Chalkbeat

NYC schools start Sept. 10, leaving parents scrambling for childcare

2026-08-24T22:15:35+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Students in Houston and Las Vegas returned to school on Aug. 10. In Los Angeles, kids went back on Aug. 12, and Miami’s students started the following day. Students returned Monday in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Denver.

But in New York City, students in the nation’s largest school district still have nearly three weeks before the first day of school. Of the country’s 20 biggest school districts, New York City’s is the only one where classes don’t start until September.

This year’s start on Thursday, Sept. 10 falls later than usual because Labor Day falls on Monday, Sept. 7. Under the city’s contract with the teachers union, teachers return to school the day after Labor Day for two days of prep and professional development. Students return to school the Thursday after Labor Day.

That’s left families to fill nearly 11 summer weeks without school. Many parents are struggling to find childcare since most camps ended in mid-August, including the city’s free Summer Rising program, which wrapped up Aug. 14. Some educators also worry that the late start disadvantages their students academically, especially those from low-income households.

Brooklyn parent Elizabeth Skid, who has a kindergartner and third grader at P.S. 39, recalled how during her childhood in the Midwest, the start of school moved from September to August. She’s continually surprised — and angered — by New York City’s school calendar, including the frequent holidays.

“I thought it would get easier every year, but every year, it pisses me off,” she said, even though she has the luxury of working from home if her children are out of school. “It just doesn’t make sense for parents.”

It’s also been a challenge for Brittany Castillo, whose son will start first grade at Brooklyn’s Hellenic Classical Charter School, which follows the same schedule as city-run schools. She thought things were set after signing him up for an eight-week day camp, and only realized there was a three-week gap once that ended last week.

To fill the void, she managed to find a week-long sports camp at the last minute — though it’s an added cost she hadn’t anticipated. She also plans to take some time off. That’s a “silver lining,” she said, because previously, she often saved her time off for sick days for her kid and ended up not using them.

She’s not sure, however, what she’ll do after Labor Day.

“That second week of September, we’re going to scramble,” Castillo said.

Some organizations are trying to fill the void, offering mini-camps this week and next, but several camps struggle to offer extra days since they rely on college students who’ve already returned to school. And those that do have openings can be pretty pricey.

A week of gymnastics or ninja camp at Brooklyn’s Chelsea Piers outpost costs $950 a week from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. A climbing camp at Manhattan’s Central Rock gym costs $775 for the week from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. In central Queens, Commonpoint recently added a mini-camp for the week of Aug. 31, costing $650 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, several charter schools across the five boroughs have started the school year. Students at Uncommon Schools, for example, returned Monday. At Success Academy, the city’s largest charter network, high schoolers began returning Aug. 3, followed by younger students at later dates.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC teachers: How are you teaching about 9/11 on its 25th anniversary?

2026-08-20T16:56:22+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

As New York City memorializes the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field, Chalkbeat wants to hear from teachers across the five boroughs: How do you teach about 9/11 in your classroom?

With children back in school for just one day before this year’s anniversary, it might be hard for teachers to discuss the topic on 9/11 as they are still building community with their students. Educators, how will you approach the day?

Several resources for teachers exist. New York City’s Education Department offers an instructional guide with links to books, lesson plans, archival materials, and more, and also offers professional development sessions for teachers and administrators at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. And the 9/11 Memorial & Museum provides lessons for educators and also offers on-site and virtual visits for students in grades 3-12. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has a 9/11 curriculum.

Many New York City educators were in the classroom on Sept. 11, 2001 others may have been students at the time.

Suzanne Werner, who worked at Lower Manhattan’s P.S. 124, was asked that morning to cover for a fifth grade teacher whose husband worked at the nearby World Trade Center.

“It was so hard to get back to teaching that fall,” Werner previously told Chalkbeat. “The stench of the cloud hung over the neighborhood. The number of boxes of letters and boxes of teddy bears from school kids all over the country was overwhelming.”

If you are having trouble viewing this form, go here.

Loading…

Vaping, bathrooms, stress: What 357,000 NYC students revealed in revamped school survey

2026-08-17T22:28:45+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

How often do students at your school vape? Are school bathrooms aligned with your gender identity? Is your school connecting your learning to the real world?

These are among the new questions that New York City’s annual school survey now asks students.

Middle and high school students are asked every spring, along with parents and teachers, to fill out the annual school survey. But the questions for students were too wordy and confusing, and there were too many of them, Education Department officials acknowledged.

So, education officials decided to make substantial changes, shortening the number of questions to 61 from 79 the year prior and making the language more direct. The goal, officials said, is to give educators more insight into particular problems. The changes are already bearing some fruit in terms of participation: More than 357,000 of the city’s students in grades 6-12 participated in the 2026 school survey, up 3 points from last year’s student participation rate, officials said this week.

To redesign the survey, the city sent a ballot of questions to school leaders and survey coordinators, garnering more than 300 responses. They held listening sessions with more than 50 school leaders, and convened more than 20 students — some of whom served on the Chancellor’s Student Advisory Committee and some who were part of a Brooklyn Summer Rising site.

While some of the questions tweak language from the previous year’s survey, others are new. Because of the survey’s changes, the 2026 results can’t be compared to prior years, but will serve as a new baseline moving forward.

“You may notice lower favorability scores on some items compared to prior years,” stated an explainer about the redesign. “This does not necessarily mean things got worse. It often reflects students answering more directly and precisely under the new language — not a change in classroom reality.”

Here are some highlights from the survey’s new questions.

How often do students in this school vape?

Many students, parents, and educators will tell you: Vaping is a big problem in schools. Some schools have been figuring out ways to cut down on vaping in bathrooms, but many have been struggling with how to respond.

Now the city’s survey is catching up with these concerns, adding a question about vaping. More than a third of students said vaping is common, with 19% of students saying students vape “very often,” and 16% reporting that students vape “often.” About 39% of female students reported their peers vape often or very often, compared to 32% of males.

The responses varied by grade, with fewer sixth graders (19%) reporting vaping as an issue compared to the ninth graders (45%), who reported seeing the most vaping use.

Curious and concerned parents can check out the responses for all questions at individual schools. For example, nearly three-quarters of the students at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts reported that students vape very often or often, compared with just 11% of students at University Neighborhood High School reporting that.

How often can you use a bathroom that matches your gender identity in your school?

A few years ago, the city began allowing families to list their child’s gender as “X” instead of “M” or “F” to accommodate nonbinary or gender-expansive youth.

The school survey data is catching up, now asking about whether students can use school bathrooms aligning with their gender identity. Under city guidance, students are entitled to use bathrooms that match their gender identity — a policy that has come under fire from the Trump administration.

At first glance, most students reported favorably to this question, with 86% saying they can use a bathroom matching their gender identity “always” or “most of the time. But drilling down into the data, for those students identified as neither male or female, 65% said they had access to a bathroom matching their gender identity.

How many of your teachers connect what you are learning to life outside the classroom?

Many students often complain that what they’re learning in school feels irrelevant to their lives and careers. In response, the city has ramped up its focus on career education.

Students see room for improvement. Less than half — 49%— said most or all of their teachers connect what they’re learning to life outside the classroom. The answers vary by grade, with the fewest favorable responses in ninth grade (45%). But by senior year, more students — 59% — responded favorably to this question.

How often do you use strategies you learned at school to stay focused when something frustrating happens?

Schools across the city have been trying to incorporate more mindfulness practices, with former Mayor Eric Adams bringing daily breathing exercises to students. But when it comes to learning coping mechanisms, students say schools still have work to do. Just 45% said they use strategies learned at school to stay focused in the face of frustration. Asian American girls had fewer favorable responses (37%) compared to their Black male counterparts (51%).

How often do you feel included in school activities like clubs, sports, recess, field trips, and school events?

While the 2025 survey asked students whether they felt like they belonged at their school, the redesigned survey took things a step further, asking students specifically about their experiences in school activities outside the classroom.

About 10% of students surveyed reported they “never” feel included in these activities, and another 30% reported feeling included “sometimes.” Girls reported feeling excluded more often than boys, with 43% reporting they sometimes or never felt included compared to 38% of boys. Broken down by grade, ninth graders (45%) reported feeling excluded most often , while sixth graders (35%) felt excluded least frequently.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado school district rejects controversial reading curriculum because of errors, Texas focus

2026-08-14T00:00:39+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

On Wednesday, elementary schools in a small southwestern Colorado district stopped using a controversial reading curriculum developed by the state of Texas.

It was the third day of school.

The sudden shift came a day after the Montezuma-Cortez school board voted 4-3 to reject the new curriculum, called Bluebonnet, and four days after the district’s superintendent pledged that Biblical material would be removed from lessons.

The controversy over Bluebonnet likely has staff at the district’s three elementary schools scrambling for replacement lessons this week. The debate has also raised questions about the number of errors in the curriculum, whether a Texas-built product is right for Colorado students, and how the curriculum was adopted with little notice over the summer.

Colorado school districts don’t have to use state-approved reading curriculum, but they must ensure their curriculum meets state academic standards.

Justin Schmitt, the district’s executive director of academic services, didn’t specify what reading curriculum the district’s elementary schools are using now.

He said by email that district leaders are working with school staff on next steps.

Board Vice President Laura DeWitt, who has a fifth grade daughter, said at Tuesday’s board meeting that she looked at some of the Bluebonnet materials on the first day of school and found what she described as “robot errors” — mistakes probably generated by AI.

A story about a Japanese man who visited Houston to plant rice in 1904 includes a map that shows Houston next to the Florida panhandle, instead of in Texas.

DeWitt showed a printout of the erroneous map at the meeting, drawing a chuckle from one person and a “wow” from someone else.

Such mistakes are in addition to thousands of mistakes in Bluebonnet that Texas is already paying $8 million to fix.

Board member Barbara Mate said when she visited classrooms on the first couple days of school, she saw reading lessons centered on Texas.

“I viewed a lot of stuff about Texas and Houston and San Antonio and migrant workers, and Texas and Texas,” she said. “I just wondered why we’re not representing our current demographic.”

The 2,200-student Montezuma-Cortez district in May adopted a school improvement model borrowed from the Houston school district. When that district, the largest in Texas, adopted Bluebonnet in late June, Montezuma-Cortez administrators soon followed suit.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Montezuma-Cortez board members raised concerns that Bluebonnet’s use was announced just weeks before the school year started with no analysis to ensure it meets Colorado academic standards, no public review process, and no school board vote.

While several board members were critical of Bluebonnet, most said they supported the school improvement model from Houston. It’s called the New Education System and is a highly structured system that includes fast-paced teacher-led instruction, daily monitoring of student progress, and immediate re-teaching for students who aren’t proficient.

Some board members asked Superintendent Eddie Ramirez pointed questions about mysterious changes to an agreement with the Houston school district the board approved in May. The original version didn’t mention Bluebonnet, but the one Ramirez signed in June did.

Ramirez assigned blame to district lawyers, and said he didn’t notice the change.

“What I am testifying to you and telling the board here tonight is that I had no knowledge that it said Bluebonnet,” he said. “I signed the document thinking that it was vetted by the lawyer, and that it was agreed upon.”

Some board members seemed skeptical of Ramirez’s explanation and suggested there are “integrity issues” at play, but said it was a matter to be addressed another day.

Board member Mike Lynch defended Ramirez.

“He’s trying to implement something for our district. The board’s job is the why, and the superintendent’s job is the how,” he said. “He was doing the how and the document was changed without his knowledge.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

How a Queens school transformed a local playground — and its students’ lives

2026-08-11T14:54:17+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

How do you make high school feel less like, well, school? And how do you get kids to show up, especially those at greatest risk of dropping out?

A class devoted to community service projects at Voyages Prep in Elmhurst, Queens might offer some clues.

The school, which serves older students who transferred in after falling behind at other schools, partners on the elective course created with Hire Cause, a career education company that focuses on building skills through hands-on projects aimed at improving communities. Two years ago, the students decided they’d focus on renovating Playground Ninety, a run-down basketball court in Jackson Heights where some of them played after school.

The students got to work. They collaborated with artists to design the space. They learned how to fundraise — organizing bake sales, a basketball tournament, and a carnival — and netted about $2,100.

Then they decided to shoot for something bigger, submitting a video to the “Every Court Has a Story” contest, a worldwide initiative led by Project Backboard, a nonprofit that funds renovations of public basketball courts. They won $50,000, beating out scores of submissions from around the globe and marking the first time a student-led entry won the contest.

Voyages Prep student Ashely Marquez painting the court at Playground Ninety in June.

“Too often, many students can’t see how the classroom connects to the broader community,” said David Dvorkin, CEO of Hire Cause, which worked with 28 public schools and 1,450 students across the city this past school year. “That’s part of the gap that we’re collectively working to close here.”

Playground Ninety’s renovation wrapped up last month with a repaired basketball court and a mural painted on the ground with flowers representing the diversity of Jackson Heights and wavy lines symbolizing New York City’s rivers. The kids at P.S. 90 have been especially delighted: The elementary school exclusively uses the space during the school day.

With its intensive focus on job skills, Voyages’ Hire Cause class fits into the city’s larger effort embracing career readiness. Nearly 180 high schools across the five boroughs are part of the Education Department’s FutureReadyNYC program, providing students with hands-on classes and career training. About 105 career and technical education programs offer certifications for a range of post-graduation careers. But the Voyages class differs in its emphasis on social impact and its student-led approach. Students pick a cause they care about and have to raise money to see their project through.

It gives them something bigger to be part of, educators involved in the project said. And they get to see the fruits of their effort.

It gives them a reason to show up, students said.

By the time Kamrin Jones took the class, the project had already begun. Initially, it was just an assignment to him. But when he saw the excitement of the elementary school kids, his perspective shifted: “It started off as an obligation, but then became a passion.”

It felt dramatically different from his previous school where he would travel about 1.5 hours to just “sit around,” the 19-year-old said.

“Not only do I have a reason to be here, but like it’s proof that I can do more with myself than I thought I could,” he said. “Like it’s proof that I’m more than just sitting in class and just waiting, twiddling my fingers. It’s proof that when I do actually put myself to the task, I can meet expectations.”

Jones believes his path might have been different had he not landed at Voyages and dove into the playground project. After graduating from Voyages in June, Jones is spending this summer learning about economics and marketing through investment banking firm Centerview (that he is getting paid for). He is planning to go to a trade school in the fall.

A drone photo of the new basketball court at Playground Ninety.

A lesson in joy, leadership, and local change

As a transfer school, where students come and go, graduating at different times as they accumulate enough credits, Voyages had about 60 students in all working on the project at some point, with about 35 of those students more intensely involved. Ten, including Jones, devoted after-school hours ensuring Playground Ninety got done.

Jones became the project manager, making sure everyone stayed on track. He would spend his lunchtime organizing things, sharing reminders to his peers in morning announcements he made over the loudspeaker.

“It’s easy for us students to get distracted,” Jones said. “I made sure we stayed on task.”

Some students who were struggling with attendance, “turned a corner” after getting involved in the course, said Anthony Drzal, one of the co-teachers of the course. A student who was chronically late, knew that missing the second period class would have significant consequences, not just for her.

“It wasn’t like another class where maybe she just missed the worksheet and she would deal with it later,” Drzal said. “If she had a responsibility, she had to take care of it.”

He believes that led to a different type of engagement than in more traditional classrooms.

The sense of community and connection created by the class is something the school overall works hard to achieve. It has a high-needs population — nearly 90% are from low-income households, nearly 30% have disabilities, more than 70% are overage and undercredited. It also struggles with outcomes: Just 17% graduated from high school and enrolled in a post-secondary program within six months.

People play basketball on the new court at Playground Ninety on June 12.

Even though the course is rooted in social change and social justice, that was never explicitly part of the conversation, said Traci Molloy, one of two artists who worked on the playground project alongside the course’s co-teachers.

The goal was to make something beautiful.

“In doing that, you’re transforming the park, you’re transforming a neighborhood,” she said. “The way it was framed was always: We have to have fun. We have to have joy, and then that joy becomes a change.”

The Voyages students will move on this school year to a new project of their choice, but those like Jones, who are graduating, are taking many skills they learned from the project, Molloy said.

As she told Jones: “This isn’t the last thing you’ve done. This is the first best thing you’ve done.”

Correction: Aug. 11, 2026: This article initially stated that Hire Cause is a nonprofit. It is a for-profit company that partners with many nonprofits.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado district will eliminate Bible-based content in new reading curriculum, officials say

2026-08-10T23:32:52+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

A small southwestern Colorado school district will remove or modify any biblically infused content in its new elementary reading curriculum, a district official wrote in an open letter Saturday.

“Our schools will not use the curriculum as a vehicle for religious instruction,” wrote Eddie Ramirez, superintendent of the Montezuma-Cortez district, in a letter addressed to parents, elementary staff, and community members.

The announcement came two days after a Chalkbeat story about the district’s plan to use the Bluebonnet reading curriculum, which was developed by the state of Texas, aligns with Texas academic standards, and contains some lessons based on the Bible.

Also on Saturday, Montezuma-Cortez officials scheduled a special school board meeting for Tuesday to adopt the Bluebonnet curriculum. Although administrators announced in July the district would use the reading curriculum this year, the school board never voted on it.

Monday was the district’s first day of school.

Saturday’s four-page letter was an unusual effort to explain why the 2,200-student district adopted the Texas-centric curriculum and reassure parents and the public that reading instruction will match Colorado academic standards and avoid religious content.

This Colorado school district is using Biblically infused reading curriculum made for Texas students

Montezuma-Cortez administrators picked Bluebonnet because the district in May adopted a school improvement model borrowed from the Houston school district, which switched to Bluebonnet in June. The model, spearheaded by Houston Superintendent Mike Miles, a former charter school founder in Colorado, is called the New Education System.

Justin Schmitt, Montezuma-Cortez’s executive director of academic success, said in a phone interview Friday that using the same curriculum materials as Houston will help his district implement Houston’s improvement model.

“We don’t want to piecemeal the model,” he said. “We wanted to embrace the model in its entirety.”

The model is highly structured and includes teacher-led instruction, a focus on student engagement, and training for teachers and principals. Students in Houston schools using the New Education System made significant gains on state tests in the last few years.

In Montezuma-Cortez, two district-run elementary schools perform far below the Colorado average on state math and literacy tests. A third one, the 128-student Lewis-Arriola Elementary, performs far better.

The Bluebonnet curriculum has drawn criticism from advocates of church-state separation and some parents and religious scholars since it was unveiled in Texas two years ago. Among their critiques are that Bluebonnet mischaracterizes some Bible stories, presents some too literalistically, and gives scant attention to religious traditions outside of Christianity.

A kindergarten lesson discusses the days of Creation in the Book of Genesis, a first grade lesson contains the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and a two-lesson second grade sequence shares a Bible story about Queen Esther. A 14-lesson fifth grade unit discusses Biblical allegories in the “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis.

Schmitt said Houston repackages the Bluebonnet curriculum into slide decks and other materials that are ready for use in the classroom, which will take some of the load off Montezuma-Cortez teachers.

“We don’t have capacity in our district to build that,” he said of the specially tailored curriculum materials.

Schmitt said Montezuma-Cortez is paying for copying costs and some book purchases, but Houston isn’t charging the district to use the New Education System model or for the repackaged Bluebonnet curriculum.

Ramirez’s letter doesn’t mention the name Bluebonnet, but said the district “carefully reviewed” the new reading curricular resources and found “approximately 95% alignment with the applicable Colorado standards.”

Schmitt said Monday that Ramirez wasn’t referring to a district review of the curriculum, but rather an estimate by district officials that Texas and Colorado academic standards are about 95% the same.

Bluebonnet isn’t a Colorado-approved reading curriculum, but it was derived from a state-approved curriculum called Core Knowledge Language Arts. A spokesperson for the company that publishes Core Knowledge Language Arts said the two reading programs are different, and Core Knowledge’s state approval doesn’t guarantee Bluebonnet would win approval too. Colorado school districts don’t have to use state-approved reading curriculum, but they must ensure their curriculum meets state academic standards.

Ramirez wrote in the open letter, “Any content that is inconsistent with the district’s educational purpose, Colorado Academic Standards, or our expectations for a public-school instructional program will be reviewed and, where appropriate, removed or modified.”

Schmitt said the Houston team has provided Montezuma-Cortez with four weeks of reading curriculum materials so far and told district staff there are no faith-based teachings in that content.

“We’re going to trust that, but we’re also going to verify it on our own,” he said.

Teachers and principals will provide further checks to ensure religious content is removed, he said.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

NYC reading scores sink, with third grade proficiency falling 14 points

2026-08-07T20:42:44+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Reading scores sank in New York City last school year, with a nearly 14 percentage point decline among third graders, according to preliminary data released Friday.

Among students in grades 3-8, about half were proficient in reading, a decline of 6 percentage points. That nearly erases a 7 percentage point spike the year before. Math scores were flat, with 57% of students considered proficient.

The declines in reading proficiency were most pronounced in grades 3-5. In addition to the dramatic decline in third grade, fourth grade scores fell nearly 6 percentage points, and fifth grade scores fell by 13 points. (You can find your school’s test results at the bottom of this story.)

The unusually steep drop in reading proficiency comes as the city is heading into its fourth year of a major shakeup in literacy instruction. All elementary schools are required to use approved curriculums that officials contend line up with the science of reading, a longstanding body of evidence about how children learn to read. A growing number of middle schools are in the process of adopting new reading curriculums, too.

City officials vowed to conduct an analysis of the sharp fluctuations in reading scores.

“School leaders across New York City are seeing dramatic swings in literacy proficiency reflected in this year’s state assessment results,” schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said in a statement. “These results raise important questions and deserve careful, rigorous analysis so we can ensure we’re measuring what students are learning.”

City officials noted that the state test scores diverged from the city’s own periodic assessments, which generally showed improvements in reading.

The city’s teachers union has supported the elementary reading curriculum changes, but criticized the Education Department’s approach in response to the latest scores.

“We have to refocus on what we know works in literacy — a clear plan, a tailored science of reading curriculum, and meaningful professional development for educators,” Mary Vaccaro, the union’s vice president for education, said in a statement.

She said the Education Department “abandoned that approach” last year and “piled on additional programs, assessments, consultant’s recommendations and curriculum in the hopes that ‘more’ would equal better, and we lost ground.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has vowed to double down on the literacy and math curriculum overhauls launched by his predecessor. In May, he announced plans to expand the math curriculum mandate into elementary schools, a move the union also criticized.

Test scores alone can’t prove whether a policy is working because many factors influence them. But city officials pointed to the dramatic 7 percentage point spike last year as evidence the new reading programs are paying dividends.

The reading proficiency declines mirror a similar 5 percentage point drop across the state. Some testing experts told Chalkbeat this week that whipsawing scores are unusual and raise questions about whether there are irregularities in the exams.

Andrew Ho, a Harvard professor who serves on a panel of experts who are paid to advise New York on its state assessment system, said the state exams are carefully constructed.

“It’s uncommon but not unprecedented” to see test scores significantly shift up and down, Ho said.

Observers should consider them in the context of other data, including the city’s own assessments and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, widely considered the gold standard assessment. A new round of results on that federal exam, including for New York City, are expected next year.

Others worried that there was an unidentified problem with the tests. Emily Oster, a professor of economics at Brown University who has studied patterns in state assessment results, said the swings were reminiscent of COVID-era disruptions but without an obvious cause.

“It’s just so implausible that there would be these kind of swings, and that they would be concentrated in some grades and some subjects and not others,” she said. “It just feels like there’s a mistake.”

EdTrust-New York, an advocacy group, called for an independent audit of the last three years of state testing data. “NYSED never adequately investigated or explained last year’s dramatic gains, making this year’s reversal difficult to interpret,” the group said in a statement earlier this week.

A spokesperson for the state’s Education Department said that the state conducts two independent audits of its assessments each year and those reviews have not flagged any problems.

As in prior years, the test results show deep disparities between student groups.

Asian American students saw the largest declines in reading scores last year among racial groups, with proficiency rates dropping to about 67%, down nearly 8 percentage points. A similar share of white students were considered proficient in reading.

Meanwhile, nearly 42% of Black students were proficient, a decline of 5 percentage points. About 37% of Latino students were marked proficient, 6 percentage points lower than the prior year. Just under 22% of students with disabilities were proficient readers.

Students who are currently learning English, or were in the past, saw the largest reading dips. Their proficiency rates dipped nearly 10 percentage points to 62.1%.

Math scores were more stable. Almost 44% of Black and Latino students were proficient in the subject, up less than 1 percentage point respectively. White and Asian American students’ scores dipped by about a percentage point each, to 74% and nearly 80%, respectively.

Curious about school-level test results? Here is a searchable breakdown of math and English scores across all of the city’s public schools (charters are not included).

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

This Colorado school district is using Biblically infused reading curriculum made for Texas students

2026-08-06T21:06:58+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

Officials in Montezuma-Cortez, a small school district in southwestern Colorado, could have chosen a new elementary reading curriculum from more than 20 state-approved options.

Instead, with little public discussion this summer, they picked one called Bluebonnet. It’s described as being “built for Texas students” and has drawn fierce criticism from some Texans for containing Biblically infused lessons.

Kindergartners learn about the days of Creation in the Book of Genesis. First graders learn about the Parable of the Prodigal Son and fifth graders learn about Biblical allegories in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” by C.S. Lewis.

The curriculum adoption in Montezuma-Cortez is the latest chapter in an ongoing debate about what kind of religious content belongs in American public schools. It also raises questions about why a low-performing district is using a controversial reading curriculum that wasn’t vetted by state evaluators and didn’t go through a public review process or school board vote.

Montezuma-Cortez leaders picked Bluebonnet because the district recently adopted a school reform model from the Houston school district, which approved Bluebonnet this summer.

Houston Superintendent Mike Miles, a former Colorado charter school founder, created the school improvement model Montezuma-Cortez is using. Called “New Education System,” it emphasizes explicit teacher-led instruction, keeping students engaged, and training for teachers and principals. With the help of consultants, Montezuma-Cortez will use the reform strategy at its three elementary schools starting this fall.

Colorado is a local control state and school districts don’t have to use state-approved reading programs, but most do. A spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Education said districts that don’t use state-approved curriculum must ensure the programs are evidence-based and meet state academic standards.

Superintendent Eddie Ramirez and six of seven Montezuma-Cortez school board members didn’t respond to requests for comment about Bluebonnet. Justin Schmitt, the district’s executive director of academic services, offered to talk by phone on Tuesday, but didn’t respond to follow-up emails to schedule the interview.

Board member Mike Lynch said by email Tuesday that the district is following Houston’s lead on curriculum because of that district’s “rapid and phenomenal turnaround history.”

“I want that outcome for my district,” he said.

Students in Houston schools that are part of the New Education System made significant gains on state tests in the last few years.

Lynch said he doesn’t know if Bluebonnet is evidence-based or how well it matches Colorado standards.

“In my opinion, we need to concentrate on teaching our kids how to read and do math,” he said. “Then we can worry more about matching the Colorado standards.”

Lynch also said he didn’t have enough information to form an opinion about Bluebonnet’s Biblically infused lessons.

“There is a difference between containing references from the Bible and teaching the Bible. There is also … number of occurrences, or degree of infusion,” he said. “I don’t know about those facts yet.”

Controversial from the beginning

The State of Texas developed Bluebonnet a few years ago by adapting an existing reading curriculum from the company Amplify. Despite criticism from religious scholars and advocates for church-state separation, Bluebonnet was narrowly approved by the Texas State Board of Education in 2024.

Texas districts aren’t required to adopt it, but they get financial incentives from the state if they do.

Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University, said the problem with Bluebonnet is not that it includes religion but that its treatment of religion is not well done. It mischaracterizes some Bible stories, presents some too literalistically, and gives scant attention to religious traditions outside of Christianity, he said.

A second grade lesson on Esther, a Persian queen from the Bible, suggests she acted based on her faith in God and portrays her as a champion of non-violence for helping save the Jews. But Chancey said the Book of Esther famously doesn’t mention God and that Bluebonnet fails to mention that Esther promotes killing enemies of the Jews at the end of the Bible story.

Chancey said some Biblical content in Bluebonnet is not appropriate for the grade where it’s introduced.

“Is a 5-year-old going to say, ‘I’m so thankful that we’re learning about a creation story from Genesis for the sake of cultural literacy, but I understand that people interpret this differently, and not everybody accepts that it’s scientifically and historically accurate,’” he said.

“I don’t think many 5-year-olds are going to think that way,” he said.

Brent Strawn, a religion and law professor at Duke University, said knowing Bible stories and passages can give students a more nuanced understanding of everything from Shakespeare’s plays to pop music to common idioms, like “the apple of my eye.”

“You could make a case that reading the Bible, having some familiarity with the Bible, could help you as a kind of interpreter of cultural references,” said Strawn.

But he also worries that this rationale can be used to bring Biblical content into public schools when the real goal is to instill children with Christian values and beliefs.

“I’m … in favor of all Christian values. I’m an ordained minister,” he said, “But the question is whether that’s legal, and most people would say that’s not legal according to the establishment clause of the Constitution.”

That clause bars the government from promoting or prescribing one religion over others.

Strawn has not reviewed the Bluebonnet curriculum.

A sudden pivot, little public discussion

When officials in the 2,200-student Montezuma-Cortez district adopted Houston’s school improvement model last spring, the goal was to improve elementary students’ academic performance. One of three district-run elementary schools performs well above the state average on state literacy and math tests, but the other two perform far below.

District leaders originally planned to use a Colorado-approved reading curriculum as part of the improvement effort: Core Knowledge Language Arts. The school board approved a curriculum-use agreement with the Houston district in May that referenced that program.

But when Houston opted, despite opposition from some parents and faith leaders, to switch to Bluebonnet in June, Montezuma-Cortez officials quickly followed suit with no school board vote.

The two curriculums are related but not the same.

Bluebonnet was developed from Core Knowledge Language Arts as its foundation but has been adapted over time, said Kristine Frech-Barstow, senior vice president of corporate communications at Amplify, by email.

As a result, the curriculums are different and Colorado’s approval of Core Knowledge Language Arts doesn’t ensure Bluebonnet would also be approved, she said.

Ericka Burns, a consultant from the Colorado Springs-based firm Education Partners, said during a July 21 Montezuma-Cortez school board meeting that using the same curriculum as Houston makes it easier to use Houston’s school improvement model, but that it’s not necessary.

“We implement the instructional model regardless of curriculum,” she said.

Education Partners will receive $300,000 to help Montezuma-Cortez with the school improvement effort.

Bluebonnet materials include numerous mentions of Texas history and civics. For example, kindergarten lessons talk about the Texas flag, the Texas state capital building, the Texas Pledge of Allegiance, and famous Texans like Sam Houston.

In June, the Texas Education Agency announced it’s spending $8 million to fix thousands of errors in the curriculum, including typos, formatting problems, and copyright violations.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Unequal algebra access in Philly is ‘discriminatory’ says key city official as district plans changes

2026-08-06T19:56:49+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with news on the city’s public school system.

Philadelphia school officials say they want all eighth graders to have the opportunity to take an algebra course before high school, but they’re still roughly 50 schools and a school year away from reaching that goal.

Until everyone has access, the district’s math offerings remain inequitable, education advocates and city councilmembers said at a City Hall hearing on Thursday. And councilmembers said they want schools to offer the course to all students regardless of where they live or their test scores, although not everyone is necessarily on board with that idea.

Philly school leaders announced Thursday they intend to offer algebra at all 126 district schools that enroll eighth graders by the 2027-28 school year — for those students who are prepared for the extra rigor. That determination will be made based on students’ Star test scores.

“We certainly want to offer it to students who are ready for it,” Brenda Elliott, the district’s deputy superintendent of academics, told Chalkbeat before Thursday’s hearing.

Amid a heated national debate about when to offer access to the advanced math course, in Philly, patchy algebra availability for eighth graders can mean deserving students are locked out of the most competitive public high school. In addition, some see algebra as a gateway course to more advanced classes like calculus and career opportunities in science and technical fields. But experts caution not all eighth graders have a solid grasp on the basic concepts that algebra builds on. And granting universal access hasn’t translated to success for some districts.

City Councilmember and Education Chair Isaiah Thomas called Philly’s current approach “discriminatory.” And Councilmember Nina Ahmad said at the hearing that by not offering algebra to all eighth graders, “we’re really truly not letting our children have a quality education” at selective admissions schools, “which changes their trajectory in life.”

A 2023 Chalkbeat analysis determined that the lower the median household income in a Philly school’s surrounding neighborhood, the less likely that algebra is offered to eighth graders by that school. And because the course is a prerequisite for admission at Julia R. Masterman — the district’s most selective public high school — hundreds of students every year are effectively excluded from even applying there.

Thomas said his own children were among those excluded because they could not take algebra before high school.

About 400 district eighth graders passed the Pennsylvania state math test in 2025 and “could have succeeded in algebra, but didn’t have the opportunity because their school simply did not offer it,” Symbol Lai from Children First, a Philly nonprofit, said Thursday.

Lai suggested the district implement a universal screening process so “students’ readiness for algebra isn’t left up to chance.”

Philly is not the only city school district grappling with the algebra problem. In 2014, San Francisco pulled algebra courses from middle schools in an attempt to improve students’ foundational math skills and reduce racial disparities in math achievement. After largely failing to accomplish that, the San Francisco school board voted in March to reinstate the class as an elective available for all eighth graders.

In the 2025-26 school year, a total of 65 Philly schools offered algebra, an increase of 15 from two years before. The majority, 40 schools, offered it through a dedicated class in the building, and the remainder offered it through the district’s hybrid in-person, virtual learning program called Cross School Learning.

For the upcoming school year, Elliott said 42 district schools will offer algebra as a dedicated class or section and 33 schools will participate in Cross School Learning. That will bring the total number of schools offering algebra in some form to 75 schools.

That still leaves 51 district schools serving eighth grade students without access to algebra, according to district figures.

The district also offers a course called Algebra 1a for ninth graders who may need what Elliott called a “booster” class. The first-semester course allows students “to address gaps and build up their math proficiency,” and begin the grade-level Algebra 1 class in the second semester.

The course launched at 12 schools in the 2025-26 school year because Elliott said too many district students were failing Algebra 1 in ninth grade, signaling they weren’t properly equipped for the level of math rigor.

“When kids fail a class, particularly in that first year of ninth grade, it can be deflating,” Elliott told Chalkbeat.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

An alphabet without an F: AI slop seeps into Teachers Pay Teachers curriculum marketplace

2026-08-03T18:32:12+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

The poster depicting famous inventions by Black figures throughout history should show the invention George Crum is widely credited with: the potato chip.

Instead, the picture labeled with Crum’s name shows a firefighter in an ominous gas mask next to a stop light. There are no potato chips to be found.

But there is a typo-ridden description of Crum that reads: “Created the popular crispy snack when a customer is polated thinner fried potatees.”

For $4, teachers can have the privilege of downloading that poster, a slideshow about Black inventors, and a seven-minute video from Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace for teachers to find lesson plans, classroom decor, activities, and more. The site, which rebranded as TPT in 2022, is education’s answer to Etsy.

For $1.99, they could also download an alphabet coloring worksheet missing the letter F. And for just $1.50, they could get a poster of U.S. presidents that uses an asteroid hurtling toward anti-slavery demonstrators to illustrate the idea that Martin Van Buren was resilient.

Teachers Pay Teachers is a platform used by 85% of pre-K-12 educators in the U.S., its parent company said in a 2023 press release. It has long been controversial, with some educators and curriculum developers casting doubt on the quality of resources up for sale. But it inspired trust in other teachers due to the premise baked into its name. Now that trust is eroding, and it’s because of something educators have noticed while shopping. Increasingly, some of Teachers Pay Teachers’ resources appear to be AI-generated.

Moreover, some of the AI-generated content that hasn’t been vetted very well includes obvious errors, slipshod graphics, and questionable information, according to a Chalkbeat review of material on Teachers Pay Teachers.

It’s the type of low-quality content commonly known as “AI slop.” And teachers say it’s turning up on TPT, which means some of it could end up in the classroom.

In an emailed statement, Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL Learning, TPT’s parent company, wrote that the company uses “algorithmic tools to identify and demote stores associated with low-quality, AI-generated content.”

“These measures are already highly effective, such that AI-generated products account for a minuscule fraction of a percent of TPT’s sales,” Mishkin wrote.

TPT’s two decades in existence, some argue, is a sign that many school districts still aren’t arming educators with high-quality instructional material. The flood of what appears to be low-quality AI content may just further poison the well.

Teachers are expected to create a lot of material, sometimes on a time crunch or during the summer when they’re not paid, said Jeff Carpenter, an education professor at Elon University. That pressure to create instructional material leads them to turn to Teachers Pay Teachers or similar sites.

“They don’t have the time and energy to assess the quality,” Carpenter said. “They’re sort of drowning under the load of expectations on them, and so they think, ‘Well, this is a highly rated resource, and so I’m going to print it off and give it to my students without really looking at it.’”

AI fuels cottage industry of curriculum creators

Some of the tells of AI-generated content are relatively subtle.

When Elisa Greb, an eighth grade English teacher outside of Pittsburgh, is on the lookout for material made by AI, she watches for bulleted lists with bolded headings, for example.

Greb said she started noticing the proliferation of AI content about a year ago. Greb rarely turns to TPT for class content, but occasionally turns to it for grammar content, which can be one of the hardest topics to hook students’ interest.

“One of the greatest joys for me as a teacher is the creativity,” she said. “What really bothers me on something like TPT, where people are monetizing, is that they’re asking for your money for something that they didn’t actually create.”

Chalkbeat also spotted what look to be AI suggestions for titles that might help the resource appear prominently in search results, price suggestions, and even disclosures that content had been generated by AI.

But if AI-generated content on TPT sets off algorithmic red flags, it seems no one has told the cottage industry of content creators who advertise themselves as coaches for folks wanting to start a TPT shop.

In one YouTube video, a creator said that leveraging AI isn’t about replacing creativity, but “multiplying our efforts” to supply teacher resources online. Many of the coaches encouraging AI use also caution TPT creators to edit and watch for quality issues in AI-generated content.

Catharyn Shelton, a professor with Northern Arizona University, said teachers sharing content with other teachers is in principle a good idea — when the content is of good quality. But scaling up the model into a marketplace is often where the problems come in, incentivizing creators to build shops with thousands of pages of material and sacrifice quality in the process.

It’s easy to turn “to slop because AI is so good at making things sound really good,” she said. “Even if the actual content or ideas aren’t really there.”

‘I do use AI-assisted tools’

Chalkbeat reached out to a few TPT vendors selling what appeared to be AI-generated materials.

Jade Désautels, the creator behind The Garden of Art, the store that sold the Black inventors posters featuring George Crum, wrote that she became an educational resource creator after 15 years as a full-time teacher.

She declined an interview and did not directly acknowledge using AI, but wrote that she uses a “variety of digital tools as part of my creative process.” Désautels also wrote she reviews resources before publishing them.

In another instance, a set of posters about musical instruments in Black history included an image of a traditional African drum and the words “add a performer playing it in a lively village setting.” There is no performer or village in the image.

A user wrote in a review that the $4.28 posters were “poorly made” and “it was very obvious that AI was used.”

The creator of that resource, Achraf Zenmrouni, said over email that they had adjusted and improved the graphics after Chalkbeat inquired about the work. Zenmrouni wrote that “I use AI-assisted tools as part of my design and creative process,” but added they personally reviewed the material before it goes live.

A Chalkbeat reporter asked ChatGPT to respond to inquiries about supposed low-quality, AI-generated teacher resources as if it were a creator of those resources. In part, the AI wrote, “I do use AI-assisted tools as one part of my creative process.”

ChatGPT then added: It reviews the content before it’s published.

Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org. Lily is on Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook.

Eric Adams mandated NYC preschools adopt a single curriculum. Under Mamdani, they’re getting more choice.

2026-07-29T20:27:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

New York City Education Department officials in recent months quietly relaxed a controversial curriculum mandate for early childhood education programs, Chalkbeat has learned.

The 2023 mandate, part of former Mayor Eric Adams’ sweeping NYC Reads curriculum overhaul, required all classrooms in the city’s publicly funded early childhood education system to adopt The Creative Curriculum, a nationally-used program created by the Washington, D.C.-based Teaching Strategies. It applied to some 140,000 kids ages 5 and under in the city’s free infant and toddler, 3-K, and prekindergarten classrooms, whether in home-based programs, community-run facilities, or public schools.

The move drew backlash from some educators and early childhood education experts who argued it burdened teachers with bureaucratic busywork and diminished their ability to tailor lessons to their students’ specific needs and backgrounds.

But in guidance released late this spring, city officials gave providers a new option: They can now apply to use a different curriculum. Applications must include parent and teacher input and select a curriculum from the city’s pre-approved list of eight curricula.

“Every early care and education program serves a unique community that they know best,” said Education Department spokesperson Dominique Ellison. The new approach “gives educators and programs leaders the flexibility to make informed choices, backed by data and quality assurance, rather than a one-size-fits-all mandate.”

Education Department officials didn’t say how many providers applied or were approved to switch curriculums. City officials also left in place what educators have described as the mandate’s most controversial element: Providers must still use a data-heavy assessment system called GOLD, which accompanies The Creative Curriculum, even if they switch curriculums. GOLD asks teachers to regularly evaluate students on dozens of objectives in areas like math, language, and social emotional development.

Still, loosening the early childhood mandate marks perhaps the most significant step so far under Mayor Zohran Mamdani to dial back curriculum mandates imposed under Adams.

“It is a big shift,” said Shael Polakow-Suranksy, president of Bank Street College of Education and a former deputy chancellor in the city Education Department. “And it’s very responsive to what the field has been asking for over the last few years.”

A sweeping change draws backlash

The early childhood mandate got less public attention than the city’s math and literacy overhauls for K-12 schools, but it was no less sweeping.

Before 2023, many programs used Units of Study, a curriculum developed by city teachers during former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s pre-K expansion. Others used more specialized approaches like Reggio Emilia or Montessori, educators said.

But by spring 2024, roughly 90% of early childhood programs had switched to The Creative Curriculum and its accompanying assessment system, former Deputy Chancellor for Early Childhood Education Kara Ahmed said at the time.

“I can take you to a school in Staten Island, and I can take you to a school in Brooklyn, or Queens on the same day, and all the early childhood kids are all working from the same playbook,” former Chancellor David Banks said in 2024, calling the shift “absolutely amazing.”

The Creative Curriculum has been around for decades, and is structured around broad topics such as balls and trees, with activities that allow kids to explore and investigate.

City officials argued that standardization would make it easier to monitor programs and guarantee quality across the city. The mandate also included training for teachers.

But People’s Early Childhood Education, an advocacy group of providers, Education Department staffers, and others, began organizing opposition to the mandate.

Some educators highlighted the contrast between The Creative Curriculum and Units of Study. The latter was translated into 11 languages and included New York City-specific lessons, such as a transportation unit covering subways and buses and a housing unit that highlighted apartments. The Creative Curriculum, meanwhile, is only available in English and Spanish, and educators said its units often felt generic.

