Primary Election Day in New York City is Tuesday, June 22, 2021. Early voting began on the 12th and runs through the 20th. As I have stressed over and over, who the mayor is has a much greater effect on your child’s education than who the governor is, who the president is, or who the… Continue reading Which Mayoral Candidate Do You Trust With Your Child’s Education?
(This is a guest post by Charleen Ang, working mother to three young children, 2 of whom are of elementary school age currently in the NYC public school system.) When our 4.5 year old son failed to make the cut-off score in last year’s Kindergarten G&T test, my husband & I were not overly concerned… Continue reading NYC Mom Calls Out Unfairness in 2021 G&T Admissions for 1st-3rd Grade
Regular readers of New York School Talk know how important Mayor Bill de Blasio’s approval is to this NYC mom. Hizzoner was most displeased with the high-school choices I made for my two older sons. I have only my daughter left. This is my last chance to get it right! When trying to figure out… Continue reading Choosing My Daughter’s High School To Please Mayor DeBlasio
New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced on March, 24, 2021 that, come September, all public school students would be back in the classroom, five days a week, in front of live teachers. A remote learning option would no longer be available, and medical accomodations for teachers would be severely curtailed. Here is what the… Continue reading NYC Mayor Promises Full Return To In-Person School, No Remote Option: Parents Respond
(This is a guest post by Natasha Cherry-Perez, Senior Associate Director of Community Engagement at Uncommon Schools and super Mom to an outstanding high school student.) In middle school, Ruth Kendall remembered the mathematical expression Pi (3.14) all the way out to 400 digits. She loves numbers so much, the Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School… Continue reading A Brooklyn School Working to Help Students Share Their Own Voices
Waitlists had long been a fact of life for New York City Kindergarten and Gifted & Talented admissions, Hunter College Elementary, and other public charter schools. But Mayor Bill De Blasio only added them to middle and high school admissions in 2019. (Previously, there had been a Second Round for teens who didn’t get any… Continue reading How NYC School Waitlists Work – And How They Don’t
(In our May 10, 2021 post, NYC Endorses Gifted & Talented Approach Determined To Do Least Good For All Students (But Especially Minority and Low Income Ones), we printed an excerpt from a PS 163 parent about their school dropping its G&T program. We now present the letter in its entirety.) On or around June… Continue reading NYC School Drops Popular Gifted & Talented Program: A Parent’s Take
After his own Panel For Education Policy voted down renewing the contract that had been used to test students for New York City public school Gifted & Talented programs in January of 2021, Mayor Bill De Blasio swore that parents of incoming Kindergarteners would still be able to apply their children for admission… somehow. In… Continue reading Where Is the Equity? Different Students Face Different Tests for NYC Gifted & Talented School Admissions
My Brooklyn colleague, Marina Kolmanovsky, wrote this about the prospect of requiring Pre-K teachers to get vaccines before returning to work: While my view on the Covid vaccine might be an unpopular one, it is nevertheless my opinion, and I have no desire to get it. My site has been reopened since June 4, 2020… Continue reading Two Pre-K Teachers’ Views on Mandatory COVID Vaccines
On August 26, 2019, New York City’s School Advisory Diversity Group (SADG) proposed that the ideal way to integrate schools would be to get rid of stand alone Gifted and Talented Citywide and District programs, and replace them with an Enrichment For All Model. What would that look like? Chalkbeat reported at the time: (I)t… Continue reading NYC Endorses Gifted & Talented Approach Determined To Do Least Good For All Students (But Especially Minority and Low Income Ones)
