Joe Biden’s inauguration promised to usher in a fresh era of sense and science. Americans rejoiced. Joe Biden vowed to re-open all schools closed by the COVID-19 pandemic within his first 100 days in office. Parents rejoiced. Then the details began emerging. High schools would not be included in the reopening plans, only Kindergarten through… Continue reading Biden Vows To Reopen All US Schools in First 100 Days: What That Means For NYC
(This is a guest post by Joseph S. Lento, a licensed Teacher of Orchestral Music and School District Administration. In 2014, President Obama named him a National Teacher of Arts and Humanities. Joseph also has commendations from Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. In 1999, he was named NYC Public Schools Bronx County… Continue reading Remote Learning: A Tool for Educator Self Assessment
My December 21, 2020 post, Answering Parent Questions About Getting Into NYC Kindergarten 2021: COVID-19 Edition, prompted an avalanche of — what else? — more questions. On top of asking whether there will be Gifted & Talented testing and how seats will be filled at those schools if there isn’t (answer: we still don’t know;… Continue reading Will It Be Easier To Get Into Your First Choice NYC School For September 2021 – Or Harder?
Most of NYC’s 1.1 million public school students are doing remote learning. Every student needs an internet-connected device. As of mid-October, 77,000 students were still missing devices necessary for distance learning. I don’t doubt that 77,000 devices can be distributed in ten weeks, but I do doubt that they have been. Mostly because thousands of… Continue reading COVID Rates Rise, Remote Learning Continues: How You Can Help
A post that I wrote this past August receiving as many new hits per day as more recent updates suggests that New York City parents are desperate for information about how to apply their children for Kindergarten in 2021. Here are where matters stand as of Monday, December 21, 2020. General Education Public Schools: Unlike… Continue reading Answering Parent Questions About Getting Into NYC Kindergarten 2021: COVID-19 Edition
(As a coalition of parents and teachers sues the DOE to stop the testing, this is a guest post by Diana Brogan, an attorney but currently stay-at-home mom of two elementary school students. She is PTA President and Executive Committee member of the District Presidents’ Council.) Last Monday morning thousands of New York City public… Continue reading NYC Mom Pushes Back Against “Coerced Consent” COVID-19 Testing in Public Schools
On Thursday, December 10, 2020, almost exactly nine months after he first closed New York City public schools, Mayor Bill De Blasio triumphantly announced that he finally has a plan for dealing with the disruption and learning loss. He calls it the 2021 Student Achievement Plan! (But wasn’t the bulk of the disruption and learning… Continue reading A Matter Of Trust: Why Some Families Have Lost All Faith In NYC Schools
As we shared last week, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio unexpectedly held a press conference the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend to announce the school re-opening plan he’d promised the previous Wednesday but then said would be coming sometime in early December. (Got that?) Hizzoner proclaimed that while middle and high schools would remain… Continue reading The Needs Of the Many Outweigh the Needs Of the Few: NYC Schools Edition
To date, our most popular post of 2020 has been: The (Last Minute) Plans of Mice and Men… And NYC Schools, listing all the ways in which Mayor Bill De Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza have been announcing, then walking back, then changing school reopening plans since the spring. Now comes another bait and switch:… Continue reading NYC Mayor Pressures Families to Opt Into Hybrid Learning: Parents Fire Back!
