NYC’s education panel grows with new mayoral appointees and elected members
Mayor Eric Adams unveiled on Thursday his newly appointed members to New York City’s Panel for Educational Policy, which has grown significantly in response to an updated state law. Adams appointed six new people to the newly expanded panel that signs off on major education department contracts and school closures or co-locations. State lawmakers last […]
After COVID paused Regents exams, graduation rates for NYC’s English language learners surged
Arnulfo Toribio was ready to drop out of high school. It was 2020, and Toribio felt exhausted from learning years’ worth of material while balancing school with a full-time restaurant job. Before immigrating to New York City a few years earlier, he had spent much of his childhood working on a Mexican farm to support […]
NYC is using one-time COVID money for a lot of education programs. What happens when it dries up?
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, New York City’s education department received a massive windfall: more than $7 billion in federal relief funding to help reopen school buildings and address lost instruction. But city officials have used a significant chunk of that one-time relief on initiatives that have recurring costs. What happens to those […]
What to know about COVID guidelines for NYC schools this year
New York City schools will shed many of its COVID prevention strategies from the past two years, according to new education department guidance posted Tuesday for the 2022-23 school year. When the nation’s largest school system starts on Sept. 8, students will no longer be required to fill out a daily health screener to enter […]
Staffing, attendance, behavior: 7 big issues facing schools this year
After surviving two school years “completely veiled in the pandemic,” teacher Kathryn Vaughn says this year is off to a different start. Her stress levels are down. COVID protocols are relaxed. Teachers are feeling hopeful. “It feels a little lighter this year,” said Vaughn, who teaches elementary school art in Tennessee. “It really feels like […]
Kids are at low risk for monkeypox, but schools can take precautions, CDC says
Children and teens are at low risk for contracting monkeypox, but schools can still take steps to prepare for possible exposures or cases, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. So far, a handful of the 14,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the U.S. have been among kids under 18, a […]
NYC brings camp to the classroom in Summer Rising
Summer Rising, New York City’s massive effort to rebrand summer school as something fun and educational, has a lesson for the regular school year: Children really like outdoor and hands-on activities. One 7-year-old’s favorite thing was a trip to a bouncy house, while another loved having a barbecue. One 10-year-old was excited to learn how […]
America’s new “national teacher shortage” is neither new nor national
The narrative goes as follows. America is suffering from a nationwide teacher shortage. Teachers have been leaving the profession for years, but recent stresses from the pandemic and the culture war have caused the entire profession to hit a tipping point. Educators are leaving in droves. School leaders are using desperate measures to recruit. Some […]
