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 […]
New School teachers’ strike ends as NYC university agrees to first pay raises in 4 years
The New School reached a tentative contract agreement with its part-time faculty this weekend, ending a strike that lasted nearly a month. A joint statement released by the faculty’s union, ACT-United Auto Workers Local 7902, and the New School on Saturday said two highlights of the five-year deal are pay raises and boosts to health […]
4 Ways to Increase Teacher Retention
These days it’s getting harder for administrators to retain staff, but there are ways to boost teacher morale and turn things around. Why have so many teachers either failed to return to work, resigned, or chosen not to enter the field since the pandemic? What’s made the profession become less attractive, and what can we […]
Bilingual teachers hard to find as thousands of migrant students enter NYC schools
An effort to improve bilingual education — a longstanding challenge for the city’s public schools — was dealt a blow this weekend when allegations surfaced that some bilingual teachers from the Dominican Republic were being forced to hand over most of their paychecks to cover inflated rents charged by their bosses. Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson […]
NYC’s public school application website crashes day before deadline
New York City parents were left fuming Wednesday after the website accepting their children’s public school applications buckled under high traffic — one day before the deadline. Thousands of incoming middle and high school students have until the end of Thursday to submit their applications for the next academic year — however numerous parents told […]
NYC’s middle and high school application deadline extended after website crashes
After New York City’s middle and high school applications portal crashed the night before the Dec. 1 deadline, the education department extended the deadline to Dec. 5, officials said Thursday. Many parents of fifth and eighth graders across the five boroughs, already stressed out by the application process, felt frustrated to see that MySchools was […]