“It doesn’t feel authentic,” said one longtime early childhood educator at a 2024 forum organized by Bank Street. “It just didn’t represent my kids.”

Educators noted that the pre-K Creative Curriculum repeated the same unit topics as the 3-K edition, leaving some kids disengaged.

Assessment system sparks ongoing concerns

Some educators who have used the curriculum for years said it became more regimented and less engaging after a private equity firm purchased Teaching Strategies.

The city Education Department has paid Teaching Strategies nearly $33 million since summer 2023, according to Checkbook NYC.

Particularly concerning for many teachers was the GOLD assessment system designed to accompany the curriculum. GOLD requires teachers to evaluate each child across dozens of different metrics three times a year and include evidence, such as observational notes, photos, or work samples, for each score. That could amount to over 1,000 entries every three months for a single class of 18, pre-K teacher Helen Frazier wrote for Chalkbeat in 2023. The system then automatically generates lesson plans and small-group activities based on those assessment results, several educators said.

“It was the antithesis of everything that is so positive about education,” said Alice Mulligan, the director of Our Saviours Lutheran Preschool in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Mulligan, a longtime contractor with the city Education Department, said she refused to comply with the city’s mandate, even after officials told her that her contract could be terminated.

An Education Department spokesperson said the agency is maintaining the requirement to use GOLD, regardless of which curriculum a program chooses, to keep a standardized way of measuring students’ progress across the city.

The list of other pre-approved curriculum options includes Units of Study, as well as Explorations, Let’s Play, and Connections, all created by the Education Department for younger kids, according to a document obtained by Chalkbeat. HighScope and Tools of the Mind, two other nationally-used curriculums, are also options, along with more specialized programs for kids learning English and kids with disabilities.

Montessori schools, which were previously required to use the Creative Curriculum, can also apply to switch back to the Montessori curriculum.

The curriculum mandate change moves the early childhood system in a different direction than K-12 schools, where Chancellor Kamar Samuels not only has kept existing literacy and math curriculum mandates in elementary and high schools, but has expanded them to new grades.

While a small number of high-performing elementary and high schools have received waivers from the literacy and math curriculum mandates, there’s no formal process for schools to apply or clear criteria by which the waivers are awarded.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

As more teen boys turn to sports betting, financial literacy teachers rush to show gambling’s real odds

2026-07-29T19:17:45+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Teenage boys are coming to school with new vocabulary words: over-under, parlay, and prediction markets.

They’re not just talking about gambling. They’re placing bets and hanging their hopes on the outcomes of football games.

Data obtained by Chalkbeat from GoGuardian, an education software company that provides institutions tools to block and restrict certain webpages, shows that the rate of sites blocked in its gambling, betting and fantasy sports category has increased nearly 30% since the company started tracking in 2022, from a low of 13.48 blocks per 1,000 students to 17.4 this year.

The company blocks roughly 140,000 attempts to access such sites on average every month — although that’s still a tiny fraction of the 86 million monthly attempts to access blocked content.

Teachers said they have seen a fixation with gambling take hold in their students, who show little awareness of gambling’s risks.

This surge in gambling has prompted some educators to bring in new concepts like sports betting to financial literacy classrooms. Massachusetts is developing a sports betting curriculum, and other states have added gambling awareness to their academic standards. But teachers also said they are still trying to get a handle on a growing problem.

“I don’t think anybody has a grasp on this problem,” said Matt Pierson, associate director with the Nebraska Council on Economic Education. “Now that we can gamify it with an app and make it so incredibly easy, the barrier to entry is gone.”

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for sports betting to become widely legal in 2018. A Siena University poll found 27% of Americans in February reported that they had an active online sportsbook account, up from 19% in 2024.

Though gambling is banned in most states for anyone under 21, teens have also found their way into sportsbooks, teachers said.

Richard Bryant, executive director of the Kentucky Financial Empowerment Commission, a nonprofit that offers financial literacy education across the state, said some students believe sports betting is equivalent to making a smart investment. In a 2025 NerdWallet survey, 31% of sports bettors said they viewed gambling as an investment.

“This is so detrimental to these kids’ financial literacy, where they’re trying to start out in the world, get a job, start earning money,” Bryant said.

Pierson said he can tell right away that teenagers, especially boys, are betting. In classroom visits where he makes financial literacy presentations, “they have the vocabulary of someone who’s very into sports betting,” he said. To students seeking instant money, sports betting can seem like a feasible option: If they monitor scores and watch enough, they can win.

And that’s where financial literacy education around gambling often starts: teaching students that life is unpredictable, Pierson said.

In one game, Pierson has students guess how many paper balls a student can throw into a trash can in 30 seconds over several rounds, to show the unpredictable nature of sports betting.

“These are human beings you’re betting on,” he said. “Have any of you had a bad day?”

Pierson and his colleagues have authored a three-lesson unit on sports betting and gambling for Federal Reserve Education, a collaborative among economics educators.

But like sex education, teachers are walking a fine line between stressing abstinence or a more moderate position — that it’s OK to gamble if you understand the risks and do so in moderation.

In Diane Thole’s financial literacy class at School of the Future in New York City, students have looked at the toll gambling stress can take on the body and mind — consequences as dramatic as heart and sleep problems. And she tries to get students thinking about wise investing, saving for retirement, and repaying student loans.

But she doesn’t say it’s not OK to gamble.

“I’m not going to be like, ‘hey, let’s all download an app and bet together,’” she said. “But you do have to think about the realism of the situation.”

Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org. Lily is on Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook.

At NYC’s first all-virtual high school, this award-winning teacher knows it’s not ‘one-size-fits-all’

2026-07-22T21:12:30+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Chemistry and earth science teacher Jude Julien helped launch New York City’s fully virtual high school four years ago, after more than two decades teaching in brick-and-mortar classrooms.

Julien was already comfortable with online learning before schools went remote during the pandemic. Besides teaching high school, he was an adjunct professor for the City University of New York, primarily for their virtual classes. So when the city’s Education Department tapped his principal at the Bronx High School for Writing and Communication Arts in 2022 to lead one of two new virtual high schools, Julien joined the effort.

The Virtual Innovators Academy (formerly known as A School Without Walls Virtual) is the city’s only all-virtual high school, and served more than 320 students last school year. (The city also opened a hybrid high school called A School Without Walls.)

“Every student brings different strengths, experiences, and obstacles into the classroom,” Julien said. “Whether I’m teaching in a traditional classroom, a virtual school, or mentoring other educators, my goal is the same: to help students see possibilities for themselves that they may not yet see and to give them the knowledge and confidence to pursue them.”

From his own experience, as the son of Haitian immigrants growing up in Brooklyn, attending public schools, and eventually studying chemical engineering at Columbia University before getting his Ph.D at Teacher College in science education, Julien believes that “learning isn’t one-size-fits-all.” His efforts to expand equitable access to STEM to diverse learners have won him much recognition: He has a Sloan Award for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics, was a Big Apple Award semi-finalist, and this year won Math for America’s prestigious Muller Award for Professional Influence in Education, which comes with $20,000 in prize money along with $5,000 to Julien’s school.

At the Virtual Innovators Academy, he enjoys watching his students grow from hesitant participants to confident learners engaging in scientific discussions.

“Those moments remind me that powerful teaching is less about the setting and more about creating opportunities for students to think deeply, collaborate, and recognize that their voices and ideas can make a difference,” Julien said.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

I decided to teach about a year after I graduated from college. I studied chemical engineering but I wasn’t exactly sure if I wanted to work in that field or if I should go to graduate school so my plan was to teach for a few years until I figured it out. I entered education through Teach for America and started teaching middle school math and science in the South Bronx.

I instantly enjoyed it and my experience and decided to continue teaching. I then started to work towards my Masters in Education and the rest has been history so to speak.

Tell us more about the Virtual Innovators Academy. What are some of the ways teaching there is different from your previous experience?

It serves students from all five boroughs whose needs and circumstances make a traditional setting a poor fit. Many of our students face social and personal challenges, so our work extends beyond delivering content. Some of our students have physical disabilities which make it difficult to access a physical site. Some students have underlying health conditions so the virtual option allows for more access. Some of our students have social and emotional challenges so they struggled in the larger school setting. Some of our students were initially homeschooled, and families wanted to access a more structured environment to deliver the content. Some of our students work and are caretakers, so the virtual option provides more flexibility. Some of our students simply preferred the virtual option and are comfortable learning online.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

One of my favorite lessons to teach is our project-based learning unit on climate change. Rather than simply learning about the science behind climate change, students investigate its causes and impacts and then work collaboratively to develop realistic, evidence-based solutions to a problem they identify. At the end of the unit, they present their proposals to the class, explaining the science behind their ideas and defending their recommendations with data.

What makes this project especially rewarding is that we do it entirely in a virtual environment. Students collaborate using shared digital workspaces, conduct research online, create multimedia presentations, and present their solutions live to their classmates. It demonstrates that meaningful, hands-on learning doesn’t require students to be in the same physical classroom. In fact, the technology often allows students to be even more creative in how they communicate their ideas.

I love this lesson because it transforms students from passive recipients of information into active problem-solvers. They see that science isn’t just about memorizing facts, it’s about using evidence, critical thinking, and creativity to address real-world challenges. The virtual format also helps students build important skills they’ll need beyond high school, including digital collaboration, communication, and presenting ideas in an online setting.

You’ve worked with incarcerated youth in the past? Do you still do that?

Yes. I volunteer as a math tutor with the Petey Greene Program, which partners with educational programs in correctional facilities and community organizations to expand educational opportunities for justice-impacted individuals.

Before the pandemic, I tutored at the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center in the Bronx, working with incarcerated men to strengthen their math skills and support their educational goals. When the pandemic changed how programs operated, my tutoring transitioned to a virtual format, where I worked with formerly incarcerated and justice-involved youth in the community.

That experience reinforced my belief that education can be a powerful pathway to opportunity and transformation. Regardless of a person’s background or circumstances, every student deserves access to high-quality instruction, encouragement, and someone who believes in their potential.

You’ve also long mentored other teachers. Why is that important to you?

I’ve been fortunate to have incredible mentors throughout my career. They challenged me, encouraged me, shared their expertise, and helped me become a better educator. I’ve always felt a responsibility to pay that forward.

Mentoring is also important because it ultimately benefits students. When teachers collaborate, share ideas, and learn from one another, everyone grows. Whether I’m working with new teachers, experienced colleagues, or fellow science educators through organizations like Math for America and the New York State Master Teacher Program, I enjoy helping others refine their practice while continuing to learn from them as well. Mentoring isn’t just about giving advice, it’s about building a professional community where we all become better educators together.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I attended New York City public schools, and they opened doors that changed the course of my life. As the son of Haitian immigrants growing up in Brooklyn, education represented opportunity. I was fortunate to have teachers who believed in me, challenged me, and encouraged me to pursue goals that sometimes felt beyond my reach. Their influence ultimately led me to study chemical engineering at Columbia University before finding my true calling in education.

Those experiences shape my work every day. I never assume that a student’s current circumstances define their potential. I’ve seen firsthand how a caring teacher, high expectations, and meaningful opportunities can change a young person’s trajectory. That’s why I strive to create a classroom where students feel supported, challenged, and capable of succeeding.

And finally, how do you plan to use the prize money from the Muller Award?

I’m planning to be practical with it. I’ll save a significant portion, pay down some bills, and invest in my financial future. At the same time, I also want to enjoy it a little. I love to travel, so I’d like to use part of the award to take a memorable trip, and maybe treat myself to a few things I normally wouldn’t.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

This Brooklyn teacher connects chemistry to the real world — and just won $25,000 for it

2026-06-29T21:18:08+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Rayhan Ahmed, a Brooklyn high school chemistry and environmental science teacher, knows that the human brain is wired to care about people and their stories, not formulas and equations.

That’s why at Gotham Professional Arts Academy High School, where he’s spent the past eight out of his 22 years teaching, he created a curriculum for his ninth and 10th graders that is attached to human experiences and rooted in fieldwork and field trips focused on critical social and environmental issues. It explores topics such as the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (known as PFAS) contamination, and nuclear energy.

“Absolutely, my students run experiments on corrosive inhibitors, analyze data, and write scientific papers,” Ahmed said. “But that learning became deeper when we went to Flint to hear people describe waking up early to stand in line for bottled water. It wasn’t abstract any more because there were faces and stories attached to the chemistry.”

(Since his school is part of the New York Performance Standards Consortium, where students complete performance-based assessments instead of taking Regents exams, Ahmed has been able to create his own project-based learning curriculum.)

Ahmed was one of six grand prize winners for this year’s prestigious FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence, which comes with a $25,000 cash prize for the winning teacher and a $10,000 grant for their school. He plans to use the money to take the 14 kids in his advisory “crew” that he’s been with for four years hiking in the mountains. (He’ll also use it for a family road trip, visiting as many major league baseball ballparks as possible this summer.)

But even this award-winning teacher is worried about the encroachment of artificial intelligence and how it’s affecting the prompt he uses as the heart of his classroom: “What do you do with an idea?”

“What I’m seeing now is that students are using AI to bypass the intellectual and emotional struggle of learning that is required to address this question,” he said. “This is really forcing me to ask what learning is for. What is the kind of learning that I’m trying to protect and what kinds of people am I hoping my students become?”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

For years, I told myself a pretty simple story about how I became a teacher. It was just a temporary job that I’d do for a couple of years, get some experience, and head off to graduate school and move on with my life. It turns out that wasn’t the story.

My first teaching job was in the Eight-Plus Program in the South Bronx, where I taught math and science to 15- to 17-year-old kids who were too old to be in eighth grade but had not met the promotional criteria for high school. The recruiter placed me at the site because “they needed the bodies.” He said “most teachers didn’t make it until Thanksgiving.” (Side note: He was wrong because two teachers left after Christmas!)

In my time there, I saw grit, humor, resilience, and intelligence. These students carried more on their shoulders than I did as a recent college grad!

I ultimately did leave for graduate school. I mostly did research in a lab, and I deeply missed being around teenagers every day. A couple of years in, I was at a conference about protein folding and my phone rang. My former student was stuck on quadratic equations. I stepped outside, found a quiet spot in the woods, and we worked through the problem together. This call reminded me where I belonged. So I came back into the classroom.

Tell us about the curriculum you’ve developed, and why you decided to create it.

What excites me most is creating opportunities for my students to do work that matters to them, their communities, and to the world around them and to see what happens when we trust young people with real work.

One year I had a group of students concerned about the environmental and health impacts of fracking. They analyzed scientific evidence, designed experiments, interviewed experts, wrote policy recommendations, and eventually traveled to Washington, D.C., to present their findings to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s office.

Not long afterward, New York enacted a historic ban on fracking!

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

My favorite “lesson” is really when my students realize their work matters beyond the classroom. In my ninth-grade environmental science class, I teach an expedition on PFAS, which are what are commonly called “forever chemicals.” Here, students start out thinking that they are doing just a regular chemistry class, with labs where all the answers are known. But pretty quickly, they’ve come up with questions about their water, communities, and the consequences of PFAS in their lives that I can’t answer. No one can just yet.

We were at Hudson Yards doing a PFAS community assessment survey and happened to run into Stienjte Vanveldhoven, minister of climate policy and green growth of the Netherlands, who told my students about her international work with PFAS and how she called on the European Union to restrict all PFAS, except for uses of the chemicals deemed essential.

Now, they’ve got more questions. Before they know it, we’re headed to Dartmouth to talk to Professor Celia Chen, an expert in PFAS. And I’m on a call with Reyhan Mehran, a regional resource coordinator at NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration, about using Jamaica Bay as a potential research site and offering practical support to make it happen. (Toshiba awarded us a $10,000 grant to study this!) And now they are thinking they are capable of contributing to problems adults haven’t solved yet!

You brought the first AP course to your school. Why was that so important?

One of the Peloton instructors I like to ride with always says, “The most powerful thing anyone can say to us is what we say to ourselves.” At Gotham, I’ve worked with the guidance team to expand those stories.

Over the last eight years, we’ve taken kids on overnight college visits. Over a student’s four years at Gotham, they’ve visited more than 25 campuses, from local schools to places like Dartmouth, Cornell, and Williams. Our seniors take a hybrid college course with Williams. We’ve organized our annual College March, where our entire school community celebrates graduating seniors and their postsecondary plans. This year, two of my advisees are attending Smith and Hobart and William Smith on full scholarships. Another student is on track to join UA Local 1 ( the plumbers union). The label “Advanced Placement” is another way of sending the message to students to see themselves differently. For many of our students, especially first-generation college-bound students, that message is really powerful.

Is your educational experience connected to why you mentor early career educators through the NYC Men Teach program (which aims to get more men of color into teaching)?

My parents are immigrants to this country. I grew up in Astoria, Queens, and went to New York City public schools, including going to high school at Brooklyn Tech. Tech is a huge school with large classes and it’s easy to get lost, but for students, like me, who thrived there, it opens tremendous opportunities and a pathway to the middle class. It’s important to me that schools are places of opportunity for our students, including opportunities to learn and grow, to interact with ideas and people that are new and different. Part of that is having a diverse teaching workforce that is reflective of the student population. That belief is connected to why I mentored early-career educators through NYC Men Teach.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Most kindergartners who start school behind never reach proficiency: study

2026-06-25T04:36:58+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Just 1 in 10 kindergartners who start school at the bottom of their class in reading and math skills is proficient by third grade.

This finding comes from a new analysis of MAP reading and math scores from the testing organization NWEA. It aligns with a large body of research that finds that many educational gaps are already present in kindergarten and remain stubbornly persistent throughout children’s educational careers.

The finding is “depressing,” acknowledges Megan Kuhfeld, NWEA director of growth modeling and data analytics, but it should not be taken as reason to give up or assume schools can’t change students’ trajectories.

“The key story for me in these findings is that early intervention matters, and if we just wait until third grade to get a signal of where kids are, we’re missing probably the most important window when we can do something about it,” Kuhfeld said.

The analysis released Thursday relies on MAP reading and math test scores from more than 400,000 students who started kindergarten in the 2021-22 school year. Unlike the National Assessment of Educational Progress, students who take MAP tests are not a carefully selected representative sample. But they come from similar demographic backgrounds as American students as a whole, and the sample is larger than NAEP.

Students in participating districts take MAP tests in the fall and spring of each year, providing insights into their growth over the course of the school year and over time. NWEA found that many students made progress relative to their starting point. Conversely, not all students who started out at the top of their class stayed there.

But among students in the bottom fifth of their kindergarten class at the start of the school year, just 10% were proficient in math by third grade and just 13.9% were proficient in reading. For students who were still in the bottom 20% at the end of first grade, just 2% — 1 in 50 — were proficient by third grade.

Students who read poorly at the end of third grade often struggle for the rest of their schooling because they’re expected to use reading to learn every other subject. Elementary math skills, meanwhile, form the building blocks for more advanced work in middle and high school.

Most states start standardized testing in third grade, limiting insight into how students are doing in the early grades. Many states have kindergarten readiness screeners, though, and more states have adopted early literacy screeners as part of science of reading policies.

Kuhfeld said that reflects growing awareness of how important those early years are. But an attitude of “they don’t know it now but they’ll learn it soon, so you don’t need to worry about this too much” remains widespread, she said. The data suggests that “if you’re off track in kindergarten, that means you’re likely going to be off track in later grades,” and schools should act with urgency.

Kindergarten readiness varies widely by income, new data shows. Cities are stepping in to help.

What, exactly, those interventions should be is a complicated question without clear answers. Many states have invested in preschool and high-quality childcare, yet some studies show the effects of preschool can fade over time. Some states like Louisiana and Mississippi have shown progress in early reading and math. Other states that have adopted science of reading policies have not seen similar progress, at least not yet.

NWEA is planning additional analysis of the effect of science of reading policies in states where its tests are widely used. Kuhfeld said teachers should not be expected to solve these longstanding problems on their own, but she believes training and high-quality instruction can move the needle.

Douglas Ready, a Teachers College, Columbia University professor who has studied inequality and the effects of schooling, said researchers have long known about large inequalities at the start of kindergarten and so have teachers, even if just anecdotally. The “glass half empty” view is that schools aren’t doing much to solve inequality, he said.

But there’s also a “glass half full” view, that disadvantages pile up for children in poverty before they even arrive at school, and schools can stop these inequalities from getting worse.

Averages also obscure important stories of success and failure, he said.

“Hidden within these data are schools that are doing amazing things, schools that are closing these gaps,” he said. “And there are schools that are making the gaps worse.”

The growing use of early assessments, including those on which NWEA based its analysis, can serve as a “clarion call” for the public and policymakers to understand just how large a job schools are inheriting from society, Ready said.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Blending algebra and geometry: An approach to high school math slowly gains favor

2026-06-23T10:16:00+00:00

This story about integrated math was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

In James Bell’s math class at Chapman High School, sophomores are trying to pinpoint exactly where two lines cross.

The students in this rural Kansas high school already solved for that meeting point in previous lessons, using graphs and other techniques. But this recent lesson shows them how to use a matrix: a box made up of rows and columns representing a system of equations. Matrices are often used in engineering or video game design to calculate the locations of two objects moving through space.

Traditionally, this kind of complex linear algebra would be taught in the third year of high school math, when many students would take Algebra II. But a decade ago, the Chapman Unified School District, a rural district about 80 miles west of Topeka, Kansas, decided to drop the traditional high school math pathway — Algebra I for a year, followed by a year of geometry and then a year of Algebra II — in favor of what is called “integrated math.”

Integrated math takes concepts from both algebras and geometry, plus a little from trigonometry — the study of triangles and angles — and blends them over multiple years instead of teaching them separately, a year at a time. That means students can move from lessons in geometry to algebra and back again within the same year.

Bell, who helped write the math curriculum that Chapman High School uses, said he has seen how practicing both algebra and geometry throughout the year keeps them fresh in students’ minds.

Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education.

“You’re going to have the opportunity to change course and change direction and see different things,” Bell said. “Students even do a little trig, which is a scary word for kids, but when it’s integrated into every year of math, it doesn’t sound as scary. It doesn’t make it as overwhelming.”

He added: “This is better for students. This is the best of both worlds.”

Chapman is part of a small group of districts and states moving to integrated math — all part of a larger movement to reimagine secondary math, give high schoolers more choice in courses, and modernize what some say are outdated ideas about what constitutes rigorous, college-level math by expanding course options beyond just calculus to include data science and statistics.

Some experts say blending algebra and geometry gives more students a shot at learning high-level math later on in high school and college, touting high-achieving European and Asian countries that have taught integrated math for decades.

But others say the integrated approach creates new problems. Some teachers have objected, saying they prefer to focus solely on algebra or geometry. Georgia mandated an integrated math approach in 2008 but made it optional in 2015 after teachers and parents complained.

Others worry that integrated courses sometimes have to drop concepts that would be taught in the traditional math progression of Algebra I, geometry, and Algebra II. That might leave some students unprepared for college calculus, because the integrated approach doesn’t stick with one subject for long enough for students to fully digest it.

In Chapman, where integrated math was installed along with other reforms, students went from 11% proficient to 41% proficient on the state math test the first year it was introduced, in 2015. In 2025, 67% scored proficient.

James Bell says integrated math seems to help his students understand math concepts better as they prepare for higher levels and the statewide tests.

Kate Thornton, Chapman High’s principal, said the decision to move to integrated math had a lot to do with the Kansas state high school math test, which is administered in 10th grade. Many of the test questions were based on concepts from both Algebra I and II.

Advanced students who took Algebra I in eighth grade and geometry the following year did well on the test, she said, but “regular students were not getting those concepts because they were taking geometry as sophomores. So they were having a whole year with no algebraic involvement.”

Workforce focus drives adoption of integrated math

Integrated math still makes up only a fraction of high school math courses nationwide. A 2023 report from the Center for Education Market Dynamics noted that about 16% of districts offer integrated math either alone or as an option alongside the traditional Algebra I-geometry Algebra II progression, often referred to as A-G-A. California and other Western states were seeing the most growth at the time of the report, based on the organization’s sample of over 900 districts around the country.

But more districts have adopted integrated math since that report, said Lora Kaiser, the executive director of the center. “From 22-23 to 25-26, we’ve seen growth in every region outside of the Midwest, which showed a very modest decline. The West region, and California specifically, show most growth,” said Lora Kaiser, the executive director of the center. She also noted that fewer districts are offering a choice between the AGA and integrated models — instead, they are only offering integrated math to their students.

This state tried to overhaul math instruction. It didn’t go as planned

One factor driving the move to integrated math is the nationwide push to update high school mathematics for postsecondary education and the modern workforce. The Launch Years Initiative at the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, for example, is helping 27 states rework their transition from high school to postsecondary mathematics, mainly through offering more math options to students than the algebra, geometry, precalculus, and calculus courses that have dominated high school math for decades.

Blending algebra and geometry courses can give students more room in their schedules to take other courses like data science or statistics, concepts that are very present in people’s everyday lives. Students take integrated math in ninth and 10th grade and then have the option of pursuing different math paths in 11th and 12th grades.

Lya Snell, director of building capacity for innovation at the Dana Center, said the A-G-A sequence is familiar to many and people are used to that framework. However, “where we are right now with tech and innovation is a lot different than where we’ve been before. We have to look at how we are preparing students for life today and in the future, and it requires us to create a more relevant experience.”

One state tried algebra for all eighth graders. It hasn’t gone well

Maryland, one of the states working with the Dana Center, is rolling out a two-year course of integrated algebra and geometry that will be required statewide beginning in the fall of 2027.

State leaders hope integrated math bolsters student achievement — only 30% of high schoolers scored proficient in math on the most recent state exam.

Lyndsey Brightful, the director of mathematics in the division of instructional programs at the Maryland State Department of Education, said the previous math progression didn’t align with the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the 2021 state law providing extra funding to accelerate flagging student achievement.

Maryland now expects students to be ready for college-level math by 11th grade, which means condensing “the most essential content and concepts” from Algebra I, geometry, and Algebra II into the first two years of high school, she said.

“We had sort of a mismatch in our math progression,” Brightful said. “If we wanted students to be ready for an entry-level college math course by grade 11, then we needed students to be finished with their foundational math skills by the end of 10th grade. With the traditional Algebra I-geometry-Algebra I progression, that was not true for on-grade-level students. It required acceleration.”

After students have completed two years of integrated math, Maryland will offer them multiple pathways of what it calls rigorous, college-level math courses beginning in 11th grade, including calculus, college algebra, data science, and statistics. Students will also have access to high school data science, discrete mathematics, and AP and IB math courses. For decades, the calculus pathway was considered the only choice for advanced and STEM students, but even top universities are now saying it’s “not the only advanced math,” she said.

“Higher-level statistics is advanced math. Data science is advanced math,” Brightful said. “For students who are going into humanities majors, or even in some cases students who are going into nursing or business majors, they need to have strong math application skills or statistics skills, so pursuing other math pathways is still advanced.”

Talk nerdy to me: Teachers who use math vocabulary help students do better in math

Brightful said the state is currently working with community colleges and the University of Maryland system to align admission requirements with the revised pathways. Currently, the state system requires four years of math for admissions, including Algebra I, geometry, and Algebra II. Ideally, the state’s university system would accept the two-year integrated math course in place of the three years of A-G-A, Brightful said.

Because integrated math can cover a range of math topics over different time frames — states like Maryland are only offering two years, while districts like Chapman offer three or four years, depending on whether students choose to take calculus — it’s hard to determine whether the approach makes a difference in student achievement or helps more students with other goals, like succeeding at college-level math.

Some states reconsidering integrated math approach

Some states have seen gains they believe are tied to the integrated approach. Mike Spencer, secondary math specialist at the Utah State Board of Education, cites the state’s move to three years of integrated math a decade ago as one factor among many contributing to Utah students’ consistently strong math performance on both the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the ACT.

“Some of the value in integrated math is you see things come up each year, versus having gaps in some of that content knowledge,” Spencer said. “And when it’s done well, you make connections” between topics.

In integrated math courses like the one taught at Chapman High School, students typically learn a blend of algebra and geometry concepts in the same class, rather than separately.

California, on the other hand, hasn’t seen the same testing improvement. Even after more than a decade of districts using integrated math, only 37% of California students are proficient in math according to state tests, lagging behind most states.

Research on implementing integrated math — at least in the complicated U.S. context — is relatively limited, said University of Florida education policy researcher Elizabeth Huffaker. A 2015 study, for example, showed that teacher effectiveness may improve while teaching integrated math.

Huffaker recently examined California districts to compare students who took integrated math to students in the traditional math pathway. Her just-published study showed a “small and positive” effect on 11th grade test scores among students who took integrated math, but she said this has to be taken with a grain of salt: Districts were also implementing Common Core math at the same time. The gains were equivalent to two to three months of high school math learning, about the same effect as Common Core implementation, Huffaker’s study showed.

“I would not make this change expecting giant, transformative, high-impact-tutoring-type impacts,” Huffaker said. The costs of switching to integrated math may well outweigh the benefits, she said, “but I do think that the idea of creating more coherence and more opportunities to revisit key topics is sensible.”

Is AP Calculus pointless? A teacher defends his subject.

But many educators find aspects of integrated math frustrating. Students may not be getting the message that higher-level traditional math like trigonometry and calculus is still essential for college STEM majors, especially at selective schools. David Merryman, a professor of biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said the handful of students he’s advised over the years who arrived at Vanderbilt without high school calculus were completely lost in their first-year math courses.

And even if integrated math courses promise they are covering trigonometry woven in with geometry and algebra concepts, Merryman is not sure it’s enough to really prepare students for the rigors of college engineering courses.

“The kids who come to my class and are weak in trig, they struggle,” Merryman said. “For the non-STEM students, integrated math is probably great — you get a better understanding of how everything relates to each other. I don’t think it serves kids who’re going into STEM.”

Ben Kitchl, a first-year global studies major at Loyola University in Chicago, briefly thought about being a STEM major early in high school. But his eighth grade Algebra I credit wouldn’t transfer to his new high school that only offered integrated math, and he had to start over, putting him behind.

“I had to take Integrated Math II and III, even though I already knew a lot of it,” he said. He would have had to take two math courses in one year in order to make it to calculus his senior year.

It’s some of these tensions that are causing some states, including high-performing Utah, to revisit their integrated math requirement. Even some teachers are questioning it.

“A lot of our veteran teachers, they’re the ones who say, ‘Oh, I miss teaching the A-G-A format, of being compartmentalized a little bit,” Spencer said. The state education agency plans to survey secondary teachers for their thoughts on the integrated model compared to the traditional math sequence and report back to the board of education on its findings.

In North Carolina, which like Utah has a three-year progression, the state board of education is also revisiting integrated math, looking into a possible two years of choice like Maryland to make more time for statistics and data science. Emily Hare, the director of pre-K-12 math at Guilford County Schools, said attitudes are slowly shifting away from what she called the “race to calculus.”

“I think that we have proven that the integrated pathway can work. I also think that sometimes folks think that it’s a little more different than what it is,” Hare said. “Sometimes, yes, you have the opportunity to mix algebra and geometry, but it’s not like we’re teaching different math. It’s just teaching it in a different order.”

Correction: This story has been updated to correct Emily Hare’s affiliation. She works for Guilford County Schools, not the North Carolina State Board of Education.

Contact editor Christina Samuels at 212-678-3635 or samuels@hechingerreport.org.

An NYC student was ashamed of his antisemitic thoughts. This fellowship helped him resist prejudice.

2026-06-09T22:48:23+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Can a program for New York City high school students designed to fight hate change hearts and minds?

For Matthew Canzius, a sophomore at Hillcrest High School in Queens, the answer is yes.

During his freshman year, he saw the fallout on social media from Israel’s bombardments of the Gaza strip, following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas. And he grappled with having antisemitic thoughts while attending a school with several Jewish teachers.

Those thoughts “made me feel ashamed in a way,” Matthew told Chalkbeat. Recognizing they came from a place of ignorance, he applied for the fellowship.

As part of a yearlong Combat Hate Fellowship, Matthew joined 26 other students from five New York City high schools designed to help them recognize — and confront — antisemitism, racism, and other forms of hate. They visited cultural institutions, at each stop hearing from speakers who shared personal stories of facing injustice. They participated in facilitated conversations exploring their own identities and experiences. And they later gave workshops in their own schools about hate and how to be an upstander in the face of bullying and harassment.

“This isn’t something that I usually like to share out publicly,” Matthew told the crowd of students and educators gathered at the fellowship’s year-end celebration last month in midtown Manhattan, “but I’d say that I used to think in a way that was more based on prejudice.” After nine months in the program, he believes he gained “a sense of deeper empathy.”

The fellowship is a partnership between the anti-hate organization Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation and the New Visions High School District, the city’s largest high school network that serves 37,000 students, including those at Hillcrest. Now in its second year, the fellowship is largely funded by the City Council.

It comes at a time that New York City middle and high school students say they’re seeing and experiencing more bullying related to identity. Roughly 40% of New York City middle and high school students last year reported seeing classmates bullied or harassed based on race, ethnicity, religion, or immigration status, according to annual school survey data. That was up from 30% in 2019.

In terms of documented incidents, the city has started to see a downward trend. Schools reported roughly 700 incidents related to ethnicity or national origin in the 2024-25 school year, down nearly 15% from the year before, according to public data. There were nearly 320 reports related to religion last year, down about 56% from the 2023-24 school year.

In the seven months following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas and subsequent bombing by Israel on Gaza, former schools Chancellor David Banks reported that out of the 281 incidents of religious bias in city schools, 42% involved antisemitism and 30% were directed against Muslim students.

One of the highest profile incidents took place at Hillcrest High School in November 2023 — a year before Matthew enrolled there — when students rioted in the halls after seeing a health teacher’s pro-Israel social media post.

The school has changed principals since then and made other changes. And in the spring, members of the fellowship gave presentations to their peers at the school. They also created a video raising awareness about cyberbullying for their final presentation for the program.

“From day one, I knew that confronting hate in our schools wasn’t optional, it was essential,” said Noah Angeles, the superintendent of New Visions who took over the network in 2024, not long after the clash at Hillcrest.

Creating safe spaces for hard conversations

At the fellows’ first stop in October, the students toured an Anne Frank exhibit at the Center for Jewish History and met with Leo Ullman, a Holocaust survivor who was hidden as a baby from the Nazis by a non-Jewish family in the Netherlands. Their last trip was to the Islamic Cultural Center, where they met Mohammad Ravzi, who became a prominent advocate for Muslim New Yorkers after 9/11.

In between, they visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.; El Museo del Barrio; the Stonewall National Monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history; and the Museum of Chinese in America.

Jack Simony, Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation director general, left, interviews Holocaust survivor Leo Ullman during the Combat Hate Fellows' trip to an exhibit on Anne Frank at the Center for Jewish History on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025.

Meeting speakers who experienced hate and hearing how they were affected but were able to “push through despite that hate,” was eye-opening for Matthew.

He said it helped him “learn and grow as a person, from seeing all these people who experienced such horrific acts, or horrific acts of prejudice still continue to thrive and try and help the society.”

Chayanika Chakravorty, another Hillcrest sophomore, also felt transformed by hearing people’s stories.

“I feel like a new whole world opened up to me, like things that I never even knew existed,” she said.

After the Anne Frank exhibit, she felt a deeper understanding of what happened to Jewish people in Nazi Germany, and said it resonated with her as a Hindu from Bangladesh, where most people are Muslim.

About Ullman, she said, “not a lot of people have that mentality, that strength in their head, and seeing someone like that really inspires me to do the exact same thing.”

Angeles said he wanted to build a program to foster that kind of empathy rooted in experiential learning through the city’s diversity and cultural institutions.

In talking to students across the city, Angeles saw they were hungry to discuss world events but needed the space to do so.

“The adults didn’t always want to talk about it, because it could be controversial, and people are afraid,” he told Chalkbeat in October.

Jack Simony, Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation director general, said that creating a peer-to-peer model felt essential.

“You can’t tell people not to hate. It doesn’t come top down, it comes bottom up,” he said.

Officials across the five boroughs have been trying to find school-based solutions. The Education Department has continued to develop its “hidden voices” history program, featuring stories of figures overlooked by traditional textbooks, including lessons on Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans. The department last school year also launched an anti-hate hotline (718-935-2889) to anonymously report incidents related to hate, harassment, and discrimination.

A City Council task force to combat hate recently issued recommendations, including expanding arts programs that expose students to current events and diverse perspectives, and ensuring that teachers have the resources and training to connect historical context to current events.

The committee also suggested funding peer educator “train-the-trainer” programs for restorative justice interventions in the 15 schools with the highest rates of student-to-student bullying, harassment, and discrimination.

Marcia Cudjoe-Forrest, a Hillcrest special education and global studies teacher who was the adviser for her school’s Combat Hate fellows like Matthew, believes what happened in 2023 at her school exposed the need for students to dive into the stories of other cultures to help them see “we have a lot more similarities than differences.”

She’d like to see more spaces for kids, not just in her school, where they can have these kinds of conversations.

“We can always agree to disagree,” Cudjoe-Forrest said, “but we have to agree to at least learn, listen, and understand.”

Correction: June 9, 2026: Only the New Visions High School District is involved in the fellowship, not its partner organization, New Visions for Public Schools, as the article initially stated.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

An upper Manhattan mom was tired of screen time. She convinced 38 schools to take a ‘screen break.’

2026-05-22T21:42:47+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Amid a growing backlash against screen time use in and out of school, one upper Manhattan mom is starting a week-long initiative to help parents and educators limit devices and educational technology in the classroom and at home.

Olympia Kazi, the parent of a third and fifth grader, enlisted the support of her superintendent to convince the 38 elementary and middle schools serving more than 10,000 students in her local school district to cut out screens and offer more recess — as much as possible — next week.

Dubbed “Screen Break,” the week-long pilot program for Manhattan’s District 6, spanning Washington Heights and Inwood, also encourages families to ditch screens and come together as a community, offering a lineup of activities after school and on the two days off. (Monday is Memorial Day, and Wednesday is Eid). She suggests parents and guardians organize book clubs and documentary screenings about the risks of overexposure to screens, providing a list of resources, in English and Spanish, to get them started.

The surgeon general’s office this week raised the alarm about the dangers of screen time for young people, linking various health concerns to excessive time online, including anxiety, depression, poor sleep, and alcohol use.

Across the nation, families are fighting back against screens and ed tech in their children’s schools. In Los Angeles, the parent-led Schools Beyond Screens coalition helped push the school district to come up with a proposal that may include a total screen ban until second grade and other limits by age. Iowa recently passed a law limiting screens in schools. And in New York City, in addition to a grassroots surge of families calling for an AI moratorium in schools, parents on local Community Education Councils are taking action. The council in East Harlem’s District 4 last week passed a resolution to set school screen time limits based on age (and calls for strengthening student privacy protections).

“I think parents are seeing the consequences: privacy issues, lack of alignment of computerized assessments with better outcomes, and the mental health studies,” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a neuroscientist and president of District 4’s Community Education Council.

Ultimately, Kazi hopes her Screen Break pilot will give families and educators an opportunity to pause and have some conversations about how prevalent screens have become in education since the COVID pandemic. And she wants to hear from schools afterward about what worked and what didn’t to help fine tune the program for next year.

“I think what happened with the pandemic is we were all rushed. It was an emergency,” said Kazi, a community advocate and former nonprofit leader whose children attend P.S. 187. “Things changed, and the things haven’t been evaluated to understand: What is working and what isn’t working? What is worthwhile keeping and what shouldn’t be kept?”

An effort to replace screens with other activities

The seeds for Screen Break week were planted when Kazi fired off a March 12 email to her superintendent, Renzo Martinez, and New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, telling them she didn’t want to lament about screen time in schools but wanted to do something “positive.” Her original idea was for a fully screen-free week with double recess, but she later realized the approach needed more flexibility based on schools’ needs. (She’s upset that her kids’ school, like many schools, only has 20 minutes of daily recess, and during inclement weather, they spend it inside watching movies or videos.)

To her surprise, Martinez agreed to work with her on the initiative, and together, they pitched it to the local Community Education Council.

Martinez handled the school side of things, explaining the initiative to principals, while Kazi focused on family engagement and lining up community activities, she said. On Tuesday, for instance, she curated “book fest,” where the Washington Heights New York Public Library branch will do read-alouds in the garden of the Morris Jumel Mansion, and Uptown Stories will offer writing games. The Fountain Bookshop and Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria will have book giveaways. And there’s an improv class for all ages, in English and Spanish at The People’s Theater.

Martinez did not respond for comment, but after this story initially published, Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said the city “empowers our superintendents and school communities to make decisions that best reflect the needs and priorities of their students and families.”

Kazi wanted to make it easy for families and schools to participate, which is why she chose a three-day school week after state testing ended.

For her own family, Kazi hadn’t allowed her 10-year-old son to play video games, so she was incensed when she learned that his school used Prodigy Math, a game-based learning tool, in class. She was even angrier when she learned that the company also had a paid account option. She didn’t want her son to be exposed in school to a company with a commercial interest or put a burden on families who couldn’t afford accounts. But instead of complaining, she preferred to find a way to broaden the conversation.

“I’m a big believer in public schools and to show to everybody that these are our schools,” Kazi said. “We can make them what we want them to be as long as we do the work.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Millions of students use i-Ready. But many parents view it as a villain in the ed tech fight.

2026-05-19T17:02:53+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

If you talk to an American parent about technology in the classroom, one brand of software comes up again and again: i-Ready.

The software provides digital instruction that promises a “personalized” learning experience to identify students for intervention. It also has interim assessments that aim to monitor student progress. And to keep students engaged with instruction, it uses cutesy animations of cats and aliens to coax students along.

All of that might sound straightforward. But Stuart Day is exasperated with i-Ready — on behalf of himself and his kid.

“It’s just a bunch of digital busy work,” said Day, the father of an elementary-age student in northwestern Pennsylvania. “And he doesn’t like it. He gets really stressed out about it.”

The resistance to i-Ready mirrors a growing resistance to much of the technology that’s made it into American classrooms. It’s an easy target, from the “i” at the start of its name to its backing by private equity. But i-Ready is also widespread in classrooms; roughly one-third of American students use it, according to Curriculum Associates, the software company behind i-Ready. The software’s detractors argue it subjects kids to excruciatingly repetitive lessons and practice exercises. Some parents, educators, and researchers are now skeptical that there’s solid evidence to justify having their kids use i-Ready.

Parents in Los Angeles and the District of Columbia have fought against their districts’ contracts with Curriculum Associates. One parent has filed a lawsuit against the software, claiming Curriculum Associates improperly shares student data, a claim the company denies.

In response to these mounting criticisms, Curriculum Associates claims its products are backed up by a solid library of evidence. The company’s leaders also deny that it should be the villain it’s been made out to be, even as they acknowledge it might not always be used as intended.

