September 17, 2015 Dear Friend, Yesterday, the Mayor gave a well-publicized speech about his plans to move our schools forward. With great fanfare, he announced he would improve our schools by adding 2nd grade reading specialists, more Algebra, computer coding and AP classes, as well as “single shepherds” for middle and high school students in two districts (D7 […]
September 15, 2015 Dear Friends, 1. Welcome to another school year. I hope you and your family had a good summer! Please take a moment to fill out this quick survey of your child’s class size this year; if you’re a teacher, please let us know your class sizes as well. It will help us immensely […]
August 28, 2015 Dear Friends, A few quick links I wanted to share with you. Last week, I wrote an op-ed with Jeanette Deutermann of Long Island Opt for City and State about why an estimated 225,000 NY parents chose to have their children refuse the state exams last year. Despite the rash of editorials excoriating parents for […]
August 17, 2015 Dear Friends, I wanted to bring to your attention to a piece I wrote in today’s Gotham Gazette, that puts the recent credit recovery scandals in context and proposes an alternative vision for NYC struggling schools. Please take a look and let me know what you think! Saturday was the deadline for comments […]
August 13, 2015 Dear Friends, The state test scores were released yesterday and they were nothing to brag about. As before, the vast majority of studentsscored Level 1 or 2, and there was only a very small uptick in those scoring Level 3 or 4 (supposedly proficient.) The big story was the number of opt outs, […]
July 30, 2015 Dear Friends, On Tuesday, the city announced it would reject the recommendations of the Blue Book Working Group, appointed by the Chancellor and co-chaired by the head of the School Construction Authority, to incorporate smaller classes into the school utilization formula. The city suppressed these recommendations for more than six months, and […]
July 10, 2015 Dear Friends, 1. Though school may be out, there’s a lot happening in the education world. Right now the Senate is debating a bi- partisan bill to revamp No Child Left Behind, called the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA). For the first time in 13 years, there is a real chance to […]
June 24, 2015 Dear Friends, I wanted to update you on the state deal announced yesterday and the city budget deal finalized the day before, especially as they affect our public schools. 1. The state deal between the leaders of the Legislature and the Governor known as the “big ugly” could have been uglier. It […]
June 22, 2015 Dear Friends, 1. The city budget along with the school capital plan will likely be finalized this week and perhaps in a few days. Please make calls TODAY to: Speaker Melissa Viverito: 212-788-7210 or 212-828-9800 and CM Julissa Ferreras, Finance chair: 718-651-1917 or 212-788-6862. Say NYC kids need an expanded school capital […]
June 15, 2015 Dear Friends, 1. This Thursday, June 18 at 1 PM, we will be holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall. We will be speaking about the need to expand the school capital plan and appoint a Commission to improve the efficiency of school planning and siting — to ease […]
Please join us for a virtual Class Size Briefing this Sunday June 28th, where we will speak about the changes to the class size law, point out flaws in the DOE's proposed plan for next year, and provide everyone with strategies for advocating for smaller classes for all NYC students!
Sign the petition asking for a moratorium on the use of AI until rigorous safeguards are established to protect student privacy, learning and the environment.
Click to see our presentation!
Talk out of School radio show and podcast airs Sunday night at 7 PM on WBAI 99.5 FM or online at www.wbai.org when Leonie Haimson, Daniel Alicea and Kaliris Salas Ramirez interview guests and discuss issues affecting public schools in NYC, the state level and nationally. You can stream or subscribe to the podcast here at Simplecast; or at iTunes, Spotify or Google.
Sign here to urge NYC to implement a real, multi-year strategy to lower class size, as the law intends, without exempting up to half or more of all students.
