If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. That’s a rule many live by, but it rings especially true in our schools. That’s New York City father Jean Holybrice explaining why his children are participating in annual state assessments in language arts and math. Data on participation rates in NY’s annual state assessments are… Continue reading Get Over Yourselves and Opt In!
Today is day two of of the three-day New York State English Language Arts Exam and in my ten-plus years of proctoring and scoring these exams, it never ceases to amaze me when, just a few minutes into the tests, students’ eyes start to glaze over and their bladders and throats go into overdrive, causing… Continue reading Students: You Take the Test; Don’t Let the Test Take You!
Earlier this month I suggested that grouping New York City schoolchildren by ability rather than age would address two issues that stymie the NYC Department of Education: strict birthday cut-offs that ignore readiness and the perennial shortage of Gifted and Talented seats. In this post I cited a report which asserted that, in some American… Continue reading Is the US Education Bar Set Too Low For All Kids?
Today I was asked why so many of my students, previously “rock stars” in English class with grades of 90% and above, now have much lower averages. Correction: the question wasn’t even posed to me. It was asked of one of my colleagues after some of my students and their parents complained about the lower… Continue reading Is it MY fault that I Hold My Students to High Standards?
It is clear that students throughout the city are getting varying degrees of quality education, with children of color getting the shorter end of the stick. At times, students may even get varying degrees of quality education within the same building (i.e., tracking or school practices that put less experienced teachers with more difficult kids).… Continue reading Is a Fair and Equitable Education Possible in New York City?
A new report out from the Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG) evaluates the level of New York City’s “inequalities” in six sectors: economy, health, housing, justices, services, and — most importantly for our purposes — education. This analysis is ISLG’s second annual iteration and Founding Director Michael Jacobson notes that while last year’s… Continue reading New Report: NYC Public School System Characterized by “Vast Inequalities”
Every year the U.S. Department of Education awards “blue ribbons” to the nation’s top schools that demonstrate extraordinary success in achieving high standards and making notable strides in closing the achievement gap. Yesterday Education Secretary John King announced that one of those schools was Excellence Girls Charter School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the first charter school in… Continue reading A Brooklyn First: Excellence Girls Charter School Named a National Blue Ribbon School
New York City’s charter school leaders are calling upon Mayor Bill de Blasio to double the number of charter school seats available to students by 2020. According to an editorial published in today’s Daily News by the leaders of Achievement First, Uncommon Schools, KIPP, Public Prep, and Coney Island Prep, NYC students are best served by expanding… Continue reading Mayor de Blasio’s “Moral, Political, and Economic Obligation” to Support Charter School Expansion
