| Top Stories Zohran Mamdani’s anti-Gifted Agenda Mamdani Says He Would Phase Out N.Y.C. Gifted Program for Early Grades NY Times, 10/2/2025 Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner for mayor of New York City, plans to end the gifted and talented program for kindergarten students at public schools if he is elected, calling for a major overhaul of a program that has deeply divided parents. Mr. Mamdani said in a statement that he would embrace former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan, announced in 2021, to phase out the gifted program for elementary schools, which has been widely criticized for exacerbating segregation. Students who are in gifted classes would remain in the program, but there would be no gifted program for kindergartners next fall, his campaign said on Wednesday. HS Admissions Guide NYC high school applications: Your essential guide to navigating the admissions process Chalkbeat, 10/7/2025 New York City’s high school applications opened Tuesday, giving families of eighth graders two months to sort through 700 programs at 400 schools across the five boroughs. Navigating the process often requires time and savvy to sign up for tours and open houses and figure out what might be the best fit for your child. And not to stress out families even more, but if you’re only starting now, you’re a bit behind. Tours started in September. Open houses at many schools have already filled up. The Devil Is In the Details Zohran Mamdani plans to phase out Gifted and Talented program in NYC elementary schools NY Post, 10/2/2025 Mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani wants to phase out New York City’s Gifted and Talented program — the democratic socialist’s latest move to revert to ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s era. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor, said Thursday he would eliminate the accelerated learning program at the kindergarten level, something that’s likely to anger parents, who have been passionately divided on the issue. The gifted classes would remain active through the school year, but would no longer be available next fall, he said. Seize the Moment Cuomo seizes on Mamdani’s lack of NYC education plan Chalkbeat, 9/26/2025 [Cuomo] headlined a virtual education town hall for an audience of close to 100 people organized by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, an influential group that favors expanding selective admissions. Cuomo largely aligned himself with PLACE’s agenda and spoke in favor of expanding selective programs that often track higher-performing students in separate classrooms, including adding more specialized high schools that admit students based on a single test and enroll few Black and Latino students. ,,,Cuomo said he would consider reintroducing standardized tests and attendance as criteria for middle and high school admissions. Those measures were removed during the pandemic in favor of students’ course grades, a change that some education advocates argue is fairer. Advocacy Corner Join PLACE NYC for a Special Event with NYC Mayoral Candidate Andrew Cuomo |
| Register here: https://tinyurl.com/Cuomo-Queens WATCH the PLACE NYC Townhall with NYC Mayoral Candidate Andrew Cuomo Watch the recording: https://youtu.be/NaljWmuWldg Open Letter Template to NYC Mayoral Candidates Click here for an email template organized by parents to Protect and Strengthen NYC’s Gifted & Talented Programs Petition to Retract the Math Briefs Read and sign the petition here Voter Info Request a Mail In Ballot (Mail-in ballots can be requested until 10/25): requestballot.vote.nyc View Sample Ballot: findmypollsite.vote.nyc/ Elections Coverage Council candidate posting fake stories Queens Chronicle, 10/7/2025 The 6 Ballot Questions New Yorkers Will See This November The City, 10/5/2025 Mamdani expected to follow radical-left DSA agenda if elected, group’s leaders boast at meeting attended by Post NY Post, 10/4/2025 Mamdani Is More Foe Than Friend in the Suburbs, Even Among Democrats NY Times, 10/4/2025 Eric Adams drops out of NYC mayoral race amid increasing pressure: ‘I know I cannot continue my campaign’ NY Post, 9/28/2025 If you don’t bother to vote, you can’t complain about Mamdani as mayor NY Post Opinion, 9/28/2025 Other Headlines “The NY Math Briefs are critically flawed” Families For New York, 10/8/2025 Holding back gifted students in the name of equity Washington Post Editorial Board, 10/7/2025 These Parents Are Willing to Pay Up to $15,000 to Get Their Kids Into High School Wall Street Journal, 10/7/2025 Flashback De Blasio to Phase Out N.Y.C. Gifted and Talented Program NY Times, 10/6/2021 Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday unveiled a plan to overhaul gifted and talented education in New York City elementary schools, calling for sweeping changes to a highly selective program that has been widely criticized for exacerbating segregation in the nation’s largest school system. Colleges have had a tough year. Confidence in them is rising. Washington Post, 10/6/2025 The Low Bar Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say NY Times, 10/6/2025 Harvard University is one of the most difficult schools to gain admission to, with the school turning away some 97 percent of applicants every year. But once they get in, many of its students skip class and fail to do the reading, according to the Classroom Social Compact Committee, a group of seven faculty members that produced a report on Harvard’s classroom culture that has been fueling debate since it was released in January. When they do show up for class, they are focused on their devices, and are reluctant to speak out. Sometimes it is because they are afraid of sharing ideas that others will disagree with. But often, they have not read enough of the homework to make a meaningful contribution, the report continued. Zohran Mamdani’s callous school plan steals hope from NYC’s brightest kids NY Post, op-ed by Daniela Souza Egorov, 10/5/2025 Flashpoint California mandated an ethnic studies class. Now the plan has stalled. Washington Post, 10/5/2025 Starting this fall, all California high schools were supposed to offer an ethnic studies course — but the ambitious mandate has fallen flat, upending a years-long effort designed to impart academic lessons about groups whose history was long overlooked. The course would have been required for graduation, beginning with the class of 2030. