Education Issues

Some Public School Students Will Sit Out State Tests This Week in Protest

"These tests are harmful. They do nothing but stress us out and take away precious learning time. They don't make learning fun, they are all-consuming. ... We do not learn from these tests. Do we not go to school to learn?" Owen Hotaling, a freckled fifth grader in a sweatshirt and a bright red kn ... More >>

Invasion Of The Charter Schools

Former City Councilmember Eva Moskowitz, with Bloomberg's union-busting blessing, is pushing her Success Academy edu-franchise into Brooklyn. The natives aren't buying.

Mr. Cuomo, You've Sure Got a Funny Way of Increasing Education Spending

Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the state's impressive run of evading the fact that it owes New York City billions of dollars in educations funds. As we reported last week, the state has demonstrated an uncanny ability to pretend like the N.Y. State Court of Appeals didn't mandate that it pay the city ... More >>

If NYC Public Schools Lose $300 Million In A Week, You Can Thank Politics

Forget about the fiscal cliff in Washington; the kids of New York City are about to jump off one, too. In less than ten days, New York City's public school system stands to gain or lose nearly $300 million of the $700 million allotted to New York State under President Obama's "Race to the Top" prog ... More >>

UPDATE: Parents, Students and Community Not Sure They Have Real Voice in School Co-Location Process

UPDATE: Anyone who fought against the recent round of co-locations can now rest assured that they never had a say in yesterday's Panel on Educational Policy's vote. The PEP voted late last night to approve every co-location proposal up for consideration. The approvals came after hours of impassione ... More >>

Parents, Students and Community Not Sure They Have Real Voice in School Co-Location Process

Students, parents and the surrounding community have made it clear that they don't want the New York City Department of Education to co-locate a new school alongside Dr. Susan S. McKinney Secondary School of the Arts in Brooklyn. But, they're unclear whether they possess the power to stop it from ... More >>

Evaluate Teachers? Let Students Also Do It

Governor Cuomo has political capital—why waste it on more reliance on standardized testing?

Preparing Students for College Is Kind of a New Thing, Education Officials Say

A City Council hearing today brought together key players in city education policy to discuss how to improve the college-readiness of public students. If only everyone could fit in the room. Runnin' Scared begged as crowds of hopeful attendees were shepherded into an additional viewing room. Eve ... More >>

Cathie Black Collateral? Education Commissioner David Steiner Out Soon Too

​In the wake of this morning's Cathie Black news, in which she was replaced as schools chancellor after only four months, New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner is seemingly being shown the door too. The New York Post reports that although "Steiner has not yet made a decision" abo ... More >>

Cathie Black Booed at Brooklyn Policy Meeting

New Schools Chancellor Cathie Black, already embattled based on her lackluster qualifications and bad jokes, had a tough showing last night in Brooklyn, where she was booed audibly (and on video!) at an Educational Policy meeting, as reported by New York's Daily Intel and the New York Daily News. It ... More >>

Inside the Great Cathie Black Media Blitz

​Today in How Reporters Report: Everyone got their panties in a twist when former city schools chancellor Joel Klein resigned last November and Mayor Bloomberg appointed Cathie Black -- a publishing exec with no discernible skills, background, or preparation for the job -- as his replace ... More >>

This Guy Really Doesn't Want Cathie Black To Have That New Job

​The backlash against Mayor Bloomberg's new pick for city schools chancellor didn't take long to gather steam. A state senator-elect with ties to the teacher's union is already vying to block Cathie Black, the former Hearst Magazines chairman, from taking the job. He's urging state officials to de ... More >>

Federal Government Finally Teaching Some Kids to Screw

​After ten years of funding sex education programs built on abstinence, the federal government is getting a little bit looser. A little bit! This year, "a five-year, $375 million grant is being divided among 28 programs that have been proven to lower the pregnancy rate among participants, no m ... More >>

Is New York Children Learning? New Test Scores Admit Defeat

​The New York state education department issued its annual test scores for 3rd- through 8th-graders this morning, and the takeaway is: They blow. The number of students judged proficient in English fell from 77% in 2009 to 53% this year; in math, the percent earning passing grades plunged from ... More >>

Black Parents vs. the Teachers' Union

Union intransigence hits a low point

Mike Bloomberg and Joel Klein Want More Charter Schools So Bad, They Went to Church

With the looming deadline to apply for federal Race to the Top education funds coming next week, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have been taking their call to increase the number of charter schools far and wide. This weekend, they took the word to church, reports Daily News writer ... More >>

Andrew Cuomo Risks Teachers' Union Wrath By Supporting Raising Number of Charter Schools

​The Post's Fred Dicker reports this morning that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is planning to support the recently passed Senate Bill to increase the number of charter schools in the state. If true, this would be just the latest unlikely development in how the issue of charter schools is rea ... More >>

Eric Schneiderman, Too Beholden to Teachers' Union to Be Attorney General?

