reversing course.

School cafeterias will once again feature French toast sticks, bean and cheese burritos, and chicken dumplings, an Education Department spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. Those items should reappear later this month or in early April. Officials eliminated the popular foods from school menus last month as part of a $60 million cut to the school food program, Chalkbeat first reported in January.

At a Thursday event honoring food workers, schools Chancellor David Banks said the decision to reinstate some items was due to backlash from students.

“We heard from the kids loud and clear,” he said. “I encourage every young person to continue to speak up about the changes that they hope to see in their schools.”

Still, some menu items won’t be returning yet, including bagel sticks, chicken drumsticks, guacamole, and cookies. Chris Tricarico, senior executive director of the Office of Food and Nutrition Services, said the city is “planning to look at the future menus” in the coming months to bring back additional food options.

A chorus of students, parents, and food advocates complained the cuts affected popular dishes — potentially leading students to avoid eating school lunches, or throw them in the trash.

Anayolene Denis, a school cook in Brooklyn, said there was a noticeable decrease in the number of students who ate lunch after popular items disappeared from the menu.

“I was mad,” she said. “The kids come in and don’t see what they used to like.”

The cuts also left some of the city’s food suppliers in limbo, with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food languishing in storage. Some vendors warned of possible worker layoffs.

Food advocates were baffled by the cuts given Mayor Eric Adams’ focus on improving the city’s school food program, including overhauling some cafeterias to make them resemble food courts and expanding plant-based meals.

The reversal comes as city leaders have struggled to provide a clear rationale for the menu changes. Officials first suggested they were related to a series of budget cuts Adams has ordered across city agencies, including the Education Department. But the city’s top budget official on Monday offered a different explanation: The menu cuts were necessary because school lunches were growing more popular.

“They basically cut some of the items from the menu … because more kids are eating,” Jacques Jiha, director of the city’s Office of Management and Budget, said during a City Council hearing.

Those comments earned a fresh round of criticism and confusion, as some of the mayor’s food initiatives were specifically designed to encourage more students to eat. Just two days later, the Education Department backtracked.

Melany Martinez, a school cook at P.S. 84 in Manhattan, said students grumbled about the changes, but she didn’t see much of a dropoff in student meal participation at her school. Nonetheless, she anticipates her students will celebrate the return of one item in particular.

“They love bean burritos,” she said.

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed to this story.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

After technical snafu, NYC says staggered school start times may be necessary for remote snow days

2024-03-06T23:36:26+00:00

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After technical glitches prevented many families from logging in for remote learning during a snowstorm last month, officials on Wednesday presented a temporary fix: staggered start times.

The Education Department no longer cancels classes during inclement weather in part due to a growing number of school holidays and a state mandate to provide 180 days of school. As a snowstorm threatened to upend commutes on Feb. 13, city officials announced schools would operate remotely — the first citywide test of that strategy. But many families and educators encountered error messages when they tried to log in, drawing intense criticism.

During a City Council oversight hearing on Wednesday focused on the technical snafus, Education Department officials said the problem stemmed from too many users logging in at once. The city outsources the login process for its remote learning platforms to IBM, and both Education Department and IBM officials acknowledged the technical specifications in their contract did not guarantee everyone would be able to sign on during a short window.

The city is looking for a long-term solution to avoid spreading out start times, but Education Department officials said it will be necessary for now in the event of another pivot to remote learning.

“If we have a remote learning day tomorrow we should be working to stagger start times, which we agree is not ideal from a student and staff perspective,” Emma Vadehra, the department’s chief operating officer, told city lawmakers. “But it’s pretty important to us that we get it right if we do need to transition.”

Vedehra suggested that start times could be assigned by grade level and would need to be spread over a little more than one hour to ensure the sign-in process goes smoothly. Officials did not provide a timeline for coming up with a more permanent solution and some elected officials raised concerns about the approach.

“I think staggered times will be very confusing to people,” said Gale Brewer, a Manhattan city council member.

Wednesday’s hearing included the most detailed accounting yet of why families had trouble logging on for remote learning on Feb. 13. The core issue was that IBM was only contracted to handle up to 400 “transactions per second” — with one login attempt potentially using multiple “transactions,” said Scott Strickland, the education department’s deputy chief information officer. There are more than 1 million public school students and staff. (Strickland was the acting chief information officer on Feb. 13.)

In September, IBM bumped up the number of transactions per second to 1,400. As login issues mounted on Feb. 13, the day the city switched to remote learning, IBM increased the throughput to 3,000, which made the problem worse, Strickland said. The company ultimately landed on 2,000 transactions per second, which was still not enough to accommodate everyone who was trying to log in.

City officials said they did not have data on how many students and staff were unable to log in, though IBM officials said the system was “stable” by 10:15 a.m. and there were more than a million successful login attempts that day. The company has since recommended a more customized system, at an unspecified cost, that will automatically adjust based on demand.

In the aftermath of the tech glitches, city officials largely blamed IBM, a characterization the company pushed back against on Wednesday.

“We really had done everything we can to make sure that this technology was working above and beyond what it was contracted to do,” Vanessa Hunt, IBM’s senior state executive for New York, said Wednesday. “Hearing it be summarized as an IBM technology problem was, of course, frustrating.”

City officials had previously conducted practice sessions to make sure students could log in and prepared schools to distribute devices. But they did not involve IBM in those tests, Hunt said.

Hunt said she wished the city gave IBM more lead time to plan; city officials gave IBM a heads up that they planned to pivot to remote instruction at 1 p.m. the previous day, city officials said.

“Ideally, we would have been planning way before the day before,” Hunt said, adding the company now has a communication plan in place with the Education Department. “I think we would have been a part of the simulations, a part of the planning, and we would have been able to better advise the DOE on potentially staggering start times.”

Several City Council members expressed frustration that there hadn’t been more rigorous testing of IBM’s systems before the switch to remote instruction, with some casting blame on the city.

“If you have an elevator, and the elevator can only hold 1,000 pounds, and you put 7,000 pounds in the elevator, and the elevator gets stuck, is it fair to blame the elevator company in that situation?” said Queens City Council member Shekar Krishnan. “There seems to be a lot of blame, or at least passing the buck to IBM.”

At another point in the hearing, Intekhab Shakil, the Education Department’s chief information officer, seemed to acknowledge some responsibility for the technical problems. “We did not pay enough attention” to ensure that the company could quickly ramp up to meet demand during a sudden switch to remote learning, he said.

“We will work with IBM,” he added, “to ensure this does not happen again.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC sues TikTok, Instagram, and other social media companies over youth mental health crisis

2024-02-14T22:50:31+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams ratcheted up New York City’s battle against social media companies on Wednesday, joining hundreds of municipalities and school systems across the country that have filed a wave of lawsuits seeking financial compensation and broader changes to the platforms.

The city contends that social media platforms are designed to be addictive, harming young people’s mental health, and serving as venues for bullying. The lawsuit is calling on the companies to change their practices and pay for youth mental health education prevention and treatment services. Officials said the city spends about $100 million a year on youth mental health programs.

The city’s Education Department and the public hospital system are also part of the suit filed in California state court against the companies operating TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube.

“The feature that keeps young people clicking in these dark corners of social media have fueled an alarming rise in online bullying, depression, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation,” Adams said during a briefing on Wednesday. “There is, of course, a great deal of education and positive content out there too. But there is also a 24/7 digital dystopia that even very young children can easily access without parents or caregivers ever being aware of.”

City officials pointed to a series of worrying statistics about youth mental health, including rising rates of suicide attempts. Additionally, the statistics show that in 2021, nearly 38% of high school students felt so hopeless or sad over the previous year that they stopped participating in their usual activities. Still, there is little conclusive evidence linking social media use to mental health problems, though experts have called for more research on the topic.

The burden, however, has been high on the nation’s largest school system, the lawsuit alleges, including hiring additional counselors and social workers, investigating threats made against schools and students over social media, and increasing community-based services such as outpatient therapy and after-school programs. Social media addiction has adversely affected students’ attention spans, their ability to learn, and their behavior, the lawsuit claims, noting that some students have become violent when a teacher tried to take their phones.

Some school leaders have struggled to manage the impact of social media on their campuses. In response to Instagram accounts that allowed students to post anonymous content, a Queens principal threatened to cancel activities and suspend students who followed those accounts, an episode that raised free speech concerns. (The accounts were ultimately taken down.)

The lawsuit claims that the companies borrow “heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used in slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry” to keep the attention of young people, who are at a “vulnerable” developmental stage, and to drive advertising revenue.

Last year’s lawsuit against social media companies filed by Seattle’s school district unleashed the current wave of litigation. New York City’s lawsuit appeared to be broadly similar to others filed by local school districts, which some observers say could face tough legal odds.

“Most of these [lawsuits] are as much about legal success as they are about shaping issues and winning in the court of public opinion,” Chris Thomas, a professor at the University of Florida, told EdWeek. “That is part of the strategy around the lawsuits, even if they have tough hills to climb legally.”

Adams has signaled for months that his administration planned to take stronger action against social media companies. Last month, he announced the city would begin to treat social media use as a public health threat, deploying an ad campaign equating major social media platforms with tobacco companies. The city also released an advisory encouraging caregivers to delay giving children a smartphone until age 14 to limit continuous access to social media.

The city vowed to take a series of steps outside of the lawsuit as part of a new “framework for action” including guidance to schools for creating “tech-free zones” and launching a youth advisory council.

City officials have also begun offering free online therapy for teenagers, one of Adams’ biggest mental health initiatives, though some students have struggled to persuade their parents to let them participate. More than 2,000 teens have used the online therapy platform so far, according to a health department spokesperson.

In a response to the city’s lawsuit, Snapchat spokesperson Ashley Adams sought to distance the platform from other social media companies. “Snapchat was intentionally designed to be different from traditional social media,” she wrote, noting the platform does not include a traditional feed “and has no traditional public likes or comments.”

“While we will always have more work to do,” she added, “we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence.”

Liza Crenshaw, a spokesperson for Meta, the parent of Instagram and Facebook, said the company has more than 30 tools and features to support teens and their parents. “We want teens to have safe, age-appropriate experiences online,” she said.

Representatives of TikTok and YouTube did not immediately respond for comment.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Technical meltdown prevents NYC students from logging onto virtual classes during remote snow day

2024-02-13T23:56:39+00:00

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Teachers and students across New York City were shut out of their virtual classes Tuesday morning, a major glitch as city officials ordered schools to offer remote instruction because of the snowstorm.

The tech problems prevented many — though not all — teachers and students from logging into Zoom, Google Classroom, school email accounts, and even attendance tracking tools.

City officials largely blamed the technical snafu on IBM, which helps manage the login process for the city’s remote learning platforms. During a midday press conference, Chancellor David Banks said IBM was not prepared for the crush of users logging in at once but problems were being ironed out.

More than one million students and staff had successfully signed on, officials said. Still, student attendance fell to 78% down from 87% on Monday, according to preliminary data that does not yet include all schools.

“To say that I am disappointed, frustrated, and angry is an understatement,” Banks said, adding the department would conduct a “full analysis” of what went wrong. “This was a test. I don’t think that we passed this test.”

Tuesday represented the first time the entire school system was expected to go virtual during a snowstorm — a major test of the city’s strategy to switch to remote learning instead of canceling classes due to inclement weather. To give schools and families time to prepare, officials announced nearly a full day in advance their plans to close school buildings. Banks vowed teachers would be ready to deliver live lessons that mirror a traditional school day.

But as students and teachers tried to log on Tuesday morning, many encountered an error message that displayed a digital image of a lone teacher standing on a podium. On some campuses, tech problems derailed much of the morning’s lessons. Other schools didn’t seem to be affected, making the scale of the outage unclear. An IBM spokesperson said Tuesday afternoon the issues had been “largely resolved” and “we regret the inconvenience to students and parents across the city.”

Some parents and educators said the technical difficulties reminded them of the early days of the pandemic. The damage could reverberate, some worry.

One Manhattan elementary school leader who had to cancel morning classes because of the tech problems, said, “The bigger impact is … the intangible piece: the trust, the perception of competence, which was a major issue during COVID.”

Adam Schwartz, a teacher at Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Brooklyn, said his second grade daughter’s morning class was disrupted, though she was able to successfully login around 9 a.m.

Schwartz, who teaches English to students who are new to the country, said he was dreading remote instruction on Tuesday, as his students often shy away from participating during in-person classes. But they seemed more comfortable in the virtual environment, regularly chiming in with emojis. His classes weren’t affected by the outage because they started later in the day.

“It was kind of a slight remove from the normal social pressures of school that make it so difficult for kids to communicate,” Schwartz said. “And it allowed me to be a little silly.” Due to back problems, he logged into his classes sprawled on his belly on his kitchen floor. Still, only about half of his students showed up.

Remote learning practice runs didn’t help

City officials had previously conducted practice runs with students and families so the system would be prepared in the event of a remote snow day. But Michael Mulgrew, head of the city’s teachers union, said only smaller groups of students and teachers logged on at once.

“When we did the citywide test in October, we assumed it was a stress test. It turns out that’s not what the DOE did,” he said in an interview.

Some schools weathered the glitches better than others because they’ve held onto their school-specific websites and email accounts despite the Education Department asking them to do otherwise. Because of security concerns, the Education Department has been pushing schools to move to a centrally run domain, which no longer lets schools control the login process. But that central login system failed on Tuesday.

”If we still ran everything through our Gmail, today would have been fine,” one high school principal said.

Despite Banks’ assurance that schools would be ready to offer plenty of live teaching, some students and educators said there was less than usual.

Christian Rojas Linares, a senior at Manhattan’s University Neighborhood High School, said his teachers posted assignments online and, with a couple exceptions, were on hand to help students work through them. But some of his classes felt more like office hours than typical periods of instruction, and in certain cases there were just a handful of students in attendance, he said.

“When it comes to remote learning, you often tend to not get stuff done for the most part,” Rojas Linares said.

Still, he appreciated that the remote atmosphere was less stressful than a regular school day and noted his AP environmental science teacher used class time to help prepare for a test scheduled for Wednesday. “Even though it didn’t feel like a real class, I was still able to get work done,” he said.

Matthew Willie, the school’s principal, said his teachers were well prepared to switch to remote learning and did not contend with major glitches. Willie said he dropped into 15 to 20 virtual classrooms throughout the day and “there was good attendance and direct instruction taking place,” he said.

Willie said Rojas Linares’ experience may be unusual because he’s enrolled in a slew of advanced classes that tend to enroll a smaller number of students. “I really think the day went well for us,” he said.

Decisions about whether to call a snow day are typically contentious and come with tradeoffs, as many families rely on school for meals and may struggle to line up child care. Though some called on the city to cancel classes entirely, there is little room in the school calendar thanks to a growing number of holidays and a state requirement to hold 180 school days.

By afternoon, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park was a mix of slush and snow. Some parents expressed disappointment at the paltry amount of powder covering the ground, but kids were making the most of it, sledding down any hill they could find, sometimes wearing down the snow enough to see patches of mud and grass sticking out.

After an hour of online school, Christine Joyce, mom of a second grader and kindergartener at P.S. 321, made the executive decision to take her kids to the park.

“Zoom this morning was a little rough,” she said, noting that her kids were ultimately able to access their virtual classrooms, but she called it quits shortly after for a real snow day because she wanted her kids to experience some joy in the snow. They spent several hours building snowmen and forts, having snowball fights and sledding.

Kids were out in full force to sled in Brooklyn's Prospect Park even though the snow wasn't deep.

Abby Loomis, a fourth grade teacher at P.S. 414 in Brooklyn, said she appreciated the city’s early decision to pivot to remote instruction.

The vast majority of her students were able to log in, but challenges remained. During a math lesson, her students struggled to input fractions on their keyboards. Some children filled the virtual chat room with messages about wanting to play outside in the snow. And she opted to avoid continuing a social studies unit on slavery, a topic that felt too difficult to discuss in an online format.

Instead, she leaned more heavily on work students could complete on their own, such as editing biographies they’re writing about figures including Taylor Swift and Simone Biles. She devised a fun snow day checklist, including finding hot chocolate and throwing a snowball.

“It should just not be a rigorous rigid day,” Loomis said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Education Department announced this week’s experiment with remote learning will be brief. Traditional in-person classes will resume Wednesday.

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed to this story.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools go remote on Tuesday for snow forecast

2024-02-12T19:07:39+00:00

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New York City public schools will conduct classes remotely on Tuesday as a winter storm threatens to dump up to eight inches of snow on the five boroughs, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday morning.

Adult education and Young Adult Borough Centers will not operate on Tuesday. Many after-school programs operated by the Department of Youth and Community Development will run remotely, though an Education Department spokesperson said parents should reach out to their schools for more information.

In the wake of the pandemic, the city’s public schools announced that it will not typically cancel classes in the event of inclement weather and instead pivot to remote instruction. As officials added additional holidays to the school calendar, the Education Department has vowed to offer remote instruction during snow storms in part to meet a state requirement to provide 180 days of school each year.

“Long gone are the days of just a snow day and everybody just has off,” said schools Chancellor David Banks at a snow-related media briefing. “We’re going to have a big snow storm most likely, but our students — we expect for them to be fully engaged.”

Parents, students and teachers: How are you preparing for remote school on Tuesday? Let us know by dropping an email to ny.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Tuesday will be the first major test of the city’s plan to quickly pivot to remote learning due to bad weather, as the city has not experienced a major snowfall over the past two winters. When wildfire smoke engulfed the city last summer, the Education Department shifted to remote instruction for a day, but the vast majority of students already had a scheduled day off.

The decision to pivot to remote instruction comes with tradeoffs, as families may struggle to line up childcare and many students rely on school meals. But keeping school buildings open comes with challenges, too, and Banks said he did not want to risk students getting stuck on yellow buses or strand staff at schools if weather conditions worsened throughout Tuesday morning.

The amount of snowfall is still relatively uncertain. Officials said they wanted to make the decision about whether to hold classes virtually before the storm approached to give schools — and families — more time to plan for remote instruction.

Parents should expect teachers to provide “synchronous” instruction, delivering lessons in real time and mimicking the traditional school day, Banks said. Although he acknowledged there will likely be some technical glitches, Banks noted that schools had previously asked families to practice logging in for remote learning to prepare for possible snowstorms. Additionally, the Education Department has “help centers” for families who need assistance.

Students who want to go outside and play in the snow could do so after class, Banks said.

https://t.co/BcVJPTHEkf pic.twitter.com/SQVseyhSj9
— Chi Ossé (@OsseChi) February 12, 2024

Adams bristled at the notion that switching to remote instruction could present tech roadblocks to families, or that children may simply skip remote classes to have fun in the snow.

He claimed his own mother helped him get to school in poor weather, holding it up as an example for others to overcome their own obstacles. ”You can’t tell me that mommy took me to school with her arthritic knees in a snow day, and you are frustrated by logging on to a computer — that’s not acceptable to me,” he said. “Our children must learn. They fell behind. We need to catch up.”

Still, some schools said it could be a challenge to get students logged in for remote learning. Anna Nelson, an assistant principal at the Bronx Latin, estimated that about a quarter of her school’s students don’t have reliable internet access at home.

“At our school, everyone will have a device,” she said. “It’s whether they will be able to use a device.”

Some observers said the announcement felt premature, coming well before a single flake of snow hit the ground, and reports indicate a more modest accumulation of just a couple inches is still possible.

News of the decision to hold classes virtually trickled out on X, previously known as Twitter, before the mayor’s official announcement. Banks told a gathering of union chapter leaders of the decision in advance of a professional development session related to the city’s sweeping new literacy curriculum mandate, according to a union spokesperson.

The mayor tweeted the news just after 10 a.m. — though schools had yet to receive an official communication, frustrating some administrators who learned of the news from their teachers or on social media. An email to school administrators went out shortly after 11 a.m.

“It shouldn’t be principals hearing from their teachers and Twitter,” Nelson said. “I don’t have a Twitter account.”

Correction: Based on incorrect information in an Education Department press release, a previous version of this story said all after-school programs are canceled. In fact, many will be open remotely.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

As NYC overhauls literacy approach, one public school gets phonics help from nearby private school

2024-02-08T21:38:36+00:00

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Clasping a deck of pale yellow flash cards, Sloan Shapiro delivered a phonics lesson she’s taught countless times at her Manhattan private school for children with reading challenges.

“Q — U — Queen — Kwuh,” Shapiro chanted, pointing at the letters “Qu” printed on a card above a cartoon drawing of a queen. A chorus of students mimicked her sounds, tracing invisible letters on their hands.

Without missing a beat, Shapiro ticked off a spelling rule. “Q is always followed by a…”

“U!” the group responded in unison.

The chorus of students responding to Shapiro on a recent Monday afternoon at the Stephen Gaynor School, however, weren’t children. They were teachers from P.S. 84, an Upper West Side public school around the corner.

For the first time, Gaynor is offering a free 15-week course to nine public school educators to help refine their lessons on phonics, which explicitly teaches the relationship between sounds and letters. The small pilot program comes as elementary schools across the city are under a new mandate to emphasize phonics, part of a sweeping plan to overhaul the way New York City public schools teach reading.

Schools Chancellor David Banks has embraced partnerships with private schools that cater to students with reading challenges, though an Education Department spokesperson could not say how prevalent such arrangements are. Banks has also expressed interest in improving public programs to reduce the ballooning costs associated with paying for private school tuition. About 80% of families at Gaynor, which charges nearly $80,000 a year, seek tuition payments from the government, arguing the public schools can’t adequately educate their children.

For the past 17 years, Gaynor has partnered with P.S. 84 and nearby P.S. 166, offering free after-school help for about two dozen students each year who are behind in reading. But it didn’t make sense previously to directly train their teachers because the public schools’ approach to literacy was so different, according to head of school Scott Gaynor, who is the grandson of the school’s co-founder.

P.S. 84 has long deployed “Units of Study,” a curriculum created by Teachers College Professor Lucy Calkins. That program, which has been used by hundreds of city elementary schools in recent years, has been criticized by experts in part because it does not include as much emphasis on phonics. With the city’s new phonics push and curriculum mandate, schools are no longer allowed to use Calkins’ program, and Gaynor is considering expanding their training efforts to schools beyond P.S. 84.

But even as the city moves away from Calkins’ approach, that’s only a first step.

“The harder part of the equation is the training,” Gaynor said. “That doesn’t happen from a one-day or even a one-week workshop.”

Going deeper than previous phonics trainings

Teachers at P.S. 84 said their own experiences with phonics training have been mixed.

“We have been through many different [phonics] programs, so it was a little bit all over the place,” said Johana Talbot, a first grade teacher who said she appreciated the training program at Gaynor. (The principal of P.S. 84 declined an interview request.)

The pilot program at Gaynor involves 45 minutes a week of training in a method called Orton-Gillingham that has historically been used for children with dyslexia, but is increasingly deployed with a wider range of students.

That approach is designed to break down the building blocks of language, teaching children basic spelling rules and sound-letter relationships, building in complexity over time. It also incorporates sight, touch, and movement to help make the ideas stick. Students may tap their fingers as they sound out words or move their arms to represent certain sounds.

Though officials at Gaynor said the approach has worked for their students, the evidence of Orton-Gillingham’s effectiveness more broadly is limited.

Talbot has practiced some of the lessons she’s learned at Gaynor in her classroom at P.S. 84. She encouraged students to tap out sounds with their non-dominant hand instead of their dominant hand, a small tweak that helps them use that strategy during writing exercises.

“The movements for every sound [and] chanting the rules — they feel very empowered by that,” said Talbot. About 10 of her students are recent migrants and some of them have proudly shown off some of those strategies with their parents.

P.S. 84′s Carla Murray-Bolling moved this year from preschool to kindergarten, where she is teaching phonics for the first time. “I was basically just thrown in and told: ‘swim.’”

One practice she’s learned is how to encourage students to blend different sounds of a word together. “It’s been helping them by dragging the sounds out instead of breaking them down one letter at a time,” she said.

For Shapiro and her co-teacher, Kristi Evans, the goal is to help teachers understand the reading principles behind the lessons and determine whether students have actually mastered them.

“If you teach teachers the underlying structure of the language, they can really pick up anything,” Shapiro said.

During a recent training session, Murray-Bolling and Talbot paired up to practice testing each other on “nonsense” words that still follow normal spelling rules, giggling as they teased each other with words like “jetch.”

Students who struggle with reading often develop strategies to compensate by using context clues and pictures, Evans said. That often helps them advance to higher grade levels even if they’re behind in reading. By presenting nonsense words, Murray-Bolling and Talbot were learning a quick assessment to help identify whether any of their students had come up with ways to correctly guess a word’s meaning.

“We get those students,” Evans said, referring to students who enroll at Gaynor. “We’re hoping that in the public school we can catch those kids earlier.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

The list is out: See which curriculum is dominating NYC’s reading mandate

2024-02-03T00:18:40+00:00

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New York City kicked off its new literacy curriculum mandate this year, requiring elementary schools in nearly half of its districts to choose among three curriculums. One pick dominated: Into Reading, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Teachers wondered whether the same curriculum — which has won mixed reviews from educators — would continue to gain traction, as every elementary school must join the initiative by September 2024.

Now, there’s an answer: All elementary schools in 22 of the city’s 32 local districts will be required to use Into Reading, according to the Education Department.

The program’s popularity means the majority of the city’s elementary school students will soon use the same curriculum for reading. That’s a major shift, as the city’s previous approach gave principals leeway to choose their own materials.

It represents a big bet that one flagship curriculum will help schools Chancellor David Banks achieve his top goal: improving the city’s literacy rates. And it’s also a striking outcome given the Education Department vetted three options that officials said are high quality, including Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds, and EL Education, both of which have won praise from some advocates and educators.

Five districts will require EL Education, and five will use Wit & Wisdom, including Brooklyn’s District 15, where schools with dual-language programs will use Into Reading. It’s the only district that did not use a single choice across its campuses. (A full list of each district’s curriculum choice is included below.)

“It seems like, once again, Into Reading really wins,” said Susan Neuman, a professor at New York University and literacy expert.

Some educators and advocates have raised concerns about Into Reading, including that it is not culturally responsive enough. But Neuman said there is little definitive evidence about what the curriculum’s popularity will mean for student learning. “It’s really difficult to say one is better than another at this point,” she said of the three options the city selected.

Neuman and others said the three newly mandated curriculums are likely an improvement over the materials many schools have used in recent years, including a popular program created by Teachers College Professor Lucy Calkins. Backed by a growing chorus of experts, Banks has argued that Calkins’ curriculum has not worked, in part because it doesn’t include enough systematic instruction on the relationship between sounds and letters, known as phonics. It also includes some discredited methods, such as using pictures to guess what a word says.

The Education Department said it picked three curriculums more aligned with longstanding research about how children learn to read, often referred to as the science of reading. Separately, the city has required schools to use an approved phonics program alongside the three reading programs. Using a single curriculum across districts will allow the city to scale up more effective teacher training efforts, since materials won’t vary as much from campus to campus. Students who transfer schools will be less likely to start from scratch with a new curriculum.

Into Reading gets foothold in NYC schools even before the mandate

There are several reasons Into Reading likely has proved to be the most popular choice among local superintendents, who were tasked with making the final decision for their districts. The program is perceived to be the most traditional option and easier to roll out, with more regimented step-by-step lessons. And unlike the other two approved programs, Into Reading has a Spanish version that may appeal to schools with dual-language offerings.

“It’s so scripted, and if superintendents and district teams are worried about implementation, it could be easier” than the other choices, said a staffer in a local superintendent’s office who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the company behind Into Reading, also deployed a savvy marketing strategy. The publishing house made digital materials free for schools to use during the pandemic, potentially helping it gain a foothold in several districts. Superintendents may have been more compelled to select a curriculum already in their schools, since switching materials can be a difficult and time consuming process.

EL, Wit & Wisdom gain slightly more traction in second round

Despite Into Reading’s popularity, the other two curriculums were slightly more popular among superintendents who are part of the second phase of the mandate beginning this coming fall. Both Wit & Wisdom and EL Education place a greater emphasis on boosting students’ background knowledge, advocates say, a key element for boosting students’ reading comprehension across a wide range of subjects.

Those curriculums often lean on challenging nonfiction readings in an effort to ensure students are reading at their grade level, though some educators have said they can be difficult for students who are behind.

Some superintendents in the city’s more affluent neighborhoods, where certain schools have long-standing commitments to Calkins’ program, seemed to gravitate to Wit & Wisdom and El Education. District 2, which snakes from the West Village to the Upper East Side, is using Wit & Wisdom as is District 3, which covers Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

District 15, which includes Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Sunset Park, and Red Hook in Brooklyn split its schools between Wit & Wisdom and Into Reading. Still, other districts with fewer children from lower-income households — including Bayside, Queens District 26, and Staten Island — are using Into Reading. And some high-poverty areas, such as District 7 in the South Bronx are using EL Education.

Curriculum choices are only one part of the equation, though. Experts say the quality of teacher training and how committed educators are to making changes are also crucial. Among teachers in the first phase of the curriculum mandate this fall, some educators said they haven’t received as much support as they hoped.

“It’s been effective, but they say they want more of it — that it has to be ongoing,” said Marielys Divanne, the executive director of Educators for Excellence-New York, an advocacy group that supports the city’s curriculum mandate. “Curriculum alone is not sufficient.”

Kindergarten teacher Carla Murray-Bolling said she’s anxious and excited about the new curriculum mandate. Her school, P.S. 84 on the Upper West Side, uses Calkins’ program but will be required to switch to Wit & Wisdom this coming fall.

Murray-Bolling likes certain elements of Calkins’ curriculum, called “Units of Study,” including a recent lesson that teaches children that reading is a special power they can unlock — a superhero metaphor that got her students excited. But she also said the amount of time her students are expected to work independently can be a challenge, since many of her students have yet to master basic reading and writing skills.

“I’m anxious to see the changes,” she said, noting that she was not aware of opportunities for teachers to offer input on the new curriculum choices.

Still, she’s coming in with an open mind for the Education Department’s reading overhaul.

“If they feel it’s a curriculum that’s strong, and they think it’s good for the students, I don’t see anything wrong about that,” she said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

10,000 NYC students are shut out of programs for children with autism. Adding 160 seats is a start.

2024-01-31T23:30:01+00:00

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New York City is expanding programs for students with autism, part of a broader pledge top Education Department officials announced Wednesday to create special education programming closer to where students live.

Beginning next school year, the city will guarantee that rising kindergartners in three local districts won’t have to leave their neighborhoods to access some of the city’s most popular programs for kids with autism.

Children with disabilities often must travel outside their neighborhoods to attend schools with smaller class sizes staffed by teachers with specialized training. Those trips can stretch over an hour each way, thanks in part to the city’s notoriously unreliable yellow bus system. Lengthy commutes can make it difficult to attend after-school programs or build friendships with children in their neighborhood who attend local schools.

“Many of our kids, we’ve got to send them way out of the neighborhood at great expense to the system and at great inconvenience to the families and to the kids themselves,” schools Chancellor David Banks said during a press conference at Brooklyn’s P.S. 958, which opened last school year as a model for serving local students with a broad range of abilities.

“We’ve got to fix this,” Banks said. “Today really is the beginning of that work.”

Children with autism who are entering kindergarten in Districts 5, 12, and 14 will be guaranteed a spot in a specialized program in their home district. (Those districts cover Harlem, Crotona Park in the Bronx, and Brooklyn’s Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods, respectively.) To accomplish that, the city is adding 160 total seats in those neighborhoods across three existing programs: ASD Nest, Horizon, and AIMS, which is short for Acquisition, Integrated Services, Meaningful Communication, and Social Skills.

Although Banks previously expanded Nest and Horizon programs, the addition of 160 new slots represents a drop in the bucket given the growing number of children who are classified with autism and who qualify for them. More than 10,000 children with autism could benefit from a seat in a Nest or Horizon program but are placed elsewhere, according to Education Department figures.

City officials acknowledged that they’re starting small and characterized the effort as a pilot program. Christina Foti, the department’s special education chief, said Wednesday’s announcement is “a ripple that will eventually turn into a tidal wave.”

Special education advocates largely cheered the expansion of Nest, Horizon, and AIMS programs, which are in high demand. City officials said 95% of children who attend Nest and Horizon programs graduate from high school, more than 30 percentage points higher than students with disabilities overall.

The city also released a report with a series of recommendations for improving the special education system, after collecting input from parent leaders, policy experts, and educators.

“I think it is a really important first step,” said Maggie Moroff, a member of the advisory group that produced recommendations and a policy coordinator at Advocates for Children, a group that helps families navigate the special education system.

Moroff was glad to hear city officials reiterate their commitment to including students with disabilities alongside general education students when possible and creating more programs in their home neighborhoods. And she also appreciated a new glossary released by the Education Department that aims to help schools use more inclusive language when referring to children with disabilities and the programs that serve them.

But questions remained about the city’s plans, including whether it will scale up special education programming beyond the autism-focused initiative reaching just three of 32 local districts. Multiple advocates also noted there was little mention of the city’s vision for District 75, a network of schools that educate more than 26,000 students with more significant disabilities. Those children are largely separated from students without disabilities.

“Like so many things, the devil is going to be in the details about how it plays out,” Moroff said.

Peer support for parents trying to get special education services

City officials also pledged to beef up recruitment of caregivers trained to help others navigate the meetings where families and schools create individualized education programs, or IEPs. These legal documents spell out what services each child should receive.

Advocates say caregivers often don’t know the ins and outs of the IEP process, what their rights are, or even what services their children may need.

“It’s scary – and that’s universal,” said Lori Podvesker, a parent and director of disability and education policy at INCLUDEnyc, an organization that trains parent advocates and supports families who have children with disabilities.

The parent advocates, who also have children with disabilities, are trained to help other families understand the process. They attend IEP meetings alongside their peers — earning as much as $50 per meeting.

Special education advocate and parent Paullette Healy said she signed up to be a parent member years ago and completed the training, but the city never responded to her request to complete a fingerprinting requirement. She has still shown up to hundreds of IEP meetings to advocate on behalf of families, though not in an official paid role.

“It’s always existed, but wasn’t really utilized,” Healy said.

City officials said they’re working with INCLUDEnyc to bolster recruitment and spread awareness that families can request a parent advocate to attend their IEP meetings. Education Department officials declined to provide any tangible goals for the new effort, including how many parent advocates they hope to train.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

How well is your school teaching your child to read? Some parents feel in the dark, report finds.

2024-01-25T14:31:10+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams’ sweeping effort to improve reading instruction has focused on educators, but a report released Thursday makes the case that caregivers are crucial to boosting reading instruction and the city should do more to include them.

The report focused on parent perceptions of how well their schools are communicating about reading instruction and is based on focus group interviews with 19 New York City mothers conducted by Advocates for Children, a nonprofit group that has pushed the city to adopt stronger approaches to reading instruction.

In many cases, caregivers reported that their schools brushed off concerns about their child’s reading challenges, and they were unsure how to get the help they needed. Some said they heard little from their schools about the city’s new curriculum overhaul.

“The message needs to come from the top that family engagement requires more than just passing along information,” according to the report, which offers a series of recommendations for improving communication between parents and schools. “It means valuing parents’ expertise about their children.”

Parents who participated in the focus groups last summer were not randomly selected and all but one of them has at least one child with a disability. Still, their interviews reveal common roadblocks — and some bright spots.

Here are three takeaways from the report:

Parents struggle to be heard

Several parents said they noticed their child’s reading challenges early on but schools insisted they’d outgrow it. And in cases where a child was already receiving special education services, caregivers said schools seemed reluctant to provide help targeted at specific reading problems or acknowledge the possibility that they might also have dyslexia, a language-based learning disability.

In other cases, parents said educators flagged reading issues, but the school never came up with a solid plan for addressing them. Bronx mom Shy Washington said her son repeatedly did not meet the goals listed on his special education learning plan, falling further behind in reading. But she felt like she never got a clear explanation about the school’s strategy and why it wasn’t working.

“I wanted a roadmap — I wanted some direction,” Washington said in an interview with Chalkbeat. “I looked to them for the answers, and I ended up having to search for my own because they had none for me.”

Caregivers crave more information about instruction and how they can help at home

Parents said they often felt in the dark about how their child’s school approaches reading instruction, including the city’s sweeping curriculum overhaul.

“Most had heard little to nothing about NYC Reads [the city’s new reading curriculum mandate] or about the literacy curriculum being used at their children’s schools,” the report notes. “More than one wished there were more opportunities to discuss their child’s performance and individual needs in depth.”

Some parents said they wanted more guidance about how they could help at home, beyond standard advice to read to their child for 15-20 minutes each night.

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein emphasized that the city is working with schools to inform parents about the curriculum changes, including how parents could support their child’s reading. She added that the focus group interviews were conducted before schools were required to change their instructional approaches, and the city is now prioritizing outreach to families.

“As always, family engagement and involvement is critical to fostering a strong and supportive school community,” Brownstein said in a statement.

Some parents welcomed regular communication about classroom instruction. One mom received emails throughout the week from her child’s kindergarten teacher about what they’re working on and provided optional worksheets to work on if a student needed to catch up from an absence.

“I felt so empowered by that, because I felt like I had some direction, some guidance,” the parent said in a focus group interview.

The process for getting extra help is murky

Parents often feel unsure what to do next if their child is struggling with reading and isn’t getting the help they need.

“The difficulty of navigating the public school system and getting answers to their questions came up in nearly every one of our conversations,” according to the Advocates for Children report.

Washington, the mother of an eighth grader who is behind in reading, said she struggled to navigate the city’s notoriously complex special education system, requesting multiple evaluations when her son was in elementary school. After years of feeling like her son’s services weren’t making a big dent, she ultimately sought outside evaluations with assistance from The Legal Aid Society to create more pressure for the city to offer extra help. She also looked for tutoring support outside of her son’s school.

Her main advice to parents: Be prepared to chart your own path.

This story has been updated with a response from the Education Department.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams says social media is a public health threat to students

2024-01-24T22:24:50+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams declared social media a public health threat to students during his annual State of the City speech on Wednesday. He promised to take on the issue though he offered few details about how the city plans to respond.

“We’re treating social media like other public health hazards,” Adams said, mentioning TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook. “We must ensure that tech companies take responsibility for their products.”

National public health authorities have also expressed worry about potential risks associated with social platforms. The U.S. surgeon general said last year that social media may have some benefits, but warned it “can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

Despite the growing concerns and hand wringing, however, there is little conclusive evidence directly linking social media use to mental health problems. Experts have called for more research on the topic.

City health officials pointed to worrying signs of deteriorating mental health among adolescents, noting that survey data show rising feelings of hopelessness or suicidal ideation among city high school students. To help address those trends, the city launched a teletherapy program in November available to city residents ages 13-17. About 1,500 teens have signed up to use it so far, Adams said. State officials have also signaled interest in addressing student mental health and social media use.

Unlike last year, the mayor’s speech did not focus heavily on education. He briefly mentioned a small number of existing efforts, including expanded summer programming and an overhaul of literacy instruction. And while he said he plans to release more details about how the city plans to treat social media companies as a health threat, the policy implications of that were not immediately clear. Instead, the city’s Health Department issued an advisory on Wednesday with a series of recommendations.

The advisory encourages caregivers to delay giving children a smartphone until age 14 to limit constant access to social platforms. It also suggests that educators or others who work with children discuss “social media use in an open-minded way” and provide “support when they identify concerns.” It points to the Education Department’s digital citizenship materials and tools to develop a “family media plan.”

Social media companies are fueling a mental health crisis, especially for our young people. But we won't let Big Tech endanger our kids.@NYCHealthCommr Vasan is today issuing an advisory officially designating social media as an environmental toxin in New York City. #SOTC2024 pic.twitter.com/8Rddkzr1hM
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) January 24, 2024

Some observers were glad to see the mayor highlighting the issue, as some city schools have struggled to manage the impact of social media on campus. In response to anonymous Instagram accounts that featured anonymous posts about other students and school officials, a Queens principal resorted to canceling activities and threatening to suspend students who followed the accounts. (The accounts were eventually removed, and the principal reinstated school events.)

“There just isn’t enough responsiveness to kid and adult complaints,” said Devorah Heitner, an author who has written extensively about children’s relationship with technology. She said the city could help pressure tech companies to more swiftly respond to problems like bullying and revenge porn.

Still, Heitner said it’s likely counterproductive to eschew the platforms entirely, as students may find community there and will likely need to participate in similar digital platforms in adulthood.

“What we don’t want to do is start a moral panic and try to control kids,” she said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

As tensions flare over Israel-Hamas war, NYC to train educators on having ‘difficult conversations’

2024-01-23T00:02:15+00:00

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To help address tensions over the Israel-Hamas war, the city is rolling out new training for educators, expanding curriculum resources, and signaling to principals that they will have more leeway to crack down on bullying and other bigoted behavior.

Beginning this spring, all middle and high school principals will receive training “focused on navigating difficult conversations,” schools Chancellor David Banks said, and those leaders will be responsible for sharing what they learn with their staff. The city is also updating its diversity training to delve more deeply into antisemitism and Islamophobia.

“The way through this moment is not to malign our students or impose our own ideologies on them, or to bury our heads in the sand,” Banks said during an address to school staff, parents, and faith leaders at the department’s Lower Manhattan headquarters. “We must educate our students, and sometimes our staff, to raise their consciousness and to overcome bias.”

The announcement comes after some communities across the city, including university campuses, have fractured over the devastating violence thousands of miles away. In October, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took over 240 hostages, with about 130 remaining captive, according to reports. Israel, in response, has bombarded Gaza, fueling a humanitarian crisis and killing over 25,000 Palestininans, including many children, according to health authorities there.

Since the start of the war, city officials have provided guidance to schools about how to have productive discussions about the conflict. Some educators have made efforts to facilitate discussions, including how to identify misinformation on social media. Others have largely steered clear of the issue. In advance of pro-Palestinian protests in November, Banks issued a warning that educators should keep their personal views to themselves, a directive that made some wary of broaching the topic.

On Monday, Banks reiterated that educators should play a role in helping students make sense of what’s happening, while taking care to not express their own opinions.

“We need to point students to reliable and objective sources about the current crisis,” he said. “We cannot leave it to social media to educate our children.”

Some schools have taken matters into own hands

Some students have created their own spaces in the absence of explicit efforts by their schools to address the topic. One campus brought Muslim and Jewish campus groups together to have educator-supervised discussions.

On other campuses, the war has been impossible to avoid. In late November, hundreds of students at Hillcrest High School in Queens flooded the hallways in protest of a photo of a teacher holding an “I stand with Israel” sign from a rally just after the Oct. 7 attacks, which had circulated on social media. Videos of the incident show students dancing in the hallways past a water fountain that had been pulled from a wall. The health teacher in the photo, who is Jewish, took cover in a room on a different floor.

The situation drew significant media attention and condemnation from Mayor Eric Adams and Banks, though the chancellor emphasized that the incident was a “teachable moment.” The Education Department removed the school’s principal. Officials said an assistant principal had been appointed principal and was recommended by current and former educators at the school, including the teacher who was the subject of the protests.

On Monday, Banks promised updated training on school safety for principals in the coming weeks, noting that some have felt “disempowered” from taking disciplinary action even for “egregious” misbehavior — a position echoed by the principal’s union. Although officials indicated the city did not intend to revise the city’s discipline code, which spells out the conduct for which students can be suspended, Banks wants principals to be empowered to enforce it.

“We can not and we will not have schools where students feel like they can do whatever they want without accountability for their actions,” he said.

That move raises questions about whether the new directive could lead to a surge in suspensions, which returned to pre-pandemic levels last school year, and which are disproportionately issued to Black students and those with disabilities.

Nelson Mar, a senior staff attorney at Bronx Legal Services, said he hopes the city takes reports of bullying more seriously, as he said schools often ignore student reports of it. But he worries schools will resort to removing students from classrooms instead of trying to address the “root cause.”

