NYC officials pause school device tracking project
New York City’s education department is hitting pause on a sprawling effort to count up electronic devices in all schools and central offices, officials confirmed this week. The yearlong project, launched last June, had reached just half of city schools before it stopped on March 20. The effort involved 26 teams of five people each […]
Survey says: NYC wants to know how you feel about your child’s school. Really.
Are you greeted warmly when you visit your child’s school? Does your child feel safe at school? Is your child’s school kept clean? These are some of the questions New York City’s education department asks parents on its annual survey. The responses provide a portrait of a school’s climate and how children are faring beyond […]
Educators: Help us investigate the reading and math curriculums NYC plans to mandate
New York City may soon require hundreds of public schools to change how they teach reading and math, marking a significant shift from the freedom schools have long enjoyed in choosing their own materials. The city has not yet publicly announced any changes. But sources familiar with the education department’s plans said the city is […]
NYC’s Summer Rising program gets admissions overhaul
As summer approaches, New York City families should expect changes in the sign-up process and who will be given priority for the city’s sprawling public summer enrichment program, which will again be open to 110,000 children. Summer Rising — launched under former Mayor Bill de Blasio in the summer of 2021 with the help of federal […]
NYC parent coordinators are essential school workers. Many feel undervalued and underpaid
“Family engagement” and “parent empowerment” are not mere buzzwords to Ana Maria Aguilar. They are her touchstones as parent coordinator at a Brooklyn elementary school, where she sees the faces of her own parents — immigrants from Mexico — reflected in many of the families at drop-off and pickup. “They come in with such fear. […]
Public Schools Are NYC’s Main Youth Mental Health System. Where Kids Land Often Depends on What Their Parents Can Pay
On Staten Island, a middle schooler with a hair-trigger temper was in a fistfight every week. In north Brooklyn, a ninth grader cut class for months before he tried to commit suicide. A few miles east, where Brooklyn meets the marshlands of Jamaica Bay, a 13-year-old ended up in a psychiatric emergency room after the […]
NYC education panel approves mayor’s proposed $30.7B schools budget after lengthy debate
Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed $30.7 billion budget for the education department got the green light Wednesday night from New York City’s Panel for Educational Policy. The vote by the city’s 23-member board — largely comprised by mayoral appointees — is not the final step for the agency’s budget. Next, the mayor will release an updated version of […]
What to know about the upcoming state tests for grades 3-8
It’s testing season in New York once again. Schools across the state will administer standardized reading and math exams for grades 3-8 in April and May, as well as science exams for eighth graders in June. With the intense attention on the pandemic’s effect on students, some schools might be ramping up their focus on […]
