|
|
I have long been skeptical of Mr. Joel I. Klein’s qualifications for his leadership of the New York City school system, and certainly of his motives in doing so. In what seems to be a spreading epidemic, complete control of the school system was taken away from elected community school boards and usurped by Mayor Michael [...]
 A new school opened this past fall aims to work with new students – students who are not only new to the United States and New York City, but who maybe new to school – period. Named after the name of the island in New York Harbor known for the millions of immigrants that passed through it, Ellis Prep also stands for English Language Learners and International Support.
As reported by Jennifer Medina in the New York Times article, In School for the First Time, Teenage Immigrants Struggle, students at this landmark school are drawn from a population classified as Students with Interrupted Formal Education. Though they have more challenges to overcome, these students must meet the same graduation requirements as their US-born counterparts whom have had many more years of formal study. Still, they have aspirations to live the American Dream, and are working hard to get there, despite the fact that, as English teacher Emily Grasso puts it, “They don’t always have a notion of what it means to be a student.”
Continue reading First School for First-Time Students
Technorati Tags: english-language learners, immigrants, NYC, public schools
Jonathan Kozol’s 2005 book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America , looks at the issue of racial integration in the nation’s schools. Over 50 years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” and forcing the integration of America’s schools, we have not yet achieved that goal. Kozol uses the passionate voices of teachers and students, mostly from urban New York City schools and the suburban areas of Long Island, to tell how the nation has been failing a large portion of its children and, in fact, creating a system of apartheid by withholding a proper education from so many children.
Continue reading Shame of the Nation
Technorati Tags: NCLB, NYC, public schools, segregation, urban education
 Photo: Ben Garvin for The New York Times On January 9, the New York Times ran an article by Sara Rimer about immigrant students and their parents who are happier with their children in charter schools that cater to an international community. The article takes a good look at why these schools are more comfortable places for recent immigrant students as they learn English and become accustomed to American culture. Perhaps if we were to take a look at what other schools are not doing to make immigrant students feel more comfortable and to create the least-restrictive environment for them to learn we might be able to create a more effective classroom for all students.
Continue reading Charter Schools for Immigrants
Technorati Tags: bilingual education, charter schools, discrimination, english-language learners, immigrants, NYC, public schools, school choice, segregation, sociology
As an editor of the New York Times Magazine, Paul Tough is also a leading author on the issues of poverty, education, and the achievement gap. This new book takes a look at the idea Geoffrey Canada, the President and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, has for improving the success rates of African-American students, who, through the “accident of birth” were born into a place where their futures are more likely to end up in an early grave or in a prison cell than in a college lecture hall. His system of creating an “assembly line” of different services to address needs at different levels, starting with a prenatal care program for expecting parents, to after-school tutoring for high school students, and everything in between including a preschool, a charter school and a team of social workers is somewhat revolutionary in the battle against poverty.
Continue reading Whatever It Takes
Technorati Tags: charter schools, NYC, public schools, school funding, urban education
|
|
Konfusing Klein
I have long been skeptical of Mr. Joel I. Klein’s qualifications for his leadership of the New York City school system, and certainly of his motives in doing so. In what seems to be a spreading epidemic, complete control of the school system was taken away from elected community school boards and usurped by Mayor Michael [...]