“When staff look to the discipline code they often see suspension and removal as the ONLY response to these behaviors,” Mar wrote in an email.

Educators feel divided over new directive

School leaders offered mixed reactions to Banks’ plan. City officials have not yet named which outside organizations will help lead that training or its cost.

“I am happy to hear about the efforts to step up and do something … but I am hesitant to expect too much,” said one Brooklyn principal who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive topic.

“It’s so hard for the [Education Department] to do anything at its scale,” the leader added. “We’re talking about issues that can really be best solved at the people level.”

One Bronx assistant principal said her school has struggled with tensions around the Israel-Hamas war, including “free Palestine” posters students painted and put up in the hallways that made some Jewish teachers feel uncomfortable.

“There are so many intense feelings around people’s religion and identity — I’d be curious what those kinds of conversations are going to look like,” the assistant principal said. “There was definitely a lack of guidance from the [Education Department], so I guess I’m glad they’re trying.”

Though few incidents have been as explosive as the situation at Hillcrest, a steady stream of controversies have burst into public view, some fueled by conservative media outlets. In one recent example, an art class at a Brooklyn elementary school focused on Arab culture made headlines for its map of North Africa and the Middle East that did not label Israel. The 12-year-old poster at P.S. 261 was removed after the stir, a move lamented by many parents from the school, which serves a diverse population including Muslims and Jews.

And some parent councils have waded into the issue, inviting another set of heated disagreements. Some of the rhetoric in parent council meetings has devolved into personal attacks that have made it challenging for these volunteers to work together. The Education Department said it plans to launch a series of anti-discrimination workshops for parent leaders beginning in February.

Banks also announced an interfaith advisory council to help guide the city’s response.

“This faith advisory council is not a grievance committee,” said Rev. Jacques Andre DeGraff, chair of the council. “If you’ve got a gripe or a beef, go up the street to the United Nations. Here, we are lighting the candle in darkness.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed to this story.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams boosted pay for special ed pre-K teachers. Now they face deep cuts.

2024-01-22T11:00:00+00:00

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In his first year on the job, Mayor Eric Adams vowed to fix a glaring inequity in the city’s prekindergarten system. His predecessor’s universal free pre-K program, widely celebrated as a national model, did not provide a seat to every child with a disability, despite a legal requirement to do so.

“The previous ideas of universal 3-K and pre-K did not account for children with disabilities — it was just wrong,” Adams told reporters in December 2022. The mayor promised every child with a disability would have a placement the following spring.

To meet that goal, officials began pouring roughly $134 million into private community organizations that operate the vast majority of the city’s preschool special education seats. It was a shot in the arm for providers that have struggled to keep their doors open due to years of anemic funding and staff churn, allowing them to raise teacher salaries by thousands of dollars to bring them closer to their public school counterparts.

But despite the funding influx, more than 1,100 preschool students with disabilities languished without a placement at the end of last school year. And this coming spring — a year after every child was supposed to have a seat — the Education Department anticipates needing between 866 to more than 1,400 additional seats, according to a new analysis of city data by Advocates for Children, a nonprofit that helps families navigate the special education system.

The problem may soon get worse. The funding Adams used to boost preschool special education programs flowed from one-time federal pandemic relief money that will expire in June — and city officials have not committed to replacing it. Providers say that could lead to a spate of classroom closures, leaving even more children with disabilities without placements at a key developmental stage.

“At some point, I’m going to tell my staff the money that we said was here is not here anymore,” said Jolene Gunther-Doherty, program director for The Guild for Exceptional Children, which operates a special education preschool program in Brooklyn. The additional city funding helped her program boost some teacher salaries from $48,000 a year to just over $68,000 a year, raises that would be reversed if the funding is not renewed.

“I may not get all the resignation letters the next day, but I might get them [in] mid-July or the beginning of August,” she added. “That’s when you begin to say you can’t keep the doors open.”

Teacher recruitment remains a challenge even with higher salaries

Preschool special education programs have long been the most neglected part of the city’s early childhood system.

The state provides a significant chunk of the providers’ budgets and officials approved flat or anemic funding for many years, below increases for traditional public schools (officials approved more generous increases during the last two years). As a result, teachers in the sector are often paid tens of thousands of dollars less than their peers in other schools, leading to high turnover and vacant classrooms, providers said.

Community organizations that operate general education preschool seats, the cornerstone of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s universal pre-K program, faced a similar funding disparity. After years of advocacy, those providers won big raises for their educators that brought them closer to their public school peers. But the special education teachers were left out, cementing their status as the lowest paid teachers in the city despite serving a high-need population.

Adams’ plan was designed to help fix that problem, providing extra funding to 86 providers to boost salaries closer to the minimum wages enjoyed by public school teachers, lengthen their school days from five hours to 6 hours and 20 minutes to match the district’s preschool schedule, and provide a slew of training and support.

The money is helping operators like HeartShare, which runs four preschool special education programs across Queens and Brooklyn. The organization lengthened the school day and increased many teacher salaries from about $50,000 a year to $68,652 a year, bringing them closer to the starting salary of certified teachers with a master’s degree in the city’s public schools. Teacher assistant wages increased to about $35,000 annually.

Carol Verdi, executive vice president of education services at HeartShare, said raises helped keep staff from leaving and enabled her to hire teachers for two classrooms that had been sitting empty because she couldn’t find anyone to run them.

“For retention, it was great,” Verdi said of the funding boost. “For recruitment, it helped a little bit.”

But strong incentives for teachers to work elsewhere remain. Under the new contract negotiated by the city’s teachers union, public school educators recently notched raises, leaving those in community-based pre-K classrooms below the new minimums. And for teachers with years of experience, they can earn thousands more by jumping to a public school.

Even with the recent salary boost for community organizations, Verdi still has seven classrooms she can’t find teachers for despite plenty of demand from families. “Our phone rings off the hook for seats,” Verdi said. “There are children out there in need.”

Sema Atilgan, who has worked at HeartShare for roughly two decades, said she has often considered leaving and briefly took a job at a public school in 2006. But she loves working with preschool students with disabilities, especially the feeling when students arrive with limited speech skills and leave the program speaking whole words.

“That gives me a lot of not only excitement to go forward ... but just gratitude,” said Atilgan, who has worked as a teacher and special education coordinator at the organization’s preschool program in Howard Beach, Queens.

Sema Atilgan, a long-time preschool special education teacher, is facing a pay cut this summer that may prompt her to quit.

But her salary would rise by more than $30,000 a year if she left for a public school teaching position, an enticing boost. Plus, she’d have a more generous benefits package and a summer break; preschool special education teachers in programs like HeartShare work year round. Instead, she’s facing a pay cut of about $3,700 this summer, which would bring her salary below $70,000 annually. That could be the final straw that pushes her into another job.

“If they give us a decrease in our salary there will not only be an uproar but also a mass exodus,” she said, adding that she works a side job on Sundays conducting evaluations for Early Intervention services to help make ends meet. “Who gives money and tries to take it back?”

The temporary nature of the funding took several providers by surprise, especially given Adams’ framing of the new money as a “historical leap forward” that would ensure every child with a disability has a preschool seat.

“We would have advised our providers to really seriously think about this unless the [Education Department] had a plan how to fund it” in the future, said Chris Treiber, who represents preschool special education providers through the InterAgency Council of Developmental Disabilities Agencies, an advocacy group. “If this funding ends, our teachers become the lowest-paid teachers in New York City again.”

Largest gaps are in NYC’s neediest neighborhoods

When the city fails to find a seat for a preschool student with a disability, they often sit at home, or wind up in a program that can’t provide intensive support and services, such as speech therapy, listed on a student’s learning plan.

The impact on the city’s youngest students is significant. A lack of special education services early on can lead to more significant learning deficits later — and increased costs for the city. The gap in seats this coming spring is projected to be highest in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, covering a swath of the South Bronx and central Brooklyn, including Brownsville and East New York, according to the Advocates for Children analysis.

“We need to hear a plan for how the city will provide a seat to every child who needs one this year,” said Randi Levine, the policy director at Advocates for Children. “The possibility of 1,400 seats being needed at the end of this year is extremely alarming.”

Nathaniel Styer, an education department spokesperson, said the city exceeded its goal of adding 800 seats by the end of last school year, mostly by helping providers raise salaries to recruit educators for classrooms that were sitting vacant. Still, those additional seats were not enough to meet demand, and officials have not detailed any new efforts to meet the projected gap this spring.

“We expanded access and increased pay for this critical sector at a time when it was suffering due to underinvestment and difficulty hiring staff,” Styer wrote in an email, pointing to “the extremely low base pay rate” offered by the state. “As the need continues to grow, we continue to pivot and shift.”

Bronx mom Diana Benavides struggled to find a special education preschool seat this year for her son Liam, who has autism. The 4-year-old attended a general education preschool program, which couldn’t provide all the support he needed this year, including speech therapy. Plus, his class of 17 students proved overstimulating, and he became much more withdrawn, she said.

“He’s more hesitant to go to school [and] has more separation anxiety,” Benavides said. After securing a new learning plan in November that called for a special education program with a class size of 12, she struggled to find a seat.

Benavides spent hours tracking down and calling roughly 20 programs. “It’s almost like a part-time job just trying to find that information and following up with the schools,” she said. She ultimately found just one program in Manhattan that could meet Liam’s needs, including speech and occupational therapy services on site.

Liam started at the new school this month, though Benavides worries about other children who are languishing at home or whose parents don’t have time to conduct their own exhaustive search.

“The need is just growing, especially coming out of the pandemic,” she said. The lack of seats, she said, “is going to have generational impact.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school suspensions spiked 13% last year, returning to pre-pandemic levels

2024-01-08T23:41:07+00:00

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Suspensions across New York City public schools came roaring back last school year, according to newly released data.

Schools issued 28,412 suspensions during the 2022-23 school year, a 13% spike compared with the 2021-22 school year, the first time students were required to return to school buildings in the wake of the pandemic.

The number of suspensions remained below the most recent academic year before the coronavirus forced school buildings to shutter in March 2020. But with fewer students enrolled in grades K-12, suspensions issued per capita returned to pre-pandemic levels. (The figures do not include charter schools.)

It’s difficult to know exactly why suspensions spiked last school year, the second year students were required to attend school in person since the pandemic. Some other large districts, including Nevada’s Clark County and Broward County, Florida, also have seen suspensions climb toward pre-pandemic levels.

It’s possible educators were reluctant to remove students from their classrooms the first year they returned to school buildings to avoid further disruptions to their learning — a feeling that may have faded last year. Student mental health remains a pressing concern that can affect behavior, and schools are not always well-equipped to handle it. There was also a 9% uptick in the overall number of weapons confiscated in schools last year, according to Police Department data.

Robert Effinger, a social studies teacher at the Bronx High School of Business, said fights and verbal altercations seemed to return to pre-pandemic levels, as students were less wary of the pandemic and masks were largely off. He noted that teachers’ were still dusting off their classroom management skills, too.

“I think some people had forgotten what it was like to go back to normal,” he said, noting that even as students first returned to buildings full time the prior year, they were still readjusting to regular school rhythms and were more skittish.

As in previous years, the new suspension data showed significant disparities between student groups. Roughly 40% of all suspensions went to Black students, though just 21% of students are Black. About 38% of suspensions were issued to students with disabilities, a group that represents about 22% of all students. Latino students represented about 40% of suspensions, roughly in line with their share of the student population. Meanwhile, white and Asian American students were much less likely to be suspended relative to their share of enrollment.

Still, the number of New York City students excluded from their classrooms remained at some of their lowest levels in at least a dozen years, partly the result of discipline reform efforts under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. But as suspensions creep back up, some observers contend that Mayor Eric Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks may be less focused on limiting their use.

Nelson Mar, an attorney at Bronx Legal Services, an organization that represents students in suspension proceedings, worries the uptick could signal “more of a disciplinarian approach” from the Adams administration.

“It definitely reflects the general attitude and approach,” he said.

Adams has ramped up harsher tactics to combat crime, one of his signature issues, though the administration has not sketched out a detailed vision on school discipline or moved to overhaul the discipline code, which spells out the city’s suspension policies. Banks has signaled that he doesn’t favor “zero tolerance” approaches to school discipline, though he has also said there must be consequences for misbehavior.

An Education Department spokesperson did not express concern over the rise in suspensions last year — or their disproportionate use against Black students and children with disabilities — and emphasized that students must follow school rules.

“We are focused on equipping schools with the resources they need to address any issues not only in accordance with our discipline code but in conjunction with meaningful moments for education,” Jenna Lyle, a department spokesperson, wrote in an email.

But some advocates worry that schools will soon have fewer resources at their disposal to address student behavior without resorting to suspensions. The city has used one-time federal relief funding to hire hundreds of social workers and expand funding for restorative justice programs, which prioritize peer meditations and other methods of talking through conflicts. Those programs are on the chopping block next school year as federal relief money runs out. Department officials have not said whether they are looking for alternate funding.

“With each of these, we continue to be concerned about the expiration of federal funding and what that will mean for support for students,” said Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children. “It’s important for students to have access to mental health professionals who can help work with students and help address student behavior.”

The figures also include breakdowns of suspensions by how severe the punishments were. Principal suspensions, which last five days or fewer and are typically served in school, increased nearly 14% last year. More serious superintendent suspensions, which stretch beyond five days and are served at outside suspension sites, increased about 11%. (Superintendent suspensions can technically stretch for an entire school year but have been restricted to 20 days in most cases since 2019.)

Under city law, the suspension data was required to be released publicly by the end of October. Despite requests from Chalkbeat over the past two months, the Education Department declined to release the statistics or explain the delay. Officials ultimately released the figures after Chalkbeat prepared to publish a story about the missing data.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC teachers union files lawsuit with Staten Island borough president to halt congestion pricing

2024-01-04T19:30:09+00:00

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New York City’s teachers union is trying to halt this spring’s planned implementation of congestion pricing, joining a lawsuit on Thursday with the Staten Island borough president.

The lawsuit claims that the congestion pricing plan — which will toll drivers who enter a swath of Manhattan to help finance public transit improvements — was created in a “rushed and hurried process that violated the comprehensive review requirements that a federal agency must take under federal law.” Seven teachers, who are plaintiffs in the suit, alleged that the “regressive and discriminatory pricing” of the tolls violates their constitutional rights.

Transit advocates blasted the lawsuit, arguing that congestion pricing will improve commutes for school staff and families.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board voted to approve tolls last month for vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street, including a $15 daily fee on cars between 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. (Under the proposed tolling structure, low-income drivers will receive a discount on the congestion charges.)

After a 60-day comment period, including public hearings from Feb. 29 through March 4, the MTA’s board will take a final vote.

“Teachers, firefighters, police officers, EMS workers, sanitation workers and other public sector workers who are essential to the fabric of New York City would be forced to shoulder the burden of the MTA’s latest fundraising gambit,” the lawsuit claims.

The suit, filed in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of New York, also claims that parts of Staten Island as well as the Bronx will see more pollution as some drivers divert around the congestion zone.

For years, New York City transit and environmental advocates along with elected officials have pushed for a congestion pricing program to reduce gridlock and pollution as well as raise revenue for the MTA. The program is required to raise enough money to finance at least $15 billion in capital projects for public transit.

The program would be the first of its kind in the United States, though other countries have successfully deployed the model.

The environmental review process involved four years of consultation with government agencies, public outreach, and impacts on traffic and air quality detailed in “hundreds of pages of painstaking detail,” said MTA spokesperson John McCarthy.

“If we really want to combat ever-worsening clogged streets we must adequately fund a public transit system that will bring safer and less congested streets, cleaner air, and better transit for the vast majority of students and teachers who take mass transit to school,” McCarthy said in a statement.

Staten Island teachers share concerns about the plan

The plan has long had its share of opponents, including some teachers who drive to work or are based at campuses where locals worry the traffic could increase. Troy McGhie, a plaintiff in the suit and a ninth grade special education teacher at Staten Island’s Curtis High School, worried that increased traffic to the Staten Island ferry will bring more vehicles and air pollution around his school.

Maria Mazier, a Staten Island resident and speech pathologist who drives to the Children’s Workshop School in the East Village, said commuting on public transit would take nearly two hours each day. Because of the $15 fee, she is planning to transfer to a school in Brooklyn, according to the lawsuit. Plaintiff Hannah Choi, another Staten Island resident and third grade teacher at Chelsea’s P.S. 33, said public transit would take her nearly three hours, and she, too, is looking to transfer to a school in Brooklyn or her home borough. About 11,515 of the teachers union’s members live in Staten Island, according to the lawsuit. That represents about 6% of the union’s membership.

Congestion pricing plate readers are installed over Lexington Avenue on December 18, 2023 in New York City. Cars entering Manhattan south of 60th Street during peak periods could be charged a toll of up to 15 dollars per day.

Still, advocates contend that congestion pricing would benefit commuters on Staten Island. The fees would help reduce travel times for those who continue to drive and speed up express buses that run from Staten Island into Manhattan. Plus, the MTA is planning to use some of the revenue from the tolling program to address pollution caused by diverted traffic in other communities.

“The teachers that are die-hards that stick to driving will have shorter commutes,” said Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director for Riders Alliance, an advocacy group that supports congestion pricing. “This is a program that will bring in billions of dollars to fix a subway that is used by hundreds of thousands more riders when school is in session.”

Teachers union joins fray late in the game

Transit advocates also pointed out that the teachers union, a powerful political player in Albany, had not previously weighed in on the proposal — including when it was passed in the state’s 2019 budget. Union officials said they were waiting for details about how the plan would be implemented before taking a position.

Policies that make it easier for educators to drive to school have long been controversial. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg reduced the number of parking permits issued to educators, a move that drew a legal challenge, while former Mayor Bill de Blasio reinstated tens of thousands of them.

The availability of free parking may give teachers an extra incentive to drive, though the majority of commuters who travel into Manhattan use public transportation. A 2022 study by the Community Service Society found those who commute to Manhattan by car are more likely to have higher incomes and the new tolls were likely to affect a tiny share of low-income residents.

A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said he supports congestion pricing but has also pushed for some exemptions to the plan, including for taxis and school buses.

The union’s lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges against the plan: New Jersey’s Gov. Phil Murphy sued the federal government in the summer over its approval of the plan, and the mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, filed a lawsuit in November, because of concerns about increased traffic near the George Washington Bridge.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Gov. Hochul wants New York schools to embrace the ‘science of reading.’ Will they?

2024-01-03T22:37:14+00:00

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Eight months after New York City announced a major literacy shakeup, Gov. Kathy Hochul sketched out one of her own on Wednesday that may encourage districts across the state to adopt new reading curriculums.

The effort comes amid growing pressure for officials to boost literacy, as dozens of states have enacted efforts to improve reading instruction and embrace what’s known as the “science of reading,” an established body of research about how children learn to read. New York is one of a handful of states that has not advanced similar proposals in recent years, even as fewer than half of students in grades 3-8 are considered proficient in reading on state tests.

Hochul said her goal is to move schools away from “balanced literacy” — including a popular curriculum developed by Teachers College professor Lucy Calkins that has come under intense scrutiny in recent years. The approach includes mini-lessons and lots of independent reading time to get students excited about literature and help practice reading skills on their own. Experts say that method often does not work for students who struggle to read, including those with learning disabilities like dyslexia.

The state will begin to favor programs that emphasize phonics lessons that explicitly teach the relationships between sounds and letters, an approach backed by research. Hochul indicated her plan would help rid schools of discredited methods often found in balanced literacy programs, such as encouraging children to use pictures to guess at a word’s meaning.

“We’re going to throw away the old methods: Say goodbye, it didn’t work, and get back to basics,” Hochul said during a press conference at an elementary school in Watervliet, New York.

The governor’s proposal is unlikely to force changes in New York City because the city’s Education Department already launched its own sweeping curriculum mandate that appears to line up with Hochul’s plan. It remains to be seen whether the governor’s proposal will lead to big changes in other parts of the state, especially as curriculum overhauls can be difficult — and expensive — to pull off.

The state’s power is also limited, as local school districts are responsible for choosing their own curriculum materials. A Hochul spokesperson suggested the state’s plan would require that science of reading principles would need to be “part of” a district’s offerings.

“I think she’s trying to appease people who have heard about the quote unquote ‘reading crisis’ but is being very careful not to step on districts’ toes,” said Jennifer Binis, a long-time curriculum designer who has worked with teachers in New York State.

Hochul’s plan would direct the state Education Department to create a series of “instructional best practices” related to literacy skills including phonics, decoding, and comprehension. By September 2025, school districts would be required to certify that their curriculums, instruction, and teacher training efforts aligned with those best practices, according to a press release. (Officials declined to provide the exact legislative language Hochul supports.)

The governor also proposed a $10 million partnership with the state’s teachers union to train 20,000 educators and to expand efforts from the city and state university systems to help educators learn about the science of reading, a priority among state officials.

Hochul’s plan won support from union officials, advocacy groups, and a flurry of lawmakers. The state’s Education Department declined to comment directly on the proposal until more information about it is available. Some experts said they were happy to see Hochul emphasize literacy instruction, but remained skeptical that her proposal would lead to significant changes.

“It’s the beginning and it’s a good step,” said Susan Neuman, a reading expert at New York University and former federal education official.

But she said it’s “unrealistic” to expect deep changes in classrooms without a more significant commitment to rigorous training, money for new materials, and clear accountability mechanisms. “Unfunded mandates don’t work,” Neuman said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams’ budget cuts hamper NYC’s compliance with special education court order

2023-12-13T18:23:59+00:00

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Facing budget cuts and a hiring freeze, New York City’s Education Department has failed to fully comply with a federal court order meant to address longstanding delays in providing services to children with disabilities, according to court documents released this month.

And a court-appointed monitor is urging City Council, Mayor Eric Adams, and other education officials to find “near-term/interim emergency funding” to meet the order’s requirements.

At a hearing in July, a federal judge ordered the Education Department to begin implementing 40 different reforms to more quickly provide special education services — such as speech therapy or payments to families for private school — to families who won them through an administrative legal process.

In an unusual show of support for a court order targeting his own agency, schools Chancellor David Banks personally attended the summer hearing, shaking U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska’s hand and posing for photographs. He issued a statement declaring that “change is long overdue,” earning praise from advocates who note the Education Department has not complied with orders for services on time in more than 90% of cases.

But out of 16 reforms the Education Department was required to make by mid-November to speed up that process, only nine were fully implemented, according to the first progress report from David Irwin of Thru Consulting LLC, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the city’s compliance with the order, known in legal jargon as a “special master.” (The 40 reforms mandated by the court order have deadlines that range from three months to over a year. The special master is expected to file a progress report every four months.)

The Education Department has “shown a significant commitment and effort” to implement the requirements, Irwin wrote, noting that “most” of the outstanding items due in November should be completed by the end of 2023.

Compliance with the order’s upcoming requirements in doubt

But a hiring freeze and budget reductions ordered by City Hall are impeding progress on key elements of the court order, specifically hiring staff and overhauling severely outdated technology systems, Irwin’s report notes. At least five of the 10 changes due in January are not likely to be completed on time, he wrote.

“Each day that passes, thousands of our most vulnerable children are not getting services they need when more steps could be taken,” Irwin wrote.

The office responsible for implementing special education orders relies on handwritten forms, paper-based invoices, and other laborious data-entry practices, a previous report found. Its staff are also overwhelmed, as the number of cases moving through the special education complaint process has exploded in recent years.

The court order was meant to give the Education Department a roadmap for improving its systems, hiring staff, and even launching a helpline for families to get status updates on their cases — goals that may be thrown off course if the department is unable to bring in new employees or win approval for budget requests.

Rebecca Shore, the litigation director of Advocates for Children, which brought a class action lawsuit that led to the court order this summer, said the Education Department has been making efforts to comply. But failing to implement elements of the order is unacceptable, she said.

“The budget constraints the city is announcing should not impact their compliance,” Shore said. Asked if her organization is planning to go back to court to enforce the order, Shore said her team is “discussing our options.”

Spokespeople for Adams and Banks did not answer questions about whether they will allocate needed funding or staff to comply with the court order.

“We continue to work collaboratively and intensively with the Special Master as we move forward,” City Hall spokesperson Amaris Cockfield wrote in an email. Preska, the federal judge presiding over the case, declined to comment.

Order stems from lawsuit filed in 2003

The federal court order stems from two decades of litigation over the Education Department’s failure to swiftly provide special education services or reimbursements. When a family believes their child is not getting the right special education services, they have a right to file a complaint that is heard by an administrative judge known as an impartial hearing officer.

That officer can order a range of solutions, from additional speech or occupational therapy to private school tuition payments if a family can show their child cannot be adequately served in a public school.

Under a 2007 legal settlement, the city is supposed to implement hearing officers’ orders by providing the required payments or special education services within 35 days, unless the officer lays out a different timeline. But the Education Department blows the deadline in the vast majority of cases, often taking months longer.

For orders with due dates between August and November 2022, the Education Department implemented 8.6% of orders for special education services on time and 3% of orders for payments, according to a recent audit released as a result of the 2007 settlement. (Those figures cover a period before the federal court order this summer; more recent figures were not yet publicly available.) The city has paid more than $25 million for the audits and another $912,000 for Irwin’s services as special master as of June.

John Farago, an impartial hearing officer since 1980 and an emeritus professor at CUNY Law School, said he has seen little difference in the speed with which the Education Department implements his orders since the summer.

Irwin’s report “just documents that not only is the district not implementing my cases on time, it’s not implementing the federal court’s order either” he wrote in an email. “It’s a deeply disheartening spiral.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

David Banks has a top priority: improving literacy. Will his agenda be overshadowed by budget cuts?

2023-12-08T10:00:00+00:00

Before running the nation’s largest education system, David Banks had never been responsible for supervising more than a single school.

He had years of on-the-ground experience and often ticks off the jobs he held — safety agent, teacher, principal. He helped launch the Eagle Academy, a network of six district schools devoted to boys of color, ultimately running the foundation that supports them. When Eric Adams, a longtime friend, tapped Banks to be his schools chief, the incoming mayor said he didn’t seriously consider anyone else.

Adams, who often spoke on the campaign trail about his own experience with dyslexia, never staked out a detailed education agenda. At the event formally naming him chancellor, Banks spoke in broad strokes about a “fundamentally flawed” system and a sprawling bureaucracy that isn’t set up to serve vulnerable children. The question remained: What direction would this chancellor take the city’s roughly 1,600 schools?

In contrast with his early comments about transforming a broken system, Banks has narrowed his focus. He’s staked out a goal above all others: improving the city’s dismal literacy rates, particularly for Black and Latino children. He also wants to create a stronger path to the workforce by expanding students’ access to career-focused coursework and paid internships.

To Banks’ supporters, focusing on a couple key issues is more likely to yield results. Still, others say that the administration has struggled to define a clear vision for improving the system as a whole, as many schools aren’t part of his signature initiatives.

Meanwhile, a looming set of budget cuts threaten to overshadow Banks’ agenda, as more than $7 billion in one-time federal relief money is drying up and Adams has ordered up to $2 billion in cuts on top of that.

Banks may have to maneuver to maintain funding for his top priorities. And he’ll have to navigate steady drum beats from politicians and advocates who are pushing to save a range of programs that serve high-need children.

“They are going to need to make tough decisions,” said Mark Dunetz, president of New Visions for Public Schools, an organization that supports a network of city schools. The challenge, he added, will be to make those choices “based on evidence of effectiveness rather than the push and pull of politics.”

A ‘realist’ at the helm?

Two weeks into the school year, Banks took the stage at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, the mammoth auditorium packed with hundreds of department staff, union leaders, parents, and elected officials. With a slideshow at his back, and the mayor looking on, Banks was selling his vision — and in his element.

The “State of Our Schools” speech laid out his case for requiring all elementary schools to use one of three approved reading curriculums by next fall, ticking off statistics that show half the city’s students aren’t proficient in reading, figures that rise to about 60% for Black and Latino children.

“I’m really staking my reputation on reading,” Banks told Chalkbeat in a recent interview. “If you don’t get that right all these other things don’t really matter.”

Banks touted his other signature initiative, FutureReadyNYC, which helps 100 high schools offer more early college credit and paid work opportunities in education, technology, business, or health care. The effort will expand to 50 more schools next year, he said.

To Banks, zeroing in on those two issues is essential to make his mark. Given the system’s size and complexity, “if you don’t focus the entire operation on a couple of areas, it will be just rhetoric,” he told Chalkbeat.

Some observers agree the moment demands a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer, especially as schools are still digging out from under the pandemic and grappling with learning loss, mental health challenges, and alarming rates of chronic absenteeism.

When Banks took office, some educators wondered if he would pursue changes in the mold of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s divisive schools chief, Joel Klein. Klein sought to overhaul the district’s structure and moved to shutter large high schools and replace them with smaller ones like Eagle Academy. Banks tapped Dan Weisberg, Bloomberg’s school labor strategist who often sparred with the teachers union, to be his top deputy.

But observers said Banks has charted a less disruptive path, bringing the teachers union on board with his two biggest initiatives.

“Joel Klein said ‘I’m going to break the system so hard nobody is going to put it back together,’” said David Adams, the CEO of Urban Assembly, a network of about two dozen schools across the city. “I think being really strategic around where your energies are going to be put forth can be a more effective way of changing the system.”

Still, others said it’s difficult to discern Banks’ broader plan to improve schools across the system, a tension with Banks’ initial diagnosis that the system is “broken.”

This administration’s approach is “pretty small bore,” said Clara Hemphill, founder of the school review website InsideSchools. At this point in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, he had already added tens of thousands of pre-K seats, part of what is widely seen as a successful universal prekindergarten program.

“Having 70,000 pre-K seats was a huge, huge accomplishment. I don’t see a big issue like that with Adams,” Hemphill said. The current administration also seemed to be reversing course in some areas, she added, including abandoning de Blasio’s goal of expanding the program to include all 3-year-olds.

Hemphill acknowledged that improving literacy rates would be a major accomplishment, but she worries the most popular curriculum the city has mandated is not the strongest choice. Plus, the city disbanded an existing literacy coaching program in favor of training from outside vendors and scrapped a program that focused on improving literacy in middle schools, a move Hemphill found baffling.

For their part, school leaders have had mixed reactions to Banks’ tenure so far. Some expected the schools chief, a New York City principal himself for 11 years, to give them more freedom to innovate — something Banks signaled was a possibility.

De Blasio favored top-down supervision of principals, and many school leaders complained of burdensome compliance mandates. Banks has taken a step further, giving superintendents the authority to mandate which curriculums schools can use based on a list of approved options.

“The system is still running the way it was under the last administration which is: Schools are problems to be fixed rather than systems to be supported,” said one Brooklyn high school principal who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There’s just a whole lot more people out there trying to micromanage schools from afar.”

Banks said he believed strongly in principal autonomy when he was a school leader. “I also am a realist,” he said, adding that not every principal thrives with more freedom.

“If they were, we would have much better results than we have,” he recently told reporters.

Banks strikes a middle ground

Beyond his two main initiatives, critics and supporters alike say Banks has earned a reputation for hearing out opposing viewpoints and finding ways to compromise.

“If the evidence is there, he moves. He’s not ideological,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, a strong supporter of Banks’ reading curriculum overhaul.

When Banks took office, he faced a key decision about whether many middle and high schools could resume screening students for top grades and test scores after pandemic-related disruptions to the admissions process.

The debate over how to proceed was charged, with some parents arguing that strong students should have access to accelerated learning opportunities at top schools. Others worried a return to the pre-pandemic norm would exacerbate segregation and contended that public schools should be open to all children.

Though Banks has bluntly suggested some students deserve to be in top schools more than others, he struck a middle path: Selective admissions would continue with key caveats. High schools may no longer consider state test scores, though they can still use students’ grades. For middle schools, he gave local superintendents the authority to determine how to use selective admissions. The result: far fewer screened middle school programs.

Jasmine Gripper, a frequent critic of the administration, said the approach is emblematic of Banks’ leadership style.

“The finesse of this administration has been their ability to take on hot button issues and produce a solution that neutralizes the opposition,” said Gripper, previously the executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education and now a leader of the state’s Working Families Party. Banks “leaves everyone walking away feeling like they won something.”

Financial challenges could derail Banks’ plans

The biggest obstacle on Banks’ plate right now may be one that’s much harder to control.

A brewing storm of fiscal problems could derail some of Banks’ existing initiatives, threaten to consume his agenda with painful fights over budget reductions, and make it difficult to find money for new programs.

More than $7 billion in one-time federal money is running dry. Starting with the previous administration, some of it has been used on recurring costs, including social workers, expanded summer programming, and new seats for preschool students with disabilities who had been shut out of universal pre-K. The funding has also been used to keep school budgets steady despite significant enrollment declines, raising the possibility of painful cuts at individual schools.

As the federal funds evaporate, Adams has also ordered the city to cut 5% of its contribution to all city agencies, a move he said is needed in part to finance services for thousands of asylum-seeking families. The Education Department recently outlined plans to reduce spending by $547 million, and it may need to slash roughly $1.5 billion more if Adams follows through on future rounds of cuts.

Advocates have warned that it will be impossible to make cuts of that size without affecting key programs, and the first round of cuts has already prompted political pushback.

A new state law mandating the city reduce class sizes looms over these fiscal pressures: The Education Department will need to spend billions more in the coming years to comply, city and fiscal watchdogs project.

On top of that, Banks may have another fight on the horizon. As enrollment declines accelerated during the pandemic, the city now has nearly 200 schools with 200 children or fewer.

Banks has suggested that mergers or closures could be on the table, a process that often generates outcry from parents and elected officials with deep roots in school communities.

“That’s kind of a ticking time bomb,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “It’s just not going to be sustainable to maintain very small schools.”

Banks has offered few hints about how he plans to navigate the growing budget pressures, including what criteria he’s using to determine which programs survive. He said he’s “fighting like heck” to preserve funding for the literacy overhaul and career pathways initiative. Everything else is on the table.

“It’s gonna be a tough negotiating season,” Banks said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

How is NYC’s literacy curriculum mandate going? Teachers feel unprepared.

2023-11-27T10:00:00+00:00

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For nearly all of her decadelong teaching career, Abby Loomis used one of the most popular reading programs in New York City, a curriculum that aimed to foster a love of literature by giving students plenty of time to independently read books of their choosing.

She found the program, developed by Teachers College professor Lucy Calkins, engaging — particularly for students who were easily absorbed by books. Still, she noticed many other children struggled to read independently, and Loomis cobbled together other resources to help them.

So, the fourth grade teacher felt open minded when the city announced in May a sweeping overhaul of elementary literacy instruction, forcing schools to abandon programs like Calkins’ in favor of those that city officials say line up with an established body of research about how children learn to read, often called the “science of reading.”

But a couple months into the city’s curriculum overhaul, Loomis and several other teachers said they haven’t yet received the training they need to make it work.

“The general sentiment at my school is we’re being asked to start something without really knowing what it should look like,” said Loomis, who asked that her Brooklyn school not be named. “I feel like I’m improvising — and not based on the science of reading.”

In nearly half of the city’s local districts this fall, elementary school teachers were required to adopt one of three curriculums alongside separate phonics lessons that explicitly teach students the relationships between sounds and letters. The remaining elementary schools will be required to use the materials next school year.

Literacy experts have largely praised the new mandate. By moving from a hodgepodge of different curriculums that varied school by school, it’s easier to train teachers at a larger scale. The city has added a pacing calendar that tells educators how quickly they should move through the materials, meaning children may face less disruption if they switch schools.

But observers also warned that getting teachers up to speed quickly with new materials would prove challenging — and that success would hinge on whether teachers felt adequately supported. The city did not give schools much lead time, announcing the overhaul less than two months before the summer break. Teachers were expected to roll out new materials when they returned in September.

Top Education Department officials have said there was little time to waste. About half the city’s students are proficient in reading on state tests — figures that fall to about 40% among Black and Latino children.

“In the best of all worlds, we would have studied this for the next three or four years,” schools Chancellor David Banks said in an interview with Chalkbeat. “We are building the plane as we are flying it because kids’ lives are actually hanging in the balance.”

Training efforts are underway

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said the city offered training for all teachers who are using new reading curriculums.

Teachers received between two and three days of training, though teachers said the introductory sessions offered by curriculum companies were mostly broad overviews including how to access digital materials rather than deep dives on instruction.

Educators: How are you preparing for NYC's reading curriculum mandate? Take our quick survey.

After disbanding its in-house literacy coaching program, Education Department officials contracted with several outside companies to provide individualized coaching to educators. All teachers in the first phase should have participated in at least one coaching session so far, Brownstein said, and will receive at least eight sessions overall. The city’s teachers union also hosted two-week seminars over the summer and has over 200 coaches helping teachers with the new materials, a union spokesperson said.

“Educators are receiving ongoing supports, including 1-on-1 coaching, throughout the school year to ensure that they are comfortable with the material and able to teach it with fidelity,” Brownstein said.

Most teachers are using a program called Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the curriculum required by 13 of the 15 district superintendents who are part of the mandate’s first phase.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt made its sprawling set of digital materials free for city educators during the pandemic, and boasts a Spanish language version, likely contributing to its popularity. About 53% of schools in the first phase were already using Into Reading before this fall, Brownstein said.

But even as many educators weren’t starting from scratch, several teachers including Loomis — whose school began incorporating Into Reading during the pandemic — said they’ve still struggled with the densely packed lessons.

A classroom board at with an Into Reading lesson at Democracy Prep Endurance Elementary School on June 15, 2023 in the Bronx. Charters aren't subject to the city's curriculum mandate.

Teachers crave more hands-on help

One Brooklyn elementary school teacher said the rollout has been frustrating, noting that some teacher guides arrived late. And while she has concerns about the Into Reading curriculum, including criticism about its cultural responsiveness and emphasis on short text excerpts rather than whole books, she said the coaching has been a bright spot.

During twice-a-month meetings that last two periods, the school’s teachers are encouraged to bring their lesson plans for the next week so they can trouble-shoot with their coach, who was provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “I am learning a lot,” said the teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I wish it was longer.”

Other teachers said their interaction with coaches has been limited, and crave more guidance on how to transition away from Calkins’ approach. Some schools that previously used Calkins’ materials paid for regular coaching that was popular with many teachers.

Into Reading involves longer periods of teacher-led instruction, and typically asks students to read more difficult texts at their grade level. Instead of encouraging children to read books of their choosing, they spend more time collectively reading excerpts from a textbook.

Some educators said they’re looking for help making the lessons more captivating, finding that students may not be able to sit still for 30 minutes or more of teacher-led instruction compared with the tighter 10- to 15-minute lessons in Calkins’ curriculum. Others said the program’s texts are more difficult and are looking for strategies to make them accessible, especially for English learners or students with disabilities. The curriculum is packed with resources, from vocabulary and spelling materials to writing activities, with little time to get to them all, teachers said.

Meanwhile, multiple educators said they’ve been directed to reconfigure their classroom libraries so that they’re no longer organized by reading level, a hallmark of Calkins’ approach. But it’s a time-consuming task that has frustrated some teachers who contend they received little explanation about what the goal of the reorganization is.

One veteran teacher misses elements of Calkins’ curriculum, which involved modeling a skill and then sending students off to practice on their own. She feels like the scripted lessons from Into Reading lack creativity.

“I feel like I’m not really sure how much they’re loving reading,” said the teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

She’s also struggled with moments when the Into Reading curriculum assumes students have skills that haven’t been explicitly introduced yet, such as a recent writing exercise that involved apostrophes. The teacher quickly pivoted to a mini grammar lesson on the fly.

“I didn’t do it very well because I was trying to cover so many different skills in the little time I had,” she said.

A coach observed one of her lessons, but there wasn’t time for feedback. The teacher said she’s turned to Facebook groups when she has questions. Though she’s been in the classroom since the 1980s, pivoting to a new curriculum has left her feeling like a novice, spending Friday evenings poring over lesson plans for the next week.

Supporters say curriculum overhauls take time

Third grade teacher Marnie Geltman.

Teachers have struggled with other elements of the reading overhaul, including a push to more consistently deploy phonics lessons.

Marnie Geltman, a third grade teacher at P.S. 150 in Queens, said she typically teaches older children where phonics lessons aren’t the norm. Geltman said that neither she nor her co-teacher have received much training on how to deliver the highly regimented lessons.

Education department officials said the city continuously provides phonics training, though Geltman said they’ve filled up quickly and she hasn’t participated yet.

“I just think it’s been too fast,” she said. “We should have been trained first.”

Others involved in the city’s literacy efforts said it is unsurprising that teachers feel overwhelmed in the initial phases of the transition.

Lynette Guastaferro, the CEO of Teaching Matters, an organization that has contracted with the city to help train teachers in three local districts, said the first year of a curriculum change is typically a big learning curve.

She stressed that changing curriculum strategies is a long-term project.

“We’re two months in,” she said. “This is about the next five years of change.”

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Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams axes $547 million from NYC Education Department budget, more cuts on the way

2023-11-16T22:35:09+00:00

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New York City’s Education Department will cut nearly $550 million from its budget this year as part of a sweeping round of citywide reductions ordered by Mayor Eric Adams.

Many of the cuts are expected to take effect immediately. They will touch a wide range of programs and positions that directly affect students, from the city’s massive free preschool program, to community schools that support families with out-of-school needs, to the popular pandemic-era Summer Rising program.

A big chunk of this year’s savings will come through a hiring slowdown and the elimination of 432 vacant non-classroom positions, which officials said on Thursday will lead to a combined $157 million in savings.

Budget officials didn’t specify which roles would be eliminated but emphasized cuts to central offices and other roles that support schools. A hiring freeze has been in place since earlier this fall, but has not applied to teaching positions. Education Department officials didn’t immediately say whether the agency would continue to spare teaching positions from the freeze.

A mandate to rein in spending on “supplemental pay for administrative staff” is expected to save another $86 million this year, but officials didn’t immediately provide details on what that means.

In September, Adams directed all city agencies to find cuts equal to at least 5% of the city’s contribution to their annual budgets by November, in response to what he described as unsustainable levels of spending on the ongoing influx of asylum seekers. Additional cuts of 5% are expected in January and again in spring 2024.

In all, that means the Education Department could face up to $2.1 billion in cuts. The department’s overall budget is roughly $37.5 billion this school year.

Starting next fiscal year, the department will cut $120 million from the Universal Pre-K program, which enrolled about 100,000 3- and 4-year-old this year and is the signature legacy of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. The program has been beset by payment delays to child care operators and enrollment declines during the pandemic.

Officials said they’re reducing the size of the program because there are about 37,000 vacant seats, but did not specify how many of those slots they plan to eliminate.

“While we don’t know many details yet, there is no way a cut this large would not hurt the services available to children and families,” said Gregory Brender, the chief of policy and innovation at the Day Care Council of New York, a membership organization of child care providers.

A range of longstanding programs with a direct presence in schools are also facing small cuts.

An initiative to expand the teaching of computer science is losing $3.5 million this year, while the budget for community schools will be cut by $10 million this year. Community schools were another major educational priority of de Blasio’s administration, and have continued to grow under Adams.

Separately, nearly $20 million in funding for Summer Rising, the pandemic-era free summer school program that served roughly 110,000 students last year, is being slashed from the budget of the city’s Youth and Community Development Department, which jointly operates the program with the Education Department. The cuts will mean reduced hours and no Friday programs for some middle-schoolers, officials said.

The program has proved immensely popular with families and had about 45,000 more applicants than slots last year.

“For months, we have warned New Yorkers about the challenging fiscal situation our city faces,” Adams said in a Thursday statement. “To balance the budget as the law requires, every city agency dug into their own budget to find savings, with minimal disruption to services. And while we pulled it off this time, make no mistake: Migrant costs are going up, tax revenue growth is slowing, and COVID stimulus funding is drying up.”

