NYC panel approves $43 million to replace troubled special education data system
From Chalkbeat: A citywide panel cleared the way this week for New York City to begin overhauling its special education data system, approving nearly $43 million to replace the costly and glitchy database more than two years after officials first announced plans to scrap it. The city’s Special Education Student Information System, known as SESIS, […]
NYC to eliminate ‘gifted’ test in overhaul of segregated program
Starting this fall, New York City will no longer test rising kindergartners for entry into its gifted and talented program, which has long attracted controversy for enrolling starkly low numbers of Black and Latino students. Instead of having a specific gifted program sorting a small number of children, all kindergarten students attending the city’s 800 […]
This NYC middle school wanted to know how its alums are faring. So a group of grads became oral historians.
“Having classes in person will be better—I’ll have a teacher in there.” “I’ve been taking care of my sister because my parents have been working. I’m going to miss that.” “I don’t want to go back to school. I’m going to miss not having to look presentable.” The dozen students Zooming together in May, from […]
‘There’s been a teacher shortage crisis looming across the country’
From Yahoo: Aaron C. Spence, Virginia Beach City Public Schools Superintendent, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the impact of teacher shortages and burnout. We’re dealing with a lot of things, obviously. We’re trying to keep school up in the middle of a pandemic. And we’re dealing with fairly significant staffing shortages and dealing with some […]
NYC students go without mandated services because of staffing shortage
The staffing shortage caused by the thousands of unvaccinated teachers and staffers who were out of a job wreaked havoc at some city schools, where students skipped mandated services or were taught by inexperienced teachers. At PS 204 in Bensonhurst and PS 185 in Bay Ridge, there was a lack of speech specialists. At IS […]
Only 1 in 5 NYC students took last year’s state tests, making results almost moot
From Chalkbeat: About a fifth of New York City’s third through eighth graders took the state’s English and math exams last school year, when a majority of students learned remotely and the tests were deemed optional, according to data released Thursday by the state education department. With only about 20% of students in the five […]
With 1.9% enrollment drop, NYC schools have lost 64,000 students since pandemic started
From Chalkbeat: Enrollment in the nation’s largest school system has dropped roughly 1.9% this school year, according to preliminary figures released Friday by the education department. Roughly 938,000 students are enrolled in New York City’s public schools, down from about 955,000 last school year, when the system saw a significant decline related to the coronavirus […]
NYC will receive 231,000 pediatric COVID vaccine doses next week. How will shots get in-arms?
From Chalkbeat: New York City parents and caregivers are likely days away from making appointments to get COVID vaccines for their children ages 5 to 11 — but city officials have yet to reveal what role, if any, schools will play in vaccine distribution. While the education department hosted clinics in nearly 800 schools this […]
