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Class Size Law Woes at Townsend Harris
How a new law requiring smaller class sizes could impact Townsend Harris
Townsend Harris The Classic, 6/11/2024
In 2022, governor Kathy Hochul signed into law a bill mandating that students from grades K-3 have fewer than 20 students per class, students from grades 4-8 have 23 or fewer students per class, and high school students have 25 or fewer students.
The law gives NYC schools time to phase in the new requirements, but with deadlines inching closer, school leaders are beginning to consider how the mandate will work in their specific buildings. In an interview with The Classic, Principal Brian Condon said that he anticipates that the transition from classes with a maximum of 34 students to classes with a maximum of 25 students will be difficult to accomplish without drastic changes to other aspects of student life. He said that these changes could include cutting electives and Advanced Placement classes or establishing a split schedule, unless more space could be found and faculty members hired to expand the amount of classes currently offered.
“We are already using spaces that are traditionally used for office spaces as classrooms,” he said, indicating that an expansion of faculty and classrooms would be next to impossible without other major changes. “Where else am I going to put classes–in the hallways?”
Manhattan’s Priorities
Six popular Manhattan high schools will prioritize applicants from the borough
Chalkbeat, 6/20/2024
Six of Manhattan’s most popular high schools will set aside 75% of their seats for students who live in the borough for the coming admissions cycle, schools Chancellor David Banks announced Thursday.
Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Millennium High School, The Clinton School, NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies, The Museum School, and Baruch College Campus High School will all offer the borough priority, Banks said. All six schools also screen students on the basis of grades.
The policy shift comes after some Manhattan parents lobbied Banks to impose geographic admissions preferences at high-demand local high schools, arguing that competitive schools in other boroughs often give local students a leg up. Parents from District 2, which spans much of lower and midtown Manhattan and the Upper East Side, point out that their children got into their top choice schools at the lowest rate in the city last year, according to Education Department data.
Inching Up
More Black and Latino Students Admitted to New York’s Elite High Schools
NY Times, 6/18/2024
More than 12 percent of offers to New York City’s most prestigious high schools went to Black and Latino students this year, education officials announced on Tuesday, the highest number since 2013.
At those eight schools, known as the specialized high schools, acceptance is determined by a single entrance exam. Major racial and ethnic gaps still exist in which students are admitted, an issue that has sparked years of painful debate over how city leaders should respond.
Proposed Regents Changes
NY is changing high school graduation requirements. Here’s what’s next in the multi-year effort.
Chalkbeat, 6/10/2024
Students will no longer be required to pass the state’s Regents exams to earn a high school diploma under a set of proposed actions New York Education officials outlined on Monday.
Instead, they will have a menu of options to choose from to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in seven key areas: critical thinking, effective communication, cultural and social-emotional competences, innovative problem solving, literacy across content areas, and a status as a “global citizen.”
…The proposals — presented at a meeting of the state’s Board of Regents — come as the latest step in a multi-year effort to redefine the state’s graduation requirements.
Elections Watch
Socialists are on both offense and defense in attempt take NY primaries
NY Post, 6/22/2024
The Other Showdown to Watch Next Week
NY Times, 6/21/2024
NYC’s June 25 primary includes Assembly battles in 4 boroughs
Gothamist, 6/20/2024
Chiu, Paek vying for AD 25 GOP nod
Queens Chronicle, 6/20/2024
Asian voters in Queens take a right turn
QNS, 6/18/2024
Not Just Congress: 9 Races to Watch in New York’s June Primary
The City, 6/10/2024
Other Headlines
Schools Will Have to Start Closing Again
Wall Street Journal, op-ed by Michael Petrilli, 6/23/2024
Teenager stuns China after beating AI in math contest
NBC News, 6/22/2024
Follow the Money
NYC teacher group behind anti-Israel walkouts gets thousands in George Soros funding
NY Post, 6/22/2024
A group of New York City public school teachers behind controversial pro-Palestine student walkouts has received thousands of dollars from George Soros’ Tides Foundation, The Post has learned.
Teachers Unite, a registered not-for-profit based in Manhattan’s Financial District, received $11,000 in 2023 from the billionaire left-wing investor’s social justice philanthropy.
Teachers Unite boasts a mission of “developing the leadership skills of progressive educators” and fighting the “school-to-prison pipeline,” according to tax filings and its website.
The Specialized High Schools Admissions Pipeline
Independent Budget Office, 6/2024
School Spending Transparency
How much does your NYC school spend? A new budget tool has the answer.
Chalkbeat, 6/21/2024
How much money did your New York City school get this school year?
For years, the answer to that seemingly basic question has been surprisingly difficult to track down. While the city publishes detailed breakdowns of several components of a school’s budget, there was previously no public place where all those individual parts were added together.
A new online tool the Education Department rolled out in recent weeks is meant to change that.
California Will Teach Kids Anything Except How to Read
Wall Street Journal, op-ed by Daniel Buck, 6/21/2024
Social Media Act Signed Into Law
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signs bill targeting addictive social media platforms: “Our kids are in distress”
CBS News, 6/20/2024
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday signed a bill into law targeting addictive social media feeds for children and teens, saying ahead of the bill’s signing that “our kids are in distress.”