Budget analysts have pointed out that the cuts ordered by Adams are far greater than the expected costs of serving the asylum seekers. The city also collected nearly $8 billion more in revenue last fiscal year than anticipated, according to a recent analysis from Comptroller Brad Lander.

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, called the cuts “unnecessary” and “driven by City Hall’s false political narrative that New York City is about to fall off a fiscal cliff.”

“Revenues are higher than expected, investment from Albany is up, and reserves are at a near-record high,” he added.

Other groups warned that the city’s hiring and budget freeze is already affecting services for vulnerable children, and that further cuts could threaten their legal rights.

Advocates for Children, a nonprofit group, said the city has been unable to hire 15 additional staffers to help families living in shelters navigate the education system, an urgent concern given the influx of migrant families.

The organization also said short staffing appeared to be causing delays in providing preschool special education evaluations and services in the Bronx.

“We are particularly concerned that these budget plans will result in even more egregious violations of the rights of students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and students in temporary housing or foster care,” Advocates for Children executive director Kim Sweet said in a statement.

More cuts ahead for NYC schools

The city-directed budget cuts are part of a perfect storm of fiscal trouble facing city schools.

About $7.7 billion in one-time pandemic aid from the federal government has padded the Education Department’s budget in recent years and funded critical initiatives, including expanded preschool and summer enrichment programs. That money will dry up next September, and the looming expiration of that aid has already prompted some painful cuts.

For the first time in four years, the Education Department clawed back money this week from schools where enrollment numbers fell short of projections.

Because enrollment went up overall across the city, the majority of schools didn’t have to return money, and instead got extra funding because of higher-than projected enrollment. But there were still more than 650 schools that saw a total of $109 million in midyear cuts, according to a United Federation of Teachers analysis.

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.

With influx of migrants, NYC school enrollment ticks up for first time in 8 years

2023-11-15T20:36:46+00:00

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The number of students attending New York City’s public schools increased for the first time in eight years, a sign that enrollment may be stabilizing in the wake of deep declines during the pandemic.

About 915,000 children from 3-K to 12th grade enrolled this year, up 0.9% from last year, or roughly 8,000 additional students, according to preliminary Education Department data released Wednesday.

Still, city schools enrolled about 92,000 fewer children compared with the year before the pandemic hit, a decline of roughly 9%.

An influx of asylum-seeking families appeared to be a major factor in reversing the yearslong trend of declining enrollment. About 13,000 migrant students have enrolled in the city’s schools since June, city officials said.

Mayor Eric Adams has previously taken a harsh posture on the wave of arriving asylum seekers, saying, “This issue will destroy New York City.” He traveled to the border last month to persuade migrants not to come. Meanwhile, to finance services for migrant families, the mayor has ordered funding reductions elsewhere — including up to $2.1 billion from the Education Department’s budget.

In a joint press release with schools Chancellor David Banks, Adams celebrated the rise in enrollment and some of the city’s efforts to welcome new arrivals in the city’s public schools.

“Chancellor Banks and our administration are focused on delivering the best education possible for our young New Yorkers by cutting through bureaucracy, expanding outreach, and making enrollment easier,” Adams said in a statement. “New Yorkers are voting with their feet, and we are excited to see funding increase for so many of our public schools.”

City officials cautioned that the enrollment figures are preliminary and will likely fluctuate as students continue to enter or leave the system midyear. (The numbers do not include charter schools.)

Enrollment is a key issue because the lion’s share of school budgets are determined based on how many students are on their registers. Over the past few years, the Education Department avoided some enrollment-related cuts to individual schools by using hundreds of millions worth of one-time federal relief funding as campuses recover from the pandemic.

That money is dwindling, though, which means schools face growing budget pressures.

For the first time since the pandemic hit, the Education Department is forcing schools to return money in the middle of the year if they end up enrolling fewer students than the city projected.

Because of higher than expected enrollment, about 57% of schools will see midyear funding bumps, averaging about $209,000 per school, officials said. The remaining 43% of schools will see midyear cuts averaging $167,000.

Declining enrollment can pose other significant problems for schools. As the number of students on a given campus dwindles, it typically becomes increasingly difficult to fund a full range of programs and extracurricular activities. The number of schools with tiny enrollments has grown in recent years, prompting questions about whether city officials may propose a wave of mergers or closures.

In a recent interview with Chalkbeat, Banks said district leaders are planning to have “community conversations” this year about potential mergers.

“Some level of consolidation is something that I think we would be irresponsible if we were not looking at that,” Banks said, “particularly in light of the fiscal challenges that we’re having.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Participation in parent conferences has plunged 40%. Is Zoom to blame?

2023-11-09T23:04:04+00:00

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Remote parent-teacher conferences, a holdover from the height of the pandemic, continue to elicit mixed feelings among families and educators alike.

For some parents, these virtual meetings — which were enshrined in the most recent teachers union contract — have been a boon. They can Zoom with teachers during their work day. They no longer need child care to travel to and from schools for the meetings. For those with multiple kids, it can be easier to juggle meetings at different schools.

But just as remote learning exacerbated New York City’s gaping digital divide, these virtual meetings also leave out families with less tech access and those with language barriers. Faced with an array of teachers with different sign-up methods, joining the meetings can feel insurmountable to some.

Schools Chancellor David Banks has repeatedly said parent engagement is among his top priorities. But participation in parent-teacher conferences was down 40% last year compared with the most recent school year before the pandemic hit, according to city data.

One Manhattan middle school principal expressed deep frustration with the remote conferences. The school leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said attendance at the virtual sessions is significantly lower than the in-person conferences before the pandemic.

It’s especially difficult for the school’s growing number of migrant families to participate, as they often don’t have easy access to technology or reliable Wi-Fi at their shelters.

The school’s 10- to 15-minute student-led conferences, where kids show off their work and share plans for improvement, have been tricky to transition virtually.

“There’s something important about physically coming to the school, seeing where your child sits, seeing their work displayed on the bulletin board, and actually having a heart- to-heart conversation,” the principal said. “What we need more than ever is people back in the building and people being a part of the community.”

Education Department officials defended the virtual meetings, saying they “expanded opportunities” for families to meet with teachers.

“We support remote parent/teacher conferences to accommodate guardians who have disabilities and are more comfortable in a controlled environment, guardians who cannot take time away from work, guardians who are caregivers to additional children/family members,” said Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull.

She added, “Parent/teacher conferences can also occur in person, upon request, at a mutually agreed upon time.”

Many parents, however, were not aware of that provision in the teachers union contract.

Amy Clow, the parent association president at Manhattan's P.S. 51, with her children.

Amy Clow, the parent association president at P.S. 51 in Hell’s Kitchen, echoed that in-person conferences helped build a sense of community.

“Maybe you’d see another family waiting,” she said, “we could actually talk to other parents and get to know them.”

Although she said the school’s teachers have tried to make the virtual conferences work, there are limits to the approach. A recent conference that was scheduled for 10 minutes wound up feeling more like five, given that her kids were at home interrupting her.

“Nothing’s as good as in person,” she said. “We learned that during COVID.”

Brooklyn mom Tamra Dixon also believes she got more out of the in-person meetings.

“By the time you exchange greetings — “Yeah, he’s great” — then they log off before you even get a chance to really talk,” said Dixon, whose fifth grader attends P.S. 282 in Park Slope. “It’s a little more difficult to do that when someone is sitting in front of you, so you have a better chance of getting all your questions answered in person.”

At her recent parent conference, all of her son’s teachers were together on the Zoom, each giving their assessments, which was “not bad,” Dixon said since that meant she didn’t have to log in to various Zooms. Still, one of the teachers kept her camera off and didn’t chime in, leaving the mom feeling confused.

Mike Robles, with his 8-year-old daughter, who attends P94M in Hell's Kitchen.

On the other hand, Manhattan dad Mike Robles said he appreciated the virtual conferences in part because they were set up with each teacher individually instead of conferencing with multiple teachers at once.

The feedback “feels a little bit more specific,” said Robles, whose daughter attends P94M, a school in District 75 that exclusively serves students with disabilities. “They’re not like five in a room [at] the same time.”

Ean Pimentel, a dad at P.S. 51, said the online setup was helpful since two of his children attend schools in different neighborhoods. Plus, he didn’t have to scramble for child care.

“You got to pay somebody to come watch the other kids, so [remote] is easier,” he said.

For Brendan Gillett, a teacher at International High School at Prospect Heights, which serves recently arrived immigrants, getting families to log on isn’t the biggest hurdle. The school makes a big effort to get families to come to the conferences. But the quality of the meetings are different than they were when they were in person, Gillett said.

“They feel shallower than in the past,” Gillett said. “It’s harder to go over documents. Parents will Zoom from their car or work or somewhere so they seem distracted, and generally, I just don’t think it’s as meaningful.”

Most elementary schools held parent-teacher conferences last week. Most middle schools hosted them on Thursday, and high schools have them on Nov. 16.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Mergers, migrants, curriculum mandates: NYC schools chief David Banks on his first 2 years

2023-11-07T11:00:00+00:00

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When David Banks took the reins of New York City’s public schools, he offered a blunt diagnosis. The system is “fundamentally flawed,” he said, and in need of complete transformation.

Nearly two years later, the chancellor’s vision for improving the system is coming into sharper focus. Rather than pursuing aggressive changes in many areas of the system, he has prioritized one problem above all others: Nearly half of students aren’t proficient readers.

In a wide-ranging interview with Chalkbeat, Banks indicated the nation’s largest school system is too unwieldy to change on many fronts at once. And if children graduate without basic reading skills, little else matters, he says.

So far, the literacy overhaul has been swift and bumpy, with some elementary school teachers saying that they haven’t felt prepared enough to deploy new reading curriculums this fall — reports that Banks acknowledged while defending the pace of the rollout.

But even as Banks makes reading instruction his signature issue, the system is still facing many other challenges. Roughly $7 billion in federal relief funding is drying up, and Mayor Eric Adams is ordering significant cuts on top of that. There are a growing number of significantly under-enrolled schools — some of which Banks said will likely need to be consolidated. And the city is also contending with a massive influx of migrant children, many of whom have faced significant trauma and disruptions to their schooling.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’re coming up on two years running the nation’s largest school system. What surprised you most about the role that you didn’t anticipate?

I think the level of distrust that so many people have about the quote unquote ‘DOE’ [Department of Education]. It’s almost like we can’t trust whatever you say. When I say that, I’m talking about community members, for the most part — parents. There was a heightened state of agitation. And not something that I did. It was just…they were almost ready for battle at every moment.

And I think it was Deputy Chancellor Kenita Lloyd who said to me, ‘There’s been a broken trust.’ And it demonstrated itself in ways like the PEP [Panel for Educational Policy]. You have the PEP meeting that goes all night long.

I said, ‘This doesn’t even make any sense to me.’ People have to stay up ‘till 2, 3 o’clock in the morning for their two minutes. I think the sense was that people didn’t feel like they were being heard. So they’re ready to be really loud to try to be heard.

Once I got in and I got settled I could understand what it was. And I think it’s also my greatest achievement of having been here so far, which is I think we’ve done a lot to help to rebuild a level of trust with communities.

When you were first appointed, you offered a fairly dark assessment of the city’s public school system, saying it was ‘fundamentally flawed.’ You suggested there were too many people working in central jobs away from school. What is your assessment today? Have you done anything to trim the central office other than eliminating the executive superintendent roles?

We have moved, since I’ve been here, over 300 people off of our payroll, number one. Number two, through the local superintendents, we have moved dozens and dozens of people closer to the action into the superintendents’ offices.

What I came to realize is that the narrative of this bloated bureaucracy that’s uncaring — is actually not true. There are a lot of people here, who care deeply about what goes on. I think that’s why the NYC Reads stuff [the reading curriculum overhaul] is so important to me. Because I think we’ve not gotten the results in our schools, which has caused everybody to be turned off. And it’s caused even the people who work here to be deeply frustrated.

Some of your early rhetoric suggested that you were interested in a total transformation of the system. It seems like that kind of rhetoric has given way to a more pragmatic set of initiatives focused on improving the quality of early literacy instruction, and also exposing more students to career options before they graduate. Are there any other big projects on the horizon?

My legacy work will really be around what we’re doing with literacy. And then I think the work we’re doing on career-connected learning and pathways will be right behind it.

But I’m really staking my reputation on reading in particular. Because I do believe that fundamentally, as somebody who’s been in the classroom for years, and has led schools, that it’s the foundation. If you don’t get that right all these other things don’t really matter. It’s the reason why you don’t hear me talking about 20 different things, although we’re doing lots of other things.

I can connect those to other areas that I think are really important and where we’re going to be going as a system. And that would really be around virtual learning, artificial intelligence, the use of technology. I think those kinds of things will fundamentally, whether we like it or not, change not just our system. All systems across America are in for a sea change in that regard. So I’m doing a lot of work behind the scenes to try to figure out how we can get out in front where New York City can lead on that.

But none of that will even matter if kids can’t read.

Your background is mostly in working with middle and high school students. How did you become persuaded to make early literacy your signature thing? Was it a conversation with the mayor?

The mayor focused when we came in on dyslexia, and so we were all in on the dyslexia and the screenings, and really making sure that we’re getting those kids the kinds of interventions or whatnot that they really need to put them on track. But in the midst of that, as I moved all over the system, I was reminded over and over again, beyond the kids with dyslexia, just the average kid who doesn’t have any of those kinds of text-based challenges, they don’t know how to read.

It was over a series of visits and conversations, and talking to teachers who were saying, ‘We are off track. Not only my school, but as a whole system.’ I would hear that over and over again. And people would say, years ago, kids learn through phonics, we learn the phonetic approach to teaching reading.

And then I think, when I listened to the podcast [“Sold a Story”]...that was the first thing that really crystallized these conversations that people were sharing with me, it framed it for me. And then behind that, when I saw the documentary, “The Right to Read,” the combination of those two, fully crystallized these loose conversations that I was having with folks. And I got to the ultimate ‘aha,’ this is where the issue is.

I’ve been spending some time recently talking to teachers who are in the first phase [of the literacy curriculum mandate]. And one of the things I’ve heard from a lot of them is they feel like this happened really fast. Some felt unprepared to teach the new curriculums. What is your message to those teachers?

I’m certainly not surprised by any of that as a response. We are all in a process of trying to catch up because there’s a sense of urgency. In the best of all worlds, we would have studied this for the next three or four years. We would’ve done all kinds of surveys. But when you add the ‘aha moment’ that it is time to move, you have to move, knowing that it’s not going to be perfect. We are building the plane as we are flying it because kids’ lives are actually hanging in the balance.

I do not expect us to have some dramatically different results over the next two to three years. But I do think you will see constant gains over the next several years. And I think you will see dramatic gains over the next five, six years.

One of the biggest challenges for the system right now is financial. About $7 billion of federal relief money is drying up, which has been used to expand summer school, keep school budgets steady despite enrollment drops, hire counselors and fund some of your own initiatives. On top of that, Mayor Eric Adams is ordering pretty significant budget cuts. Can you give us a sense of what criteria you’re using to determine which programs get cut and which don’t?

We’ve not finalized decisions. And these are not all fully just my decisions either. The mayor and the City Council are really going to have to come together and figure out what happens. Everything is on the table to see some level of reduction. I’ve made it clear that I think what we’re doing on the reading, and the [career] pathways as my priority areas. So we’re gonna do everything to fight like heck to protect those. Everything else is subject to it.

Listen, I’m a champion of the arts. I don’t want to see any reduction in the arts. So I’m going to be fighting as well. But we got dozens and dozens and dozens of other initiatives. I think Summer Rising has been a wonderful program. We had 110,000 kids last year, we could easily have 150,000. But it may be reduced because it is the fiscal reality that we are facing.

I’ve heard a lot of City Council folks say, ‘We’re going to fight like heck to make sure there’s no reductions in school budgets.’ That’s great, right? But the funding is going to come from somewhere.

Do you anticipate having to reduce the department’s headcount significantly over the coming years?

The mayor is on record as saying that we’re not going to be letting go of employees. So we’re not going to excess folks. We’re not getting rid of folks, we’re not laying people off.

The challenge is going to be where do we find it programmatically and how much our school budgets [are] ultimately impacted.

New York has seen a large influx of more than 20,000 migrant children. What’s your sense of how that is affecting schools? Can you point to examples of schools that are doing a really effective job?

We can certainly give you a list of schools. All of these schools that I have continued to visit — amazing. These folks lead with their heart. And it goes well beyond even what’s in their particular budgets. You got parent coordinators, who are leading clothing drives and food drives. You got principals who are just organizing their entire school community as a family to wrap their arms around so many of these young people, it is amazing. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, it is New York City at its best, when you see how we are responding.

I haven’t visited one school, Alex, when people are like, ‘We are at our wits end, we cannot help these kids anymore. We don’t know what to do.’ I’ve never been at one school where I’ve heard anybody say that.

The city doesn’t have a great track record of equitably distributing students who enroll after the traditional admissions process. There was some research a few years ago that found that high school students who enrolled midyear were disproportionately clustered at lower-performing schools. Does the city have an overarching enrollment strategy for migrant children? How do you think that students should be distributed in a way that’s equitable?

There’s a wide range of students. For the younger children, we’ve done everything we could to get them into the school that they are kind of zoned for. That’s been dictated by where these shelters have been. We don’t want a child who’s in a shelter in the Bronx and send them to the second grade in Queens.

While we want to get them as close as possible, we cannot overwhelm any individual school. So if that means we’ve got to go to the next neighborhood over with some of those schools who are saying, ‘We would love to have more students,’ many of these schools, you have to remember, are experiencing enrollment decline and low enrollment. We want to make sure that they’re the right kinds of programs and supports in those schools.

One of the other big structural issues that you’re facing is a growing number of really small schools, which are expensive to operate, and also sometimes struggle to offer a full range of programs given that a school’s budget is determined on a per-student basis. I’m wondering if there’s a cut off below which you think at school is just too small to be sustainable?

No specific number, but we had dozens and dozens of really small schools. When I say really small, I’m talking about schools with 125 kids and less. I ran a small school, but my small school had 450 to 500 kids, which was what the initial definition of a small school was. It’s hard to figure out how people can run a full comprehensive high school with 80 kids as your entire school. And we have schools with those numbers.

And should we expect to see that starting this year?

You should probably expect to hear community conversations around that this year. And we will see where it will lead us. But the notion of some level of consolidation is something that I think we would be irresponsible if we were not looking at that, particularly in light of the fiscal challenges that we’re having. So we’re looking at it — nothing definitive yet.

I’m leaving a lot of that to the superintendents themselves who know their school communities best and are already meeting with principals around the city to start those conversations.

The latest round of national test scores indicate that student achievement took a big hit during the pandemic, particularly in math. How worried are you about the lingering effects of the pandemic on student achievement? Is there anything new on the horizon to help schools close those gaps?

I was not surprised at all by the learning loss and the scores and everything else. You know, the immediate shift into virtual learning was a tremendous challenge for everybody. I think the upside is that we got a lot better at it. It’s one reason I’m really excited about some of our virtual schools work that we’re doing, because we see that as a beacon and a blueprint also for the rest of the system. But I do think we’ve got real work to do.

We’re allowing schools to provide a range of supports. Some of them are doing high-dosage tutoring, some of the buddying students up — we leave a lot of that sort of to the schools themselves. We don’t try to mandate everything. What we are mandating is this approach to the science of reading, which I think will ultimately bear fruit in ELA and math, over a period of time.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Advocates demanded $1.25 billion to make NYC schools more accessible. They got $800 million.

2023-11-01T22:14:41+00:00

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New York City plans to spend $800 million over the next five years to boost school building accessibility for people with physical disabilities, officials revealed Wednesday. That figure is far short of what advocates had demanded.

Fewer than 1 in 3 of the city’s public schools are fully accessible to students and staff with mobility impairments, according to a recent report from the group Advocates for Children. The organization previously called on the city to dramatically ramp up spending to $1.25 billion to ensure that at least half of buildings would become fully accessible over the term of the new capital plan, which runs from 2025 through 2029.

With many budget concerns on the horizon — including the expiration of billions of dollars in federal relief money and additional cuts to city agencies ordered by Mayor Eric Adams — accessibility funding hewed closely to current levels.

The capital plan will increase funding for accessibility from $750 million under the current five-year plan, which runs from 2020 through 2024, to $800 million in the new one, according to documents released Wednesday. Advocates contend that is not enough to keep the current pace because of inflation and rising construction costs.

“Given the decades of inadequate attention that preceded this investment, nearly two-thirds of City schools will still not be fully accessible by the time the construction funded by the current Capital Plan is complete,” Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children, said in a statement. “It is not acceptable to postpone compliance with [the federal Americans with Disabilities Act] for yet another generation.”

Lack of access to school buildings has long been a barrier for students with physical disabilities and has even drawn the attention of federal prosecutors. In past years, some children had few — or even zero — nearby school options. It can also limit students’ ability to take advantage of New York City’s extensive choice system, which allows children to apply for schools outside their neighborhood boundaries.

Queens mom Michelle Noris said she was disappointed when her son, who uses a wheelchair, could not attend the public elementary school across the street from their home. Instead, he wound up at a private school, with tuition covered by the city, about an hour away.

“I really wish he had friends down the block like all the other kids,” said Noris, who works as an engineer. Though her son is now in college — and has written about his experience navigating the city’s high school admissions process in a wheelchair — she remains an advocate for more accessible schools.

Although “there is an improvement” in terms of building upgrades, she said the school across the street from their home is still not fully accessible. At the current pace, it would take decades to make every school accessible. “They need to allocate more money to do more good work,” Noris said.

Officials have made some progress in recent years in part due to pressure from advocacy groups who have pushed for more funding — and attention — to the issue. By the end of the current capital plan, 1 in 3 schools are expected to be fully accessible, up from 1 in 5 five years ago. (The figures do not include certain alternative schools, prekindergarten programs, or charter schools. Nor do they include satellite campuses, as schools may have more than one location.)

The city has also boosted the number of schools that are considered “partially accessible” and worked to provide more granular information about which facilities on those campuses are accessible to students with mobility impairments.

Representatives of the city’s Education Department and School Construction Authority did not say what percentage of schools they plan to make fully accessible under the new capital plan.

“Building on prior plans, we will continue to enhance accessibility in our school buildings through a variety of measures, such as bathroom renovations, lifts, and ramps,” Kevin Ortiz, a spokesperson for the School Construction Authority, wrote in a statement. “We remain committed to improving access throughout the system.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC families push for special education open houses as high school admissions season heats up

2023-10-31T19:24:47+00:00

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Manhattan dad Tom Fiorella wanted a public high school that could challenge his child and accommodate learning disabilities. He spent countless hours scouring websites, attending open houses, and emailing parent coordinators in search of answers.

Does the school integrate students with disabilities alongside typically developing children in classes at all grade levels? Is support available for students who could handle advanced coursework but, like his child, also have a language-based learning disability? Would the environment feel welcoming?

“It’s complex – it’s a lot of work,” said Fiorella, whose child began ninth grade this year. “It was hard to get solid information.”

Now, a group of parent advocates is pushing for more high schools to offer open houses specifically geared toward students with disabilities. They’ve sent a flurry of messages to school leaders to persuade them to roll out the information sessions more widely.

That advocacy effort, which began last year, is already starting to bear fruit, said Jenn Choi, a special education advocate who created an email template and encouraged parents to send it to school leaders and superintendents.

The Brooklyn North high school superintendent has required all of the 47 campuses under her supervision to offer special education information sessions. And two other district leaders have been receptive or encouraged principals to offer them, including those who represent Queens North as well as the superintendent responsible for schools that use alternate graduation assessments, international schools serving recently arrived immigrants, and Outward Bound schools, messages sent to parents show.

Open houses are an important way for families to narrow down which 12 high schools to list on their application out of more than 400 options. All families, including those with disabilities, are welcome to attend those sessions. But parents and advocates say the traditional open houses may fill up quickly, gloss over special education, or wind up with little time for families to ask questions about whether the school is prepared to offer the services their child needs.

The city’s online high school directory makes it simple to filter schools by a wide range of categories — from sports teams to uniform requirements. Still, clear information about what types of special education classes are typically offered, what types of therapists are on staff, and even information about school building accessibility for those with mobility issues can be difficult to come by. Officials have improved access to information about physical building accessibility in recent years.

Using the city’s directory, “a parent can find the 30 high schools with girls’ golf teams in NYC in under 8 seconds,” Choi wrote in a guide for school leaders who want to offer special education open houses. If a parent wants to find schools that regularly provide a certain type of special education class, “they will have to pick up the phone and start calling over 500 schools, one school at a time.”

Although some schools have offered special education open houses for years, it’s unclear how common they are. An Education Department spokesperson could not say how many schools offer them now or in recent years.

Choi, who runs a special education consulting business and also navigated the admissions process as a parent of two children with disabilities, said they are relatively rare. Requiring all schools to offer them would help make the high school process friendlier to students with disabilities, she argues. Plus, they can serve an important accountability purpose, as school officials may commit to providing a range of services during the sessions.

“Parents are going to expect that promises are going to be kept,” Choi said. “And that’s how change happens.”

Even as some schools are embracing special education open houses, it can still be tricky to find basic information about them. For some schools, the city’s centralized directory lists whether a school offers such a session. In other cases, that information appears to be missing and individual school websites don’t always list them.

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein emphasized that “open houses are organized at the school level” and did not indicate whether the city would consider requiring all high schools to offer them. She also did not respond to a question about how families can find out about them given some of the inconsistencies in where they’re posted.

Maggie Moroff, a special education policy expert at Advocates for Children, said she felt torn about special education open houses. In an ideal world, information about specialized services should be woven into traditional sessions, she said, though that can be a challenge.

“You don’t want it to be siloed, but you want to make sure the right attention gets paid” to students with disabilities, Moroff said, adding that in practice she supports more special education open houses.

Specialized open houses can also make it more difficult for schools to hide that they’re not actually set up to support students with a variety of news, advocates said.

“You can have a school that can check off all the right boxes on paper,” Moroff said, “but when a family gets there, the way they are welcomed is quite different. You can glean a lot from that.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYPD plans to launch a school hotline for safety and mental health issues. Advocates are wary.

2023-10-26T20:40:52+00:00

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New York City’s Police Department is launching a tip line that would allow all members of school communities to report concerns about safety and mental health, though the idea has raised concerns about how law enforcement officials will use the information.

In addition to reports of potential threats against schools or other safety issues, the tip line “will also help support mental health concerns, bullying, cyberbullying, and self-harm concerns” said Inspector Kevin Taylor, head of the Police Department’s school safety division, during a City Council hearing Wednesday.

Police officials previously indicated plans to roll out the tip line this fall. A department spokesperson did not offer a more specific timeline for when it will go live.

Taylor said anyone connected to school communities, or members of the general public, will be able to report campus safety concerns 24 hours a day for any public school, including charters. Tips will be collected by phone, text message, or through an app called SaferWatch.

The move comes as concerns about school safety and mental health have intensified. Even as violent crime has trended down, the number of shooting victims under age 18 has spiked. The number of weapons confiscated on school grounds also ticked up about 9% last school year, and suspensions also trended up, though data for the full year is not yet available. Meanwhile, the number of school safety agents remains far below pre-pandemic levels.

One Bronx school administrator said she would welcome an anonymous school safety tip line. In one instance, she said a student resorted to creating a fake social media account to discreetly alert her about a screenshot that showed students with weapons in the building.

“Having a way they could report anonymously and feel comfortable would be so good,” she wrote.

But multiple advocates raised concerns about the Police Department soliciting information related to bullying and students’ mental health, and state law indicates discipline issues should be handled by school staff rather than law enforcement.

“The police should not deal with students’ mental health or behavioral issues at all, including bullying,” said Andrea Ortiz, the membership and campaign director at the Dignity in Schools Campaign New York, a group that advocates against punitive discipline. “Police are not equipped to help them in that process, so why would they be the ones to collect that information except to use it in criminalizing ways?”

A police spokesperson declined to elaborate on how information collected through the tip line will be used or why the department would gather information on bullying given that there is an existing process for reporting those issues.

Meanwhile, the union that represents school safety agents was not enthusiastic about the new reporting tools and pressed the city to hire more agents instead. “Other ideas and initiatives to stem well documented school related violence cannot substitute for more dedicated school safety agents,” Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesperson for Teamsters Local 237, wrote in a text message.

Separately, Taylor said that the city is piloting an app called SaferWatch that could function as a “panic button” that allows school safety agents to more quickly report emergencies, including shootings near or on school grounds.

He indicated using the technology was inspired by a visit to Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and staff were killed in a 2018 school shooting. In response, New York passed a law encouraging schools to adopt silent panic alarm systems.

Eventually, the app will be available to students and parents and may notify them about “serious situations that are happening in school,” Taylor said.

The app is currently being piloted at five schools: Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School, Hillcrest High School in Queens, Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, and P.S. 78 on Staten Island. Taylor said the city plans to expand the app citywide, but didn’t offer a timeline.

Students and staff at Stuyvesant and Bronx Science said they hadn’t heard much about the new app and weren’t sure how it was being used on campus.

Vanessa Chen, a senior at Stuyvesant, said being able to quickly report an incident through a smartphone app could be helpful, but she also wondered if it could lead to lots of false alarms. “A lot of these threats that come to our school aren’t real,” she said. “I think there comes a question of whether there’s any secondary fact-check.”

During the hearing on Wednesday, City Councilperson Jennifer Gutiérrez also raised questions how students would use it in an emergency since some schools require that students turn in their phones during the day.

“I’ve seen this administration move forward with a number of …these new apps, and there’s a lot of holes missing,” Gutiérrez said.

Taylor indicated the priority would be to install the app on school safety agents’ phones, but hoped it could be adopted more widely among families and staff.

A police spokesperson didn’t respond to a question about how the app would enable a faster emergency response compared with school safety agents radioing for help or dialing 911. They also declined to say how much the new initiatives would cost.

Given that every school has police department safety agents stationed in them, some advocates said there was little reason to invest in additional technologies that they worry could further expand the police department’s role in schools, especially as City Hall is ordering city agencies to cut their budgets.

“We’re taking more resources from schools while the NYPD is announcing ways they can get more involved in schools,” said Johanna Miller, director of the education policy center at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “That’s absolutely the wrong direction.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC eyes middle and high school literacy overhaul. It’s asking families to weigh in.

2023-10-19T21:42:25+00:00

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On the heels of a sweeping mandate to overhaul elementary school reading programs, New York City officials now have their eyes on middle and high school — and they’re asking families to weigh in.

The city’s Education Department is launching focus groups for parents and students this month with the goal of “evaluating ELA curriculum for grades 6 to 12,” according to a notice sent to parent leaders.

The online focus groups, which will take place on Oct. 25 and 30, are the latest sign that city officials are interested in standardizing curriculums at the middle and high school level even though they have not announced concrete plans and appear to be keeping the public engagement process fairly quiet.

Education Department officials declined to answer questions about the sessions. After Chalkbeat inquired about the online registration form — which initially included a list of possible curriculums under consideration — those names were removed.

“We’ll delve into the ELA curriculum options under consideration,” the notice initially stated. The post indicated that families would have a chance to discuss curriculum options, review materials, and provide feedback. But that language was also removed and a department spokesperson did not explain why.

New York City principals have long had wide leeway to select their own curriculums. Schools Chancellor David Banks is pushing against that approach, concerned that it can lead to inconsistency in the quality of instructional materials educators use in their classrooms.

In Banks’ “State of Our Schools” speech last month, he said the department “will announce new approaches to instruction across all our core subject areas, in all grade levels, just as we have for early literacy” — though he indicated the process will take years.

Some high school superintendents have already begun mandating specific reading programs, though there is no centralized directive for them to do so. The city has also begun rolling out a standardized algebra curriculum at a subset of high schools.

One education department official familiar with the city’s literacy efforts said budget cuts ordered by Mayor Eric Adams could complicate the Education Department’s efforts to swiftly move forward with broader curriculum changes beyond elementary school.

“It costs a good amount of money to add curriculum to schools across the board,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The department “probably doesn’t want to promise that … and then not be able to do it.”

Creating focus groups for middle and high school families represents a shift from the Education Department’s strategy for choosing elementary school reading curriculums. That ambitious change, which began in about half of districts this year and will reach all districts next year, involved little input from the public. (An Education Department spokesperson did not say whether there will be similar input sessions for middle and high school educators and school leaders.)

Susan Neuman, a New York University literacy expert and former federal education official, said it’s a “promising trend” that the city is considering strengthening schools’ curriculum choices at the middle and high school level.

“We’ve ignored them completely,” she said.

But Neuman also expressed concern about whether the Education Department would take input from focus groups seriously. The city did not solicit input on the mandated elementary school curriculums from its own Literacy Advisory Council, composed of outside experts and advocates, according to multiple participants.

“There was really a good deal of frustration on that,” said Neuman, a member of the council.

Dannielle Darbee, principal of the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance, said a more standardized curriculum could have benefits at the high school level, exposing students to rigorous texts consistently and ensuring teachers have more free time for other activities.

“Part of me welcomes the change because teachers spend a lot of time trying to build curriculum and tailor curriculum,” Darbee said.

Still, she said any curriculum mandate should include a long runway for training on the new materials. And, more importantly, she hopes high school teachers receive training to reach students who arrive significantly behind in their reading skills.

“High school teachers are not really trained at all to teach reading or assess reading levels,” Darbee said, “which brings me to the concern: What would professional development for high school teachers look like?”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC vowed more school contracts for businesses owned by women, people of color. It hasn’t been easy.

2023-10-12T23:35:35+00:00

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Last spring, New York City’s Education Department unveiled its most aggressive step yet to increase spending on businesses owned by women or people of color.

The new directive required all vendors with new contracts to subcontract out a portion of their business to Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises — a significant commitment for an agency that spends roughly $10 billion a year on contracts.

But the implementation of that promise has proved far more complicated. Late last week, the Education Department began quietly rolling back the requirements for some pending contracts, Chalkbeat has learned.

And the implementation challenges in the new push to increase spending on such businesses — a major priority of Mayor Eric Adams — are even causing problems for companies involved with another top Adams priority — his NYC Reads literacy initiative.

Education Department officials confirmed that certain contracts are now being given the green light to move forward without meeting the new requirements — at least for now. But a spokesperson said the agency still intends to enforce the rules for future contracts.

The subcontracting requirement was introduced in late March, one of a series of changes approved last November as a way to address the department’s abysmal record of doing business with Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises, or MWBEs.

Effective immediately, officials said in a press release, the department would require vendors to subcontract out at least 30% of the value of any new contracts to businesses owned by minorities or women.

Schools Chancellor David Banks heralded the move. “We are providing these businesses and their owners with the opportunity to build generational wealth and create a more fair and equal city,” he said in a statement at the time.

Figuring out how to put that mandate into practice threw the contracting system into disarray, interviews and documents show. It touched off months of uncertainty and disruption for vendors and Education Department staff, as top agency officials deliberated behind the scenes over whether and how to insert the new language in recently approved contracts, according to communications reviewed by Chalkbeat.

The process for finalizing new textbook, curriculum, and professional development contracts — including a deal with Great Minds, the company that publishes Wit & Wisdom, one of the three mandated curriculums for Adams’s signature literacy initiative — was essentially at a standstill, according to multiple vendors and Education Department staffers.

Also held up in the logjam were two multiyear professional development contracts for math and literacy instructional support with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the publisher of the most widely used curriculum in the NYC Reads initiative.

“Until leadership can make a decision on this we do not expect any contracts to be circulated for signatures,” according to a notice earlier this month from an Education Department official to a vendor obtained by Chalkbeat.

Then, in recent days, the department appeared to backpedal, sending some vendors notice of “shifts in our implementation strategy” and alerting them that they would no longer be required to adhere to the subcontracting goals.

Education Department officials said certain contracts approved by the Panel for Educational Policy after June were given a pass on the new rules during this “transition” period, but did not say how many got a reprieve.

Spokesperson Jenna Lyle added that “all future solicitations and contracts will include these [subcontracting] goals moving forward.”

But the rocky implementation with the recent round of contracts has left some vendors wondering whether the agency has laid the necessary groundwork to implement such a sweeping change and how it will manage the process going forward.

“To me, it seems like they just didn’t do their research to begin with,” said one vendor who said their contract was frozen for months as a result of the standstill. The vendor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize relationships with the Education Department, said they recently received a notice that they would no longer have to adhere to the new subcontracting requirements.

Adams zeroes in on MWBE contracting

The Education Department subcontracting goals are one piece of a larger effort to increase city spending on MWBEs, both in the department and across all city agencies.

Adams appointed a citywide Chief Business Diversity Officer, and Banks named Karine Appollon, a former executive at the nonprofit Reading Partners and educational publishing giant Scholastic, to the newly created role of chief diversity officer to oversee the department’s MWBE efforts.

In November, the Panel for Educational Policy approved a suite of changes to the agency’s procurement rules to ease the process for MWBEs to win large contracts with the Education Department. A parallel change that would incentivize individual schools to hire MWBEs for smaller deals is up for a vote before the panel next week.

The efforts are showing some signs of progress: The Education Department increased its spending on MWBEs from $224 million in fiscal year 2021, to $535 million dollars in fiscal year 2022, Banks said recently. That amounts to 5.6% of contract spending on MWBEs, still last among all city agencies, according to a February report from Comptroller Brad Lander.

That figure is a long way off from the city’s overall goal of directing 30% of all vendor spending to MWBEs. That’s where the subcontracting directive came in.

The directive would guarantee that, even if the primary vendor on the contract wasn’t an MWBE itself, 30% of the value of the contract would end up in the hands of MWBEs through subcontracting.

Companies can subcontract out for all sorts of services, including distribution of print products, technology and software infrastructure, and customer service.

But the directive presented significant challenges for both small and large vendors, according to one person familiar with the Education Department’s contracts processes, who spoke anonymously so as not to jeopardize relationships.

Some smaller companies spend the majority of their contracts on their own staff, while many large companies operate mostly in other parts of the country or world, making it difficult to switch over to MWBEs certified by New York City, who are more likely to be located in and around New York.

“You look at some of the bigger publishers out there, they don’t have distribution or transportation housed in New York City, they wouldn’t be profitable,” the person said. “Most of these companies are now struggling to find an entity to support this.”

Vendors can win an exemption from the subcontracting requirements if there are not enough certified MWBE companies to perform the necessary services, or if they have “legitimate business reasons” for not complying, according to a contract obtained by Chalkbeat. But it wasn’t immediately clear how the Education Department would decide on those exemptions.

New contracts grind to a halt

While officials were debating internally about if and how to implement the thorny requirements, the process for finalizing new contracts effectively ground to a halt.

Typically, contracts are approved by the city’s Panel for Educational Policy and then handed over to the DOE’s legal team, where they are finalized and delivered to the city comptroller for registration. But for several months, contracts for textbooks, professional development and other services that cleared the Panel for Educational Policy made it no further, according to communications reviewed by Chalkbeat.

When vendors don’t have finalized contracts, they have no guarantee of payment. Some larger companies may opt to continue offering their product without payment, but for smaller operators, that can be too much of a financial risk.

For one professional development vendor whose contract was held up, the delay has meant less money flowing in and fewer schools getting instructional support they’ve relied on for years.

“Some of these schools have had these services for many years, and it’s grinding to a halt now,” said a representative from the vendor, who spoke anonymously so as not to jeopardize relationships with the Education Department. “Principals are getting very frustrated…[and] it’s a little bit of a worry for our employees.”

Another contract caught up in the standstill was the one for Great Minds, the company that produces Wit & Wisdom.

As a result, the company’s print materials were temporarily unavailable through ShopDOE, the website where schools buy materials from companies that have contracts with the Education Department, a company spokesperson said. If materials aren’t listed on ShopDOE, schools have to go through a more complicated and labor-intensive process to obtain them.

Wit & Wisdom print materials were added back to ShopDOE in early October, but the contract still isn’t finalized, according to CheckbookNYC.

“Once again the Wit & Wisdom curriculum can be ordered through ShopDOE after a brief delay that occurred when the Great Minds textbook contract was being renewed,” said Great Minds spokesperson Nancy Zuckerbrod.

Among the other contracts approved by the Panel for Educational Policy over the summer but not yet finalized or delivered to the city comptroller is a three-year, $10.6 million textbook deal with McGraw Hill, which publishes widely used textbooks.

Two contracts with publishing giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to provide literacy and math coaching and professional development that cleared the PEP over the summer also are not yet finalized, according to Checkbook NYC.

Lyle, the Education Department spokesperson, didn’t say exactly how long it would take to get the pending contracts finalized, but said “we are working with vendors currently going through our procurement process on how they can best support this work as we finalize outstanding contracts.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

New York to rethink how teacher prep programs approach literacy instruction

2023-10-11T15:04:44+00:00

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Teacher preparation programs in New York and across the country have long faced criticism for not adequately training future educators to teach literacy, in part by failing to embrace long-standing evidence about how children learn to read.

Now, top New York education leaders are taking an incremental step to address that issue.

On Wednesday, officials announced a yearlong process to come up with an “action plan” for infusing “science-of-reading” principles into higher education programs that train thousands of new teachers every year. The science of reading refers to an established body of research about how children learn to read.

The Hunt Institute, a nonprofit affiliated with Duke University, is leading the effort and has worked with a dozen other states to create similar plans. Known as “The Path Forward,” the program is now adding at least five additional states, including New York, Idaho, Illinois, New Mexico, and Washington.

The goal is for state leaders to come up with a roadmap to ensure higher education programs are using research-backed methods to train teachers in literacy instruction, holding them accountable through changes in state policy or new legislation, and marshaling help from philanthropic organizations. The state’s action plan is expected next June.

In New York, the group will be helmed by the state’s top education leaders, including State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa; Board of Regents Chancellor Lester Young; New York City schools Chancellor David Banks; and the leaders of CUNY and SUNY — Félix Matos Rodríguez and John King. Several other academics, elected officials, and education leaders will also participate.

“Those are the types of people that are really going to have the respect of the higher ed faculty,” said Javaid Siddiqi, president and CEO of the Hunt Institute. “We don’t want to be coming in in an adversarial sort of space.”

Siddiqi said that states “self selected” to be part of the process. In New York’s case, the effort is being coordinated by the state’s Education Department and the Literacy Academy Collective, a grassroots organization launched by New York City parents who successfully pushed the city to open a school devoted to students with reading challenges.

Bolstering literacy instruction takes center stage across nation

The effort in New York comes as momentum is growing across the country to rethink how to teach reading and jettison more dubious practices, such as encouraging children to guess at a word’s meaning using pictures.

In New York City, officials are encouraging a greater emphasis on phonics — explicitly teaching the relationship between sounds and letters. The city also launched a new mandate this fall that will eventually require all elementary schools to abandon materials that have been widely criticized and replace them with one of three approved curriculums.

Improving teacher preparation programs could bolster New York City’s curriculum overhaul, as some educators have noted they did not receive rigorous instruction on how to teach children to read. An analysis of 38 teacher preparation programs across New York released this year by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that the state’s programs generally ranked well below others across the country when it comes to reading instruction.

Some advocacy groups, including Education Trust-New York, have also placed some blame on teacher preparation programs, calling them a “major obstacle to improved reading outcomes” in a report released this year.

Katie Pace Miles, a literacy expert at Brooklyn College who will also participate in the Hunt Institute process as part of its steering committee, said it makes sense to focus on statewide reforms to teacher preparation programs.

“There’s a lack of evidence-based instruction in our teacher preparation programs, both in New York City and across New York State,” she said, pointing to test scores that show about half of the city’s students are proficient in reading. “We can’t just keep talking about how [the scores] are unacceptable. We actually have to do something substantial to change outcomes in teacher training.”

