By Jessica Franco Ramos | New York Post
New York City families have had enough. After two years of broken promises by Mayor de Blasio, we’re ready to take a stand.
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of families are going to speak directly to City Hall, to show the mayor we’re not going to stand any longer for a separate and unequal education system that divides New York and hurts children of color most of all.
StudentsFirstNY kicked off the 2015-2016 schools year with a massive citywide grassroots effort across New York City’s 100 lowest performing schools. The goal: to alert parents in each of the 100 worst schools in New York City as measured by proficiency on the New York state math and ELA tests. All of these schools had proficiency rates below 10%, meaning that at least nine out of ten students failed to pass the tests. Many of these 100 schools are part of Mayor de Blasio’s Renewal and Community schools that did not show sufficient progress last year. This comprehensive action is the latest effort by the leading education reform organization StudentsFirstNY to empower parents in traditional public schools to speak up, take action and advocate for improving school quality and expanding parent choice.
By Lisa Colangelo | New York Daily News
“A group of education advocates spent the first days of classes trying to mobilize parents at the city’s 100 worst-performing schools, saying Mayor de Blasio’s recently unveiled agenda is not enough.
Community organizers from StudentsFirstNY said they mapped out and then visited each of 100 sites where few or no students passed vital statewide tests.”
The New York Times Editorial Board
The education initiatives that Mayor Bill de Blasio outlined in a long-awaited speech earlier this week, though modest in scope, address some serious challenges facing the largest school system in the country. Collectively, they call for $186 million in new city investment, and in the abstract they appear wholly worthy. But the city has yet to provide details on how the initiatives will be rolled out or the benchmarks against which they will be judged. And for the reforms to fully realize their potential, some failing schools may have to be shut down and completely restaffed and restructured.
By Campbell Brown | New York Post
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a number of worthy education initiatives on Wednesday — expanding computer science programming, increasing college readiness and pledging that every child will read at grade level by third grade.
On the face of it, all good. All the research shows that third-grade literacy is the critical indicator of future success. That’s why every big-city school superintendent around the country makes it a core priority from the start.
By Keshia Clukey | Politico New York
“ALBANY — Campbell Brown, the former news anchor turned anti-teacher tenure advocate, is hoping her keynote address Wednesday night to the Business Council of New York State’s annual conference will spur its members to focus attention on education reform.
“The Business Council obviously is enormously influential in the state with our political leaders,” she said, in an interview.”
By Jenny Sedlis | New York Post
“Eighteen months ago, as Carmen Fariña prepared to take the reins of New York City’s public schools, I laid out in these pages the six main challenges facing the incoming administration. As the second full school year under the de Blasio administration begins, it’s instructive to take a look at how well they’ve handled these challenges.
The first challenge was improving the teachers’ contract. With the United Federation of Teachers eager to negotiate, City Hall had enormous leverage to push for real reforms.”
By NY Post Editorial Board
“Fool me once, they say, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. So what do they say when a pol plays the game nearly every single year he’s in office?
That’s what Gov. Cuomo’s been trying to do regarding teacher evaluations. His latest deception: He wants to revamp New York’s Common Core program; a panel will do a “comprehensive review” and suggest changes leading to a new law.”
By Joy Resmovits | LA Times
Shavar Jeffries, an attorney who lost his bid to be mayor of Newark, N.J., is the new president of Democrats for Education Reform.
Jeffries, who confirmed the news on Thursday, is black. His appointment comes as the self-titled education reform movement tries to look more like the children it aims to uplift.
“There are no black people who lead these … organizations,” said Derrell Bradford, the director of reform organization NYCAN (New York Campaign for Achievement Now), who is himself black. “I don’t see the world through that lens but it’s not lost on me.”
Lyndsey Layton | The Washington Post
A new analysis of New York City school data shows that teachers who scored low in the city’s evaluation system are concentrated in struggling schools that tend to serve poor and minority students, while teachers with strong ratings are most likely to be found in schools where students test well and tend to be white and Asian.