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Top Stories
SAT Comeback?
The Misguided War on the SAT
NY Times, 1/7/2024
After the Covid pandemic made it difficult for high school students to take the SAT and ACT, dozens of selective colleges dropped their requirement that applicants do so. Colleges described the move as temporary, but nearly all have since stuck to a test-optional policy. It reflects a backlash against standardized tests that began long before the pandemic, and many people have hailed the change as a victory for equity in higher education.
Now, though, a growing number of experts and university administrators wonder whether the switch has been a mistake. Research has increasingly shown that standardized test scores contain real information, helping to predict college grades, chances of graduation and post-college success. Test scores are more reliable than high school grades, partly because of grade inflation in recent years.
Keep Mayoral Control, add Elected Parents
CEC calls for mayoral control and reforms
Queens Chronicle, 12/28/2023
Community Education Council 26 on Dec. 14 unanimously approved a resolution titled “Resolution on Improving School Governance of New York City Public Schools,” which emphasizes the need for continued mayoral control and reforms to the city’s school governance structure.
…Subsequent decentralization into 32 community school districts led to corruption and inefficiencies, the resolution said, including the hiring of drug dealers and gang members, job sales and board members who openly admitted they would never send their children to the district they represented.
The resolution stresses the absence of viable alternatives to mayoral control, saying “democratically elected school boards are subject to tyranny of the majority.”
…CEC 26 also said the Panel for Educational Policy lacks elected parent representation from citywide councils.
2024 Education Issues to Watch
School funding, mayoral control, class sizes: Education issues to watch in Albany’s new session
Chalkbeat, 12/22/2023
With New York state’s legislative session set to begin in January, lawmakers are preparing to tackle a slate of contentious issues that could hold serious ramifications for New York City students.
The fate of the city’s school governance structure will once again be up for renewal, pushing Mayor Eric Adams to make his case in Albany for continuing mayoral control.
School funding may also play a major role in lawmakers’ discussions, as some education officials have called to overhaul the state’s school funding formula — and as New York City and other districts grapple with a looming fiscal cliff, with federal COVID relief funds expiring in the fall.
School safety initiatives, updates to the state’s learning standards, and other legislation likely appearing during the next session may also impact New York City students.
Advocacy Corner
PLACE NYC – 2023 Year In Review
PLACE NYC, 1/4/2024
Elections Watch
New York political predictions for 2024
City & State, 12/29/2023
Former community board chair Barry Weinberg will run for O’Donnell’s Upper West Side Assembly seat
City & State, 12/22/2023
Who’s endorsing Tom Suozzi and Mazi Melesa Pilip in NY-3?
City & State, 12/21/2023
Other Headlines
NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks loses 3rd chief of staff in 2 years, key staffer on migrant influx
NY Post, 1/6/2024
It’s You, Not Me
How Harvard’s Board Broke Up With Claudine Gay
NY Times, 1/6/2024
Claudine Gay was in Rome on a family vacation on Dec. 27 when Penny Pritzker, the leader of Harvard University’s governing board, called to ask: Did she think there was a path forward with her as the school’s president?
Ms. Pritzker sounded weary, and it was posed as an open question, two people with knowledge of the conversation said. But Dr. Gay understood what it meant. Her six-month tenure as Harvard’s president was over. On Jan. 2, she announced her resignation.
CEC 28 approves two anti-hate resolutions
Queens Chronicle, 1/5/2024
Richards can’t replace CEC member he appointed
Queens Chronicle, 1/5/2024
Harvard in Crisis
Harvard Crisis Signals Broader Fight Over What a University Should Be
Wall Street Journal, 1/4/2023
On its face, the resignation Tuesday of Claudine Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, was a direct response to mounting allegations of plagiarism.
Yet even before those accusations emerged—and before Gay attracted sharp criticism for her testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses—Gay was at the center of a raging debate on the Harvard campus over a much bigger question: what a university should be.
…“She became quite distressed and argued that there was no inherent conflict between diversity and merit,” Urton said. “She was saying that if you build diversity, it will, in the end, strengthen the faculty, even though some candidates, on the merits, might seem stronger.”
3 rules for doing educational equity right
The Fordham Institute, 1/4/2024
NYC teachers’ union, Staten Island borough president sue to stop congestion pricing
NY Daily News, 1/4/2024
Science of Reading for NY
Gov. Hochul wants New York schools to embrace the ‘science of reading.’ Will they?
Chalkbeat, 1/3/2024
Eight months after New York City announced a major literacy shakeup, Gov. Kathy Hochul sketched out one of her own on Wednesday that may encourage districts across the state to adopt new reading curriculums.
The effort comes amid growing pressure for officials to boost literacy, as dozens of states have enacted efforts to improve reading instruction and embrace what’s known as the “science of reading,” an established body of research about how children learn to read. New York is one of a handful of states that has not advanced similar proposals in recent years, even as fewer than half of students in grades 3-8 are considered proficient in reading on state tests.