Third grade teacher Mara Ast said her master’s degree program didn’t give her much practical help teaching children to read nearly a decade ago. At the time, her first grade son was struggling to read, so she wound up searching for strategies to help him and ultimately attended a separate summer program focused on structured literacy.

“I didn’t learn it in graduate school at all,” said Ast, who now teaches at the South Bronx Literacy Academy, the city’s first standalone district school devoted to struggling readers. She said many teachers are craving better preparation, and reforming teacher education programs could make educators more comfortable using higher-quality curriculum materials.

“A school can buy all the curriculum it wants, but if the teachers aren’t trained in how to use it, it just ends up collecting dust,” she said.

The group is expected to meet virtually every other month and will receive help from a coach to research and develop their plans, though Siddiqi said the organization does not draft legislation or push specific proposals. They’ll also have access to national experts and will convene once a year with leaders from other states. (The coaching, access to national experts, and annual meetings with other state leaders last beyond the first year.)

It remains to be seen how effective the yearlong series of meetings and action plan will be in spurring change. Despite movement in dozens of state legislatures designed to overhaul reading instruction and teacher training, New York is one of five states that has not advanced similar efforts in recent years, raising questions about the appetite for significant action in Albany.

Asked whether convening state leaders to hold meetings on improving teacher preparation programs would likely spur more dramatic efforts, Siddiqi said he understood some might be skeptical.

“We don’t want to waste a precious slot on a state that is not ready to do the work — and we believe New York is ready to do that work,” he said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

CUNY sees slight enrollment uptick, but big challenges remain

2023-10-03T22:49:28+00:00

A yearslong pandemic-fueled enrollment decline at the City University of New York may finally be starting to level off, according to preliminary figures released Tuesday.

Enrollment in the city’s network of public colleges — like that at many colleges across the country — had been in freefall since the start of the COVID pandemic, dropping 17% from roughly 271,000 in 2019-20 to about 226,000 last school year, according to city figures.

The losses in CUNY’s community colleges, which enroll greater shares of low-income, Black and Latino students, have been even steeper, falling by 26% over four years.

But that trend may finally be tapering off. Overall undergraduate student enrollment is up about 2% from last year, with the new freshmen classes bigger than last year’s counterparts, according to preliminary enrollment data from CUNY.

“Enrollment might just sound like a lot of numbers, but it’s fundamental,” said Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez during his State of CUNY address Tuesday. “It’s a tangible measure of how well we’re delivering on our core mission of providing access to a first-rate education to everyone in our city.”

He added: “We have a reason to believe we have turned a corner.”

But even with the modest increases this year, CUNY’s enrollment remains far below pre-pandemic numbers, reflecting a seismic shift in recent years in college enrollment across the country.

The economic pressures of the pandemic, the ongoing burdens of student debt, and shifting perspectives on the value of college have combined to take a massive bite out of college enrollment nationwide.

New York City hasn’t escaped that pattern.

After a decade of rising college enrollment rates, the percentage of New York City public high school graduates entering college or other postsecondary programs dropped from nearly 81% in 2019 to 71% in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available.

The declines were even steeper for Black, Latino, and male students, who enrolled in college at a lower rate to begin with.

“I’m definitely also noticing a rise in interest in non-college options,” said Danielle Insel, the director of postsecondary readiness at Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in Brooklyn. “I definitely think there’s economic pressure, and I do think there’s some kind of societal shift in what their futures can look like… I think they’re so exhausted by school, so drained that the idea of more college is overwhelming to them.”

Enrollment in the city’s public universities is an important indicator of the city’s overall economic health. CUNY’s colleges are unusually effective at lifting students from low-income families into middle class jobs, and the majority of jobs posted in New York City still require a bachelor’s degree.

More than 80% of CUNY freshmen are New York City public high school graduates, making the relationship between the two systems a critical part of any effort to boost college enrollment.

CUNY, NYC’s Education Department seek to strengthen partnership

The day before his speech, Matos Rodriguez and Banks touted a joint initiative to send each senior expected to graduate from a New York City public high school a personalized acceptance letter indicating they had a spot at CUNY if they wanted it and inviting them to apply.

That’s not a change in admissions policy — CUNY’s community colleges have long had open admissions for high school graduates — but it could help give a recent graduate waffling about starting college an extra bit of motivation, the two leaders argued.

Multiple experts who have studied similar interventions said the effort will likely have a small impact, at best. But given the ease of distributing the letters, even a tiny bump could be worthwhile. Guidance counselors began handing them out this week, and students may also receive them via email.

“A lot of these types of nudges are cost effective not because they’re hugely effective but because they’re low on cost,” said Philip Oreopoulos, an economics professor at the University of Toronto who has studied similar efforts. “I think for some [students] it’s likely to make a difference.”

Other experts noted that the effectiveness of the letters hinge on the specific barriers students face.

“Maybe a small piece of information can be really motivating, particularly for families who are unaware this [admissions] guarantee already exists for them,” said Oded Gurantz, a professor at the University of Colorado–Boulder who studied an unsuccessful effort by the College Board to reduce roadblocks in the college application process. “If the barrier is costs, then sending the letter is unlikely to produce a big benefit.”

CUNY is also waiving application fees for New York City high school seniors, a move that is immensely helpful in convincing reticent students to submit CUNY applications, said Insel, from the Brooklyn high school.

Affordability takes center stage

For students who do decide to enroll in CUNY, the system’s affordability often takes center stage in their calculations.

CUNY’s tuition runs just under $3,500 a semester for state residents at four-year colleges and $2,400 a semester for New Yorkers at community colleges. Roughly two-thirds of CUNY students pay no tuition because of a combination of state and federal financial aid, and 75% graduate with no debt, according to the university. CUNY forgave roughly $100 million in debt accrued during the pandemic.

For recent Queens high school graduate Paul Blake, enrolling at CUNY’s Queensborough Community College was a way to enter a nursing program while avoiding the extra costs of room and board.

“I always knew I didn’t want to go out of state, it costs a lot and I felt with CUNY, I’d be closer to home,” said Blake, who hopes to either transfer to a four-year college or transition directly into work after completing his nursing program.

Elizabeth Nicotra, who graduated from Tottenville High School in Staten Island last spring, got into SUNY Cortland — the school that was initially her top choice — but ended up choosing Macaulay Honors College at CUNY’s College of Staten Island because it offers free tuition.

“Why would you choose debt over free college, especially when the program at Macaulay is so amazing,” said Nicotra, who hopes to be a physical education teacher or physical therapist.

CUNY officials are trying to spread the word about the affordability of their programs, and recently launched an ad campaign called “Degrees Without the Debt.”

CUNY’s recent expansion of online programs could also be a helpful way to lure in students not ready for a traditional college experience, Insel believes.

“I think now they’re recognizing that people want to do college in different way,” she said.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

‘We can do better’: NYC schools chief acknowledges flawed communication in response to flooding

2023-10-03T19:42:51+00:00

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New York City botched its communication to schools in response to last week’s record rainfall, Chancellor David Banks acknowledged on Tuesday. He vowed to conduct a review of what went wrong.

Hours after the school day began last Friday, Mayor Eric Adams and Banks said during a press conference about the storm that schools should shelter in place, which typically means that no one is allowed to enter or exit campuses. The Education Department issued the same directive soon after on social media.

But that order was never directly communicated to school principals, Chalkbeat reported on Monday. The communication breakdown created confusion about which procedures campus leaders should have been following in the middle of an emergency.

Banks issued a mea culpa during a Tuesday press conference when asked about the lack of communication.

“This incident does suggest to us that we needed to have a clearer level of communication all the way through,” he said, adding that schools ultimately kept children safe during the storm. “We can do better, and I think we will certainly be working to do better next time.”

The chancellor also suggested that the Education Department never intended to issue a typical shelter-in-place order in the first place. “What we’re trying to say to everybody was: ‘Stay where you are. Don’t send kids out to the streets.’”

A shelter-in-place order was the “closest thing our policies have for taking refuge in buildings,” but that approach is “ill-fitting to last week’s circumstances,” Banks said in a written statement after the press conference.

Ten school administrators told Chalkbeat that they did not enforce the shelter-in-place order largely because they weren’t aware it existed. The first official communication about it came in a 1:56 p.m. email that day to school leaders notifying them that the order had been lifted.

With many parents rushing to schools to pick up their children before the school day was over, enforcing a systemwide shelter-in-place order would have created “a level of chaos” because parents would not have been allowed to do so, Banks told reporters.

The Education Department is conducting a review of what happened “to identify policies and protocols that must be updated to account for increasingly frequent events like Friday’s rain or the air quality emergency this summer,” according to Banks’ statement.

A department spokesperson did not respond to questions about the timeline for completing that review or whether it will be made public.

The chancellor’s comments represented a departure from the Education Department’s position just a day earlier.

On Monday evening, a department spokesperson did not acknowledge any errors in communication and pointed to the mayor’s Friday press conference and subsequent social media posts as sufficient notice to schools about the shelter-in-place order.

Adams has faced intense criticism for not directly addressing the public about the storm until after some neighborhoods had already flooded, though he has largely avoided any acknowledgement that the city’s response was inadequate. Adams also deflected blame for the unclear communication to schools, implying that he hadn’t used the words “shelter in place” on Friday — even though he was the first official to publicly use the phrase. He also said that “the chancellor made a determination of what should be done.”

One Queens assistant principal said they were glad the chancellor acknowledged the miscommunication.

“I appreciate [Banks] taking the responsibility,” said the assistant principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The school leader said the city should resist the urge to make blanket directives during similar emergencies in the future, as some campuses experienced significant flooding and others were largely untouched.

“There’s no citywide guidance and directive that they should have made other than: ‘Be safe and please be in touch with your borough offices,’” the administrator said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams ordered NYC schools to shelter in place due to flooding. No one told principals.

2023-10-02T23:40:00+00:00

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As flood waters rose Friday in many parts of New York City, the message seemed clear cut.

“If you are at work or school, shelter in place for now,” said Mayor Eric Adams during a press conference about the storm just before noon that day. Schools Chancellor David Banks repeated that language later in the briefing, explaining “our protocol is in fact to shelter in place.” A social media post at 12:16 p.m. from the Education Department said the same.

Sheltering in place refers to a specific Education Department safety protocol that requires schools to shut their front doors, barring anyone from coming in or out. The procedure is meant to keep schools safe when there’s a danger outside the building.

At 1:56 p.m., a top Education Department official alerted principals that the “shelter in place has been lifted,” according to a copy of the email obtained by Chalkbeat.

There was just one problem: No one directly told schools about the order in the first place.

The email was the first Education Department communication that appeared in principals inboxes all day.

That was when Anna Nelson, an assistant principal at Bronx Latin, learned of the shelter-in-place directive.

But enforcing it would have been complicated. Many parents at her 6-12 school showed up early asking to pick up their children, fearing their commutes would be even harder later in the day due to the record rainfall. That would not have been allowed under a typical shelter-in-place order.

“Parents would have been really upset,” Nelson said. “It would have been wild.”

During previous shelter-in-place situations involving many schools, such as one for several Brooklyn schools after the subway shooting in Sunset Park last year, orders came from the NYPD and borough safety offices contacting schools.

But no such directives arrived Friday, 10 school administrators told Chalkbeat.

Flooding causes chaos in many schools

Many school leaders were dealing with immediate crises. They were helping kids dry off and scrounging up extra clothes for kids who were soaked through, while moving some children out of water-logged classrooms. They were ensuring floors weren’t dangerously slippery and figuring out if they had enough teachers to cover classes. They were communicating with concerned families about pickup and figuring out alternative exit plans for dismissal.

Many were unable to tune into the mayor’s press conference or monitor Education Department messages on X (formerly known as Twitter) during the middle of the school day — and may not even have known to watch for information through these channels.

As a result, none of the administrators who spoke with Chalkbeat actually implemented a shelter-in-place. Many were left on their own to figure out if and how to dismiss students early or let parents come and retrieve kids, with mixed messages swirling from higher-ups.

“It was very confusing honestly,” said one Brooklyn school administrator who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. “I was watching the press conference live and then I heard him say it, but I was like ‘I don’t think he really means we’re going to shelter in, because that’s crazy.’”

Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer reiterated Monday that “guidance during inclement weather events is to take refuge in the school building.” When asked how the Education Department communicated that guidance, he pointed to the mayoral press conference and social media.

The idea of a blanket citywide shelter-in-place order seemed especially confusing to administrators because those directives are usually targeted at specific schools or neighborhoods, administrators said. While some schools with significant flooding outside may have benefited from such an order, it would have been a problem for other schools that needed to let students out early for safety reasons, they said.

Pointing to the need for a shelter in place, Styer said that some schools called parents and guardians to pick up children from school during Friday’s travel warnings, “which put even more members of our community in harm’s way.”

The end-of-day email to principals also suggested that schools should make sure students and staff are familiar with alternate evacuation routes, ensure children have a way to get home given disruptions to public transit, and keep a stock of supplies on hand including flashlights and blankets.

There was scarcely any time to do those things as the official guidance came less than an hour before dismissal, said Nelson, the Bronx administrator.

Though she said her school was largely spared from flooding and most of her students don’t commute long distances to the campus, she remained concerned about the lack of planning from the city.

“It is clear to me that we will have more flood issues like this in the future and the DOE doesn’t have any flood plans in place,” Nelson added.

Flooding near the Lafayette Educational Complex in Gravesend Brooklyn on Fri., Sept. 29, 2023 in New York.

At the Lafayette Educational Complex in Gravesend, Brooklyn, which is in a flood zone, students and staff had to wade through thigh-high waters to get to the schools housed there, said teacher Elizabeth Fortune. The building’s basement and cafeteria flooded, just as they did during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and she worried the building would face flooding in the future.

“We gave away all our school logo pjs to students and some were stuck in wet clothes or barefoot at school,” Fortune wrote in an email. “Once the waters began to recede, many older students wished to leave, but we were required to hold them until a parent could pick them up. Parents themselves were stranded without any ability to get to the school.”

Communication breakdown sows confusion

A total of 336 city public schools required cleanup over the weekend due to flooding, Styer said. On Friday, city officials said 150 schools were affected.

One school, P.S. 312 in Bergen Beach (originally reported by the Education Department as P.S. 132), had to be evacuated because of a smoking boiler. That school reopened Monday, and the “vast majority” of water issues across city schools were “minor, requiring only mopping,” he said.

To some educators, the botched communication over the shelter-in-place order felt emblematic of larger failures to give schools clear and timely guidance during a crisis. If top city officials misspoke about the shelter-in order, they should have clarified that immediately, said one Manhattan school administrator.

“The lack of communication is what creates people making up their own stories,” said the administrator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “If this isn’t the policy, and someone made a mistake, just own that and keep it pushing.”

Instead, school leaders were left largely on their own to figure out the protocol — and the confusion trickled down to teachers and parents.

Some schools let students out early. Anxious parents showed up to retrieve kids, and some students feared longer-than-normal commutes on public transit.

“A lot of our kids travel an hour each way on a good day,” said the Brooklyn administrator. “We don’t want kids traveling on buses they don’t normally take in the dark.”

Brooklyn dad Geoff Sanoff, who has two children in two different high schools, recounted the widely varied response from his children’s schools.

At Brooklyn Tech, where one son attends, the school emailed families about what they were doing, where families should go to meet their teens, and options for kids to stay in the building as they waited to get picked up. At the smaller Brooklyn high school his other son attends, there was “radio silence,” Sanoff said.

Brooklyn Tech is walkable to their Park Slope home, so the commute home for that son was doable. The other school, however, is accessible by the G train, which was not running. Sanoff’s son at that school, a freshman, wasn’t sure what to do, or where to wait to be picked up since he was not allowed to stay inside the building.

“With no subway, getting home from school turned into a three-hour round trip in a grandparent’s car to pick him up,” Sanoff said, adding that his son waited outside for more than an hour.

Sanoff understands that Brooklyn Tech — which is the nation’s largest high school with nearly 6,000 students — has kids from across the city and needs to be on top of coordinating its communications. His other son’s school, which may serve more kids who live locally, may not have realized that new students who travel further may have needed more help and may not have known who to ask for help, he said.

“It kind of baffles me that nobody said anything to him,” Sanoff said. “I am not angry with them, just frustrated at this situation. At the end of the day, the real question to me is, ‘How is it that each school has been left to fend for itself in a situation like this? Has there been no guidance from on high?’ No thought for school buses to be set aside, nothing from the DOE to help parents and schools know where to go, what to do, or who to reach out to for help.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@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.

‘Caught between two systems’: NYC family sues over missed Early Intervention services

2023-09-26T21:50:13+00:00

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After a Brooklyn toddler with autism failed to receive many of the therapies she was entitled to, two city agencies refused to provide makeup services to help her catch up, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday against the city’s health and education departments.

The case concerns a child, identified by her initials R.A., who has limited speech skills and cognitive delays and was eligible for a range of therapies through Early Intervention, a program that provides services to children with various delays from birth to age 3.

The child, who was 2-years-old at the time, was entitled to occupational, speech, and behavioral therapies, but she only received limited sessions of behavioral therapy during her seven months in the Early Intervention program and none of the occupational and speech therapies, the suit claims.

When the toddler turned 3 last year, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which operates Early Intervention for city residents, refused to provide makeup services for the therapies since she had “aged out” of the program.

The girl now attends a special education preschool. But the Education Department, which is responsible for overseeing special education plans for school-age children, has also declined to provide additional therapies to make up for what she missed during Early Intervention.

The family is “caught between two systems,” said Betty Baez Melo, the director of the early childhood education project at Advocates for Children, which brought the lawsuit along with Morrison & Foerster LLP. “Neither agency is taking accountability in order to provide the child with the services that she didn’t receive.”

The lawsuit contends that R.A. has a right to what are known as “compensatory services” under federal law to make up for lost therapy sessions. The family unsuccessfully attempted to secure compensatory services from the Health Department from an administrative law judge. (Advocates for Children is also involved in a separate federal lawsuit against the Education Department to expedite makeup services for school-age children.)

Receiving therapies early on is crucial for young children with disabilities or delays, according to experts, because their brains are still rapidly developing. Securing services early in a child’s life can also help head off the need for more extensive — and costly — special education services later on.

Though the lawsuit centers on a single child, Baez Melo said the case has implications for other families. About 58% of children who were eligible for Early Intervention didn’t receive all of the services they were entitled to between July 2018 and February 2022, according to an audit released by the state comptroller earlier this year. That period includes the onset of the pandemic, when the number of children receiving services dropped and providers scrambled to provide therapies remotely.

Spokespeople for the city’s health, education, and law departments did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

R.A.’s mother, a 29-year-old who lives in East New York and is identified in the lawsuit as B.A., said the process of securing services has been a distressing experience.

B.A. suspected her daughter might have a disability early on, as R.A. struggled to make eye contact, often repeated questions instead of answering them, had difficulty sitting still, and did not like touching or eating soft food.

The family hoped Early Intervention services could help with some of those challenges. The city initially offered teletherapy, a setup that would be difficult for the family to access since R.A. has trouble sitting still, and her mother does not speak English fluently, making it more challenging to follow a therapist’s instructions to deliver services to her daughter.

Although R.A. received some behavioral therapy, known as Applied Behavioral Analysis, it never amounted to the 20 hours a week she was supposed to receive, according to court papers. She also didn’t receive any of her required speech and occupational sessions.

Many families across the city struggle to secure providers, a challenge that is more acute in certain neighborhoods. B.A., an immigrant from Bangladesh, also wondered whether language barriers made the service coordinator take her less seriously.

“I didn’t do anything wrong — we started everything on time, but I couldn’t help my daughter,” B.A. said in Bengali during an interview that was interpreted by her sister. “She needs a lot of help besides what the [Education Department] provides.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

In ‘State of our Schools’ speech, NYC schools chief emphasizes literacy and career readiness efforts

2023-09-20T22:17:31+00:00

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In his 20 months as chancellor of New York City’s schools, David Banks has repeatedly emphasized the need to boost literacy rates and expose more students to career opportunities before they leave high school.

Those ideas were front and center in a “State of our Schools” address he delivered Wednesday at Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Boys and Girls High School, in an auditorium packed with school staff, administrators, union officials, and parent leaders.

The speech hewed to priorities Banks has repeatedly advanced and provided some insight into how he’d like to expand existing efforts.

A program that gives schools resources to spin up new career tracks and offer early college credit is set to grow next year, he said. And Project Pivot — a $15 million initiative that pairs schools with community organizations that provide counseling, mentorship, and violence interruption — will expand to 250 schools this year, up from 144.

Banks didn’t name any new education initiatives, which could indicate that the chancellor’s focus this year will be on implementing existing programs rather than scaling up new ones. It could also reflect budget constraints, as the city grapples with dwindling federal relief dollars and a new round of budget cuts mandated by City Hall.

Here’s what Banks’ speech did — and didn’t — focus on. We’d also love to hear from you about what you think the chancellor should prioritize. Let us know by filling out this survey.

Literacy, literacy, literacy (and maybe other subjects, too)

Banks’ speech focused on his highest-profile policy initiative: boosting the city’s middling literacy rates by overhauling school reading curriculums. Beginning this fall, elementary schools in nearly half the city’s districts are required to use one of three reading programs — with the rest of schools following a year from now.

For years, principals enjoyed wide latitude to pick their own curriculums — and hundreds selected “balanced literacy” programs that Banks has blamed for poor reading outcomes. During his speech, the schools chief played a video of a student using illustrations to guess the words in a picture book instead of sounding them out, a common element of balanced literacy programs that has been widely discredited.

“That is how we’ve been teaching the kids to read — it’s a completely misguided way,” Banks said. “We are fixing that playbook starting right now.”

Banks signaled that he’s interested in changes beyond elementary school literacy. Already, the city has tapped 250 high schools to use a single algebra curriculum. In a less coordinated effort, some high school superintendents are beginning to institute their own reading program mandates. And early childhood centers are also moving to a uniform curriculum. More curriculum changes could be on the horizon across a range of subjects and grade levels, a process Banks suggested would take years.

“Teachers need more support,” Banks told reporters after the speech. “They need a little bit more of a script of what we’re expecting from them.”

A focus on career and technical programs

Banks framed the event with a philosophical question: “What is the purpose of school?”

Part of the answer, he said, is better-preparing students to enter the workforce, a shift that comes as college enrollment is dipping locally and nationally. This year, 100 high schools are part of a program called FutureReadyNYC that gives schools resources to launch new career tracks and paid work opportunities in education, technology, business, or health care. Officials said they sent about $18 million to those schools to support new programming.

“Historically, too many 12th graders leave our school system with a diploma but not much else,” Banks said. “Our pathways work is rewriting the script.”

Banks said FutureReady will grow by at least half next year, in line with previous promises to expand the program. By 2030, officials also vowed to create plans for every student that outline their postsecondary goals and map out a strategy to achieve them. About 70% of students have similar plans right now, officials said.

The new career tracks created through FutureReady are typically less intensive than state-certified career and technical programs and are easier to quickly scale up, allowing the city to reach more students. However, some observers worry that in an effort to expand those offerings to a wider array of schools, the programming will be less rigorous. (City officials contend that the programming is just as rigorous.)

Principals generally said they’re glad the Education Department is making it easier to set up work-based learning experiences, but it may prove challenging for officials to offer them at a large scale. A department spokesperson said that just over 2,800 students have received paid work opportunities through FutureReady so far.

A separate initiative aims to provide students with paid apprenticeships, and officials have previously said their goal is to offer those opportunities to 3,000 students over three years. About 150 students began apprenticeships last school year and another 257 are expected to start in October, a spokesperson said.

What didn’t get mentioned

Banks’ speech didn’t touch on some of the biggest looming challenges, including a fresh series of budget cuts ordered by Mayor Eric Adams, which could initially require a $700 million reduction to the Education Department’s budget but could exceed $2 billion if the city follows through with all of the planned cuts. The city’s schools are also facing the expiration of billions in federal relief funding, enrollment declines that raise the specter of mergers and closures, and alarming rates of chronic absenteeism.

The federal relief funding has supported a slew of initiatives, including expanded preschool for 3-year-olds, summer school, and hundreds of social workers. It also supports bilingual staff for English learners — a growing need as 26,000 children in temporary housing, many of them new migrants, have enrolled in the school system over the past year and half, Banks said.

Taking questions from reporters, Banks said decisions about cuts have not yet been made.

“Anytime you’re talking about cuts of that magnitude, it’s going to impact some of the programs that we already have in place,” Banks said.

The chancellor added that the department hopes to avoid slashing school budgets and will prioritize the city’s literacy and career pathways initiatives.

“That’s where we’re going to be making sure that the investments are still there,” he said.

This story has been updated with additional responses from the Education Department, which were provided days after this story was published.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Instagram accounts shut down after NYC principal threatens to suspend student followers

2023-09-20T00:40:41+00:00

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After a Queens principal threatened to suspend students who followed Instagram accounts with anonymous posts about their classmates — igniting a fierce debate about how to respond to students’ online behavior — the social media pages were removed.

One student was behind the two Instagram accounts, Francis Lewis High School Principal David Marmor said Tuesday afternoon during a meeting of the School Leadership Team.

He said the school was in the process of suspending the student. Marmor and an education department spokesperson declined to say if any of the Instagram account followers faced disciplinary action.

“Over the past few days the entire school community came together to condemn the online bullying and hate found on the two previously highlighted Instagram accounts,” Marmor wrote in a letter posted on the school’s website on Monday. “I am very proud to announce that the account owners have been identified, and BOTH ACCOUNTS ARE GONE!”

A range of “celebratory extracurricular activities” that had been canceled in response to the Instagram accounts — including a senior trip, prom, and an upcoming pep rally — would be allowed to resume, the principal wrote.

Francis Lewis High School is not alone in struggling to manage students’ online behavior, including social media accounts that allow kids to publicly post messages without identifying themselves.

But Marmor’s threat last week to suspend any student who followed two specific Instagram accounts — and withhold recommendation letters for college or work — represented a striking crackdown against students regardless of whether they had posted any harmful or bullying content. The move prompted criticism from civil rights groups and legal experts who said such discipline would violate students’ constitutional right to free speech.

The city’s Education Department stood by the policy, however, signaling to other school leaders that aggressive measures to curb students’ online posts may be tolerated on other campuses. The threat of harsh discipline also won backing from some members of the school community, including Shirley Aubin, president of the school’s parent association, who said the school has long wrestled with social media accounts that serve as platforms for bullying.

“This is not the first time that this situation arose, and I expect more to come, but the way he handled it met our expectations,” she said.

Principal dangles future discipline threats for other Instagram accounts

In his letter last week to the school’s more than 4,000 students, Marmor explicitly named two Instagram accounts that he characterized as “horrifying” and including “graphic and direct threats to specific children with bullying comments.”

One of them included videos of student fights that took place on and off campus, according to school officials and students who viewed them. That account was shut down by Instagram after students complained, according to an Education Department spokesperson.

The second account circulated anonymous posts that included gossip, criticism of the school’s bell schedule, and students revealing their crushes.

But it also amplified more troubling material. Some posts repeatedly bullied specific students. Others included racist language. One identified a student who allegedly had a sexually transmitted infection. A small number of posts targeted Marmor in vulgar or offensive ways.

Francis Lewis High School Principal David Marmor updated the School Leadership Team about the school’s response to the Instagram accounts on Tuesday.

The student responsible for the account voluntarily shut it down after getting caught, a department spokesperson said. The two accounts each had over 1,000 followers, school officials said.

Marmor indicated that several similar social media accounts were still active, but had far fewer followers. He warned that if they gained traction, he might once again cancel student activities — and he said the school might still discipline students who followed them.

Preston Green, a professor of educational leadership and law at the University of Connecticut, said schools can punish students for speech that disrupts the school’s learning environment or for conduct that occurs on school grounds. But he said suspending kids for following certain Instagram accounts would likely violate their First Amendment rights.

“Mere ‘following’ can’t be sufficient,” he said. “That’s going too far.”

Letter prompts swift action from students

As students streamed out of the campus on Tuesday afternoon, several said they thought the principal had overreacted. Although they acknowledged some of the Instagram posts may have been hurtful or offensive to some of their peers, they said the accounts didn’t seem to be causing major disruptions to the community.

“I don’t think anyone was talking about it that much,” said one sophomore. “Since he sent those emails to everyone, it became more of a well-known thing.” (Chalkbeat is withholding student names because of the threat of discipline.)

The sophomore acknowledged that the principal’s threat was effective. But “just because a problem was fixed doesn’t mean it was a good fix.” Punishing students who had nothing to do with the more hurtful posts by canceling student activities seemed unfair, he said.

Another student said she’d followed the two Instagram accounts and noted that the vast majority of posts weren’t geared toward bullying or naming specific students.

“They were just posting like weird content … weird fantasy stuff,” she said. “I just don’t feel like it was that serious.”

But after Marmor’s letter last week, she said she swiftly unfollowed them.

Another 10th grader also said he unfollowed the accounts after Marmor’s letter last week, partly at the urging of his mother who worried about him losing a recommendation letter for college.

This student thought that his peers should have the right to follow Instagram accounts without fear of reprisal, but the risk didn’t seem worth it. “I don’t really know too much about laws and what [the principal] can do legally,” he said.

A smaller number of students said they were glad the principal responded to the accounts. One said a lot of her peers were angry about canceling student activities. But if students are being bullied online or embarrassed by the posts “then I feel like he has to take some kind of action.” A stricter response, she said, is preferable to no response.

During the School Leadership Team meeting on Tuesday, Marmor acknowledged that most of the posts on the anonymous Instagram page did not name specific students or constitute bullying. But he emphasized that even a small number of posts can have an outsized effect, especially for the students who are targets.

“If you go to the random page and start pursuing it might take a little while to find them,” he said. “But if it’s about you, you know where it is.”

He noted that some of the accounts focus more directly on him — “I’ve got memes of me all over the internet doing horrifying things” — but he insisted that that wasn’t a motivation for the harsh response.

“I don’t care what anybody thinks about what I’m doing,” he said. “In the end, the only thing I care about is the safety and security of the kids in the building.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC principal threatens to suspend students who follow specific Instagram accounts

2023-09-15T21:37:31+00:00

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A New York City principal issued an unusual threat this week: All students who follow anonymous social media accounts connected to the school community could face suspension and lose out on a recommendation letter for college or work.

In a Wednesday letter to more than 4,000 students at Francis Lewis High School in Queens, Principal David Marmor identified the handles of two Instagram accounts he said are posting “horrifying content” including “graphic and direct threats to specific children with bullying comments,” according to a copy obtained by Chalkbeat.

Beginning Sept. 18, “any student still following either of the two sites or any other [similar] ‘confession’ type site, will be disciplined,” he wrote. “This will likely include suspension.”

He added: “The ability to use social media anonymously is the most destructive and dangerous challenge that society has faced, possibly ever, in my opinion.”

The threat of disciplinary action immediately drew fierce criticism from civil rights advocates who say punishing students based on the social media accounts they follow is a violation of their free speech rights.

“It’s unconstitutional in a number of ways,” said Justin Harrison, a senior policy counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “The right to speak anonymously and the right to receive information anonymously — without having to identify yourself to the government — is one of the oldest First Amendment protections there is.”

Plus, there are a number of logistical complications in disciplining students for following specific accounts. It’s unclear how the school could prove the identities of all the students who follow the Instagram accounts and then discipline them in a consistent way, since many students don’t use their real names on Instagram.

Marmor also vowed to cancel a range of “celebratory extracurricular activities” until the accounts are shut down or lose all of their followers, including a senior trip, prom, and an upcoming pep rally. Any students with information about who runs the Instagram accounts will “receive an appropriate award,” the letter notes.

Education department spokesperson Chyann Tull defended Marmor’s threat to suspend students. She noted the department’s policy allows for disciplining students who access or post hateful, discriminatory, harassing, or inflammatory material while on school premises or using school resources, such as WiFi.

“Our school leaders are empowered to take action against matters that threaten [the] wellbeing of the school community, and the principal’s actions are in line with the New York city Public Schools’ Internet Acceptable Use Policy and Discipline Code,” she wrote in an email. “We encourage our students to be upstanders and not bystanders, which includes upholding the values of their school communities.”

Marmor did not respond to an interview request.

One of the Instagram accounts identified in the letter had already been shut down by Friday, and Marmor indicated that the other site had already lost hundreds of followers in a note to school staff.

Chalkbeat reviewed hundreds of posts connected to one of the Instagram accounts Marmor cited. It solicits anonymous comments that are then republished. Many of the posts include musings, gossip, and crushes. “I lowkey miss my ex,” one post reads. “Being special Ed is embarrassing I hate it,” another said. One post links to a petition to change the school’s bell schedule.

Still, many others are sexually explicit, single out specific students, or include racist language. One post declares: “I dont like black people” and is signed with a first name. Another names a student who allegedly had a sexually transmitted infection. A handful of posts mention Marmor in vulgar or offensive ways.

Harrison noted that the school may be within its rights to discipline students who specifically target other students or school officials, though the anonymous nature of the messages makes that challenging.

“I’m not unsympathetic to the principal’s situation here,” he said. “The better responses are positive ones. You can’t threaten your way into a good school climate.”

One student at the school, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the principal’s reaction seemed extreme given that the Instagram accounts didn’t appear to be causing major disruptions.

“I haven’t heard much about the account at all,” the student said. “I think the big deal he’s making of it actually made it more popular.” Canceling events, the student added, made students angrier with the principal than whomever is behind the Instagram accounts.

The student said it’s not the first time the school has grappled with anonymous social media accounts, noting that school administrators have raised concerns about them in the past.

Shirley Aubin, president of the school’s parent association, said she supports the principal’s crackdown on students who follow the social media accounts.

“He can’t prevent them from following [the accounts] but he can create deterrents,” Aubin said. “It is a reasonable response,” she added. “The reality is there are consequences for your actions.”

Still, Marmor hinted in his letter that some members of the community may perceive the new disciplinary measures as draconian and he invited those with concerns to set up an appointment to speak with him.

“I am aware that the above steps are serious and dramatic,” he wrote. “The problem warrants it; this is a matter of life and death to me.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams vowed all NYC students would get dyslexia screening. So far, 1,500 have.

2023-09-14T09:00:00+00:00

This is part of an ongoing collaborative series between Chalkbeat and THE CITY investigating learning differences, special education, and other education challenges in city schools. Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s daily newsletter and THE CITY’S Daily Scoop newsletter to keep up with our reporting.

Mayor Eric Adams has made dyslexia screening a centerpiece of his education agenda, often citing his own reading challenges as a motivation for more intensive testing.

He’s even suggested every student is being assessed.

“We’re the first city of this size to have dyslexia screening for all of our children,” Adams said last November.

New York City began screening most children for reading challenges just before Adams took office in response to pandemic-related academic concerns. Adams subsequently launched a program that uses a second round of screeners for students who are struggling, to identify whether they are at risk of dyslexia.

But the effort has reached a fraction of kids across the five boroughs thus far.

About 1,500 students across 133 schools were assessed for risk of dyslexia last school year, according to city Department of Education figures obtained by THE CITY and Chalkbeat.

Officials say they are planning to use those screeners more widely this school year, promising to expand to all elementary schools serving grades K-5 and 50 middle and high schools.

Dyslexia screening is popular with many advocates, parents, and elected officials who have long argued that too many struggling readers have fallen through the cracks. Conducting more rigorous testing could help identify students before they fall far behind, they argue, and keep parents from having to arrange their own pricey assessments and tutors to help their children catch up, a major equity concern.

Identifying students who are struggling can also spur known remedies, particularly structured, sequenced literacy instruction that is phonics-based.

But multiple literacy experts said the secondary tests — which flag students who are at risk of dyslexia rather than offering a specific diagnosis — don’t reveal much beyond what the first set of tests already show.

Of the 1,000 children in elementary school who were given the secondary assessment, 95% of them were identified as being at risk of dyslexia — suggesting schools already had a clear sense of which students were struggling. (In middle and high school, about 80% of students were flagged for extra help by the additional screeners.)

More important, experts said, is ensuring teachers have the tools they need to figure out why a student is struggling and to intervene.

“Teachers already know who needs more help,” Adrea Truckenmiller, an associate professor at Michigan State University who has studied literacy screening, said of the second layer of testing. “What they need to do is figure out what to teach the kids the next day, and this information is not really giving them that.”

Jonah Allon, a City Hall spokesperson, defended the secondary screening, saying it is part of “the most comprehensive approach to supporting dyslexic students in our city’s history.”

While the initiative’s expansion “will not happen overnight,” Allon wrote in an email, “Mayor Adams laid out an aggressive plan to bring this screening to all New York City students, and we are executing that plan right now.”

Education department officials said they were paying close attention to schools that are part of the city’s sweeping new literacy curriculum mandate — starting with nearly half of all elementary campuses this year. They will have access to educators who are trained to deliver the screening and provide more individual help to address students’ reading challenges, said Carolyne Quintana, the Education Department’s deputy chancellor of teaching and learning.

“We need that kind of more targeted information — more specific information that a secondary screener gives you that those others don’t,” Quintana said

Carolyne Quintana, the Education Department’s deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, observes a reading lesson at P.S. 125 in Manhattan during the first week of school.

Who has been screened, and what happens next?

In the wake of the pandemic, New York City began to standardize regular screening in reading and math to track disruptions to student learning and help teachers intervene.

That effort began during Mayor Bill de Blasio’s final year in office. Last school year, roughly 500,000 students in kindergarten through 10th grade were given general literacy assessments spread throughout the year.

Teachers are supposed to use the results of those assessments to adjust their instruction and provide individualized help. The Adams administration added a secondary layer of screening for students who performed poorly on the first set of assessments at about 133 pilot schools. (Last year, schools used Acadience Rapid Automatized Naming and Normed Spelling Measure for kindergarten and first grade students, and Acadience Oral Reading Fluency for students in grades two and up.)

Overall, 1,500 students received secondary screening across those schools, with 1,350 identified as being at risk of dyslexia. That’s about 2% of the 63,000 students enrolled across those campuses. Teachers were trained on administering the screenings and on interpreting the results, as well as on providing extra support, department officials said.

Students who were flagged by the secondary screeners should receive four days per week of 30- to 45-minute sessions of “explicit, systematic, evidence-based reading instruction” for the students deemed at risk, according to an Education Department spokesperson. Students not flagged by the secondary screeners but who are still struggling with reading are eligible for 30-minute sessions three days a week.

At P.S. 125 in Harlem, which has given teachers intensive training to address reading challenges, Principal Yael Leopold said the school uses a range of assessments and observations to determine why a student is struggling — a process that isn’t always straightforward.

“Maybe a child’s not hearing sounds correctly,” she said. “For another, it could be vision. For another, it’s their processing or their expressive language. I mean, there’s a million reasons why a child may struggle — and so that’s where we put all of our heads together.”

P.S. 125 Principal Yael Leopold said a range of literacy assessments help the school determine which students need extra help in small groups.

The school typically provides students who need extra help with small group instruction in their regular classrooms for about four weeks at a time instead of pulling them out for special sessions. Leopold said that keeps children from feeling like they’re being singled out.

“Children felt still part of the classroom community,” Leopold said. “They’re like, ‘I’m a great reader — I’m making improvement.’ And that’s really important to us.”

Experts say the tests aren’t worth it, but politicians push for more

Experts who are familiar with the secondary screeners stressed that they flag students for risk of dyslexia — rather than offering a more formal diagnosis — and generally aren’t much more sensitive than the first round of screening.

“This notion of ‘Let’s test them again and see if they need more’ — I’m not sure that actually buys you a whole lot,” said Timothy Shanahan, a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who has written about the research on literacy screening. “If you say a kid is dyslexic, that doesn’t tell me at all what he needs,” he added. “It’s really a whole set of different disabilities all kind of lumped together.”

The screeners the city is using to identify students at risk of dyslexia identify broad issues like challenges with spelling or decoding words that can predict other reading problems, including dyslexia, Shanahan said. But they aren’t detailed enough to give educators a roadmap of what specific instructional tweaks might help.

Shanahan and others said the main downside to the additional screening is potentially taking time away from instruction. But they generally said it isn’t harmful and may signal to advocates and parents that the city is serious about addressing literacy deficits.

For Naomi Peña, a longtime public school parent leader who has four kids with dyslexia, the shift in how the mayor has placed struggling readers squarely at the forefront of the city’s efforts represents a sea change.

“As long as I’ve been in the public school system, the last two years is honestly the first time this ever has been discussed,” said Peña. “It’s unfortunate that it took someone who is dyslexic finally to become mayor and be in a position of power to want to center it, but this is where we are.”

The administration has won praise from many experts for focusing on literacy and requiring elementary schools to begin using curriculums that officials say are more aligned with research on how children learn to read. The administration has also launched some smaller-scale efforts, including more intensive training programs at a handful of schools and a first-of-its-kind district school focused on students with dyslexia and other print-based learning disabilities.

Additional screening for dyslexia is also popular with many elected officials who see the measure as addressing a significant equity issue.

State Assembly members Jo Anne Simon and Robert Carroll of Brooklyn have been vocal proponents of providing greater support for students with dyslexia and embraced the mayor’s efforts. They said that while the number of students who have been screened is low, the ball is moving in the right direction.

“Systematizing anything in a school system takes time, and in a large school system it’s going to take significant time,” said Simon, a former disability rights attorney.

Carroll said the city’s efforts are well-meaning but that fully implementing the program in every school could take years. He said with that trajectory, a more specific plan for getting there needs to be shared publicly.

Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks created a Dyslexia Task Force that was charged with producing a policy paper on the city’s “vision and approach to supporting students at risk of and/or living with dyslexia.” Though the report was set to be released in August 2022, Education Department officials did not provide a copy or explain the delay.

“At least we’re moving in the right direction,” said Carroll, who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. “We’re talking about it. I think they are sincere in trying to solve problems. I think it’s how do we perfect it, how do you scale it?”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@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.

36% of NYC public school students were chronically absent last school year

2023-09-06T22:32:05+00:00

Thirty-six percent of New York City public school students were chronically absent last school year, missing at least 10% of the school year, according to figures released by Education Department officials on Wednesday.

That represents a modest improvement compared with the 2021-2022 school year, which saw chronic absenteeism exceed 40%, the highest rate in decades.

Despite a year-over-year reduction, the figures are a stark reminder that absenteeism remains a stubborn challenge that will continue to complicate efforts to catch students up from years of pandemic-fueled disruptions.

Before the coronavirus forced school buildings to shutter, chronic absenteeism rates typically hovered closer to 25%. But absenteeism has surged in recent years, reaching 30% during the 2020-2021 school year, when students were allowed to learn virtually or in person.

Absenteeism exploded to roughly 4 in 10 students — or nearly 353,000 children — during the 2021-22 school year, the first time all children were required to attend school in person since March 2020. Coronavirus-related illnesses likely played a role, as hundreds of thousands of students and staff tested positive that year.

But even as there were fewer spikes in coronavirus cases last school year, the effects of the pandemic still reverberated. With student mental health concerns on the rise, some families struggled to coax their children to attend school. School staffers said caregivers were more likely to keep their children home at any sign of illness. And schools may also have struggled to re-engage students who grew accustomed to long stretches of remote learning and relaxed attendance expectations.

Whatever the cause, chronic absenteeism is often seen as a key metric of school performance, as missed school typically means missed learning. Absences can also hurt student achievement in the long run.

One Manhattan middle school principal said he was surprised to see persistent chronic absenteeism at his school last year, even as staff made an effort to reach out to families and offer prizes for high attendance.

“I was thinking [attendance] would come back, and it didn’t,” said the principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There’s a much more pervasive sense that if my kid doesn’t go to school they can still do the work at home.”

The principal wished he had more resources available to hire additional social workers, conduct more home visits, or even fund for outside-of-the-box ideas like financial incentives for student attendance.

