Educational equity is a goal for many of us but in short supply. Parents, students, and teachers continue to search for improvements in a system that limits access to high-performing public schools, both charter and traditional, and disproportionately disciplines children of color.
I’m proud to have been raised and educated on Long Island where I raised my own family and still reside. I love living so close to the beach and the City. On so many levels, Long Island is a little piece of paradise on earth — except, of course, when you look at its system… Continue reading The Sad State of Affairs in Long Island’s Schools
The media is afire with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to diversify NYC’s most competitive high schools — Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech — by eliminating the SHSAT admissions test. Instead of basing student suitability for these ultra-competitive schools on a single test, he says, students will be admitted based on classroom… Continue reading The Lack of Diversity in NYC’s Elite High Schools Has Nothing To Do With the Admissions Test.
Just before I turned five years old, my parents moved me and my two younger sisters from our apartment on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx to a Queens neighborhood zoned for P.S. 115. While my old elementary school is now quite segregated (77 percent Asian, 18 percent White, 22 percent eligible for free and reduced… Continue reading A Personal Story about Gifted and Talented Programming in NYC
With a new School Chancellor taking office this month, there were bound to be changes afoot. Although, in Richard Carranza’s defense, modifications to New York City’s application system for public middle and high schools have been hotly debated topics for years. Here’s a look at the proposals on deck, whom they will help, and whom… Continue reading Changes Coming To NYC Middle and High School Admissions! What They Might Mean For You!
In 1951, a class action suit was filed against the Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. The plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their 20 children. What a strong example of parental engagement this landmark case models for us, right? This case… Continue reading Have We Made Any Progress Since Brown v. Board of Ed? Not In My Experience.
If it feels like I’ve written this post before, that’s because I’ve written this post before. (Think of it as Groundhog Day: High School Edition.) The highlights: September 12, 2016: Can Last Minute Test Prep Bring Diversity To NYC’s Specialized High Schools? September 26, 2016: As a NYC Parent, I Don’t Think the DOE’s Change… Continue reading NYC High School Admissions: What the Department Of Education Refuses To Admit
In response to my posts about how New York City parents can raise the odds of their children getting into a Gifted & Talented public school program, a reader wrote to sarcastically congratulate me on destroying what had previously been a perfectly even playing field. Her child, it seems, took the G&T test with absolutely… Continue reading Is NYC Education an Even Playing Field For All Families?