Education News Roundup Issue #121

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Top Stories


e-SHSAT
NYC eyes $17 million contract to create computer-based Specialized High School Admissions Test
Chalkbeat, 10/17/2024

This year’s eighth graders could be the last class that takes the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test with paper and pencil. A New York City education panel is slated to vote on a roughly $17 million contract later this month that would transition the test to a computer-based model.

Under the nearly six-year contract, the test-making company Pearson would create a computerized model of the Specialized High School Admissions Test, known as the SHSAT. The exam is the sole metric of admission to the city’s eight specialized high schools, including Stuyvesant and Bronx Science.

Graduation Requirements Overhaul
New York is redefining graduation requirements. Here’s what educators want to know.
Chalkbeat, 10/31/2024 

New York City educators are eagerly awaiting new details on the state’s efforts to reimagine high school graduation requirements, which officials are expected to unveil on Monday.

…Still, she worried that some students could be pushed into pathways perceived as less rigorous, a concern she said was particularly relevant for students who are already underserved. Soares wondered what measures will be put in place to ensure that all students are held to the same expectations and given the support to meet them.

Automatic SUNY Acceptance
NY high school students in top 10% of class to be automatically accepted to SUNY
Gothamist, 10/24/2024

New York students with grades and scores in the top 10% of their class will be automatically accepted to one of nine SUNY campuses, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Thursday.

The direct admissions program, which will begin with students from New York City public schools and dozens of other districts, will eventually be expanded statewide.




Advocacy Corner


PLACE NYC 2024 Endorsements
10/30/2024

Decoding the NYC School Admission Lottery Numbers
Amelie Marian, 6/7/2021

Results from the 2024 NYC School Admission Lottery Surveys
Amelie Marian, 9/15/2024



Elections Watch

Yiatin Chu and other Post endorsements in key NY state Senate, Assembly races
NY Post, 10/31/2024

One City Rising Voter Guide
One City Rising, 10/30/2024

These are the key NY state Senate and Assembly races in Brooklyn and Queens
Gothamist, 10/30/2024

Paek takes on Rozic for 25th Assembly
Queens Chronicle, 10/24/2024

Queens surrogate judge race heats up
Queens Chronicle, 10/17/2024

How to track campaign contributions and expenditures for New York candidates
Times Union, 10/16/2024

N.Y. voters will decide Proposition 1. What would it actually do?
Times Union, 10/5/2024



Other Headlines


These so-called elite universities have a glaring antisemitism problem
NY Post, 10/31/2024

Democrats Used to Run on Education. What Happened? How the party gave up on one of its best issues.
NY Magazine, 10/31/2024

Public Opinion on Education
The Year in Public Opinion on U.S. K–12 Education Policy
EducationNext, 10/30/2024

It would be both reductive and inaccurate to characterize these debates as mere distractions. Each of them reflect real differences in how Americans view the roles and responsibilities of schools in our large, diverse, and divided society. Yet a close look at the results of public opinion surveys reveals an important and often overlooked truth: the American public is less concerned about these hot-button issues than about the nuts and bolts of teaching and learning.

NYC schoolkids granted full week before Christmas off after 7th grader’s petition drew thousands of signatures
NY Post, 10/30/2024

In the Forecast
Mergers ahead: NYC is combining more tiny schools to combat enrollment drops
Chalkbeat, 10/25/2024 

On paper, New York City’s plan to eliminate the elementary grades of an under-enrolled Harlem K-8 school and merge its middle school grades with a more popular junior high across town isn’t a full school closure.

But to the families and staff at P.S./I.S. 76, where enrollment has shrunk from 476 to 287 over the last six years, it certainly feels like one.

Princeton Tops the Ivies in the WSJ/College Pulse Ranking
Wall Street Journal, 10/23/2024

Black student enrollment drops at NYU, Columbia, Cornell after SCOTUS ends affirmative action
NY Daily News, 10/19/2024

Free Application Fees
Governor Hochul Announces Free College Applications for New York Students
Queens Voice, 10/18/2024

On Friday, October 18th, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that starting October 21st, students in New York will be able to apply to the State University of New York (SUNY), City University of New York (CUNY), and over 50 private colleges and universities without paying application fees. This initiative, part of New York State College Application Month, aims to ease the financial burden for families and encourage more students to pursue higher education. It marks the second consecutive year of the fee-waiving initiative.

Donations to Harvard Drop 15% in Tumultuous Year
Wall Street Journal, 10/17/2024

The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong? A decade and a quarter of a billion dollars later, students and faculty are more frustrated than ever.
NY Times, 10/16/2024

The Guru Who Says He Can Get Your 11-Year-Old Into Harvard
Wall Street Journal, 10/15/2024

Boston’s Test on Tests
MCAS ballot question finally gives parents a say in standardized testing. How will they vote?
Boston Globe, 10/12/2024

“What is the check and balance if there is no MCAS graduation requirement?” said Lu, who is still researching the issue but is teetering toward a no vote.