During a press briefing on Wednesday, city officials said they’ve made a few district-level tweaks to address chronic absenteeism, including giving superintendents authority over a cadre of attendance teachers deployed to schools with more acute absenteeism problems. They credited those efforts with helping to ease absenteeism last year.

Education Department officials also pointed to new high school programs that allow a small number of students to attend school virtually or on a hybrid schedule that includes some in-person learning.

First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said those schools were created specifically for students who might struggle in more traditional settings or who work jobs during the day and can benefit from additional flexibility. He said those programs are part of the city’s strategy to address chronic absenteeism, but also acknowledged the challenge is much broader.

“Chronic absenteeism is not just a problem in New York City,” he said. “This is a national problem in every large urban district — and many of the small ones.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Educators: Do you feel prepared for NYC’s new reading curriculum mandate?

2023-09-05T10:00:00+00:00

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A sweeping new curriculum mandate is rolling out to hundreds of New York City elementary schools this fall, requiring thousands of teachers to deploy new reading programs.

The mandate has won praise from many literacy experts, as schools have long had freedom to use a wide range of materials — with uneven results. But they note its success hinges on how strong the new materials are and how well they’re implemented.

Education department officials say they have a rigorous training plan and that all teachers using new reading curriculums will receive introductory training by the first day of school, including planning their first lessons. More intensive support and coaching is expected this fall.

If you’re an educator or school leader who is switching reading curriculums this year under the new mandate, Chalkbeat wants to hear from you. We’re interested in learning about whether you feel prepared to make the transition, what training you’ve received so far, and how you feel about the new curriculum materials your school is using.

If you teach reading in the first phase of schools to be covered by the mandate this fall — which includes districts 5, 11, 12, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 32, and some schools in District 75 — please let us know using the form below.

Nearly all of the schools in the districts mentioned above are required to use one of three programs: Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds; Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and Expeditionary Learning, from EL Education. Superintendents were given the authority to pick the reading curriculum for all of the schools under their purview — all but two have selected Into Reading.

Even if you’re not an educator, you can still fill out the form below to let us know what questions you have about the big changes underway.

If you are having trouble viewing this form, go here.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@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.

NYC is mandating new reading curriculums. This teacher had a head start.

2023-08-24T19:57:43+00:00

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Second grade teacher Janina Jarnich was focused on bats.

As her students gathered on the classroom rug one June morning, she instructed them to flip through their workbooks and take their “magic finger” to trace the words from an article about the nocturnal pollinators. Her students read aloud in unison about the dangers humans pose, from noises that interfere with bats’ sleep patterns to building renovations that can upend their roosts.

The lesson came from a curriculum called EL Education — one of three reading programs public elementary schools may use under a sweeping new mandate beginning this fall. All elementary schools in Bronx District 11 must now use EL Education, including Jarnich’s. But she has a head start: Her school, P.S. 169 Baychester Academy, has used the program for years.

The curriculum has won praise from advocates who say its focus on building students’ background knowledge on a range of topics will set them up to be strong readers. It also includes lots of opportunities for writing. But some educators note EL Education is dense with materials and can take time to unpack. So far, only one of the city’s districts out of the initial 15 covered by the mandate have selected the curriculum.

We recently caught up with Jarnich, a 26-year veteran of the city’s public schools, about how she approaches reading instruction, what sets EL Education apart, and what kind of training she wished he had.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

I was in my junior year of college and unsure of what I wanted for my career. I had originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but that was not working out. My mom was a NYC public school teacher, and my dad had just retired as a history professor from Queens College, so I decided to give teaching a try.

Literacy has taken center stage since Mayor Eric Adams announced a new reading curriculum mandate. What do you make of the renewed focus on how schools teach children to read?

I was very happy to hear about the new mandate. Teachers have known for a long time that the whole language approach and Lucy Calkins’ Teachers College readers workshops did not work for every child. Phonemic awareness and phonics are key for children to learn to read.

Your school already adopted EL Education, one of the three reading programs all elementary schools will be required to use. How would you describe that curriculum’s approach to a parent?

EL uses real fiction and nonfiction texts to teach real-world issues. There are four modules for second grade divided into three units. In unit one, students learn the background information about the topic and necessary vocabulary through close reading, discussion, shared reading, and short response. In unit two, students continue to learn about the topic by reading informational texts and writing about the topic. In unit three, students work on a culminating project: informational writing, narrative writing, opinion writing, and developing their research skills. Students also present their [work] in different ways and share their learning with other members of the school community and their families.

What are EL Education’s strengths and weaknesses?

EL’s strengths are the texts that provide the students the opportunity to learn about real-world issues.

The weakness is the difficulty of navigating all of the materials. Even after using EL for four years, it can still be tricky to find the end-of-unit assessments and to make sure you have all of the materials necessary for each lesson. There is a teacher’s guide, supplemental materials book, and student notebooks. The assessments are sometimes in any of these books. At my school we find it necessary to supplement the writing by giving weekly writing assignments, where the students use familiar texts to answer text-dependent questions.

Given the volume of materials you have to navigate, how do you approach crafting lesson plans?

EL has many components, and it takes time to learn where all of the materials are in the teacher’s guide and supporting materials. There is a Facebook group that I joined called Open Up Resources, where educators from around the country share their experiences with EL, from how to display vocabulary words to the differentiation of paper choice to meet the needs of all of our students. EL provides only one type of writing paper and planning pages, such as graphic organizers. Many of my students need picture support, primary lined paper, or additional supports since they are English language learners or students with special needs. Also, the Open Up Resources and Learn Zillion websites have all of the EL materials and slides for each lesson to help when planning.

At my school, we meet as a grade team to plan out each module. We take a backwards planning approach, where we look at the performance task and see what we need to teach in order for our students to be successful when working on their project.

What impact has the pandemic had on the way you approach reading instruction?

Many of the children are lacking the foundational skills necessary for them to become successful readers by the end of second grade. At my school, we have been using Heggerty to increase the students’ phonemic awareness and Fundations to improve their phonics skills. We use online programs such as Amira and IXL to increase fluency and improve reading skills, such as comprehension.

Thousands of teachers are in the midst of learning how to implement new reading programs. Did you receive training to implement EL Education? If so, what made those trainings helpful or not?

I did receive multiple trainings before and during the first two years of starting EL. The trainings were more about unpacking the modules and planning. I really would have benefitted from seeing EL lessons in action and in a classroom setting.

One of EL Education’s goals is to build students’ background knowledge on a range of topics — what’s your favorite lesson to teach from it?

Module two is my favorite. It’s about how fossils tell about Earth’s changes. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

My second graders learn all about being a paleontologist. They become experts on the process of fossilization. By the end of the module, they write a narrative where they are the paleontologist that makes the greatest discovery of their lives. The module lends itself to lots of hands-on experiences, like making imprints and doing a “dinosaur dig.” Since we are in NYC, I of course take the class on a field trip to visit the Museum of Natural History to see the fossils.

What are your go-to strategies for helping struggling readers access texts that might stretch their reading abilities?

The EL texts are on a third to fourth grade level. They are filled with content vocabulary. Many of my students are unable to read the text on their own, so we choral read during close reading time. The students also work with a partner and read together. This allows all of my students access to the text. We also break the text into chunks, whether paragraphs or pages, and discuss with partners and as a class.

Systemwide, do you think it’s a good idea to mandate that schools use specific reading programs? What will it take for that effort to be successful?

Yes, I think it’s a good idea to mandate specific reading programs. Many times I will receive students in the middle of the year from other schools in New York City, and they are not even near the same level as my students. Hopefully, with everyone using similar reading programs, students will have access to the same education.

Schools need to be given the resources and funding necessary so they can successfully implement the program. Teachers need to be given training and time to learn the program. Teachers also need to be given the freedom to adjust the program to their students’ needs.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I had much difficulty learning to read as a first grader. At the time, I was taught only with phonics drills and round-robin reading, where at reading group time, students take turns reading a portion of the text out loud. It took me a long time to find that love for reading. As a teacher, I feel it is just as important to learn to read as it is to love to read. I share my love for reading with my students through read-alouds. I also try to provide books in the classroom library on topics that interest my students.

Are you doing anything to relax over the summer?

I spend the summer boating with family and friends.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Only 1 in 3 NYC schools are fully accessible to students with physical disabilities, report says

2023-08-23T10:00:00+00:00

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Fewer than one in three New York City public schools are fully accessible to students with physical disabilities, according to a report released Wednesday by Advocates for Children that calls on the city to ramp up funding for building upgrades.

With the city expected to release its initial five-year capital plan for schools in November, the group is pushing for $1.25 billion to more quickly address major gaps in building accessibility.

That funding, which would run from 2025 through 2029, would allow roughly half of the city’s schools to be fully accessible according to the report, addressing a longstanding problem that has drawn criticism from parents and federal prosecutors alike. The City Council is slated to approve the capital plan in June, though it is typically amended twice a year thereafter.

Officials have made some strides in recent years, in part due to pressure from advocates who successfully lobbied the city to devote $750 million to the effort in the current capital plan, which runs from 2020 through 2024.

The city is on track to boost the share of fully accessible programs from about one in five schools to one in three under the current capital program, according to the Advocates for Children analysis. (The figures do not include certain alternative schools, prekindergarten programs, or charter schools. Nor do they include satellite campuses, as schools may have more than one location.)

“That represents a huge amount of progress, which really shows that when you commit to making schools accessible, you can make a huge difference,” said Sarah Part, a policy analyst at Advocates for Children. “The current lack of accessibility isn’t inevitable.”

Inaccessible school buildings have long represented a barrier for students with physical disabilities, leaving children with few — or even zero — nearby school options. They can also limit students’ ability to take advantage of New York City’s extensive choice system, which allows children to apply for schools outside their home neighborhoods. Nearly 39% of schools have no accessible classrooms for students with mobility needs, according to the Advocates for Children report.

Abraham Weitzman, a rising junior at Columbia University who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, took the bus more than an hour each way to private school through eighth grade.

“This was while I lived across the street from an inaccessible elementary school,” Weitzman wrote in an email. “I didn’t get the chance to find community in my neighborhood.”

Weitzman eventually attended Bard High School Early College Queens, a fully accessible public school, though the process of navigating the high school admissions process was a challenge. The staff and students on many campuses were welcoming, but he quickly found the buildings weren’t as accommodating.

In one case, he visited a school he liked, only to find his wheelchair didn’t fit in the bathroom, leaving his mother to carry him into a stall.

Although he had a positive experience at Bard, access for students with physical disabilities across the public school system “is disgraceful,” Weitzman wrote. “We must put our efforts into making it better for future students.”

Obstacles for students remain despite building accessibility gains

Federal officials have also spotlighted dire accessibility problems.

In 2015, then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara released findings from an investigation that found elementary school accessibility problems in New York City were so severe they amounted to a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Even though many of the city’s school buildings are more than 100 years old, Bharara found city officials failed to improve accessibility even when renovating older buildings.

Part said the city has taken accessibility improvements more seriously in recent years. But the scale of the problem — and the massive amount of funding required to fully address it — means even if the city heeds Advocates for Children’s call for more funding, about half of schools will still not be fully accessible by 2029, nearly four decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act passed.

Asked about their accessibility goals, city officials declined to say whether they hope to make all schools fully accessible, though they pointed to improvements over the past five years.

“This report acknowledges how far we have come, and the ongoing $750 million commitment in our current capital plan towards our shared goal of making school buildings more accessible,” Kevin Ortiz, a spokesperson for the School Construction Authority, said in a statement, referring to Advocates Children’s analysis.

City officials have made incremental gains, including improvements that render some buildings “partially accessible.” About 20% of the city’s school buildings meet that definition, which means some — but not all — classrooms and facilities can accommodate students with physical disabilities.

In recent years, the city began releasing more granular school-level reports that outline which areas students with physical disabilities can access. Advocates for Children also created a map alongside their report with school-level accessibility information.

Partially accessible buildings can still present significant obstacles. Manhattan mom Yuvania Espino sent her daughter Mia Simpson, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, to a partially accessible elementary school in East Harlem that specializes in serving students with disabilities.

But the front entrance was above a small set of stairs, which forced the family to stand by a separate accessible entrance, sometimes in the rain, as they waited for a staff member to unlock the door each day.

Mia took classes on the school’s first floor, but didn’t have access to certain classrooms or support on other levels, including a second-floor gym that helped students with sensory difficulties. Over time, many of her friends moved to classrooms on other floors, which distressed Mia and made her act out, Espino said.

Mia Simpson, left, poses for a photo with her little sister, Kira. Mia lacked access to certain classrooms during her time at a New York City public school, and wasn’t able to use the school’s front entrance.

“We don’t know to this day what an elevator would have done for Mia’s academic performance at that school,” Espinso said. The family ultimately decided to send Mia to an accessible private school, where her tuition is covered by the city.

Mia, now 14, is still affected by accessibility problems. She often has to miss performances and other events at her younger sister’s public school because the auditorium is on the second floor and there is no elevator.

“When enrolling your kids in school, no parents should have to think about accessing the building,” Espino said. “I’m thrilled that we’ve taken some baby steps, but we need to buckle up and take some giant leaps.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Betty Rosa, New York’s top education official, raises equity concerns over class size law

2023-08-17T21:07:14+00:00

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State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa raised fresh concerns Thursday about a new law that will require New York City to slash class sizes, responding to a Chalkbeat analysis that found that the highest-poverty schools are least likely to benefit.

Rosa said the equity implications of the law are “a problem,” as lower-need schools are more likely to have larger class sizes that violate the new caps and will therefore disproportionately benefit from the policy.

The law does not come with new funding earmarked to reduce class sizes, raising the possibility of difficult tradeoffs, such as cuts to other schools or programs.

“You’re gonna have to take it from Peter to give it to Paul,” Rosa said during an education conference hosted by the news organization City & State.

As the state’s highest-ranking education official and staunch advocate of equity in education, Rosa’s critique of the policy is noteworthy, though she has no direct power to alter it. The law, passed overwhelmingly by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, represented one of the biggest changes in state education policy last year. It was widely celebrated by educators and advocates who point to research that shows smaller class sizes often boost student learning and argue that small classes are a basic necessity that all students should enjoy.

But because higher-poverty schools already have smaller class sizes, those schools are least likely to benefit from the influx of resources that will be required to comply with the mandate.

Experts have warned that city officials could be forced to funnel more resources to some of the city’s better-off schools — funding that could have otherwise been spent on social workers, tutoring, or other support at higher-need campuses.

Rosa suggested that tradeoff is at the heart of her worry about the new policy.

She said education policy ought to be driven “by needs — not driven by trying to give everybody the same thing.”

A spokesperson for Hochul did not respond to a request for comment about Rosa’s critique of the class size policy or answer questions about the law’s equity implications. (The governor does not appoint the state’s education commissioner.)

Implementing the law will require the city to hire thousands of new teachers at a cost of between $1.3 billion and 1.9 billion a year, according to projections from the New York City Department of Education and the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Experts have warned the hiring spree could prompt more affluent schools to poach educators from higher-need schools, which have long struggled to attract qualified staff and are more likely to have high turnover rates.

Still, the class size law’s backers said those concerns are outweighed by the need to reduce class sizes across all schools, as the current caps allow classes as large as 34 students. Under the new law, most classes won’t be allowed to exceed 25 children. Supporters also note that the majority of the students who will see their class sizes shrink come from low-income families, as most of the city’s students fall into that category.

State Sen. John Liu, who sponsored the state legislation and also attended the City & State event, was unwavering in his support for the law. He argued that the city should direct recent increases in state funding to the effort, noting that he believes small classes are a necessary ingredient for a quality education.

“You cannot provide a sound basic education when class sizes are still excessively large,” he said during a panel discussion at the conference. “It’s as simple as that.”

Matt Barnum contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC must slash class sizes under a new law. The neediest schools stand to benefit least.

2023-08-17T10:00:00+00:00

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When Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a new law last year that would slash class sizes in New York City, praise came in from many quarters.

Teachers, along with their union, hailed the move as a victory that would improve classroom conditions and boost learning. Education activists said smaller class sizes would benefit the most vulnerable students. Lawmakers in Albany, who overwhelmingly passed the bill, rejoiced.

There are good reasons for this enthusiasm. Studies have found that students often learn more in smaller classes. Some research suggests that children from low-income families, who constitute a majority of New York City students, benefit the most. Plus, smaller classes are popular with parents and teachers alike.

But in recent months, some of the new law’s costs and tradeoffs have come into sharper focus. A Chalkbeat analysis shows that because the city’s highest-poverty schools already have smaller classes, they stand to benefit the least from the state’s class size cap. This aligns with recent reports from the New York City Department of Education, the city’s Independent Budget Office, and The Urban Institute.

Researchers who have studied class size say that these findings raise troubling equity concerns. The class size cap could mean that new resources will be funneled not to the schools that have the greatest needs or lowest test scores but to some of the city’s better-off schools.

The cap could exacerbate teacher shortages in high-poverty communities by creating a hiring spree that encourages more advantaged schools to poach teachers. And city officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, said they’ll be hard pressed to afford the class size mandate absent additional state money.

“Some of the less advantaged schools already have smaller class sizes — in that way, it’s not putting the additional money you have into the schools that probably need it the most,” said Susanna Loeb, a Stanford University researcher who has studied New York City schools.

Highest-needs schools already have smallest class sizes

The new cap dramatically reduces the number of students allowed in a single classroom.

Under the previous rules, classes were generally capped at 30 to 34 students, depending on the grade, with 25 students in kindergarten. Under the new law, classes may not exceed 20 students in kindergarten through third grade, 23 students for grades 4-8, and 25 students in high school. Physical education and classes involving “performing groups” are limited to 40 children.

But the reductions in class size will not be shared evenly once the law is fully implemented over five years.

At the city’s highest poverty schools, only 38% of classrooms are larger than the new caps allow, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of city data from last school year. By contrast, at low- to mid-poverty schools, 69% of classrooms are above the caps.

To bring schools into compliance with the law, which will take full effect in 2028, the city will need thousands of new teachers at an annual cost of $1.3 billion to $1.9 billion, according to projections from the Education Department and the city’s Independent Budget Office. That’s at least 4% of the department’s operating budget.

At overcrowded schools that need more classroom space to reduce class sizes, the School Construction Authority estimated the costs could run tens of billions of dollars.

But since the state has not earmarked new funding attached to the class size law, it remains unclear how the city will pay for it. Experts warn of difficult tradeoffs. Additional dollars spent reducing class sizes on lower-need campuses could instead be directed to the city’s highest-need schools — to, say, hire more tutors to combat pandemic learning loss or additional social workers to address student mental health challenges.

In Brooklyn’s District 16, which includes much of Bedford-Stuyvesant and where the vast majority of students come from low-income families, 36% of classrooms were above the new class size caps. That’s the second-lowest rate of the city’s 32 districts.

NeQuan McLean, the president of District 16’s local parent council, said he wasn’t aware that higher-need districts are less likely to benefit from the new law, noting there wasn’t much public debate of that issue when the law passed.

“I would definitely have a problem with resources being pulled from low-income districts to go to high-income districts when investments need to be made in underserved districts,” McLean said. “We can’t use the method of robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

He said additional investments in his district are sorely needed, from upgraded gyms and bathrooms, to additional wraparound services in schools to combat food insecurity. He also wants more on-campus health services and dental clinics, as students often miss school to go to those appointments.

There will be tradeoffs at lower-need schools, too, as school leaders may be required to direct more resources to staff smaller classes, potentially forcing cuts to other programs. City officials may also have to cap enrollment at some schools.

“Maybe principals have decided they want slightly larger class sizes [in exchange] for a math coach,” said Matthew Chingos, an Urban Institute researcher who recently published a report about the impact of the class size caps and serves on a city advisory group on the issue. “It may force some tradeoffs that people didn’t fully appreciate.”

Supporters point to advantages of small classes

The law’s backers contend that small classes are a basic necessity with broad benefits to students.

Jake Jacobs, a Bronx art teacher, said it is difficult to offer individual support when his classes exceed 30 students. “Those classes were nightmares because of it,” he said. Despite some of the tradeoffs of the law, “as a teacher I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.”

As for concerns about equity, supporters point out that most students in New York City are from low-income families, so much of the class size cuts will still redound to their benefit.

“The law actually lowers class sizes for a higher number of high-need kids compared to lower-need kids,” said Christina Collins, the director of education policy at the United Federation of Teachers, which pushed for the new caps.

Collins and other supporters emphasize that the law also requires the Education Department to prioritize higher-need campuses first as the new caps phase in. (However, experts note this doesn’t address the key equity issue, since all schools regardless of poverty level will be required to meet the new class size limits within five years.)

Asked about concerns that the law would still require the city to funnel resources to schools with fewer high-need students, Collins pointed to education programs that give students access to the same resources regardless of family income, such prekindergarten or free meals.

Proponents also contend that there is funding available to cut class sizes, pointing to recent boosts in state education dollars that stem from a decades-old lawsuit that argued New York’s schools were not properly funded.

“The courts mandated that every kid get a sound, basic education. And their mandate cannot be achieved when kids are still in excessively large class sizes,” said state Sen. John Liu, who sponsored the class size legislation.

The city’s Education Department may use increases in state funding to reduce class sizes. But officials note the department has already committed the money to other priorities, including for the first time fully funding the city’s own school budget formula, which channels more resources to schools that enroll higher-need children.

Mayor Adams has warned that complying with the class size mandate will restrict city officials from spending education dollars as they see fit.

“Clearly we should use taxpayers’ dollars to focus on equity — not equality, equity,” Adams said at a press conference last September. “There are certain school districts that need more,” he added. “We’re taking away the chancellor’s ability to focus on where the problem is, and the governor made the decision to sign it.”

A spokesperson for Gov. Hochul did not respond to questions about the equity implications of the law.

Unintended consequences loom large

Hiring thousands of new teachers in New York City could prove a particular challenge, especially at a moment of rising teacher turnover. A hiring spree might force schools to bring on less skilled or less qualified educators, which could limit the gains from smaller classes.

In one study of New York City, Michael Gilraine, an economist at New York University, found that when schools reduced class size without having to hire a new teacher, there were large improvements in student test scores. But when they had to add a teacher to get class sizes down, the benefits from smaller classes were swamped by a decline in teacher quality.

“The results indicate that smaller class sizes do improve student achievement,” wrote Gilraine. “Policy makers and school administrators need to be mindful, however, that these gains can be offset by changes in teacher quality.”

Research in California has highlighted a similar tradeoff, though it suggests that the problem dissipates over the longer term.

Higher-need schools typically bear the brunt of teacher shortages. For instance, an older study in New York City found that better teachers were more likely to migrate from lower-performing schools to high-performing ones, a concern echoed in the city’s working group on class size reduction.

One leader of a Manhattan middle school, where most classes already met the new class size caps last school year, said he’s concerned that higher-performing schools in the district may poach quality educators.

“How many teachers from the lower-performing schools are going to go [to higher-performing schools] because they can get paid the same amount and have an easier life?” said the principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about the class size cap’s impact on their campus. “That’s my bigger worry honestly.”

New York City does not offer additional pay to teachers working in higher-needs schools to potentially counteract this effect.

“It’s hard to recruit teachers right now” and high-poverty schools typically have a harder time doing so, said Loeb, the Stanford professor. “Adding class size reduction may in fact escalate that.”

Collins, of the UFT, says there should be efforts to expand the pipeline of new teachers to meet rising demand.

For now, officials don’t have clear answers to these challenges and much remains uncertain about how the city will implement the new law. The Education Department has convened a task force that includes advocates and policy experts to gather input.

The law also includes a handful of exemptions to the class size mandate, including for schools that are overenrolled, would face significant economic hardship to comply, or or have insufficient teachers in subjects that are difficult to staff. The Education Department and the unions representing teachers and school administrators must all agree to those waivers. If they don’t, the decision falls to an arbitrator.

“It’s not clear how those decisions are going to be made — and school communities that wind up losing valuable dollars are going to be up in arms,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who has studied New York City schools.“I would like that process to be as open and transparent as possible.”

Regardless of the challenges, Liu, the state senator who championed the law, remains sanguine. “I don’t think anybody will say 10 years from now that, ‘Oh, this was the wrong thing to do,’” he said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Matt Barnum is interim national editor, overseeing and contributing to Chalkbeat’s coverage of national education issues. Contact him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school bus strike could disrupt start of year, Chancellor Banks warns

2023-08-11T15:53:36+00:00

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A school bus driver strike could disrupt the beginning of the school year, Chancellor David Banks warned parent leaders this week.

“We’re currently negotiating with the [Amalgamated Transit Union] around buses and there’s some real concerns around a potential bus strike,” Banks told members of his parent advisory council on Thursday.

“Certainly hopeful that we can avoid it, but just wanted to start to plant a seed to let people know about the possibility,” he added. “You’ll hear more in the coming days.”

A school bus strike would disproportionately affect the city’s youngest students as well as students with disabilities. Banks said a strike could affect between 85,000 and 150,000 students.

Carolyn Rinaldi, the chief of staff for Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents many school bus drivers, said the union had no comment. A recent union newsletter indicated that workers at a handful of school bus companies that contract with the city overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike.

“The Union is fighting to get back what members previously had and everything they lost,” officials wrote in the newsletter. “A fair contract for all senior and new members is the answer to making school bus a career again.”

The city’s yellow buses have often been the source of angst among families. The school bus system especially falters at the beginning of the year, and families routinely complain of late or no-show buses, which contribute to chronic absenteeism as working families may struggle to make other transportation arrangements. More recently, parents reported that buses without air conditioning topped 100 degrees.

A bus strike would represent a disruption far beyond the glitches that parents often experience during the opening weeks of a typical school year. And it would come just as schools are regaining their footing after years of pandemic-related disruptions.

Banks said parents would have “clear direction” on alternative transportation options in the event of a strike.

Education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said the city’s contingency plans include giving students MetroCards and “reimbursement for use of alternative transportation.” In some cases, he said, it could include “free ride-share.”

City officials have previously used ride-share services to help fill transportation gaps at no cost to families. But those services typically require that caregivers accompany their children to and from school, which can be hard for working parents.

“These negotiations are unlike most involving the city because they are between bus companies, who contract with the DOE, and their employees, who are not city employees,” Styer added. “The city encourages the parties to remain at the bargaining table until they reach a voluntary agreement.”

The city contracts with more than 50 bus companies who crisscross the city on about 9,000 routes. It’s not clear how many routes a strike would affect.

New York City’s school bus drivers last went on strike in January 2013 over job protection issues, pushing for senior drivers to get priority over newcomers. Roughly 8,000 drivers walked off the job for a month, according to reports. Since then some bus companies have voted to authorize strikes, including in 2016 and 2020, but ultimately reached agreements before taking any labor actions.

The city’s school bus system has faced serious disruptions since the pandemic when thousands of drivers were furloughed after school buildings shut down. Officials have since warned about driver shortages and have also acknowledged challenges getting drivers back on the job.

“They were laid off, in a worldwide pandemic, with no wages, no pension contributions, and, above all else, no health care,” Kevin Moran, the education department’s chief school operations officer, previously said. “And so when we talk about the driver shortage and trying to bring people back into the system, we have a fair bit of work to do to re-establish trust.”

Randi Levine, the policy director at Advocates for Children, said the organization is “deeply concerned about the impact of a potential bus strike.”

“Many students with disabilities, as well as students living in shelter, and students in foster care, rely on school bus service to get to school and we want to ensure they have a way of getting to school from the first day,” she said.

Parent leaders also expressed worry about a possible strike.

“Parents are watching these negotiations because the transportation of our children depends on having a stable workforce,” Sara Catalinotto, founder of Parents to Improve School Transportation, wrote in a text message.

If the bus companies “don’t make moves to restore the living standards of drivers and attendants, our families will keep having delays and hardship.”

Amy Zimmer contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC is expanding a violence prevention program called Project Pivot. Tell us how it’s going.

2023-07-31T21:09:35+00:00

A violence prevention program that forges partnerships between schools and community groups will expand this coming school year, part of a broader plan to improve neighborhood safety that city officials released on Monday.

Known as Project Pivot, the program connects schools with community organizations that provide everything from mentorship and counseling to violence interruption — which aims to prevent conflict by bringing in neighborhood leaders.

Beginning this school year Project Pivot will expand to 200 schools, from 144, reaching between 6,000 and 10,000 students, according to the city’s “Blueprint for Community Safety.” Before the latest expansion, officials had said they expected to reach 10,000 students; a City Hall spokesperson did not explain why that goal has remained the same even as the number of participating schools is growing.

Mayor Eric Adams touted the program, which launched last year, as one of the most significant strategies in the new blueprint for keeping young people safe.

“It was about, ‘how do we get into the schools and engage young people at an early age,’” Adams said. “There has to be some real results.”

Project Pivot’s expansion comes as young people are increasingly affected by violence, even as violent crime is trending down and New York City remains relatively safe. Since 2019, the number of shooting victims under age 18 has doubled, city officials said, incidents that have sometimes devastated school communities.

The number of weapons confiscated at public schools has also spiked since the pandemic hit. Nearly 7,000 weapons were recovered last school year, up nearly 9% over the previous year, according to police department data. In the school year before the pandemic, about 2,600 weapons were confiscated. Some students said they carried pepper spray or tasers to protect themselves on their commutes.

The blueprint announced Monday includes a broad range of policies across city agencies and targets six police precincts across Brooklyn and the Bronx that experience a disproportionate share of shootings. The plan calls for expanding after-school programming in those precincts, for instance, though it does not specify how many schools or children may benefit. First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright told reporters that more detailed community-level plans would be available in the coming weeks.

Officials did not immediately say which schools will be included in the Project Pivot expansion, but noted they will be spread across the city. The program is expected to cost $15 million under the expansion, up from $9 million, officials said. It is funded with federal relief money, raising questions about its long-term sustainability as those dollars begin to run dry.

Chalkbeat is interested in learning more about how students, parents, and community organizations feel about Project Pivot and its expansion. To let us know, take our very brief survey here.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Nonbinary students are now included in NYC school enrollment data

2023-07-25T18:15:01+00:00

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After New York City cleared the way for families to list their child’s gender as “X” instead of “M” or “F,” officials released statistics for the first time on how many families selected that designation for their child’s school records.

The numbers are small for now: Just 108 nonbinary, gender fluid, or gender expansive students used the “X” designation last school year out of more than a million children in the city’s public schools, including charters.

But advocates say the new statistics represent an important milestone, given the increase in reported gender nonconformity among young people, and as Republicans are ramping up attacks on schools’ support of LGBTQ students and gender diversity.

“The first step to making sure a school is meeting the needs of its student body is knowing who is in the student body,” said Allie Bohm, an attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union who focuses on LGBTQ issues. “It’s really important that they’re collecting these data.”

City and state officials have recently ramped up their efforts to make schools more welcoming for transgender, nonbinary, intersex, and gender expansive children — populations that often experience an outsized share of bullying, harassment, and mental health challenges.

Beginning last fall, city officials began allowing families to select the “X” designation on official school records in lieu of “female” or “male” — an option already available on city birth certificates. The state education department requires districts across New York to report the number of nonbinary students who are enrolled and now lists those statistics publicly. The federal education department is also beginning to collect similar data.

The number of city public school children who don’t identify as male or female may be an undercount, as changing a student’s gender on official paperwork generally requires parental consent and students may not be comfortable broaching the topic with their family. Some caregivers also may not know they can request a change to their child’s gender on official paperwork to the “X” marker.

In New York City, student- and school-facing records — such as transcripts, report cards, and attendance rosters — generally do not include a student’s gender. And education department policy requires teachers to call students by the names and pronouns they assert at school, even without explicit parental consent or changes to legal documents.

“New York City Public Schools is committed to providing a safe, equitable and affirming school environment for every student in our school building,” education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle wrote in a statement. “Affirming students’ gender identities is of paramount importance.”

School to school, experiences may vary

The degree to which a school is welcoming to LGBTQ students may also affect how comfortable families feel changing their students’ records. At Brooklyn Collaborative Studies in Cobble Hill, educators were not surprised that their school reported enrolling four nonbinary or gender expansive students — the most of any public school in the city.

“We do work really hard to have an open, welcoming, communicatory school space,” said Diana Roffman, a sixth grade English teacher and co-advisor of the school’s joint gender and sexuality alliance and Black Lives Matter club (known as the GSA BLM Collective).

Students and staff at the grades 6-12 school have access to all-gender bathrooms, the GSA BLM Collective has invited LGBTQ authors to speak with students, and teachers often help review each other’s lessons to make sure they are culturally responsive — including diversity in religious experiences, racial identities, and family structures. The school previously set up its own processes to track students’ preferred pronouns and names.

“Within our electronic gradebook there were notes so that students didn’t have to come out to like seven different teachers,” said Devon Shanley, a seventh grade English teacher and co-advisor of the GSA BLM Collective.

But even as city and state officials are making efforts to be more inclusive, students’ actual experiences may vary significantly from campus to campus — and gaps in policy can emerge.

When schools pivoted to remote instruction during the pandemic, for instance, some nonbinary students said their online learning platforms automatically displayed their names assigned at birth, often referred to as deadnames, and which may not match their gender identity. That led to anguish for those who already used chosen names in their daily interactions with their teachers and peers.

“For all the Zoom meetings, I see my dead name,” one city high school sophomore told the news organization THE CITY in 2020. “It’s distressing.”

Facing pressure from the city comptroller, the education department made it easier for families to alter their children’s school records with a chosen name — which can be displayed on report cards, attendance rosters, and other records — even if it differs from what appears on legal documents.

But schools do not always swiftly adhere to the policy.

Brooklyn mom Eliza Hittman said it took months for her child’s elementary school to process a name change request last year, with school officials using the student’s deadname in the meantime. The experience was emotionally fraught for her child, a rising fourth grader who identifies as gender diverse, and contributed to the family’s decision to transfer them to a different public school.

“Schools aren’t necessarily aware of the importance of things like a name change form and the level of distress it can cause a student who is transitioning to have a legal name called out,” Hittman said. “There are DOE guidelines that are clear but they’re not implemented unless you have families who are fighting for them.”

Bohm, the New York Civil Liberties Union attorney, said swiftly processing requests to change students’ names and genders is essential, noting that feelings of discrimination can affect school performance. Adapting to new policies and norms may require culture shifts at some schools, which can take time, Bohm added.

“I wish I could say guidance comes out or regulations come out and everything is great now,” she said. “There’s no silver bullet.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Federal judge orders NYC to fix special education service and payment delays

2023-07-19T21:56:41+00:00

This is part of an ongoing collaborative series between Chalkbeat and THE CITY investigating learning differences, special education, and other education challenges in city schools.

A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Department of Education to take 40 specific steps to address decades-old delays in providing special education services to families who have won legal battles to secure them.

This includes a mandate that the department assign additional staffers within six months to address the thousands of cases that are currently overdue.

When parents of students with disabilities believe their child is not getting the supportive services they’re entitled to, they can file a complaint that leads to a hearing in front of an administrative judge, known as an impartial hearing officer.

Advocates and eight parents of kids with disabilities sued the department in federal court two decades ago because families were often forced to wait months to obtain services or payments for special education services even after they were awarded them in administrative hearings.

Those services can include transportation to and from school, physical therapy, and tuition payments to private schools when families can demonstrate the district can’t properly serve their children in a public school.

Over the years those delays have stretched for months or even years, forcing parents to forgo crucial services or pay for them out of their own pocket — which can be untenable for some families. Those with means sometimes take extreme measures, such as taking out second mortgages on their homes.

While the original lawsuit was settled in 2007, the case has continued for more than a decade longer because of the education department’s inability to meet the settlement terms, which require that it speed up services and payments considerably.

Wednesday’s order is the latest move, with the most detailed remedy to date, for fixing the issue. Many of the steps delineated by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska require the education department to act within three to six months, while a number extend beyond a year.

“We are here today to take a massive step toward getting families reimbursed for the costs of services,” Preska said during a court hearing on Wednesday. She referred to the changes required by her order as a “wholesale streamlining of the payment system.”

The ruling also requires the Education Department to set up a hotline from which parents can get updates on the status of their complaints seeking special education services for their children, and to set up a mobile app that allows providers of services to enter their hours worked by phone — rather than through a paper invoice that’s required currently.

“It’s huge and very impactful for students — especially the families that don’t have the resources to put money out and essentially give the DOE a loan until the DOE pays them back,” said Rebecca Shore, the litigation director at the group Advocates for Children, which filed the federal lawsuit in 2003. “Parents, families and students have been harmed because of the DOE’s failure for decades to timely implement [hearing officers’] orders.”

City officials said on Wednesday that they support the changes mandated by the court order. In an unusual move, schools Chancellor David Banks attended Wednesday’s court hearing, shaking Preska’s hand and posing for photographs. Though he did not take questions from reporters, he released a written statement after the order was issued.

“The new requirements are stringent because we, too, believe that change is long overdue,” Banks said. “While case volume and challenges increased over the past decade, we are moving aggressively to set a new course.”

Banks’ statement is notable because he previously cast doubt about the legitimacy of the complaint process, arguing that families have tried to “game this system,” referring to reimbursements for private special education that have ballooned to nearly $1 billion. Education officials later walked those comments back.

Delays are commonplace

Unless hearing officers set different timelines, the education department has 35 days to implement orders for services or payments, under a prior settlement in the federal lawsuit reached in 2007.

That agreement sought to push the education department to comply with the required timelines in more than 90% of the cases, and required the department to pay for an independent auditor to monitor its performance.

The education department utterly failed to meet that standard. The latest numbers supplied by that auditor, covering January to April 2022, show that the department met the deadlines for enacting orders for special education services in just 5.8% of cases, and met payment deadlines in just 2.3% of orders.

There were about 2,800 orders for services and nearly 4,000 orders for payment issued by hearing officers during that three-month quarter. It was the auditor’s 51st report since the settlement, which has come with a price tag for the Department of Education of over $25 million.

Wednesday’s ruling followed the installation of a special master in 2021 to analyze the Department of Education’s challenges in complying with hearing officer decisions in a timely manner, and it mandates most of his recommendations for addressing them.

Earlier this year, special master David Irwin, of Thru Consulting LLC, found that the education department office responsible for ensuring services are provided or payments made is operating with severely outdated methods and technology.

This includes using handwritten forms, paper-based invoices, and relying on “heavy” levels of data entry that involve “simply copying text from one place to another.”

“These outdated processes require more human staff time as the volume of cases increases,” Irwin wrote in a summary of his findings in March. “This is essentially the root cause of backlogs and delays.”

David Irwin worked as a federally appointed special master who recommended the changes ordered on Wednesday.

Irwin also pointed to staffing shortages that are exacerbated by the laborious need for manual data entry and by the administration’s unwillingness to make the positions more desirable by allowing staffers the flexibility to work from home.

“Simply put, kids are not getting services because there are not enough qualified staff to support this work, and the regular means of attracting and retaining staff has not worked,” he wrote.

John Farago, a hearing officer who adjudicates special education cases, said he’s skeptical the court order will transform the process. The problem, he argues, is more systemic and can’t be fixed with a series of technological and workflow changes.

“The culture of the district is to resist its obligation to pay providers,” he said, noting that culture extends to the department responsible for issuing payments to providers and private schools that receive tuition reimbursements from the city.

One solution, he said, could be to take the responsibility for breaking down hearing officers’ orders into specific payments and services out of the education department’s hands and giving it to an independent entity.

“What’s wrong with the order in my view is that it treats a large deep systemic problem as though it’s a series of small technical problems,” Farago added. “When you’re being eaten alive by piranhas it’s a mistake to focus on them individually.”

Irwin, the court appointed special master who came up with the recommendations adopted in the court order, said the education department “hardly pushed back” on any of his recommendations.

It will take time to see results, Irwin said, adding that he hopes that within a year a much larger share of services and payments are delivered within the required timeframe. He suggested that the main reason the education department has struggled to meet the legal timelines is that they have not understood what reforms are needed to fix the process.

“I’m an optimist,” he said. “This order tells them exactly what they need to do.”

Long-running ‘crisis’

But the court order does not address a much larger issue: The entire process disproportionately benefits families with time, resources, and access to legal help. Some families may simply go without services rather than facing a daunting bureaucratic system.

And the order focuses on the final phase of the complaint process, even as many other elements of it have been in crisis for years because of an explosion in cases. The number of complaints filed grew by the thousands between 2014 and 2018, according to a report commissioned by the New York State Education Department in 2019 — which found there were also too few hearing officers and too little space to handle the flood of cases.

At one point in 2019 there were just nine hearing officers on rotation to hear nearly 10,000 cases, and a single hearing officer had more than 1,700 cases on his plate.

The COVID-19 pandemic’s interruption to instruction made things even worse for many special education students, particularly those who relied on in-person services or whose disabilities made remote learning all but impossible.

In early 2021, the special master was appointed to get to the bottom of the education department’s difficulties in implementing the orders of hearing officers.

By the end of 2021, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio put the hearing process under the umbrella of the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings — a shift away from a contracted system that struggled for years to identify enough willing and knowledgeable hearing officers.

In the last school year under de Blasio, parents and attorneys filed nearly 18,000 requests for impartial hearings, according to The New York Times — almost double the number from 2018.

Shore, the attorney at Advocates for Children, said what’s significant about Wednesday’s order is the level of detail in the mandated action steps and the requirement that the Department of Education provide regular updates to the court about its progress.

“Those steps must be taken,” she said. “This is an actual order with teeth.”

Still, any fixes will be too late for many families, including the students involved in the original lawsuit who have since aged out of the public school system.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Yoav Gonen is a reporter for THE CITY. Contact Yoav at ygonen@thecity.nyc.

NYC disbands literacy coaches amid reading curriculum overhaul

2023-07-13T15:25:15+00:00

Hundreds of literacy coaches hired under a program to help improve literacy instruction need to find new roles, even as many elementary schools are working to adopt new reading programs.

The literacy coaches, originally part of the city’s Universal Literacy Program, must apply for other jobs, according to education department officials familiar with the city’s efforts and emails sent to coaches and school leaders obtained by Chalkbeat.

The move represents a shift in the way educators who teach reading are trained and supported at a key moment. Education officials are mandating that all elementary schools use one of three reading curriculums, beginning with 15 of the city’s 32 districts this September, with the rest to follow in 2024-25. In the past, school leaders had wide leeway to pick their own programs, with many choosing materials that city officials now say are inadequate.

To help get teachers up to speed on new curriculums, the city plans to use the three publishing companies to provide initial training and then create partnerships with outside professional learning organizations, officials said.

The city’s new literacy approach scraps the remaining elements of the Universal Literacy program, launched by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2016 to ensure that all third graders were reading proficiently by 2026. About half of third graders are meeting that benchmark, according to the most recent state tests. At its peak, the program sent about 500 literacy coaches to work with teachers in more than 600 schools, largely focusing on grades K-2.

Mayor Eric Adams has chipped away at the program, cutting the number of coaches this past school year to about 200 for grades K-5, with an estimated 60 coaches for middle and high schools. A separate Bloomberg-era program known as the Middle School Quality Initiative, which supported literacy efforts, is also coming to an end, two eduction department sources said.

Publishers of the three mandated curriculums have already begun training educators, said Nicole Brownstein, an education department spokesperson. The training includes various instructional routines and planning for their first unit.

During the school year, districts will be paired with an “external professional learning partner” to provide “shoulder-to-shoulder” training to educators, including monthly coaching, Brownstein said. Officials estimate the first phase of training will cost about $30-35 million for the initial group of schools.

The city had previously budgeted nearly $69 million annually over the next three years for the Universal Literacy Program, according to the Independent Budget Office.

“It’s been an expensive proposition to have centralized coaches,” said an education department official familiar with the city’s literacy efforts, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But it’s bad timing.”

