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| Top Stories NYC Math Division New York City’s New Curriculum Gets Caught in the ‘Math Wars’ Education Week, 2/7/2025 New York City’s attempt to change how schools teach math is facing some early roadblocks—and generating debate that cuts to the core of long-standing scientific and philosophical questions about how students best learn the subject. The school system, the largest in the country, is in its second year of a new initiative aimed at raising persistently low math achievement in the city. Two-thirds of New York City’s Black and Latino students are not performing at grade level in math on state test scores. …But this school year, as Illustrative Mathematics rolled out to more schools across the city, the teachers’ union started pushing back, citing concerns from educators. The curriculum moves too fast, they said, there’s not enough support for struggling students, and teachers don’t have the flexibility they need to differentiate for kids coming into class with varied abilities. Digi-Test Prep Studying for the 2025 SHSAT? Here’s what to know about the new digital test. Chalkbeat, 1/17/2025 Next year’s eighth graders will be the first to take the digital version of the Specialized High School Admission Test. Commonly known as the SHSAT, it is the sole basis of entry for eight of New York City’s most prestigious high schools, including Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. Last school year, 25,678 students took the SHSAT, with 4,072 students — the top 16% — receiving offers based on their test scores, according to Education Department data. …Though the city’s school board in December approved the contract for the five-year $17 million proposal from testing company Pearson to digitize the SHSAT, it will still be months before a practice test of the new version will be available. 2025 Look Ahead School funding, cellphone ban, class size, Trump: Education issues Albany could tackle in 2025 Chalkbeat, 1/2/2025 Albany’s next legislative session kicks off this month with several key question marks for education policy. On the state level, there’s an ongoing debate over how to update the school funding formula, which sends roughly $24.9 billion to school districts — including more than $9.5 billion to New York City schools. Meanwhile, as Donald Trump prepares for his second term as president, his education stance has some New Yorkers worried about the future of federal aid and other school-related policies. And while both of these issues could hold major repercussions for New York City, many students and families might be paying closer attention to something else that could affect their day-to-day experiences: Gov. Kathy Hochul is eyeing statewide legislative action to restrict students’ cellphone access in schools. Small Class Size Law Funding – With Strings Attached NYC is offering schools money to meet class size mandate. Principals ponder the tradeoffs. Chalkbeat, 12/11/2024 As New York City faces a looming deadline to sharply reduce class sizes, officials are dangling a tantalizing carrot to nudge schools to come up with their own plans to achieve that goal: more money. Though school budgets are largely based on student enrollment, the Education Department is promising new funding next year to campuses that submit concrete plans to shrink classes. How much is available and where it will come from, however, remains unclear, and principals across the city have mixed feelings about whether to submit applications for the funds by the Dec. 20 deadline. Advocacy Corner Apply to Run for NYC’s Community Education Councils (CEC) by February 16 NYCPS, 1/13/2025 Elections Watch Adams vs. Cuomo? Poll forecasts a wild mayoral race — that shuts out the far left NY Post, 2/9/2025 District 30 City Council candidate faces backlash over use of campaign funds QNS, 2/5/2025 New York City Council challengers are (literally) giving incumbents a run for their money City & State, 1/27/2025 Asian immigrant, former Congressional aide launches bid to topple Democratic Socialist Alexa Avilés in Brooklyn Council race NY Post, 1/26/2025 Lawyer Sues to Run for N.Y.C. Mayor on Independence Party Line NY Times, 1/6/2025 Hochul May Face a Challenger She Knows Well: Her Lieutenant Governor NY Times, 12/15/2024 Other HeadlinesUS Math Crisis How American Educators Are Conning Kids The Free Press, 2/9/2025 OPINION: How one state is getting education RIGHT — by going back to basics by Karol Markowicz NY Post, 2/9/2025 Math Out High-scoring NYC schools win exemptions from Adams’ reading curriculum mandate Chalkbeat, 2/6/2025 Two additional