“We believe student outcomes are the only metric that matters,” wrote Kelly Sia, the company’s CEO, in a widely shared LinkedIn post in April. “That means being clear-eyed about how our programs are used and whether that time is purposeful, connected to instruction, and supporting student growth.”

But such messages aren’t likely to halt complaints about ed tech that involve everything from a lack of independent research to data privacy and students’ grievances.

Beyond those concerns, Day believes i-Ready has helped turn the American school day into something unrecognizable.

“When I was in school, I remember there were student computers. We didn’t take them home, like they do now … you couldn’t surf the web with them or anything,” he said. “I guess in my mind, that’s what I thought student computers were today, but they’re not like that.”

Parents worry i-Ready leaves kids stuck academically

Some of i-Ready’s presence can be credited to the pandemic’s aftermath.

Though the software has been around since 2011, many schools adopted it during a push for more periodic assessment, in order to track how students were recovering academically after the disruptions caused by COVID. More than a dozen states list i-Ready as a state-approved assessment or instructional material.

But in Facebook groups and elsewhere, some parents have expressed at least two concerns about the software that might be related: its reliance on game-like experiences, and whether it accurately captures where students stand academically.

Kelly Clancy, a parent in New York City, thought it was odd when her 8-year-old tested two grades behind in math on i-Ready’s software. When she asked her daughter what was going on, the answer had nothing to do with math. Clancy’s daughter liked the noise an animated alien made when she got a problem wrong. So she intentionally botched the questions.

“My daughter was enjoying the process of making these aliens look sad and make this funny sad noise,” Clancy said.

That echoes complaints several other parents shared with Chalkbeat that they didn’t like i-Ready in part because their child tested below the level they thought their child would.

Those worries might speak to a broader issue in education in which parents overestimate their child’s academic performance. But Clancy and other parents and teachers also express frustration that they can’t control the sequence of instruction or questions the software generates. The i-Ready algorithm is meant to offer up more practice for students when they struggle, meeting them where they’re at academically. But parents said their students ended up getting the same problems over and over again.

In short, Clancy calls it a “blackbox” algorithm that makes kids frustrated.

Not every parent or kid hates i-Ready. On Facebook, some parents espouse the benefits of mandating their kids practice i-Ready to grow academically, akin to the way parents relied on Hooked on Phonics in the 1990s.

Ty Holmes, chief impact officer at Curriculum Associates, told Chalkbeat that criticisms that i-Ready improperly gamifies learning are overwrought. Holmes said i-Ready creates incentives to keep students engaged, just like teachers do when they give out gold stars to certain students.

“i-Ready is a tool that they use for very specific and targeted reasons, and the overall sort of design of the classroom is still a human endeavor,” he said.

Research debate highlights broader concerns about ed tech

Evaluations by Johns Hopkins University scholars of i-Ready’s personalized instruction programs highlight debates about the research basis for the software, as well as for ed tech in general.

The research, paid for by Curriculum Associates, found some promising results in math for students using i-Ready’s personalized instruction program compared with those just using the program’s diagnostic assessment. The results showed fewer benefits in reading.

“It provides some suggestion that there can be gains from i-Ready, but certainly not a sufficient evidence base to just blanket adopt i-Ready in school,” said Steven Ross, one of the 2022 evaluations’ authors and a professor at Johns Hopkins’ school of education.

The Johns Hopkins study is part of a body of research commissioned by Curriculum Associates. Critics say this research cannot be considered independent because the company paid for it, a common issue in the ed tech industry.

The amount of funding from the federal government available to study educational products with true independence would maybe cover 5% of all products, Ross said. The only alternative is for companies to commission independent parties for reviews, he added.

But Jared Cooney Horvath, one of ed tech’s biggest critics and a neuroscientist who runs LME Global, an education consulting firm, says the lack of peer-reviewed research or randomized controlled trials to measure i-Ready’s efficacy is a glaring concern.

“If one of the most widely used tools in American education operates without an evidential base, this signals a broader problem with how we evaluate EdTech,” Cooney Horvath wrote in a March blog post. “Somewhere along the way, we stopped asking, ‘Does this actually help students learn?’— or perhaps we never seriously considered this question in the first place.”

Pressure mounts on school boards to reconsider i-Ready

Scores of parents at big school districts across the country pressuring school boards to rethink school’s use of iReady.

In D.C., a councilmember has proposed legislation that would compel city leaders to reconsider the district’s $1.5 million contract for i-Ready. And the Los Angeles Unified School District will audit the software after local backlash.

Washoe County, Nevada’s school board recently considered renewing its contract for i-Ready for three years. But in May, the board reversed course and renewed it for just one after receiving about two dozen messages from parents and educators. Board members said they wanted to study student outcomes and screen time to see if they justified the cost of a longer contract.

Calen Evans, president of the district’s labor union, said teachers are frustrated that students spend roughly 30 minutes a week using i-Ready, according to district data.

“We need more instructional time,” Evans said. “We don’t have time for social studies. We don’t have time for science.”

Clancy said districts should drop i-Ready, instead of having individual parents opt their students out. And Clancy said many of the problems her and other parents have raised about i-Ready occur with other ed tech products.

“What we should do is think seriously about what it looks like to redesign our schools around what we know works,” she said.

Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org.

Kids are in a ‘reading recession’ as test scores continue to decline

2026-05-13T04:01:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

MODESTO, Calif. – Before every important test, teacher Nancy Barajas dims the lights, turns on a disco ball and blasts music from her playlist. Her sixth graders dance together as a “pre-celebration” to boost their confidence, then take their exam.

Lately, there’s been a lot to celebrate in elementary schools in Modesto, California. Both reading and math scores have increased consistently over the past several years.

But across the country, results are gloomier. Researchers warn that the U.S. is experiencing a reading recession — a slide predating the pandemic’s disruptions in schooling.

Scholars at Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth analyzed state test scores from third to eighth grade for over 5,000 school districts in 38 states, allowing comparisons across school districts and states in a national Education Scorecard.

What they found was sobering: Only five states plus the District of Columbia had meaningful growth in reading test scores from 2022 to 2025. Nationally, students remain nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores and only slightly better in math.

While schools have focused on catching kids up since the COVID-19 pandemic upended education, reading test scores have been falling since 2013 for eighth graders and 2015 for fourth graders, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

“The pandemic was the mudslide that had followed seven years of steady erosion in achievement,” said Thomas Kane, a Harvard professor who helped create the Education Scorecard.

Still, some states and school districts are making progress — largely by shifting toward phonics-based instruction and providing extra support for struggling readers.

The picture is also brighter in math.

Sixth graders read a passage and give constructive feedback to their partners during Nancy Barajas' class at Fairview Elementary School on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 in Modesto, California.

Almost every state in the analysis saw improvements in math test scores from 2022 to 2025. Student absenteeism also declined in most states. In over 400 U.S. school districts, including Modesto, reading or math growth outpaced demographically similar districts in the same state.

A shift toward phonics and extra reading support

Researchers are still debating the reading recession’s causes.

One possible factor, researchers say, is the rise of social media on smartphones and corresponding declines in kids’ recreational reading. States have also backed off on strict consequences for schools whose students fail to make progress on standardized tests, Kane said.

But the states that improved reading scores — notably Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana — all had one thing in common: They ordered schools to teach with a phonics-based approach known as the science of reading.

For years, schools taught reading using approaches that de-emphasized phonics and encouraged strategies such as guessing words based on context clues. As reading scores tumbled over the past decade, parents, scholars, and literacy advocates pushed for teaching methods that align with decades of research about how kids learn to read — largely by sounding out words.

Along with reforming teaching methods, states have also required schools to screen for learning disabilities such as dyslexia and hire coaches to help teachers improve their reading instruction.

That said, science of reading reforms did not guarantee success. Some states, including Florida, Arizona, and Nebraska, changed parts of their reading instruction but still saw test scores fall.

In Modesto, reading instruction was revamped during the pandemic, and math a couple years earlier. The district created a new department to help students who are still learning English. Schools also ramped up teacher training, paying educators $5,000 to complete an extensive science of reading program called LETRS, or Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling.

Aja Penick, an academic interventionist, works with first graders at Munger Elementary-Middle School on Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Detroit.

Modesto’s test scores grew enough to represent an extra 18 weeks of learning in math and 13 weeks in reading. Nevertheless, the district still has a way to go: Overall scores remain far below grade level.

Getting kids ‘consistently in the seat’ helps Detroit

A focus on reading has also improved scores in Detroit — but so have efforts to get kids in school more consistently. For years, the large urban district struggled with deplorable school conditions, leading to a 2016 lawsuit in which students argued they’d been denied the “right to read.”

The lawsuit ended in a settlement of over $94 million, money that helped move the needle. While the district is still far below the national average, student test scores have grown faster than in similar urban districts in Michigan.

“It took a lot to rebuild systems, and now kids are learning at higher levels, but I’m still not satisfied. And I think that’s the next challenge: continuing to motivate, inspire and change things,” said Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Detroit schools are making real gains in reading and math: 4 strategies that are working

The money has helped Munger Elementary-Middle School, located in a largely Latino neighborhood in Detroit, to employ 18 educators who give kids extra support in small groups. An attendance agent also makes calls to the homes of absent students, even showing up at their doors.

Fifth grader Bella Williams does a diagnostic test on her tablet at Oxmoor Valley Elementary School in Birmingham, Alabama, on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.

Just a few years ago, said first grade teacher Samantha Ciaffone, it was normal for about seven or eight kids to be absent from her class every day. Now it’s usually only one or two.

“It allows us to be better educators to see kids consistently in the seat instead of once or twice a week,” said Ciaffone. “It makes such a difference.”

A bright spot in the South

For the last decade, the South has stood out as a region leading the way on education reforms — bucking an established trend of landing at the bottom of education rankings. Southern states were quick to change to research-based teaching methods, and states have paid to train and coach teachers.

It’s paid off. Louisiana and Alabama were the only states where math scores were higher in 2025 than pre-pandemic. Louisiana is also the only state that beat its pre-pandemic average in reading, with 87% of traditional public school students attending a district where scores are higher than in 2019.

“I’ve used my pulpit to preach a back-to-the-basics approach to education,” said Cade Brumley, Louisiana’s superintendent of education. “We’re not trying to chase every new and shiny thing that’s out there that could distract students and teachers.”

Birmingham City Schools Superintendent, Dr. Mark A. Sullivan, takes a call as he enters the library at Oxmoor Valley Elementary School in Birmingham, Alabama, on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.

Alabama had standout gains in reading following the pandemic, driven by a state law requiring every school to use phonics-based instruction. The Legislature modeled math reforms in 2022 off Alabama’s reading successes. The state’s Numeracy Act standardized math instruction, required regular testing, and mandated intervention for kids who lacked adequate math skills.

Oxmoor Valley Elementary in Birmingham hired a full-time math specialist this year to help struggling kids. The school, which made the state’s “failing” list in 2016, has steadily improved math and reading scores, although a majority of kids still test below proficient in both subjects.

“We can provide all of these supports, but at the same time, hold kids to high expectations,” Birmingham Superintendent Mark Sullivan said.

A note from teacher Nancy Barajas encouraging students in her class at Fairview Elementary School on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 in Modesto, California.

Researchers stress such progress is possible across the U.S., because it’s been done before. Starting in the 1990s, the country saw decades of growth in test scores and graduation rates, while racial disparities declined. That progress continued until the mid-2010s.

“We made enormous progress as a country in terms of educational success from over a 30-year period. Test scores went up dramatically,” said Stanford professor Sean Reardon. “And so I think that says, as a country, we can improve education and educational opportunity.”

At Modesto’s Fairview Elementary, where Barajas teaches, students now practice their reading speed and fluency every day. After a dance break, the class reads a one-page text together in unison for one minute, then students split into pairs to read again. Students learning English are paired with native English speakers, and each child gets a turn reading with Barajas.

“Eventually, you get through the word like it’s water,” one boy said. “You just say it smooth.”

____

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The math equity gap: Thousands of NYC students miss out on Algebra 1 in eighth grade

2026-04-23T22:28:22+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Having access to Algebra 1 in eighth grade can often make or break a student’s path to high school calculus, which in turn, is often a gateway to selective colleges as well as science and engineering careers.

But many eighth graders can’t take Algebra 1 — regardless of how well they did on their seventh grade state math test. And when New York City parents are exploring middle school options for their fifth graders, they might not realize the consequences a school’s math offerings might have for their students’ education trajectory.

Across New York state, more than 1 in 4 schools don’t offer Algebra 1 to eighth graders, found a report released Thursday from the New York Equity Coalition, a group convened by EdTrust-New York. Schools that disproportionately enroll Black, Latino, and low-income students tend to have less access to Algebra 1 in middle school.

“When we have qualified kids that are denied that opportunity, and it impacts them in high school and beyond … it is such a critical inflection point,” said Jeff Smink, deputy director at EdTrust-New York, an advocacy group focused on improving outcomes for students of color.

Smink hopes to raise awareness about the importance of Algebra 1 for eighth graders so parents can advocate for it.

“If there’s no demand, then schools aren’t going to respond to it,” he said. “They’re going to offer the easier, simpler option, which is just tracking kids to the standard eighth grade class, which is going to avoid kids struggling, it’s going to get potentially better test scores.”

While 58% of New York’s seventh graders scored proficient (a 3 or 4) on their 2023-24 state math exams, in the following school year — 2024-25 — just 37% of eighth graders enrolled in Algebra 1, representing a gap of 20,000 proficient students, the report said. More than half were estimated to be from low-income families, and nearly half were students of color.

In New York City alone, there were 8,000 more students proficient on seventh grade state exams than enrolled in eighth grade Algebra 1, according to the researchers.

The state’s gaps were starkest for Black and Asian American students: while 38% of Black students and 75% of Asian American seventh graders were proficient, 13% of Black and 14% Asian American eighth graders the following year enrolled in Algebra 1, the study found.

Drilling down into the data, using the coalition’s lookup tool, reveals vastly uneven access across New York City’s 32 local districts.

The top three districts with more proficient seventh graders than eighth graders in Algebra 1: Queens’ District 24, Brooklyn’s District 20, and Staten Island. Each had gaps of more than 1,400 students, researchers said.

In five districts, fewer than half of their schools offered Algebra 1 for eighth graders: Manhattan Districts 4 and 6, Brooklyn’s District 13, and Bronx Districts 7 and 12.

Eight districts appeared to be outliers, with either more than or an equal share of eighth graders taking Algebra 1 last year compared to the percentage of seventh graders who scored proficient on their state math tests the year before: Manhattan’s District 3; Bronx’s District 11, Brooklyn Districts 15, 19, 23, and 32; and Queens Districts 27, 28, and 30.

Equity gaps in proficiency remain, however, and three of those districts — 19, 23, and 32 in Brooklyn, which overwhelmingly serve Black, Latino, and low-income students — had fewer than half of their students who were proficient.

The report recommends the state adopt an automatic enrollment, or opt-out policy, for all eighth graders who score proficient on seventh grade state tests. They want an $8.5 million investment to help 15 high-needs districts expand Algebra 1 access as well as fund tutoring, staffing, and public data tracking enrollment and completion by race and income.

The report comes at a time when Gov. Kathy Hochul, in January’s State of the State address, called for an overhaul of math instruction, getting “back to the basics,” proposing $4 million for more teacher training and support. New York City’s schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, a former math teacher, has also argued for a foundational approach to math emphasizing memorization of math facts along with a focus on creative problem-solving.

Samuels has hinted at some changes to come with math instruction.

Under former Mayor Eric Adams, the city required nearly all high schools to use a single math curriculum from Illustrative Math for Algebra 1 — which has garnered some pushback from educators. Education Department officials are also requiring all middle schools shift to city-approved math curriculums by fall 2027.

“We are working to strengthen early math instruction, expand equitable pathways to Algebra 1 by eighth grade, and ensure every student has access to rigorous, high-quality curriculum,” Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement.

Several states and cities have focused more attention on eighth grade access to Algebra 1, including Chicago, which has offered the class online and has covered educators’ training costs to get credentials to teach algebra.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

She was expelled from high school. Now, she’s one of NYC’s top teachers.

2026-04-13T21:40:35+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free monthly newsletter How I Teach to get inspiration, news, and advice for — and from — educators.

Fatimah Barrie knows the 30 sixth graders in her three history classes at Uncommon Canarsie Middle School really well. But she also prides herself on knowing the younger and older kids at the 5-8 school, which serves about 100 kids per grade.

“To me, that is joy,” Barrie said. “It is showing up every day as a whole school educator to pour into all students in the building, not just the ones on my roster.”

Barrie has been at Uncommon for eight years and serves as the school’s lead lesson planner, helping write the 5-8 curriculum, leading professional development, and mentoring new and returning educators. Barrie’s own educational journey was filled with highs and lows. She went from being expelled from high school — which she shares candidly with her students on the first day of school — to winning a 2025 Big Apple Award from the city’s Education Department, which recognizes 10 “exceptional teachers who go above and beyond to serve students and families.”

Barrie’s school, which is overwhelmingly Black, Latino, and economically disadvantaged, often outperforms its peers on standardized tests. About 63% of its students, for instance, passed last year’s Algebra 1 Regents exam, which was well above the average for students of similar backgrounds and also surpassed the state average.

But more importantly, Barrie said, her students have shown resilience and compassion in the face of loss. In 2023, a fatal fire claimed the lives of two students, Kelsee Miles (who would have been in sixth grade this year) and her sister Journee Milles (who would have graduated last year), along with their mother, Danielle Havens. Four of the girls’ cousins attend the school along with many of their friends. At last year’s eighth grade graduation, the school reserved a seat for Journee, had a gown for her, designed a cap in her memory, and presented her father with her diploma. The school plans to honor Kelsee in the same way, said Barrie, who is working on a more permanent memorial for the girls through funding from the Big Apple Awards fellowship.

“They’ve been through a lot,” Barrie said of her students, “but they continue to show up for each other in ways that mean a lot.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

Becoming a teacher was extremely unplanned. I was just about to graduate from City College of New York with my B.A. in Political Science and my B.A. in Black Studies, and the plan was to take a gap year interning at a law firm as I prepared for my LSATs.

A few weeks prior to graduation, I bumped into a former high school classmate who had recently relocated back to NYC and was starting her principal journey at Uncommon. She thought with my interests and concentrations in college, I’d be a great fit as a seventh grade history middle school teacher. I did not think I would get the job, but on Juneteenth of 2018, I was hired just two weeks post-graduation for a full-time history teaching position.

The plan was to teach for a year, study for my LSATs, and prepare for law school. However, I fell in love with teaching.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

This is such a hard question, I hope I can change it up. Since I have begun teaching, I’ve had the pleasure of teaching fifth, sixth, and eighth grade. My favorite grade to teach history is sixth grade not only because of their personalities but the content is foundational to scholars’ understanding of the United States. The essential questions of the year asks students to consider: Does a society’s culture shape their government or does a society’s government shape their culture?; What form of government best serves people?; What role do people play in their governments? Students start the year off learning about Ancient American Civilizations (Aztec, Maya, and Inca) and end the year learning about the formation of the United States.

And while I am sure my students would say their favorite lesson was when I dressed up as an English judge (and we put Columbus, his men, the King and Queen of Spain, the Tainos, and the system of empire on trial for the genocide of the Taino population), I was only able to do that because I had built genuine relationships with my students which not only resulted in strong classroom management but a comfortable learning environment.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom or your school?

One thing that really impacts my classroom is how much my students are on social media and just constantly taking in information. They have opinions, they have thoughts, but a lot of times they haven’t been taught how to actually question what they’re seeing. They’ll say something confidently, but not always know where it’s coming from. So, I’ve had to be really intentional about slowing them down and teaching them how to think, not just respond.

Tell us more about the importance of joy in school. How do you bring joy into the classroom?

Middle school is often one of the most challenging parts of a student’s learning journey. I know it was for me. I attended three middle schools during my journey because of my behavior. When students get to middle school, they are navigating everything from hormonal changes to major shifts in academic expectations. They have a different teacher for each subject, move between classrooms every hour, and face increased rigor. Because of that, joy is not extra. It is essential. It becomes the heart of learning, especially in middle school.

I bring joy into the classroom by removing the strict power dynamic between adult and child, or teacher and student. My scholars know that my classroom and our school building are safe places. For some, joy may look performative in the classroom, like sing-a-longs, chants, and dance breaks. For me, joy is building relationships with them, not just teaching them. It is about students feeling seen, valued, and safe.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I had the honor and privilege of growing up in the greatest and most influential neighborhood in the world, Harlem. Being from there, especially in the ‘90s, and attending schools in Harlem gave me a unique perspective on life, confidence in learning, and knowledge of Black and brown people.

In Harlem, I learned a lot through an inclusive education and learning about multiple perspectives. I always tell my peers and my mother that attending Child’s Memorial Christian Academy for Kindergarten and first grade gave me the tools I needed to excel academically in any setting. From second to eighth grade I attended public schools; including P.S. 166, FDA II, West Side Collaborative, and I.S. 164 Stitt. At a few of these schools (those not based in Harlem), instruction, especially regarding history, was often Eurocentric, which sometimes made it hard to see myself and my community reflected in what I was learning. At parent-teacher conferences I would often hear, “Fatimah is so bright, but she distracts her peers by constantly talking to them,” or “Fatimah challenged the lesson today by saying Christopher Columbus did not discover America.” It was a constant reminder that I was intelligent, but I was not necessarily a follower. I was a leader in some way, even if I did not always realize it.

Eighth grade brought me to one of the most challenging middle schools in New York City, where there was constant violence. I knew I needed a better environment. For high school, I attended the first and only boarding school for girls in New York City, Catherine McCauley Catholic Academy, where I developed independence and control over my studies. In true Fatimah fashion, I was later expelled and was given the opportunity to complete my high school journey at Frederick Douglass Academy I, earning a Regents diploma. While some may see that I attended seven different schools during my educational journey and assume the worst, however each school gave me an experience that led to this very moment in my life.

I would not change a single choice I made during my adolescent and teenage years as a student. I believe this is why I connect so well with middle school students.

I know firsthand what it feels like to make a mistake and not be given grace. I want them to know that not only do I understand what they are going through, but they can grow through it and truly excel.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

An alternative to gifted education: Why some NYC schools are embracing International Baccalaureate

2026-04-10T14:44:08+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

A few years back, a groundswell of Brooklyn parents in District 13 wanted to ditch gifted and talented classes, concerned about sorting and segregating children starting in kindergarten.

Then-Superintendent Kamar Samuels, now chancellor of New York City schools, wanted to find an alternative that offered rigorous academics for all students in a school rather than a select few. He settled on the International Baccalaureate, or IB, program and encouraged schools in District 13, which spans from Brooklyn Heights to Bedford-Stuyvesant, to pursue the yearslong authorization process, using a grant to support the shift.

The IB approach embraces inquiry-based, transdisciplinary learning that allows students to go deep into a specific topic across classes, connecting global issues to their own experiences. Educators are trained to facilitate these connections and foster ways for students to become independent thinkers and leaders.

“It means something for a teacher to be an IB teacher. It means you’ve gone through a process,” Samuels said in 2021, when introducing the initiative, “and you’re really pushing the envelope as you think about all your students.”

Amy Hamberry and her second grade students at P.S. 56 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, on March 9.

The district now has five elementary schools and two middle schools in the program, representing New York City’s first IB “pathway” designed to serve children from 3-K through eighth grade. (The district also hopes that students continue on to the handful of public IB high schools in the city, including those in neighboring districts.)

The IB model might soon gain in popularity as schools grapple with the state’s graduation requirement overhaul, as the Portrait of a Graduate framework replaces Regents exams for diplomas starting in the 2027-28 school year. The approach closely aligns with the state’s six key qualities students must demonstrate (such as being creative innovators, effective communicators, and global citizens). And as schools await the state’s guidance on how to assess students under the new framework, IB schools already have a well-developed system of project-based assessments.

The schools also boast strong post-secondary outcomes: 71% of IB students in the U.S. enrolled in college compared to the average of 56%, the IB Schools and Colleges Association found.

Fifth grade students at P.S. 56 on March 9.

On a recent Monday at P.S. 56, in Clinton Hill, second graders hummed as they worked on a project for a unit on self-expression. The kids were creating shapes to use for fabric construction, incorporating math, writing, and social-emotional learning as they jotted down the way the colors they used made them feel.

In a fifth grade room down the hall, students — also doing a unit on self-expression — tackled a poem about technology, as they discussed the effect technology is having on education. Another fifth grade class read a poem about bullying, and students were asked to write their own poem about a problem they wanted to change.

Jayda, a fifth grader, wrote about concerns with the increase in immigration enforcement across the nation. She recently participated in an anti-ICE protest that Lucy, another fifth grader, organized. They and their peers talked about how they struggled with writing when they were younger but have since blossomed as writers, especially as they’ve been able to work on more creative writing.

“Now it’s my passion,” fifth grader Noah said. “I couldn’t imagine life without it.”

Tracey Scronic, the instruction lead and coordinator for District 13’s IB schools, sees the shift to the IB model as an “equity tool” to ensure all of a school’s students are exposed to enrichment. She said it “de-prioritizes traditional testing’s emphasis on regurgitation of information.”

Jayda speaks about her experience learning through the IB program at P.S. 56 on March 9.

Leaning on IB to tackle enrollment declines

The IB program at P.S. 56 has helped prop up enrollment, its principal, Eric Grande, said.

Just before Grande became principal of P.S. 56 a decade ago, the Clinton Hill elementary school tried to bolster enrollment, then hovering below 200 students, by adding a gifted and talented program. Grande added a “world language” program, focusing on Spanish, hoping that would attract more families. But the school didn’t feel cohesive.

“Even though we had a relatively small school, there was almost like schools within the school,” Grande said. “You had your world language Spanish program, your gifted and talented program, you had your special education classes and your gen ed classes, and it just started to feel a little bit off.”

Students within the school, which is more racially diverse than most New York City elementary schools, were not integrated within the different programs, he said. (Last year, about 36% of its students were Black, 36% were white, 17% were Latino, and 1% were Asian American; roughly 47% of children came from low-income families.)

Principal Eric Grande and Arelis Jimenez, IB coordinator, in a third grade classroom at P.S. 56.

Grande began looking for a model to bring everyone — and all of their different programs — together, appeasing families who wanted a foreign language and those who wanted a project-based approach to teaching. IB offered the “perfect synergy of all things that we were doing.”

The school is now in its second year as an authorized IB school following three years as a candidate school. Enrollment has increased, with about 230 students last year.

And while Grande said his school has never been too focused on test prep, he was proud to see a shift in state test scores since his teachers transitioned to the IB framework, from about 35% proficiency on reading in 2019, the year before the pandemic, to more than 60% last year.

The move to IB can be challenging

The buy-in from teachers on IB takes some time, said Scronic. They needed training to shift practices and must do more in-depth planning around the new units. They also needed to figure out how to meld the IB framework with the mandated literacy curriculum for their district, EL Education.

“It is a bit more cognitively intense for the teachers,” Scronic said. But after a while, she said teachers feel like they’re being respected again for their craft and facilitating connections between the curriculum and students’ own lives. “I feel like the passion that a brand-new teacher brings to the profession then kind of gets squashed sometimes, IB has brought that back.”

Rosa Davis and her seventh grade students during science class at Restoration Academy on March 9.

Becoming an authorized IB school is not easy. Schools have to pay the Switzerland-based nonprofit that oversees the IB program about $9,000 a year to start the training and candidacy process. It’s about $10,000 each year once a school is authorized to support the implementation and maintenance of IB programs, according to the organization’s website. District 13 used a grant to cover the costs for the initial training for the schools, though the schools have had to foot the bill for new teachers.

Though Scronic leads District 13’s IB initiative, she’s started holding monthly Zoom meetings for about 40 IB elementary and middle schools in the city, a grassroots effort to provide support and create a community to share best practices and resources.

Restoration Academy Principal Adele Simon's office displaying IB program notes and a diorama created by students.

Samuels continued to promote IB schools when he left his Brooklyn district to become superintendent of Manhattan’s District 3. He encouraged schools in Harlem to adopt the IB model as a way to tackle declining enrollment in a part of the district facing heavy competition from charter schools. (District 3 used a grant to cover the costs as well.)

But Samuels acknowledged the challenges in pursuing IB authorization.

“I do believe in a lot of the work of IB, but it really takes a big investment,” he recently told K-12 Dive. “It takes principals being onboard. It takes teachers being onboard and willing to go and get a lot of background and content knowledge, and to be able to personalize for young people and the kids in your school.”

A middle school IB program helps students find their ‘voice’

Sanai Gary, an eighth grader at Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Restoration Academy — which is in its first full year as an authorized IB school after its yearslong candidacy — said the IB approach has helped her deepen her learning.

“I like how the topics transmit over to other classes. I feel like it helps me learn better,” said Sanai. “It gives me more time to focus on it.”

Last year, she and her peers became clean water advocates after diving into a unit on global sustainability.

Sanai Gary, an eighth grader, speaks during her language and literature class at Restoration Academy.

It started after they read a novel in English class, “A Long Walk to Water,” about the struggle in South Sudan for clean water. In their Individuals and Societies class (akin to social studies), a student brought up questions about the water crisis that started in 2014 in Flint, Michigan, that got the students wondering about the water quality in their own school. So, in science class, they tested their school’s water fountains and created makeshift filtration devices.

Concerned about the color and clarity of their school’s water, back in English class, the students mounted a letter-writing campaign to city officials demanding changes.

Restoration Academy has struggled with enrollment and has long served marginalized students. The middle school currently has roughly 80 middle schoolers; about 80% are Black and Latino, and more than 90% are from low-income families. Pre-pandemic, about 20% of its students were considered proficient in reading. Since transitioning to IB, the scores have improved, rising to about 30% last year.

Tomaso Millian and his eighth grade students during design and art class at Restoration Academy on March 9.

But more importantly, Principal Adele Simon said, students are increasingly linking what’s happening around the world to their own lives and finding their voices to advocate for change based on what they’re learning in school.

“It’s the connection between what they’re reading,” Simon said, “and not just reading it for the purpose of reading it, but reading it for the purpose of, ‘Okay, what am I going to do with this? … Who’s in power and who is not in power? And how can I make sure that the people in power represent me and my community?”

Their school is getting new water fountains with filtration devices this spring.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

This elementary school banned screens in the middle of the year. Will it solve their reading crisis?

2026-03-25T21:08:17+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Chromebooks are scattered all around the classrooms of Floyd M. Jewett Elementary School in Mesick, Michigan.

Towers of them are teetering atop bookshelves. They’re piled up in corners of classrooms. They’ve even cropped up in one classroom’s dish rack.

But there’s one place you won’t find them: in students’ hands.

Last month, Mesick Consolidated Schools banned digital devices in its elementary school of about 250 students. The decision wasn’t an agonizing one. The ban came at astonishing speed, almost overnight, after a conversation between Mesick Superintendent Jack Ledford and Jewett Principal Elizabeth Kastl.

Ledford recalled asking Kastl how much teachers read to students in grades K-5. And he recalled her reply: “That has almost vanished.” Kastl’s response helped seal the deal.

Teachers had to have students off devices by the end of the week. School printers went into overdrive. Then the district went cold turkey.

Tablets are seen in first grade teacher Hope Parrish's classroom at Floyd M. Jewett Elementary School on Friday, March 20, 2026 in Mesick, Michigan. The school recently banned screens in a bid to improve students' reading skill.

Mesick’s midyear ban underscores a growing backlash against screen time in school, a battle that parents and educators are taking up nationwide. Fears about digital devices’ impact on learning have fused with ongoing concerns about a multi-year decline in national test scores that predates the pandemic. A stream of government hearings, op-eds, and social media posts have only magnified the sense of urgency.

Ledford and Kastl think the need for drastic action is warranted. About 18% of Jewett’s third graders scored proficient or higher on the state reading test last spring — half the state average and half what it was a decade ago.

In Mesick, a rural town known for its annual mushroom festival, 66% of students are economically disadvantaged. The district has done all the “normal things” to improve persistently low reading scores, Ledford said, like switching to an evidence-based curriculum. But he now views screens as an adversary to learning.

Jack Ledford, superindendent of Mesick Consolidated Schools, outside of Floyd M. Jewett Elementary School.

“When we’re competing with screens, we’re going to lose,” he said.

But blanket bans at school won’t affect kids’ screen time at home. And research about how screens affect students is inconclusive, although it does suggest that teachers should exercise caution. Not everyone is convinced that a complete prohibition on screens is the best way to help struggling learners.

Morgan Polikoff, a professor at the University of Southern California’s education school, said he understands the appeal of an all-or-nothing approach, but it avoids the reality that some technology does have a place in the classroom.

“It’s like taking a hammer when you need a scalpel,” he said. “A lot of the use of technology in schools is not appropriate. But rather than sitting down and thinking about, ‘What are appropriate uses of technology in classrooms serving young children,’ this approach would just obliterate all uses.”

A third grade student reads a book in Hanna Brechenser's classroom at Floyd M. Jewett Elementary.

Lawmakers in at least 16 states are have proposed bills that would limit education technology in public schools, following a spate of state-approved cellphone bans for schools.

Ledford said he’s been influenced by writers like Jonathan Haidt, a New York University psychologist who is a prominent supporter of school cellphone restrictions and has more recently criticized the proliferation of tech in education. At the same time, a mid-March visit to Mesick’s classrooms shows the ed-tech backlash can be somewhat divorced from the reality of a school day.

For some at Jewett, the school day doesn’t feel that different. A few teachers said they hadn’t used screens very much. For others, the routine has changed substantially — and for the better, they believe, with students more engaged and learning less “gamified.”

Hanna Brechenser teaches a lesson to her third grade students.

When asked about her school’s screen ban, a girl wearing a “Lilo & Stitch” shirt in an intervention class for struggling readers, just growls. But her intervention instructor, Julie Kearns, said the students are simply adjusting.

The student “definitely seems like she enjoys” reading a book more than wearing headphones and peering at a screen, Kearns said.

As Kearns watched, the girl bounced in her chair while reading a passage about soccer.

Why a school banished screens and bought books

In classrooms, a screen ban for students doesn’t mean all screens are gone.

One Friday in March, third grade teacher Hanna Brechenser presented images on the Smartboard — the modern day version of a projector — of Indigenous communities to help foster a classroom conversation. Teachers also still have desktop computers.

This is Brechenser’s fifth year teaching and her second in Mesick. She said she had already tried to limit screentime in the classroom before the ban. Her class mostly used their Chromebooks a few times a week for a math fluency exercise and digital library access.

Elizabeth Kastl, elementary principal for Mesick Consolidated Schools, in her office.

Both Kastl and Ledford believe teachers may not have been aware of just how much of a crutch screens were in some classes.

Mesick went 1:1 with students and devices around 2015, Ledford said, when schools were under pressure by tech evangelists and politicians to add more technology so students would be prepared for jobs in the digital world. That was the argument at the time, anyway.

“I had started in my walkthroughs just noting, what are the students doing?” Kastl said. “More often than not, I was coming back with a list of students on devices. So the perception of how your day actually looks versus what we were seeing on the data piece are probably disjointed.”

Mesick’s new policy has been helpful for Brechenser because she doesn’t have to police students so much on their devices.

A selection of books are available in teacher Hanna Brechenser's classroom at Mesick Consolidated Schools.

Brechenser’s students have physical books from the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, “Twilight”, and “The Baby-sitter’s Club” stacked on their desks. That’s the other side of Mesick’s new screen ban: The district has set aside $30,000 for physical books to bulk up classroom libraries, along with beanbag chairs so students will have special spaces to read.

Students adjusted quickly, Brechenser said. “At first, they were kind of shocked, but we just have a lot more silent reading time.”

Still, it’s hard to miss signs of the amount of time students spend on screens outside of school: A “K-Pop Demon Hunters” water bottle. A Sonic the Hedgehog T-shirt. The image of a snake Brechenser put on the Smartboard prompted one student, Alaric, to say it reminded him of one in a “Harry Potter” movie he watched before school.

Alaric, who’s 9, said he doesn’t really miss his Chromebook, though he’d been reading something on the online library he can no longer access thanks to the screen ban.

He gets plenty of screen time at home playing Xbox, he said. He hasn’t thought about cutting down on that.

“Because I love Fortnight,” he giggled.

In reading instruction, students get a digital detox

Where Mesick’s screen-free initiative feels most significant is in the 30-minute small group sessions for Jewett’s struggling readers.

Mesick uses Read Naturally, an intervention program designed to build fluency. Before the screen ban, students would read a short passage aloud from a computer, then listen through bulky headphones as the software read the passage back to them. Students would then read the passage to themselves three times before reading it aloud again. Paraprofessionals would go from student to student to assist.

Now, Sharon Brown and other literacy aides sit with their students, and work through printed reading passages together. Brown can more easily point out when students stop tracking words with their fingers. She can help sound out words. Though she closely helped students on the computers, she finds herself more thrilled to engage this way, to see progress up-close. This is why she is in education.

“It’s our passion to sit and watch these kids go from struggling readers to eventually testing out … and not having to come back and see us,” she said.

Hanna Brechenser uses a whiteboard in her classroom. She also uses a Smartboard during lessons with her third graders.

With one second grader, she has an engaging conversation about the reading’s topic, mammals, before they begin. He asks if a shark is a mammal, and if it evolved from dinosaurs.

Brown can see improvements, particularly with some of her first graders. Students are reading more words per minute, based on data they track every session.

“They are so engaged,” she said. “It’s been amazing to us that we’re going, ‘Wow, this has actually been so fun.’”

The way students use technology is an important consideration when thinking about limiting or banning screens, said Dr. Joanna Parga-Belinkie, a pediatrician and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Educators and parents should focus on using technology in ways that are interactive and in group settings, instead of having students looking at screens on their own.

“When you are focusing on screens and technology and the use of them you might be not focusing on human relationships,” she said.

Samantha Daniels, the mother of three children in the district, said that last school year, some of the software the district used would offer students games if they read enough.

She’d watch her son, a first grader, try to rush through the reading to get to the game. He struggled a lot with reading, becoming easily frustrated like many young readers.

“It would be about getting to that, versus us enjoying what we’re reading and what we’re learning,” she said.

But now, he’s starting to pick up books on his own.

Students work at their desks in third grade teacher Hanna Brechenser's classroom at Mesick Consolidated Schools.

There are some difficult practical adjustments to a mid-year change as big as this one. A lot of classroom resources are based online, or have some kind of an online component. Kastl asked teachers to stop using those components.

Ultimately, every hour of screen time represented “an hour that we’ve lost direct teacher instruction where they’re actually getting that responsive feedback from a human,” Kastl said.

“That’s when you move the needle.”

Will eliminating screens help young readers?

Ledford doesn’t think he’s taking a gamble by eliminating screens at the elementary school, even though students take state assessments on computers. He thinks it’s much easier to teach students technology skills than social skills.

In fact, he already has plans to scale back technology use by older students, too.

Ledford moved rapidly to ban screens, but he expects improvements in reading scores to happen more gradually. Still, he’s laser-focused on the connection between screens and literacy. To him, education should unlock the ability to read for students, because it affects everything else the district is trying to do for kids.

“We’re failing in literacy,” Ledford said. “If we fail in literacy, how can we effectively teach science or social studies or any of the subjects?”

Getting rid of screens will not solve all of Mesick’s problems, like a leaky roof or clapped-out HVAC system. Kastl has also observed a deeper potential issue: a drop-off in parent involvement after schools closed during the pandemic.

In many cases, Kastl said, “Parents don’t know what actually happens inside their kids’ school building.”

But parents know about the screen ban, and they’re excited about it. They’ve said they’ve noticed their children take more interest in reading.

Kids are also socializing more during free periods, a bright spot for the principal’s son, Sam Kastl.

Fifth grade students build forts in teacher Marie Lance's classroom at Mesick Consolidated Schools.

Sam, 11, used to spend indoor recess — a regular occurrence in northern Michigan’s severe winters — playing games on his Chromebook. He thought the screen ban was “going to be annoying.” Classmates who used to ask him if his mom would declare a snow day started asking him to convince her to bring back devices.

But those requests went away pretty quickly. Students now play board games together instead of games on their Chromebooks alone — just like how reading intervention students now study in a group instead of solo. Another student taught Sam how to draw. Everyone’s adjusted pretty well, from his vantage point.

On the day Chalkbeat visited their school, Sam and his fifth grade classmates built a fort out of blankets during class time. Then they climbed inside to read with flashlights.

Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org.

Goodbye, Regents exams. NYC educators: Tell us how Portrait of a Graduate will change your classroom.

2026-03-20T19:35:18+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Next school year will be the last requiring students to pass their Regents exams to earn a high school diploma under the state’s current timeline.

Starting in the 2027-28 school year, students will be evaluated based on a new framework from the state called the Portrait of a Graduate, which includes six key qualities high schoolers should master to earn a diploma. They should be able to demonstrate they are academically prepared, creative innovators, critical thinkers, effective communicators, global citizens, and “reflective and future focused.”

State officials have offered few specifics about how students will be expected to meet those criteria, though they have sketched some broad possibilities such as research projects and internships.

Chalkbeat wants to hear from school leaders and teachers: How will these changes affect what’s happening in your classrooms? What will moving away from the Regents exams mean for you and your students? What questions do you have?

New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels has signaled the Education Department plans to “ramp up” its work filling in the lines for the Portrait of a Graduate. He recently revamped his cabinet to include a new position for a high level official supervising high school leadership. It’s headed by Alan Cheng, who most recently oversaw Outward Bound schools, the Internationals Network serving newcomer immigrants, and New York Performance Standards Consortium schools, which require students to do performance-based assessments such as capstone projects or other presentations rather than Regents exit exams. Consortium schools could potentially serve as a model as the state overhauls graduation requirements.

“As Portrait of a Graduate starts to take shape, a New York City diploma needs to mean rigorous learning and genuine preparation for what is to come next,” Cheng said when his new role was announced.

Help us understand how schools are adapting to the changes by taking our survey.

Loading…

If you are having trouble viewing this form, go here.

After fights over social studies standards, conservative activists turn to math

2026-03-17T12:45:41+00:00

This story about math standards was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

Susan Gilkerson, a math teacher and school bus driver, stood before a South Dakota education board and issued a warning.

The proposed math standards the board was considering — just 36 pages, less than half the length of standards adopted in 2018 — were so scant that teachers won’t know how to use them, Gilkerson said. The existing standards detail not just which math concepts should be taught but also the specific skills students need to demonstrate to show they understand them, said Gilkerson, who teaches in the rural Oldham-Ramona-Rutland district.

“When I talk to my students, I want them to understand it,” she said of a concept like the Pythagorean theorem. But the new standards contain little guidance on how students can demonstrate they grasp that math concept or countless others, she said.

Joseph Graves, South Dakota’s education secretary, countered: Teachers and parents don’t understand the current standards because they’re so complicated. “Our whole goal was to simplify, simplify, simplify,” Graves said.