Harvard President Claudine Gay Resigns, Shortest Tenure in University History
Harvard Crimson, 1/3/2024
Bill Ackman: How to Fix Harvard
The Free Press, 1/3/2024
The Real Harvard Scandal
The Atlantic, 1/3/2024
ICYMI
Jewish member of NYC school board targeted, cursed over pro-Israel views
NY Post, 12/30/2023
In the latest show of tension and division in NYC schools over the Israel-Hamas war, Queens parent rep Ephraim “Effi” Zakry, was heckled during the Nov. 29 PEP meeting as he tried to explain why the slogans “From the river to the sea” and “Long live the Intifada” are offensive…Some attendees walked out of the Long Island City High School auditorium as he spoke.
Fellow PEP member Thomas Sheppard, a Bronx parent rep and self-described “equity champion,” left his seat on the stage.
This month, after a contentious four-1/2 hour meeting on Dec. 20, Zakry said, he approached Sheppard outside the auditorium to “wish him happy holidays.”
According to Zakry, Sheppard replied, “Get the f–k away from me.”
Education Activists Want to Revive School Integration. Just Don’t Call It Busing.
Wall Street Journal, 12/29/2023
Anti-Israel teachers getting away with blatant antisemitism as parents, critics decry ‘double standard’
NY Post, 12/23/2023
NYC teachers union sues Eric Adams to halt school budget cuts
Chalkbeat, 12/21/2023
NYC School Calendars Released
2024-2025 New York City School Calendar is out (and so is the 2025-2026!)
QNS, 12/20/2023
It is a Christmas miracle! The school calendar for 2024-2025 is available. Like now. Before the year ends! We are over the moon on this one. And there is more; The Department of Education also released the 2025-2026 calendar, which we will share later, as let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. It’s not even Friday.
Hillcrest High principal out after students stormed halls protesting pro-Israel teacher
NY Daily News, 12/20/2023
How U.S. Public Schools Teach Antisemitism
The Free Press, 12/19/2023
It Sure Looks Like Phones Are Making Students Dumber
The Atlantic, 12/19/2023
Diminishing Interest
Early applications to Harvard tumbled 17% from last year—and that was before its president’s controversial testimony about antisemitism
Fortune, 12/15/2023
Harvard College received 17% fewer applications for early admission from high school seniors this year, the lowest total in four years, according to the school’s website.
The drop comes after incidents of antisemitism on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. Applications were due Nov. 1, before university President Claudine Gay gave widely derided testimony on antisemitism and free speech at a congressional hearing Dec. 5.
Harvard President Claudine Gay Submits Corrections to Two Articles Amid Allegations of Plagiarism
Harvard Crimson, 12/15/2023
Best Elementary Schools in New York
SchoolDigger, 12/14/2023
Best High Schools in New York
SchoolDigger, 12/14/2023
Calling It Like It Is
Cheers for the brave, truthful class-size panel dissenters in NYC
NY Post Editorial, 12/17/2023
Hail to the six parents on the city Department of Education’s class-size taskforce who dissented from the majority’s recommendations for implementing the pernicious state mandate — calling it out as disruptive, costly and harmful to high-poverty schools.
And shame on the majority, whose recommendations appeased the United Federation of Teachers — which got the NYC-only mandate passed in the first place.
Rightly noting that the “evidence on class size and learning outcomes is weak,” the dissenters urged that the mandate instead focus on grades K-3, where studies revealed some impact.
And in a rebuke to the UFT, they recommended that school leadership teams (which include parents) — not the teachers and principals unions — be the ones to approve class-size-reduction plans and exemptions.
SUNY’s future: Fewer programs but no colleges closing, chancellor predicts
Times Union, 12/15/2023
How a Student Group Is Politicizing a Generation on Palestine
The New Yorker, 12/15/2023
Chicago’s progressive Mayor Brandon Johnson announces plans to ax Windy City’s high-achieving selective-enrollment high schools to boost ‘equity’ despite promising not to during election campaign
DailyMailUK, 12/14/2023
Widespread Legaacy
How many colleges consider legacy admissions? Maybe more than you think
USA Today, 12/13/2023
Legacy admissions are under scrutiny after the undoing of affirmative action in college admissions. New data shows, for the first time, how widespread the practice may be.
Nearly 600 colleges consider whether applicants’ parents, siblings or other relatives attended the institution to which they are applying, according to data published Tuesday by the National Center for Education Sciences.
Special education data and the teacher pipeline: NY education officials share budget priorities
Chalkbeat, 12/12/2023
Meet Peter Park, possibly youngest person to pass California bar
ABA Jounal, 12/12/2023
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria: Universities Should Abandon “Long Misadventure Into Politics” And Focus On “Research And Learning”
RealClearPolitics, 12/11/2023