elementary schools have quietly won exemptions to Mayor Eric Adams’ sweeping reading curriculum mandate, bringing the total number to three. Brooklyn’s P.S. 11 and Leaders of Excellence, Advocacy, and Discovery in the Bronx — which both use self-designed literacy programs and boast high reading scores — are not required to use one of the three city-approved curriculums, officials confirmed. The Brooklyn School of Inquiry, a gifted and talented program, was the first campus granted an exemption. The decision to allow additional schools to sidestep the curriculum mandate, known as NYC Reads, is likely to raise eyebrows because Education Department officials have not explained what criteria they are using to grant waivers, nor have they laid out an official process for requesting an exemption. The move could prompt campuses with strong track records or that have spent years honing their own curriculums to push harder to be released from the mandate, which expanded to all elementary schools this past fall. Satisfaction with public education at record low: Gallup The Hill, 2/5/2025 Opinion: New York’s Education Boondoggle: A $37 Billion Budget, Lavish Salaries, and No Learning by Danelya Souza-Egorov The Sun, 2/5/2025 Trump Advisers Weigh Plan to Dismantle Education Department Wall Street Journal, 2/3/2025 “Multilevel” Controversy The parents who dared to question Newton’s educational equity experiments Boston Globe, 1/30/2025 The three mothers had always voted Democrat. One had a Bernie Sanders mug on her desk. They worked in helping fields — international aid, mental health, yoga instruction. They volunteered at their children’s schools. …“At first we were just trying to understand the drastic changes that took place while no one was in school during COVID,” says one of the mothers, Vanessa Calagna. “It was like we were trying to put a puzzle together. And then we were trying to ring the alarm.” …“I’ve heard about multilevel classes from many, many parents over the last three years, and the feedback has been consistently negative,” School Committee member Rajeev Parlikar said at a November meeting. “I actually have not heard from a single parent who thought their child benefited from being in a multilevel class.” American Kids Are Getting Even Worse at Reading Wall Street Journal, 1/29/2025 ICYMI New NAEP Scores Dash Hope of Post-COVID Learning Recovery The 74 Million, 1/29/2025 Hopes for a post-COVID academic recovery were dashed Wednesday morning with the publication of new federal testing data for elementary and middle schoolers. Newly released scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card, show that both fourth and eighth graders have lost ground in reading — not just compared with the status quo of 2019, but also the most recent round of the exam, which was conducted during the heart of the pandemic. Math scores were flat for eighth graders and up slightly for fourth graders, but those gains were predominantly driven by the progress of high-performing students. ICYMI NY Education Department leader received $155K pay raise Times Union, 1/28/2025 State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa quietly received a pay increase of $155,000 within the past six months as part of a decision to bring her annual salary in line with superintendents of certain local school districts, according to interviews and records obtained by the Times Union. A dismal report card in math and reading The Hechinger Report, 1/25/2025 School for immigrant students to open in Queens despite pushback from school sharing its building Chalkbeat, 1/23/2025 Math Disorder Teachers Join Forces to Understand Dyscalculia, a Math-Related Learning Disorder The 74 Million, 1/22/2025 A fifth grader who can’t read an analog clock or make change. A 13-year-old who can’t tell if $20 million is greater than $200,000. A first grader who doesn’t recognize that the numeral 5 is greater than the numeral 3 if the 3 appears larger in size on their paper. These are among the hallmarks of dyscalculia (pronounced dis-kal-KYOO-lee-uh), a learning disorder that hinders students’ ability in math, as they were observed in the classroom by long-time teachers. Some crowded NYC schools want enrollment caps to cut class sizes. Will the city pay for it? Chalkbeat, 1/22/2025 Screens Have Taken Over Classrooms. Even Students Have Had Enough. Wall Street Journal, 1/22/2025 Soaring Costs for Less Students Public Schools Added 121,000 Employees Last Year, Even as They Served 110,000 Fewer Students The 74 Million, 1/21/2025 According to new data released in December from the National Center for Education Statistics, public