That exchange this past October marked the opening salvo in an escalating battle over South Dakota’s math standards. One source the department consulted in creating its new draft — part of a review that happens every seven years — was a brand-new set of model math standards produced by the National Association of Scholars, a conservative group on the front lines of the education culture wars. The group’s document, named the Archimedes Standards for the ancient Greek mathematician, urges states to do what South Dakota is trying with its standards rewrite: eliminate Common Core math.

Almost from the time of their introduction in 2009, the Common Core State Standards — intended to create a set of academic expectations for students across the country — have prompted backlash from those who disliked both the content and the idea that standards supported by the federal government were usurping a role traditionally left to states.

Now, some of the same groups that have criticized schools and universities for diversity efforts and history instruction that embraces the contributions of people from marginalized groups are turning their attention to the math standards.

Math, with its black-and-white rules and rigid structure, might seem to be beyond politics. But the National Association of Scholars says the Common Core has injected too much confusion into math education and lacks rigor. The group aims to instead introduce more memorization of math facts and pare down the number of words used to describe the knowledge that students should be taught at each grade level.

Supporters of the current standards say that shortening them eliminates useful information that teachers can use to guide how they teach. And there’s no proof that changing the standards in this way will actually move the needle on math achievement, they say.

“Simpler doesn’t necessarily mean more rigorous,” said Jon Star, an education professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

Conservative group wants to rewrite academic standards

All but five states initially adopted Common Core, a state-led initiative developed by a bipartisan group of policymakers, scholars, and educators. But it soon faced pushback from conservatives and liberals alike.

Parents in blue states, troubled by what they saw as Common Core’s excessive focus on testing, started opting out of core-aligned annual state tests. Red-state politicians and tea party activists protested that Common Core intruded on state control of education. The Obama administration’s support for the standards intensified that opposition.

In this politicized context, many states started revising, reviewing, or pulling away from the standards altogether. In releasing the Archimedes Standards last June, the National Association of Scholars wants more to follow their lead.

The 39-year-old organization has focused in recent years on revising state standards, which it says are “the single most influential documents in America’s education systems,” affecting curriculum, teaching training, textbook content, and more. It started in 2022 with social studies standards, releasing model standards that call liberty an “American birthright” and describe civics instruction advanced by mainstream groups like the National Council for the Social Studies as a “recruitment tool of the progressive left.”

The National Association of Scholars then turned to science standards in 2024 and math standards last year. In 2026, it unveiled new model standards for English language arts.

In introducing the Archimedes math standards, the association says that while Common Core has “useful elements,” it isn’t demanding enough and “was rushed into public use without sufficient testing and evaluation.” The group says that the Archimedes standards will improve students’ ability to do math in their heads by requiring more memorization, contrasting them with the Common Core’s “deemphasizing” of math facts. The standards ban the use of calculators beforehigh school.

Their key goal, though, is “lucidity” — standards that are easier for teachers and parents to understand. In an introduction to the Archimedes standards, the association contrasts a Common Core second grade standard on addition and subtraction that takes 67 words to explain with Archimedes’ 24-word version.

The standards were authored for the association by Jonathan Gregg, an assistant education professor at Hillsdale College, a small Christian liberal arts college in southern Michigan whose president chaired Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission on “patriotic education” in 2020. Gregg said in an interview that his background — undergraduate degrees in math and English, a master’s in humanities, and a doctorate in math education — equipped him to write the draft standards in simple prose.

That simplicity gives teachers more freedom to tailor approaches for their classrooms, said Gregg. “You can’t overprescribe. Teachers are the ones in the room, the ones facing the students,” he said. Standards are flags that everyone — students, teachers, parents, policymakers and researchers — can get behind, he said. For that to happen, all those groups need to understand them, he said.

Experts dispute whether simpler academic standards are better

In South Dakota, that accessibility attracted Graves, the state education secretary. With the state’s Common Core-aligned math standards, parents and teachers “are absolutely at sea,” he said in an interview. “They have no idea what those standards mean.” So last summer his department, using the Archimedes document and a few other state standards as examples, produced the dramatically slimmed-down rewrite.

The state’s math standards dispute has been sharpened by Hillsdale and the National Association of Scholars’ involvement in a contentious update of the state’s social studies standards. During that review, in 2022, then-Gov. Kristi Noem purged members of the standards commission, replaced them with political allies, and appointed a retired Hillsdale College professor to facilitate a rewrite.

The state board of education approved the new version in 2023. South Dakota Native American groups said those left out essential topics related to the culture and history of the state’s tribes. Teachers lambasted what they saw as a focus on memorization of historical facts over inquiry. But the National Association of Scholars wrote a letter praising South Dakota’s rewrite for among other things, taking “a clear stand against both the discriminatory ideologies commonly referred to as Critical Race Theory and the subordination of social studies instruction to political activism.”

The math standards have drawn similar fire from teachers and university education professors. An education department survey drew 44 comments on the rewrite, all but four of them critical.

Gilkerson, the teacher, pointed to the rewritten eighth grade requirement on scientific notation, which explains what’s expected in 10 words versus 53 in the current standards. In an interview, Gilkerson, who has taught for 15 years, said she knows the specific skills students need to master that operation on the state test. But many new teachers won’t, she said, and she fears test scores will suffer.

Sharon Vestal, president of the state’s Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which represents math teachers, and a South Dakota State University associate professor of math and statistics, called on Graves at a November hearing to scrap the rewrite. “They’re poorly written, and a lot of the math content has been lost by simplifying the language,” she said of the revised standards.

But a few educators support the rewrite. “The simplicity is nice,” said Susan Fairchild, a veteran math teacher at Watertown High School who served on a state committee that reviewed the new version. “As a new teacher, you don’t have to try and figure out what all of these fancy words mean.”

Monte Meyerink, another committee member and an assistant professor of math education at Northern State University, led a review of research on effective education standards to guide the department in preparing its revision. He said he doesn’t know of research supporting the connection between standards’ lucidity and student proficiency. But simplifying standards is a new trend, one whose effects on student outcomes won’t be understood for another 15 or 20 years, he said.

Once the standards are finalized, the department will roll out an expanded or “unpacked” version that has more detail, he said. That doesn’t comfort Vestal. “My concern is the quality of those unpacked standards because of the quality of the proposed standards,” she said.

Similarly, some national math education researchers reject the Archimedes Standards’ assumption that simpler standards mean better teaching. Ball State education researcher Michael Steele points to the Common Core standard for fourth grade fractions: “Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n x a)/(n x b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions.”

The Archimedes Standards version reads, “Find equivalent fractions and reduce fractions to their simplest form.” Steele said that while the Common Core version takes a moment to understand, it reminds teachers of how they learned to use fractions and makes them better able to teach the concept.

“What this group calls lucidity in many cases, I might call an oversimplification of mathematics,” he said.

A final vote on South Dakota’s rewrite will come after a May 4 public hearing.

The National Association of Scholars wants to get other states on board. Gregg, the author of the Archimedes standards, said he’s helping to advise the Louisiana Department of Education on its math standards review, begun last year.

In those standards, “I think there are places where you’ll see — probably not as directly as you’ll see in South Dakota — some of the influence the Archimedes community has had,” he said.

Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965 or preston@hechingerreport.org.

Top teachers’ performance drops in high-poverty schools, showing school context is key

2026-02-17T21:45:00+00:00

Chalkbeat Ideas is a new section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Please join us for our next event: It’s about whether a four-year college degree is still worth it. With a panel featuring the CEO of the KIPP Foundation and a Princeton University economist, we’ll try to separate fact from fiction about the value of American higher education. This online event will be at 2 p.m. ET on March 16. You can sign up and submit questions here.

In 2009, the federal government launched a remarkable educational experiment. Effective teachers were paid large bonuses ($30,000, adjusted for inflation, over two years) to move into a low-performing, high-poverty school.

This reflected the moment’s zeitgeist: use test scores to identify the best teachers (and also the worst). This so-called Talent Transfer Initiative worked, according to a 2013 study: Test scores rose by 3 to 5 percentile points among students taught by transferring educators. It was an example of the tangible benefits of having an excellent teacher.

Yet the story does not end there. A group of researchers recently released a paper reexamining this study and offered an intriguing twist. If the transferring teachers remained as effective as they had been in their prior school, test scores would have risen even more.

But in fact, in their new schools, these great teachers transformed into merely pretty good teachers. This reflects a profound and sometimes underappreciated fact about teacher performance: It’s not just about the inherent skills of an individual. It’s also about the school environment.

“Teacher effectiveness is dynamic,” says Matthew Kraft, a Brown University professor and coauthor of the new paper. “Teaching is a team sport.”

The study is important because there’s been a vacuum in policy efforts to improve teacher quality since the 2010s. The bevy of teacher evaluation laws during that period produced little in the way of overall student learning gains, according to a widely cited study coauthored by Kraft. Teachers are still very important, though. This new study is one small step in understanding how to bolster the profession.

In the original study, the researchers recruited 10 large districts. Some low-performing schools within each district got the chance to hire highly effective teachers with the lure of large bonuses; other schools did not. Genuine experiments like this are rare in education.

The study relied on “value-added” scores, which are statistical estimates of how much an individual teacher contributes to classroomwide test score gains. These measures were highly controversial when used to evaluate teachers, but remain widely used by academics for research purposes. Teachers were eligible for the transfer bonus if they were in the top fifth of value-added scores within their grade and subject.

The study was done through the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the Department of Education that has since been gutted by the Trump administration. Its future remains in flux.

Ultimately, 80 top teachers took the bonus and switched schools. In their new jobs, though, these teachers’ performance fell from the 85th percentile districtwide to the 66th percentile. (And for stats nerds, no, this probably wasn’t just regression to the mean.) So what happened?

Teachers’ context had dramatically changed. They reported lower student motivation and more behavior problems. Many more students were from low-income families, and their incoming test scores were lower. The value-added measure accounts for differences in student population, so it wasn’t inevitable that transferring teachers’ performance would fall. Teachers may simply have been less equipped and experienced for the challenges in their new schools.

Some of the challenges may have come from the schools themselves. Teachers reported having fewer resources and less autonomy over their classrooms compared to their prior school.

Other research has found that teachers perform better when they find a school they like, when they work with more effective peers, and when their school is conducive to learning and collaboration. Teachers also tend to do better when they’re teaching the same grade or the same group of students as in years past. Years of teaching experience matter a lot, too.

This adds nuance to the common sentiment that a child’s individual teacher is the most important in-school factor affecting learning. It’s really the teacher plus the various contexts that make it more or less likely that the teacher will succeed.

Teachers are not widgets in multiple senses. They cannot be simply moved around to different schools or classrooms or grades and expected to perform. “We need to move beyond thinking about teacher effectiveness as a fixed characteristic,” says Kraft.

Yet it’s not precisely clear how policymakers can take advantage of this insight. Yes, teachers do better in schools with strong leadership, good collaboration with colleagues, and support for handling student behavior challenges. Making sure all these things are in place is the tough part.

This new study hardly means that policymakers should give up on trying to use pay to get good teachers in high-poverty schools. The original Talent Transfer Initiative didn’t work as well as it might have, but it did make a difference. Kraft says it may have worked even better if the money was sustained over time and went toward retaining top teachers already working in those schools.

Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat’s ideas editor. Reach him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

Safety, academic rigor, integration: Kamar Samuels embarks on 5-borough tour to discuss priorities

2026-02-05T22:16:39+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Before becoming the chancellor of the nation’s largest school system last month, Kamar Samuels was a superintendent, first in Brooklyn and then in Manhattan, where he developed a reputation for his listening skills.

Now Samuels plans to embark on a five-borough tour to hear from students, parents, and educators on how to better include them in the decision-making process, especially when it comes to his main priorities: safety, academic rigor, and integration. Other Education Department staffers will be on hand to answer questions about special education, enrollment, language access, and more, officials said.

Each borough will host two sessions, one on a Tuesday and one on a Saturday. After the 10 sessions wrap up, the Education Department plans to release a report based on the feedback gathered during the events’ roundtable discussions as well as a “long-term roadmap” for the city’s school, officials said. It’s something of a rite of passage for new chancellors, who have previously embarked on similar listening tours and issued reports about what they heard.

“These conversations are about fundamentally changing how we make decisions by ensuring that those closest to our students have a real seat at the table,” Samuels said in a statement.

Several controversial topics will likely come up, including Samuels’ record of merging schools as a way to tackle low enrollment and integrate students from different backgrounds. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has indicated his support for bolstering diversity in New York City schools, which is one of the nation’s most segregated school systems.

Samuel’s approach to gifted and talented programs is also sure to attract heated debate. When he was in charge of Brooklyn’s District 13, he helped several schools move away from gifted programs, responding to a groundswell of support from families who were concerned about the relative lack of Black and Latino students in such classrooms, and he instead encouraged schools to create International Baccalaureate programs, bringing academic enrichment to entire schools rather than just a subset of classes.

Mamdani has also expressed wanting to rethink the city’s gifted programs, particularly the practice of admitting students into the programs in kindergarten. Most programs across the nation start when kids are older, and in recent years, New York City has opened new programs starting in third grade.

Several parents and educators who have worked with Samuels are quick to point out that the chancellor is unlikely to simply take something away without providing other compelling options. In Manhattan’s District 3, which he most recently oversaw, Samuels tried to tackle enrollment declines in Harlem — where a large percentage of families go to charters — through mergers along with bringing new programs.

Michelle Lee, who sits on the parent council for Manhattan’s District 3 and formerly served as PTA president at Anderson, a gifted and talented K-8 school that draws students from across the city, said parents were leery when Samuels took the helm of their district.

But when Samuels held a town hall for the school to discuss bringing back screens for the middle school, families were “pleasantly surprised” that he wanted to engage with them.

“I think he sees the validity of why there is a segment of the student population that needs to have accelerated learning, and he understands that,” Lee said. “He does believe in providing opportunities for children and different types of learners.”

But she also had some suggestions about ending gifted for kindergartners in favor of starting in third grade: Few parents would want to pull their children from their elementary school for a program lasting third to fifth grade, she said. They would, however, potentially consider a third through eighth grade program, allowing them to skip the middle school application process.

It remains to be seen whether Samuels’ can translate his listening approach from a more local level to the system writ large and how he’ll be able to synthesize feedback from families with competing needs from 1,600 schools across the city.

Meghan Dunn, District 13’s superintendent who had been Samuels’ deputy superintendent when they started pursuing the International Baccalaureate, said the idea grew out of conversations with families.

Dunn said Samuels was intentional about cultivating relationships with families — in his capacity as a fellow parent of children in the school system and as a superintendent. “He called it,” Dunn said, “the playground superintendent.”

Here’s the schedule for the chancellor’s listening tour, dubbed, “Our Schools. Our Future: Conversations with the Chancellor:”

Queens, March 17, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Queens Innovation Center, 53-16 Northern Boulevard

Brooklyn, March 24, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

John Dewey High School, 2471 Stillwell Ave.

Bronx, March 28, 10:30 a.m. to noon

Roosevelt Educational Campus, 500 East Fordham Road

Staten Island, April 11, 10:30 a.m. to noon

Curtis High School, 105 Hamilton Ave.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

This award-winning South Bronx teacher creates ‘living labs’ (and helps design Regents exams)

2026-02-04T20:02:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free monthly newsletter How I Teach to get inspiration, news, and advice for — and from — educators.

In New York, classroom educators often help create state assessments. Few however, are from New York City, like Bronx earth science teacher Carolina Castro-Skehan.

Since 2018, she has been working as an educational specialist with the New York State Department of Education, trekking to Albany to help develop the New York State Earth and Space Science Regents exams.

“The experience offers a true behind-the-scenes look at how the exams are designed and aligned to the standards,” Castro-Skehan said. “That insight is invaluable and has made me a stronger classroom teacher and a better mentor to other educators.”

But her path as an educator was not a straightforward one.

After college, Carolina Castro-Skehan worked for a New York City-based cosmetic company. It was fast-paced and even glamorous at times, she said. She used her biology and business background to understand the science behind the products and how they were marketed.

Then came the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and her job began to feel “empty.”

Award-winning Bronx earth science teacher Carolina Castro-Skehan.

She pivoted to teaching, landing 24 years ago at DeWitt Clinton High School, the same public school she attended as a student. For the past five years, Castro-Skehan has been at Comprehensive Model School Project in the South Bronx, where she is the science department chair and teaches earth science to freshmen and sophomores.

To bring earth science to life, Castro-Skehan’s students participate in real-world projects such as growing produce for the school community or local food banks through a hydroponics program with NY Sun Works. She was recently recognized by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers with an “Outstanding Earth Science Teacher”award for both New York state and the Eastern Section for her sustainability and environmental projects.

Castro-Skehan also continually seeks out professional development opportunities and fellowships taking her into the field. She’s explored the Jurassic Coast in England, studied dinosaur fossils at dig sites in Montana, and sailed on an ocean drilling ship to learn how core samples reveal Earth’s past environments.

“Staying curious and continuing to learn alongside my students,” she said, “is what keeps my teaching meaningful and my classroom a place where curiosity thrives.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

My favorite lesson is our rain garden and street tree unit, which is really our core lesson on green infrastructure. It starts with a real problem students see every day: flooding around our school.

In the classroom, students build water filters and explore porosity and permeability, seeing firsthand why some surfaces absorb water while others don’t. Then we move outside. Students study the compacted soil around our street trees, loosen it, add fresh soil and native plants, and observe how healthier ground improves infiltration after storms.

Street flooding becomes becomes a way to teach geology, hydrology, ecosystems, and community action all at once. Throughout the year, students return to the same sites, observe changes after rainfall, and use what they’ve learned to argue for greener, better-draining spaces around our school.

Tell us how you approach teaching challenging scientific concepts particularly for students who are simultaneously learning English as a new language.

Hands-on, real-world science lessons are especially important for students who are learning English as a new language. When we teach through phenomena, students don’t have to wait until they’ve mastered scientific vocabulary to participate. They can jump in right away by observing, questioning, and making sense of what they see, which isn’t limited by language.

This kind of learning also allows students to participate from the start by sharing their own lived experiences. For example, when we study hurricanes or earthquakes, many students bring in personal experiences from events like Hurricanes Maria or Sandy, or earthquakes they experienced while living in the Caribbean. They talk about how their families prepared, what worked, and what they think could have been done better. Those conversations become the foundation for learning the science behind these events.

Language develops naturally as students explain their thinking, listen to one another, and refine their ideas.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom?

The area around my school is heavily urban. We’re crisscrossed by major highways and surrounded by heavy traffic, auto repair shops, and very little green space. Air quality is poor, flooding is common, and dilapidated concrete dominates the landscape. This is the reality my students walk through every day, and it shapes not only what I teach, but how I teach.

We talk about why our neighborhood looks the way it does, including the legacy of urban planning decisions associated with people like Robert Moses, that prioritized highways and automobile access over existing communities, public transit, and quality of life, particularly in marginalized neighborhoods. From there, we focus on what can be done to make it better.

How did you start working with the NY Sun Works hydroponics program? And how has that helped your school’s community while also giving hands-on learning experiences to your students?

I first became involved with the NY Sun Works hydroponics program through my work as a Master Teacher with Math for America. During a workshop at DeWitt Clinton High School, I saw how deeply students were engaged in growing food while learning the science behind it.

They were testing systems, collecting data, and producing nutritious food for their school community. I wanted to bring that experience to my own school.

Hydroponics labs are bright, active spaces filled with water, light, and growing plants that transform a dry classroom into a living lab. If I couldn’t green the space outside our school, I thought, maybe I could do it inside a classroom. That idea became a reality in our high school, where the hydroponics lab is now one of our most popular and successful science electives.

Because of that success, I worked with the development director of NY Sun Works, Megan Nordgrén, who helped identify a grant opportunity and supported me in writing the proposal, to expand the program into our middle school. With the support of my principal, Ms. Ricci, and approval from City Council member Althea Stevens, the project was allocated $200,000 in funding. In June 2025, we received confirmation that, once the budget passes, the School Construction Authority will fully fund the construction of the new lab in partnership with NY Sun Works.

The new middle school hydroponics lab will allow students to begin this learning earlier and will be named in honor of Jacob Pimentel, a beloved student who passed away in 2024 and was one of the first participants in our high school hydroponics program.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

When I think back on my own learning in high school, the most memorable experiences were the ones where I was given opportunities to lead my own learning with the support of a teacher. Those were the moments when I felt most engaged, challenged, and confident because I wasn’t just receiving information, I was actively making sense of it.

That experience shapes how I teach today. I try to create classrooms where students have ownership over their learning, where they’re encouraged to ask questions, investigate real problems, and take intellectual risks, knowing there’s a teacher there to guide and support them.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

No traditional snow day for NYC: Mamdani says Monday classes will be in-person or remote

2026-01-23T15:44:16+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Sorry kids, New York City students will still not have a traditional snow day, no matter how many inches fall.

School will be in session on Monday, whether in-person or remote, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Friday as he provided an update on the preparations for a potentially massive winter storm heading to the area over the weekend.

The mayor said he will make the final decision by noon on Sunday whether classes will pivot to remote learning. The city is also canceling Sunday’s Public School Athletic League activities as well as any other Sunday school events.

“I have to apologize to the students that we’re hoping for a different answer for a traditional snow day,” Mamdani said during a press briefing on the storm, acknowledging that the city has no flexibility in its calendar to cancel instructional days.

New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the city was committed to swiftly sharing information about schools.

“We know that families need timely, clear information to plan their schedules,” Samuels said.

He also said that schools will be flexible in their approach to remote learning.

“No one is asking kids to be on a device for six hours and 20 minutes,” Samuels said. “Some learning will be synchronous. Some will be asynchronous. You can still have your hot chocolate, you can still go out and enjoy the snow.”

Education Department officials are encouraging students and staff to log in to remote learning platforms over the weekend to make sure they can connect and to avoid technical glitches Monday morning, according to a letter to principals obtained by Chalkbeat. School leaders were also encouraged to stagger school start times for each grade level by 15-minute increments “to ensure a smooth login experience,” the email states.

The National Weather Service is predicting up to 14 inches in the metropolitan region, and the city is gearing up. Schools across the five boroughs are reaching out to their students to ensure they have devices and understand how to log on in the event of a remote school day.

This is the first major logistical test for the mayor and his new chancellor. A big chunk of the city’s nearly 900,000 students — all high school students and those attending 6-12 schools — already had the day off for a teacher professional development day. But the day might be complicated for many parents of young children: They might be frustrated with remote learning and prefer that their kids play outside, or they might be scrambling for child care, especially if they must work in-person.

Many families also depend on schools to provide their children breakfast and lunch.

Schools last closed in-person classes because of snow two years ago, and it did not go well: A technical meltdown prevented many students and teachers from logging on, despite efforts to practice in advance. The Education Department subsequently conducted another drill, but it was optional, and many students seemed to have opted out.

“We are preparing for the possibility of remote such that we do not repeat those mistakes of the past,” Mamdani said.

Samuels recalled the 2024 remote snow day as a “day that will live in infamy” and said, “We’ve stress tested the system, both in person with students logging in and as well. We’ve had simulations so we are prepared now.”

The most recent test, Samuels said, was in December.

“We’ve increased the capacity to make sure that we can house as many students as possible on that day,” Samuels added. “So we now have the capacity of having a million students logging at the same time within 60 seconds.”

The mayor and chancellor offered conflicting messages this week about whether closing school altogether, with no remote learning, could be an option. Samuels said on Wednesday that remote learning would be required if school buildings are shuttered, though Mamdani indicated on Thursday that he was mulling a traditional snow day.

Changes to the school calendar make cancelling school difficult, if not impossible.

The city stopped having traditional snow days in 2020, deciding that schools could instead offer remote learning to help meet the mandated 180 instructional days as more holidays have been added to the calendar.

The state allows certain professional development days to count toward that number, and because of that, New York City students are only in class 176 days this year.

Mamdani emphasized the steps the city is taking to prepare for the storm.

More than 2,000 sanitation workers are going to start 12-hour shifts starting Saturday evening as the city issues a hazardous travel advisory for Sunday and Monday. He urged people to take the storm seriously and stay home.

The city’s subway and bus system is expected to be operational, said Janno Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Credit recovery: Is it a second chance to pass or permission to fail?

2025-12-12T22:11:35+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

This originally aired on The Bell’s Miseducation podcast .

Thousands of New York City students rely on credit-recovery programs to earn course credit they need for the next grade or graduation. But do these second chances to pass give the system permission to fail?

A 2018 audit at a Brooklyn high school found that 96% of recovered credits were improperly awarded, exposing how uneven oversight and underqualified instruction can shortchange students.

In this episode, I share my own observations, along with my classmate Hawa’s firsthand experience navigating credit recovery. I also sit down with Shante Martin, a Williamsburg Charter High School administrator who sees the program’s promise, but also proposes changes such as limiting eligibility to seniors and raising the minimum grade requirement for a student to enter credit recovery.

A genuine second chance shouldn’t mean cutting corners. If credit recovery remains part of our school system, then it must deliver on the education it promises.

This is a video-first episode. You can watch it now on YouTube.

Miseducation is The Bell’s flagship podcast, which gives New York City public high school students the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Instagram.

Never miss an episode! Subscribe on YouTube | Spotify Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher

Doing high school and college simultaneously: Dual enrollment surges in NY, saving families money

2025-12-02T23:00:28+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Every morning, all of the roughly 100 seniors at Kingsborough Early College Secondary school start their day taking classes together at CUNY Kingsborough Community College.

In the afternoon, they hop on a yellow school bus and head back to their school on the Lafayette educational campus about 15 minutes away.

Kingsborough juniors make the reverse trek. They start their morning at the Lafayette campus then take the bus to the community college for afternoon classes.

By the time the students graduate high school, most have earned associate degrees from CUNY Kingsborough. In fact, the majority — 57% — of CUNY Kingsborough students are not stereotypical college students. They’re high schoolers, according to a new analysis released Tuesday from a New York coalition of advocates and education institutions.

CUNY Kingsborough is one of six community colleges across the state where high schoolers make up the majority of students. It could be the harbinger of something bigger. As community college enrollment has declined nationwide in recent years, dual enrollment programs — where high school students take college courses and earn college-level credit — are expanding in New York state and elsewhere.

The state Education Department is making these programs a priority. It recently proposed new reporting regulations requiring institutions to not only report their dual enrollment partnership agreements but also to provide data on enrollment and outcomes. The idea is to help officials and educators get a better grasp on the variety of dual enrollment programs and find ways to ensure the programs reach more students who are underrepresented in higher education.

The stakes are high: According to a 2024 report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, workers will need a bachelor’s degree for 66% of “good jobs” in 2031 — defined as one that pays a minimum of $43,000 a year nationally to workers ages 25-44.

The state’s proposed rules, which it’s expected to adopt early next year, will mark the state’s first consistent policy governing these programs. Additionally, the state recently created a $9.1 million College in High School Opportunity Fund to support dual enrollment and other early college programs to focus on enrolling more students from low-income families.

Several studies have celebrated dual enrollment programs for helping put students on a path to college by exposing them to high-level coursework.

At Kingsborough, the program has proven so successful that many of its students not only complete higher education degrees, they eventually return to work at the school. Of the school’s 80 staffers, 16 are graduates, its principal, Tracee Murren, said.

And there’s one other very obvious benefit dual enrollment programs frequently offer: Students can save money by earning college credits, often for free, before they finish high school.

Early college programs help families save on average $13,000 on the cost of a bachelor’s degree, said Alexandra Wilcox, deputy director of the New York Alliance for Early College Pathways, the group that studied the state’s dual enrollment expansion.

Research has found students in these programs are also more likely to attend school regularly, avoid suspension, graduate high school, and earn a college degree within six years.

“It really is a game changer in terms of being able to save time and money to a degree,” Wilcox said.

But a deeper understanding of the types of programs, who they’re serving, and what their outcomes are — the things the state is proposing to capture — will ultimately strengthen dual enrollment programs, said Wilcox.

Though New York pioneered dual enrollment programs, launching them more than 50 years ago, the state’s approach in terms of policy and funding has been “inconsistent and unpredictable,” Wilcox said.

NYC has range of early college programs

Across New York state, dual enrollment jumped 15% year-over-year, the alliance report found. It now has the nation’s third largest number of students in dual enrollment with more than 176,000, behind California and Texas.

In New York City, the majority of dual enrollment students are in College Now, where they take college-level courses at CUNY for free, generally as an add-on to their regular high school courses. But there’s rising interest in the early college approach, which integrates college courses more deeply into the curriculum. About 30,000 students take College Now courses while roughly 3,500 students take CUNY classes through early college courses, a CUNY spokesperson said.

Nearly 45 out of the city’s 400 high schools offer early college programs, according to the city’s MySchools lookup tool.

The early college model traces its roots to Middle College High School, which opened in 1974 to provide students who struggled in traditional schools with an opportunity to take courses at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, where the school is still located.

Some early college programs do not screen students based on their academic records, like Pathways in Technology Early College High School, known as P-TECH. That school launched in Brooklyn in 2011 and spawned eight other high schools across the boroughs that offer a six-year program, grades 9-14, each affiliated with different CUNY institutions. Students at these schools can graduate with an associate degree in a STEM field at no cost.

Other programs are highly selective. Bard College, a liberal arts school in Annandale-on-Hudson, has four New York City Bard Early College campuses, where Bard professors teach students, who go through a rigorous admissions process involving a test and interview. The newly opened HBCU Early College Prep in Queens — which partners with Delaware State University, a historically Black institution — also admits students based on GPAs, a writing exercise, and a video submission. The HBCU Early College students take online classes through Delaware State.

Access to dual enrollment programs shifts

At Kingsborough Early College, which opened in 2006, the school targets students who are underserved in higher education — those “not typically selected for gifted and talented,” Murren said.

The school starts in sixth grade, admitting students through a lottery. Demand for it is high: Roughly 1,000 students apply for 100 seats every year.

Roughly 40 to 50% enter the program reading below grade level, Murren said, and the school takes an intensive approach to ensure they’re ready to read dense college-level material as they reach the upper grades. Middle schoolers also have an advisory class every day to ensure they have the “mental fortitude” to take on college-level work, she said.

Students at HBCU Early College Prep High School in Queens on its first day of school, Sept. 4, 2025.

The students take their first college class in ninth grade, a Spanish course, stretching it from one semester to the entire year to make it slower and more digestible, Murren said. The school intentionally starts with a foreign language since it’s a course that many four-year colleges require and has no prerequisites.

Professors from CUNY Kingsborough Community College come to the Lafayette campus to teach the freshman and sophomores in the afternoon, and the school has an extended day to accommodate these courses.

Balancing high school and the more advanced college courses simultaneously isn’t easy, Murren acknowledged. But her staff is committed. There’s low teacher turnover, and they get to know most students from the age of 10.

The students, for the most part, take their college classes together once they start attending the CUNY campus, maintaining a sense of community.

Murren said the students also support each other, characterizing their approach in this way: “‘We’ve been going through this together, and I don’t want you to fall off, so I’m going to make sure that you don’t.’”

She added: “We should never doubt what our students are capable of, their abilities, and their tenacity really shines through when given the opportunity.”

Historically, many high schools have used dual enrollment programs as an acceleration strategy instead of also a strategy to promote college access, said John Fink, a researcher at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.

But that’s changing. Research into dual enrollment is also shifting away from addressing whether it works and instead trying to understand how to make it work better — and for more students, not just the top students who are “already acing everything,” he said.

The key question, Fink believes, is how to make sure that families know there’s free college available to New York City high schoolers.

“Even though you think that word would get out, it doesn’t,” he said, “[but] when it’s implemented as a purposeful path to debt-free college … that marketing also helps sell the high school.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis parents say district is leaving deaf students behind

2025-11-12T19:46:01+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Some Memphis parents say the local school district is failing to provide adequate resources including full-time sign language interpreters for deaf and hard of hearing students.

Four Memphis-Shelby County schools — Sea Isle Elementary and White Station Elementary, Middle, and High — have classrooms specifically designed to teach deaf and hard of hearing students. Around 100 MSCS students attend those schools for targeted support, representing close to 60% of the district’s deaf and hard of hearing population.

But at an Oct. 28 board meeting, a handful of Sea Isle parents and community members said the school has no full-time interpreters or teachers fluent in American Sign Language on staff, which hinders student learning. The group also said MSCS’ deaf education programs lack sufficient funding and district oversight on classroom outcomes and academic materials.

“They don’t have functional, equally equipped facilities for visual queues and closed captions, and they’re not training the staff,” Kiera McGhee Ross, an MSCS parent who is deaf and volunteers at Sea Isle, signed in an interview after the meeting with Chalkbeat Tennessee.

“It’s destroying the children the most,” she said. “They can’t write; they don’t know sign.”

MSCS leaders said in an emailed statement that there are five ASL interpreters in the district, but a lack of national and local certification opportunities makes it difficult to hire more. Barriers to certification and issues like low pay and burnout have contributed to a nationwide shortage of ASL interpreters in health care and education.

“The standard of teaching, curriculum, engagement, inclusivity, and care for students in our deaf program has not changed,” the statement said.

MSCS doesn’t track how much it spends on deaf education at individual schools. But in an emailed statement, MSCS leaders said the district invests around $1.6 million each year in deaf education services, an amount that has “remained stable” over the past decade.

Nationwide, students who are deaf or hard of hearing graduate from high school at a lower rate than their hearing peers and are less likely to pursue postsecondary education. The most effective teaching practices for deaf students are still widely unknown. But recent studies show that ASL fluency is a key predictor of academic and social emotional success.

MSCS declined to answer questions about the number of deaf and hard of hearing teachers on staff or how hearing teachers effectively communicate with students who are deaf. It’s unclear how often the five ASL interpreters are present in each school building.

McGhee Ross said that means students are also missing out on learning about deaf culture.

“The most important thing is to have language,” she said.

MSCS leaders are hosting a community meeting at 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17 in White Station High School to “seek growth opportunities” for students in the deaf and hard of hearing program. McGhee Ross said she and other Sea Isle parents plan to push for more answers there.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that McGhee Ross is a parent of a student at Sea Isle.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

How a kid who hated school became a superstar Bronx teacher: Lunch-and-learns and basketball helped

2025-11-10T22:40:49+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free monthly newsletter How I Teach to get inspiration, news, and advice for — and from — educators.

Angelo Imperati never wanted to become a teacher. He disliked school and couldn’t wait to finish.

He only went to college to make his parents happy. But while there, he befriended a girl and began to take the same courses as her. Soon, he found himself student-teaching and signing up to take the teacher certification exams.

Twenty-one years later, Imperati is an award-winning fifth grade teacher at P.S. 75 in the Bronx, where he teaches math to three classes and leads social studies lessons twice a week to his homeroom class. He also started a basketball league for his students and beyond. As 2025’s FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence grand prize winner for elementary school educators, he received a grant for $25,000, and his school received $10,000. (Nominations for the 2026 FLAG awards are open through Nov. 30.)

Imperati couldn’t be happier than educating kids from the borough where he was born and raised, making learning feel relevant to their lives.

“I share stories about myself, and show them how I have used the topics I’m teaching in real life settings,” Imperati said. “I create word-problems using my students as characters in the problem. We, as a class, act out the problems to bring it to life, and students begin to make that connection between what they’re learning and the application of it in a real-world situation.”

He focuses on building community and a “sense of belonging” for his students. At lunch, he opens up his room to kids from across his school for tutoring. He cooks for his students on Thanksgiving and brings his outdoor pizza oven from home to make pizza with the fifth graders for an end-of-year party.

His approach yields academic results, Imperati said. Of his 60 students who took the state math tests, 55 of them — or 92% — showed proficiency levels. The citywide average for fifth grade math was 57%, according to public data.

And though he’s proud of his students’ test scores, he was disheartened to see that test prep programs were basically the only option in terms of after-school activities. So he started a basketball league and has been continually adding teams over about 10 years.

“It was a perfect outlet for kids to exhaust some of their energy, and give them an organized activity with something that they enjoy doing,” Imperati said.

We talked to Imperati about his approach to making school feel relevant and fun. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom or school?

My school is located in the South Bronx. Some of our students live in shelters, struggle financially, or come from broken homes. Some children don’t know where they are going to sleep, or where their next meal will come from; but yet they are still expected to care about a fraction, a decimal or anything else getting taught.

I believe this is a teacher’s and a school’s biggest obstacle. How can I get them to care about education when they have all these odds against them? How can I empower them and help them overcome life’s challenges? How can I make them feel like their existence matters and are essential parts of their communities? As an educator, I feel immense pressure to do everything in my power to help put these kids on a path to success.

How have you boosted student performance? What’s your secret?

It’s about building a relationship where students feel valued and respected. I believe once you’ve established that sense of trust and respect with your students, they will work harder to make you, their families, and most importantly themselves proud.

We are a community of learners that follow a growth model; a classroom where the focus is on realistic, individualized goals for every child.

Bronx teacher Angelo Imperati

In addition to this, I strategically pair students up to encourage collaboration in my classroom. It creates an atmosphere where they are all responsible for each other’s learning and success. I give up my lunch every day to do lunch-and-learns. My top math students stay to “tutor” any child who wants to come for extra help. They eat, mingle, and learn.

Lastly, I communicate often with my students and parents. I create online assignments that address topics that have been taught in previous lessons and questions that relate to the current topic being taught. Students are expected to complete and submit these daily assignments on Google Classroom. Every evening I check these assignments and leave feedback for every student.

I also created a digital math notebook that students, parents, and guardians can access anytime they need clarity or assistance with the work.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

When it comes to math, I don’t really have a favorite lesson to teach. I just love to teach. I love the challenge of finding ways to make math practical for my students. I love finding ways to motivate and inspire children (especially children from the Bronx) how to be successful in their educational paths, how to ultimately be successful in life, and how they can be positive contributors to their respected communities and world they live in.

I love educating students on past events like slavery, World War II, and what happened to the Native Americans during the age of exploration. I teach about the current injustices that are happening in our world today and how we can learn from the wrongdoings and injustices of the past. These lessons create excellent discourse around topics like racism and inequality, and allow students to look at the world from a different perspective. It helps build community within the classroom, and I believe students are transformed through these lessons.

Tell us about the basketball league you’ve founded. Why is coaching so important to you?

I began by organizing a basketball program during recess time for fourth and fifth graders to participate in. I had about 30 kids that would participate on a daily basis. I began to notice the difference it was making, especially with the “troubled” kids. I started to make them responsible for their behavior and academics to stay in the program.

Later that year, my principal hired a basketball organization to come and work with the kids. If I remember correctly, she paid about $15,000 for nine weeks. At the end of the year, I put forth a proposal to my principal allowing me to run my own after school basketball program for a lot cheaper than she was paying this organization. Thankfully, she granted my wish, and the following year, I set up an after-school basketball program for third to fifth graders. I partnered with another teacher and a school aide. We had about 40 kids.

While running this program, I began to reach out to other schools to set up exhibition games. We would take our 10 best players to travel to different schools to play against different competitions. I saw how these games would attract the surrounding community. My new goal became partnering with different schools to form our own basketball league.

With the support of my principal, I was able to partner with several other schools in my district to create a District 8 elementary basketball program. We are entering our seventh year as a league.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

An excellent piece of advice came from my boss when I worked in a dry cleaners while in college.

I was 19 years old and very short tempered. My boss noticed my temper and anger on a couple of occasions. This one particular night, after we closed, he called me into his office. I thought he was going to terminate me. The first thing he asked me to do was take one hand and ball it into a fist. He then asked me to use the pointer finger on my other hand and travel along my knuckles of the hand that was balled into a fist. He asked me what did I feel. I replied, “ups and downs.” He replied, “That’s life!”

He explained that when I’m feeling down, I should keep my head up because I am surely bound to go back up again.

I have used this analogy every year with my students. My hope is that they realize no matter how hard life gets, and no matter what individual adversities they may encounter, there are brighter, better days ahead.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Voter guide: Where the NYC mayoral candidates stand on the future of education

2025-10-24T20:40:06+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

New York City’s next mayor will oversee the nation’s largest school system: more than 1,600 schools serving roughly 900,000 students with about 150,000 employees.

Its $40 billion budget makes it the largest city agency.

And yet, the candidates have not made education a central theme.

Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s affordability agenda includes free child care, but he has a slim K-12 platform. He’s offered some hints that he’d want to focus on the system’s most vulnerable children, including students with disabilities and the growing number of homeless students. A record high of the city students — 154,000 — lived last year in shelters or doubled up in homes with friends or family.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, has positioned himself as the champion of selective admissions, calling for doubling specialized high schools and expanding gifted and talented programs — both of which serve a fraction of the city’s students and disproportionately enroll white and Asian American children.

And Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa vowed to slash $10 billion from the Education Department’s budget, roughly 42% of how much the city spends on schools. (Mamdani has also called for tackling wasteful department spending.)

Perhaps the most consequential education idea Mamdani has espoused about the city’s school system: having less control over it.

Here’s a closer look at some of the educational issues that have come up on the campaign trail.

What might the future of mayoral control look like?

Ever since Michael Bloomberg won sweeping control over the school system in 2002, including the power to appoint the schools chancellor, every mayor has lobbied state lawmakers to keep this governance model in place.

Mayoral control’s supporters say it creates a clear line of accountability: The buck stops with the mayor, who wields enormous influence over the Education Department’s budget.

Mamdani has vowed to “end” mayoral control, embracing a longstanding critique that it gives little say to parents and educators on decisions that directly affect them. The frontrunner has promised a system of “co-governance” with existing parent councils and school-level leadership teams, though has offered scant details on how that would work.

At the same time, he has said, the mayor should still be held accountable for the public school system — raising questions about how much power he is willing to relinquish.

“I remain opposed to mayoral control, and I also believe that the mayor is accountable for that which happens in this city,” Mamdani said in this week’s debate.

Both of Mamdani’s opponents support mayoral control.

Cuomo recently said it would be a “terrible mistake” to roll it back.

“That’s probably been the most dramatic educational reform in 40 years,” Cuomo said. “We’d go back to the old system that had local school boards, which were corrupt patronage mills.”

Whoever is elected must soon negotiate with state lawmakers over mayoral control, which is up for renewal in 2026. (It’s typically extended every couple years.)

How will the city meet the challenges to shrink classes?

Over the next two years, all New York City public school classrooms must be capped between 20-25 students under a state law. That will require thousands of new teachers, billions of dollars, and thorny tradeoffs at overcrowded campuses.

Mamdani, who was endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers, recently unveiled a plan to recruit 1,000 teachers a year by offering tuition assistance in exchange for a three-year teaching commitment. The $12 million plan won’t be enough to fully staff smaller classes, Mamdani acknowledged. To speed up the process of building new classroom space, he has also called for filling vacancies at the School Construction Authority, the agency overseeing such projects.

During the primary, Cuomo expressed support for the class size law, though he cautioned it would be difficult to implement without an infusion of new funding from the state. In recent weeks, however, the former governor’s tone has shifted considerably. In a town hall meeting with parent leaders last month, he decried the law as “detached from reality” and “reckless.”