‘They won’t be there now’

Some observers contend that the impact of the Universal Literacy program has been modest and a reset could be beneficial, giving the city a chance to deploy a new suite of training options that are more consistent for teachers. But others said the coaches, who already have relationships with educators, are a valuable resource as schools work to navigate a new set of curriculum materials.

“They could have been the folks on the ground supporting the [new curriculum mandate],” the education department employee said. “They won’t be there now.”

The official expressed concern that schools will have less coaching support overall, including significantly fewer days of on-site support, even if the new training efforts are high-quality. They believe that ending the program could be an effort to cut costs.

Brownstein did not dispute that cost was a factor but also did not offer a detailed explanation of why the coaching program is ending. She emphasized that the coaches could apply for other roles that will support the city’s new reading curriculum mandate.

According to job descriptions sent to coaches, some of the new roles they’re encouraged to apply for involve helping struggling readers directly, rather than focusing on training other teachers. Another recommended job involves supporting superintendents’ offices, a role that department sources said would likely involve working with a much wider group of schools than the coaches currently support.

“This group is being offered roles in making the implementation of NYC Reads a success,” Brownstein said in a statement, referring to the curriculum mandate. “Ensuring every student grows as a strong and confident reader is priority one for this administration.”

Coaching program’s impact is mixed

Brian Blough, who served as principal of P.S. 161 in the Bronx, said his experience with the coaching program was uneven, but the program grew on him. The first coach he worked with didn’t seem to have much direction or training, making it difficult to deploy the coach effectively. But after the school received two new coaches last year, Blough found the program more useful.

“The coaches we got this year were effective and came with a real depth of knowledge about what they’re doing,” said Blough, who left P.S. 161 and will lead a charter school this fall. The coaches helped P.S. 161 teachers implement and interpret reading assessments and deploy a new program for phonics, which teaches the relationships between sounds and letters. On other campuses, coaches helped teachers learn to implement new curriculums and reading strategies.

Blough said he is disappointed that P.S. 161 won’t have access to coaches going forward. “They had purpose and direction in making the teachers successful. It’s unfortunate that now they’re trying to pull them.”

The city’s own evaluations of the program showed modest evidence of success. A 2022 progress report obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request described the program’s impact as promising, according to assessment data, but also concluded that “the initiative had not yet achieved impact at scale before the onset of the pandemic.”

Most principals believed the coaches were helping their schools improve reading instruction, according to education department surveys, though some also said there were disconnects between what their schools needed and what the coaches could offer.

Susan Neuman, an early literacy expert at New York University and member of the education department’s advisory council, said little information has been shared with the council about how the city plans to train teachers on the new reading curriculums, making it difficult to assess whether those efforts will be more effective than the coaching program.

Still, Neuman said it could make sense to “start anew and bring in people who might all have the same basic training. I think that’s not a bad idea.”

But she emphasized that effective training requires building trust, something that coaches said they worked hard to build.

“If you don’t like that coach you’re going to resist what that coach might suggest,” she said. “These new people need to know that relationships really matter.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s budget deal restores some education programs

2023-06-30T19:16:58+00:00

This story has been updated to reflect new information.

A tentative New York City budget agreement announced Thursday restores funding to a handful of initiatives that Mayor Eric Adams initially nixed, including one focused on student mental health and another that provides child care subsidies to undocumented families.

The final agreement, which is being voted on Friday, holds the education department’s budget roughly steady at $31.5 billion. That’s a significant shift from the mayor’s April budget proposal, which called for a $30.6 billion budget for the city’s schools, nearly a $1 billion cut.

Officials said the final budget reflects several sources of funding that were not accounted for in the mayor’s April proposal, including $416 million in additional money from the state and $246 million in federal stimulus money that was initially set to be spent in a subsequent year. The budget deal also added $275 million for holding initial school budgets steady even if their enrollment drops and to pay for a slew of other “new needs.”

City officials did not immediately provide a full explanation of what the funding shifts will cover and official budget documents were not yet available.

Still, officials touted a number of programs that were spared from the chopping block. After an unusually chilly “handshake” agreement Thursday, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams expressed frustration that negotiations centered on saving various initiatives.

“The council’s focus this year was to restore cuts to essential services,” she said, calling the mayor’s approach counterproductive and the result bittersweet.

The mayor downplayed the tension, saying negotiations are often contentious and the resulting budget is a “win for working-class New Yorkers.” The city’s overall spending has grown in recent years, with the latest agreement reaching about $107 billion.

Negotiators agreed to maintain funding to a few education-related programs, including one that connects students to mental health support and another that subsidizes child care for undocumented families. City officials credited higher-than-expected revenue, but cautioned that they believe tax growth may slow in the coming years.

The City Council must pass the budget by Saturday, the first day of the new fiscal year.

Here’s what to know:

Still unclear how individual school budgets will be affected

Although the education department’s overall budget is dipping, city officials pledged to keep individual school budgets steady — at least at first. Typically, funding depends on campus enrollment, which has been declining systemwide. But in recent years city officials have plugged school budget holes with federal funding.

Still, some schools’ budgets may shrink or grow, as the city takes back or adds money to campuses in the middle of the school year if their actual enrollment differs from projections. City officials have not made midyear cuts since the onset of the pandemic but have declined to say what they will do in the upcoming school year.

In response to a question Thursday, Mayor Adams said there is “no desire” to surprise school communities with midyear cuts but added, “there’s no guarantees in life.”

That uncertainty may lead some school leaders to tighten their belts if they anticipate anemic enrollment. Overall, the city is projecting a relatively small enrollment drop of 0.6%, suggesting deep cuts are unlikely on most campuses.

Funding restored to child care for undocumented families

The budget will include $16 million for Promise NYC, which covers up to $700 a week in child care for hundreds of low-income undocumented immigrant families. Adams had proposed cutting Promise NYC despite touting it in December when it launched.

The program used $10 million in six months to fully cover child care for about 600 children. Hundreds of more families are on waitlists, according to organizations running the program. Some newly arrived mothers told Chalkbeat that Promise NYC has allowed them to work and pursue education.

The $16 million included in the budget deal falls $4 million short of what immigration advocates and elected officials had sought. But it’s expected to continue covering the 600 children currently enrolled, city officials said.

Mental health support program saved at last moment

The budget includes $5 million for partnerships between schools and mental health clinics, creating a streamlined process for referring students to counseling. The money was initially left out of the mayor’s budget proposal.

The program, known as the Mental Health Continuum, includes just 50 schools. But amid growing concern about a slide in student mental health, advocates had pressed to save it and pointed out that the mayor’s own mental health plan highlighted the initiative.

The Mental Health Continuum is also meant to reduce 911 calls from school staff by training them to address students experiencing emotional crises. Those calls disproportionately affect Black students, and can result in handcuffing or unwarranted trips to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluation.

City to pilot extended hours for pre-kindergarten

The budget will include $15 million to change 1,800 to 1,900 seats for 3-year-olds so that they offer extended hours.

Many working parents need child care beyond 3 p.m. A survey by the Citizens’ Committee for Children, found one-third of more than 1,000 respondents said they were looking for child care from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. However, there were 11,000 unfilled pre-K seats that had longer hours year-round, education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer told Chalkbeat in May.

The pilot program will also extend beyond the school year, according to Speaker Adams’ office.

Caregivers “need preschool programs that align with their work days,” Mayor Adams said.

No plans to expand pre-K for 3-year-olds

The final budget reflects the mayor’s decision to halt a two-year $568 million expansion of preschool seats for 3-year-olds, instead opting to move seats to places with more demand, city officials confirmed.

Education officials have pointed to vacant seats: nearly 23,500 3-K seats are so far unfilled for next school year, according to department figures. The mayor’s decision has drawn backlash from City Council members and advocates, who say the city is not effectively recruiting families or funding early childhood education programs.

Questions remain about the mayor’s savings plan

As broad reductions to city agencies, the mayor required the education department to find hundreds of millions in cuts. It found $305 million, one of the largest savings, by recalculating spending on fringe benefits, such as health insurance for teachers. City officials have said those cuts would not reduce benefits to educators but reflected lower-than-expected growth in those costs.

But advocates worry that the city had already been using those savings to pay for other things, such as transportation, special education services, and charter school costs.

“We are concerned about where the DOE will find funding to pay for these expenses in the coming year and the impact on other programs and services that students need,” Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, wrote in an email.

City officials did not say whether other programs will face cuts.

Looking ahead: Concerns loom as federal dollars dry up

Future budget cycles are likely to be even more contentious, as federal relief funding dries up and city officials have to make difficult decisions about whether and how to continue programs that depend on those dollars.

Perhaps the most contentious decision will be whether to slash school budgets on campuses that have seen enrollment plunge but have been kept steady by temporary relief money. Mayor Adams had previously argued that school budgets need to be incrementally reduced to be brought in line with their current enrollment, but after instituting one round of cuts he faced intense criticism and has since backed away from making further reductions — for now.

The federal money supports a slew of other efforts including hiring more social workers and psychologists; expanding summer school programs; adding preschool seats for students with disabilities, a chronic shortage area; and increasing the number of schools that host wraparound services such as food pantries and health clinics. It’s not certain how these programs will be funded after this year.

Correction (Friday, June 30): A previous version of this story said the education department’s budget would likely decline by roughly $1 billion, a cut that was included in the mayor’s budget proposal in April. A City Hall spokesperson initially indicated that there were no major changes in the final budget deal. But after this story was published, officials said the final budget includes several funding streams that were not initially accounted for in the mayor’s earlier proposal, meaning the overall education budget will hold steady rather than face a cut. The headline has also been changed to reflect that.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering NYC public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Mayor Adams touts deep breathing as advocates press to restore school counseling program

2023-06-27T20:11:55+00:00

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As students face severe mental health challenges in the wake of the pandemic, New York City officials touted a new effort on Tuesday to help students regulate themselves: two to five minutes of breathing exercises every day beginning next school year.

But the last-day-of-school announcement left some advocates scratching their heads, arguing the mayor has neglected some other elements of his own broader mental health plan and has offered few details about others.

City officials previously floated the breathing exercises in January and Mayor Eric Adams framed them as just one piece of “low-hanging fruit” in a larger mental health push. “It is going to give them a tool that they can use for the rest of their lives,” the mayor said on Tuesday at P.S. 5 in Brooklyn, before participating in a student-led breathing exercise.

Student mental health concerns have grown since the coronavirus pandemic upended nearly all aspects of students’ lives. Many children lost access to the social circles and sense of community that schools offer. Thousands experienced the deaths of loved ones. A growing number of students have struggled to make it to school at all, leading to a spike in chronic absenteeism. And some educators have seen a rise in behavioral issues, including getting high during the school day.

But as the city heads into the summer it has yet to reveal much about a major effort to connect high school students to teletherapy, despite announcing it six months ago. And the mayor’s budget does not include funding for a $5 million program that establishes partnerships between schools and mental health clinics and offers a streamlined process for referring students to counseling.

Adams touted the program, known as the Mental Health Continuum, in his own mental health blueprint. But it is now the subject of a battle with the City Council, whose leaders have pledged to fight to restore the money in the city budget due this month.

“Five million will evaporate at the end of this week if the city doesn’t restore it in the final budget,” said Dawn Yuster, director of the School Justice Project at Advocates for Children. “They have already hired clinicians,” she added. “To rip them away from students and schools would be really devastating.”

Though the Mental Health Continuum has started small with about 50 schools in Brooklyn and the Bronx, advocates say the approach is promising. Participating schools receive training to help staff calm students who are in crisis and connect them to mobile crisis teams and mental health clinics, a partnership between the health and education departments as well as the city’s public hospital system.

One goal is to reduce schools’ reliance on dialing 911 when students are struggling to regulate their emotions, a practice that can be traumatic and counterproductive.

Under a legal settlement, schools are only supposed to use 911 as a last resort when students are in imminent danger, though a recent investigation by ProPublica and THE CITY found schools continue to call safety agents and police thousands of times a year to deal with students in distress, often tangling students up with law enforcement and needless emergency room visits. Those incidents disproportionately involve Black students, who are also more likely to be handcuffed.

Nelson Mar, an attorney at Bronx Legal Services who supports the Mental Health Continuum, said it has previously been subject to budget uncertainty and hopes the money is ultimately restored.

“The Mental Health Continuum has been funded largely by City Council putting it back in the budget in the last two years,” he said, adding he was puzzled by the omission from the mayor’s budget.

A City Hall spokesperson said the mental health program has been funded one year at a time but didn’t say if the city plans to restore it.

Mar and others said deep-breathing exercises could be a useful part of the city’s approach to student well-being. And some educators previously told Chalkbeat they can help students regulate their mood, decrease anxiety, and help them feel ready to learn — though experts said there is little evidence about how the routines affect student achievement.

But more broadly, Mar said, “we need a more systematic approach toward improving emotional health, behavioral health, and mental health within the school setting. It is going to take more than just deep-breathing exercises.”

Some advocates are also still waiting for more details about the mayor’s plan to connect high schools students to teletherapy services, something Adams described in January as “the biggest student mental health program in the country.”

Schools Chancellor David Banks said on Tuesday that high school students will have access to an app that allows them to “be in touch with mental health counselors in real time from their phones.” But city officials have not said how the platform will work, what type of mental health services will be available, who will be eligible, and how it will be monitored.

Dr. Elisa English, the chief program officer at Counseling in Schools, said she is eager for more information about what those services will look like, including how frequently students will have access to counselors.

“How that will roll out — it remains to be seen,” she said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC updates 2023-24 school calendar, adding 4 more days off

2023-06-26T16:54:19+00:00

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After many educators complained about certain holidays missing from the 2023-24 school calendar, New York City’s education department is adding four additional days off, officials announced Monday.

The city also shared the calendars for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years — after families expressed outrage over calendar delays the past few years.

The extra days for the upcoming school year are:

Monday, April 1, for the day after Easter.
Monday, April 29, and Tuesday, April 30, for the last two days of Passover, which did not fully overlap with spring break this year. (This extends the weeklong break by another two school days.)
Monday, June 17, for Eid al-Adha. (The holiday begins on June 16.)

The changes mean that there will be 178 instructional days for students on the calendar, down from the original 182, though state law requires that school districts remain in session for at least 180 days or risk losing state funding. City education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said the city will not violate the 180-day rule because certain days devoted to teacher training will count toward the requirement.

State officials confirmed that up to four conference days, including staff orientation, curriculum development, and parent-teacher conferences, may count toward the 180-day requirement. But a state education department spokesperson said compliance with the mandate would depend on how the city reports the days to the state and couldn’t yet offer a definitive answer.

The long-delayed calendar, released earlier this month, touched off a wave of anger among educators and families of various religious groups. Because Easter and Passover are so far apart this year (since the Jewish holiday follows a lunar calendar), spring break became a scheduling conundrum.

The city initially had a day off for Good Friday but not Easter Monday, sparking some backlash. And though spring break coincided with the start of the eight-day holiday of Passover, it did not include the last two days, spurring a petition that garnered nearly 4,000 signatures. Some also expressed concern that the calendar left out Eid al-Adha, which families observe starting on Sunday but continues into the next day.

The calendar changes, announced on the second-to-last day of the school year, came hours after city officials held a celebration at City Hall to commemorate the passage of a state law that mandates Diwali as an official school holiday.

The holiday will not affect next year’s calendar because Diwali falls on Sunday, Nov. 12. (There is no set date for Diwali each year, as it is governed by the lunar calendar, but it falls in October or November.)

“For over two decades, the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean community has fought for this moment,” state Assembly member Jenifer Rajkumar said during the celebration at City Hall on Monday that included a smattering of state and local officials, including Mayor Eric Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks.

Diwali, known as the “festival of lights,” celebrates the triumph of good over evil and is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and some Buddhists.

Lawmakers initially proposed removing Anniversary Day, also known as Brooklyn-Queens Day, a holiday that celebrates the founding of the first Sunday school on Long Island. But some legislators objected to removing that holiday and pushed behind the scenes to keep it.

Rajkumar initially said that the city would not be able to meet the 180-day requirement without finding another holiday to leave off, though city officials say they will be able to add the new holiday without such a change.

The bill has not yet been signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, but a spokesperson signaled the governor’s support of the holiday and said the legislation is under review.

Banks emphasized that the education department plans to use the new holiday as an opportunity to teach children about Diwali, offering schools sample lesson plans and suggested activities. According to calendars posted Monday, New York City schools will be closed for Diwali on Monday, Oct. 20 in 2025. They will also be closed Friday, Nov. 1 in 2026.

“It’s less about the fact that schools will be closed in recognition of Diwali — it’s more about the fact that minds will be open because of what we are going to teach them,” he said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC often segregates students with significant disabilities. This new school aims to change that.

2023-06-20T16:41:26+00:00

Outfitted with paper chef hats, a group of students at Brooklyn’s P.S. 958 were getting ready on a recent afternoon to launch a mock restaurant, wiggling on the classroom carpet in anticipation of their first wave of customers.

The students had been preparing since February, touring their surrounding Sunset Park neighborhood to learn what types of food were most prevalent before settling on a Mexican theme. The 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds also studied different roles within a restaurant — including chef, host, server, and manager — before assuming one of those positions themselves.

It was no traditional end-of-year project for the school, which is wrapping up its inaugural year. As the students scampered to their stations and loaded up plastic trays of popcorn and water, the moment represented a test of the new school’s unusual mission: to serve any student in the surrounding neighborhood — ranging from typically developing children to those with more significant disabilities — and meaningfully integrate them in classrooms and other activities whenever possible.

All of the mock restaurant’s customers, who soon began trickling in, were students with autism from a neighboring classroom whose needs would have otherwise landed them in a separate school for students with more complex disabilities.

All city elementary schools are required to accommodate students with disabilities, but some 26,000 children attend District 75 programs, a citywide network of schools that exclusively serve students with more serious needs. Inconsistent or inadequate special education services have also helped drive thousands of additional families to private schools with tuition financed by the city, which involves a complex legal process that favors those with time and resources.

P.S. 958, however, is trying to keep children who may have higher needs closer to home, something a group of caregivers in Sunset Park have long pushed for. The school’s mission is in line with an effort by schools Chancellor David Banks to expand programs designed to include students with disabilities alongside their typically developing peers, part of a push to keep families from exploring private options.

P.S. 958 is wrapping up its first school year — serving 3- and 4-year-olds in prekindergarten, as well as kindergarten, in its own gleaming new building on Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue. It will gradually expand to fifth grade in the coming years.

About half the school’s students have disabilities, more than double the citywide rate. A majority of the school’s students come from the surrounding neighborhood, and the school prioritizes local applicants in its admissions process, officials said, though some local parents said they hope the city does more to get the word out.

Emily Shapiro, the principal of P.S. 958, spent 20 years working in District 75, starting as a paraprofessional right out of high school. Those schools often provide crucial support that traditional elementary schools don’t offer, she said. But the students who attend often have to travel far outside their neighborhoods, which can make it difficult to forge bonds with other children in the neighborhood and attend after-school programs, and it can lead to lost instructional time thanks to the city’s notoriously unreliable yellow bus system.

“Once the kids leave the school building, they don’t see each other at the playground, or at the grocery store. Parents aren’t building relationships,” Shapiro said, adding that siblings typically can’t attend school together if one of them is placed in District 75. “The idea of being able to go to school in your neighborhood, that’s the number one most important piece of all of this.”

A new model for integrating students of all abilities

One way the school is working to include a more diverse group of students is by hosting programs that are more typically found in schools that only cater to students with disabilities. P.S. 958, for instance, is the first elementary school outside District 75 to host an AIMS program, short for Acquisition, Integrated Services, Meaningful Communication, and Social Skills.

The AIMS program is designed for students with autism who have significant behavioral, communication, or social delays. It involves small group instruction and a bevy of dedicated staff, including a certified behavior specialist, special education teacher, speech teacher, and paraprofessional.

In a traditional District 75 program, those students might have more limited contact with their typically developing peers. At P.S. 958, they were the first set of customers to test out the mock restaurant their classmates next door were setting up.

As they filtered into the classroom, the AIMS students largely needed assistance from classroom aides and iPads with picture-to-speech software to communicate snack orders. But the interactions let them practice conveying their needs, and the students running the restaurant were also learning how to work with peers who may not pick up on typical social cues, such as making eye contact.

P.S. 958 is starting small, enrolling 59 students in its first year — including six in the AIMS classroom. As the school grows to serve students from 3-K through fifth grade in the coming years, the school plans to grow the AIMS program, too.

To be sure, some District 75 schools, which often share buildings with other schools, also give students opportunities to interact with their typically developing peers, such as shared physical education classes or sports teams.

But frequent opportunities for meaningful inclusion are rare, especially when it comes to academics, according to educators and advocates. There are often signals that inclusion isn’t a priority: District 75 students can be forced to use separate entrances to school buildings or may struggle with equal access to school facilities.

There can also be downsides to segregating children with more intensive needs. Some families and educators say those programs can be chaotic or may represent little more than holding grounds, especially for children with more intense emotional or behavioral issues. Still, it can be difficult to tease out the impact of inclusive classrooms and it may not always be effective for students with disabilities to learn in general education classrooms.

Some observers said the P.S. 958 model is promising and stressed that the city should do more to get the word out about schools that have inclusion programs.

“What you really want is [P.S.] 958’s everywhere,” said Jenn Choi, an advocate who helps families navigate the city’s special education system, noting that meaningful inclusion is rare.

“Inclusive doesn’t mean ‘I let you in here.’ Inclusive means ‘I’m going to help you when you’re here,’” she said. “I don’t hear that message very often.”

P.S. 958 Principal Emily Shapiro.

So far, about 15% of students enrolled at P.S. 958 likely were initially recommended for more restrictive settings than what the school offered — such as those with very small class sizes and intensive support that can be offered through District 75. And while Shapiro said the school is not yet equipped to handle any student who might want to enroll, they’ve had success working with families who were initially slated for more specialized programs but wanted to give P.S. 958 a shot.

Commitment to inclusion runs throughout the school

Fahyolah Antoine, a special education teacher who helped plan the mock restaurant project, said she’s been impressed with the school’s commitment to inclusion. “What I really appreciate is how special education is put on the forefront, rather than the backburner,” she said. “Sometimes it can just feel like it doesn’t get the attention it needs and deserves.”

For example, students from the AIMS program may participate in academic programs with their peers in other classrooms. In one instance, the school placed a less verbal student in a classroom with more verbal students for phonics — lessons that teach children the relationships between sounds and letters.

“Because the other students are saying, ‘A-Apple-Ah,’ and using their voice, he’s starting to do it,” Shapiro said. “Putting him in a classroom with other peer models, who are using those skills is more motivating, I think, than having a speech therapist sitting next to you” practicing the same lesson.

Staff are also intentional about grouping students of different ability levels for other activities, like recess and music. Students also do not sit with their regular classes during lunch, giving students of a wider range of ability levels the chance to interact with each other.

Parent Ivelisse Castro said those types of interactions have been a big help for her daughter, Chloe. The 3-year-old, who has a learning disability, struggled to coordinate her movements without falling down, and she often screamed or whined rather than using words to articulate her feelings.

P.S. 958 parent Ivelisse Castro and her daughter, Chloe.

In Chloe’s pre-K classroom, which includes children with and without disabilities, “she’s picking up habits from them, how to express herself better, how to speak better,” Castro said. “She can have a conversation with you now — it’s an amazing feeling.” She was relieved to find a school that could meet Chloe’s needs just down the block from her home.

The school also makes time for service providers such as speech and occupational therapists to regularly consult with teachers. Through a creative scheduling arrangement, therapists conference with educators multiple times a week, eventually discussing each of the school’s students — including those without disabilities.

They’ve collaborated on issues such as deploying adaptive seating for students who struggle to focus in traditional classroom chairs. (The school also has a dedicated space where students with sensory issues can receive extra help.)

“In other schools, there isn’t structured time for this,” said Cara Kantrowitz, an occupational therapist. “Here, it’s built into everyone’s schedule.”

A P.S. 958 student played the role of “manager” in their mock restaurant.

Back at the mock restaurant, the mood at times resembled the frenetic energy of a professional kitchen, as one child was momentarily overwhelmed with orders.

“I need servers! I need servers!” he shouted. “I need their popcorn!” With plenty of adults on hand to keep students on track, the popcorn orders made their way back to the tables on small paper plates.

Antoine, the special education teacher, noted that the students running the mock restaurant also include a mix of students with and without disabilities. The teachers worked to let students tap into their strengths and interests in deciding what roles to take on.

After students had a chance for seconds, it was time for the next class period. As a handful students from the AIMS classroom filed out, the children running the mock restaurant offered a sendoff.

“Thank you — come again!”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC public schools go remote Friday due to pollution from wildfire smoke

2023-06-08T17:27:32+00:00

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New York City public school students will shift to remote learning on Friday, as wildfire smoke prompted a third straight day of disruption to school operations.

Most students — including those in preschool, elementary, and middle school — were already scheduled to be off for “Clerical Day.” But high school students, and children who attend schools that run from grades 6-12, were slated to attend school in person on Friday. Those students, about 290,000 total, will now shift to remote instruction, city officials said Thursday.

Educators may conduct their lessons remotely, but some staff members — including custodians and some food workers — will be required to report to their buildings.

Early childhood programs that contract with the city have the option of switching to remote instruction on Friday, according to education department officials. Charter schools make their own decisions about whether to switch to remote instruction.

The decision to pivot to remote learning was considerably less fraught than for a typical school day, since the city’s youngest students were not part of the calculation. Switching to remote instruction can create significant burdens for working families who may struggle to arrange child care at the last minute, but that is less of a concern with older students.

It is also likely that in-person attendance would have been low tomorrow since students were already off on Thursday due to a previously scheduled staff training day.

The wildfire smoke wafting from Canada has disrupted school operations since Wednesday, when city officials canceled all outdoor activities, including recess and field trips. Students were not scheduled to attend school on Thursday because it was a previously scheduled staff training day. The education department pivoted to deploy those teacher training programs virtually instead.

City officials stressed during a press conference on Friday that the intensity of wildfire smoke can be difficult to predict days in advance, but they suggested that conditions are likely to improve.

“There’s a chance for significant improvement by tomorrow morning and throughout the day tomorrow,” Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday morning.

New York City registered some of the worst air pollution on record Wednesday, raising questions from some observers about whether the city adequately prepared students and schools to contend with intense air pollution.

Local health officials continued to recommend staying indoors, including people who are more susceptible to air pollution such as children, the elderly, and those with existing health and breathing problems. People who must go outside should wear high-quality N95 or KN95 masks, officials said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools go remote Thursday for staff training as wildfire smoke engulfs region

2023-06-07T22:12:02+00:00

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New York City educators will not be expected to report to their buildings in person on Thursday, as wildfire smoke from Canada engulfed the region in a thick haze leading to the worst air pollution on record.

They will instead participate virtually in staff training on what’s known on the school calendar as “Anniversary Day/Chancellor’s Conference Day,” according to a text message the teachers union sent to its members on Wednesday.

Students were already scheduled to be off from school.

“The DOE, with our encouragement, is making Chancellor’s Conference Day tomorrow fully remote for all staff,” the text message said. (The union sends texts to teachers to let them know about cancellations and snow days.)

New York City schools Chancellor David Banks confirmed the move at a press conference alongside Mayor Eric Adams Wednesday evening.

The air quality index hit 484 at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Adams said. It was believed to be the highest index level since the 1960s.

Anything above 300 is considered hazardous, officials said. The index tops out at 500.

Adams encouraged all New Yorkers to remain indoors, if possible, especially elderly and younger children.

The decision to switch to remote staff training came after pressure from educators, who launched a petition, and Rita Joseph, a former teacher and leader of City Council’s education committee. City officials signaled earlier on Wednesday afternoon to prepare for a remote pivot, telling staff to bring materials and laptops home with them.

Still, some schools operate programs for children in partnership with community organizations on staff development days. Whether Department of Youth and Community Services-funded programs such as COMPASS, Beacon, and Cornerstone open on Thursday is up to the program’s discretion, city officials said. If they’re running, all activities should be indoors. The programs should check with their school partners about whether the building will be open. If it’s closed, these programs may offer remote activities, if they elect to do so.

Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated on Wednesday that the smoke could continue for days and described the situation as an “emergency crisis.”

Officials said they would make a decision on Thursday about Friday’s school schedules.

“We’re taking it day-by-day,” Banks said.

Elementary and middle school students were already scheduled to be off from school on Friday for “Clerical Day.” Students attending standalone District 75 schools, which serve children with more complex disabilities, also have the day off.

But thousands of students attending high school are scheduled to report to buildings on Friday.

The wildfire smoke has already disrupted some school programming. On Wednesday, city officials canceled outdoor school activities, including athletic competitions, recess, and field trips — a decision that was announced on Twitter just before midnight on Tuesday. Banks also postponed a town hall meeting in the Bronx.

Health officials have warned that the polluted air poses greater risks to young people, the elderly, and those with pre-existing breathing issues, such as asthma. Nearly 1 in 10 public school students in grades K-8 have “active asthma,” according to the city’s health department, though the rates are higher among Black and Latino students and disproportionately affect children living in low-income neighborhoods.

The city’s health commissioner, Ashwin Vasan, said children may be susceptible to air pollution because their lungs are still developing. Officials urged residents to stay indoors.

“Right now, our health guidance to all New Yorkers is to limit outdoor activity as much as possible,” Vasan said. “For people who must be outdoors, a high quality mask like an N95, a KN95 or a KF94 is recommended.”

Vasan expressed concern for New Yorkers who were feeling rattled by the air pollution.

“If you feel anxious, if you feel worried, that’s totally understandable,” he said. He encouraged New Yorkers to call the 988 crisis hotline for help, if needed.

Amy Zimmer contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s air pollution from wildfire smoke forces schools to cancel outdoor activities

2023-06-07T12:02:37+00:00

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New York City’s education department canceled all outdoor activities Wednesday, as wildfire smoke wafted from Canada and created unhealthy air conditions across a swath of the Northeast.

Recess, Public School Athletic League sports competitions, and outdoor field days were all canceled, Nathaniel Styer, an education department spokesperson, wrote on Twitter late Tuesday evening. Schools were encouraged to move those activities indoors if possible.

“This is a developing situation and will communicate updates as they come,” Styer wrote.

City officials said that schools will remain open.

Schools will be open today.

We urge everyone to reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.

All NYC Public Schools will be canceling all outdoor activities today.
— NYC Public Schools (@NYCSchools) June 7, 2023

Health authorities have warned that the smoke laden air is particularly harmful to more vulnerable groups, including young children and people with existing health conditions and breathing issues. They have urged people to stay indoors when possible and avoid strenuous outdoor activities.

Styer noted that schools were advised that “special attention be made to vulnerable students and staff populations.”

City officials said that the region’s air quality was expected to improve Wednesday morning but would deteriorate again in the afternoon and evening.

“Currently, we are taking precautions out of an abundance of caution to protect New Yorkers’ health until we are able to get a better sense of future air quality reports,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. “These recommendations may change based on updated air quality conditions that come in, but, in the meantime, we recommend all New Yorkers to take the precautions they see fit to protect their health.”

Officials said that people who need to be outside should wear a high-quality N95 or KN95 mask.

Air purifiers can also help reduce the harmful effects of wildfire smoke. During the coronavirus pandemic all classrooms were outfitted with those devices, though schools have not always used them consistently as the virus has receded. Experts also previously questioned whether the devices the city purchased were the most effective available.

The education department’s facilities team will be reaching out to school custodians to provide guidance regarding air conditioning and filtration, according to a letter sent to principals on Wednesday morning from Emma Vadehra, the education department’s chief operating officer.

She also said that the department was “coordinating closely” with the city’s health department, emergency management office, and other agencies on monitoring the situation and whether there may be changes to the “operating status” for school staff on Thursday’s Anniversary Day/Chancellor’s Conference Day, which is a day off for students.

One assistant principal said on Wednesday morning, “We’ve only had one teacher with asthma call out, but it’s sure to affect attendance rates. I’m sure some parents are keeping kids home.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s literacy mandate: Why one reading program is gaining the most traction

2023-05-31T10:00:00+00:00

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Under NYC’s aggressive literacy push announced earlier this month, officials are mandating all elementary schools use one of three reading curriculums.

One is proving to be far more popular than the others.

Thirteen of 15 local superintendents charged with selecting their districts’ reading curriculum in this first phase of the rollout picked Into Reading, a program published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The education department vetted all three of the mandated reading programs, including Wit & Wisdom and EL Education, officials said. And all three received high marks from the independent curriculum reviewer EdReports.

So why is Into Reading far and away the most popular option among superintendents?

Curriculum experts and department insiders pointed to a series of interlocking factors that may have helped Into Reading elbow out the competition. The program is widely perceived as easier for teachers to implement, especially with little time remaining before deploying it in September. Plus, Into Reading has a Spanish version, which may appeal to superintendents who oversee many dual-language and bilingual programs.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt may have also benefited from a savvy marketing strategy, current and former department employees said. When the pandemic forced school buildings to shutter in March 2020, the company quickly made a slew of free digital materials available to the city’s public schools, including Into Reading and its Spanish counterpart.

“It was a huge help. We were able to make sure that schools had the digital resources they needed during remote learning and hybrid learning,” said a current education department employee familiar with the city’s literacy efforts who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Within two years, the education department had added Into Reading to its approved list of curriculum offerings. That meant if principals choose Into Reading, the cost was subsidized, though they were still free to use their own budgets to purchase other curriculums.

“Houghton Mifflin made a strategic decision during the pandemic and they hoped it would pay off,” the official said. “And it did.”

EL Education, one of the other programs included in the new mandate, was also on the approved list at the time. All three curriculums covered by the new curriculum mandate, including Wit & Wisdom, will be similarly subsidized.

A spokesperson for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt downplayed its decision to make materials free as a key driver of superintendents’ decisions to mandate their product. “There were already hundreds of schools across the city using HMH reading resources,” Bianca Olson, a company spokesperson, wrote in an email. “These partners have seen strong results and they want to continue that momentum in support of student achievement.”

A city education department spokesperson noted that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was one of more than a dozen vendors that provided free digital resources during the pandemic. But officials have generally not collected or published comprehensive curriculum data over time, making it difficult to ascertain the full impact of the company’s strategy.

The education department also declined to say how much they are projected to spend on Houghton Mifflin Harcourt materials and training now that Into Reading is being widely mandated, saying they are still working on creating cost estimates.

Focus turns to ‘science of reading’

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s move to make its materials free came at an opportune moment. Before the pandemic struck, many schools were already in the process of reconsidering their reading curriculum choices, multiple curriculum experts said, pressured in part by a small army of literacy coaches dispatched to schools.

A growing movement backed by years of research, known as the “science of reading,” was persuading more school leaders to back away from “balanced literacy” — an approach that sought to foster a love of literature by allowing students ample time to independently read books of their choosing. It also sometimes included dubious methods, such as encouraging students to use pictures to guess at a word’s meaning instead of focusing on the letters and sounds themselves.

“Every school that I was in was in the midst of changing,” said Heidi Donohue, an early literacy expert at Teaching Matters, an organization that works with city schools to improve reading and math instruction. “They were really talking about, ‘Is the curriculum high-quality? Is it meeting the needs of our kids?’”

More recently, schools Chancellor David Banks has declared that balanced literacy is not an effective approach, often singling out a curriculum developed by Lucy Calkins at Columbia University’s Teachers College — one of the most popular reading curriculums in the city’s public schools. (Heinemann, the publisher of Calkins’ curriculum, is also a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.)

NYC Chancellor David Banks stands at a podium, with Mayor Eric Adams standing off to the left at Tweed Courthouse on June 27, 2022.

Some observers said they were not surprised that Into Reading has become a popular choice in New York City, since it is also widely used elsewhere. An Education Week survey found that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s reading offerings are among the five most popular early reading programs in the country, in large and small districts alike.

Others emphasized that its lessons may seem easier to unpack: Donohue noted that many lesson plans from the teachers manual can fit on two pages. Experts also said Into Reading has common DNA with curriculums that schools have used for years that are structured as anthology-style textbooks with passages written specifically to teach reading skills. (In education jargon, those programs are often referred to as “basals.”)

“A basal-type program is going to have much more structure in the teaching, in the lesson plan itself,” said Esther Friedman, who directed the city education department’s literacy efforts until 2020. Although Friedman said the other two programs also have detailed teacher guides, Into Reading may feel “a little bit more manageable.”

In Brooklyn’s District 16, which covers a large chunk of Bedford-Stuyvesant, teachers got a head start. About two years ago, nearly all of the district’s elementary schools adopted Into Reading, and the new superintendent, Brendan Mims, plans to keep the program in place.

Even though the district’s schools have already used Into Reading, Mims said there’s still room for improvement. “We haven’t hit that bar yet,” he said, in terms of implementing it as effectively as he thinks is possible. He’s hopeful that a more centralized approach to training will help. “Now, teachers and principals and district staff can work together to make sure that they’re getting what they need,” he said.

No curriculum checks every box

Into Reading has the potential to reshape reading instruction across hundreds of elementary school classrooms. That number could grow as more than half of superintendents aren’t implementing the curriculum mandate until September 2024.

Curriculum experts offered mixed feelings about the popularity of Into Reading. Nearly all said that it has many strong elements, including challenging readings, and a broad array of lessons that build vocabulary, spelling, and grammar skills.

But some also said in an effort to sell the curriculum to the widest array of districts, Into Reading is jam-packed with different strategies and resources, similar to other anthology-style programs. That will require teachers to be selective about which lessons to teach.

“Teachers really have to plan for this, and they have to understand that they’re not going to use all of the resources,” Merryl Casanova, a literacy coach who works with schools in the Bronx, previously told Chalkbeat.

Donohue, of Teaching Matters, said the program can be used effectively, but there are also elements of it that feel “watered down.” She said the texts and vocabulary tend to be slightly less challenging, and the other two curriculums include deeper student discussions and units with more sophisticated themes.

The other two programs “bring a higher quality of text and expectation for kids,” Donohue said. A New York University report also found that Into Reading materials are not culturally responsive, though Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has disputed that characterization and some educators told Chalkbeat the materials do speak to the diversity of New York City’s student body.

Other observers said that EL Education and Wit & Wisdom are somewhat more focused on exposing students to nonfiction in an effort to boost their background knowledge of topics they’re likely to encounter in the future, a strategy meant to boost students’ ability to understand texts about a wide range of subjects.

Still, experts emphasized that all three curriculums come with tradeoffs. And much of the success of the literacy mandate may rest on whether educators buy into the changes — which can be tricky given there was not a public input process. The quality of the training they receive is also critical to the program’s success.

“Really none of the three [curriculums] give a teacher all of the tools for teaching what needs to be taught,” Friedman said. “That has to come from the professional development.”

With just over three months until the next school year begins, there is limited time to fully prepare.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC won’t slash school budgets at first, but mid-year cuts are still possible

2023-05-22T22:33:01+00:00

New York City schools won’t have to brace for budget cuts next school year — at least at first.

All schools will receive the same amount of money or more at the start of the 2023-24 academic year as they did this year despite some of the “fiscal challenges” facing the city, Chancellor David Banks announced on Monday during a City Council hearing about the education department’s proposed budget for next fiscal year.

But school budgets may not need the extra cushion this year. Unlike the significant drops over the past few years, the education department is projecting enrollment to largely hold steady next year, dipping by less than 1%

The move represents a shift from what happened last summer, when budget cuts tied to declining enrollment, sparked severe backlash, including a lawsuit, and forced schools to shrink staff and programming.

It also comes as Mayor Eric Adams has proposed cutting the education department’s budget by 3% next fiscal year, which begins July 1. That $30.5 billion budget is expected to include less spending on fringe benefits and cut a previously announced expansion of preschool for 3-year-olds.

The decision to start the new school year with steady budgets, however, doesn’t mean schools are completely immune from cuts. Banks said the city hasn’t yet decided whether schools will see cuts during what’s known as the “mid-year adjustment”— a practice put on pause this year using $200 million in federal COVID relief dollars.

Schools get money in the summer based on the city’s enrollment projections, and when the final tallies are taken on Oct. 31, schools could lose money mid-year if they’ve enrolled fewer students than projected — or get extra money if they have more children.

“If a school has 500 students, but by the middle of the year, they’ve dropped down to 200 students, we’re not going to make the commitment today to say, ‘No matter what, there’ll be no adjustment even at that point,’” Banks said during the hearing.

That might leave some school leaders with tough decisions. While principals might get the same amount of money as last year, they may be hesitant to hire more teachers or create more programming in anticipation of losing money during the school year.

One the one hand, some city principals said they understand the city’s desire to bring funding more in line with enrollment to avoid big disparities in per-student spending between schools.

“There are schools that are serving many fewer students than they were five years ago, and the city can’t afford to just fund those schools endlessly,” said a Brooklyn principal who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

But on the other hand, the principal wishes that the education department would make it easier for schools to plan by promising budgets will not be cut more than a certain percentage in a given year rather than having to make educated guesses.

And even if a school does not have to return money later in the year, it can be difficult to use before the spending deadline, especially to hire staff. If a school has an unexpected surplus in January, “all of a sudden there’s a spending spree and it’s not effective and efficient,” the principal said. “It doesn’t help to get money in November or January if you needed to hire a teacher in September.”

Schools are expected to receive their budgets by the end of this month, said Emma Vadehra, chief operating officer for the education department. When principals receive those budgets, Vadehra said, they might notice cuts to individual funding streams, such as Fair Student Funding, which is the city’s main school funding formula. (Schools with higher needs and higher enrollment get more money under the formula.)

Such drops will be backfilled with “other funding streams” to hold budgets steady, Vadehra said. However, officials did not clarify how schools will be able to use those funds. While Fair Student Funding can be used to hire teachers, money from other pots can sometimes be restricted for other uses.

The education department plans to use funding from multiple sources to keep budgets level at the start of the school year, Vadehra said. That includes a $160 million in federal stimulus funds that had been announced previously, as well as money from the state, which has boosted dollars for districts through its own school funding formula, known as Foundation Aid.

Several council members raised concerns about education department programs that are relying on expiring federal stimulus dollars, including preschool programming and expanded summer programming. Vadehra acknowledged that the education department does not yet have a plan on how to fund these initiatives once the money runs out in 2024.

“This is a major challenge,” Banks said to council members. “I mean, there’s a lot of great programs — even as we came on board — that have been built off of access to these stimulus dollars. The stimulus dollars are going away. We’re going to have to work very closely together to try to figure this out.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school suspensions spike 27% during the first half of the school year

2023-05-19T23:01:29+00:00

New York City public schools issued significantly more suspensions during the first half of this school year, according to long overdue department statistics.

Between July and December 2022, schools issued just over 10,600 suspensions — 27% more than the same period in 2021. The number is about 6% higher than in 2019 just before the pandemic hit, even though the number of K-12 students has declined over 10%.

Drilling down into the data, principal suspensions — which last five days or fewer — jumped by about 29%. Superintendent suspensions, which stretch longer than five days, and are served at outside suspension sites, spiked by 21%. (The figures do not include charter schools.)

Before the pandemic hit, suspensions were on a downward trajectory, owing in part to a slew of policy changes that made it more difficult to exclude students from classrooms. When COVID forced the city’s school buildings to shutter, suspensions mostly stopped.

Last school year — the first time students were required to attend school in person since March 2020 — suspensions ticked back up but remained far short of pre-pandemic levels. That surprised some student discipline experts, who expected a larger increase given widespread concerns about student mental health and students’ ability to reacclimate to regular classroom rules.

Educators may have been more reluctant to exacerbate learning loss after years of pandemic schooling. Skyrocketing rates of chronic absenteeism and declining enrollment may have also played a role, as there were simply fewer students in school buildings to suspend.

