What’s in a name? Students at NYC’s largest school for newcomer immigrants push for change
The name of New York City’s largest public school for immigrant students succinctly describes who it serves: Newcomers High School. The school, located near a cluster of newly opened homeless shelters in Long Island City, Queens, has lived up to its name, enrolling perhaps more migrant students over the past two school years than any […]
As fewer kids enroll, big cities face a small schools crisis
On a recent morning inside Chalmers School of Excellence on Chicago’s West Side, five preschool and kindergarten students finished up drawings. Four staffers, including a teacher and a tutor, chatted with them about colors and shapes. The summer program offers the kind of one-on-one support parents love. But behind the scenes, Principal Romian Crockett worries […]
Embrace of Phonics … In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat
Lucy Calkins, a leading literacy expert, has rewritten her curriculum to include a fuller embrace of phonics and the science of reading. Critics may not be appeased. For decades, Lucy Calkins has determined how millions of children learn to read. An education professor, she has been a pre-eminent leader of “balanced literacy,” a loosely defined […]
NYC promises 2,000 additional teachers to address shortage. Principals union says that falls ‘woefully short
City officials promised Monday to scrounge up an additional 2,000 teachers to help fill staffing shortages plaguing the city’s partial school reopening plan — but critics say the influx of staffers will barely scratch the surface of the personnel crunch. “The 2,000 additional teachers the Mayor referenced in his press conference today is woefully short […]
Want big advances from students and schools? Invest in principals, says new research
School principals, who rank second only to teachers in influencing how well students learn in school, matter even more than previously believed, according to major new research. In fact, replacing a below-average principal with an above-average one will result in an additional three months of learning in math and reading annually for the average student, […]
New CDC guidance: Vaccinate teachers, but don’t wait to open schools
“Highly anticipated new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says schools don’t need to wait for staff to be vaccinated to reopen. Students should return full-time where spread is low or moderate, and with regular testing, the CDC says schools can open for some in-person instruction even when community spread is high. Masks and […]
