What a Community Education Council does and how to join one
If you’re looking to get involved in decisions in your school district, now’s a good time: Positions on the city public schools’ Community Education Councils are up for grabs. Parents, local residents and business owners, and even high school seniors are eligible to join. Community Education Councils, or CECs, can weigh in on nearly every […]
NYC schools want to boost enrollment. It might prove a major challenge.
New York City schools Chancellor David Banks wants to win students back. The nation’s largest school district has hemorrhaged students since the start of the pandemic, with enrollment down about 11% to 813,000 students in grades K-12 since then. Earlier this week, Banks even tweeted: “Increasing enrollment and boosting opportunity for all of our students […]
COVID vaccine mandate dropped for city employees, visitors to NYC public schools
Visitors to New York City’s public schools will no longer have to be vaccinated, ending a year-and-a-half-old rule that had kept some parents out of school functions, Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday. Adams also announced that COVID vaccines will no longer be required of city workers. That means that more than 1,700 employees who were […]
NYC to introduce pilot program on ageism for high schoolers
New York City officials are launching a new effort to curb discrimination against the city’s oldest residents — by educating some of its youngest. A pilot curriculum jointly operated by the city’s Department for the Aging and Department of Education will introduce the concept of “ageism” to students at 13 Brooklyn high schools, with the […]
As family homelessness climbs, calls grow louder for solving school attendance woes
Nine-year-old Ameerah remembers when her commute to school was a five-minute walk. That was before her family left their Queens home for a shelter in another part of the borough. During the year they lived in the shelter, Ameerah was at the bus stop with her mom and sister at 6:30 a.m., commuting at least […]
How one Chicago school social worker is grappling with COVID’s toll on students
Inside a staff bathroom at Piccolo Elementary School on Chicago’s West Side, Mary Difino wiped away tears and tried to catch her breath. It had been a long day in another stressful week. A spate of fights and a string of cyberbullying incidents among students two months into the school year had taken a toll […]
A unique Philadelphia school cultivates family members as staffers
Kimberly Singleton was the parent of a student at Overbrook Educational Center in West Philadelphia when she lost her job at a billing company. Already an active volunteer at the school, she jumped at the chance when she saw an ad in the school newsletter for a classroom assistant. Singleton got the job in February […]
Pandemic learning loss has affected students. Should we push to lower standards?
The opposite should happen. Expose students to grade-level material. Create opportunities for expanded learning using online resources. Seek funding for additional support. There’s been a significant gap in learning caused by the pandemic and my high school math students are discouraged when our class-level standards are over their heads or out of reach. I read […]