schools added 121,000 employees last year even as they served 110,000 fewer students. On a per-student basis, that means public school staffing levels once again climbed to new all-time highs. New NYC schools chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos ‘elevates’ 14 educrats in DOE reshuffling NY Post, 1/18/2025 How lavish benefits pushed by NY teachers’ unions ramped up school spending — to highest in nation at $36K per kid: reports NY Post, 1/17/2025 New York Education Department will now calculate chronic absenteeism using algebra Times Union, 1/16/2025 Sold on SEL? Does Social-Emotional Learning Really Work? Educators Had a Lot to Say EdWeek, 1/13/2025 The emphasis on teaching social-emotional learning continues to expand across K-12 schools, especially at the high school level. That is the case even though there has been significant pushback against such programs, also known as SEL, in several states and many communities across the country. Eighty-three percent of principals reported in 2024 that their schools use an SEL curriculum or program, up from 73 percent in the 2021-22 school year, and 46 percent in 2017-18, according to a nationally representative survey by RAND and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL. Long the Star Pupils, Girls Are Losing Ground to Boys Wall Street Journal, 1/5/2025 OPINION: As New York’s Public School Spending Surges, Accountability Gets Short Shrift by Daniela Souza Egorov The Sun, 1/5/2025 The Joy of Reading Books in High School The Atlantic, 12/26/2024 Making the Grade No, You Don’t Get an A for Effort NY Times, 12/26/2024 After 20 years of teaching, I thought I’d heard every argument in the book from students who wanted a better grade. But recently, at the end of a weeklong course with a light workload, multiple students had a new complaint: “My grade doesn’t reflect the effort I put into this course.” High marks are for excellence, not grit. In the past, students understood that hard work was not sufficient; an A required great work. Yet today, many students expect to be rewarded for the quantity of their effort rather than the quality of their knowledge. In surveys, two-thirds of college students say that “trying hard” should be a factor in their grades, and a third think they should get at least a B just for showing up at (most) classes. This isn’t Gen Z’s fault. It’s the result of a misunderstanding about one of the most popular educational theories. States’ Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2022 Nation’s Report Card Urban Institute, 12/24/2024 NYC reformed high school admissions 20 years ago. Did it make things better? Chalkbeat, 12/16/2024 Private Insurers Must Now Cover Dyslexia Testing in New York NY Times, 12/12/2024 The MS Shrift NYC’s advanced education gap: Why are middle schoolers being given short shrift? Advance, 12/11/2024 New York City is awash in “gifted and talented” children, otherwise known as high-achieving public school students who would benefit from advanced education. In some neighborhoods, for example, over 50 percent of students test in the top 10th percentile nationwide. …There is one big problem, however—scarcity—and nowhere is that scarcity worse than in middle school. For example, about 10,000 students qualify annually for the elementary school programs, but there are only about 2,500 seats citywide. Revisiting the Legacy of San Francisco’s Detracking Experiment EdSurge, 12/10/2024 Top NYC students get automatic SUNY admission, but fine print excludes many Black and Latino kids Chalkbeat, 12/10/2024 Failed Experiment My School Experimented with ‘Education Equity.’ It Failed. The Free Press, 12/9/2024 In autumn 2021, against the already-challenging backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and remote learning, the Newton Public Schools decided to carry out a complex initiative at its two high schools known as “multilevel classrooms.” Previously, most classes at Newton’s high schools were given a label: honors, advanced college prep, or college prep, with honors offering the most challenging content. This system of “tracked classes” had its problems. Students who began their freshman year in a particular level could find it challenging to change levels, possibly making it harder for them to eventually take more advanced courses such as AP Calculus. To make matters worse, black, Latino, and low-income students were disproportionately represented in lower-level classes. …Three years later, some answers are becoming clear, and they are troubling. 2025-2026 State Education Department Budget and Legislative Initiatives Board of Regents, 12/2024 |