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the plan into law in 2021, making it the only state with such a requirement…But as it was set to take effect, the state budget omitted funding for it, releasing districts from the obligation to adopt the classes. Newsom’s office said Friday that his position on the mandate had not changed, but declined to answer questions about why he has not sought to ensure funding is allocated for the requirement. Staten Island principal removed from job by DOE just weeks after appointment: Source silive.com, 10/4/2025 Two NYC teens dead in Brooklyn subway surfing incident, officials said Gothamist, 10/4/2025 For Me, But Not For Thee ‘A Hornet’s Nest:’ Mamdani’s Gifted Education Plan Divides New Yorkers NY Times, 10/3/2025 Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the Mamdani campaign, said in a statement that Mr. Mamdani’s agenda would ensure that all students receive “a high-quality early education that enables them to be challenged and fulfilled.” “This is just a hornet’s nest to step into,” said Yiatin Chu, a public school parent and the co-founder of Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, a group that has advocated for gifted and talented programs. She said that Mr. Mamdani’s plan could take a particular toll on families who can’t pay for private education or for additional academic opportunities to supplement the school day. 引發激烈爭議 華人家長憂心忡忡 Singtao, 10/3/2025 曼達尼擬分階段取消資優班 家長反彈 World Journal, 10/3/2025 140,000 N.Y.C. Students Are Homeless. Can the Next Mayor Change That? NY Times, 10/3/2025 And the Survey Says… Survey says: High school teachers are least satisfied, students are bored, mixed views on chancellor Chalkbeat, 10/1/2025 Survey results from more than 885,000 teachers, parents, and students in grades 6-12 offer a glimpse of what the 2024-25 school year was like, revealing teachers of the city’s youngest students were the happiest professionally, almost 80% of students reported feeling bored in classrooms, and while not all teachers gave the chancellor glowing reviews, more educators have been happier with her performance than her predecessor’s. Democrats Need an Education Reset Wall Street Journal, op-ed by Rahm Emmanuel, 10/1/2025 Gen Zers resurrect Y2K-era hack to rebel against school cell phone bans: ‘Can’t silence us’ NY Post, 10/1/2025 What’s In a Name SEL by Another Name? Political Pushback Prompts Rebranding EdWeek, 10/1/2025 Political pushback against social-emotional learning is prompting some districts to try a new tactic: call SEL something else. Sixteen percent of educators said in an EdWeek Research Center survey conducted in March and April that their school or district in the past year has tried to limit controversy by referring to social-emotional learning by another name while continuing to teach the concepts and skills associated with it. Student-Loan Debt Is Strangling Gen X Wall Street Journal, 9/30/2025 Show Me The Money Will paying kids help them do better in class? This school will test the idea. Washington Post, 9/29/2025 Could paying students $50 each week, with no strings attached, change that? The Southeast Washington school’s leaders think it might. In D.C., a city where almost 4 in 10 students are chronically absent — meaning they have about three weeks’ worth of excused or unexcused absences — schools have tried in dozens of ways to incentivize attendance. Principals have rewarded kids with Uber vouchers and gift cards and hosted pizza parties and school dances. Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos Delivers 2025 State of Our Schools Remarks NYCPS, 9/29/2025 Bombshell email shows top aide to AFT boss Randi Weingarten raising concerns about Mamdani’s lack of experience NY Post, 9/28/2025 How will high schoolers earn their diplomas in a post-Regents era? Times Union, 9/25/2025 Do You Know Where Your Children Are? Big city mayors say juvenile crime is ‘serious’ Politico, 9/25/2025 A new survey of America’s big-city mayors shows they know crime remains a problem for them — and they want President Donald Trump to help solve it, instead of just ordering up the National Guard. Nearly six in 10 mayors called juvenile crime “serious or very serious” in the nonpartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors’ survey of 60 city leaders, shared first with POLITICO. They said most of those offenses involve car and retail theft and firearms. Math Crisis Math crisis began a decade ago and has only worsened, report says Los Angeles Times, 9/23/2025 American students are experiencing a math crisis marked by a decline in scores that began over a decade ago and rapidly accelerated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report shows. Almost 4 in 10 eighth-graders scored below basic in math on the Nation’s Report Card, leading to the lowest scores since the test began in the early 2000s. The gap between high- and low-performing students is higher than ever. Students who saw strong gains in math since the early 2000s — girls, low-income students, Black and Latino students, students with disabilities, and English learners — have seen their stunning progress erased. American students are getting dumber Slow Boring, 9/22/2025 How Colleges Weigh High School Extracurriculars US News & World Report, 8/20/2025 |