“It is an impossibility without funding,” Cuomo said. Sliwa shares that position.

What will happen to Mayor Eric Adams’ curriculum mandates?

Mayor Eric Adams’ main educational agenda has focused on overhauling reading and math instruction. All elementary campuses must now use city-approved reading curriculums. High schools transitioned to a standard Algebra 1 program. A growing number of middle schools must use city-approved literacy and math programs, too.

In a rare instance of agreement, the candidates have said they generally support the reading curriculum changes. Cuomo has raised concerns about whether the mandated math curriculums are as strong. Mamdani said teachers should have more control over how the curriculums are implemented.

Yet in a recent debate, Mamdani took a more pessimistic tone on the reading curriculum changes — and the school system more broadly.

“We are not even on track to ensure greater literacy levels across those schools, despite the strides that have been taken with NYC Reads,” Mamdani said. (Reading scores ticked up on the latest state tests, though it’s unclear to what extent the curriculum changes are responsible for those improvements.)

Mamdani has not laid out a detailed vision for improving instruction, but in a meeting with business leaders over the summer, he suggested artificial intelligence could be a useful tool in crafting lesson plans and reduce the number of employees at the Education Department, the Wall Street Journal reported. More recently, he walked back some of those comments, saying AI should supplement rather than replace staffers.

How can NYC fix its failing schools?

Mayors have taken widely different approaches to the city’s lowest-performing campuses. Bloomberg closed many large high schools and opened new, smaller ones in their place. His successor, Bill de Blasio, flooded campuses with social services and academic support, viewing closures as a last resort.

Cuomo has indicated he would shutter schools in the bottom 5% of reading and math performance on state tests, or those with graduation rates below 60%. In their place, the city should open new programs, including charters or high schools that offer students early college credits, he said. (Opening new charter schools would require approval from state lawmakers who have generally been hostile to the sector.)

Mamdani has not outlined a clear plan for improving schools, which Cuomo seized on in the final weeks of the campaign. The Democratic nominee indicated that he is more in line with de Blasio’s vision and said he would support a network of more than 400 community schools that provide wraparound support, pointing to mental health services, tutoring, and other social services.

“While the research on large-scale school improvement initiatives is limited, it is critical to implement strategies that are grounded in data,” Mamdani wrote in response to a Chalkbeat questionnaire, pointing to some encouraging evidence on the community school model.

He has also expressed reservations about the charter sector, which enjoyed support under Bloomberg, arguing they siphon resources from traditional public schools and has vowed to audit them.

What might happen to gifted programs, specialized high schools?

Debate over the city’s gifted and talented program heated up again after Mamdani indicated he wanted to eliminate the classes that start in kindergarten and keep the program starting in third grade. Cuomo and Sliwa both said they would expand gifted programs with kindergarten entry.

Adams had opened dozens of new programs for third graders in underserved areas, a way to address a thorny issue vexing the city’s gifted system: It admits disproportionately few Black and Latino students compared to their share of the population citywide.

For kindergarten gifted and talented classes, students win seats based on prekindergarten teacher recommendations. Though acceptance no longer relies on testing 4-year-olds, a much criticized process, educators still have concerns about sorting kindergartners. Many of the new third grade programs, however — which invite students to apply based on their report cards — are failing to attract applicants.

While Mamdani has expressed interest in curtailing certain gifted programs, he has backed away from his previous stance calling to eliminate the Specialized High School Admissions Test, which serves as the sole basis of entry for eight schools including Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, and Mamdani’s alma mater, Bronx Science. Many integration advocates have blasted the test as fueling the lack of offers to Black and Latino students. He previously told Chalkbeat that he would analyze the test for gender and racial bias.

Cuomo called for expanding the number of specialized high schools to 18 and said he would consider bringing back more selective admissions for other schools. Sliwa has also expressed support for increasing the number of specialized schools.

Who will be the next schools chancellor?

One of the most significant personnel decisions the next mayor will face is who to appoint to lead the nation’s largest school system.

Mamdani has said little about how he will make the decision or if he will conduct a national search. He has indicated that he is open to keeping Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the current schools chancellor appointed by Adams, which would represent a break from previous mayors who have appointed their own schools chief.

It’s also unclear whether he would be willing to give up any of his power to appoint a schools chancellor, a major element of mayoral control.

Cuomo declined to say who he would select when asked during a recent debate. Sliwa said he would appoint Robert Holden, a Queens City Council member.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

How this Tennessee teacher builds student confidence through show lambs and bees

2025-10-15T11:30:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free monthly newsletter How I Teach to get inspiration, news, and advice for — and from — educators.

While growing up on a livestock production farm in Arkansas, Megan Clegg probably couldn’t imagine how her upbringing would translate into a career years later.

She first used her degree in agriculture to work in veterinary science while she coached competitive gymnastics, before she dipped her toes into substitute teaching at Northwest High School, located in northwest Clarksville, Tennessee.

After an administrator encouraged her to become a certified teacher, Clegg realized she was qualified for a transitional license to teach students the subject she’d been steeped in her entire life.

“As a teenager, I was an avid 4H member and always wished that my high school had an agriculture program so I could have been a Future Farmers of America member,” Clegg said. “There is a lot of irony in me becoming an agriculture teacher. I am blessed to give students something that I always wanted when I was their age.”

After 14 years at Northwest, Clegg has helped build a robust agriculture program, imparting her passion for sustainability not just inside the classroom but by developing a school farm.

Clegg says her class prepares some students for post-graduation jobs in agriculture.

Clegg draws on her background in vet science to teach Clarksville teens animal husbandry, working with sheep and cattle, while classes also help maintain school bee hives. Students also take on the responsibilities of caretaking land and animals, repairing fences and managing groundskeeping.

“The farm idea all started because I was asking for permission to keep a few animals on the school campus,” Clegg said.

The farm has helped teach hard work and discipline, Clegg said, in addition to showing students school beyond a desk.

Though Montgomery County was once a rural area of Tennessee, Clarksville has risen as one of the fastest growing and rapidly developing cities in the state. As farmland dwindles in the area, Clegg is even more committed to spark a connection between the land and her students.

“People need to understand and know where their food is coming from for agriculture to be protected and live on to future generations,” Clegg said.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What is your favorite agriculture lesson to teach, and why?

Animal husbandry lessons are my favorite to teach. The basic care and reproduction of animals are essential to successful agriculture, and these are the lessons that usually intrigue the students the most. I also think I enjoy these lessons the most because they link to my personal experience of growing up on a farm and working at a veterinary clinic. The class discussions and student questions during these lessons are exciting as an educator.

What other topics/lessons does Northwest’s agriculture program include, and why do you think it is an important offering for high schoolers?

My fourth-year course includes the opportunity for students to obtain an industry certification in animal science along with hands-on experience working on the school’s farm. These seniors get a taste of what it is to work on a farm and with livestock. The students spend time with the show lambs and cattle, checking the health of the bee hives, building and maintaining fences, and basic groundskeeping.

Many of these students plan to work in an animal field upon graduating high school and this course is a resume builder. Time spent on the farm makes these students more marketable in any applicant pool.

Clegg's students help maintain the farm's beehives and care for various other animals.

Do you have a memorable teaching moment where you saw a student really connect with the subject or build a relationship with agriculture outside of the classroom?

Since my time at Northwest, the agriculture department along with the help of wonderful community members have developed a school farm. One of the opportunities that the farm has provided is the development of a livestock show team. We participate in local livestock shows, and the farm provides a place for students to house and train their animals to prepare for the shows.

This has provided opportunities to many of the students but one student particular stands out. This young man came into my class with no agriculture experience or connection. In the three years that I had him in class, he went from a very reserved student to the kid in the show ring, showing livestock animals with confidence.

He learned so much from the show team program. His mother even shared that she was no longer concerned about sending him off to college because his level of responsibility had grown so much from being a part of the show team.

Your school is in a once rural area of Clarksville. Do you feel the location and community affects what and how you teach agriculture lessons, and vice versa?

Clarksville is growing faster and faster, and a lot of the farmland is being developed into homes. I do not have many students who are directly connected to agriculture, which is why I feel the importance of my job is growing. The further students are removed from the origin of their food source, the more that they need to be educated on agriculture.

The community I teach in is very supportive of our agriculture program and have shown a lot of support to help us grow. They have been instrumental to the development of the school farm and livestock show team. My senior level students utilize the farm almost daily during the school day. The farm has allowed for my students to have more hands-on learning opportunities.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how do you put it into practice at work?

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed, from Proverbs. I strive to have a growth mindset and remember to reach out for advice and help no matter how small or large the project or situation. It is a blessing that the agriculture community in my area is made up of some of the best people I know, and they are all willing to share their expertise with me. The district that I teach in is also a wonderful network of support to reach out and seek wise counsel.

What advice would you give other teachers interested in incorporating sustainability and agriculture lessons in their work?

I advise other teachers to network within their local agriculture community. Working with local agriculturists has been one of the smartest things that I have done to help students make connections with agriculture and sustainability. One activity that I started a few years ago with my older students is a farm tour series. We visit local farms and agriculture businesses and hear how agriculture is working within our community both on a large scale and small scale. These visits really show the students the opportunities that are here locally for them to enter the field of agriculture.

If you have a student who comes into the class disinterested in agriculture, how do you help them connect with the material?

I start with getting to know them as a person and find out their interests. Usually from there, I am able to find a connection between what they like or plan to do in the future to agriculture. Agriculture is everywhere and most people do not realize these connections. And if that fails, I have still developed a relationship with the student and then they tend to at least start to see and understand the value and importance of agriculture. If they can grasp that it is important to their future, even if they do not want to go into the industry, they become a more willing participant in the learning.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani wants to rethink gifted and talented in NYC. The program has already seen big shifts.

2025-10-10T23:33:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani reignited the debate over New York City’s gifted and talented system earlier this month when he signaled his intention to shake up the program by eliminating admission for kindergartners.

The gifted programs, which enroll nearly 18,000 elementary students across 140 schools, have long been a lightning rod for questions about diversity, fairness, and academic achievement. Roughly 2,500 students are currently admitted in kindergarten and remain in separate classes or schools through fifth grade.

Both of Mamdani’s opponents, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, quickly countered with proposals to preserve and expand gifted classes. And on Friday, four lawmakers from southern Brooklyn introduced state legislation that would require the city’s Education Department to expand gifted programming.

Lost in the recent political volley: New York City’s gifted and talented system has already changed in recent years, with a meaningful increase in the number of Black and Latino students, children from low-income families, and students with disabilities.

Those demographic shifts are the result of a move from a test-based admissions system to one based primarily on teacher recommendations, along with Mayor Eric Adams’ administration opening dozens of new gifted and talented programs starting in third grade in underserved areas.

The changes have opened gifted education to a much wider swath of students, but also have created new challenges for schools that have long enrolled a much narrower range of students, some educators and parents said.

The gifted system’s trajectory under Adams also shows the challenges of growing: Many of the new third-grade gifted classes struggled to attract enough applicants, forcing schools to backfill the open seats with students who didn’t formally apply, according to a Chalkbeat review of city data and Education Department officials.

Mamdani’s proposal, which would preserve classes that start in third grade, seems to be sparking discussion within the city Education Department.

Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos told families at a Staten Island parent town hall on Monday that she’s “concerned” about the current admission process, and that the Education Department in recent days has started talking about possible changes.

How to structure the program is a challenge that has vexed multiple city mayors. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio in the final months of his tenure proposed eliminating separate gifted classes altogether, but Adams halted that plan.

“It’s a really important problem to solve, and a really hard one too,” said Tamara Sussman, a parent of a Queens student in a gifted program. It requires “balancing an equitable education with one that feels challenging and appropriate.”

From testing to recommendations: A more diverse gifted and talented

The city’s gifted programs long relied on standardized exams administered to 4-year-olds to determine admission, with roughly a quarter of test-takers qualifying for a spot in 2019.

Under the teacher recommendation system, which launched during the pandemic, that equation shifted dramatically. Last year, 85% of applicants to gifted programs were deemed eligible.

At River Park Nursery School on the Upper West Side, Director Maria Nunziata estimates around 80% of her preschool families apply for gifted spots — and she recommends virtually all of them.

“Every child brings to us some kind of gift and talent,” she said.

In other parts of the city, far fewer students even apply. Just 76 students from the Bronx’s District 9 applied last year, compared to 718 students from Upper West Side’s District 3, even though the latter district has 5,000 fewer students.

With far more eligible students than available seats, the city gives first priority to siblings of existing students. Some schools also set aside seats for students from underrepresented groups. The remaining seats are determined by a lottery.

Under the test-based system, children had to score above the 90th percentile to qualify for the vast majority of programs, which are separate gifted classes within neighborhood schools.

To be eligible for one of five standalone gifted schools — including New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math; Talented and Gifted School for Young Scholars; and The Anderson School — students had to score above the 97th percentile.

But the test helped drive sharp racial and economic segregation: In 2020, the last year it was administered, just 12% of kindergartners in gifted programs were Black or Latino.

After the city nixed the test, the demographics began to change.

In the 2023-24 school year, 30% of kindergartners in gifted programs were Black or Latino, officials said at a recent City Council hearing. The share of students from low-income families in gifted programs citywide rose to 47% last year, up from 34% in 2019, according to Education Department data.

“We are proud to host increasingly diverse [gifted and talented] classes that reflect the diversity of our city,” said Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle, who noted that the city also incorporated the gifted application into the normal kindergarten application to streamline the process for families.

A changing population brings new possibilities and challenges

Some parents and educators say the admissions changes have opened access to students with learning disabilities who would have been screened out by the test but nonetheless benefit from an accelerated program. Citywide, the share of gifted students with disabilities rose to 5% last year from 3% in 2019. (About 22% of students citywide have a disability.)

At Talented and Gifted School for Young Scholars in East Harlem, “taking away the test made it so we attracted students who were more neurodivergent,” said Elaine Tang, a special education teacher. The school recently opened its first classes with both a special and general education teacher.

“It’s kind of forced us to question: What does it mean to be gifted anyways?” she said.

She noted the school’s proficiency rates on state tests had remained in the high 90s. (Across all five standalone gifted schools, reading and math proficiency rates on state exams were in the mid-to-high 90s last school year, with little change from past years.)

As a wider set of students are now eligible for gifted seats, however, several parents and educators said some programs are straining to accommodate students with a broader range of academic abilities.

“Children feel like there’s something wrong with them when really they’re not ready for a curriculum that’s a year past their grade level,” said one staffer at a gifted program, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

At New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math, some parents are also noticing differences.

“When you go into the classroom, it’s louder,” said one parent who has two children who attended the school, one of whom was admitted after the new admissions changes went into effect. “It’s a stark contrast to when I used to go for the older one. They could sit. They could pay attention more. They could keep up.”

Other educators wondered whether pandemic disruptions have also altered students’ academic readiness and behavior.

“It’s hard to pull apart how it would have looked if none of these kids had been learning at home for the first half of their elementary experience,” said Leigh Ercole, who teaches fourth and fifth graders in the gifted program at Manhattan’s P.S. 165.

She continues to believe in the importance of having a gifted track, but would like to see an admissions overhaul.

Ercole believes the city should use a mix of teacher nominations and other assessments to measure whether students are prepared for gifted classrooms. Students should be universally screened to ensure everyone has a fair shot at admission, she said, adding that at a previous job in the Bronx, she saw few parents who knew about gifted programs.

“I don’t think the answer is to say, ‘No one is gifted,’” she said. “I think it’s going to do a disservice to students in the city.”

Sussman, the Queens mom, said her children, both of whom attended a gifted program at P.S. 150Q, benefited from math instruction that moved at a faster pace. But she was open to other methods of providing accelerated instruction, including “schoolwide enrichment” models.

Those programs provide accelerated opportunities for students based on their strengths and interests without tracking them into separate classrooms. An advisory group under de Blasio proposed schoolwide enrichment as a replacement for gifted tracks.

Ultimately, Sussman agreed with Mamdani’s plan to phase out gifted programs for kindergartners.

“It is really young to start dividing kids,” Sussman said.

One study finds NYC gifted programs boost learning

Amid heated debates about gifted education, there is limited research on a basic question: Do the programs boost student learning?

One study focused on New York City suggests the answer might be yes.

A group of University of Pennsylvania researchers found that the city’s gifted programs appear to significantly increase state test scores — with some of the largest gains among Black and Latino children. Still, strong students who did not attend gifted programs still performed well, suggesting they were unlikely to be harmed if they didn’t attend.

A separate review conducted by the city’s Education Department was less conclusive. “There is no clear trend or indication that G&T enrollment is associated with student achievement,” according to an analysis of math and reading scores obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request. (Both studies were conducted when the city relied on the admissions exam.)

Allison Roda, an associate professor at Molloy College who has studied the city’s gifted program, emphasized that there is enormous variation in how they are implemented.

“There isn’t a standard curriculum and so you might get enrichment, you might get acceleration,” she said. “It really depends on the school district and the teacher.”

Moreover, New York City’s approach of diverting gifted students to separate schools and classrooms starting as early as kindergarten makes it an outlier nationally. Tang, the Manhattan gifted teacher, taught in three New Jersey districts before moving to the city and never saw standalone gifted classes.

Separate gifted programs in the suburbs are “very rare,” she said. “I think we have to wonder why that is.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael atmelsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Parents can’t opt out of Tennessee student gun safety training, Memphis official says

2025-09-19T21:10:33+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools physical education and health teachers began leading one-day gun safety classes this week under a new state law requiring firearm safety curriculum in all Tennessee public schools.

District leaders said the training should be finished by fall break. According to the 2024 state law, the curriculum needs to be “viewpoint neutral on political topics,” including gun rights and the Second Amendment.

The safety lessons are necessary to prevent accidental shootings, district leaders said, but some parents are skeptical that the program will make an impact, and others asked during a virtual town hall Thursday if they could opt their children out of the classes.

Jim Harbin, special projects coordinator for MSCS’ health services office, said that isn’t allowed. He compared the lessons to fire and lockdown drills.

At a presentation Friday at Dexter Middle School, Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond called the new curriculum “something positive.”

“Even before the state started to talk about it,” he said, “I wanted to do something around gun violence because of the impact it’s having on our community.”

Since 2020, firearms have remained the leading cause of death for children and teens nationwide. Tennessee ranks third in the country for the highest number of unintentional shootings done by children.

Lanetra Wiley, a nurse practitioner for Memphis-Shelby County Schools, said she remembers the day she found out one of her students had been killed by his friend in an accidental shooting.

“I saw him in the clinic one Friday, and on Monday he was dead,” she said. “I know you all play Black Ops, Call of Duty, all of those games. But they are not reality.”

Curriculum guidelines from the Tennessee Department of Education outline four firearm safety rules for children: Stop, don’t touch, leave the area, and tell an adult. The lessons change based on grade level, starting with emphasis on recognizing the difference between toy and real guns and progressing to instructions for proper gun storage by middle school.

“As superintendent, I want to see all of you all grow up to be the people that you were meant to be,” Richmond said Friday. “There’s never going to be a positive outcome when it comes to you all, particularly young people, dealing with guns.”

Harbin said the district will share more resources with parents in the coming weeks.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Just 90 NYC high schools offer journalism classes. A new movement is trying to change that.

2025-09-16T16:40:59+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Brooklyn English teacher Sydney Kukoda launched her new journalism elective class last week with an unconventional assignment. She emptied the contents of her wallet onto a desk and asked her students to investigate, take notes, and then write a short biography of her based on facts they had independently verified.

A worn business card from a Parisian restaurant caught the attention of Ibrahima Diallo, a 17-year-old junior from Guinea.

“Did you work at the French restaurant?” asked Ibrahima, who is part of the school’s growing community of English language learners.

Kukoda said she didn’t.

“How long have you been shopping at Costco?” another student asked, after spotting a membership card.

“I’ve been going to Costco with my family since I was a kid,” Kukoda said. “And I was able to get my own Costco card on my family’s account when I was 18.”

Students in Sydney Kukoda's journalism class at Brooklyn's High School for Global Citizenship sift through the contents of Kukoda's wallet as part of a lesson in fact-finding and verification.

The lesson was part of a new curriculum launched this year at the High School for Global Citizenship through Journalism for All, an initiative aimed at expanding access and equity in youth journalism in New York City’s public high schools.

Just 1% — or nearly 3,220 — of roughly 290,000 public high school students had access to some type of journalism course last year, according to an inaugural report from the New York City Department of Education, released Monday. The report, based on self-reported school data, showed the students were spread across 90 of the city’s roughly 400 public high schools. (The report also included a list of 35 high schools that had print or online student newspapers, but that tally appeared to be incomplete. The coalition has a “newsstand” website with links to about 90 student publications across the city.)

The report comes following advocacy by the Youth Journalism Coalition, a project of the youth journalism nonprofit The Bell. (The Bell partners with Chalkbeat on the P.S. Weekly podcast.) Last year, the coalition pushed the New York City Council to pass Local Law 27, which requires the chancellor to publish an annual report on journalism programming in New York City high schools.

“At the end of the day, we need to see that number go up,” Youth Journalism Coalition Director CJ Sánchez said about the education department’s data.

Hundreds of students and teachers from the coalition were expected to rally on Tuesday on the steps of City Hall to celebrate their effort to increase access to journalism education and call for increased city investment in it.

Sydney Kukoda, an English teacher at Brooklyn's High School for Global Citizenship, is one of a growing number of New York City educators who are teaching a pilot journalism class this year. The class is made possible through the Journalism for All pilot program that has 30 New York City public high schools participating in its inaugural cohort.

Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos has expressed support for expanding access to student journalism.

“Through their reporting, our young people develop critical thinking skills, learn to advocate for their communities, and drive meaningful conversations about the issues that matter most to them,” she said in a statement. “I encourage all our school communities to value, support, and amplify student voices as they continue to push important conversations forward.”

Expanding access to journalism education

As part of the coalition’s push to expand access to journalism education it partnered with CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism to create a curriculum and teacher training for schools that have historically lacked such programs. Called Journalism for All, they are piloting their new journalism courses in 30 public high schools across the city.

Principals of schools in the inaugural cohort requested $5,000 per year over the next three years from their local City Council members. So far, just six council members have agreed to give schools $5,000 this year toward their journalism programs. In 2024, the City Council passed a resolution calling on the New York City Department of Education to “provide support for a student newspaper at every high school.” (Resolutions are not legally binding).

At the High School for Global Citizenship, where 76% of students are Black, 16% are Latino, and 90% are economically disadvantaged, the arrival of a journalism course represents more than just a new elective. It’s an opportunity for students to express themselves, build agency, and have a say in and about what happens in their communities and in the world, Kukoda said.

Before launching the class this year through the Journalism for All initiative, Kukoda acted as an advisor to the school’s journalism club that students launched in May 2024, naming it HSGC Today. That debut issue from June 2024 featured the results of a student poll on who they thought won the Kendrick Lamar and Drake feud (Lamar won by a landslide), summer reading and activity recommendations, and coverage of the school’s sports teams.

Since then, students have reported on a wide range of topics. When a student journalist won the prestigious POSSE Scholarship and a full ride to Brandeis University in Massachusetts, another student reporter wrote a profile about her and the scholarship program. The paper’s February issue examined the national wave of book bans and the banning of AP African American Studies — a course offered at Global Citizenship — at a Florida school. Other stories have tackled gun laws and gun violence in students’ neighborhoods, as well as changes to immigration policy under the Trump administration.

“Our students are very aware of the ways in which they’re systemically disprivileged in our society, and they are very aware of their surroundings and neighborhoods. And so they take the responsibility and the opportunity of having a student voice very seriously,” said Kukoda, who oversees the paper with another teacher.

Junior Ramatou Toure wrote an explainer on Eid, a Muslim holiday that she and her family celebrate.

“I feel as though I was really represented in that way because I got to talk about it,” Ramatou, 16, said.

When the school implemented its cellphone ban policy last winter, HSGC Today published a spread featuring student responses to the policy and an interview with the school’s principal.

“It kind of marked in my eyes a shift in the newspaper where the students felt more comfortable almost challenging school norms,” Kukoda said of the cellphone policy reporting.

Sydney Kukoda delivers a lesson in fact-finding and verification during her journalism class.

While the journalism club meets weekly after school for one to two hours, the new elective offers students the chance to learn journalism during a full class period, four times a week. It also expands access to the school paper, allowing more students to participate.

“We’re building a model that can be replicated across the school district and ultimately outside of New York City in any school district that is prioritizing their students, media literacy, civic engagement, and career pathways,” Sánchez said.

Increasing student engagement through journalism

Sixty schools applied to be a part of the inaugural Journalism for All cohort. The coalition prioritized applications from schools that showed buy-in from students, teachers, and principals. It also prioritized schools that were underresourced, with students who faced barriers to their education.

Sánchez said these schools have the most to gain from the creative learning approaches supported by Journalism for All, which can help students stay interested in class, build reading skills, and feel more connected to their school.

“Our idea is, if it can work here, it can work anywhere,” they said.

The coalition has enlisted a team of New York University researchers to evaluate the pilot program. It plans to share the findings with the Department of Education.

Kukoda has noticed how being part of the student paper has increased engagement in class, especially among students with disabilities or language barriers, because journalism feels more accessible than traditional academic work.

“It’s been a really beautiful and prideful journey to watch some of them grow more confident — asking tough questions, sharing their opinions,” Kukoda said.

Global Citizenship junior Yamira Galicia, 16, began contributing to the student paper last year. She is bilingual and speaks Spanish, a skill she has brought to the newspaper, which sometimes publishes stories in Spanish.

“ I think the class should be taught more in other schools because I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of other kids who love telling stories and might have a gift,” Yamira said.

Seyma Bayram is a New York City-based journalist. You can reach her at sbayram@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools have 176 days of class, not the required 180. Here’s why.

2025-09-09T20:04:22+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Most New York City families think their children are in school for 180 days.

That’s the minimum number of instructional days New York public schools are required to provide under state law to qualify for state aid.

New York City students, however, will only be attending school this year for 176 days.

And it turns out, State Education Department officials say that number still meets the requirements — to the dismay of some parents, who worry that students are missing too much instructional time.

Under the regulations, school districts can count up to four “superintendent” or “chancellor” conference days as instructional time, state officials said.

The city’s Education Department confirmed that it counted four staff development days to meet the requirement: the two days teachers came in before students’ first day, Election Day on Nov. 4, and Anniversary/Chancellor’s Conference Day on June 4.

“We always ensure our students receive the required number of instructional days, in accordance with New York State Education Law,” Isla Gething, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department, wrote in an email.

New York City’s school calendar — which the Education Department creates in collaboration with the teachers union — has undergone several changes in recent years, with the addition of several holidays including the Muslim holiday of Eid (which city officials made an error on last year), Lunar New Year (with New York the first state to make it a school holiday), and Diwali, the “festival of lights” celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains around the world.

Additionally, because of this year’s “dog leg” day after winter break — students would have returned to school on Friday, Jan. 2 — the city ended up making that a day off. Something similar happened last school year when Monday, Dec. 23 was originally slated to be a school day before the city declared at the last minute that it would be a day off.

And schools no longer have snow days, instead going virtual for inclement weather, but the Education Department’s track record on pivoting to remote hasn’t been great.

As someone who likes to plan ahead, Robert Murtfeld, a parent leader in District 1, which spans Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village, began taking a closer look at this year’s calendar as he entered school holidays in his personal and professional calendars.

“I started to feel that the days off are quite excessive,” said Murtfeld, who chairs the Parent Teacher Association advocacy committee at the Neighborhood School, an elementary school in Manhattan’s East Village.

After counting the number of days students are in class, Murtfeld raised the issue with his local Community Education Council as well as with the Education Department’s Office of Policy and Advocacy, which responds to resolutions and concerns raised by the local elected parent boards.

Murtfeld was confused: In presentations from the Education Department, particularly about chronic absenteeism rates, which continue to be high, officials often stress that each day of instruction matters.

He feels that this year’s calendar sends the “wrong signal,” and at the least, he would like the Education Department to provide a more detailed explanation to families.

“For professional development, we parents want to know what is actually done on those days,” Murtfeld said. “Be transparent about what you are doing.”

On Wednesday, Murtfeld’s committee was expected to host City Council education chair Rita Joseph about this year’s educational priorities, and he planned to press her on the calendar as well.

Queens mom of three Ellen Smith went down a rabbit hole of counting the days off last year after the teachers at her children’s elementary and middle schools voted to go remote on the half days for parent-teacher conferences, and she felt more incensed when the city canceled the extra day for winter break.

“For me, it’s part of my general frustration with the school calendar and the way it’s Swiss cheese,” Smith said. “I feel like there’s no parent voice. There’s no way for parents to say, ‘This calendar is not made for working families, parents, and kids.’”

The “checkerboard” of new school holidays can damage the continuity of learning, said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. “Students need as many instructional days as possible.”

Once new holidays are added, it’s politically difficult to remove them, Bloomfield said. But he suggested an alternative: “The most feasible solution is to begin public school before Labor Day, now commonplace across the country.”

That could also solve a problem many families have with finding camp or child care at the end of the summer.

State regulations allow for staff development related to implementing new standards and assessments, staff orientation, and curriculum development, as well as parent-teacher conferences. They do not allow that time to be used for such routine school administrative matters as grading assignments or preparing assignments or lesson plans.

NYC school year starts with new schools, a phone ban, and looming mayoral election

2025-09-04T21:00:48+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Middle schoolers arrived at I.S. 5 in Queens Thursday morning with a mix of first-day emotions. They mourned the end of summer, nervously awaited classroom assignments, and some shed tears despite the bouquets of “welcome” balloons.

Seventh grader Gabriel Chrisman said he would miss sleeping late and playing video games. He hoped for hands-on learning rather than textbook-oriented lessons. Aarav Patel was anxious to learn whether he’ll make it into honors classes at the Elmhurst school. “I’m hoping mostly I’ll get good grades,” said the seventh grader.

The new school year brings an array of changes and challenges to the nation’s largest school system, with a new cellphone ban, looming class size requirements, and a mayoral race that could bring new leadership to the Education Department midway through the school year.

Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers union, visited I.S. 5 to highlight the school’s efforts to reduce class sizes and its success banning cellphones. About a 48-minute transit ride away in another part of Queens, Mayor Eric Adams joined the city’s schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos at HBCU Early College Prep High School, one of seven new schools opening this fall.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running for mayor as an independent, did not have any public first day of school appearances. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa planned to visit a Queens K-8 school after dismissal.

Adams, who trails all of the other candidates in most polls, returned not far from where he grew up to make the case that he has invested in underserved neighborhoods by opening high-performing schools.

“Oftentimes communities like Southeast Queens are overlooked,” Adams told the crowd during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at HBCU Early College Prep. “Not in this administration. We are going to make sure you get the same skills and tools that will prepare you for the future.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams appeared alongside other elected officials and school administrators during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at HBCU Early College Prep, a new high school in Southeast Queens, on the first day of school on Sept. 4, 2025.

The first-of-its-kind school aims to foster academic excellence and a sense of belonging among Black and brown students by drawing on the legacy of historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs.

Through a partnership with the HBCU Delaware State University, students will be able to take online courses with professors at the university, who will also serve as faculty mentors. They can earn a tuition-free associate degree while still in high school, and they’re also guaranteed admission to Delaware State.

The selective school admits students based on grades, which account for 30% of a student’s admissions application. Students must also complete two writing prompts and a video.

“This is a huge opportunity for us, and we’re excited,” said Far Rockaway resident and parent Trudy Quintyne.

Quintyne first heard about the new school last spring when her son — now a senior at Delaware State — showed her an Instagram post announcing its opening.

“My son is actually the first one to go to college. So now to have her follow in his footsteps — it’s amazing,” Quintyne said Thursday as she dropped off her 14-year-old daughter, Maliya, for her first day.

“I feel good to be in a school that represents me,” said Maliya, who is among the roughly 100 students in HBCU Early College Prep’s inaugural freshman class. “To be somewhere where you’re supported, where people love you, and want to see you succeed … it’s just amazing to be in a place like that.”

Students arrive at HBCU Early College Prep, a new high school in Southeast Queens.

Ringing in a statewide cellphone ban

Besides being at a new school, Maliya was still adjusting to the cellphone ban before classes began.

“I love being on my phone!” she said.

Her mother interjected, laughing: “No, I love the ban.”

Roughly half of the city’s schools already had some restrictions on cellphones in place, whether they collected devices or had students carry them locked in pouches. But the new state law requires all public schools ban students’ personal internet-enabled devices from “bell to bell,” with some exceptions.

Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani on the first day of school at I.S. 5.

I.S. 5 has required students to place their phones in lockable pouches since 2024, which Mulgrew and Mamdani trumpeted as a model for other schools.

“To be young in this moment is to feel a relentless amount of pressure to not only be online,” Mamdani said, “but to be subject to the incentives and the imperatives of an algorithm.”

He said the ban should help reduce bullying and other disciplinary issues.

Adams, too, talked about the need to reduce bullying. The share of New York City students who report that their classmates harass or intimidate each other online has grown in the wake of the pandemic.

“Young people met and sat down with us and stated that they’re tired of the bullying on the cell phones,” Adams told students and community members at HBCU Early College Prep. “They’re tired of the violence that comes from the cellphones. … they’re tired of watching their friends go through depression, suicidal ideations.”

Zahidul Amin, whose daughter is starting sixth grade at I.S. 5, had mixed feelings about the cellphone ban. He worried about contacting his daughter in an emergency, though he acknowledged that students may surreptitiously use their phones to play games during class. Ultimately, he agreed that schools should collect them.

He said his main hope for the school year is for his daughter, who is on the autism spectrum, to make progress in math, a subject that has tripped her up. He’s also hopeful that she’ll become more independent.

“It’s the very first day of middle school, it’s a new chapter of her life, and as a parent I’m delighted,” he said.

Families gather for drop off at I.S. 5.

Thousands of new teachers in NYC classes

Schools across the city are hiring thousands of new teachers to comply with a state mandate to sharply reduce class sizes — and Mulgrew pointed to I.S. 5 as an early success story.

The school received funding for 21 new teachers, the second highest number of roughly 740 schools awarded more than $400 million to shrink classes. That will allow all of its classes to have 23 or fewer students, meeting the new caps, said Principal Kelly Nepogoda.

The city so far hired about 3,200 of the 3,700 additional teachers needed, Mulgrew said. (An Education Department spokesperson declined to confirm current hiring figures.)

Luisa Zapata, a parent association leader at I.S. 5, said her son, a seventh grader, had 30 students in his classes last year. She believes the change will make it easier for him to pay attention and get more individual support from his teachers.

Luisa Zapata, a parent leader at I.S. 5.

“It’s really a big deal because the classroom will be less crowded,” she said.

Mamdani, who won the teachers union’s endorsement in the November general election, indicated he would not waiver from implementing the law, which passed after intense lobbying from the union.

“The question of compliance has too often been a negotiation,” Mamdani said, “as opposed to something that we are all equally working alongside to fulfill.”

Mayoral election hangs over the school year

On the campaign trail, Mamdani often talks about how out-of-school factors, such as affordable housing and groceries, can improve student outcomes, since children facing housing and food insecurity often struggle to show up to class or concentrate on school work. The mayoral frontrunner has also promised to make child care more affordable and give communities a greater say in Education Department policies, though he has not released a detailed K-12 platform.

Asked on Thursday how he would improve the city’s highest-need schools, Mamdani said he would eliminate wasteful spending on contacts and consultants and direct more funding to classrooms.

But he did not outline any specific policy proposals or commit to releasing a more comprehensive plan before the election. “We are continuing to develop policy,” he said.

Adams’ education agenda has focused on overhauling reading and math instruction as well as expanding access to career opportunities before graduation. His mayoral opponents have largely signaled they will continue the literacy program mandates.

Cuomo recently released his plans to replace “chronically underperforming” schools with a “high performance model,” such as early college high schools, “innovative” or “specialized” schools, or charter schools.

Sliwa released his schools plan on Thursday, calling for more theme-based and vocational schools and an end to the state’s charter school cap.

The mayoral election, however, was far from many parents’ minds at I.S. 5.

After the press conference wound down just a few feet from the school’s main entrance, some families snapped photos and shook Mamdani’s hand. Several others remarked that they weren’t sure who he was.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Seyma Bayram is a New York City-based journalist. You can reach her at sbayram@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Trump administration tells 40 states to remove gender identity from sex ed or lose federal funds

2025-08-26T21:11:05+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

The Trump administration is threatening to pull federal funding from 40 states for a sex education program aimed at vulnerable teens unless those states remove references in their curriculum to gender identity and transgender people.

In a Tuesday press release, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the action reflected the Trump administration’s “ongoing commitment to protecting children from attempts to indoctrinate them with delusional ideology.”

The threat comes after California refused to change its curriculum last week and HHS terminated the state’s nearly $6 million-a-year grant.

The states that received notices to change their curriculum are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Withholding federal funds to punish states for teaching about gender identity is yet another way the Trump administration has sought to control what young people learn and advance the president’s view that there are only two sexes, male and female.

Through numerous civil rights investigations and lawsuits, the Trump administration is also seeking to prevent trans girls from playing on girls’ sports teams and stop schools from letting trans kids use the bathroom or locker room that corresponds with their gender identity.

States will have 60 days to comply or risk losing their federal funds for the Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP.

PREP represents a small slice of sex ed nationwide, and provides most states with just a few million dollars a year. But it targets a particularly vulnerable group of teens and pre-teens who are at a higher risk for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. In California, many of the 13,000 young people who participate each year live in foster care, are incarcerated, or are experiencing homelessness.

Back in June, HHS told California that it was out of compliance with the federal law that established PREP, because its materials included instruction about what it means to identify as transgender and that gender identity is not always synonymous with the sex someone is assigned at birth. The agency subsequently reviewed curriculum used by other states — many of which use some of the same materials as California.

In the termination announcement, HHS also said that parts of California’s curriculum “could encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals, ‘altering their body … through hormone therapy,’ ‘adding or removing breast tissue,’ and ‘changing their name.’” This appears to refer to the possibility that students might socially transition or pursue gender-affirming medical care.

California officials told HHS that they wouldn’t change their materials because they were medically accurate, previously approved by the agency, and compliant with federal law — which is silent on whether PREP should teach about gender identity. State health officials also said that changing the curriculum could prompt public schools that use the same materials to drop them, because California law requires sex ed to include information about gender identity.

A spokesperson for the state’s public health department did not respond to Chalkbeat’s questions about how it planned to address the funding gap. California health officials told the Trump administration they reserved the right to challenge the funding termination, but they have yet to do so.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Can AI act as a writing coach for reluctant writers? This Brooklyn educator is betting on it.

2025-08-21T15:40:34+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Like many students, Nicole Acevedo has come to rely on artificial intelligence.

The 15-year-old recently used it to help write her speech for her quinciñera. When she waits too long on completing homework, Nicole admitted, she leans on the technology so she can hand assignments in on time.

Her school, located in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, has also embraced artificial intelligence. But it is hoping to harness it in ways that supplement learning rather than supplant it.

This past school year, Nicole’s freshman seminar class at Northside Charter High School incorporated an AI writing tool created by the school’s tech-forward chief academic officer, Rahul Patel. The Center for Professional Education of Teachers, based at Columbia University’s Teachers College, acted as an adviser on the project.

Called Connectink, the tool acts like an on-demand writing coach, providing students with such support as sentence starters when they get stuck, or prompts to encourage them to stretch their work using dialogue, descriptions, or rhetorical questions. It seeks to provide immediate feedback for students since educators can only provide so much attention to individual students in a given period.

As New York City, as well as the federal government, promise to incorporate more AI tools into classrooms, concerns abound, not only related to students using the technology to cheat on assignments but also about possible racial bias in AI teacher tools. Recent findings revealed bias in tools designed to support classroom planning, lesson differentiation, and administrative tasks.

Patel is hopeful Connectink might offer some early lessons on how to approach AI’s educational potential thoughtfully.

The Center for Professional Education of Teachers researched a pilot of the tool with about 360 students at three high schools in the last six weeks of the school year. The tool was used to help students write personal narratives as a way to build confidence in developing their own voice as well as use their writing as a way to build empathy and connect with others.

Preliminary findings showed promise. In a pre-project survey, just 37% of the students considered themselves “good writers,” though 68% said they liked getting feedback on their writing. Nearly half said they felt more connected to themselves or to their classmates through their writing but only a fifth believed their writing could have an impact on their world around them, said Roberta Lenger-Kang, director of the Center for Professional Education of Teachers.

In their reflections at the end of the project, students shared insights about themselves as writers, acknowledging they had good ideas but needed help organizing them or getting started, Lenger-Kang said. Many of the students’ writing transformed over the course of the pilot: Several could only write about four sentences after 30 minutes at the start. At the end, many students were writing multiple paragraphs and weaving in thoughtful descriptions.

As Nicole wrote an essay about a fight she had with a childhood friend while in the field with her softball team, she used the tool to help her broaden her choice of words and add more details.

“I struggle a lot with repeating things like ‘because.’ I use that a lot,” Nicole said. “This tool helps me kind of get out of using those words. It makes it more, like, professional because my writing was kind of like middle school, elementary.”

Using AI to get over writer’s block

Patel, who just completed his first year at Northside’s helm, was inspired to create an AI tool after using the technology to create a book while his wife was pregnant to read to their soon-to-be-born son about their family. Working with Teachers College, however, he realized how important it was to have a tool that inspired writing but didn’t do the writing itself.

“It’s more about trying to get them jazzed about writing because our students don’t write a lot on their own,” he said. “They send text messages … But they don’t write.

Often, they seem stuck, he said, recounting a prompt to write about a time they stood up for themselves.

“They’re good at, ‘The one time I had to stand up for myself is,’ and then they can’t go any further,” Patel said. “I think a lot of it has to do with: They don’t believe in themselves.”

Many students are indeed using AI to write assignments for them, Lenger-Kang acknowledged, and she cautioned against tools that do that at this stage of learning for students.

“Research is already revealing that this is a short-cut solution to developing critical thinking, reading, and writing skills,” she said. “That short-cut increases self-doubt, increases future stress, and creates gaps in the learning process for skills that are deeply needed across all industries.”

A renewed focus on writing as literacy grabs spotlight

The tool comes at a time when a confluence of factors has pulled the focus away from writing instruction. Not only has improving writing instruction been overshadowed by the attention on reading, many educators tend to teach the type of writing that exists on tests, Lenger-Kang said.

“Instead of developing an understanding of the writing process that includes using writing as a way of thinking, or a form of self expression, or a method of persuasion, or an art form — writing has predominantly become a performance,” Lenger-Kang said. “Students focus on writing the answer — rather than the idea. Because of this focus, the act of writing is painfully wrapped up in the performance anxiety of getting the right answers.”

Additionally, since the pandemic, when even very young children went remote, much of writing is now mediated by the computer, which impacts how much time students spend thinking about their words, and also is often “disrupted by the red squiggly line indicating they’ve made a mistake,” she said.

