PJ Library, a non-profit which sends out free Jewish children’s books, also has a book club for parents. Their most recent selection was Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jewish Mothers Do To Raise Successful, Creative, Empathetic, Independent Children by Marjorie Ingall. In Chapter 6: Emphasize – But Don’t Fetishize – Education, Ingall, as all New York… Continue reading Should Schools Teach Your Child Values?
It’s a common complaint among those who turn down their collective nose at public charter schools: they don’t serve their fair share of students with disabilities, or at least those with moderate to severe disabilities, and they counsel out kids who can’t deal with academic rigor, either back to their sending districts or to private… Continue reading Not Backpacks Full of Cash: Backpacks Full of Rights! NCSECS Takes On Special Education Equity in Charter Schools
This is a guest post by Peter Cunningham, the executive director of Education Post. He served as assistant secretary for communications and outreach in the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama Administration. Prior to that he led communications for Chicago Public Schools. After a much needed break from all things education, I returned to… Continue reading How the New York Times Got It Wrong on School Choice and Segregation
Today the New York Times’ Dana Goldstein has an article on a new trend: advocates taking states to court to demand integrated schools. In the piece she quotes one particular education advocate who questions the assumption that integration is a panacea for inequity. That advocate is Khulia Pringle whose daughter attended a St. Paul charter… Continue reading If You Can’t Teach My Black Children, Admit It and Move On.
New York City has over 400 starkly segregated high schools. Mayor Bill de Blasio is obsessed with eight of them. Well, technically only three. Because these three of the city’s Specialized High Schools —Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech (all majority Asian, with many of those students classified as Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) recipients)… Continue reading Low Hanging Fruit (And the Horrifying Truths They Obscure): NYC’s High-School Diversity Initiative
Not a day has gone by over the past couple of weeks that a family I’m working with hasn’t emailed to cheer that they’ve finally gotten off the waitlist at their first-choice school, usually kindergarten, but sometimes other grades, all the way up through high school. For most parents, summer is the time when you… Continue reading Summertime… And the Waitlists Are Moving: How NYC Families Can Get Into the Schools Of Their Choice
Most of the eighth-grade students in Jeff Walton’s band class at Uncommon Schools Ocean Hill Collegiate hadn’t picked up an instrument before seventh grade. But you’d never know it from the sounds emanating from Walton’s band room one morning as students were rehearsing for their Spring Concert, a program of songs from New Orleans. Standing… Continue reading “I Am Always Amazed How Fast They Can Learn”: Uncommon Schools’ Music Immersion Program
When I work with families looking to find the best school for their child, one of the first things I offer them is, “tell me what you believe, and I’ll send you a study that confirms it.” I’m not joking. The education space is full of experts and studies, all proclaiming to know what’s best… Continue reading Relax, The Experts Know What’s Best For Your Child. They Just Don’t Agree On What It Is. Or How To Get It.
Shirley Jackson’s 1948 short story, The Lottery, is considered a classic of slow-building horror. A small town holds a lottery every year to decide which citizen will be ritually stoned in order to insure a good harvest. Everyone goes uncomplainingly along in the name of tradition, and, despite a few scattered grumbles, nobody outright says… Continue reading The Lottery: A NYC Schools Horror Story (With Apologies to Shirley Jackson)
I have a confession to make. I spend a lot of time on Twitter (@NYSchoolSecrets.com). As a result, I am often caught in multi-day, multi-participant conversations between various people, most of whom I only know as tiny avatar pictures. (Mine features my kids.) Here’s what I have learned from spending a lot of time on… Continue reading Doing the Math = School Choice
