Laura Waters grew up in New York and attended New York public schools. Her mother was a social worker and her father was a social studies teacher in the New York City public school system; both were UFT members. She has lived in New Jersey for twenty-five years but her four kids and husband still make fun of her N.Y. accent. She writes about N.Y. and N.J. education policy and politics for a variety of publications, including her blog NJ Left Behind.
As the COVID-19 pandemic closes schools for New York City’s 1.1 million students, remote instruction — teachers providing instruction through platforms like Zoom and Google Meet and YouTube — is the new normal. At least for the students who have access to laptops and the internet. Yet many students are not so lucky, largely because… Continue reading It’s a Matter of Equity: Petition Demands Free Internet for ALL Low Income NYC Families
At New Visions for Public Schools, it’s all about continuous school improvement. The organization supports a network of 70 district and 10 charter schools in New York City serving, all told, 40,000 students. (When you include individual district support, those numbers increase to 440 schools serving 230,000 students.) Jefferson Pestronk, Vice President of Strategy and… Continue reading At New Visions for Public Schools, It’s All About Continuous School Improvement. How’s That Going?
“What if kids who look like me didn’t have to work so hard to navigate an inequitable school system? What if adults were invested in making that navigation possible?” That’s Tracy Fray-Oliver, Associate Vice President of Bank Street Education Center (part of the Bank Street College of Education in New York City) speaking to a… Continue reading In Yonkers, Teachers Leaders Are “The Unit Of Change”: A Report From the Field.
This is a guest post by Daniel Bromberg, a senior at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Originally from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Daniel is passionate about economic justice and equitable education practices. He welcomes any comments or questions and can be reached at dsb283@cornell.edu. I grew up in South Brooklyn and attended public… Continue reading Equity Now, Not Later: A South Brooklyn Student on the Need for Urgency Around College Readiness.
This is a guest post by my friend and colleague Lane Wright. Lane lives in Tallahassee with his wife and three children and serves as Director of Policy Analysis at Education Post, a national nonprofit. You can substitute NJEA and other abusive parents for Lane’s references to the Florida Education Association. Imagine a family with 10 kids: Nine… Continue reading The Abusive Parent in The Charter School/Traditional School Family
Yesterday the New York City Department of Education released student test scores on standardized test scores. What do they mean? It depends on whom you ask. Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said this: “These scores are indicative of the sustained progress we have made in classrooms, schools and districts across all five boroughs,” Carranza said in… Continue reading Everything You Need To Know About NYC’s Test Scores
Let’s just call her Betsy DeVoid. Our secretary of education earns a name-change because of her predilection for voiding laws that protect our most disenfranchised students. First it was rescissions to the civil rights regulations that protect students with disabilities. Now it’s the 2014 Obama administration’s school discipline guidance, also based on civil rights law, that requires… Continue reading Is Betsy DeVos on the Verge of Removing Civil Rights Protections for Students of Color?