Patel is hopeful that educators consider the effects of AI as various tools are more widely used in classrooms.

“I think right now it sort of feels like a money grab, like it’s the shiny toy, and everyone’s after it,” he said. “I do think we’re going to start to see some negative impact if we don’t shift the educational tools that use AI.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

For America’s 250th birthday, Trump champions ‘patriotic education’ in schools again

2025-07-28T22:10:26+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Jessica Ellison hopes she has a compelling pitch for the Trump administration’s new history and civics initiative connected with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence: “Yes, George Washington, and also …”

She envisions helping teachers incorporate fascinating but overlooked figures into their lessons, such as Mary Katharine Goddard, a printer for the Continental Congress who bravely published the Declaration and put her name on it. Rural and elementary school teachers, who often get less social studies training, would be the target audience.

“You can’t throw a rock in Virginia without hitting something related to the Revolution, but in Kansas, how do they make that connection?” said Ellison, the executive director of the National Council for History Education. The goal would be “to help teachers find connections to their place, and to think about the principles of the Declaration not just in 1776, but through the present.”

But is that what the Trump administration wants?

President Donald Trump and those close to him see the nation’s semiquincentennial as an opportunity to advance his broader political agenda. When the president kicked off the year-long commemoration earlier this month, he celebrated the passage of the Republican-led tax and spending bill.

At the U.S. Department of Education, the goal of the history and civics grant Ellison is applying for is to cultivate “citizen competency and informed patriotism” with a focus on “the first principles of the Founding” and how they’ve developed over time. Extra points go to applications from independent civics centers, several of which were recently created at public universities with backing from Republican state lawmakers.

To pay for this $14 million program, Trump’s Education Department is taking away money from recipients of a Biden-era history and civics grant that sought to help children from low-income families and other underserved students. That work, the Trump administration now says, was “illegal DEI programming,” referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The funding swap is a telling example of how the Trump administration is looking to take history and civics education in a new direction, turning away from how the painful parts of American history still reverberate today, and advancing a more patriotic and positive version of America that’s put its most challenging times behind it.

In January, Trump signed an executive order to bring back the 1776 Commission, originally created during his first term, to advise on planning the 250th anniversary and promote “patriotic education.” The order defines that in part as an “examination of how the United States has admirably grown closer to its noble principles.”

The shift also highlights the political tightrope many educators are walking, and the fact that money for this kind of teacher training is hard to find. Several organizations that lost funding, including Ellison’s, submitted a proposal for the 250th anniversary program — meaning they are essentially applying for money that used to be theirs.

The Center for Civic Education, which trains teachers and runs civics education programs for K-12 students, is in that boat. Donna Phillips, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, said while her organization appeals its discontinued funding, she’s trying to stay focused on how federal grants have allowed her nonprofit to understand how kids learn civics and figure out what teachers need for 30 years. This new program could do that, too.

“You really have to set aside what’s happening and then also see: Well, actually, this is an additional opportunity,” Phillips said. “It’s really hard. Every day, we wake up and try to figure out: What can we do today to continue doing the right thing, to continue fulfilling our mission within the new playbook?”

The many tensions in teaching civics and history

Some of these tensions are rooted in education policy shifts and debates over how civics and U.S. history should be taught.

Prior to the 1960s, American high schoolers typically took three civics classes, but now most states require just a semester-long class, if that. When the federal No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2002, it tied school performance to math and reading scores, so teacher training tended to focus on those subjects, too.

That’s left teachers feeling less prepared to teach civics and younger Americans less knowledgeable about civics than earlier generations, according to a 2024 brief published by the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy, a nonprofit that focuses on civics education.

For Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, a renewed focus on civics instruction

Recent national surveys have found 1 in 3 American adults cannot name all three branches of government, and 1 in 5 can’t name any of the freedoms protected under the First Amendment.

At the same time, some states have added new requirements to teach Black, Latino, Asian American, and Indigenous history. Other states have passed laws that limit what schools can teach about topics like systemic racism and LGBTQ history.

Since 2016, the year Trump won his first presidential election, civics instruction has caused more trepidation in schools, said Tina Ellsworth, an assistant professor at Northwest Missouri State University who focuses on social studies education. National surveys have shown many teachers feel pressure to limit discussions about certain political and social issues in their classrooms, regardless of state laws.

“There’s a lot of administrators that aren’t necessarily overtly supportive” of teaching the civics content and skills students need to engage with the world, Ellsworth said.

Over the last decade, there’s been more focus on teaching students how to build civics skills and media literacy, said Phillips of the Center for Civic Education. But this new grant seems focused more on content knowledge, she said.

The Center for American Civics at Arizona State University submitted a proposal to adapt its teacher training on America’s founding to serve more rural Arizona teachers and those in other states.

Paul Carrese, the center’s director, said that if awarded the grant, he envisions staying true to the center’s approach that teaching “civic knowledge,” or key moments and people in history, “should be first or foundational.” But preparing students to have healthy debates and disagreements, skills he calls “civic virtues,” are also a must.

When people bring up civics, “liberals and conservatives hear different things,” said David Griffith, the associate director of research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, who has studied history and civics standards across the country.

Liberals tend to envision public policy and civic discourse — a more future-oriented view — while conservatives think about respect for traditions and historical moments like the Constitutional Convention, Griffith said.

Young people need both, Griffith said, but striking the right balance is difficult.

“We want to prepare kids for citizenship, and we can’t possibly do that if we never talk about anything that might be in the news,” Griffith said. “But we also don’t want teachers to put their thumbs on the scale and be seen as engaging in activism.”

‘We’re not telling students what to think’

Those tensions have been on display as the Trump administration decides what kinds of history and civics instruction to fund.

Savannah Newhouse, a press secretary for the Education Department, said in an email that the Trump administration ended some Biden-era history and civics education grants after “a thorough review found they were being used toward illegal DEI programming.”

Newhouse did not provide examples. But in a June 18 letter, Murray Bessette, a senior adviser at the department, told organizations whose projects were being canceled that their work conflicted with the department’s “policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education,” violated federal civil rights law, or undermined “the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help.”

The Education Department did not respond to questions about which projects were canceled. But Chalkbeat confirmed that at least 11 of the 25 grants awarded under the Biden administration would end in September, a year early. Several organizations have filed appeals, hoping to get their funding reinstated.

The National Council for History Education, for example, is asking the Trump administration to reconsider taking funds from a project that trained dozens of teachers in the St. Louis area in civil rights education and brought them to historic sites in Missouri and Philadelphia.

Ellison is unsure why that program lost money, while the organization kept its funding for a similar training program in Broward County, Florida that examines the role of St. Augustine, Florida in the slave trade and Spanish colonialism, discusses Indigenous peoples, and involves a visit to Colonial Williamsburg.

In the announcement for the new grant program, the Trump administration expressed interest in “an accurate and honest account of American history” showing “how the United States has worked through profound challenges to its ideals,” such as slavery and segregation.

See Stories, a nonprofit that trains teachers in digital storytelling, is also appealing with a letter of support from Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who saw the organization’s work firsthand when she met students documenting the U.S. Navy’s apology for destroying two Tlingít villages in the late 1800s.

See Stories and over two dozen teachers gathered in Homer, Alaska for a week-long training session in digital storytelling in June 2024.

The program has trained dozens of Alaska teachers to teach their students, many of whom are Alaska Native, how to make short documentaries about what’s happening in their communities and their lives, said Marie Acemah, the nonprofit’s founder and director.

A team of archivists shows teachers how to find resources online, while the See Stories team lays out best practices for inviting elders into classrooms and teaching students how to interview their grandparents as primary sources. The videos are saved and cataloged so other Alaska teachers can use them with their own lessons.

Many teachers moved to Alaska from the lower 48, Acemah said, and may not know all the rules or traditions of the smaller villages where they teach. This gives them “practice and courage,” she said. She hopes the Education Department will decide that’s consistent with its vision.

Filmmaker and documentarian Howdice Brown III (left) works with a teacher in Homer, Alaska at a See Stories training in digital storytelling in June 2024.

“We’re not telling teachers what to think, we’re not telling students what to think, we’re not excluding anybody from our program,” Acemah said. “Our focus is getting students to understand the power of their own voices, of their own histories, and how to physically engage in meaningful and constructive ways.”

Melissa Gibson, an associate professor of educational policy and leadership at Marquette University, is also appealing the Education Department’s decision to stop funding the Milwaukee Roots initiative. Teachers meet with scholars and neighborhood experts to learn about different parts of the city, and how students can conduct a historical inquiry, an approach emphasized in Wisconsin social studies standards.

At the same time, Gibson is applying for the new 250th anniversary funding, in conjunction with Marquette’s civics center. In her proposal, she tried to combine what the grant asked for with her team’s focus on place-based civics instruction and lifting up overlooked voices.

The students Gibson works with, many of whom are incarcerated, often feel like government has failed them, there’s no difference between the two main political parties, and that nothing ever changes in their city or state, she said.

“What’s missing from those complaints is the understanding that in fact, you, as a citizen, have the power to improve those structures,” Gibson said.

Learning about America’s 250th birthday could help them see both the “poetry of our founding documents” and “people’s lived reality” — and envision what it might take to make those the same.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Religious opt-outs could complicate new Bible-infused state curriculum in Texas

2025-07-17T20:05:46+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Pam Little describes herself as Christian and conservative. The proud fifth-generation Texan is no fan of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

But when the Texas State Board of Education approved a new curriculum last November that draws heavily on biblical material for elementary language arts and reading instruction, Little voted against it. She supports the teaching of biblical values in school, and her objections to Bluebonnet Learning are primarily pedagogical. But Little says some of the lessons that include extended passages directly from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the Book of Genesis simply go “too far.”

“This is a sort of no-man’s land that we’re in,” Little said in an interview. “We’ve never had instructional materials that have had this much religious content.”

Some Christian conservatives might not share her concerns. But Texans from a range of religious faiths, including other Christians, raised objections to Bluebonnet throughout the adoption process. A recent Supreme Court decision gives new standing to parents who have religious objections to classroom material and could complicate attempts by states to include more religious content in public school instruction.

In a 6-3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the court upheld the right of parents in a Maryland school district to opt their children out of lessons involving LGBTQ characters and themes that don’t align with their religious beliefs. The Supreme Court’s ruling laid the groundwork for a constitutional right for parents to opt their children out of classroom instruction that potentially conflicts with their religious faith.

Opt-out policies have traditionally been championed by conservative groups, including some of the very same groups in Texas that support Bluebonnet. Emboldened by the Mahmoud v. Taylor ruling, conservative groups are encouraging more parents to ensure their districts let them opt their kids out of LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum. But efforts in Republican-led states such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana to infuse more religious content in public instruction — including biblical lessons and requirements to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms — are spurring a wider range of parents to express religious objections.

School districts aren’t required to use Bluebonnet, but adoption comes with additional state funds. The Texas Education Agency, which developed the curriculum, has provided little guidance to school districts that have adopted Bluebonnet, but told Chalkbeat that districts “must follow the law” regarding opt-outs.

The Mahmoud ruling doesn’t fundamentally alter relevant Texas law. Since the mid-1990s, state law has allowed families to exempt their child from instruction that conflicts with a family’s religious or moral beliefs. But parents can’t opt their children out of entire semesters worth of learning, and Bluebonnet’s religious content is deeply interwoven throughout the elementary school curriculum.

Texas education officials and supporters of the curriculum maintain that Bluebonnet Learning is not a religious curriculum. The Biblical references are designed to help students understand literature, history, politics, and culture, they say.

While they support parents’ rights to opt their children out of classroom instruction, supporters see Bluebonnet as fundamentally different from the LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum at the heart of Mahmoud v. Taylor.

Those LGBTQ-themed books, they say, are inherently “ideological” and encourage kids to accept ideas that go against their religion’s teachings. By contrast, learning about the story of the Good Samaritan exposes children to an important cultural touchstone and teaches universal virtues of kindness and tolerance, Bluebonnet supporters say.

“I, for one, cannot understand why any parent living in the greatest country that’s ever existed in the world would not want their child to understand the foundations, the historical references that are included in the Bluebonnet curriculum,” said Mandy Drogin, an education expert with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank involved with the curriculum’s development.

Parents and administrators are navigating how public schools promote shared values in a diverse and polarized society. Whether to opt out of lessons can feel high stakes and personal, and it can involve a lot of work for parents.

Sikh parents and community members fear that Bluebonnet will leave children feeling even more isolated than they do now, said Upneet Kaur, the senior education manager at the Sikh Coalition, which is working with Sikh parents in Texas who are concerned about Bluebonnet.

“Sikhs already have a very large amount of bullying that they face in classrooms due to a lack of understanding that students and educators may have of their identity,” Kaur said.

Do Bible references promote religion or cultural literacy?

Bluebonnet Learning was developed by the Texas Education Agency to reduce teacher workload and offset district costs. Its materials include readers, classroom activities, and evaluative material for grades K-5 in reading language arts, as well as math instruction.

The curriculum has attracted controversy for its usage of religious references throughout lessons that are aligned with state standards. A kindergarten reading lesson on sequencing asks students to order the days described in the Book of Genesis. A fifth grade art lesson on Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper directly cites the Book of Matthew.

School districts across Texas are now in the process of deciding whether to adopt materials from Bluebonnet Learning for the upcoming school year. Those that do will get an extra $60 per student.

The Texas Education Agency maintains that “there is no religious instruction in Bluebonnet Learning.” Supporters contend that religious references are part of a model of classical education that is intended to provide students with the cultural literacy to better understand American history and literature.

For example, fifth grade reading material on Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail asks students to also read the Book of Daniel, which King cites in his letter to justify the practice of civil disobedience in response to white Christian clergymen who criticized the nonviolent protests.

“It’s about informing children to be a well-rounded Texan, to be a well-rounded American, it’s important that they have some sort of context of these culturally significant stories,” Drogin said. “You can’t understand the Letter from the Birmingham Jail if you don’t have a biblical understanding.”

But Little, the state board member, who previously worked in educational publishing, said that “Bluebonnet Learning misses the whole point of his letter and it bothers me that it just talks about his faith in Christianity and that’s not what his letter was about. His letter is telling white Christian people to get up and start to help.”

Bluebonnet lesson materials ask students to compare the biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to Martin Luther King Jr.’s arrest in Birmingham.

Critics contend that Bluebonnet’s references to the Bible are treated as historical fact and are cited more often than religious texts from other belief systems.

Students could get the impression “that Christianity is the only religion that is worth knowing about,” said David Brockman, a scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute’s Religion and Public Policy Program.

Lisa Epstein, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Federation of San Antonio, said some Jewish parents could construe certain Bluebonnet lessons as “obstructing or interfering with their right to the moral and religious [upbringing] of their child” and may wish to opt their children out of them.

Writing for the majority In the Mahmoud ruling, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito affirmed families’ freedom to remove their child from “instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill.”

On its website, Texas Values, an organization that advocates for biblical values in Texas government, cites the ability for parents to opt out as one reason districts should feel comfortable adopting Bluebonnet.

But in an interview, Mary Elizabeth Castle, the director of government relations at Texas Values, said she hopes parents don’t go that route.

“It would be unfortunate if a parent were to opt their child out of these lessons merely because of these biblical references when there’s a lot more that is covered in the material and actually is supposed to help students excel,” Castle said.

Parents face challenges exercising their opt-out rights

Despite existing state law, opt-outs in Texas happen infrequently, said Kevin Brown, executive director of Texas Association of School Administrators and a former superintendent.

“The overwhelming majority of parents will never opt out and a lot of parents who may even have different religious beliefs are going to say: The school’s going to deliver its standard curriculum and we’re going to raise our kids at home like we see fit,” said David DeMatthews, a professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas and the director of the Cooperative Superintendency Program.

But it’s possible the Mahmoud ruling will disrupt that pattern by raising awareness of opt-out policies, said Rocío Fierro Pérez, political director of the Texas Freedom Network, who has been working with families to understand their opt-out rights.

Due to a recently passed state law that also bans all practices deemed to rely on DEI in schools, Texas school districts soon will be required to inform parents about their parental rights and provide parents a copy of their instructional plan at the beginning of each semester.

Even so, actually exercising those rights is a different matter, advocates say.

Bluebonnet Learning includes Family Support Letters to be sent home in English and Spanish before each unit, giving parents the chance to reach out to teachers if there is content they may want to opt out of. Yet critics say these letters consistently understate the role of Christianity in the curriculum, making it hard for parents to make an informed decision.

The Family Support Letter for a reading language arts unit that includes a lesson on sequencing where students are expected to order the days in the Book of Genesis only briefly mentions the biblical materials in the curriculum.

“Parents don’t have the opportunity or time to really sit there and parse through all of that material, especially for all the different grade levels,” said Kaur of the Sikh Coalition.

Language barriers are also an overlooked issue when it comes to opt outs.

While in middle school in Texas, Kaur remembers awkwardly translating her sexual education opt-in forms for her parents, who spoke Punjabi. “To see that ten years later not much has changed says a lot about the process,” she said.”

Trung Huynh, a Buddhist monk and adjunct professor of religious studies at the University of Houston, is creating bilingual opt-out forms for parents in his Buddhist community. He said they are wary of their children being taught biblical lessons, but are often too busy with work and lack the English fluency to advocate for exemptions.

School districts lack clear plans for parent opt-outs

Teachers “haven’t been given any direction” for dealing with opt-out requests associated with Bluebonnet according to Malissa Martin, a Texas teacher who switched from teaching literacy to math in opposition to the decision by Conroe Independent, her suburban Houston district, to adopt Bluebonnet Learning.

She’s unsure whether teachers will be expected to shoulder the burden of finding replacement materials for students who have opted out of certain content. Some teachers she knows aren’t even fully aware of the district’s opt-out policies.

Some districts are only planning to adopt materials that do not include religious references. When the South San Antonio Independent School District adopted Bluebonnet, Superintendent Saul Hinojosa told a local news outlet that the district plans to remove any content that is “inappropriate” or presents a religious point of view.

But because religious references are used to teach basic literacy skills, revising the curriculum will be far more complicated than simply excising those portions of the curriculum. And doing so could burden districts who originally turned to the free statewide curriculum to offset teacher workload and curriculum costs.

“I think it’s going to be hard for school districts to figure out how students can opt out of religious learning that their parents don’t want them to have with the Bluebonnet curriculum because it’s so interwoven,” Little said.

Many district leaders haven’t had to spend much time on opt-out requests. But Bluebonnet, DeMatthews said, could “kind of throw fuel on an already burning polarization fire in our state.”

Norah Rami is a Dow Jones education reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah at nrami@chalkbeat.org.

Teachers relied on a federal website for climate education. The government may shut it down.

2025-07-17T10:02:00+00:00

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report and is co-published with permission. Subscribe to their newsletters here.

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

For the last 15 years, science teacher Jeff Grant has used information on climate change from the federal website Climate.gov to create lesson plans, prepare students for Advanced Placement tests, and educate fellow teachers.

Now, Grant says, he is “grabbing what [he] can” from the site run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Program Office, amid concerns that the Trump administration is mothballing it as part of a broader effort to undermine climate science and education.

“It’s just one more thing stifling science education,” said Grant, who teaches at Downers Grove North High School in the Chicago suburbs.

Since early May, all 10 editorial contributors to Climate.gov have lost their jobs, and the organization that produces its education resources will soon run out of money. On June 24, the site’s homepage was redirected to NOAA.gov, a change NOAA said was made to comply with an earlier executive order on “restoring gold standard science.” Those steps follow many others the president has made to dismantle federal efforts to fight climate change, which his administration refers to as the “new green scam.”

Former employees of climate.gov and other educators say they fear that the site, which will no longer produce new content, could be transformed into a platform for disinformation.

“It will make it harder for teachers to do a good job in educating their students about climate change,” said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the nonprofit National Center for Science Education. “Previously, they could rely on the federal government to provide free, up-to-date, accurate resources on climate change that were aimed at helping educators in particular, and they won’t be able to do so if some of these more dire predictions come to pass.”

Such concerns have some foundation. For example, Covid.gov, which during the Biden administration offered health information and access to COVID-19 tests, has been revamped to promote the controversial theory that the coronavirus was created in a lab. The administration has also moved aggressively to delete from government sites other terms that are currently out of favor, such as references to transgender people that were once on the National Park Service website of the Stonewall National Memorial, which honors a major milestone in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

Kim Doster, director of NOAA’s Office of Communications, declined to answer specific questions but shared a version of the statement posted on the NOAA website when Climate.gov was transferred. “In compliance with Executive Order 14303, Restoring Gold Standard Science, NOAA is relocating all research products from Climate.gov to NOAA.gov in an effort to centralize and consolidate resources,” it says.

Overhaul targets federal science agencies

Climate.gov, founded in 2010 to support earth science instruction in schools, had become a go-to site for educators and the general public for news and information about temperature, sea level rise, and other indicators of global warming.

For many educators, it has served a particularly key role. Because its resources are free, they are vital in schools that lack resources and funding, teachers and experts say.

Why the Trump administration grounded these middle schoolers’ drones — and other STEM research

Rebecca Lindsey, until recently Climate.gov’s lead editor and writer, was one of several hundred NOAA probationary employees fired in February, then rehired and put on administrative leave, before being terminated again in March. The rest of the content production team — which included a meteorologist, a graphic artist, and data visualizers — lost their jobs in mid-May. Only the site’s two web developers still have their jobs.

Related: Want to read more about how climate change is shaping education? Subscribe to our free newsletter.

Lindsey said she worries that the government “intended to keep the site up and use it to spread climate misinformation, because they were keeping the web developers and getting rid of the content team.”

In addition, the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network, the official content provider for the education section of the site, has not received the latest installment of its three-year grant and expects its funds to run out in August.

“We won’t have funding to provide updates, fix hyperlinks, and make sure that new resources are being added, or help teachers manage or address or use the resources,” said Anne Gold, CLEAN’s principal investigator. “It’s going to start deteriorating in quality.”

CLEAN, whose website is hosted by Carleton College, is now searching for other sources of money to continue its work, Gold said.

With the June 24 change redirecting visitors from Climate.gov to NOAA.gov/climate, the website for the first time falls under the purview of a political appointee: Doster. Its previous leader, David Herring, is a science writer and educator.

Melissa Lau, an AP environmental science teacher in Piedmont, Oklahoma, said the relocated site was “really difficult to navigate.”

As someone who lives in Tornado Alley, Lau said, she frequented CLEAN and NOAA sites to show her students localized, real-time data on storm seasons. She said she is concerned that teachers won’t have time to track down information that was shifted in the website’s move and, as a result, may opt not to teach climate change.

The executive order on “restoring gold standard science” that appears to have triggered the shift gives political appointees the authority to decide what science information needs to be modified to align with its tenets.

While the disclaimer posted to NOAA.gov seems to imply that Climate.gov did not meet this requirement, educators and researchers said that the site and its CLEAN education resources were the epitome of a gold standard.

“I want to stress that the reason why CLEAN is considered the gold standard is because we have such high standards for scientific accuracy, classroom readiness, and maintenance,” Gold said. “We all know that knowledge is power, and power gives hope. … [Losing funding] is going to be a huge loss to classrooms and to students and the next generation.”

Trump administration has cut funding for climate science

This is only the latest attack by the Trump administration on education around climate change. This month, the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s website, GlobalChange.gov, was shut down by the administration after the program was defunded in April. The website once hosted an extensive climate literacy guide, along with all five iterations of the National Climate Assessment — a congressionally required report that informed the public about the effects and risks of climate change, along with local, actionable responses.

The Department of Commerce, which oversees NOAA, has cut other federal funding for climate research, including at Princeton University, arguing that these climate grant awards promoted “exaggerated and implausible climate threats, contributing to a phenomenon known as ‘climate anxiety,’ which has increased significantly among America’s youth.”

Studies, though, suggest that if young people have a greater understanding of why weather is changing and how to take action, they are less likely to feel anxious.

“The more you know [about climate change], the more it’s not a scary monster in the closet,” said Lauren Madden, professor of elementary science education at the College of New Jersey. “It’s a thing you can react to.” She added, “We’re going to have more storms, we’re going to have more fires, we’re going to have more droughts. There are things we can do to help slow this. … I think that quells anxiety, that doesn’t spark it.”

And climate education has broad public support — about 3 in 4 registered voters say schools should teach children about global warming, according to a 2024 report from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Similarly, 77% of Americans regard it as very or somewhat important for elementary and secondary school students to learn about climate change, according to a 2019 study. And all but five states have adopted science standards that incorporate at least some instruction on climate change.

Yet few teachers have received training on climate change. There is also not much professional development for climate educators, and textbooks tend to downplay the effects of climate change.

As a result, many science teachers rely on federal tools and embed them in their curriculum. They are worried that the information will no longer be relevant, or disappear entirely, according to Lori Henrickson, former climate integration specialist for Washington state’s education department. Henrickson, who lost her job this June as the result of state budget cuts, was in charge of integrating climate education across content areas in the state, from language arts to physical education.

The .gov top-level domain connotes credibility and accessibility, according to Branch: “It is also easier for teachers facing or fearing climate change denial backlash to cite a reliable, free source from the federal government.”

Educators seek out independent resources for climate lessons

With Climate.gov’s future uncertain, educators are looking to other resources, like university websites and tools from other countries.

“I’m sure there will continue to be tools, and there will be enough people who will be willing to pay to access them,” Madden said. But, she added, “they probably won’t be as comprehensive, and it won’t feel like it’s a democratic process. It’ll feel like: If you or your employer are willing to chip in for it, then you’ll have access.”

Madden, along with many other educators, frequently used the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice toolkit, but the site was taken down earlier this year.

“I feel like with all the federal websites, I’m constantly checking to see what’s still up and what’s not,” Madden said.

Bertha Vazquez, education director for the Center of Inquiry, an organization that works to preserve science and critical thinking, said she worried that the disappearance of climate information could leave U.S. students behind.

“The future of the American economy is not in oil, the future of the American economy is in solar and wind and geothermal. And if we’re going to keep up with the international economy, we need to go in that direction,” she said. But while the U.S. should be leading the way in scientific discovery, Vazquez said, such work will now be left to other countries.

Lau said she felt helpless and frustrated about Climate.gov’s shutdown and about the “attack on American science in general.”

“I don’t know what to do. I can contact my legislators, but my legislators from my state are not going to be really open to my concerns,” she said. “If students next year are asking me questions about [science research and funding], I have to tell them, ‘I do not know,’ and just have to leave it at that.”

This story about the government climate website was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger climate and education newsletter.

Trump cuts top STEM teaching award. Winners say it will hurt education and innovation.

2025-07-15T19:10:42+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

All 25 students in Sharon Collins’ Advanced Placement Calculus AB class focused intently on the problem she posted on the whiteboard at the front of the class, trying to figure out the rate of change for sales of a video game a few months after it was released.

In some ways, the juniors and seniors were forced to engage with their whole bodies: by standing up and doing the work in randomly selected groups of three or four at dry-erase sheets taped around the walls of the classroom at upper Manhattan’s New Heights Academy Charter School.

Though Collins has been teaching for 27 years, she’s constantly incorporating new approaches, such as having her students do problems standing at white boards, which she learned from Peter Liljedahl’s “Building Thinking Classrooms” model. She’s the kind of teacher who makes math fun even for the self-proclaimed math-phobic students. She sets high expectations for her students — and figures out how to help meet them, for instance, by supporting her Spanish-speaking students at the largely immigrant school through bilingual vocabulary guides and alternative assessments like roundtables.

Collins’ energy, enthusiasm, and dedication have not gone unnoticed: She was one of two teachers in the state selected in January by then-President Joseph Biden and the White House to win the 2023 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the nation’s highest honor for K-12 STEM teachers.

But she and the other teachers in each state to win January’s presidential award could be the last.

The initiative, created by Congress in 1983 and run by the National Science Foundation, has been cut by the Trump administration. Up to 110 winners a year get $10,000 for their school’s STEM programs through the award and an all-expense trip to Washington, D.C. for an awards ceremony. Last year, it had a total budget of about $4.5 million, including recognition events and coordinator meetings, according to people familiar with the program.

As the award’s loss reverberates among past awardees, many are mounting a campaign to save it, calling their state’s senators and representatives, members of the House Education Committee, Science Committee, and Appropriations Committee, as well as leaders at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

At the first award ceremony 42 years ago, President Ronald Reagan said, "America’s future depends on excellence in education. And that means we must reward and encourage excellence in teaching."

Winning the recognition has had longstanding effects for many teachers, reverberating beyond their individual classrooms and creating a national community of educators committed to elevating STEM in their states. Some pursued doctorates in mathematics or math education and assumed leadership roles in their district or at the state level, giving them a larger say in curriculum issues, according to a survey conducted by a group of awardees. Others started national robotics programs or computer science initiatives. Many went on to conduct teacher training or presented at state conferences, sharing best practices with colleagues at other schools.

For Collins, the award gave her confidence to begin seeking out editors and agents for a teaching memoir she’s long been working on, and she’s considering a graduate degree to pursue her dream of opening her own STEAM-focused school.

“It changes your perspective on yourself to go for other opportunities,” Collins said, noting that after winning she put in two proposals to speak at math education conferences and she spoke at an alumni event for Teach for America. “I definitely want to influence the students in my room, but I do want to have a bigger impact in STEM education on a school level, on a state level, and even on a city level.”

Students in Sharon Collins' AP Calculus class do problems standing at whiteboards.

Trump administration targeted DEI nods in winners’ bios

Collins had an inkling something might happen to the award program after President Donald Trump took office. His administration almost immediately took down the page with the awardees’ biographies and quotes. In her quote, Collins had written, “This award recognizes my unconditional love for my immigrant students and shows them they matter, are seen, and like this first generation college graduate, can achieve the American dream.”

In early May, the Trump administration eliminated the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM along with other divisions at NSF. Collins, who was supposed to be on this year’s panel to select the 2025 winners received an email from NSF saying the panels had been canceled and thanking her for her service. The website for the program, however, remained live, and Collins held out hope that the program was just on pause.

A screenshot of Collins' deleted bio from the U.S. National Science Foundation website.

The bios of the recent winners were reinstated in early June, Collins said, but with certain phrases or words omitted. For instance, Collins had written in her bio, “Sharon is passionate about advancing equity through women in STEM initiatives and is dedicated to humanizing education.” Collins told Chalkbeat this referred to her practice of taking female students to STEM programs like Woman STEM Night at the New York Hall of Science in Queens and forming a Female Equity Mission. When her bio was reposted, the line had been changed to: “Sharon is passionate about advancing fairness in STEM initiatives and is dedicated to humanizing education.”

Collins was flummoxed. “It astounds me that it is controversial to talk about women in STEM initiatives, since it is well documented that females are underrepresented in STEM,” she said.

A few days after the bios were back up, however, the program was officially eliminated from NSF’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Trump administration reduced the NSF budget from $9.1 billion to $3.9 billion, zeroing out funding for the Excellence Programs along with other STEM research.

At the end of June, the awards program asked the most recent winners to update their bios, giving them a week to answer three questions, such as “Using your platform as a Presidential Awardee, how do you hope to advance our nation in STEM?” Those responses have yet to be posted.

NSF officials declined to comment.

The award’s immediate effect on New Heights Academy

A sign congratulating Collins on her award hangs proudly in New Heights Academy’s lobby, where students have long counted the math teacher among their favorites.

Rosalia Lacen, a recent grad who took Collins’ statistics class this past year and hopes to pursue a degree in biology, credited her teacher with keeping her “on track.”

“I’m not much of a math girl, in particular,” Lacen said. “But the way she teaches, she makes it easy to understand. … She brings a really good energy to the environment that just keeps you on track … Every morning, the same enthusiasm, even on her bad days.”

By solving problems in small groups while standing at white boards, Sharon Collins' AP Calculus students at New Heights Academy actively engage with the work.

Collins’ award is having an immediate effect on sharpening her school’s STEM focus. Next year, she will oversee a new program for New Heights Academy’s middle and high school students, creating a robotics program for middle school and launching an AP Computer Science course for high school. (This past school year, the school only offered one non-AP computer science class, and it was reserved for top-performing seniors.)

“That conversation happened after my director found out I won the award,” Collins said. “It will have a huge impact on all of the students here.”

And other teachers felt like they were having a broader effect as well, she said.

“In the United States, to have engineers, to have people working in technology, to have doctors, we need a strong STEM education,” Collins said. “And that’s what’s being provided by these [presidential award] winners. They’re influencing their students to provide STEM education in high school and college, and they’re becoming our STEM workforce.”

Collins’ efforts seem to have paid off in her students’ scores. She learned this week that 90% of her AP Calculus students achieved a 4 or 5 on the AP Calculus AB exam. The class average was 4.36 compared to the state’s 3.15 average, Collins said. And 90% of students in that class plan to major in STEM in college, she added.

Correction: New Heights Academy Charter’s STEM program will have robotics for middle school, not high school. The school will also be offering AP Computer Science for the first time.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Inside a Colorado district’s debate about what gets taught in fourth grade social studies

2025-07-02T21:30:34+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

A committee of fourth grade teachers in western Colorado spent months this past school year reviewing potential social studies curriculums. The one they chose was written by Colorado historians and is widely used in schools across the state.

But in April, the school board in Mesa County Valley District 51, a 20,000-student district based in Grand Junction, rejected that curriculum, called “The Colorado Story.” Some board members felt its mention of the Black Lives Matter movement was not age appropriate and that it portrayed historical figures such as Christopher Columbus in a negative light, among other concerns.

Barb Evanson, the District 51 board member who was most vocal in her opposition, said in an interview that she felt the curriculum wrongly portrayed Columbus as solely responsible for harm to indigenous people in the Americas.

“Were there people that were doing bad things? Were there people that were absolutely there with ill intention? Absolutely,” she said. “Was it Christopher Columbus? No.”

The controversy in District 51 echoes current culture war battles over how American history is taught and whether schoolchildren can grapple with challenging subjects like race, racism, and flawed historical figures. The Trump administration has joined the fray, too — launching an effort in May that asks national parks visitors to report signage that disparages past or living Americans.

Liz Wallace, publisher and president at Gibbs Smith Education, which publishes “The Colorado Story,” said what happened in District 51 was a first.

“Prior to this year, I have never had a board reject one of our books,” she said.

Curriculum decision split the community

Instead of “The Colorado Story,” the District 51 school board chose a different fourth grade social studies curriculum in May. Called “Exploring Social Studies: Colorado,” it got lower marks from the teacher committee. The district will spend about $116,000 to purchase the second-choice curriculum, including textbooks, teacher guides, activities, and digital access. A district spokesperson couldn’t provide the cost of the first-choice option, because she said district officials never got far enough into the process.

The vote wasn’t unanimous. In a microcosm of national politics, both the board and the community were split over what fourth graders in Grand Junction should learn. The board voted 3-2 in April to reject “The Colorado Story.” In May, it voted 4-1 to adopt “Exploring Social Studies: Colorado.”

Board Vice President Will Jones, who ultimately voted to adopt the second-choice curriculum, expressed frustration with the process and said topics like Black Lives Matter are part of history and should be taught.

“Where I get frustrated is the committee that we put together chose the first book overwhelmingly,” he said. “And we’re taking the word of a few of us that may not like something.”

Board President Andrea Haitz said during an April meeting that she felt “The Colorado Story” discussion of Black Lives Matter, covered on two pages of the textbook’s 290-page third edition, would be too heavy for her soon-to-be fourth grade son.

“I don’t know that this activism stuff is really appropriate for him at fourth grade,” she said. “As a parent, I’m not ready to have that conversation with him.”

But board member Jośe Luis Chávez, the only board member to vote against the second-choice curriculum, said it’s a fact of life in some communities.

“The activism stuff, my daughter knew that probably in first grade,” he said.

A popular textbook is a victim of ‘time and place’

On April 1, when District 51 administrators recommended “The Colorado Story” during a school board presentation, there were no hints of controversy. A curriculum specialist talked about why the seven-member teacher committee thought it was the strongest contender. He described it as “visually stunning” and noted that community members at a public feedback session called it a wonderful curriculum that includes diverse perspectives and aligns well to state standards.

But weeks later, Evanson and other board members said they wanted a different option.

Evanson, who homeschools her two children, said at one meeting that because there is no bibliography in the “The Colorado Story” textbook, she considered it opinion-based. In an interview, she acknowledged that 9- and 10-year-olds might not consult a bibliography, but said parents like her would.

Wallace said it’s not typical for fourth grade textbooks to have bibliographies and that the teacher’s guide has links to a variety of sources, including materials from the Colorado Ute tribes and History Colorado, which runs museums and historic sites around the state.

“The Colorado Story” textbook is authored by Tom Noel, a former state historian whose nickname is “Dr. Colorado,” and Debra Faulkner, a historian at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. Noel and Faulkner declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for History Colorado, which includes “The Colorado Story” on its list of recommended textbooks, said no one from the organization was available to comment.

Fourth grade is when Colorado students learn state history. In recent years, District 51 hasn’t had a uniform fourth grade social studies curriculum, instead cobbling together old materials.

Schools in about 100 of Colorado’s 179 districts use the second or third edition of “The Colorado Story,” Wallace said. The third edition came out a few years ago and aligns with the state’s 2022 social studies standards.

Wallace said those standards are among the most progressive in the country and that some of what board members objected to in “The Colorado Story” was included because of the standards.

A social studies teacher in District 51, who asked not to be named so he could speak freely about school board decisions, said he thinks “The Colorado Story” was a victim of “time and place.”

Mesa County is a conservative-leaning community where 61% of voters went for Trump in the last presidential election.

The teacher said the prevailing approach to controversial or challenging topics is “no longer just, ‘You have your view and I’ll have my view.’ It’s, ‘I don’t want that in the classroom.’”

Issues like the Black Lives Matter movement can be taught in an age-appropriate way, he said. Educators can be trusted to understand what’s suitable for their classrooms, and students often enjoy contemporary topics like Black Lives Matter because they don’t feel “like ancient history,” he said.

Critics focus on depiction of Columbus, colonizers

In critiques of “The Colorado Story,” some District 51 board members repeatedly voiced concerns about people or groups they felt weren’t depicted fairly, including Christopher Columbus, Spanish “colonizers,” gold prospectors, and modern day police officers.

Evanson said the book contained only “snippets” about Columbus.

“It didn’t give the totality of Christopher Columbus,” she said. “If we’re not going to teach the whole truth, why would we teach a portion of it?”

The textbook devotes a handful of paragraphs to Columbus.

Next to a picture of him, the text says, “When the Spanish arrived in the New World, they claimed the land for Spain. They did not want to be friends with the Native people. Instead, the Spanish attacked their villages, taking whatever they wanted. Indigenous people fought back, but the Spanish had more powerful weapons.”

Wallace noted that the curriculum’s teacher guide includes an activity called “Columbus: Hero or Villain?”

The idea, she said, is that, “students explore this complex person and the complex history associated with him and form their own conclusions.”

Evanson also said “The Colorado Story” paints gold prospectors as greedy and environmentally reckless. The book mentions early that they dug tunnels, felled trees, and left “ugly scars” on the land. Later it explains that they wanted to get rich because many prospectors didn’t have jobs, and “gold brought a glimmer of hope.”

Evanson, who previously worked in law enforcement, and Haitz objected to a mention of Elijah McClain in a short section called “Activism Today” that features Black Lives Matter. McClain was a young Black man who died after police restrained him in Aurora in 2019. In addition to McClain, the book briefly mentions George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

Haitz said, “The book pinpointed specific events that seemed to villainize law enforcement specifically, but did not give full context around the entire case.”

In both cases, police officers who restrained the men were convicted of crimes.

Haitz said she felt the second-choice curriculum handled the activism topic in a more age appropriate way — by highlighting Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, a famous immigrant rights activist from Denver.

But “The Colorado Story,” the rejected curriculum, also features Gonzales in a two-page section about the Chicano movement in Colorado.

Three of the five District 51 board members — Jones, Chávez, and Angele Lema — either declined to be interviewed for this story or did not respond to requests for comment. Evanson and Haitz both said their concerns with “Colorado Story” were not fueled by conservative political views.

“I really did look at this as an age appropriate context,” said Haitz. “This was not left, right, conservative, liberal.”

She said some district residents upset about the rejected curriculum wrote to the board saying it was trying to whitewash history.

“I never once said I didn’t want kids to learn about Black Lives Matter,” Haitz said. “I totally want kids to learn about that. Just let’s learn about it in its full context, and let’s learn about it a little bit later when we can talk about it more robustly.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Columbia Secondary School faces student protests and teacher exodus under new leadership

2025-06-30T23:38:50+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Two weeks before the end of the school year, Columbia Secondary School students packed into their Harlem gymnasium to air their grievances, carrying cardboard signs that read, “Teachers are resigning. Our community is broken,” and “This shouldn’t be our problem.”

The sit-in came one day after students learned that John Beletsky, a beloved ninth grade English and philosophy teacher, would not be returning in the fall.

Beletsky, a nine-year veteran of the school who also led the student band and Model United Nations, was the latest in an exodus of educators at the high-performing 6–12 public school since Principal Vikram Arora took over in March 2023.

The past two years have seen major shifts in the curriculum and culture at the 18-year-old school, which has strong ties to Columbia University. Six current and former staff members and eight students told Chalkbeat that a top-down approach to decision-making, lack of transparency, and concerns about whether students with disabilities are receiving adequate services and support have caused growing discontent. Those issues recently erupted into student-led protests.

By the end of the 2023-24 school year — the first full one with Arora at the helm — 13 employees, or nearly 22% of the staff left, according to Education Department data compiled by the Independent Budget Office for Chalkbeat. That was more than double the citywide staff turnover rate. The school had already lost some staff members after the retirement of longtime Principal Miriam Nightengale at the end of the 2021-22 school year, with 14 total departures that year. The year before, the school lost just two educators, or nearly 4% of the staff. (Data for the most recent year is not yet available.)

“ Students themselves have felt the pain of that,” said rising junior Gwen Zangre.

As the 720-seat school loses teachers, some students have lost access to some of the classes that drew them to Columbia Secondary in the first place. In late May, a student created a widely circulated petition demanding leadership changes. Earlier in June, students planned a walkout, but school security guards blocked them from leaving the building.

Columbia Secondary School students participate in a sit-in on June 13, 2025.

At the June 13 sit-in, multiple students confronted Arora and Assistant Principal Zach Lynn about Beletsky’s departure and what they described as a broader pattern of staff resignations, according to videos obtained by Chalkbeat.

An 11th grader detailed how abrupt changes to the curriculum of her 10th grade global history class had created undue pressure in the classroom.

“Teachers don’t feel listened to, which is why they’re leaving,” she said into the mic, “and students don’t know what’s going on because the leadership doesn’t communicate.”

Another student added, “The teachers who are still here are completely overworked.”

Arora told the hundreds of students gathered in the gymnasium that he and Lynn were taking “this feedback very seriously.”