Social distancing rules could have made physical confrontations, which may lead to suspensions, less likely. Suspensions are disproportionately issued to Black students, and teachers may have tempered suspensions in the wake of the racial reckoning after George Floyd’s murder.

Whatever the cause of the decline after the pandemic, suspensions are now ticking back up, mirroring educator reports across the country of more disruptive student behavior. Local data for the full school year, including demographic breakdowns, will not be available until later this year.

The uptick in suspensions raised concern among some discipline reform advocates.

“That is a huge problem that the city is choosing to increase the use of punitive and exclusionary approaches,” said Dawn Yuster, director of the School Justice Project at the nonprofit group Advocates for Children. “We are in the midst of a youth mental health crisis and we know our young people are literally crying out for more support.”

Jenna Lyle, an education department spokesperson, emphasized that the use of suspensions have generally declined over the last decade.

“We are continuously focused on equipping schools with the resources they need to address any issues in a positive, supportive, and less punitive manner, including through implementation of restorative practices,” she wrote.

Under city law, the education department’s mid-year suspension report is due by the end of March. Despite multiple requests, education department officials did not provide the suspension report for weeks. Lyle did not answer a question about why the city did not provide the figures within the required timeframe, a deadline the city regularly met before the pandemic.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Housing migrants in school gyms: What we know (and don’t) about NYC’s shelter plans

2023-05-16T20:56:16+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.

Up to 20 New York City public school gymnasiums could be transformed into emergency shelters for asylum seekers, a sudden move that Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday he was reluctant to make.

“This is one of the last places we want to look at,” the mayor said in an interview on NY1. “None of us are comfortable with having to take these drastic steps.”

Adams contends that the city is running out of space in shelters, hotels, and other emergency accommodations as more than 65,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City since last year.

A handful of school gyms, largely in Brooklyn, are already being outfitted with cots, and at least one has already opened its doors to migrants. The plan has drawn concerns about possible disruption to school activities and whether the spaces have adequate access to bathrooms and showers.

Here’s what we know — and don’t know — about the city’s plans to transform schools into emergency shelters:

NYC is gearing up to use school gyms to house migrants, but only detached gyms.

Adams stressed that the city is only considering gymnasiums that are physically separated from the rest of the building, an effort to ease concerns about students coming into contact with adults who have not been vetted with background checks, as school staffers typically are.

Students are “not going to be impacted,” Adams said during a radio appearance on 1010 WINS.

City officials said the police department will be present at those sites around the clock. Still, some parent leaders said ensuring that students and migrants aren’t in contact may require logistical coordination to manage nearby entrances and exits.

So far, the city is gearing up to house migrants at the following schools in Brooklyn, according to parent leaders and news reports: Coney Island’s P.S. 188, Crown Heights’ P.S. 189, Sunset Park’s P.S. 172, and Williamsburg’s P.S. 17, P.S. 18, P.S. 132 and M.S. 577.

City officials did not provide a full list of school gyms under consideration for emergency shelter, nor did they say which buildings are currently housing migrants. The Daily News reported that some migrants were already staying at P.S. 188 over the weekend.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio implemented a plan in 2017 to build about 75 stand-alone school gyms across the city, since many schools blamed space issues for flouting mandated minutes for gym instruction.

Tensions are rising in some school communities.

At Williamsburg’s P.S. 17, students and parents gathered Tuesday morning to protest the use of the school’s gym to house migrants. Some children held signs reading “We Need Recess!!!” and the crowd chanted, “We support asylum seekers, but not on school grounds.”

Outside PS 17 in Williamsburg, kids chant, “we support asylum seekers but not on school grounds.” pic.twitter.com/35iFNRuxIw
— Gwynne Hogan (@GwynneFitz) May 16, 2023

Tajh Sutton, the parent council president in Brooklyn’s District 14, which includes P.S. 17, said the lack of transparency from the city about their plans helped fuel the backlash. Sutton also contends that Adams has directly stoked anger toward migrants by regularly highlighting the costs associated with connecting them with services and claiming they have “destroyed” the city.

“He’s created the conditions for this vitriol,” she said. The protest at P.S. 17 “made me really sad because I think that parents’ frustration about not being communicated with is valid and parents’ exhaustion about a lack of transparency from the Department of Education is valid. But when you’re allowing that to let you veer into racism and xenophobia, you have to check yourself.”

Still, Sutton said some school communities are trying to be flexible. At P.S. 18, in East Williamsburg, the principal is working to communicate what’s happening with parents, funding alternative spaces for gym class, and tracking down an alternative venue for their graduation, she said. Some members of the community are working with a mutual aid group to provide toiletries to asylum seekers.

“The principal has done a really wonderful job,” Sutton said.

Groups from all corners are calling on the city to reverse course.

The city’s teachers union, local elected officials, the union representing school safety agents, and even immigrant advocates have raised concerns about the city’s plan.

“We don’t agree with utilizing active school buildings as housing for emergency shelter right now because we don’t want to disrupt a school environment,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

The union representing school safety agents, who are police department employees, also claimed in a letter to city officials that they were improperly asked to “monitor recently arrived asylum seekers in schools” and contend with “agitated” local residents.

The gym at P.S. 18, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is expected to be used as a shelter for asylum seekers.

It’s not the first time schools have been used as shelters.

Nor is it the first time that families feel like they are being kept in the dark about using schools as shelters.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened emergency shelters in 76 public schools for New Yorkers who had no place to go after the storm flooded their homes or residential facilities.

At Brooklyn Tech, the nation’s largest brick-and-mortar high school, more than 200 adults from assisted living facilities in the Rockaways stayed in the school’s cafeteria and other spaces for two weeks while class was in session. The residents shared entrances with the students unlike the city’s current plan where there are separate entrances for the shelter.

“It was a terrible situation for all of these people who were homeless and displaced,” recounted Elissa Stein, a high school admissions consultant, who had a child at Brooklyn Tech at the time. “But the kids were having this experience that wasn’t necessarily safe.”

Residents needed medical services, like blood draws, and families were concerned about medical waste as well as strangers wandering the hallways and stairwells.

The city kept promising that the shelter would wrap up, but the end date kept getting delayed, Stein said.

“It was hard to get answers,” Stein said.

The city has not yet said how long schools will operate as shelters.

The goal is to close the shelters “as soon as possible,” a city hall spokesperson said. Officials did not provide a firm timeline, though, and noted that they have run out of space elsewhere and are seeking federal and state help.

Education officials acknowledge school programming may be affected.

The full scope of how school activities could be disrupted remains unclear.

At Williamsburg’s P.S. 17 and M.S. 577, which share a gym, parents were concerned that kids would lose their gym and also lose outdoor recess and some after-school activities since the gym fronts the playground, according to the New York Post.

City officials said they’re working to select facilities that wouldn’t have a direct effect on programming, but they acknowledged some schools will have to shift their physical education classes to a different venue, including outdoors or in other school spaces.

Under state law, children in elementary school are required to have at least 120 minutes of physical education each week. Middle schoolers must have at least 90 minutes, and high school students are required to have at least 180 minutes for seven semesters.

Officials say the gyms are supposed to house adults, not children.

As the influx of migrants has strained the existing shelter system, Adams last week used an executive order to temporarily suspend some of the city’s rules around guaranteeing the right to shelter, including the requirement to place families in private rooms with bathrooms and kitchens. That could provide a path for the city to house children in school gyms, but a legal aid attorney told THE CITY that state regulations still prohibit children from group shelter settings, and that the city has moved children out of such sites after learning they were there.

A City Hall spokesperson said their “intent” is to only house adults in school gyms.

The city has not explained how habitable the gyms are.

City officials did not share information on what kinds of facilities the gyms offer, such as adult toilets or showers. While high school gyms might have showers, typically elementary and middle schools do not, and all of the schools currently identified as housing asylum seekers are elementary and middle schools.

Jessamyn Lee, an elected parent member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, said details have been scarce about whether the city plans to bring in shower or bathroom trailers and how that might work logistically. “Where will those go — are they going in the street? Are they going in school yards? No information has been released,” she said.

Residents around at least two of the schools, Coney Island’s P.S. 188 and Sunset Park’s P.S. 172, filed complaints with the Department of Buildings raising questions about the legality of using the gyms to house people, public records show.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Reading instruction is getting an overhaul in NYC. Here’s how that could affect your school.

2023-05-12T21:22:42+00:00

Chancellor David Banks is planning the most aggressive overhaul to the way New York City schools teach students to read in nearly 20 years.

The changes, announced this week, will require the city’s elementary schools to adopt one of three reading programs over the next two years. They must also phase out materials from a popular “balanced literacy” curriculum developed by Lucy Calkins, a professor at Teachers College, which has been used by hundreds of elementary schools in recent years.

“A big part of the bad guidance was rooted in what has been called balanced literacy,” Banks said this week. “We must give children the basic foundational skills of reading.”

But what is balanced literacy, anyway? And how are the new curriculums different?

Here’s how the changes could impact students in grades K-5:

What reading strategies is the city moving away from?

For years, many New York City schools embraced a philosophy of reading instruction as a natural process that can be unlocked by exposing students to literature. The idea was that by filling classroom libraries and giving students freedom to pick from them, they would develop a love of reading and absorb key skills to decipher texts.

In many classrooms, teachers offered mini-lessons on topics like how to find a text’s main idea. Then students were often sent to select a book of their choice, geared toward their individual reading level, to read independently and apply skills from the lesson they’d just heard. If a child had trouble identifying a specific word, they were often encouraged to use accompanying pictures to guess at its meaning, a practice that has been discredited.

Critics said the approach lacked sufficient instruction on the relationship between sounds and letters, known as phonics. In response, supporters of the model sprinkled more of it in. That compromise is known as balanced literacy. Balanced literacy was pushed into schools by the city’s education department in 2003, and it has remained popular.

Before the pandemic, roughly half of city elementary schools that responded to a curriculum survey were using a balanced literacy program called Units of Study, developed by Calkins, an investigation by Chalkbeat and THE CITY found. (Calkins has since updated the program, including a greater emphasis on phonics, though most schools will not be allowed to keep using it.)

In practice, instructional approaches often differ from school to school — or even classroom to classroom — with teachers often piecing together lessons from a hodgepodge of different sources. The city’s goal is to ensure all schools have access to, and actually use, high-quality materials.

What is the approach to phonics?

Balanced literacy has increasingly come under fire from a range of experts who point to long-standing research that shows many students won’t pick up reading skills without more systematic instruction on the fundamentals of reading.

Now, all elementary schools are being required to adopt city-approved phonics programs, explicit lessons that drill the relationship between sounds and letters. Those programs are typically delivered separately from a school’s main reading program and are shorter in length, often about 20-30 minutes.

Teacher Lauren Litman delivers a phonics lesson at P.S. 236 in the Bronx.

Even before the latest mandates, most schools were already delivering some phonics, though observers said getting schools to use the same approaches will help streamline training and oversight.

“Many, many schools have adopted a coherent phonics approach over the past few years, but the difference is we’re now organizing the infrastructure … to be able to work together around a common playbook,” said Lynette Guastaferro, CEO of Teaching Matters, an organization that works with about 160 New York City schools to improve reading and math instruction.

What’s the philosophy behind the new curriculums?

In addition to phonics lessons, all elementary schools will be required to use one of three reading curriculums: Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds; Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; or EL Education.

Many curriculums focus on reading strategies, such as how to find a text’s main idea or how to draw conclusions from it. But the three required curriculums build students’ background knowledge in science and social studies.

The idea is that a student’s ability to understand what they’re reading depends on how much prior knowledge they have of the subject at hand. In one famous experiment conducted in the 1980s, researchers found that children who were not strong readers but knew a lot about baseball were just as capable of summarizing what they’d read about a baseball game compared with stronger readers. (A recent study offers fresh evidence that the knowledge-building approach may be effective, though research is limited on whether knowledge-based programs outperform skills-focused curriculums.)

Kate Gutwillig, a fourth and fifth grade teacher at P.S. 51 in Manhattan, previously used Calkins’ balanced literacy program but in recent years transitioned to EL Education and now uses Wit & Wisdom.

She said she appreciated EL Education’s social-justice oriented lessons, including one where students unpack the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and also read a novel about a girl who must flee Mexico with her family and winds up in a farm labor camp in California. More recently, she taught a Wit & Wisdom unit focused on the heart’s role in the circulatory system and the way it’s used figuratively to refer to love and other emotional qualities.

“They’re thriving, they’re doing so well with it,” Gutwillig said of her students. Unlike the balanced literacy program where students picked their own books, students are all reading from the same books at the same time. “It helps to build community,” she said.

Some advocates argue that Into Reading doesn’t have as strong a focus on knowledge building compared with the other two programs, in part because it includes such a wide range of materials, but it has still received high marks from curriculum reviewers.

Which curriculum is your school likely to use?

Thirteen of the 15 districts expected to adopt one of the three approved reading programs this September have selected Into Reading. That curriculum uses an anthology-style textbook with texts specifically designed to teach reading skills. Some observers said the lessons tend to be scripted, and department officials said its “teacher friendly” approach made it a favorite among the local superintendents charged with picking a curriculum for their district’s schools.

“The lessons are laid out so the teacher can walk in and teach them,” said Heidi Donohue, an early literacy expert at Teaching Matters. Into Reading tends to move more quickly through multiple texts each week, she said, whereas Wit & Wisdom and EL Education tend to stay on one text or unit for longer stretches.

Into Reading “has everything that teachers would want,” said Merryl Casanova, a literacy coach who works with schools in the Bronx, pointing to materials that focus on grammar, spelling, reading comprehension, discussion strategies, and more. But that can also be “very overwhelming,” she said. “Teachers really have to plan for this, and they have to understand that they’re not going to use all of the resources.”

Into Reading has received some criticism for not reflecting the diversity of New York City’s student population, which is predominantly Black and Latino. A New York University report found that the program “used language and tone that demeaned and dehumanized Black, Indigenous and characters of color, while encouraging empathy and connection with White characters.”

Officials at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which publishes Into Reading, have disputed that characterization, arguing that the report focused on a small sample of materials. The city’s education department said schools may also supplement the curriculum with other materials that are designed to be culturally responsive.

All three curriculums have passed muster with EdReports, an independent curriculum reviewer.

Which schools will be covered by the mandate first?

Many schools among the first 15 districts covered by the mandate already use their district’s approved curriculum or are in the process of doing so, city officials said.

The city’s remaining 17 districts will not fall under the mandate until September 2024. City officials said some schools may receive exemptions, which have not yet been revealed, though they emphasized that they expect the number will be small.

Here’s what each district has selected so far:

Into Reading
Manhattan District 5
Bronx District 12
Brooklyn districts 14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 32
Queens districts 25, 26, 29, 30
Select schools in District 75, a citywide district for students with more complex disabilities

EL Education
Bronx District 11

Wit & Wisdom
Brooklyn District 19

How long will it take to see changes?

Experts and educators said that curriculum changes often take years to fully take root, and may depend on how committed teachers and school leaders are to the changes. (The city’s principals union, for instance, has pushed back against the mandate.)

At P.S. 236 in the Bronx, educators began transitioning to Wit & Wisdom in 2020 after using Calkins’ Units of Study for years. Lauren Litman, a second grade teacher, said educators have been learning how to deploy texts that students often find challenging and figuring out how to edit the curriculum down to be manageable.

“We’ve kind of gotten into a better rhythm of how to scale down the lessons because there is a lot of information,” she said.

How quickly teaching practice changes may also depend on how effective the city’s training is — and there’s limited time to help educators learn new materials before September.

“Any new curriculum is going to take time for us to get the routines and the systems and the things in place that are going to make it work for the school,” Donohue said. “No curriculum is going to be the quick fix.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC forces elementary schools to use one of three reading programs in massive literacy push

2023-05-09T20:09:40+00:00

New York City’s elementary schools will be required to use one of three reading curriculums, a tectonic shift that education officials hope will improve literacy rates across the nation’s largest school system.

Beginning in September, elementary schools in 15 of the city’s 32 districts will be required to use one of three programs selected by the education department, Chancellor David Banks and Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday. By September 2024, all of the city’s roughly 700 elementary schools will be required to use one of the three. Chalkbeat first reported the plans in March.

The new mandate won support from the teachers union, whose leaders expressed faith in the city’s efforts to train thousands of teachers on new materials. Training for the first year is expected to cost $35 million, though city officials declined to provide an estimate of the effort’s overall price tag, including the cost of purchasing materials.

Meanwhile, the plan earned a strong rebuke from the union representing principals, who have long had wide latitude to choose which materials their teachers use. That freedom has allowed school leaders to use programs that vary widely in their approach and quality, Banks has argued.

The chancellor has frequently called for a more systematic approach, citing lagging reading scores. About half of the city’s students in grades 3-8 are not considered proficient readers based on state tests. The results are even more stark among certain subgroups: Fewer than 37% of Black and Latino reached that threshold and the numbers significantly are lower for students with disabilities and those still learning English.

“They aren’t reading because we’ve been giving our schools and our educators a flawed plan,” Banks said during the announcement at Brooklyn’s P.S. 156. He added: “It is really an indictment on the work that we do.”

Now, city officials will require one of three reading programs: Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds; Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; or EL Education. They charged superintendents of each district to select their schools’ curriculum. Thirteen of the initial 15 districts are planning to use Into Reading. Some schools are already using these curriculums, and city officials did not say how many will have to switch.

What curriculum is your school’s district planning to use?

EL Education
Bronx District 11

Wit & Wisdom
Brooklyn District 19

City officials said they selected the first 15 districts based in part on how many schools in each district were prepared to make a curriculum change. Notably, some of the city’s most affluent districts (Manhattan’s districts 2 and 3, and Brooklyn’s District 15) will be in the second phase of the rollout. Those districts include many schools that use balanced literacy approaches, including Lucy Calkins’ curriculum, so sweeping changes in those neighborhoods could spark more pushback from educators and school leaders.

All three curriculums have met quality expectations set by EdReports, an independent curriculum reviewer. And they also met the group’s standards for helping students build background knowledge by exposing them to more content in topics like science and social studies, something many experts say is an important ingredient for building reading comprehension skills.

But some of the curriculum materials have also faced criticism. A review from New York University found that Into Reading is not culturally responsive and “used language and tone that demeaned and dehumanized Black, Indigenous and characters of color, while encouraging empathy and connection with White characters.”

Asked about those findings, Deputy Chancellor Carolyne Quintana pointed to the education department’s own culturally responsive materials that can supplement the other reading programs “to better reflect the range of ethnicities and cultures that we have here in New York City.”

The new initiative builds on previous efforts to bolster literacy instruction, including a requirement that schools use city-approved phonics programs, which help students master the relationship between sounds and letters. Education officials have also launched programs to reach students with dyslexia, including a standalone school dedicated to students with reading challenges that will launch in the fall.

Adams, who has repeatedly pointed to his own struggle with dyslexia in school as a motivation for improving literacy instruction, acknowledged that the city’s efforts will take time to come to fruition, likely stretching beyond his administration.

“Is it going to be perfect? No,” the mayor said. “But dammit, we’re going to try.”

Retraining teachers in the shift from ‘balanced literacy’

City officials are pushing schools to move away from a framework known as “balanced literacy” which places a greater emphasis on exposing students to books of their choice to help them develop a love of reading rather than explicit instruction on foundational reading skills.

Balanced literacy was pushed into schools in 2003 under Chancellor Joel Klein and has enjoyed support from successive school chancellors.

But even as a growing chorus of experts have pointed to research showing the importance of teaching foundational reading skills, a balanced literacy program written by Lucy Calkins at Teachers College has remained in hundreds of elementary schools in recent years, an investigation by Chalkbeat and THE CITY found. (Calkins has revised her materials to include more of an emphasis on phonics.)

Many advocates felt relieved when Banks took the helm of city schools and issued a blunt assessment of balanced literacy and Calkins materials, arguing the approach “has not worked.” And literacy experts have widely cheered the city’s plans to mandate a smaller set of reading choices, effectively preventing schools from using balanced literacy programs like the one written by Calkins.

But a new curriculum alone is unlikely to dramatically improve student learning. Much of the plan will hinge on how effective the city’s training is and whether educators buy in to the changes. Meanwhile, curriculum shifts often take years to execute, and there is little time to train thousands of teachers who will be expected to transition to new materials beginning in September.

Education department officials are gearing up training efforts and will pay teachers extra this summer and during the school year to help them prepare, though it’s unclear how much training most teachers will receive before the rollout begins. They also noted each school will have access to more than three weeks worth of training and teachers will receive “job-embedded coaching.”

Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers union, said he’s seen the city’s training plans come into focus in recent weeks and lent his support, flanking Adams and Banks during the announcement.

“It’s all hands on deck — everybody has to work together,” Mulgrew said in an interview, though he noted that many of his members are “pessimistic” about being forced to adopt new materials. “It should have never been a school system where every school was left on their own to do whatever they want.”

Having fewer curriculums will make it easier to provide teacher training, proponents of the change argue, since superintendents can focus on supporting schools with one curriculum instead of a hodge-podge. And if students switch schools, particularly students who live in temporary housing, they’ll be much less likely to start from scratch with a new program.

“Right now professional learning is like random skills led by fly-by providers,” said Evan Stone, executive director of Educators for Excellence, a teacher advocacy group that has pushed for more standardized curriculums. “Now teachers can become true experts in a core set of tools.”

Principals union worries about buy-in from schools

Still, the changes have met resistance from the city’s principal union, whose members’ freedom to choose instructional materials will be curtailed. And some educators have also expressed frustration that they will no longer be able to use approaches that they believe are working for their students. Other veteran educators have seen education initiatives ebb over time and worry they’re being asked to make a change that will ultimately be scrapped in a few years.

Henry Rubio, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, issued a statement criticizing the department for its lack of outreach in developing its plan, saying that his union repeatedly asked why city officials did not engage parents, teachers, and principals on the shift.

With superintendents choosing their district’s curriculum without giving schools a chance to evaluate them, Rubio cast doubt on whether the move will “earn essential buy-in within their communities.” He also worried that the timeline was too short for many principals, who have been focused on end-of-year activities and planning for summer school.

“This is a massive overhaul of how we teach children to read, and the DOE has provided little detail on how thousands of educators will be adequately trained by September,” Rubio said. “Perhaps more importantly, why have half the districts been given well over a year to adequately prepare while the other half are forced to rush through this vital training?”

Education department officials said there may be some exemptions to the mandate, but emphasized that they will be limited in scope and only apply to a small number of schools.

Some teachers are hoping their schools will qualify for exemptions. At P.S. 236 in the Bronx, the school has been transitioning to Wit & Wisdom from Calkins’ balanced literacy curriculum called Units of Study. Teachers there have been learning how to implement the new lessons, which include more difficult texts and less independent reading time when students read books of their choosing.

And while the school is not in the first wave of those expected to change curriculums, they worry that they’ll be forced to start fresh with a new program depending on what their superintendent selects for their district, even though they’re already using one of the city’s approved programs.

“That would be a lot of work and a lot of wasted effort,” said Susan Mackle, a second grade teacher.

The city is also planning to require more standardized curriculums in other parts of the system. About 178 high schools will begin using a standardized algebra curriculum called Illustrative Math. And early childhood programs will be expected to use a program called The Creative Curriculum.

Amy Zimmer contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Enrollment at NYC’s transfer high schools tanked during the pandemic. Can it rebound?

2023-04-28T21:22:08+00:00

Alyssa Cartagena stopped attending school after giving birth a year ago. She had no babysitter, and going back felt insurmountable.

But a small alternative high school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side helped pull her back in. The program, Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School, boasts an on-site day care center operated by the education department. She enrolled her two-month old son, Shawn, dropping him off each day before heading to class.

“I was nervous, but I was also relaxed knowing I was so close to him, and I can stop by anytime,” said Cartagena, now 19. “It was easier for me to focus in class.”

She’s now on track to earn a high school diploma later this year.

The city has nearly 60 transfer schools like West Side that focus on the students who struggled to succeed at traditional high schools and are at risk of dropping out. They pride themselves on offering individual support, small classes, and a suite of wraparound services to push students to graduation.

But the city’s transfer schools are in a precarious position, as enrollment across the sector has plummeted. The number of students attending transfer high schools fell 22% over the past four years compared with a 5% decline at traditional high schools, a Chalkbeat analysis found. Steep dips in enrollment can put schools in danger of being closed or merged.

Already, the education department has put forward a contentious plan for West Side, which shrank from serving about 500 students six years ago to about 200 this year. The proposal calls for West Side to swap buildings with The Young Women’s Leadership School in East Harlem, which is outgrowing its campus.

Community members have blasted the proposal because it would leave West Side without an on-site child care center or health clinic. Some have also warned students may face threats to their physical safety if they cross neighborhood lines.

The education department has argued the move, along with a new Spanish dual-language program, could help attract new students to West Side. After the department delayed the proposal earlier this month, the city’s Panel for Educational Policy is scheduled for a Monday vote that will be closely watched.

The battle playing out at West Side only represents the most high-profile example of the transfer school enrollment crisis that has been simmering below the surface. About 70% of the city’s transfer schools now enroll fewer than 200 students, up from about 26% in 2017. A handful have slipped below 100.

The enrollment drops are likely due in part to more relaxed academic standards at traditional high schools during the pandemic, observers say. Some of the sector’s leaders believe it will bounce back as regular grading policies — and state graduation exams — fall back into place.

But dwindling enrollment raises questions about the sustainability of a network of schools that exclusively serve students who are at risk of dropping out, including those who have been tangled in the criminal justice system, face difficult family circumstances, or may be parents themselves. Since schools are funded largely based on enrollment, shrinking rosters can make it difficult to offer a wide range of classes and extracurricular activities.

Manhattan’s Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School is at the center of a contentious proposal to move the school into a smaller space.

Education department officials did not respond to questions for this story, including whether they are considering merging or closing transfer schools.

Some leaders across the sector believe that enrollment will rebound, but there is lingering concern that a broader wave of restructuring could be on the horizon.

“It might have to be the reality — I don’t know that you can run a school with 100 students,” said one transfer school principal who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

“We’ve been sort of warned, in a sense: Keep your numbers up or that’s something that could happen.”

Why is transfer school enrollment dropping precipitously?

Transfer school leaders trace the steep decline in enrollment to pandemic-era policies that made it easier for students to stay on track at traditional high schools.

When the pandemic forced campuses to shut down in 2020, schools eased their grading policies. And state officials temporarily paused the Regents exams, typically required for graduation. Students only had to pass their courses to graduate rather than sit for an additional state exam.

Students may have been able to pass classes they would have failed in a typical year, said Jai Nanda, executive director of Urban Dove, which operates two charter transfer schools, one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx.

Traditional high schools had incentives to hang on to more of their students, since many of those campuses were also experiencing enrollment declines. Plus, families may simply have been more reluctant to switch schools during such a chaotic time, even if a student was struggling.

“[Students] chalked it up to being remote rather than their school not being a good fit for them,” Nanda said.

Transfer schools may also have lost students who became disconnected from school due to growing mental health and anxiety problems, or because they needed to work to support their families. Some may have moved out of the city with their families because of rising housing costs.

Small-by-design schools are more vulnerable to enrollment drops

Whatever the cause, declining enrollment has an outsized effect on transfer schools, which are typically smaller to begin with to offer more individualized support than a traditional campus.

Shawn Henry, a director of high school programming at Queens Community House, helps oversee the organization’s partnership with three transfer high schools. The group ensures every student is paired with a counselor, conducts home visits if a student doesn’t show up for three consecutive days, and helps coordinate paid internship opportunities.

“The ideal model is a smaller environment,” Henry said.

But that size makes it difficult to absorb big enrollment swings — though so far the schools have been insulated by an influx of federal relief money.

At Urban Dove, which has seen enrollment dip, the school has a heavy focus on sports, with all students expected to participate on athletic teams with coaches who work with them multiple hours each day. “A great deal of that program is beyond the traditional school budget,” Nanda said. Emergency pandemic aid kept the program afloat.

Still, other campuses are beginning to feel the pinch — and relief money is beginning to dry up. One transfer school principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said their school has already reduced staff positions. That has limited the number of electives they offer. And it forced them to cut the number of classrooms with a mix of students with disabilities and general education students; those classes are typically staffed by two teachers.

Those types of cuts can prompt a downward spiral, where fewer classes and programs makes the school less attractive to prospective students. At the same time, shrinking rosters make operating the schools even more expensive on a per-student basis, creating incentives for city officials to consolidate or close them.

“As you contract, it becomes harder to even grow,” the principal said.

Some transfer school leaders predict a rebound

Despite the serious headwinds facing transfer schools, some of the school’s leaders believe demand for the schools will return.

As schools return to normal grading policies and Regents exams are back in full swing, there may be an even larger contingent of students who struggle to graduate without moving to a transfer school.

Nanda, the leader of two charter transfer schools, said he is already seeing signs of an enrollment uptick. “You’re going to have a lot of kids coming into high school in the next couple years that won’t have the fundamental skill[s],” he said, though he noted that it remains to be seen how many will wind up at transfer schools.

Transfer school staff also noted that the schools could be an asset to serving the growing number of asylum-seeking students arriving in New York, as alternative schools specialize in reaching students with interrupted educations.

Emma Lazarus High School, a transfer program on the Lower East Side, has long focused on serving students who are still learning English and has seen its enrollment snap back relatively quickly thanks in part to an influx of new arrivals.

“The uptake in immigrants has definitely impacted our enrollment upward,” said Principal Melody Kellogg, who retired this month. Education officials previously indicated that they planned to place some new arrivals at transfer schools, but officials have provided few details about the program.

Still, Kellogg and other transfer leaders said it can be difficult for other transfer schools to serve newly arrived immigrants, arguing that even with a boost in funding, it is often not commensurate with the need to hire new staff. Finding qualified educators, especially mid-year, is a major challenge.

“It’s nice to have a little extra money, but it’s not going to be enough to support them fully,” Kellogg said.

More broadly, Natalie Lozada, who works with four transfer schools through East Side House Settlement, worries that a focus on enrollment declines could jeopardize programs that are doing solid work. “Are we saying that because these numbers are low that we should discard supports for these students?”

Still, like many of the sector’s boosters, she anticipates a rebound is coming.

“I believe in my heart, and based on my experience, and all my years of doing this work, that it’s circular. Their numbers are going to come back up again.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s education budget could drop by $960M next year under mayor’s proposal

2023-04-27T00:19:25+00:00

The city’s education department budget would drop by nearly $960 million next school year under a more detailed budget proposal released by Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday, though city officials did not offer specifics about the impact on individual campuses.

Two-thirds of that cut, or $652 million, is the result of Adams’ decision to reduce the city’s contribution to the education department. Another $297 million is from a drop in federal funding, which is drying up as pandemic relief programs end.

Part of the city’s cut is tied to a mandate from the mayor earlier this month calling on city agencies to cut spending, including at the education department. That raised questions about whether schools would take a hit, but on Wednesday, Adams vowed that this specific cost-saving measure “will not take a dime from classrooms.”

Instead, that reduction — totaling $325 million — will largely come from recalculations on how much the city spends in fringe benefits, such as health insurance for teachers. (Officials emphasized this would not result in a loss of benefits or other services.)

“We had to make tough choices in this budget,” Adams said Wednesday. “We had to negotiate competing needs. We realize that not everyone will be happy but that is okay because that is how you get stuff done.”

The education department’s operating budget would total about $30.5 billion next year under the mayor’s plan, down by about 3%.

Some of the cuts were previously announced, including the elimination of a planned expansion of prekindergarten for 3-year-olds. Other impacts of the cuts may come into focus in the coming days as experts and journalists pore over reams of budget documents, which were released late Wednesday afternoon.

Adams has argued school budgets should reflect falling enrollment, but city officials declined to say what overall change they expect to individual school budgets next year. That question is likely to draw intense scrutiny after the City Council was heavily criticized last year for approving a budget that resulted in cuts to many campuses.

After the pandemic hit, Mayor Bill de Blasio used federal relief money to keep school budgets steady even as enrollment plunged. But as the spigot of federal money is drying up, Adams has started reducing budgets to line up with the number of students enrolled at each school, resulting in cuts on the majority of campuses. (Since the start of the pandemic, enrollment dropped about 11% in K-12.)

Next year, Adams plans to use $160 million of federal money to avoid deeper cuts to school budgets. Officials anticipate a much smaller enrollment decline than in recent years, which could insulate schools to some degree.

The budget is not final and must still be negotiated with the City Council. A final deal is due by July 1.

The proposed budget also includes funding for various other items, including services that advocates had been pushing for the mayor to include. Those are:

$3.3 million for keeping a chunk of the city’s new shelter-based coordinators, who are supposed to help families and children who are homeless navigate school enrollment and transportation. The funding for these coordinators was set to run out this June.
$9 million for a telehealth program for high school students who need mental health support.
$2 million for training up to 1,000 teachers in climate education.

The mayor’s budget received a mixed reception from advocates, union officials, and budget experts. Kim Sweet, executive director at the nonprofit Advocates for Children, praised the funding for shelter coordinators, but raised alarms about broader spending cuts — including to a program that provides extra mental health services to students at 50 high-need high schools, and another that provides free child care for undocumented families.

“We are concerned that the Mayor is proposing to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from our City’s schools at a time when there are so many unmet needs,” Sweet said in a statement, including high rates of chronic absenteeism and shortages in services for students with disabilities.

Still, Adams has argued that the city needs to tighten its belt due to costs associated with serving an influx of asylum seekers and potential economic headwinds.

Ana Champeny, vice president for research at the budget watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission, said her organization is worried the city isn’t properly planning now for big budget shortfalls that are expected in future years. That includes hundreds of millions of dollars of federal relief funding for the education department that will disappear in 2024 and could leave several programs and services unfunded.

“From our point of view there is still a major challenge fiscally for the city that’s not far off,” Champeny said. “We really should be taking action now.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

As NYC teacher contract negotiations heat up, educators worry raises won’t match inflation

2023-04-24T21:24:26+00:00

As New York City’s teachers union pushes for a contract, some educators took to the sidewalks during arrival on Monday to call attention to administrative tasks that distract from teaching.

“We were hired to nurture and educate children, not to feed a bureaucratic beast that can no longer ever be satisfied,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said Monday morning, flanked by educators at P.S. 527 and M.S. 114 on the Upper East Side. “And that is why the teachers are here today.”

But one major issue received comparatively less attention during the event with the union chief: pay increases.

Educators across the city said they’re concerned that an upcoming deal won’t keep up with rising costs, even as teachers faced enormous responsibilities during the pandemic to quickly spin up remote schooling and are now working to catch students up from years of interrupted learning.

“We were called pandemic heroes, we were called essential,” said Martina Meijer, a Brooklyn elementary school teacher. “Love and thank-you cards cannot pay our bills. Our wages are not keeping up with inflation.”

Educators have good reason to worry that a contract will likely not match inflation, which has moderated somewhat in recent months but reached 6.5% last year. New York City unions historically participate in pattern bargaining, which means that once one union reaches a deal on wages, subsequent unions typically follow the same rough outline.

So far, none of the unions that have recently reached deals with the city have matched or exceeded the rate of inflation, which means workers effectively experience pay cuts. District Council 37 — which covers cafeteria workers, crossing guards, and childcare workers — accepted a $3,000 signing bonus and annual wage increases of 3% with a 3.25% increase in the final year of the contract (the agreement is retroactive to 2021). The Police Benevolent Association scored somewhat higher wage increases, topping out at 4%.

“The moment the DC37 contract came out, they set the pattern for wage increases. And those numbers are pretty dismal,” said Ilona Nanay, a literacy coach who is part of the UFT’s 500-member bargaining committee and a member of its executive board. “UFT members are now extremely worried that’s the pattern that’s been set.”

Mulgrew indicated that significant pay bumps would be difficult to achieve given the increases that have been established by other unions. “We have tried to break pattern bargaining in the past — we have not been successful,” he said Monday. “That’s as far as I want to go on that subject right now.”

Mayor Eric Adams has argued the city can’t afford to take on significant cost increases, pointing to uncertain economic headwinds and dwindling federal pandemic relief funding. A City Hall spokesperson declined to comment on the status of negotiations, or any of the city’s proposals, except to say officials hope to reach an agreement soon.

The UFT represents about 120,000 school staff, including 77,000 teachers who currently earn just over $61,000 at the bottom of the pay scale to nearly $129,000 at the top. The union also includes 25,000 paraprofessionals who typically work as classroom aides for students with disabilities and earn considerably less, with salaries that start just under $28,000 and top out shy of $45,000. The UFT’s current contract expired in September.

Many educators already struggle to afford to live in the communities where they teach, and some said they worry that anemic raises will make it even harder to attract and retain them. Mirroring patterns across the country, teacher turnover in New York City increased this past year to 8%, up from about 6% before the pandemic.

“The first few years are really difficult — it takes a while to become a really good teacher,” Olivia Swisher, a middle school art teacher at Sunset Park Prep who is part of the union’s bargaining committee and has been teaching for about five years. “If we don’t create a way for me to pay my bills, pay my rent, then I won’t be able to continue being a teacher and I desperately want to.”

Still, it’s unclear to what extent raises that don’t keep pace with inflation might influence the local labor market for teachers. Although the cost of living in the city is high, “salaries are already relatively high,” said Melissa Arnold Lyon, an assistant professor at the University at Albany who studies education-related political and policy issues. “They probably have more wiggle room than other places.”

Pocketbook vs. paperwork

The UFT’s focus on workplace rather than pocketbook issues may reflect that the union is boxed in on wages. Last month, for instance, union officials organized a “grade in” where teachers took to coffeeshops and other public areas to demonstrate how much time they devote to non-teaching responsibilities.

On Monday, teachers gathered outside their school buildings across the city to distribute flyers that detail survey results that suggest many teachers believe administrative tasks are interfering with student learning. The union is planning similar actions all week.

Teachers spread flyers about burdensome paperwork and administrative tasks outside of P.S. 527 and M.S. 114 on the Upper East Side.

Multiple educators said they agree that administrative tasks can take time away from teaching and learning and hoped the union could make some headway on those issues in a new contract. Some pointed to clunky attendance and special education data systems that are time-consuming to use, eating into time that could be used planning lessons.

Others pointed to assessments educators were required to fill out regarding their students’ social-emotional health, which certain schools have found useful but some educators said was a waste of time. (The city has since made them optional.)

“There are all of these diagnostics that superintendents put on principals that we have to do — we lose instructional time to those assessments,” said Swisher. “It’s burdensome, and we don’t do much with the data anyways.”

Union officials have been tight-lipped on exactly how they want to change the contract to reduce the time teachers spend on paperwork or other administrative tasks. “I’m not allowed to specifically talk about any of the demands,” Mulgrew told reporters. Members of the union’s 500-member negotiating team have also been required to sign non-disclosure agreements, multiple participants told Chalkbeat.

Secrecy around contract demands frustrate some members

The union’s reluctance to lay out its proposals publicly has frustrated some UFT members who believe that sharing specific demands would help galvanize support for a stronger contract from the public and make it easier to organize their colleagues.

Keeping the demands a secret “makes it really hard to mobilize folks because people want to know what they’re being mobilized for,” said Nanay, the bargaining committee member who is also part of the Movement of Rank and File Educators, or MORE, a progressive caucus within the union that is often critical of Mulgrew’s leadership.

Several teachers pointed to Los Angeles as a model of an activist approach, arguing that the union has been more public with its demands and was willing to walk off the job to pressure district officials. Union and district officials there recently reached an agreement to raise teachers’ wages by about 21% over three years.

Mulgrew defended the union’s strategy, arguing the UFT does not want to tip its hand. “If you tell the other side exactly everything that you want, it’s probably a good bet that they’re gonna use that against you in negotiations.”

Lyon, the University at Albany professor, also emphasized that the UFT can’t easily threaten or carry out a work stoppage because a teachers strike would violate New York’s Taylor Law, which imposes significant financial penalties for public sector unions that strike.

Still, frustration with the union’s leadership over wages could create political headaches for union leaders. When the last contract was approved in 2018, teachers raised similar concerns even though inflation was considerably lower.

The union’s leadership is facing other headwinds, too, including a controversial effort to move retirees to a privatized but federally funded Medicare Advantage plan. Mulgrew was re-elected last year by the smallest margin since he won his first full term in 2010, though his victory was still decisive.

“He’s maintained power pretty successfully, and has been able to continue his same leadership style, even in the face of resistance,” Lyon said. “But it will hinge on his ability to win the benefits that the majority of teachers want.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Meet the principal of NYC’s first district school exclusively for students who struggle to read

2023-04-12T22:28:04+00:00

In September, New York City’s education department plans to open the city’s first traditional public school exclusively devoted to students with dyslexia and other reading issues.

The new school, called South Bronx Literacy Academy, is the culmination of years of advocacy from a handful of parent advocates who watched their own children flounder without adequate reading instruction and argued the city does not have a systematic approach to reading instruction.

Their goal was to coax the city to build classrooms similar to what’s offered at private programs, like The Windward School, which specialize in intensive literacy instruction but are often out of reach for families without the time or resources to secure private tuition reimbursement from the city.

Parents Jeannine Kiely, Ruth Genn, Emily Hellstrom, Akeela Azcuy (left to right) helped push the city to launch a school geared toward students who struggle with reading.

The group helped persuade the city to launch a pilot program this school year to test out a version of the model in an existing public school, P.S. 161. And they even started their own nonprofit, the Literacy Academy Collective, which has helped support the effort.

Now, pending likely approval from the city’s Panel for Educational Policy on April 19, the city is planning to transform the pilot program into a fully-fledged school (a charter school on Staten Island has a similar mission).

Chalkbeat recently caught up with South Bronx Literacy Academy’s inaugural principal, Bethany Poolman, to learn more about her vision, how the school plans to serve students who are behind in reading, and why the city wants to create a school specifically for students with literacy challenges.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell us just a little bit about yourself. How did you get interested in leading a school geared toward serving students with reading challenges?

Yeah, so I’ve been with the DOE for 18 years. I taught in District 9 in the Bronx for 10 years at a middle school [as a] special education teacher. I had a lot of students who really struggled to read who were really behind grade level. I was Wilson trained [a more structured approach to literacy instruction], I applied for an outside grant at one point. I received like $15,000 from a company and I started a breakfast club program. And I was essentially doing structured literacy practices before they were termed structured literacy.

Bethany Poolman

I had kids coming in before school doing these [Orton-Gillingham] practices [a structured approach to literacy instruction], looking at breaking apart words, word cards, pseudo word reading and things like nonsense words. I really was interested in helping kids that were unable to read or really far behind grade level to catch up to become proficient readers.

And then fast forward. I was an assistant principal in the South Bronx in District 7 for seven years. I had the opportunity to learn and grow the admin side of the work. And when this opportunity presented itself in District 7, that I know and love, it was just an awesome opportunity.

Tell me a little bit about this particular school’s design. What makes it different from a traditional elementary school? I know, for instance it’s starting with students in second and third grade.

What we’re doing is we’re taking what in other schools are tier two and tier three intervention practices. When I say that, I’m talking about students who [struggle] get pulled out or get put into small groups and they receive additional supports, additional services to help them close the gap. And we’re taking those practices that are in other schools often in tier two and tier three, and we are making them part of our tier one model. So tier one being instruction that everybody receives.

So, in terms of foundational reading skills and what we know works in terms of the science of reading, we are ensuring that kids have at least 90 minutes a day of foundational skills as their tier one literacy instruction.

In addition to that we’re also bringing social emotional skills and strategies and executive functioning strategies — thinking about things like time management, organization, prioritization, skills that children need in order to access the information in order to tap into their learning, and so we’re bringing those as well to tier one.

In terms of how you achieve that more intensive kind of small group model for all students — what does that take?