“They’re not living carefree lives because they are being held captive to powerful forces outside their own control — algorithms that are intentionally addictive, intended to pull them in and keep their attention,” Hochul told CBS News in an exclusive interview ahead of the bill’s signing.
The “Safe for Kids Act,” which Hochul signed Thursday, requires social media companies to restrict “addictive feeds” for social media users under the age of 18. It would also bar notifications from social media platforms related to the feeds between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. without parental consent. And it would require new age verification and parental consent tools to be set by the state’s attorney general.
The Schools That Are No Longer Teaching Kids to Read Books
The Atlantic, 6/19/2024
Los Angeles school board will ban students from using cell phones during the school day. But questions loom on how to do it
CNN, 6/18/2024
Parent Sues for Reinstatement
Manhattan mom booted from NYC parent education council sues for reinstatement: ‘Inappropriate and unconstitutional’
NY Post, 6/18/2024
Maud Maron of Manhattan’s Community Education Council 2 was ousted in a historic move by Banks on Friday under the city’s D-210 complaint process.
The regulation allows the city Department of Education to investigate CEC members and remove them from positions.
…“They know that the regulation was flawed from the start,” Alexander said to The Post outside court.
Harlan added, “The use of D210 to remove elected officials from their offices is wildly inappropriate and unconstitutional, and I think we’ll be vindicated in that.”
As heatwave hits, a new bill would ban students from hot classrooms. Here’s what it means for NYC.
Chalkbeat, 6/17/2024
CUNY did not properly respond to allegations of antisemitism, Islamophobia: federal probe
NY Daily News, 6/17/2024
I’m the NYC mom who was booted from a parent council over calling out antisemitism — I refuse to be silenced
NY Post, op-ed by Maud Maron, 6/15/2024
Elected Parents Booted
Warring NYC school board members booted from posts: ‘Unfit to serve in these roles’
NY Post, 6/14/2024
Two warring parent leaders were kicked off their respective school boards Friday in the first such action under a city complaint process created in 2021.
Schools Chancellor David Banks ousted Tahj Sutton, the president of Brooklyn’s Community Education Council 14, and Maud Maron of Manhattan’s Community Education Council 2, both of whom had various complaints lodged against them.
…Maron said the byline of a student who wrote an editorial that was widely criticized as antisemitic in Stuyvesant High School’s newspaper “should read ‘coward’ instead of ‘anonymous.’”
I Watched the Parenting on Young Sheldon . . . and Did the Exact Opposite
Education Next, 6/13/2024
Trashing NY’s Regents exams erodes schools, hurts students—in the name of ‘equity’
NY Post, op-ed by Maud Maron, 6/13/2024
A Glimpse
What Happens to Gifted Children
NY Times, op-ed by David Brooks, 6/13/2024
What happens to the extremely intelligent? Do they go from success to success, powered by their natural brilliance? Or do they struggle in a world where they don’t fit in?
There are two ways to answer these questions. The first is the social science answer. Social science researchers give promising children intelligence tests, and then they check in on them over the ensuing decades to see how much the students’ early intelligence correlates with lifetime success.
How Public Schools Became Ideological Boot Camps
The Free Press, 6/12/2024
Regents Nosedive
New York is about to make its high school diplomas worse than useless
NY Post Editorial, 6/12/2024
The State Education Department just announced that it plans to make the value of a New York high school diploma worthless.
Parents should be up in arms.
Gone will be the need for students to pass five state Regents exams to earn a diploma.
Instead, all students will have to show nebulous “knowledge and skills” in seven areas, including “critical thinking,” “cultural competence” and “global citizenship.”
State Education Department Presents Vision to Transform New York State’s Graduation Requirements
NYSED, 6/10/2024
NYC doesn’t have safety agents at more than half its pre-K centers: ‘Nobody at the door’
NY Post, 6/8/2024
It’s Ba-ack
Stanford Becomes Latest School to Reinstate Test Scores Requirement
NY Times, 6/8/2024
Stanford University announced Friday that it was reinstating the requirement for standardized test scores in undergraduate admissions, becoming the latest of a small but growing number of elite colleges to go back to the practice after abandoning it during the pandemic.
The change will take effect in fall 2025, and students applying to enroll in fall 2026 and beyond will need to provide SAT or ACT scores in their applications. Standardized test scores will remain optional for those applying this fall to enroll next year.
Why High Schoolers in the Northeast Are Flocking South for College
Bloomberg, 6/7/2024
Is This the End for Mandatory D.E.I. Statements?
NY Times, 6/6/2024
Schools Off Limits
New York parents, lawmakers call for bill to end early voting in schools
Chalkbeat, 6/5/2024
As the end of the legislative session draws near, some New York parents and lawmakers are pushing to eliminate public schools as an option for early voting sites.
It’s an issue that has prompted concerns among some parents and educators — with schools that are used as polling sites losing access to school facilities for notable portions of the year. And as the city’s public schools have moved to adopt more stringent security measures over the past year, the continued use of school buildings for elections has left some confused.
“With all of the security measures that are in place, why would you then open the backdoor and let anyone walk in?” said Kindra Hall, a Manhattan mom. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Legendary Brooklyn school crossing guard Miss Maggie retiring — at age 90
NY Post, 6/8/2024