No Child Left Behind, Bloomberg’s testing fetish, and their myriad effects on city classrooms. It was not Mayor Bloomberg’s proudest moment. Last month, the federal government released New York City schools’ rankings on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) … Continue reading
Why public schools need their own bailout. And pay no attention to that other guy who ripped off my topic today. At my son’s elementary school, the news that Gov. Paterson is proposing $223 million in midyear cuts to city … Continue reading
Elizabeth Green of GothamSchools.org and I explore the aftermath of the landmark Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit that was supposed to guarantee New York City schoolkids an adequate education, and where it went wrong. In December 2004, it seemed that … Continue reading
Paul Krugman has an excellent column in today’s New York Times, making some of the same points I made last week about how education and other social services (food stamps, anyone?) are just as deserving as “stimulus” spending as, say, … Continue reading
New York is looking at massive cuts in school spending – should an education bailout be part of Obama’s economic rescue package? Anyone reading headlines of late has to feel like we’re on the fast track to apocalypse: Unprecedented bus … Continue reading
Despite a court ruling ordering New York state to give New York City more money to reduce class sizes, city officials have resisted doing so: For public school parents, last week’s declaration by Gov. Paterson that next year’s state budget … Continue reading
When the New York City Department of Education announced last fall that it would start admitting schoolkids to gifted and talented classes solely on the basis of standardized tests, it said the new system would be fairer to all. Initial … Continue reading
Another look at the new New York City elementary school application process, which is slowly becoming clear – or not: It’s springtime, and the streets are filled with the sound of parents of 4- and 5-year-olds freaking out. This is … Continue reading
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered every school principal in the city to cut $100,000 from their budgets, but says it will have “no impact whatsoever.” Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction: When Gov. Spitzer and Mayor … Continue reading
No, I didn’t write the headline, but it pretty well sums up the situation. The New York City Department of Education has new rules to simplify picking schools for pre-K and kindergarteners, and the implications are clear as mud: The … Continue reading