There are some points we’re still working out with the Department of Ed, but all of our classrooms are ICT [Integrated Co-Teaching] classrooms. So all classrooms will have two teachers. Budgeting modifications are still being worked out. But we’re looking to have speech and language pathologists and occupational therapists next year. Instead of our speech and language pathologist working in isolation down the hall in their office pulling children out, they’ll be pushing in as the integrated language teacher within the classroom.

Is there a specific curriculum you all plan to use for reading instruction?

I think we’re still working with the Department of Ed to make final decisions on our curriculum. We are partnered with the Literacy Academy Collective and The Windward School and they are using PAF [a curriculum also known as Preventing Academic Failure]. So we are planning to continue our work with PAF, which is an Orton-Gillingham based program.

What’s the goal of launching a school specifically designed for students who struggle with reading? Is it mostly just about the 60 to 80 students who are projected to enroll next year or is there a broader goal here in terms of sharing practices with other schools?

The truth is that all kids deserve to learn to read. We do believe that is a civil right and so we want to ensure that our children are given the tools to be successful and to become proficient readers. I think there are many initiatives that are being performed by the Department of Ed right now to address that.

And I think, you know, there’s a lot of great things happening across the whole city. I think we are unique because we are the first standalone district public school [devoted to students who are struggling readers]. We are really a school that is designed for students who have been struggling and have been struggling for a while, right. So kids that may have been in an intervention pull out model, and just need more, and who need more intense support. We’re working in partnership with everything that’s already happening across the DOE, and we’re just serving a specific population that may need more.

To be admitted to South Bronx Literacy Academy, “a student must either present formal documentation of dyslexia, or demonstrate a pattern of reading challenges consistent with dyslexia through an assessment process conducted by the DOE.” Given that it can be time consuming and expensive to get a dyslexia diagnosis, and many parents of young children may not know that their children are struggling readers, how will you ensure that the school won’t end up serving families who have resources and know how to navigate those systems?

The Department of Ed specifically placed this school in the Bronx, right in the South Bronx in District 7. It’s an effort to ensure that students [who] may not have access to all the same resources as other students get first dibs, if you will, at this opportunity.

We don’t expect many students to have that formal diagnosis. We are creating an additional resource for students that need additional support that’s not District 75 [a specialized group of schools that serve students with more complex disabilities].

Given that second and third grade aren’t super common entry points, how are you imagining students getting funneled to the school?

Parents will choose this option. No one is funneling children anywhere. Parents choose if this is an appropriate place where they would like to apply for their child to be first and foremost. We are trying to make sure that we spread the word and I think it will take time. I think families will trust us more once we’re established, and we have a proven track record of success. We are trying to spread the word and make sure both internally in the DOE and externally with families that we’re an option for them.

Will the school have specific set asides for students with disabilities or low-income families or anything like that?

So priority is given to students residing in the Bronx. So anyone within the city can apply but priority is given to any student with again, we’re an ICT-based model. So all of our classrooms are inclusion, co-taught classrooms, so we will have seats for both students with IEPs and students without IEPs [individualized education program for students with disabilities].

Our class size is 18, so we [have] smaller class sizes to also ensure reading supports. And so, if our class size is 18, we can have no more than 11 [general education] students and no more than seven special education students. But we are looking to serve the families that want to support their children. [An education department spokesperson said 40% of the school’s students will have disabilities, but there are not specific targets for other student groups.]

A major premise of special education is that students with learning challenges should be in classrooms with typically developing students as much as possible, but it also seems like a premise of this school is that it is intended to be the case that 100% of the students there have reading challenges. I’m wondering how you’re thinking about inclusion in that context and why the school wasn’t set up to be more of a mix of students with reading challenges and students without reading challenges?

It’s important to understand it’s an iterative process. We have the pilot work this year. We’ve been really pleased with some of the progress monitoring growth that’s coming out of the pilot, It’s a new endeavor — we want to get back to the basics and back to some solid reading instruction for kids that need that.

Part of the hope is that by addressing some of these issues sooner — by pulling in the [general education], and giving them more intensive reading supports, we don’t need to mislabel children. We don’t need to say the only process, the only avenue, is for this child to get an IEP and to, you know, receive this traditional set of services. We can provide support and help them reach proficiency.

Is the goal to grow beyond second and third graders?

At scale, the school will be serving students in second to eighth grade. So we’ll start with second and third and then we’ll grow year over year and expand up to eighth grade. Schools like Windward they’re pretty clear: that they take students in, they’re putting out a fire, right? They teach them how to read and then they reenter them back into community or independent schools as quickly as possible.

I’m curious how you’re going about finding teachers and what kind of training you’re expecting your teachers to have?

The Literacy Academy Collective have been amazing partners in this work, and we didn’t really get to talk about that, but they, you know, they’re a nonprofit founded by parents of students with dyslexia. They really understand this teacher training piece. And so they have been working in partnership with DOE to ensure that over the summer, teachers work alongside Windward teachers and receive at least the initial training and support that’s required to get started in this.

Is it those teachers who are doing the pilot now who are going to be teachers at the [new] school?

It’s a new school, so everyone needs to apply. It has yet to be posted, so when it’s officially posted, any licensed teacher can apply.

Anything else you want to share?

I’m really excited for this work. I’m grateful that the DOE has given me this opportunity. I’m grateful that the [Literacy Academy Collective] is here, in partnership with the work, and I think we’re just gonna — bleep it out I don’t know — we’re gonna make a really kick ass school. It’s gonna be a great place for kids.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC officials unveil timeline for locking campus doors, beginning with elementary schools

2023-04-07T20:40:56+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free New York newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

In the wake of a deadly school shooting in Nashville, New York City officials sought to reassure families Friday that they are beefing up school security.

City officials said the work to outfit schools with video-equipped doorbells will start at elementary schools in May. Schools Chancellor David Banks said the rollout would take place “over a number of months” with the goal of reaching all school buildings by next spring.

Currently, school visitors must sign in with school safety agents. But under the new plan, they would first need to be buzzed into the building instead of walking in through an unlocked door.

“Something that keeps me up at night is when I look around the country and I see the issues that are happening with these mass shootings,” Banks said during a school safety briefing. He added: “We’re going to do everything we can to prevent something like that from happening.”

The $78 million plan to lock school doors was first revealed in the mayor’s preliminary budget in January, but officials did not say at the time when they anticipated completing the project.

The school safety briefing on Friday included top City Hall and police department officials and comes as violence near school campuses has rattled some communities in New York City and across the country. Though extremely rare, mass school shootings like those in Uvalde, Texas, and more recently in Nashville, often create pressure on school districts to “harden” their campuses with new security measures.

City officials also pointed to several previously announced measures to bolster campus safety, including bringing violence interrupters and mentors to nearly 140 schools and instituting more regular meetings between school principals and police precinct commanders.

But the plan to lock school building doors is one of the most significant changes to school security in recent years, drawing mixed reactions from experts and school communities.

School entrances are already monitored by school safety agents, and experts said it’s unclear how much additional safety value there is in locking them. The doors also won’t be locked during arrival or dismissal, creating stretches of time when the locks won’t be in use. Some parents have pushed for the door-locking policy, though others worry it will make families feel less welcome on campus.

“Obviously, you read about school shootings and it’s scary for all of us, so everyone wants to do something,” a Brooklyn principal previously told Chalkbeat. “But mostly what we need to do is keep doing our jobs and not create a new obstacle.”

Others have pointed out that most serious instances of violence affecting young people have occurred outside school buildings, raising questions about whether the door-locking project is the best use of resources.

City officials on Friday indicated that they’re also planning to bolster the ranks of school safety agents. The unarmed police department employees are stationed in schools and will be tasked with operating the buzzer systems.

The number of school safety agents fell about 20% during the pandemic to just under 4,000, which police Commissioner Keechant Sewell suggested was largely the result of a previous hiring freeze for the role.

“We intend to hire up to the point where we were before if we can,” Sewell said.

But that appears to be at odds with Mayor Eric Adams’ preliminary budget, which calls for eliminating hundreds of vacant school safety positions, according to a recent report from the city’s Independent Budget Office. Spokespeople for City Hall and the education and police departments did not immediately respond to a question about the discrepancy. A more detailed budget proposal from the mayor is expected later this month.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

New cuts may reduce NYC education budget by hundreds of millions of dollars

2023-04-04T23:13:00+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free New York newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

In the wake of an intense budget battle last year over education funding cuts, another round of spending reductions may once again impact schools.

New York City’s education department could face roughly $421 million in additional budget cuts next school year, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office — part of a sweeping set of spending reductions City Hall ordered on Tuesday.

Officials are proposing a 3% cut to the city’s share of the education department’s budget, according to a letter from city budget director Jacques Jiha obtained by Chalkbeat and first reported by the New York Daily News. Most other agencies are facing a 4% cut, but Jiha wrote the Department of Education and City University of New York are exceptions to “minimize disruptions to schools and classrooms.”

Although the entire department is slated to spend more than $30 billion next year, the 3% reduction is calculated based on the city’s contribution of about $14 billion. A City Hall spokesperson said the final number may be lower, as certain elements of the department’s budget may be exempt from cuts, but he did not provide a specific figure.

Agency heads, including schools Chancellor David Banks, have just 10 days to come up with a plan for spending reductions, which would take effect next school year.

City Hall did not rule out the possibility that individual school budgets could be reduced, saying agencies have not yet made plans about how to achieve the cuts. An education department spokesperson did not comment on Tuesday.

More details are expected later this month when the mayor typically unveils an updated version of his proposed budget, though Jiha indicated the reductions “cannot include layoffs and should avoid meaningfully impacting services where possible.” Budget experts said the city could move to eliminate positions that are already vacant and the city is already planning to do so.

The city has previously required the education department to trim its budget, including a 3% cut in city spending officials were expected to make this school year. The 3% spending reduction announced Tuesday will apply on top of those existing cuts.

The new round of budget tightening drew criticism from some education advocates, union officials, and local lawmakers, some of whom vowed to press for changes as the City Council negotiates a final budget due by July.

“Additional [cuts] will paralyze agencies, harm New Yorkers, and make it even more difficult for the city to successfully recover,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Finance Chair Justin Brannan said in a joint statement.

The city’s teachers union also blasted the proposal. “New York State has provided record levels of funding for New York City’s public schools,” Alison Gendar, a spokesperson for the United Federation of Teachers, wrote in an email. “There is no need for any cuts to our school communities. None.”

Officials indicated the reductions are necessary for a variety of reasons, including about $4.3 billion in spending this year and next linked to an influx of asylum seekers. They also pointed to a $1 billion hole linked to “cuts and cost shifts” in the forthcoming state budget, and labor agreements now under negotiation, including with the teachers union, that will require billions in additional spending in the coming years.

“We face these new needs and threats at a time when the city’s tax revenue growth is slowing, and many economists fear that stress in the banking sector increases the odds of an economic recession,” Jiha wrote.

Mayor Eric Adams faced fierce criticism last year over cuts to school budgets — pegged to enrollment declines — but initially held off on proposing even deeper cuts next school year.

His budget proposal, unveiled in January, reversed his earlier plans to cut school budgets by $80 million due to enrollment declines and evaporating federal COVID relief funding. The education department also agreed to pump about $90 million into school budgets to help support students in temporary housing and schools that serve a disproportionate share of students with disabilities, English learners, and those living in poverty. Officials did not say whether those initiatives could be affected by the latest spending reductions.

At the same time, the administration scaled back other programs in its preliminary budget, diverting $568 million in federal relief funding away from a planned expansion of preschool for 3-year-olds.

Some education advocates said they were puzzled by the city’s rationale for the cuts, arguing that an influx of migrants means that schools will need more resources to serve a particularly vulnerable population.

“It’s difficult for me to believe that we have to keep making these exacerbated cuts when we have a population that’s in significant need,” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, who serves on the city’s Panel for Educational Policy.

Other groups said the spending cuts are fiscally prudent.

“This action is timely, if not overdue,” Andrew S. Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said in a statement. “Any delay increases the chance that the City barrels head first into the impending fiscal wall and has to make massive cuts in the future.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Educators: Help us investigate the reading and math curriculums NYC plans to mandate

2023-04-03T21:38:50+00:00

New York City may soon require hundreds of public schools to change how they teach reading and math, marking a significant shift from the freedom schools have long enjoyed in choosing their own materials.

The city has not yet publicly announced any changes. But sources familiar with the education department’s plans said the city is planning to roll out three reading curriculums in nearly half of the city districts next school year with the rest to follow the year after that. The reading curriculums include: Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds; Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and Expeditionary Learning, from EL Education.

The city is also rolling out a standardized algebra curriculum from Illustrative Mathematics in at least 150 high schools, sources said.

Some city classrooms already use these curriculums, but many more could soon be required to adopt them. Chalkbeat wants to hear from educators who already use them to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses.

If you’re a teacher or school leader who has experience with any of the curriculums mentioned above, please fill out this form to tell us more. And if you haven’t used those curriculums, you can still use the survey to let us know what questions you think we should investigate about the city’s curriculum plans.

If you are having trouble viewing this form, go here.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC to mandate reading curriculum for elementary schools and high school algebra, sources say

2023-03-28T23:00:17+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free New York newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

New York City education officials plan to take a stronger hand in what curriculums educators can use in their classrooms, a move that could represent a major shift in how the nation’s largest school system approaches teaching and learning, Chalkbeat has learned.

The education department recently began laying the groundwork for superintendents to choose from three reading programs to use across their districts. It is also launching a standardized algebra program in many high schools. The plans have not been announced publicly, but were confirmed by four education department employees familiar with the city’s literacy efforts and multiple school leaders.

Principals historically have enjoyed enormous leeway to select curriculums. Proponents argue this allows schools to stay nimble and select materials appropriate to their specific student populations. But some experts, and even the city’s own schools chancellors, have argued that the approach can lead to a tangle of instructional practices that can vary widely in quality from classroom to classroom.

Now, officials are taking steps to rein in the city’s free-wheeling approach to curriculum. Beginning next school year, elementary schools in about half of the city’s 32 districts will be required to use one of three reading programs: Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds; Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; or Expeditionary Learning, from EL Education.

By September 2024, city officials are expected to require all elementary schools to use one of those three options, according to an education department official familiar with the city’s plans.

Local superintendents will determine which curriculum is appropriate for their elementary schools, and some principals said they’ve already learned their superintendent’s selection. Separately, the city is rolling out a standardized algebra curriculum from Illustrative Mathematics at more than 150 high schools.

Still, the planned shift has already prompted pushback from some principals and their union. And some observers and education department officials wonder whether elements of the policy will ultimately change or be dialed back.

Standardized curriculums draw cheers and jeers

Schools Chancellor David Banks has made literacy a centerpiece of his administration and has demonstrated he’s willing to issue top-down curriculum directives.

This year, Banks required all elementary schools to use an approved phonics curriculum, which schools often deploy in 30-minute blocks, on top of their reading curriculum. Now, many schools may be required to overhaul their fundamental approach to reading instruction, something Banks has repeatedly said would be necessary to address poor reading outcomes. Roughly half of students in grades 3-8 are not reading proficiently according to state tests.

School leaders and experts said the effort to standardize reading curriculums has some clear benefits. If there are fewer curriculums deployed across the city’s sprawling network of elementary schools, the education department can play a stronger role in making sure high-quality materials and training are available to more teachers. And when students or teachers switch schools, there’s less need for them to start from scratch with new materials.

“I’m in favor of more universality,” said Susan Neuman, a literacy expert at New York University and member of the education department’s Literacy Advisory Council. “It allows teachers to begin to collaborate more and develop a shared language. We haven’t had that.”

But the policy change is also raising alarms.

Some department administrators say there has been limited communication about how carefully those three curriculums were chosen. One of the curriculums, Into Reading, was criticized in a NYU report for not being culturally responsive. There have also been scarce details about how thousands of educators will be trained on new instructional approaches. Others noted that educators and families have had little opportunity to provide input.

One central education department administrator who spoke on condition of anonymity said more standardization isn’t bad in theory, but implementing a new curriculum that educators haven’t yet taught comes with challenges.

“It’s like telling a basketball coach to go coach football,” the administrator said. “I’m not sure there are the instructional supports needed to make it successful.”

The move would also require elementary schools to abandon a controversial curriculum called Units of Study, written by Lucy Calkins of Columbia University’s Teachers College, multiple department administrators said. Hundreds of elementary schools used that curriculum before the pandemic hit, according to an investigation by Chalkbeat and THE CITY.

A growing chorus of experts, including Banks, have dismissed the approach as ineffective for many young children, but some schools still believe they are getting results with it. Requiring schools to ditch Calkins’ curriculum would represent a dramatic change on many campuses and is likely to spark fierce resistance.

Henry Rubio, the president of the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, said officials at his union have asked the education department whether they will provide exemptions from the curriculum mandate for schools that have a strong track record. They have not yet received a reply but plan to meet with department officials this week.

The union, which represents principals and other administrators, has also raised concerns about a looming deadline early next month for purchasing materials. Though multiple officials said they expect the education department to pay for new reading curriculum materials, rather than requiring principals to pay for it out of their budgets, some school leaders are not sure whether they’ll be able to continue using their existing curriculums next year and whether they should be preparing to buy materials, Rubio said.

“We believe it may already be too late for many schools to begin the preparation and training necessary to effectively launch new curriculum in the 2023-2024 school year,” union officials wrote in a newsletter to members last week. “CSA continues to escalate principals’ objections about superintendents mandating curriculum to the Chancellor’s team. As instructional leaders, principals know what is best for their school community.”

A spokesperson for the city’s teachers union did not reply to a request for comment.

Details on instructional changes remain scarce

Kevyn Bowles, principal of New Bridges Elementary School in Brooklyn, said his school currently uses the Units of Study curriculum created by Calkins and that elementary schools in his district would be required to transition to Into Reading. Calkins’ curriculum is popular in part because of training that schools can pay for from Teachers College that provides extensive coaching to educators.

“I do want to be fighting for schools to have curricular autonomy,” Bowles said. “Teachers put a lot of work into turning the program into actual plans and practice, and so switching to something new without understanding why is just going to be pretty globally unpopular.”

Other school leaders said a more standardized approach could hold some promise. Matt Brownstein, an assistant principal at P.S. 330 in Queens, said his school already uses Into Reading, which is also the curriculum that the superintendent there plans to mandate.

Although Brownstein acknowledged that the curriculum does not include many texts that reflect the experience of New York City’s diverse student body, he said he appreciates that it includes materials in Spanish, which the school uses in its dual-language program.

Brownstein noted that switching curriculums will be a disruptive process on some campuses, and he can see arguments for schools retaining more flexibility. But teachers are generally not given the resources they need to design quality curriculum materials, and providing a more standardized set of options could yield dividends, he said

“Considering all the variables, is it the right move?” he asked. “Probably.”

An education department spokesperson, Nathaniel Styer, did not respond to questions about the curriculum mandates, including the rationale for them, how many schools would be required to change, or how the city plans to train educators in time for the fall.

“We are currently engaging educators, parents, and advocates on how to address proficiency rates with urgency and best ensure that our students and our educators have what they need to succeed,” Styer wrote in an email. “We will have more to say after our engagement.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

64% of NYC’s bilingual special education students didn’t get all of their services last year

2023-03-20T22:12:41+00:00

Nearly two-thirds of New York City students who are entitled to bilingual special education services are not receiving all of their mandated support, according to new figures released by the city’s education department.

At the end of last school year, just 36% of children who were assigned bilingual special education services received the correct amount of instruction from a certified bilingual teacher and in a classroom with the proper ratio of students and staff.

That means about 3,100 students did not receive their correct classroom placements, including those that are co-taught and include a mix of special and general education students, classes with higher staff ratios exclusively for students with disabilities, or situations where students are pulled out of their classrooms for small group instruction. By comparison, 88% of all students with disabilities were placed in the correct environment listed on their individualized education program, or IEP, which officials said is the highest rate on record.

The statistics are part of the city’s annual special education report and refer to services delivered last school year, when students were required to attend school in person for the first time since the pandemic led to shuttered buildings in March 2020. The report now includes more detailed breakdowns for students who are entitled to bilingual special education services, revealing troubling gaps between those students and their English-speaking peers.

For years, state officials have criticized the city for failing to provide bilingual special education services, placing the education department on a corrective action plan in part due to ongoing shortages of certified bilingual educators and service providers. Advocates emphasized that those problems are even more urgent now, as roughly 14,000 students have enrolled in the city’s public schools since July, many of whom are seeking asylum and may not speak fluent English.

“It is unconscionable that the city has yet to fully close the gaps for immigrants with disabilities,” Andrea Ortiz, senior manager of education policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, wrote in an email, noting that lost services and instruction during the pandemic hit English learners particularly hard. She added that caregivers who don’t speak English have also struggled to access translated IEPs and other special education documents.

City statistics also show significant gaps in access to other wraparound support, though there have been significant improvements since the previous school year. About 21% of bilingual students who were entitled to counseling services received none or only part of their required sessions, far higher than the 6% rate for all other students with disabilities. Meanwhile, 13% of students who were entitled to receive bilingual speech therapy received none or only part of their required sessions, about the same as last year. Only 3% of their English-speaking peers fell into that category.

Lori Podvesker, director of disability and education policy at IncludeNYC, also pointed to an increase in the share of English learners who are eligible for special education services but are waiting more than the required 60 days for an IEP meeting. About 32% of English learners fell into that category, up from 23% the year before.

“That’s significant — that shows the need for more bilingual evaluators and providers,” she said.

Education department officials noted in the report that one reason students may not receive all of their bilingual special education services is families may not want to relocate their children to schools that can offer the full range of support.

“Many families do not move their child to a school where a bilingual program is available, and the DOE does not force families to accept placement in a particular school for the reason of special education programming,” the report notes.

The department is working with superintendents across nine of the city’s 32 districts to add bilingual special education classes, according to the report. They are also using federal relief funding to offer small group instruction, often outside of their regular classrooms, for bilingual students who are not receiving all of their classroom services. Officials also wrote that they are trying to speed up special education evaluations, including by adding psychologists to school support teams and expanding after-school evaluation sites.

Still, advocates argue that families aren’t to blame if nearby schools can’t provide bilingual special education support, noting that traveling long distances to secure services may not be tenable for younger children, and the city’s yellow bus system is notoriously unreliable. Plus, some families simply aren’t offered services at all if there are no available seats, according to Janyll Canals-Kernizan, director of the Robin Hood Project at Advocates for Children, who works with families seeking bilingual special education services.

“It’s not just that families are being offered something and they’re rejecting it because it’s far away. It’s also that [they] are mandated to receive these supports on their IEPs,” she said, “and they just never get it.”

Under city law, the annual special education report is due by Nov. 1, though city officials did not release it until this month despite repeated requests. An education department spokesperson did not respond to a question about what caused the delay.

Reema Amin contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

David Banks wants to bolster career education in NYC schools. Here’s how.

2023-03-20T10:00:00+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free New York newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Afua Siaw dreamed of being a pediatrician. So when it came time to pick a high school, she chose the High School for Health Professions & Human Services — a decision based largely on the school’s name.

Siaw didn’t know when she applied five years ago that the Manhattan campus boasted a career and technical education program culminating with a chance to earn a medical assistant certification.

Her experience learning about front-line medical work turned her off to pursuing it as a career. But her school coordinated a virtual internship where she conducted survey research to help find solutions to local health disparities, sparking her interest in career possibilities beyond pediatrics.

“The internship kind of helped me realize there’s other aspects,” Siaw said. Now a Tufts University freshman, the 18-year-old plans to pursue psychology and public health.

Siaw’s experience is one that schools Chancellor David Banks is hoping to replicate across the system: jump-starting students’ exposure to career options well before graduation. Urban school districts across the country have increasingly embraced career and technical education programs, also known as CTE. Banks has described putting students on the path to stable careers as one of the “North Stars” of his administration, on par with improving literacy rates.

Afua Siaw, a former student at High School for Health Professions & Human Services

New York City has long been a leader in offering students a diverse range of CTE programs, with roughly a quarter of high schools offering at least one program, reaching about 60,000 students. Now, city officials are hoping to spread elements of the model to dozens more campuses. They plan to increase coursework focused on career skills, add new concentrations in fields ranging from education to health care, expand opportunities for early college credit, and offer more paid work opportunities before students leave high school.

The emphasis on career education represents a shift from the previous administration’s focus on college. Though college enrollment rates have risen, the share of New York City students staying enrolled for at least two years has not kept up, potentially leading to debt but not a degree. Meanwhile, nearly 18% of the city’s 16- to 24-year-olds are unemployed, more than double the national average. Young men and people of color are disproportionately out of work.

In an interview, Banks emphasized that college may still be the right path for many students. Plus, additional training or education beyond high school is essential for many careers. But he argued that the city’s public schools must better prepare students to transition to the workforce.

“What you’re seeing all across the nation, this idea that everybody’s just promoting college, college, college,” Banks said. “There’s got to be another way and another track and another pathway for kids to be successful.”

He believes career programs can help get students more excited about school and see themselves in professions they might not otherwise be exposed to.

“If this is done well, kids can come out of high school with credentials [and] certifications,” he said. “They can step right into the job market if they like.”

The goal: Paid apprenticeships and new career tracks

The city is banking on two pilot programs to create a stronger pipeline from high school to career opportunities, spending about $6.7 million this year on them.

The first, Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship, will provide about 3,000 students at nearly 60 schools with apprenticeships for upperclassmen that pay up to $25 an hour. Ninth and 10th graders at those schools will participate in a curriculum that includes workplace skills such as resume-building, interviewing, and delivering an elevator pitch.

Chancellor David Banks samples the culinary program offerings at John Dewey High School.

The first 500 apprenticeship slots — at companies like Amazon, Accenture, and MasterCard — will launch this fall, with students participating for up to three years, extending even beyond graduation.

The second program, FutureReadyNYC, gives schools resources to launch new career tracks, along with paid work experience, in education, technology, business, or health care. Schools will be expected to offer specialized coursework in at least one of those disciplines, early college credit through City University of New York partnerships, regular advising to help students transition to college or work, and instruction in financial literacy.

Though the program is still in a pilot phase, the education department is already planning to expand FutureReadyNYC beyond its current 66 schools. By next school year, it will include 7,000 students across 90 campuses, with the goal of reaching 40% of all high school students by 2030, said Jade Grieve, the education department’s chief of student pathways.

“We know that there’s more students that want to be in them than what we provide today,” Grieve said.

Principals flock to paid work opportunities for students

The programs are already proving popular with many school leaders who said they have often struggled to strike up relationships with relevant businesses or add courses for early college credit.

Dannielle Darbee, principal of the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance, described the previous labor-intensive process of staff canvassing nearby businesses, hiring fairs, community board meetings, and other education department events for internship leads.

“We’ve always done it on our own, and that’s why it’s hard to find internships for students,” said Darbee, whose school is eligible for the new apprenticeships.

For the FutureReadyNYC program, schools that already have career programming have had an easier time hitting the ground running, according to several principals involved in the program. Thirty-two of the 66 schools that have been selected for the program already have at least one CTE program, officials said, while others are building from scratch.

At the Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management, the new pilot program is allowing the school to deepen its efforts. In addition to pre-existing placements in the city’s health department and emergency management agency, the city partnered the school with Northwell Health.

The healthcare provider is offering paid internships to more than a dozen of the school’s seniors this spring. A group of 10th graders recently visited Lenox Hill Hospital, where they had a chance to talk with medical staff and observe a robotic hip replacement surgery. And 11th graders are participating in a paid “workplace challenge” where they complete a project over several weeks.

“That industry relationship should not be undervalued — that’s a huge, huge thing,” said Michael Buchney, the schools work-based learning coordinator. “It’s so hard to build those relationships.”

The school is also beefing up its early college offerings. Instead of offering one college course focused on EMT training, the school now plans to offer up to seven college courses through the Borough of Manhattan Community College. The goal is to help students do their prerequisites for a paramedic-focused associate degree, enabling students to earn thousands more than they can with just the EMT certification, school leaders said.

“Kids are really invested in their future because of this,” said Dr. Rasheed Bility, the school’s principal. He added that he’s been impressed with the quality of the partnership with Northwell. “They’re not just doing meaningless work shredding paper at these internships.”

Brooklyn students participate in a roundtable about career and technical education.

Still, many schools’ plans for creating new career tracks have yet to come into focus. In interviews with five principals who are part of FutureReadyNYC, nearly all said they were still figuring out what their new career pathways will look like. Some are still planning and education department officials said schools will have three years to fully launch.

Darbee, the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance principal, said her school is focused on bolstering its current business CTE program and used some of the pilot program funding to hire a second guidance counselor, with one focusing on ninth and 10th grade students. Schools in the pilot program are expected to provide counseling twice a year to help identify students’ career interests, figure out what credentials are necessary, and map out individual plans.

Other schools that have not previously invested heavily in career training are taking baby steps. At High School for Youth and Community Development in Brooklyn, Principal Marie Prendergast said she had previously been reluctant to embrace CTE programming, worrying it would cannibalize the school’s electives. But the pilot programs are allowing school leaders like Prendergast to adopt some elements of career education slowly, and school leaders said they have a fair amount of leeway.

Prendergast’s school is in the process of launching a technology career pathway. The focus for now is getting all students to take at least one semester of computer science coursework and broadening access to more artistic elements of technology, such as graphic design. She’s not yet sure what other coursework or work experiences will follow.

“There is some building the plane while it’s in the air,” Prendergast said. “That’s the nature of pilots.”

A ‘two-tiered’ CTE system?

Proponents of career and technical education have cheered the city’s emphasis on expanding elements of CTE to a broader array of schools.

But even those boosters acknowledge that scaling up career-related learning opportunities — particularly paid work experiences — won’t be easy. And as the city attempts to stretch some elements of the CTE model to more campuses, questions remain about whether the new programs will be less intensive, with schools using a hodgepodge of approaches.

State-approved CTE schools are widely considered the gold standard. Those programs involve strict requirements, including industry-specific teacher certifications, periodic state reviews of school curriculums, paid work experiences, and offer the chance for a special diploma designation.

Leo Gordon, the vice president for career and technical education for the city’s teachers union, said he supports the pilot programs. But he worries they could amount to a “two-tiered” system of career programs with widely varying standards. He noted, for instance, that official programs require seven CTE credits, while the new pilot schools must only provide four credits related to the career pathway.

“The more students that have access to career and technical education the better,” he said. Still, “We want to make sure all programs are high quality.”

But spinning up official state-approved CTE programs often takes several years and some schools have faced challenges navigating red tape. And state approval does not guarantee every element of the program will be implemented: Many CTE schools have struggled to line up paid work experiences, according to a recent report from New York University’s Research Alliance for New York City Schools.

John Widlund, the education department’s former executive director for career and technical education, emphasized that there are benefits to letting schools adopt a less intensive version of the model.

“The push in the past was more for the full CTE-type model, which was a tremendous commitment of time, energy, effort, and resources,” he said. “With the career pathways, it’s less intensive, but it’s also less costly. And it has the potential to reach more kids.”

For now, it remains to be seen exactly how many students the education department’s current efforts will reach — particularly the most intensive elements involving paid work opportunities.

An education department spokesperson said the city has secured “hundreds” of internships and work-based learning experiences for FutureReadyNYC, but did not provide a specific number. Even including the 500 apprenticeship opportunities that will launch in the fall, eventually scaling up to 3,000 within three years, the total represents a fraction of the students enrolled at the pilot schools. City officials say they eventually want to provide all students with opportunities to explore careers before graduation, though they have not laid out a blueprint for accomplishing that goal.

James Kemple, executive director of NYU’s Research Alliance, said it makes sense for the city to start with a smaller subset of schools to iron out any kinks before a broader expansion.

The city’s ambitions to scale up career-oriented learning opportunities, including paid experiences, may be “one of the largest undertakings ever in the history of career and technical education given the size of New York City,” Kemple said.

“Whether they’re going to pull that off eventually at the kind of scale they’re talking about,” he added, “is another question.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Hochul’s NYC charter school proposal rejected by Albany lawmakers

2023-03-14T23:22:27+00:00

New York’s state legislature formally rejected on Tuesday Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to allow more charter schools to open in New York City, an indication of the uphill battle ahead for proponents of expanding the sector.

In their official responses to Hochul’s January budget proposal, both the state Senate and Assembly called to remove the governor’s charter school proposal to allow New York City to open more than 100 new charter schools.

The rejection does not mean Hochul’s proposal is dead, since lawmakers will now negotiate with the governor’s office over the final budget, which is due April 1. However, the unified disapproval from both houses shows there is little support for her idea.

Hochul’s charter school proposal was unpopular with some lawmakers and teachers union officials from the start. While charter school advocates have long pushed the legislature to lift the New York City cap — which was reached in 2019 — there has been little support for it in the Democratic-controlled legislature.

“The Assembly’s focus really is about — has always been about — trying to take care of the needs of the traditional public schools,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, told reporters in February.

Hochul’s proposal calls for lifting the cap on charters in New York City, making operators eligible for remaining charters that have yet to be issued across the state. It also involves releasing so-called “zombie” charters, which are charters that were issued to schools that later closed or never opened.

The governor argues that allowing more charters to open in New York City is “common sense,” as the schools have historically been popular with Black and Latino families who have faced waitlists to enroll. The charter sector, which now educates more than 14% of the city’s public school students across 275 schools, has grown during the pandemic — far outpacing enrollment declines among district schools.

But a large swath of charters is also seeing enrollment sag, including some of the biggest networks, complicating the argument that there is still massive demand for new schools. Opening new campuses comes with tradeoffs, as a significant expansion of the sector would likely put pressure on existing schools, potentially leading to smaller budgets or even closures.

Still, charter school advocates contend that creating more school options is worthwhile.

Lawmakers “missed another opportunity” to support charters, said James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center, in a statement. With the session ongoing, he noted that budget negotiations will continue.

“We strongly urge them to listen to the voices of NYC families who want nothing more than an opportunity for their kids, and work with Governor Hochul to lift the regional cap and revive zombie charters,” Merriman said.

The state and city teachers unions cheered the legislature’s rejection.

“Parents, educators, and community leaders were very clear that they did not want more charter schools opening and draining resources from their local public schools,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, in a statement. “Legislators heard those concerns and protected our public schools.”

In her run-up for the governor’s race last fall, Hochul received donations from the city and state teachers unions, as well as the national American Federation of Teachers — totaling just over $191,000. She also received support from charter-aligned groups, including $40,000 from New Yorkers for Putting Students First, a political action committee, or PAC. The Great Public Schools PAC, created by Success Academy founder Eva Moskowitz, gave Hochul another $30,000.

Assembly and Senate reject high-dosage tutoring

Separately, both chambers also rejected Hochul’s proposal to fund and require high-impact tutoring in schools by setting aside $250 million in Foundation Aid – the main formula used to provide state funding for New York school districts.

Research has found that students perform better in school when they’re tutored frequently in small groups. Hochul framed the proposal — meant for children in grades 3-8 — as a solution for pandemic-fueled academic recovery, after some New York students saw steep drops in math and reading scores on national tests last year.

It’s possible the proposal is unpopular among school leaders because it doesn’t add more money to budgets; rather, it would use a chunk of funding that’s already planned to go out to schools and mandates how they should use it.

Both houses also proposed adding $1 million to the budget for studying how to change and update Foundation Aid, an idea first floated by the state education department and its Board of Regents.

The governor and both houses did agree on one thing: increasing Foundation Aid overall by $2.7 billion next fiscal year, sealing the final planned increase to fully fund the formula.

Spokespeople for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers Democrat, and Heastie did not immediately return requests for comment.

Asked for comment on their rejection of both proposals, Hochul spokesperson Katy Zielinski said the governor “looks forward to working with the legislature on a final budget that meets the needs of all New Yorkers.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

School safety agent numbers dropped during the pandemic. NYC doesn’t plan to staff back up.

2023-03-14T22:25:41+00:00

The number of school safety agents stationed in New York City public schools plummeted more than 20% during the pandemic, a decline that Mayor Eric Adams is not planning to reverse, according to a report released Tuesday.

Before the pandemic hit, there were roughly 5,000 safety agents assigned to schools. As of late last month, that number had plunged to 3,900, which the report from the Independent Budget Office, or IBO, attributed to attrition and pandemic hiring restrictions. The agents are employed by the police department, unarmed, and primarily responsible for keeping an eye on building entrances, responding to student behavioral issues, and operating metal detectors at dozens of campuses.

Adams’ preliminary budget proposal for the next fiscal year calls for eliminating 282 vacant safety agent positions on top of 550 that were nixed last year. The move is part of a broader effort to wring savings out of the city’s budget: In 2019, the city spent $395 million on safety agents, and the mayor’s proposal for next year allocates $359 million.

Nick Martin, an education budget expert at the IBO, said there was no indication the city plans to significantly expand the safety division to pre-pandemic levels over the next four years. “Just based on the budget for the remaining years of the financial plan, there’s no scaling back up,” he said. “It seems to indicate that the headcount is going to continue closer to this current level.”

The city’s school safety division has long been the subject of intense debate. Critics worry stationing police department employees in school buildings can criminalize student misbehavior. They believe resources should instead be redirected toward mental health services. Supporters counter that the safety agents are essential for maintaining order. Students, parents, and educators generally report on annual school surveys that the agents help keep schools safe and respectful, though children at predominantly Black schools are somewhat less likely to agree.

Eliminating hundreds of school safety agent vacancies came as a surprise to some observers. Adams, a former police officer, and schools Chancellor David Banks, who once served as a school safety agent, have raised grave concerns about student well-being and support measures to beef up school security.

At a press conference in September, Banks specifically touted efforts to hire more safety agents. In January, he declared a “state of emergency” over neighborhood youth violence, pointing to shootings — sometimes occurring just after school and near campuses — that have led to serious injuries and deaths. Schools have also dealt with an uptick in students bringing weapons to school, often for self-defense during their commutes.

Spokespeople for Adams and Banks did not respond to questions about whether the decision against filling 832 safety agent vacancies represents a change in safety strategy or if the city is unable to find enough new recruits to take the jobs, which offer a starting salary just shy of $35,000. Officials previously announced a suite of other school-safety strategies, including plans to coordinate weekly meetings between school leaders and police department precincts, pairing 138 schools with violence interrupters and mentors, and locking building entrances during the day.

Amaris Cockfield, a City Hall spokesperson, said there are currently over 4,100 school safety agents. She noted that a new crop of 250 agents will begin in April, though she did not suggest the city is planning to return to pre-pandemic staffing levels.

“We will continue to build on the productive steps we have taken thus far and invest in a holistic vision of public safety that keeps our youngest safe,” she wrote in an email.

Mixed reactions over reducing ranks of school safety agents

Some educators and union officials, including those representing school administrators and safety agents, said they were frustrated by the reduction in school safety staff.

One school administrator in the Bronx, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said her school building consistently has two or three agents, down from four or five before the pandemic.

That has led to situations where staff, including a paraprofessional, have been pulled away from working with children to monitor the front desk while the safety agents attend to situations elsewhere in the building. Recently, a fight broke out in the school’s gym that proved so overwhelming to the limited school safety staff that school administrators called outside police officers to break it up.

“There’s a lot more stuff happening in school still,” said the administrator, noting that students are using drugs and vaping more, and many are struggling with social emotional issues that can spiral into outbursts. “It’s crazy that they would eliminate those positions especially when safety is an issue.”

The police department did not share information about safety agent staffing levels in specific regions, according to the IBO report, making it difficult to know how the reduction in headcount is affecting individual campuses.

Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesperson for Teamsters Local 237 which represents school safety staff, criticized the mayor’s budget proposal. He said retaining agents is a major challenge given the low pay.

“This has got to be a priority,” he said. “What is more important than protecting school children?”

Still, advocates who have long supported reducing the police department’s footprint in schools said the mayor’s budget represented a step in the right direction.

Jasmine Gripper, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, noted the previous size of the school safety division by itself represented one of the largest police forces in the country.

“I would hope that they have come to realize that this is an area where they’re overspending,” she said, “and instead could redirect these resources to mental health programs and restorative justice.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

58% of NYC’s youngest children don’t receive all of their Early Intervention services

2023-03-01T00:29:38+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Subscribe to our free New York newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

The majority of New York City infants and toddlers who are eligible for specialized therapies have not received all of the support they’re entitled to, according to figures released Tuesday by the state comptroller.

From birth to age 3, children with developmental delays or disabilities are entitled to “Early Intervention,” a host of services that include speech and occupational therapy, or even psychological support.

But nearly 58% of New York City children who were eligible for those services did not receive all of the therapeutic support spelled out on the individualized plans, representing nearly 27,000 children.

That’s significantly higher than the 42% of children who did not receive services across the rest of the state during the period included in the audit, which ran from July 2018 to February 2022. The audit includes data from the onset of the pandemic, when the number of children receiving Early Intervention services dropped and providers attempted to conduct therapies virtually, a challenge for many young children.

The gap in services is particularly acute in the Bronx, where families have long pointed to problems securing Early Intervention services. More than two-thirds of children there did not receive all of the therapies they were entitled to, according to a Chalkbeat analysis, the most of any borough.

“We’re at a point where thousands and thousands of children are waiting for services and in some cases never receiving their services,” said Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, a group that has pushed for reforms to the Early Intervention system. “We’re seeing statewide systemic violations of children’s rights.”

Children can be referred for early intervention services in a variety of ways, including by their pediatrician, day care provider, caregiver, or even by child welfare agencies. Securing services early on in a child’s development is crucial for addressing delays and disabilities and can head off the need for more complex or expensive special education services later.

“Early Intervention exists because the brain is most malleable in the first three years of life,” Dr. Liz Isakson, the executive director of Docs for Tots, an organization that helps ensure children with delays get connected to services, previously told Chalkbeat.

The comptroller’s figures show that nearly 12% of city students who were referred for services were never evaluated for them (compared with 17% across the rest of the state). Among children who were evaluated, 95% received an individualized family service plan spelling out what support their child needs. But nearly a quarter of city students had to wait longer than the required 30 days for their services to kick in.

The audit points to several factors that can prevent children from getting the services they need. In some cases, provider shortages make services difficult to acquire. Working parents may not be able accommodate sessions during regular business hours.

In other instances, parents may not consent to services, potentially due to stigma or mistrust of government agencies, though the audit urges state and local agencies to better track why so many children are not receiving services and investigate racial and geographic inequities.

“The Department of Health needs to address the underlying reasons why children are not receiving the services they are entitled to, why services are often delayed and how access can be improved,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement.

Advocates also contend that one source of ongoing service delays is that providers are continuing to lean on telehealth services even in cases where face-to-face support is needed.

“We’re creating a two-tiered system,” said Betty Baez Melo, who directs the early childhood education project at Advocates for Children. She noted that families in low-income communities have struggled to get access to providers who are willing to provide in-person services and argues the state should create financial incentives to encourage face-to-face services, a move supported by city officials.

The city’s health department, which administers the Early Intervention program, emphasized that children can miss therapies for a variety of reasons, including illness, vacations, or conflicting appointments. In those situations, city officials offer make up sessions, wrote spokesperson Patrick Gallahue.

“The time period of the comptroller audit covers the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which presented enormous challenges to our Early Intervention Program,” Gallahue wrote. “Still, our staff worked furiously to bring services to families who needed them.”

Health officials also emphasized that gaining consent for services during the pandemic was challenging without a face-to-face conversation, but still sought it through email and text messages.

A spokesperson for the state’s health department, which oversees Early Intervention programs across New York, did not answer a question about the provision of telehealth services in lieu of in-person therapies. Asked about the large share of students who don’t receive all the services they’re entitled to, state officials emphasized that Early Intervention services are voluntary.

“Parents have a right to accept or reject some or all of Early Intervention services recommended for their child at any time, for any reason,” spokesperson Jeffrey Hammond wrote in a statement. “Although the COVID-19 pandemic affected the Early Intervention program, the Department has since worked to strengthen outreach to families.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.