NEW: An NYT investigation has found that scores of Hasidic Jewish schools in New York are purposely denying some 50,000 students a basic secular education – and have received $1 billion in taxpayer dollars over the last 4 years. w/ @brianmrosenthal nytimes.com/2022/09/11/nyr…
The schools appear to be operating in violation of state law and use corporal punishment to keep kids in line. But New York's politicians have avoided taking action in the schools, despite repeated warnings about problems over the last decade. nytimes.com/2022/09/11/nyr…
Oct 8, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: NYC to eliminate gifted + talented classes over the next 5 yrs, major change and likely BdB's last big decision as mayor. Kids now enrolled in gifted programs will stay in them, but there will be no more separate gifted classes for incoming kids nytimes.com/2021/10/08/nyr…
How'd we get here?
BdB kept an admissions exam in place for 4-year-olds that no expert supported for most of his term - and now he's getting rid of gifted!
This was an 8-year push by his 3 chancellors - but only Meisha Porter was able to convince him. nytimes.com/2021/10/08/nyr…
Apr 1, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Richard Carranza, the former NYC schools chancellor who quit in Feb, has a new gig as the chief of strategy at an ed tech company in Silicon Valley prnewswire.com/news-releases/…
Where are your former NYC schools chancellors now? Carmen Fariña is happily retired and hanging with her grandkids, Dennis Walcott runs the Queens library system...and Joel Klein is on the board of Juul!
Feb 26, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Richard Carranza to resign as NYC schools chancellor, following years of tension over integration policy. The fight came to a head this month over gifted and talented admissions. Next chancellor is DOE vet Meisha Porter. nytimes.com/2021/02/26/nyr…
Here's the inside story: Carranza and de Blasio never really got along, Carranza and senior DOE officials felt marginalized. But the real issue was that the two men fundamentally disagreed about how far to go on desegregation. nytimes.com/2021/02/26/nyr…
Jan 29, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I interviewed 10 mayoral candidates + listened to everything they've said publicly about school integration. I found stark differences in how they would approach an issue that has long divided our proudly liberal, deeply segregated city. A thread! 1/
nytimes.com/2021/01/29/nyr…
Integration has been weaponized by some as a superficial test of the candidates' progressivism.
But since integration is actually a proven school improvement strategy, I wanted to find out which candidates would actually use desegregation to bolster schools 2/
Jan 4, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Here's where we stand on NYC schools for the next few months: seems very unlikely that elementary schools will close, even if the citywide positivity rate continues to climb. BdB + Cuomo both want them open. Seems very unlikely that middle and high schools will open anytime soon
The UFT is also on board with elementary schools being open since testing has ramped up so significantly. Expect lots of temporary closures as testing turns up multiple cases in classrooms and schools. But the opening plan we are living now is our status quo for months, I'd bet.
Nov 13, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Mayor says parents should make a plan for their kids because schools could close as soon as Monday.
The average positivity rate is now 2.8%. Schools close the day after we hit 3% so we could certainly see schools close over the weekend at this point. That number has been rising quickly, was 2.6% yesterday. Community-based orgs offering 3K/preK can stay open.
Nov 12, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
🚨 NYC is on the brink of shutting down its entire school system - could be in just a few days unless numbers improve.
There has been very low transmission in city schools so far, & there is growing evidence that young children are not superspreaders.
nytimes.com/2020/11/12/nyr…
BdB has made opening schools a priority. But we could soon see a city where all schools are closed but indoor dining is open and non-essential office workers are still commuting. nytimes.com/2020/11/12/nyr…
Sep 17, 2020 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING: NYC schools will NOT physically reopen for all students on Monday. The city is doing a phased-in reopening instead, by grade levels, throughout the next few weeks. This is the second time the mayor has delayed in-person classes. More soon.
This is just astonishing, three days before the start of the school year. De Blasio confirming now - says he spoke for hours yesterday with the head of the principals and teachers union who said schools are not ready to reopen. They have been saying this for many weeks.
Jul 31, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Schools in NYC will only reopen IF the city can maintain a test positivity rate below 3 percent, de Blasio just announced. We are currently hovering between 1-2 percent.
We've got a long way to go between now and the first day of school on Sept. 10.
This is really important. Cuomo has said schools cant reopen if the test positivity rate is under 5 percent - that's a threshold set by public health experts.
In NYC, we have been under 3 percent since June 10. But if the numbers tick up, we can get to 3 percent very fast.
Jul 7, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Some reading on school reopening for my fellow obsessives: 1. @SarahCohodes argues that younger children should get priority for in-person learning. I'm thinking a lot about kids in K-2 who were just learning to read before schools closed theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…2. This from @juliettekayyem on why schools haven't been a priority for reopening, even though our entire economy hinges on parents being able to send their kids to school: education is not considered an essential sector in America. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Mar 26, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I was mildly sick for a few days w/ covid symptoms. Then my 29 yr old healthy boyfriend got really sick. 13 days later, after a relentless fever, awful nausea, pneumonia in both lungs + a reluctant trip to ER, he is finally turning a corner today. Some things I learned:
We tried our absolute best not to clog the health care system too much. We did not seek testing, and even the ER doc didnt bother testing my bf, just said it was obvious he had it. Doctors are also learning about the virus in real time, so learning to cope at home is key.
Mar 13, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: As pressure mounts for NYC school closures, experts say:
-Closure will NOT be as effective if 1.1m kids aren't also mostly self-isolating. Closure will = broader shutdown
-Schools would have to close for extent of virus to be most effective nytimes.com/2020/03/13/nyr…
“The public health benefits of closing schools to try to mitigate the impacts of this virus are not clear by any means. This is largely an experiment.” nytimes.com/2020/03/13/nyr…
Dec 14, 2019 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Big news at Beacon High School: students are planning to boycott school on Monday, and potentially much, longer, to protest what students of color say is a racist school culture.
Follows a student walkout earlier this month: nytimes.com/2019/12/02/nyr…
Earlier this week, a white senior who didnt get into her top college choice was heard loudly complaining that her black classmates received college offers only because they were black. News spread quickly. 100s of students met in the Beacon cafeteria last night to plan a protest
Nov 19, 2019 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
There are 114,00 homeless students in New York City. We spent a day with two of them, to capture how much effort, help and luck it takes for these children to have a shot at a decent education.
Meet Darnell and Sandy.
nytimes.com/interactive/20…
The 114,000 homeless students represent a city within the city. There is no way to understand inequality in New York’s schools without grasping how much these children need to get by.
NEW: After the news broke that only 7 black students got into NYC's elite Stuyvesant High, I heard the same question over and over: how did this happen? The famed specialized schools once looked much more like the mostly black/Hispanic school system nytimes.com/interactive/20…
The loss of black/Hispanic students has been especially dramatic over the last decade. To figure out why, @kkrebeccalai + I looked at changes in NYC's immigration patterns + loss of gifted/talented classes. One of the biggest changes was test prep. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
May 1, 2019 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
Richard Carranza says he is constantly hearing the argument that school integration = lower academic standards. “I will call it out as racist every time” he says. “If you don’t want me to call you on it, don’t say it”
Corey Johnson asks a crucial question - what happens when the city runs out of districts that say they want to integrate their schools? It seems like we are quickly reaching that moment. Carranza says this is where “the rubber meets the road” but offers no specifics
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