Schneiderman​Eric Schneiderman, the Manhattan state senator running for Attorney General, was one of 12 Democrats who voted against the charter school bill that passed 45 to 15 on Monday. Ironically, though a bill authorizing new charter schools appears irrelevant to the AG race, t ... More >>

State Senate Votes to More Than Double Number of Charter Schools

​The State Senate voted yesterday to raise the number of charter schools in the state to 460 from 200. Majority Leader John Sampson supported the legislation and, despite significant Democratic resistance, led it to a surprisingly bipartisan victory (45-15). More than doubling the number of c ... More >>

Teachers' Union Rolls Out Hoary Excuse To Oppose More Charter Schools

​If you're looking for a laugh, go on the website of the United Federation of Teachers, the union that is leading the fight against charter schools, whose reading and math scores are 15 to 20 points better than traditional schools. The union just went on the air with an ad blasting "for-profi ... More >>

Merryl Tisch, State Schools Chancellor, Doesn't Seem Too Worked Up About Losing Federal Funds

Go for the money, Merryl!​State schools chancellor and role model Merryl Tisch certainly sounded like she was showing New York's millions of public school kids how to throw in the towel Wednesday night. She told NY1's Lindsey Christ that the state might not even submit an applicat ... More >>

19 NYC High Schools Were Illegally Closed, Judge Rules; Mike Bloomberg, Joel Klein Get Smacked Down

A judge ruled today that New York City's Department of Education illegally closed 19 high schools earlier this year. Several news outlets are reporting the breaking decision (Post, WABC). The move to close the schools earlier this year was contentious and included a protest in front of Mayor Bloomb ... More >>

Barrett: Bill DeBlasio, Public Advocate or Teachers Union Patsy?

​Bill deBlasio may have set a record with his first-day-on-the-job thumping by the New York Post last week. Under the headline "ACORN's City Hall branch," a Post editorial, posted at 1:40 on the morning of deBlasio's second day as public advocate, blasted his announcement that he was forming a ... More >>

Are High-Stakes Tests Harming NYC Schools?

Are No Child Left Behind and Bloomberg's report cards pushing schools to go grade-grubbing?

Times Notices Conflicts Between Public Schools and Charters

The New York Times reports today that charter schools are sometimes in conflict with their public-school hosts, particularly as regards space, on which some P.S. personnel and parents think they get shafted: at Middle School 126 in Williamsburg, for example, access to the school library is granted t ... More >>

Hebrew Academy Charter Panned, Jeered at Marine Park Hearing

The city is eager to put a charter school called Hebrew Language Academy, bankrolled by the Stenhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, in Marine Park. There have been objections from civil libertarians and from Diane Ravitch to the presumed religious nature of the school. But yesterday, GerritsenBeach. ... More >>

Letters

Letters: May 20, 2009

Bloomberg and the Teachers' Union

It's (almost) summertime, and the Mayor's campaigning is easy. So easy, he can roll over the union this time—and should.

Harlem's School Choice

Parents and the city face off over whether to rescue a failing school—or replace it

Parents Say Standardized Tests No Way to Pick Kids for Advanced Classes

Looking a Gifted Horse in the Mouth

Clueless in New York

State's failure to pass sex ed act fucks young people

'Goodbye, Momo'

Can Bill Gates Rescue Evelyn Cabrera?

The journey of one high school senior through the small-school experiment of America's most generous philanthropist

Sex Miseducation

Advocates dismayed by more abstinence funding

Sex and the Kiddies

The city is launching a new sex ed program—minus a few key points

Fuck Abstinence

How Bush's faith-based say-no-to-sex sex education is failing our kids

Teens' Sexual Rights

Educators argue that adolescent sexuality is healthy and vital

Faith-Based Birth Control

The High-Stakes Testing Trap

Rising Standards, Rising Dropouts

In School: The 'Success' of Failure

'The Dropout Rate Is Rising'

An Orgy of Abstinence

Federal Funding Pushes No-Sex Education Into the Mainstream

Reading Between the Lines

Liz Smith’s Star-Studded Literacy Charity Flunks Better Business Test

Loophole 101

How Charter Schools Weaken the Teachers’ Union

Sex 101

A Recent Study Says Parents Want More Sex Education in the Schools. Where'd You Learn Your Sexual ABCs?

No-Sex Ed

City Programs Face the Trials of Teaching Abstinence

Electronic Yields

Charting the Race to Artificially Gauge Intelligence

Exposing the Voucher Spin

Public Money Is for Public Schools

Bubble Economy

Fire Rudy Crew

The state fails 97 New York City schools