Question 2 is presenting parents with a unique opportunity to weigh in on the MCAS exams — an annual event that often sets off an avalanche of anxiety or an eye-rolling “ugh” among their children — and whether the tests should continue to be a gatekeeper in determining who gets a diploma.

‘A mess on our hands:’ NYC teachers union raises alarm on math curriculum overhaul
Chalkbeat, 10/11/2024 

Some schools cut paths to calculus in the name of equity. One group takes the opposite approach
Hechinger Report, 10/9/2024

Brushed Under the Rug
The Education Crisis Neither Candidate Will Address
NY Times, 10/9/2024

It has been four and a half years since public schools across the country closed their doors to in-person learning. There is evidence that this generation of K-12 students has not fully recovered academically — and may never do so.

Test scores on core subjects are lower than they have been in decades, and the achievement gap between rich and poor students has widened even further. When I interview teachers, they tell me that some of their students are behaviorally and socially stunted in ways that aren’t always captured by statistics.

Americans are not happy about the state of education. Though satisfaction with the quality of education has recovered a bit from its record lows in 2023, Americans’ overall sentiment toward K-12 public schools is still “underwater,” according to Gallup.

Albany wades into controversy over new way of teaching the American Revolution
Times Union, 10/8/2024

How to get ‘school avoidant’ students with disabilities back to class? Lawsuit pushes for solutions.
Chalkbeat, 10/8/2024

The Tutoring Revolution
EducationNext, 10/8/2024

The Disconnect
ACT Scores Are Down. Grades Are Up. Something’s Fishy.
Reason, 10/7/2024

High school students’ grades keep getting better, but standardized tests tell a different story. According to new research, while grade inflation is continuing to drive high school grades up, students are slipping on more objective measures of learning. As more and more colleges are turning away from a recent shift towards test-optional admissions, this data indicates that asking students for their standardized test scores is increasingly necessary to gauge learning. 

Last month, the ACT released research indicating that student GPA in the post-COVID-19 era has declined in its power to predict student success in college. In contrast, standardized test scores stayed relatively stable in their ability to predict whether students will receive passing grades in their first year of college.

NYC schools launch anti-hate hotline as antisemitism and Islamophobia reports rise
Chalkbeat, 10/7/2024

Back to More Basics
NY renewing emphasis on science, social studies in student evaluations
Times Union, 10/7/2024

Starting next year, the state Education Department plans to track how students are doing in science and social studies, instead of just English language arts and math.

It’s likely to mean students will learn more science and social studies from a young age.

Analysts found that after No Child Left Behind was implemented, K-8 teachers spent less time on science and social studies so that they could focus on reading, writing and math — all of which are tested annually from third through eighth grade.

Why an end-of-the alphabet last name could skew your grades
Hechinger Report, 10/7/2024

Judge Halts Biden Student Debt Plan Right After It Was Allowed to Proceed
NY Times, 10/4/2024

Unread any good books lately?
The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books
The Atlantic, 10/1/2024

Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.

Middle and high school admissions season is here. What does your ‘lottery’ number mean?
Chalkbeat, 10/1/2024

Alternative Credentials
The Microcredential Generation
Inside Higher Education, 10/1/2024

Andrew McDonough wears a neon-yellow jacket and a sturdy pair of dusty brown boots, a hard hat by his side on the ground. The 18-year-old and his classmates lean back in padded metal dining room chairs, listening to their instructor as a cool wind rustles the trees around them on a summer afternoon.

Their classroom is a little unusual. In fact, it’s not a room at all. The students are out on a forested logging site in the Kennebec Valley, a rural area of Maine. Neat piles of logs sit in the distance. A whiteboard hangs off of a truck. Heavy machines, which from afar look like large metal creatures, are waiting to be used. 

California outlaws legacy admissions for Stanford, other private universities
SF Chronicle, 9/30/2024

TJ’s Downfall by DEI
Top high school’s standards slip following DEI policy
UnHerd, 9/29/2024

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, one of the top public schools in the US, has seen a major decline in academic achievement since implementing new admissions standards in pursuit of racial equity in 2020.

NYC school superintendent accused of warning ‘no more white principals’ abruptly ousted amid staff complaints
NY Post, 9/28/2024

Next NYC schools chancellor: Melissa Aviles-Ramos says it’s business as usual despite Adams’ charges
Chalkbeat, 9/26/2024

Change the Evidence
Responding to Post-Pandemic Norms, More States are Lowering Test Standards
The 74 Million, 9/25/2024

When an official with the Green Bay, Wisconsin, school district previewed new student test results for the school board last month, he urged members not to get too excited.

While it looked like the number of students scoring at the lowest level dropped by over 12%, the reality was more complicated. 