“I concede to the fact that some teachers may not like what has happened and they might leave,” he said.

In a subsequent letter to families about the sit-in and Beletsky’s resignation, Arora acknowledged that it was “an emotional day” for many students.

“As we look ahead to the new school year, we are committed to creating more frequent, substantive, and consequential opportunities for students to be heard and to help shape the academic, athletic, and cultural life of our school,” he wrote.

Arora and Lynn referred Chalkbeat’s questions to the Department of Education’s press office, which said that a team from the District 5 superintendent’s office in Harlem is conducting more classroom visits and has held meetings with student leaders, the PTA, and the School Leadership Team to hear concerns, monitor progress, and reiterate expectations.

“In partnership with the school community, our central offices are implementing next-step interventions to ensure all students and staff are set up for success,” Chyann Tull, a Department of Education spokesperson, wrote in a statement. “Columbia Secondary School continues to outperform citywide averages, with strong student outcomes and a rigorous, college-preparatory curriculum.”

Columbia Secondary’s evolution in upper Manhattan

Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science & Engineering first opened its doors in 2007 with support and funding from Columbia University. Located north of Morningside Park, the school was conceived of as a way for Columbia — which had drawn scrutiny for its rapid expansion into historically Black Harlem by seizing homes and businesses through eminent domain — to give back to the neighborhood.

Under the agreement, Columbia faculty would help to create a customized curriculum for the school, and students could take courses and explore internship opportunities at the Ivy League institution. As part of its mandate, the school also had to reserve at least half of its seats for students from the surrounding neighborhoods of East, West, and Central Harlem, the Upper West Side, Inwood, and Washington Heights.

Today, more than half of the school’s students are Black or Hispanic, and just under a third are white. About half of Columbia Secondary’s student body is economically disadvantaged, and 1 in 5 students are now classified with a disability. The school currently reserves all of its seats for students from the neighboring areas. It operates out of a co-located building on West 123rd Street, which it shares with KIPP STAR middle school and P.S. 125 The Ralph Bunche School.

From the start, Columbia Secondary built a reputation for its rigorous liberal arts curriculum and high student achievement. All students were required to take political philosophy during their junior year and physics in 10th grade, for example. Rather than preparing for the global history Regents exam during their sophomore year, students undertook a major research paper intended to help them build college-level writing and critical thinking skills.

Signs that trouble was brewing at the school began to emerge in last year’s New York City Schools Survey results. Of more than 2,600 schools that participated in the survey citywide on teacher-principal trust, the school ranked in the bottom 10. Only 24% of staff responded favorably — a steep decline from previous years, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. (The survey results include charter schools and early childhood centers.)

Just 18% of the school’s teachers agreed with the statements, “I trust the principal/school leader at their word (to do what they say they will do),” and “The principal/school leader places the needs of children ahead of personal interests.”

Nine percent said they agreed or strongly agreed that the principal and assistant principals at the school “function as a cohesive unit,” placing Columbia Secondary among the bottom five schools citywide on that question.

One example, shared by Beletsky and others, of a change that affected trust in the school’s leadership involved the 10th grade global history teacher. The teacher was notified at the start of the school year that she would have to scrap her course’s research paper component and replace it with Regents exam prep.

The change sparked swift backlash from students and parents, and several months into the school year, the administration agreed to reinstate the paper. By the end of the year, school leaders and the teacher reached a compromise: Students could choose either to write the paper or take the Regents exam — but the teacher had to teach for both in the same class.

In other examples from students and teachers, the once-mandatory courses in 10th grade physics and 11th grade political philosophy became optional, and the school now only offers AP Spanish virtually. That decision was made without real input from Spanish language teachers, according to another teacher familiar with the changes.

Some teachers have left as a direct result of changes implemented by the new administration.

Last year, special education teacher Leslie Seifert, who also taught the school’s journalism elective, sent an email to his colleagues informing them that he had resigned from Columbia Secondary.

“The event that pushed me over the brink was when the principal eliminated my journalism course without discussing this decision with me, or even informing me of it,” Seifert wrote, adding that he first learned of the course cancellation when it didn’t appear on that year’s list of elective course offerings.

In a recent interview with Chalkbeat, Seifert said he remained unsettled by the administration’s apparent reluctance to engage with staff or to understand the school’s culture.

“It’s not just a lack of communication. It’s a lack of interest and curiosity,” he said.

Staff shortages, special education complaints

Despite the school’s high academic performance, staff and students said they were concerned about the administration’s push toward more Advanced Placement courses without enough teachers to teach the classes.

Beletsky confirmed that he and others taught six periods a day, rather than the contractual norm of five classes, in order to offset staff shortages at the school. Teachers who agree to extra periods of instruction are compensated for it, per contract rules — but several staff members said the additional workload can lead to teacher burnout, take away from other responsibilities, and lower the quality of instruction.

Students told Chalkbeat that the push for more course options, coupled with staff shortages, has impacted the teachers’ ability to give individualized attention and in-depth feedback.

“The quality of classes is really going down, especially in terms of being able to get feedback on your work,” said Susan Leites, a 2025 graduate.

“When we ask them why after they leave, they say ‘It’s not because of you guys, it’s because of the administration. It’s because they overwork us’,” said another recent graduate, Enzo Martinez-Klobnoch, who launched the online petition.

Some students with disabilities, who are entitled to have their classes co-taught by a general education teacher and a special education teacher, have also had to drop that support in order to take AP courses, according to former and current teachers.

In response to the online petition, Arora described allegations that students with disabilities “are being pressured to forgo support services” as “categorically false.”

“Our current special education compliance rate is near 100 percent,” he wrote in a May 26 email obtained by Chalkbeat.

But Beletsky argued that administrators at Columbia Secondary have asked students with disabilities to waive certain services so that the school’s inability to provide that service wouldn’t count against its compliance record.

“They’ve just gotten very strategic about making sure that people opt out,” Beletsky said.

While students with disabilities, who are entitled to having a co-teacher, can amend their special education program to enroll in a course taught solely by a general education teacher, the availability of co-teaching — or lack thereof — cannot determine the service, special education consultant Jenn Choi said.

The lack of co-teaching in AP classes at Columbia Secondary was on her radar, said Choi, who explained that a student’s special education plan “must contain appropriate recommendations for the individual student, irrespective of the availability of the program or service.”

Brandi Kovac, an 11-year veteran math teacher, co-taught three sections of geometry with a special education teacher at the start of the 2024-25 school year. Midway through the year, the administration merged the three sections into two, resulting in larger class sizes.

She said larger class sizes hinder teachers’ ability to provide individualized attention — and she was concerned about the effect on students with disabilities, who require additional attention and support.

“I think you’re sending a message when you collapse the ICT [Integrated Co-Teaching] sections into as few sections as legally possible,” Kovac said.

Kovac was among the teachers who won’t return to Columbia Secondary in the fall.

Some students with disabilities felt they were being shut out of higher-level classes.

Rising senior Terry Grandison feels that the school doesn’t give enough support to students with disabilities who may want to take advanced courses.

“They feel like we’re not gonna be able to keep up because we have certain disabilities,” he said. “While we might process information a little slower, things of that nature, we can still participate in AP classes, because we’re still as smart as everybody else here.”

Student Meigan Waxter stands outside of Columbia Secondary School, where she is a rising senior.

More broadly, rising senior Meigan Waxter felt students with disabilities weren’t valued in the school community.

“I feel like I’m more looked down upon just because of my disability in school,” she said.

The changes at Columbia Secondary have felt jarring to many of its educators. Beletsky believes that a disproportionate share of school resources has been directed toward a small number of students with access to advanced coursework, while students with disabilities have received less attention when it comes to being included in those same opportunities.

Seifert, Beletsky, and others noted the recent departure of former Assistant Principal Erin Flaherty, who left for Beacon High School in May, and the fact that Columbia Secondary had “lost its entire administration in two years.” (Beacon had its own fight between the school community with their principal, who ultimately left the school.)

Had the changes been more gradual and the communication more consistent, the relationship between administrators and teachers might have been better, Beletsky said.

“But these guys basically took it upon themselves to rewrite the culture of the school and the direction of the school,” Beletsky said. “The parents and the faculty and the students have all made it very clear to the district that that’s not what we want. But it hasn’t stopped it.”

Seyma Bayram is a New York City-based reporter.

Maryland district must let parents opt kids out of lessons on religious grounds, Supreme Court rules

2025-06-27T18:09:51+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, have the right to opt their children out of lessons involving a set of books featuring LGBTQ characters and themes if the materials do not align with the families’ religious beliefs, the Supreme Court decided Friday.

The 6-3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor represents a win for the burgeoning parental rights movement, religious liberty advocates, and the Trump administration, which appeared before the high court to lend support to the parents’ case.

The Supreme Court ruled that the parents, who came from Muslim, Roman Catholic, and other Christian backgrounds, would likely be able to prove these books presented a burden on their faith and they should be allowed to opt out of the books while a federal appeals court continues to review their case. Previously, the school district had told the parents that its policy did not allow for opt-outs.

“The Board’s introduction of the ‘LGBTQ+-inclusive’ storybooks, combined with its decision to withhold notice to parents and to forbid opt outs, substantially interferes with the religious development of petitioners’ children and imposes the kind of burden on religious exercise that Yoder [an earlier Supreme Court ruling] found unacceptable,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote on behalf of the majority. “The books are unmistakably normative. They are designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated, and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected.”

"Prince & Knight" is one of the LGBTQ-inclusive books that was added to Montgomery County Public Schools' English curriculum.

“Many Americans, like the parents in this case, believe that biological sex reflects divine creation, that sex and gender are inseparable, and that children should be encouraged to accept their sex and to live accordingly,” Alito continued. “The storybooks, however, suggest that it is hurtful, and perhaps even hateful, to hold the view that gender is inextricably bound with biological sex.”

In a dissent joined by the two other liberal justices, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the ruling threatened the role public schools play in teaching children of all faiths and backgrounds how to coexist in a multicultural society.

“That experience is critical to our Nation’s civic vitality,” Sotomayor wrote. “Yet it will become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents’ religious beliefs.”

Advocates for inclusive curriculum and LGBTQ youth worry the ruling will lay the groundwork for parents across the country to opt their children out of any instruction that they say conflicts with their religious teachings.

That could require teachers to spend more time notifying parents about what they’re teaching, devising alternative assignments, finding space and supervision for children who opt out, and catching kids up if they miss other content during an opt-out.

Lawyers and scholars in the parents’ camp have said they do not think giving religious parents the right to opt their children out of lessons will dramatically change public education.

Most states allow kids to skip lessons related to sex education or human sexuality, while Texas already permits parents to opt their children out of any lesson for religious or moral reasons.

And a recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that nearly half of K-12 teachers support parents’ rights to opt their children out of learning about sexual orientation and gender identity at school — suggesting they wouldn’t be averse to working with families to accommodate such requests.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon applauded the ruling on social media. Eric Baxter, a senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty who represented the parents in this case, said in a written statement that the ruling represented “a historic victory for parental rights in Maryland and across America” and “made clear that parents — not government — have the final say in how their children are raised.”

Montgomery County school officials and board members said in a joint statement that while the decision was not what they hoped for, they would determine next steps and “navigate this moment with integrity and purpose — guided, as always, by our shared values of learning, relationships, respect, excellence, and equity.”

Critics have said this ruling could open the door for many more opt-outs on religious grounds. During oral arguments, several liberal justices pointed out that parents have asked to opt out of all kinds of lessons for religious reasons over the last 40 years. That includes portrayals of supernatural topics like wizards and magic and world history and current events that parents viewed as unflattering to their religion.

Some worry schools would ditch certain content and lessons altogether to reduce the likelihood of opt-out requests — a move that would deliver yet another blow to efforts to make curriculum more inclusive.

Teachers might also decide to make LGBTQ-inclusive material optional, said Stacie Brensilver Berman, a clinical assistant professor at New York University who has written about teaching LGBTQ history and has helped teachers introduce potentially controversial topics in the classroom.

Supreme Court weighs right of religious parents to opt kids out of LGBTQ material

For example, teachers might decide to keep books with LGBTQ characters and themes on their classroom shelves, but forgo using those books in classroom read-alouds. Or they may recommend the books “to a student they know has queer parents or a student they know has relatives or friends who are trans and nonbinary, but not make it part of the curriculum,” she said.

Tiferet Ani, a former Montgomery County Public Schools teacher who sits on the board of History UnErased, a national provider of LGBTQ-inclusive history curriculum, worries that widespread religious opt-outs could send students the message that LGBTQ identities are taboo and further stigmatize students who identify with the content their classmates are skipping.

Mahmoud v. Taylor stems from a challenge raised by several religious parents in Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools after the district added books with LGBTQ characters and themes to its elementary school English curriculum in 2022.

Among the additions were a book called “Prince & Knight,” which tells the story of two men who fall in love after they battle a dragon together, and “Love, Violet,” a story about a young girl who worries her same-sex crush won’t like the valentine she made her.

At first, the school district — one of the largest in the country and known for its racial, ethnic, and religious diversity — permitted parents to opt their children out of lessons related to the books. But eventually school officials said they’d received too many opt-out requests and would no longer grant them.

Many parents protested the decision and some sued, arguing that the books’ messages about sexuality and gender identity were at odds with their religious beliefs.

While the parents’ lawsuit continues, Montgomery County Public Schools must notify parents if one of the LGBTQ-inclusive books, or any similar books, are to be used “in any way,” the Supreme Court ruling notes, and parents must be allowed to excuse their kids from that instruction.

National reporting intern Norah Rami contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

High school sleuths search fish guts for clues to plastics pollution

2025-06-23T12:00:00+00:00

This story about science careers was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter on climate and education.

The fish, glassy-eyed and inert, had been dead for decades. Yet its belly held possible clues to an environmental crisis unfolding in real time.

Forceps in hand, Mia Fricano, a high school junior, was about to investigate. She turned over the fish, a bluegill, and slid in a blade, before extracting its gastrointestinal tract. Then, she carried the fish innards to a beaker filled with a solution that would dissolve the biological material, revealing if there were any tiny particles of plastic — known as microplastics — inside.

Mia and two other high schoolers working alongside her in a lab this spring were part of a program at the American Museum of Natural History designed to give young people hands-on experience in professional science. Called the Science Research Mentoring Program, or SRMP (pronounced “shrimp”), the program enrolls roughly 60 high school juniors and seniors each year who collaborate with scientists on a research project.

Mia and her peers were matched with Ryan Thoni, an ichthyologist and curatorial associate in the museum’s division of vertebrate zoology. Thoni’s project to gather information on when and how microplastics began to enter the environment relied on the museum’s vast collection of fish specimens dating from more than a century ago — some 3.2 million in total.

Concern about the tiny pieces of plastic debris has grown in the last few years, along with early-stage research on the health risks they pose. The particles are found in human blood, breast milk, and even the brain — and in animals, including, as it turned out, nearly all the fish in Thoni’s lab.

“It was kind of shocking to see just how many we did find,” Mia said later. “We weren’t expecting to find more than two to three per fish, but in some fish, we would find over 15.” Specimens from the 1970s or earlier were less likely to contain high levels of microplastic, more than three or so pieces, and fish near urban centers seemed to have more of the plastics, on average, than fish from less populated areas.

“It really does make you realize just how much the environment has been affected,” said Mia. “There hasn’t been a lot of research on it yet,” she added. “Our project might be able to help future people who are also doing research on microplastics.”

Related: Want to read more about how climate change is shaping education? Subscribe to The Hechinger Report’s free newsletter.

SRMP, started in 2009, is operating at a time when the federal government is eliminating fellowships and other support for early career scientists, and defunding scientific research broadly. That both amplifies the need for, and complicates the work of, programs like this one, said Amanda Townley, executive director of the nonprofit National Center for Science Education. Over the last 15 years in particular, such programs have played a big role in giving students a chance to do the kind of applied science that is rarely available in K-12 classrooms because of money and time constraints, she said.

“Museums, university extensions, sometimes libraries, have really done this tremendous job of creating spaces for high school and younger students to engage with scientists doing science,” said Townley. “Those museums, libraries, and universities are all under attack.” She added: “We’re going to see a generational impact.”

While the American Museum of Natural History has received some federal government funding, the SRMP program’s money comes from private foundations and individual donors, with additional support from the New York City Council. Students in SRMP participate in a summer institute in August, when they learn basics like how to investigate research questions. Then they spend two afternoons a week during the school year on their projects.

Each student receives a stipend, $2,500 over the course of the year. “It’s really important for high school students to know their time is valuable,” said Maria Strangas, the museum’s assistant director of science research experiences. “They are doing something here that is really useful for the researchers; it’s an education program, but they aren’t the only ones who are benefiting.”

Ryan Thoni of the American Museum of Natural History, left, with high schoolers Mia Fricano (center) and Freyalise Matasar.

Students from New York City schools that partner with the museum can apply, as well as those who have participated in programs with the museum in the past. SRMP has also spawned a network of about 30 similar programs across the city, with institutions including Brooklyn College, Bronx River Alliance, and many others participating.

In the lab on the sixth floor of the museum, Mia, who attends the New York City Museum School, cleaned out a beaker, while Yuki Chen, a senior at Central Park East High School, sat at a metal table, dissecting a pike. Thoni inserted a slide containing material harvested from one of the fish under a microscope, and pointed out a few microplastics, which looked like threads.

Freyalise Matasar, a junior at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx, plucked a white sucker fish from a jar. She said SRMP had altered her career trajectory. Before the program, she was considering studying journalism in college, but her experience this year persuaded her to focus on engineering and data science instead.

“I have totally fallen in love with science,” she said. “It’s been an amazing experience to see what professional science looks like — and more than just see it, to be a part of it.”

Freyalise said she wanted to build those skills in order to help fight climate change, perhaps by working on weather models to predict climate risks and ideally spur people to action. “It’s the biggest problem faced by our generation. It’s inescapable and unignorable, no matter how much people try,” she said. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to do what they can to fight it.”

Microplastics contribute to climate change in several ways, including by potentially disrupting oceans’ ability to sequester carbon and by directly emitting greenhouse gases.

Interest in climate science among young people is growing, even as the federal government tries to zero out funding for it. Other climate-related topics SRMP students explored this year included the climate on exoplanets, the ecology of sea anemones, and aquatic wildlife conservation in New York City.

Sometimes the fish dissections were gross: Mia, who plans to study biology and machine learning in college, sliced into one large fish to find poorly preserved, rotten innards — and a major stink. Sometimes they provided a lesson beyond pollution: Yuki identified a small pickerel inside a larger one. (Pickerels prey even on members of their own species, the students learned.)

The scientists in the program, most of whom are postdoctoral fellows, are trained on how to be effective mentors. “Scientists are often not trained in mentorship; it’s something that people pick up organically seeing good or bad examples in their own lives,” said Strangas. “A lot of it comes down to: ‘Think about the impact you want to have, think about the impact you don’t want to have, think about the power dynamic at play, and what this student in front of you wants to get out of it.’”

Thoni earned rave reviews from the students, who said he ensured they understood each step of the research process without being patronizing.

Thoni’s next steps include working to publish the microplastics research, which could earn the students their first co-authorship in a scientific journal. “Aside from forgetting to put on gloves,” he said in a playful jab at one student, “they can operate this machine on their own. They do science.”

Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org.

Juneteenth: How classroom lessons sparked a community-wide celebration

2025-06-19T10:00:00+00:00

When I moved to Crete, Illinois, in 2021, I didn’t expect a five-day curriculum unit to change how I saw my community or myself.

Tapped by the county to work on a new Underground Railroad unit, I came to the project with an educator’s mindset and a heart for justice. What unfolded over the next several months, however, was more than a lesson plan for local students. It was a journey of reconnection, reckoning, and restoration. And it all began with a question: What would it mean for students to see themselves not just as learners of history, but as part of it?

That question anchored our team of educators’ work as we developed a unit exploring the Underground Railroad through the lens of Caroline Quarlls. Quarlls’ journey from slavery to freedom began in St. Louis; she passed through Crete on her way to Canada. Bolstered by a county grant, my colleagues and I designed the middle and high school curriculum with a deep commitment to place-based education and social-emotional learning.

To ensure authenticity and accuracy, we consulted local historical resources and received invaluable insight from the Crete Area Historical Society and Museum. These partnerships helped us understand our community’s role in the broader narrative of the Underground Railroad.

Yet one of the most formative parts of this journey didn’t come from a textbook or archive. It came from listening, deeply and humbly. After completing the initial curriculum, I realized that while the first edition was grounded in good intentions, it had not adequately included the lived expertise of Kimberly Simmons, a direct descendant of Caroline Quarlls.

That realization, which Simmons pointed out after she saw the lessons we devised, stopped me in my tracks. Instead of moving forward with that version of the unit, I reached out and arranged to meet Simmons virtually and later in person. I also had the opportunity to engage with Dr. Larry McClellan, a distinguished historian whose work has focused on the Underground Railroad in Illinois. McClellan and Simmons are co-authors of “To the River,” a vital text that became central to our unit.

Simmons welcomed me into a conversation that became a turning point. I attended a symposium she led at the University of Windsor in Canada, where she illuminated the deep historical connections between the Detroit River, Canadian freedom, and the networks of resistance that carried freedom seekers across borders. Her perspective, and the truths she carries with both authority and grace, reshaped how I understood the narrative we were teaching.

She personally reviewed the revised unit, helping us to correct a significant inaccuracy regarding Quarlls’ motive for escape. It was a reminder that good intentions don’t replace responsible storytelling. Proximity to a story doesn’t equal ownership. It was a lesson in what it means to approach this work with the respect it deserves.

What emerged from these relationships wasn’t just a powerful social studies unit. It became a dynamic way for students to connect with the land they walk every day. Through maps, primary sources, and values-based reflection, students didn’t just learn about the Underground Railroad. They traced its path through their neighborhoods. They explored how places like the Crete Cemetery and Crete Congregational Church connect directly to stories of resistance, courage, and legacy. Some students even brought their families to visit these sites, sparking long-overdue intergenerational conversations.

Be bold enough to ask what history lives in your backyard. Be brave enough to learn what you were never taught.

This curriculum didn’t stay in the classroom. It led to the Village of Crete’s first organized Juneteenth celebration in 2023, a small but deeply meaningful event sponsored by family and the Crete Area Historical Society and Museum. That gathering grew into a larger event called Juneteenth at the U, supported by Crete-Monee School District 201-U, local businesses, Monee Township, Prairie State College, and Governors State University. Like the curriculum, the celebration was rooted in truth-telling, joy, and reclamation.

Eventually, this journey led me to co-author, with Dr. Rita Guzmán, “We Celebrate Juneteenth Unidos,” a bilingual children’s book inspired by Juneteenth at the U. Through the voice of a grandmother and her granddaughter, the book invites families to see Juneteenth not as a historical footnote, but as a thread connecting past, present, and future.

Throughout this process, I’ve learned that you don’t need to be a credentialed historian to begin this work. You don’t need to be an expert to care deeply or lead thoughtfully. What you do need is a willingness to listen, to be corrected, to seek out those who know more, and to let your curiosity guide you with humility and care.

We are all part of living history. The more we approach that truth with a curious and open spirit, the more meaningful our learning and our teaching become.

To every educator, parent, neighbor, or community leader reading this: Let this be your invitation. Be bold enough to ask what history lives in your backyard. Be brave enough to learn what you were never taught. And be willing to say, I didn’t know, but I want to.

Because honoring the past doesn’t just shape the future. It shapes us.

Valerie Butrón is an educator, speaker, and co-founder of Tumbao Bilingual Books. She bridges curriculum and community to bring overlooked histories into classrooms through place-based, student-centered storytelling.

NYC schools are getting financial coaches. See which 15 districts are first to get them this fall.

2025-06-18T18:32:09+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Starting in the fall, 15 of New York City’s local school districts serving 350,000 students will get financial educators who will provide free financial counseling and workshops to students and their families, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday.

The “financial literacy for youth,” or “fly,” initiative — which Adams previewed in his January State of the City address — is expected to expand to all 32 local school districts by 2030. The program will also pilot in-school banking to give students hands-on experience with saving and managing money with access to affordable banking options, city officials said.

The program will cost $25 million over five years, city officials said, with financial educators covering such topics as credit and money management basics, different types of banking products, and spotting consumer financial scams.

“We teach our children and our scholars … chemical bonds but not stocks and bonds,” Adams said at a press conference at Brooklyn Collegiate Preparatory High School. “We have to learn both. We have to learn treasury bonds and chemical bonds. We have to learn how to save, how to use our money.”

The districts in this first group were selected because they include neighborhoods with high rates of families without bank accounts, and they also participate in the Education Department’s FutureReadyNYC program,a signature Adams administration initiative that provides schools with resources to launch new career tracks, along with paid work experience, in the education, technology, business, and health care sectors. Six out of the 15 districts are in the Bronx, followed by four in Brooklyn, three in Manhattan, and one in Queens and Staten Island.

There’s been a growing push for financial literacy in schools from city and state leaders and beyond. At least 35 states require students to take a personal finance course to graduate, according to a 2024 report from the Council for Economic Education. In New York, the state said it’s adding new mandates for financial literacy to its updated graduation requirements — something that some students from across the city have been pushing for.

“Financial literacy is not a topic only some students should get to understand,” Anisha Singhal, previously wrote for Chalkbeat about Stuyvesant High School’s financial literacy elective. “It’s like a health class: a field of critical knowledge every high schooler needs (yes, even if that means yet another graduation requirement).”

But some critics argue that the push for financial literacy puts the onus on the consumer rather than on strengthening regulation of the players in the financial world, such as banks, investment firms, and insurance companies — many of whom are big advocates for school-based financial literacy. Some research has cast doubt on the effectiveness of financial literacy programs, and some observers are concerned that programs, many of which are offered free of charge to schools and sponsored by banks, could be used as marketing tools in an attempt to get potential customers.

In-school banking has been explored in other parts of the country and the state. City officials declined to provide more information about the in-school banking branches, saying to expect more information on that “soon.”

Here are the districts in the first wave of the new youth financial literacy program:

Manhattan

District 2 (Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Upper East Side)

District 3 (Upper West Side, Central Harlem)

District 5 (Central Harlem)

Bronx

District 7 (Hunts Point, Melrose, Longwood)

District 8 (Belmont, Crotona Park East, East Tremont)

District 9 (Concourse, Highbridge, Mount Eden)

District 10 (Bedford Park, Fordham North, Norwood)

District 11 (Castle Hill, Clason Point, Parkchester)

District 12 (Baychester, Eastchester, Williamsbridge, Wakefield)

Brooklyn

District 14 (Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bedford-Stuyvesant)

District 19 (Brownsville, Canarsie)

District 21 (Brighton Beach, Coney Island)

District 23 (Brownsville)

Queens

District 30 (Astoria, Long Island City, Jackson Hights, North Corona)

Staten Island

District 31

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Many students decide they’re not a ‘math person’ by the end of elementary school, new study shows

2025-06-17T04:02:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Roughly half of middle and high schoolers report losing interest in math class at least half the time, and 1 in 10 lack interest nearly all the time during class, a new study shows.

In addition, the students who felt the most disengaged in math class said they wanted fewer online activities and more real-world applications in their math classes.

Those and other findings published Tuesday from the research corporation RAND highlight several ongoing challenges for instruction in math, where nationwide student achievement has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels and the gap between the highest and lowest-performing students in math has continued to grow.

Feeling bored in math class from time to time is not an unusual experience, and feeling “math anxiety” is common. However, the RAND study notes that routine boredom is associated with lower school performance, reduced motivation, reduced effort, and increased rates of dropping out of school.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found that the students who are the most likely to maintain their interest in math comprehend math, feel supported in math, are confident in their ability to do well in math, enjoy math, believe in the need to learn math, and see themselves as a “math person.”

Dr. Heather Schwartz, a RAND researcher and the primary investigator of the study, noted that the middle and high school years are when students end up on advanced or regular math tracks. Schwartz said that for young students determining their own sense of math ability, “Tracking programs can be a form of external messaging.”

Nearly all the students who said they identified as a “math person” came to that conclusion before they reached high school, the RAND survey results show. A majority of those students identified that way as early as elementary school. In contrast, nearly a third of students surveyed said they never identified that way.

“Math ability is malleable way past middle school,” Schwartz said. Yet, she noted that the survey indicates students’ perception of their own capabilities often remains static.

The RAND study drew on data from their newly established American Youth Panel, a nationally representative survey of students ages 12-21. It used survey responses of 434 students in grades 5-12. Because this was the first survey sent to members of the panel, there is no comparable data on student math interest prior to the pandemic, so it doesn’t measure any change in student interest.

The RAND study found that 26% percent of students in middle and high school reported losing interest during a majority of their math lessons. On the other end of the spectrum, a quarter of students said they never or almost never lost interest in math class.

There weren’t major differences in the findings across key demographic groups: Students in middle and high school, boys and girls, and students of different races and ethnicities reported feeling bored during a majority of math class at similar rates.

Dr. Janine Remillard, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and expert in mathematics curriculum, said that in many math classes, “It’s usually four or five students answering all the questions, and then the kids who either don’t understand or are less interested or just take a little bit more time — they just zone out.”

Over 50% of students who lost interest in almost all of their math classes asked for fewer online activities and more real-world problems, the RAND study shows. Schwartz hypothesizes that some online math programs represent a “modern worksheet” and emphasize solo work and repetition. Students who are bored in class instead crave face-to-face activities that focus on application, she said.

During Remillard’s math teacher training classes, she puts students in her math teacher training class into groups to solve math problems. But she doesn’t tell them what strategy to use.

The students are forced to work together in order to understand the process of finding an answer rather than simply repeating a given formula. All of her students typically say that if they had learned math this way, they would think of themselves as a math person, according to Remillard, who was not involved in the RAND study.

Norah Rami is a Dow Jones education reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah at nrami@chalkbeat.org.

This historian believes teaching Jewish American history in NYC schools can combat antisemitism

2025-06-16T12:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free monthly newsletter How I Teach to get inspiration, news, and advice for — and from — educators.

In late 2023, New York City Education Department officials approached historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela to be the lead scholar on a new curriculum focused on Jewish American history. The project would be part of the city’s Hidden Voices initiative, centering diverse historical figures left out of typical textbooks.

Petrzela, a history professor at the New School, was initially surprised. Though a historian of American politics and culture — her book, “Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession,” is being turned into a documentary — Jewish studies is not her primary field of study. But the more she understood the goals of the Hidden Voices project, the more she realized how well-suited she was for the task.

“The work of amplifying ‘hidden voices’ who may not be central to conventional historical narratives is core to what I do as a teacher and a scholar,” said Petrzela, who began her career as a New York City classroom teacher. “Also, much of my scholarship has been about the teaching of divisive issues in K-12, particularly around identity, and the controversy that often follows.”

Education Department officials said the materials will be available to all students next school year. They are also piloting the resource in five New York City districts that will provide feedback on the lessons. City schools already have access to Hidden Voices materials focused on LGBTQ history, Asian American history, the African diaspora, and Americans with disabilities.

Officials had announced the Jewish American materials were forthcoming as well as materials focused on Muslim Americans after a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents increased following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel and devastating war in Gaza that followed. Lessons on the Latino community are expected to be completed by the end of the school year.

Petrzela hopes that students and teachers will not only learn about a series of important individuals but also be inspired to ask new questions about the nation’s past and present. The project was also especially meaningful for Petrzela post Oct. 7.

“As a Jew, in addition to my professional roles, I have been speaking up when I think appropriate to address the unfortunate polarization that I see taking hold in many educational environments and our culture,” she said, noting that education is a critical way to get beyond this. “I hope that learning about Jewish experiences and identity across history — and not just in regards to the Israel/Hamas war — will take the temperature down on some of those conversations, and make them more informed and empathetic.”

Petrzela spoke recently with Chalkbeat New York.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Why did it feel so important to take this project on?

It was disappointing, if not totally surprising, to me that the New York City schools did not already have a coherent set of materials to teach Jewish American history, given how important Jews are in New York City history and vice versa. For me, witnessing the disturbing aftermath of Oct. 7 in many educational environments, including, but not limited to, New York City, infused real energy into addressing that omission. That is, I think the antisemitism that we have seen flare is due, at least in some part, to ignorance.

I was horrified and depressed to see false claims and antisemitic tropes circulating unchallenged at schools and colleges, supposed bastions of enlightenment and inclusion, but I realized that despairing or engaging in an endless game of what I describe as “antisemitism whack-a-mole” was depleting and unproductive.

I remain idealistic that education can be an important part of the solution to this situation, and leading Jewish American Hidden Voices, or JAHV, feels like a valuable way to make a proactive and unique contribution.

It’s hard to discuss this project in isolation from what’s been happening in some New York City public schools since Oct. 7, not only with the high-profile incidents, like the Hillcrest High School teacher targeted by students over her support of Israel, but also a broader rise of antisemitism in schools. We recently saw the chancellor issue apologies for “offensive” communications that went out to educators and families. How do you hope the Hidden Voices materials can combat some of what’s been happening in schools?

I hope that it contributes to reducing the antisemitism that has been on display not only in NYC but in many other places, as it will be freely available online. I think JAHV adds something really important to two existing approaches to teaching about Jewish experiences: Holocaust and antisemitism education, the former is required in many states, and the latter is often introduced as the result of an incident.

Hidden Voices is complementary but very different, as it introduces Jewish-American experiences as intertwined with the long span of U.S. history, and widens the lens beyond incidents of antisemitism and the specific and seismic trauma of the Holocaust, although it of course addresses both as well.

Can you tell us about your process? How long have you been working on it? Where did your research take you? How did you decide what to keep and what to cut?

After I accepted this offer, we set about brainstorming two lists: of individuals to include as profiles and of experts we hoped would write for us. The hardest part was cutting both of those down and finessing them to be representative in a range of ways.

The idea of Hidden Voices is to highlight individuals in an identity group that has often been overlooked in history, and also to teach about people who are not only the most famous figures in a given group. So, yes, there are profiles of luminaries such as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and poet Emma Lazarus, but also of fascinating figures, such as Harry Lender, the entrepreneur who made frozen bagels a supermarket staple, and Nancy Lieberman, the basketball star and women’s sports trailblazer.

One way we distilled the list was to focus on people whose stories illuminated aspects of Jewish American identity and that allow teachers to make fruitful connections to broader historical themes, both to deepen and challenge them. While this is a project of the NYC schools, and New York City is clearly such an important site in American Jewish life, we also really tried to select individuals whose lives and careers took them all over the country, itself an effort to challenge the stereotype of the “New York Jew.”

As for what we decided to keep in or cut, it was important to me that we explain, in every profile, how a figure’s Jewishness related to their life. For some of the figures we profile, being Jewish is a major part of their identity and career; for others, it can feel almost incidental. To us, that difference in itself is important in understanding the different ways Jews have inhabited their identity throughout U.S. history.

We kept in mind that it was especially important to resist any simplification of figures to heroes or villains, especially if there was a risk of perpetuating stereotypes. Our contributors did a great job with this.

What were some of the most surprising things you learned while doing the research?

I am not sure about surprised, but as challenging as this sprawling project is, I was gratified at how easy it was to illuminate so many diverse realms of American culture through the experiences of Jews in this country. This tiny minority — about 2.4% of the United States population today — has made incredible contributions, from the arts to athletics to organizing to industry, and it was not all that difficult to convey this range and diversity through our materials. Now people just have to use them!

Are there any figures that you’re especially excited for students — and teachers — to learn about?

Don’t make me choose — they are all so good! But since I absolutely love using pop culture to get at deeper historical themes, I am biased to be especially excited about profiles like that of Gold Rush entrepreneur Levi Strauss, who gave us denim as we know it, and of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the Holocaust survivor who got a generation of Americans talking openly about sex.

I’m wondering if you have thoughts about teaching Holocaust history in a post-survivor world?

When I was growing up, it was almost commonplace to learn about the Holocaust through survivors who would generously give talks at all kinds of venues, including schools. I remember their bracing accounts like it was yesterday. That era is all but over, and I think Hidden Voices will be one resource valuable in teaching about some of that history that too many people are ignorant of, or even deny. While [Jewish American Hidden Voices] is not organized around the Holocaust, this tragedy is so central to understanding modern Jewish experiences that, of course, it is addressed across our materials.

In general, what is your hope for how students and educators engage with these materials?

On the broadest level, I hope that these materials push educators and students to think about who identity-based curricula are for. Yes, of course, it is important for minority groups to “see themselves” represented in curricula, but I think that ambition is far too parochial for our current reality. We should all be curious about each other’s experiences, because when we turn inward and away from each other, we are left with an incomplete and inaccurate picture of the past and are ill-equipped to engage in our complicated present. Because Jews are such a tiny minority, I hope a curriculum like this sparks people to think about this question and invigorates them to commit to a pluralism and universalism that I personally think is the beating heart of a healthy community, in the classroom or beyond.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Supreme Court to rule on right of religious parents to opt kids out of LGBTQ material

2025-04-18T01:05:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

When the devout Muslim parents of a second grader learned their son would be reading a story at school about a prince who falls in love with a knight, they asked to opt him out.

The story about a man who marries another man after they team up to vanquish a dragon went against their religious teachings, the parents said. They wanted an alternative assignment.

The book in question, “Prince & Knight,” was one of several books that Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools added to its English curriculum in 2022 as part of a district initiative to put more books featuring LGBTQ characters in elementary school classrooms.

At first, the second grader was allowed to sit outside the classroom during discussions of the book. But a few days later, the district’s school board decided parents could no longer opt their kids out, later citing the volume of opt-out requests. Teachers would also stop informing families when they used one of the LGBTQ-themed books in class.

Many parents spoke out against that decision. The second grader’s parents and other families sued Montgomery County Public Schools to reinstate the opt-out option. Two federal courts let the no opt-out policy stand. Now, the Supreme Court — with a conservative majority that’s likely to be sympathetic to the burgeoning parental rights movement — is set to weigh in. Oral arguments in the case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, are scheduled for Tuesday. A decision is expected by June.

At the heart of the case is a longstanding tension between the power of parents to direct their children’s education and the authority of public schools to set their own curriculum. The high court’s ruling could decide whether parents have the right to opt their children out of any content that they see as at odds with their faith — and how far schools must go to accommodate them.

The case comes as Democrat-led states such as New Jersey, Illinois, and California have adopted curriculum that’s more inclusive, especially on topics of gender and sexuality. Meanwhile, Republican-led states like Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana have passed new laws that give parents more insight into what their kids are learning and the ability to opt out of certain lessons.

If the Supreme Court sides with the school district and decides parents don’t have the religious right to opt out, some say that could open the door to schools adopting curriculum without much regard for parent or community feedback. The views of minority parents, especially, could be ignored.

If the parents prevail, some worry schools would remove certain content altogether to lessen the chances of opt-out requests. That would be a set-back for schools and families that support efforts like those in the Montgomery County district to make curriculum more inclusive.

A ruling for the parents also could upend school operations, some legal and education experts say. It could force already stressed teachers and principals to send notifications, devise alternative assignments, and catch kids up if they miss other content during an opt-out.

“Do you have all the parents list out all the things that they believe at the start of the year, so you know and can tailor what you teach?” said Morgan Polikoff, an education professor at the University of Southern California who’s studied Americans’ views on opt-out policies. “It’s not hard to see how it could spiral out of control really quickly and really undermine the ability of public schools to perform their basic core function: teaching kids.”

Case centers on religious rights, LGBTQ inclusion

Several Montgomery County parents said in court filings that exposing their kids to the new books at school violated their right to free exercise of religion, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment.

“Our son loves his teachers and implicitly trusts them,” wrote one second grader’s parents who follow Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox teachings. “Having them teach principles about sexuality or gender identity that conflict with our religious beliefs significantly interferes with our ability to form his religious faith.”

Lawyers for the parents say the books’ positive portrayals of LGBTQ characters and themes indirectly pressure kids to adopt that thinking. But they say what their parents want is different than laws like Florida’s that bar teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation in certain grades.

“Our parents aren’t asking for an LGBTQ-free classroom,” said Colten Stanberry, one of the attorneys at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty who is representing the parents in the Supreme Court case. “They are not saying the books can’t be on the shelves. They are specifically challenging instruction,” such as reading the books in class and talking about them with teachers.

In a 2-1 ruling, a federal appeals court sided with the school district. Making kids read books that don’t align with their religious teachings is not a violation of families’ rights, they wrote, because they weren’t forced to change their beliefs or actions. Parents were still free to talk about the picture books with their children and teach them what they wanted, the judges wrote.

That interpretation follows how federal courts have ruled in other similar cases.

Montgomery County Public Schools officials have said they adopted the set of LGTBQ-inclusive books as part of a broader effort to make the district’s curriculum more culturally responsive with texts told from multiple viewpoints. The district is known for its racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, although that diversity hasn’t always equaled harmony.

Similar efforts, according to court documents, included the addition of books about the Black civil rights icon John Lewis and a novel about a Chinese-American immigrant family.

Teachers were expected to use the books as they would any other part of the curriculum. That could mean reading them aloud or putting them in classroom libraries, the district said in court filings.

The books were meant to teach critical reading skills and not for instruction explicitly about sexual orientation or gender identity, the district said.

In addition to “Prince & Knight,” the stories included “Pride Puppy!” an alphabet book for preschoolers and kindergartners about a dog that encounters various scenes at a Pride parade, and “My Rainbow,” in which a Black mother sews a colorful wig for her transgender daughter. And in “Love, Violet” a young girl worries about whether her same-sex crush will like the valentine she made her.

The children's book "Pride Puppy!" by Robin Stevenson follows a playful puppy through a Pride parade and the alphabet. Montgomery County Public Schools removed the book from classrooms after deciding it required instruction that went beyond a reading lesson.

The district also gave teachers guidance about how they could respond to potential questions or comments from students. If a student said being gay is wrong and not permitted in their religion, teachers could respond: “I understand that is what you believe, but not everyone believes that. We don’t have to understand or support a person’s identity to treat them with respect and kindness.”

In another instance, if a child asked about what it meant to be transgender, a teacher could say: “When we’re born, people make a guess about our gender and label us ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ based on our body parts. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong.”

Still, some parents and school leaders worried the books used unfamiliar words without defining them. Others questioned whether it was appropriate to show kids in romantic relationships, regardless of their sexual orientation. The district eventually pulled “Pride Puppy!” and “My Rainbow” from classrooms, the Washington Post reported, because kids may not have understood the texts without explicit instruction on vocabulary outside the bounds of the lesson.

“There’s reasonable discussions to be had about what’s age appropriate in curriculum,” Polikoff said. But, Polikoff, who is gay, said this case is more about: “Does acknowledging that gay people exist burden other people’s religious views? Where is the line here?”

How a ruling for the parents could affect schools

If the justices side with the parents in this case, it could give families “broad authority to request opt-outs along a wide array of different issues,” said Justin Driver, a constitutional law scholar and professor at Yale Law School.