“Comparing 2023 to 2024 is challenging,” David Johns, an associate superintendent, told the board. In conjunction with the unveiling of new standards last year, the state lowered its bar for proficiency and recalibrated performance levels. Below basic became “developing” and basic, “approaching.” 

Victory for Asian American students and equality under the law: Second Circuit unanimously rules in CACAGNY v. Adams 
Pacific Legal Foundation, 9/24/2024

Old Habits Die Hard
Some Elite Colleges Dodge the Affirmative-Action Ruling
Wall Street Journal, 9/24/2024

“They’re cheating. Everyone knows they’re cheating. They know they’re cheating. What they are trying to do is cheat in a way that doesn’t get them caught in court.”

That was John Yoo’s response when I asked for his reaction to the racial breakdown of freshmen at some of the most selective U.S. colleges and universities. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), the Supreme Court held that race-conscious admissions policies violated the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Given that Asian applicants tend to have higher test scores than other groups, the expectation was that their enrollment at top schools would increase once racial double standards were no longer permitted.

Best National University Rankings
US News & World Report, 9/24/2024

The U.S. News College Rankings Are Out. Cue the Rage and Obsession.
NY Times, 9/24/2024

How New York’s colleges fared in the latest U.S. News rankings
Crain’s NY, 9/24/2024

ICYMI
16 NYC schools win National Blue Ribbon for academic excellence
Gothamist, 9/24/2024

A total of 16 New York City schools — and another five from across the state — have been named National Blue Ribbon award winners, the U.S. Department of Education said on Monday.

The schools are recognized in two categories: Exemplary High Performing Schools, which are among the highest achievers in their state and Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools, which excel in reducing disparities in academic performance among student groups.

NYC students still slinging OMNY cards for up to $500: ‘I have these for no reason’
NY Post, 9/21/2024

Orgies for Me, Remote Learning for Thee
Ex-NYC COVID czar complained ‘weenie’ de Blasio caved to teachers union, knowingly hurt kids by keeping schools closed
NY Post, 9/21/2024

Former New York City coronavirus czar and sex party aficionado Dr. Jay Varma mocked former Mayor Bill de Blasio as a “weenie” who knowingly hurt children by caving to the teachers union, which wanted schools closed during the pandemic.

“He’s a bit of a weenie. He had a lot of problems,” Varma said in secretly recorded video which began percolating online this week.

Growing number of NYC students feel unsafe as gang activity, bullying uptick in schools: survey
NY Post, 9/21/2024

NYC cracked down on private school special education costs. Hundreds of children lost services.
Chalkbeat, 9/19/2024

The Top Colleges for Helping Students Move Up the Socioeconomic Ladder
Wall Street Journal, 9/19/2024

Less is Not More
Not-so-great expectations: Students are reading fewer books in English class
AP, 9/17/2024

Chris Stanislawski didn’t read much in his middle school English classes, but it never felt necessary. Students were given detailed chapter summaries for every novel they discussed, and teachers played audio of the books during class.

Much of the reading material at Garden City Middle School in Long Island was either abridged books, or online texts and printouts, he said.

New York’s latest test scores show why families are fleeing the public schools
NY Post Editorial, 9/17/2024

Science Scores Fall
Testing Data Shows Middle Schoolers Are Further Behind in Science Than in 2021
The 74 Million, 9/17/2024

Middle schoolers are still lagging months behind pre-pandemic achievement levels in science, according to newly released test scores. Disturbingly, their losses in the subject have actually grown since the worst days of the COVID crisis. 

The scores, released Tuesday by the nonprofit testing group NWEA, serve as more evidence of a trend that has stood out in earlier data: Students who were still in elementary school when the pandemic began are experiencing particularly worrisome setbacks as schools try to chart a path to academic recovery. Meanwhile, today’s elementary schoolers have nearly returned to the levels of learning last seen in 2019.

Zooming to Class Slows Student Learning
Education Next, 9/17/2024

A Warning Shot
Yale, Princeton, Duke Threatened With Lawsuit Over ‘Not Complying’ With Supreme Court Ruling On Racial Preferences in Admissions
Washington Free Beacon, 9/17/2024

The group behind the lawsuit that brought down affirmative action in college admissions is demanding answers from universities that saw almost no change in the racial breakdown of their classes after the ban took effect, arguing that the similarity is evidence of discrimination and possible grounds for a lawsuit.

Students for Fair Admissions, which won its landmark case against Harvard before the Supreme Court last year, sent letters on Tuesday to Yale, Princeton, and Duke, urging their lawyers to “preserve all potentially relevant documents” in the event of litigation. 

Chronic absenteeism among NYC school children remains stubbornly high
NY Daily News, 9/16/2024

Latest New York State English test scores draw criticism from education experts
Newsday, 9/16/2024