If the teacher wants to give a pop quiz about a book most kids have read, they’d have to write a completely different test for kids who opted out, Driver said. Teachers could end up refereeing “dueling free exercise claims” from parents with opposing religious beliefs. Teachers would have to avoid stigmatizing children who’ve opted out, as well as children who see themselves in the content other kids are skipping.

Given past court decisions, it’s unlikely the justices would confine opt-outs to certain topics or student grade levels, Driver added.

“Just because some people may be uneasy with this sort of material today, it doesn’t mean that the federal judiciary should be commandeering local control over public schools,” said Driver, who co-authored a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Montgomery County Public Schools.

"Prince & Knight" by Daniel Haack tells the story of two men who battle a dragon and fall in love. Some Montgomery County parents objected to their kids reading about a gay relationship and marriage on religious grounds.

Glenn Branch, the deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, has seen how this can play out.

Sometimes it’s easy for teachers to come up with alternative assignments. When parents object to their kids dissecting animals, Branch said, teachers can swap in a plastic or virtual model.

But when religious parents object to their kids learning about evolution, there really isn’t a substitute, Branch said. Evolution comes up so many times in biology class — from learning about the structure of a cell to taxonomy to genetics — that teachers would need “revolving doors” for kids to cycle in and out. That would be disruptive for their classmates, too.

“It would be kind of like saying: ‘Well, we’re not going to do fractions,’ in a math course,” Branch said.

Lawsuit’s supporters: Opt-out right isn’t burden on schools

Lawyers and scholars in the parents’ camp, meanwhile, say giving parents the right to opt out of certain content on religious grounds wouldn’t dramatically change public education.

Nearly all states permit opt-outs for sex ed or lessons on human sexuality, they note. Texas permits parents to opt their kids out of lessons on any topic for religious or moral reasons.

“A lot of school districts are, in fact, already doing what the parents are asking for here,” said Stanberry, the parents’ attorney.

Douglas Laycock, a constitutional law scholar and law professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and the University of Texas, said he did not expect schools to be flooded with opt-out requests. Laycock, who co-authored a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the parents, added that the topics parents will likely object to are predictable: sex and evolution.

If students skip broad swaths of the curriculum, that shouldn’t come without consequences, he said. For example, a student could opt out of evolution lessons, he said, but then “you can’t get credit for biology.”

Still, he can imagine a scenario in which schools get overloaded with parents’ opt-out requests.

“If you have large numbers of people demanding alternative assignments for lots of different parts of the curriculum, at some point it’s going to become unworkable,” he said. But if parents’ requests are limited to a smaller piece of the curriculum, as he believes they were in Montgomery County, schools should be able to make that work.

The reason the school district got so many opt-out requests, he added, is because the curriculum was age-inappropriate and lacked broad community support.

Stanberry, too, could imagine another case in which the school district’s responsibility to educate children — especially in core subjects like reading and math — could trump a parent’s religious right to skip that content.

“When it comes to matters that are particularly sensitive to religion, especially matters of human sexuality, gender identity,” he said, “that’s a place where parents should get to decide.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado State Board of Education debates adding climate change to science standards

2025-04-10T17:47:11+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

Climate change and the link between burning fossil fuels and rising global temperatures would be required to be taught more explicitly in Colorado science lessons under a change being considered by the State Board of Education.

The proposed changes, which come as the Trump administration moves to weaken federal climate regulations and state efforts to fight global warming, elicited pushback from the four Republican board members. They criticized the revisions for depicting the downsides of fossil fuels but not of other forms of energy, such as wind turbines that kill birds.

“My initial reaction from reading this is that we’re definitely zeroing in on one form of energy that is opposed by one side of the political aisle and not the other,” said Kristi Burton Brown, a Republican who represents the 4th Congressional District.

She pointed out that some students’ parents work in the oil and gas industry, which she said is “huge” in Colorado. “Considering our state, considering our districts, to present that to kids as only negative and not touching other forms of energy, I would have a big problem with,” she said.

Meanwhile, a Democratic board member described the proposed changes as “a few tweaks.”

Colorado’s academic standards outline what students should learn in subjects ranging from reading and math to music and dance. The State Board of Education is required to review each set of standards every six years. Revisions meant to make the social studies standards more inclusive of diverse racial groups and LGBTQ+ people proved controversial in 2022.

A group of students has been advocating to include more information about climate change in Colorado’s science standards. The State Board voted in December to direct the state education department to present recommendations for how to do that.

State officials suggested eight revisions to the 172-page standards. One revision would change language in the standards directing middle school students to explore “evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures” to say they should research “evidence of how burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that cause rising global temperatures.”

Another proposed revision would direct high school students to “evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and other human pollutants.” The standards currently say that students should evaluate a technical solution that reduces the impacts of human activities on natural systems — without calling out greenhouse gas emissions.

Other proposed revisions don’t mention climate change. A revision to the elementary science standards would require that students learn about Colorado weather patterns instead of generic “typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.”

Two students spoke in favor of the proposed revisions at Wednesday’s State Board meeting. Several others submitted written comments in support.

Aisha O’Neil, a freshman at the University of Colorado Boulder, called the proposed revisions “a wonderful step in the direction toward the climate education we advocated for.”

“Yet they do not go nearly far enough to create an education that will fully prepare our youth for tomorrow’s world and allow students to find hope in the current crisis,” said O’Neil, who founded the Good Trouble Climate Network, a group of high school sustainability clubs across the state.

State Board members thanked the state education department for working with students on the revisions. Department staff said they also reviewed academic standards related to climate change from New Jersey and California, as well as a climate literacy guide for educators from the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which could be targeted for cuts by President Trump.

But Republicans on the board said the proposed revisions were biased and one-sided.

“There should be at least some inclusion of the negative consequences of alternative energies,” said Steve Durham, a Republican who represents the 5th Congressional District.

“For example, the one that bothers me the most is windmills kill somewhere in the neighborhood of at least a million birds a year,” he said. “Absent including some of those things, we have to conclude that these are not standards but indoctrination.”

Sherri Wright, a Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District, said the downsides of solar energy also warrant a mention in the standards.

“I’ve been talking to a lot of companies that do solar energy,” said Wright, who lives in Cortez. “I kind of thought I wanted to do a solar farm. And they told me it was not a good thing if I plan to use my land later. So that’s destroying the environment.”

But Lisa Escárcega, a Democrat who represents the 1st Congressional District, said the revisions only touch a tiny part of the standards and don’t require educators to use the exact words or phrases in the standards when they teach their lessons.

“This is not a curriculum,” Escárcega said. “These are just ideas and standards we are to teach to and to meet. Treating it like this is the book they’re going to get is not correct.”

The Colorado Department of Education launched a survey Wednesday to collect feedback on the proposed revisions. The survey will be open for two weeks, and department staff said they will present a summary of the results at the State Board meeting in May.

The nine-member board of four Republicans and five Democrats is set to vote on the revisions at its June meeting, department staff said.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Are NYC schools teaching sex ed? It’s a touchy subject.

2025-04-10T09:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Are New York City students getting the sex education they need? P.S. Weekly’s episode 2 explores the systemic shortcomings and urgent need for comprehensive — and inclusive — sex education in New York City schools.

Producers Aponi Kafele, a junior at Manhattan’s Essex Street Academy, and Sanaa Stokes, a senior at Manhattan’s Professional Performing Arts High School, expose the patchwork approach to sex education across schools, from anatomy lessons using gingerbread men to teachers who aren’t trained in the subject.

The information gaps are especially concerning for LGBTQ+ youth. One student, who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, wishes his school offered sex ed where he could ask more questions and get more advice. “I think it’s important for sex ed to normalize sex, especially for people our age,” he told Sanaa. “So we don’t carry on these fears into our adulthood.”

And Aliyah Ansari, a teen health strategist from the New York Civil Liberties Union, explains why her organization is pushing for change, calling on the state to require K-12 comprehensive sexuality education in public and charter schools that would be age and culturally appropriate and medically accurate and inclusive.

“We see time and time again,” Ansari said, “our students are not getting the information that they need.”

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Listen for new P.S. Weekly episodes Thursdays this spring.

Read the transcript below

Sanaa: Welcome back to P.S. weekly, the sound of New York City school system. I’m Sanaa Stokes. I’m about to graduate, and I realized something not too long ago, that I’ve never taken a sex ed class.

Aponi: I am Aponi Kafele, and when I was hearing Sanaa speak about it, it actually reminded me a lot of an experience that I had basically my entire public school career. I’ve been taking sex ed class since middle school, where we learned a lot, I suppose. I mean, we learned how to point out the parts on a gingerbread man. So I guess that helped. But if I really think about if I had a fulfilling and comprehensive sex education, I can’t feel like I can say yes,

Sanaa: Our different experiences made us wonder how sex ed looks across the city.

Aponi: I decided to ask students and teachers around my school about their experience. Okay, can you state your occupation for filing?

Teacher 1: Teacher, a high school teacher. I teach English and theater,

Teacher 2: And my occupation is teacher.

Student 1: I am a junior,

Student 2: And I’m in 11th grade,

Aponi: So I know in freshman year, we were doing advisory sex ed classes. Do you remember when we had like, all the- Yes, bro!

Student 2: Oh! The tea cup video, the tea cup video!

Aponi: Okay, okay!

Aponi: Can you share three lessons or activities you did in your advisory sex class?

Student 1: They passed around a dental dam and a feminine condom.

Student 2: They made us watch this video called the tea cup video, which basically correlated consent to drinking tea with somebody.

Student 1: I think they had, like a wooden, like, you know, penis, I think, and then they, you know, demonstrated it like, on how to put on a condom.

Aponi: What would be your dream format for like children across NYC to like have for sex ed?

Teacher 1: I do think there’s something to be said for somebody who is a health teacher and is an expert in delivering that instruction. When you’re an advisor, right? You’re still teaching your subject area, and then you have this additional lesson or lessons per week that you’re trying to craft and think about, and you can, you’ll never going to be able to dedicate the same level of time to it that you would for your subject area.

Aponi: If you could add anything that you felt was missing from the curriculum, what would you add?

Student 2: There’s a lot of things missing. So that’s kind of a hard question. I would maybe talk about, like, what to do if you have a pregnancy scare, because I know a lot of teenagers who have. I would also maybe talk about just, like, literal logistics, because I know this is like, seems like everyone would know, but, like, that’s not true. Like, I know people who have, like, tried to have sex and it didn’t work functionally.

Teacher 2: One of the things that a lot of high school teachers get wrong is that kids really don’t know a lot just because they have the internet. There’s a lot of questions where they really don’t know basic things.

Sanaa: So it’s obvious that there’s a lot missing from sex education in New York City.

Aponi: Right! Like the state requires that all students receive health education, including lessons on preventing HIV and AIDS, but there’s no mandate to deliver separate comprehensive sex education classes. That means it is up to individual schools and teachers to figure out how to teach sex education.

Aponi: And that’s a mess. Some elected officials have called attention to the issue at a hearing last December, City Council person Rita Joseph, grilled the executive director of school wellness programs about it,

Rita Joseph: But earlier you said this was a priority. So if it is a priority, why we’re not prioritizing it?

Executive Director of School Wellness Programs: That’s what we’re working on. That’s part of our job. We have to sort of, you know, there was such a focus on ELA and math, right, with standardized testing, etc, that, you know, we’re moving away from that now. We’re moving sort of portfolio work, and we’re moving to sort of broader literacy, but there was such an emphasis on testing, frankly, that we fell off.

Sanaa: Did the director of wellness just admit that the DOE wasn’t paying attention to sex education?

Aponi: Yep, and it’s not the first time officials have fallen short. The City convened a task force in 2017 to tackle shortcomings in sex ed, and they released a bunch of recommendations to improve it, but the city never implemented them, according to a recent City Council report. More recently, Mayor Eric Adams promised to take a look at the issue.

Sanaa: Don’t tell me. They launched another task force.

Aponi: They launched another task force, and unlike the last time, the new one doesn’t even require an expert in LGBTQ health.

Sanaa: While the new task force grinds away, I recently spoke with a friend of mine about his experience.

Student 3: I identify as a gay man

Sanaa: That’s a friend of mine who’s gone through a New York City School sex education program. He’s not out right now, so we’re protecting his identity. What has your family taught you about sex?

Student 3: From my mom, nothing. We never had a talk that was like informational, like jokes here and there, definitely about the topic. But with, with my dad, there was one time where I was in middle school and I just asked questions, and he told me things, but it was about heterosexual relationships, so not really much that I can carry on with. Now being a homosexual.

Aponi: Can you describe the type of sex education, if any, that you have received at your school?

Student 3: So at my school, I had a two week course of sex ed. In my freshman year, the classes weren’t separated by gender, and they were in a normal classroom. They were 45 minutes long. The teacher was serious, kids, kids took it seriously, and I think it since sex ed isn’t taught so frequently to students, it was something that we all had a genuine interest in and it was more about having sex safely, rather than like specifics in sex, of like things to do and things not to do.

Aponi: Was there any material about LGBTQ plus sex or relationships? And what would you have found helpful to cover?

Student 3: From what I remember, the only inclusion about LGBTQ relationships were talks about consent and having sex safely. I feel like there could have been an inclusion of stronger disease prevention I know in my community, that’s something that even I have questions about now, questions about HIV, questions about how people in the LGBTQ community are sometimes more likely to get diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea and things like that. So I don’t know, maybe something more in that field could have been helpful in that class.

Sanaa: By the way, what comes up next is some pretty graphic depictions of sex acts.

Aponi: Are we allowed to put this in?

Sanaa: I think so. It’s not dirty.

Aponi: Can you think of a time that you felt confused or uncertain about topics related to sexual health.

Student 3: I had questions about how to prepare and safely have anal sex. That isn’t something that I had in my sex ed class. And you know your anus is where your feces come out, and it’s the same place where LGBTQ individuals also can experience wonderful enjoyment. So that little mix was weird to me. It’s like, how do you, how do you balance that out? And that’s something online is a good resource. Of like, you know, how to clean up, how to prepare for that. And also, not only did I utilize online materials, but that is also a question I asked one of my LGBTQ teachers here at my school about, in more specifics, of like, once I started becoming sexually active, I noticed things that were specific to me, about my process, about my body, and I wanted to hear from someone like face to face about maybe their experience, or is this normal, or stuff like that.

Aponi: Have you ever encountered situations where you wish you had more knowledge about sexual health?

Student 3: Yes, when I started getting comfortable talking to my teacher, he brought it up to my attention that it was important to get STI tested every three to six months.

Sanaa: STD,

Student 3: I got STI, sexually transmitted infection,

Sanaa: Okay, Clock me! Clock me!

Student 3: Yeah, there’s a difference. There’s a difference.

Aponi: Something I didn’t…misconception, period.

Student 3: Yes, a misconception. I thought that only people who had sex like super frequently would have to get tested, but my teacher told me that it was important for every person in the LGBTQ community to keep each other safe, especially if you’re having multiple partners, or even having sex with multiple partners, who your partners are having sex with multiple partners, like there’s a whole chain that sex goes through, and it’s important to test yourself.

Aponi: How much of a priority do you think it should be for city leaders to make sex education more inclusive and comprehensive, and why?

Student 3: I think that schools and the city should make it a priority for sex ed to be more inclusive and comprehensive in schools. Because I think there’s many like you mentioned misconceptions about sex and things that people are curious about, and I feel like school is the place where you know learning is allowed, and there’s no such thing as a dumb question, and this is where we come to find the answers at a young age. And, sex is something that I think people my age can sometimes be afraid of, and I think it’s important for sex ed to normalize sex, especially for people our age, so we don’t carry on these fears into our, our adulthood.

Sanaa: How comfortable are you with the idea of being open about your sexual orientation? At this point,

Student 3: I’m comfortable with the idea of my sexual orientation and being open with that. However, I am, most of my family members don’t know, but my family members who are closer in age to me, I have slowly gotten to tell my younger family members at times when I’m ready about my lifestyle and my sexual orientation,

Aponi: Is there, like any particular reason as to why you don’t feel comfortable coming out to like your older family members?

Student 3: I think the way they raised, they were raised and the way that they grew up is definitely different than how I’m growing up now. You know, I’m Gen Z living in New York, liberal yada yada, fill in the blank. And my parents grew up in different countries where they were grow, they’re Muslim, religious, and so am I, and I still keep that part of me close to my heart, and I still practice, but I don’t think they encountered the LGBTQ community in the way that I did. I was introduced to it in TV shows and media at a young age, and even in middle and high school, I’ve gotten to meet people in that community. I think my parents are encountering that still to this day, slowly and not as rapidly as me, and it’s something that they might struggle to understand and grasp, and even if they do, I think they, they would prefer if that sort of community stays away from their family.

Sanaa: That was my friend who prefers to stay anonymous.

Aponi: Coming up an interview with the teen health strategist at the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Sanaa: That’s after the break.

Amy: We hope you enjoy listening to P.S. Weekly as much as we enjoy making it. I’m Amy Zimmer with Chalkbeat New York. We spend a lot of time planning each episode, setting up and conducting interviews, cutting the tape, writing scripts. It’s a long process and totally worth it. But here’s the thing, we don’t have a bunch of money or millions of followers, so we’re counting on you loyal listener to help us get the word out. Take a few seconds and send this link wherever you’re listening to three friends so they too can enjoy P.S. Weekly. Thanks for your support.

Sanaa: Welcome back to P.S. Weekly, where Aponi Kafele and I are talking about sex education in New York City Schools. I’m Sanaa Stokes

Aponi: And I’m Aponi. To start to understand what’s going on with NYC sex ed policy, we talked to Aliyah Ansari. She’s been working with the NYCLU to get mandatory and comprehensive sex ed in New York City schools for over seven years. She’s worked as a teen health strategist at the NYCLU. Do you think we’d have any current misconceptions for CSE? So comprehensive sexuality education? Can you give almost a definition of what it is and what it isn’t?

Aliyah: Yeah, so comprehensive sexuality education is, and I’ll use some keywords, right: Should be K through 12. It should be age appropriate, culturally responsive, inclusive of everyone, whether it be LGBTQ inclusive, racially inclusive, ethnically inclusive, age appropriate, like I said, but we’re going to continue to harp on that because some people have their own misconceptions about whether or not it’s age appropriate and medically accurate and should also fit, you know, national sex education standards, which we have, which someone can look at, is an actual guide, step by step. It shows you what you should teach… from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade, and you can follow that right. And comprehensive sexuality education also helps young people be able to have bodily autonomy, be able to understand healthy and unhealthy relationships, be able to have healthy communication with partners and friends and family, and also just be able to make healthy, informed decisions about their bodies and about relationships.

Aliyah: And I think that if more people realize what it actually teaches, I think more you know students and parents would actually be really on board with it. Because why would, you know, someone not want that… a parent not want their child to learn about consent? Why would they not want… their child to learn about education that helps lower instances of intimate partner violence and bullying. Schooling creates, actually, you know, a healthier school climate…but I think the issue is that people don’t know what sex education actually does, and so I think if you have that better understanding, I think more people would be for it, even though most surveys show, across you know, the country, most parents actually do want sex education, right? You just have a really vocal minority that want to be opposed to it. But many surveys have shown 80, 90% of parents who have taken those surveys actually want sex education for their students and their children.

Sanaa: Speaking of sex education right now, how would you rate isn’t the right word. How would you describe the current state of sexual education in NYC public schools?

Aliyah: So it’s interesting, New York City is slightly different than if you think about in the broad scope of New York State, right? So in New York State, and then we can kind of narrow down New York City. New York State does not require comprehensive sexuality education. All they require is HIV AIDS education. You’re supposed to do about five or six HIV AIDS lessons in middle school and high school, about five in elementary and pretty much that, that stops there, right? And when it comes to health education, we do about 54 hours of health education instruction in middle school and high school. That’s all, that’s all they get. That could be like a semester right of Middle High School. I’m pretty sure some of you have already experienced that, but in New York City, it does actually require sex education. There was a mandate in 2011. The biggest issue that we have, even though they do mandate comprehensive sexuality education in New York City schools, is that there’s not a great way, there’s not really a way to implement or show whether schools are actually teaching it. Every year the school districts say how many percentage of their students have actually done health education, but you don’t know within that health education, how many actually got sex ed? So this is the issue, right? …[You] survey health education, or maybe say 50% of students got health education. I don’t know how many actually were taught sex ed, because there’s no specified number of topics or lessons that they have to teach about sex education. So the issue comes in. How do you know what school is actually going to do sex education? You don’t, right? So that’s a big issue that we have. You know… that is a big, the biggest issue that we probably have when it comes to New York City schools, when it comes to teaching sex education, for sure.

Aponi: That specifically explains a lot of statistics that I ran into like that we ran into researching this. So I remember being like, that’s strangely high, okay, if you say so.

Aliyah: That’s why it’s issue we have. You know, standards for math have standards for science. When it comes to health ed and even more specifically, sex ed, they don’t have that. And it leaves the door open for a teacher to say, Hey, I’m going to teach whatever I want. I’m going to call it sex education. And then what do we have? And that’s a big issue that I have, regardless of whether New York City has a mandate or not, if different schools could do whatever they want. Does it matter if you have a mandate? Not really, right?

Aponi: So I go to school, and I don’t think I’ve really…maybe a sophomore year, but I don’t think I’ve really ever run into material about LGBTQ relationships. How would you describe the current state of teaching about LGBTQ sex relationships and romantic relationships in school.

Aliyah: I would say, probably very lacking. You know… when did we do this report? 2012 – a report called Birds, Bees, and Bias, and there we had FOILed, which is basically asking, requesting sex ed documents from over 100 school districts in New York City, not in NYC, in New York State, rather, and you found that majority of them, yeah, we’re not teaching LGBT inclusive sex education at all. A lot of them just didn’t even talk [about], gender identity, sexual orientation. And sadly enough, I wouldn’t be surprised it’s, you know, roughly still the same. A lot of times, even in some of the greatest like some really good, I say good, not greatest, evidence based curriculum, a lot of times, anything on gender identity, sexual orientation is like an addendum. It’s like, oh, you can do this. And then if you really do want to talk about, here’s another booklet that you can talk about, you know, sexual orientation, gender identity, which is an issue, because what you want to do is have it completely in the like the main text, right? It shouldn’t be some type of addendums or appendix, right? And the issue is that that’s what it makes young people feel.

Aponi: It feels like you’re an addition.

Aliyah: Yes, you feel like you’re addition. Why am I not included in this? And you’re talking about all your students. I am part of your student body, right? You should be have- you should be educating me on everything too that has to do with me as well. And I think some of it could just be, not all of it, but some of it could be that sometimes teachers are just uncomfortable. One talking about sex ed in general, but even more specifically, talking about gender identity and sexual orientation or anything, anything LGBTQ-inclusive, right? And what we see too is even when it comes to health education, you have what up, no, over 100 health ed teachers in New York City, but over about 14,000 teachers were basically selected to teach health education. So like in New York, like New York City or New York State, you have like this, incidental teaching law, where you know what a teacher can teach one subject that’s not they’re not licensed to do if they show competency, and a lot of times that’s what the majority of health ed teachers are doing. They’re not actually licensed in health ed, so they’re maybe music teacher, science teacher, phys ed, any other music, whatever, right?

Aliyah: And so then you have those teachers trying to teach sex ed, you like, I don’t even do health ed. I’m trying to teach sex education. I’m uncomfortable having to have this conversation. And then, yes, some of it could be biased. We’re not going to root that out, unfortunately, but I think some of that still is just a lack of information and knowledge and being able to train teachers to be able to be less biased about things, and also just having more knowledge that they can feel more comfortable having those conversations.

Aponi: You’re working on a campaign to improve sexual education across the state. What exactly are you pushing for?

Aliyah: Yes, so just hot off the presses too, because we’ve been waiting for these bills to be introduced, but you just got introduced in the Senate and the Assembly as our sex education bill is called Healthy and Safe Students Act, and it would require K through 12 comprehensive sexuality education in public and charter schools, and mandate it to be age appropriate, medically inclusive, culturally appropriate, medically accurate and inclusive. And also ensure that schools utilize a curriculum that is based off of national sex ed standards. Being able to mandate that would be an amazing thing, and that’s why we’re really pushing because we see time and time again like live schools just, just don’t have or not getting the information that our students are not getting the information that they need. And this bill would help to rectify that, at least in charges in public schools we don’t have. And you say, what happens in private, but you know, in charge in public schools, how can students participate in creating change, in bringing sex ed to their schools, oh, and communities. So the great thing about this isn’t somewhat good, not good, but a great pivot. That pivot, but I’m offset, of not having a mandate, is that you can individually, go to your individual schools or your district and say, I want you to mandate education in my school district. So you can do that. You can.. get parents involved. You can yourself. Can go to your principal and say, Hey, we as a student body want sex education and see if they will do it, and they can do it if they want, and have a teacher teach it. You can absolutely do that.

Sanaa: Thank you so much for coming!

Aliyah: Thank you for having me!

Sanaa: That was Aliyah Ansari, a teen health strategist at the NYCLU

Aponi: Legislation for sex ed continues to be pushed by NYC teachers and students, and we will not let up. If you’re a student, you can band together with the people from your school to tell your school district to adopt a sex ed course. You have the power.

Sanaa: P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between the Bell and Chalkbeat made possible by generous support from the Pinkerton Foundation, the Summerfield foundation and FJC

Aponi: Producers for this episode were me, Aponi Kafele:

Sanaa: and me Sanaa Stokes, with reporting help from Chalkbeat reporter Alex Zimmerman,

Aponi: Our executive producer for the show is Ave Carillo,

Sanaa: and executive editors are Amy Zimmer and Taylor McGraw.

Sanaa: Additional production and reporting support was provided by Mira Gordon, Sabrina DuQuesnay and our friends at Chalkbeat. Our engagement editor is Carolina Hidalgo. This episode was made using Hindenburg. Music is from the blue dot sessions, and the jingle you heard at the beginning of this episode was created by the one and only Erica Huang.

Sanaa: Next week. P.S. Weekly will be taking a little pause since it’s spring break, but we’ll be back the week after that. Thanks for listening. See you next time!

We make transcripts available for our episodes as soon as possible. They are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.

Turning passion into profit: NYC high school art students launch Etsy shops through new program

2025-03-19T22:49:30+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

As a freshman, Vivien McNab was already thinking about how to turn her passion for cartooning and fan art into something others could enjoy.

Attending events like New York Comic Con, she developed “a habit” of buying key chains and art, and started developing her own mock-ups, experimenting with art she might one day be able to sell.

“I absolutely adore collecting work from other artists, just because I love seeing all the different styles, and I love seeing people’s different interpretations of characters,” said McNab, a senior at Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design.

Now she’s receiving support to get her own store off the ground. McNab is one of the hundreds of high school juniors and seniors participating in Artist Youth Entrepreneurs, a pilot program Art and Design launched this year to help students build the necessary skills to thrive as working artists.

Throughout a 10-week course in the fall, students learned about key financial and legal concepts, like how to file taxes as a freelancer, price products in their stores, or make sense of relevant copyright laws. Starting in April, students will have the opportunity to launch their own online stores, selling their work directly to customers through the school’s partnership with Etsy, an online marketplace that allows users to create their own shops. Students can receive a stipend from the program and other support at school, like communal shipping supplies and assistance mailing out orders.

The youth entrepreneur program comes at a time when schools across New York City and the state have indexed heavily into career and technical education, offering students opportunities to jump start their careers before they earn their diplomas. At Art and Design, students major in one of eight artistic fields, with each CTE-certified program preparing students for higher education and careers in their industry.

Ella Alarcon-English, a junior majoring in cartooning at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan.

Principal Maximillian Re-Sugiura said the idea for his school’s program came in part from concerns about the financial stability of artistic fields.

“When a lot of young professionals and young folks go to their families and say, ‘I want to be an artist,’” he said, “the response has historically been: ‘Don’t do that. You’re not going to make a dime.’”

Re-Sugiura hopes to shift that narrative for the city’s students.

“So now,” he said, “a young person goes to their family and says, ‘I want to be an artist, and here’s my plan on how I will design, sell, save, and iterate on my personal brand and concept.’”

Students see side hustle, potential careers in online stores

Across the nation, a growing number of young people are turning to side hustles to earn extra cash — with experts noting that online platforms have made them more accessible and effective.

Ella Alarcon-English, a junior majoring in cartooning, had already launched her own Etsy store last year, to connect with customers she met during her school’s annual Fanfaire convention. But through the new program, she’s gained valuable skills to help run her store, while being able to benefit from the program’s perks and curriculum.

Carolina Liang Li, a senior majoring in animation at Manhattan's High School of Art and Design.

“Some of the lessons that we’ve learned, like taxing and pricing, are tools that I wish I had when I first started my Etsy shop,” she said.

For Carolina Liang Li, a senior majoring in animation who plans to attend NYU in the fall, the program has meant gaining a platform to earn additional income and increase the reach of her artwork — one that will persist beyond her time in high school.

“If you have a store, you can also build a lot more connections, especially in an industry like this,” she said. “It helps you establish yourself.”

She said she’s hoping to sell items made from clay, like keychains, in addition to digital art and prints.

The program has helped ease some of the anxiety around the costs of higher education, with an online store offering one potential source of income during her time in college, said Daphnee Pascal, a senior majoring in fashion design.

Pascal hopes to sell bags, wallets, and other items she’s sewn once her store launches this spring. And longterm, she’s hopeful that she can one day transition the online store into her own brand for her designs.

Daphnee Pascal, a senior majoring in fashion design at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan.

“A lot of us really wanted a way to sell our designs, because we make a lot of things throughout the year,” she said. “So it’s really helped in that aspect — letting us share what we do with everyone else.”

Artist Youth Entrepreneurs brings in legal, financial, and tech experts

To Re-Sugiura, the youth entrepreneur program not only provides an opportunity that didn’t exist for him and his peers growing up, but also helps better prepare students “for a world that seems increasingly geared towards freelance work and gig economics for artists.”

Parents and families have been involved in the program from the outset, with families helping students set up their accounts, and the school providing parents with resources and guidance for checking in with their students about their online stores.

In addition to Etsy, the program has brought in other partners from various industries to assist with instruction. Lawyers at Proskauer Rose LLP and MetLife talked about copyright law, while staffers from Ridgewood Savings Bank shared financial best practices — and gave students the opportunity to open free accounts at the bank.

Teachers developed lesson plans and other instructional materials with the help of nonprofit tech company PlayLab, which provided educators with AI-powered tools trained on Etsy materials and the school’s curricula.

Bethany Crystal, an AI, education, and workforce advisor to Tech:NYC, partner of the city’s FutureReadyNYC initiative that has helped with developing the program, noted teachers have been able to build their own AI-powered tools to help students.

One educator, for example, built a tool that helped students generate descriptions for their online stores and products. That tool then sparked a discussion with students about when and how to use AI.

Crystal added she’s been excited to see students engaging with the work in the program.

“It’s not to say every single kid is going to be an entrepreneur in this way,” she said. “But showing them how it begins, which is the hardest part of that journey, I think is so incredible.”

Re-Sugiura hopes the program’s model will serve as an inspiration for other schools — both CTE schools and others — who can adapt the materials and structure to serve their own communities.

“All of it is designed to showcase to the larger New York City community that this is something that you can do,” he said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

With an ally in the White House, Moms for Liberty renews its fight against a longtime target

2025-02-27T23:07:38+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

In a small recording studio near Nashville, Tennessee, conservative activist Kelly Schenkoske urged an online audience of parents to scour school district websites for contracts that mention social and emotional learning.

“Social-emotional learning is far more than just kindness,” Schenkoske said. “It is a bait and switch.”

The bait, according to Schenkoske and other panelists at the recent Moms for Liberty training event, is small shifts in the school day to introduce students to lessons about virtuous qualities like empathy and compassion.

The switch, they said, is to make children sympathetic to what they see as progressive ideas, ranging from open borders and acceptance of homosexuality to gun control, action against climate change, and redistribution of wealth.

“You send your child with your value system, your own beliefs, and now they’re getting the government’s value system installed into them,” warned Schenkoske, who hosts a podcast from her California home about education and parent rights.

The two-hour training session was the first installment in Moms for Liberty U, an online course meant to drive conservative parent activism in the group’s continuing effort to sway local and national education agendas.

That it focused on social and emotional learning illustrates the staying power of conservatives’ concerns about schools’ role in addressing student well-being. These concerns stretch back years, even as research on SEL shows wide-ranging benefits for students.

Now Moms for Liberty has an ally in the White House, with President Donald Trump painting schools as centers of radical indoctrination and signing executive orders that seek to stamp out teaching about systemic racism and policies supportive of transgender youth.

The group’s future trainings will cover critical race theory, restorative justice, sex education, library content, Marxism, and more — topics that are under scrutiny by the new administration and more prominent in public conversation.

Tiffany Justice, a Florida mom, activist, and former school board member who co-founded Moms for Liberty, sees SEL at the root of everything. She hopes the administration soon will call it out by name too.

“It’s very hard to focus on learning math if we’re all talking about, you know, Johnny’s dog that died.”
Tiffany Justice, co-founder, Moms for Liberty

Parents who agree with the Trump administration can “take those executive orders, that messaging, and really make it come alive throughout the entire country,” Justice told Chalkbeat.

SEL use grew in schools after the pandemic

Social and emotional learning is an educational approach introduced in the 1960s to teach life skills designed to help children manage stress, treat others with respect and empathy, work cooperatively, and recognize and regulate their emotions.

The use of SEL tools has increased as educators seek to help students rebound academically and emotionally from disruptions to schooling and children’s daily lives after the COVID pandemic emerged in early 2020.

About 83% of principals reported last year that their schools use an SEL curriculum or program, compared with 73% in the 2021-22 school year and 46% in 2017-18, based on a nationally representative survey by RAND Corp. and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL.

A cafeteria mural at a Tennessee school promotes kindness, a tenet of programs that emphasize social and emotional learning. The educational approach was introduced in the 1960s to teach life skills designed to help children manage stress, treat others with respect and empathy, work cooperatively, and recognize and regulate their emotions.

Educators say the pandemic deeply affected students’ mental health, contributing to higher rates of depression and anxiety. And national studies highlight an urgent need to provide kids with tailor-made interventions. An infusion of federal aid for education during the pandemic helped to fuel the growth in SEL adoption.

The programs vary in quality. But a large analysis of studies on SEL published in 2023 found a wide range of positive effects, including better academic performance, homework completion, and attendance, a major area of concern nationwide since the pandemic.

Though teachers sometimes complain that SEL is one more thing piled on their very full plates and could distract from pure academics, the analysis also found that programs led by teachers had more positive effects than those led by counselors or outsiders.

“It’s frustrating to see the science and impacts in schools and then to see the noise around the banning of SEL,” said Christina Cipriano, an associate professor at Yale University and lead author of the meta-analysis, which synthesized more than 400 studies over 13 years that collectively included half a million children.

Cipriano recalled a trip to Washington, D.C., to talk with policymakers about using science to make decisions, including about social and emotional learning. One Republican congressional staffer told her that their constituents would love everything about her work — except the name.

“You have a Control-F problem,” the staffer said, referring to the computer keyboard command that lets someone easily find a term in documents such as school district contracts to purchase SEL products and services.

Polls back that up. Large numbers of parents support the idea that schools should teach interpersonal skills and self-regulation, but far fewer react positively to the term “social and emotional learning.”

Another SEL backlash brews

Justice, now a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close ties to the Trump administration, described social and emotional learning as a “Trojan horse” that opens students to ways of thinking that run counter to what parents teach at home. For example, an emphasis on kindness might lead a student to feel pressure to use a transgender classmate’s preferred pronouns, she said, when that makes the first student uncomfortable and runs counter to their parents’ values.

That’s why Moms for Liberty U started its parent training series with a focus on social and emotional learning.

“We had to start here, because this is what opens the child up to the indoctrination,” Justice said. “It’s the programming mechanism that allows for gender ideology to come in, for critical race theory to come in.”

The training session, which was taped early this year, describes SEL as being tucked into dozens of programs and tools in common use in schools, from teacher-parent messaging platforms to programs designed to make recess a more positive experience. Panelists named surveys on youth well-being as another example of SEL.

Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice (far right) moderates a panel discussion during the organization's new national training program for parents on monthly education topics. The first session, recorded near Nashville, featured (from left) author Alex Newman, parent activist Kelly Schenkoske, and psychology professor Jennifer Kom.

Alex Neuman, a conservative author who appeared on the inaugural training panel, said the ultimate goal of SEL is “de-Christianizing education,” something he traces back to Horace Mann, the 19th century social reformer considered one of the fathers of public education.

Panelist Jennifer Kom, a psychology professor at Bethany Lutheran College in Minnesota, said SEL forces teachers to be therapists and leads children to disclose personal matters that can lead to bullying.

Their arguments were enough to convince Tennessee mom Genevieve Pahos to take her activism a step further.

Pahos was part of a small live audience at the taping. A Moms for Liberty chapter leader in Williamson County, south of Nashville, she already had heard many of the arguments against SEL, but she said the session inspired her to start filing more public records requests about SEL programs in her local districts.

“I learned a lot from some of the speakers,” she said, “about how to find out what’s really happening in our schools.”

Speaking to Chalkbeat after the training session, Justice said schools should stick to academics.

“Kids are sad sometimes; it’s OK to be sad sometimes,” she said. “But we need to help children be resilient and find their way through (sadness) by finding interest in life and success in school and giving them the confidence that they get from mastery of skills in the classroom.”

Put another way: “It ends up having kids marinating in their feelings all day. It’s very hard to focus on learning math if we’re all talking about, you know, Johnny’s dog that died.”

Researcher: Schools should include families in SEL programming

Even supporters of social and emotional learning are sometimes fuzzy on what SEL is and isn’t, Cipriano said, which can make it hard to have productive conversations across different viewpoints.

SEL is not therapy or a mental health intervention, she said. But done well, it might mean fewer children need mental health support down the road, just as teaching reading properly to all students might mean fewer students need special education services.

Building resilience — so that students can focus on academics even when bad things are happening around them — is one goal of SEL.

School leaders should think about what problems they want to solve and how they’ll support teachers, Cipriano said, not just adopt a social and emotional learning curriculum because it seems like the thing to do.

She’s working on a public database that she hopes will help school communities make better decisions about which curriculum or products to invest in. Users will be able to see what outcomes were generated by certain programs and the types of communities where these programs have been tried.

She sees lots of room for improvement — better teacher training, more rigorous reviews of existing curriculum, and better communication with parents.

“It seems to me that we have a real opportunity to engage families at the outset of implementation so they’re aware of what’s happening in the schools,” she said. “When you talk to parents and families about the strategies involved in social and emotional learning, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t want their child to be a good friend or have less test anxiety.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

As Latin fades in Colorado’s big public high schools, educators want to disrupt the status quo

2025-02-24T21:49:07+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

The students in Amy Rosevear’s Latin class at Cherry Creek High School are reading a poem by the Roman poet Catullus, one written during the first century B.C.E. in which he’s both feeling sorry for himself and admonishing himself over unrequited love.

With Rosevear’s help, the students translate the ancient words, touching on verb tenses and proper pronunciation but also 21st century connections. When she gets to the phrase “Valē puella,” she laughs and tells the class, “You could have translated that on your first week of Latin.”

“Bye girl!” a student quickly chimes in.

The Latin program at Cherry Creek High School, Colorado’s largest high school with more than 3,800 students, is an anomaly in today’s public school landscape. It’s one of about seven Latin programs left in comprehensive district-run high schools across the state, down from about 17 two decades ago. For Latin educators, the decline is worrisome, representing the loss of lessons that help students understand the classical language and history that still echo in their lives.

Latin offerings will soon dwindle further as two other high schools in the Cherry Creek district — Smoky Hill and Eaglecrest — jettison Latin over the next couple years. Fairview High in the Boulder Valley district still offers higher level Latin classes, but this year for the first time doesn’t offer an introductory class. A district spokesman said the school may offer Latin 1 next year if there’s enough student interest. In a bright spot, Doherty High School in the Colorado Springs 11 district will launch a Latin program next school year.

Even as Latin offerings decline in some public schools, the classes are thriving in many charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately run. Some charters, including several that feature a classical education model, offer Latin in elementary through high school.

While Latin educators and advocates are pleased to see robust Latin programs in charter schools, they also want to keep the classes alive in traditional public schools, which serve about 85% of Colorado’s public school students. The Colorado Classics Association recently made a promotional video called “You belong in Latin,” to get the word out.

Cherry Creek High School Latin teacher, Amy Rosevear, works with students on Fri., Feb. 6, 2025 in Colorado.

Pierre Habel, a spokesperson for the association, said the idea is to educate school leaders and parents “who have lost contact with Latin’s value,” or who experienced an earlier iteration of Latin education that involved chanting verb forms and noun declensions — endings that indicate a word’s function in a sentence. Habel retired in 2021 after teaching Latin at the Jeffco district’s D’Evelyn Junior/Senior High School, which still offers a full menu of Latin classes.

Rosevear’s elevator pitch for Latin often highlights its interdisciplinary nature: “This is not only a language, but it’s also culture and history and mythology and art all combined.”

“I try to emphasize how it really does live on in so many places,” she said. “You’re going to understand American government more if you understand Roman government. You’re going to understand philosophy and religious discussions more if you understand the Latin underpinnings of some of those terms they’re using.”

Students say Latin is ‘equalizing’

Talk to the students in Rosevear’s classes, which range from Latin 1 to AP Latin, and you’ll hear all kinds of reasons for enrolling. Some say singing Latin songs in choir class or studying mythology piqued their interest. Others say Latin helps them excel in other classes, prepare for the SATs, or learn terminology that will come in handy for medical or law careers.

Many simply want to understand the building blocks of the language they use every day.

“It just gives you a really good insight into how so many people speak,” said Eden, a ninth grader who worked with three classmates to translate a story about a Roman family fleeing from a rent-collector.

Nyx, a junior who hopes to go into psychiatry, said some of her friends think Latin is a “little dorky,” sometimes saying things like, “Oh, it’s a dead language.” But she doesn’t care. To her, it’s unique and helps her see where words come from, including vocabulary from her language arts class.

“I find myself blowing through them because I can just dissect them and know the root words and stuff from Latin class.” she said. “Like the word amnesty and amnesia, they come from the same root,” which is to forget.

Before class started on a recent day, Noah, a 10th grader, compared favorite Latin words with his classmate Finn, a senior. Noah chose “placenta,” which means cake, and Finn chose “invictus,” which means unconquered and is the name of a famous British poem about fortitude in the face of hardship.

Noah, who’s vice president of the school’s Latin club, said he appreciates Latin because everybody starts on the same footing.

“It’s equalizing,” he said. “No one’s coming in like, ‘I already know Latin.’”

Cherry Creek High School Latin teacher, Amy Rosevear, works with students to translate a poem by Catullus, a Roman poet who lived in the first century BCE.

Latin offerings decline over 20 years

Two decades ago, more than a dozen traditional public high schools in the state offered Latin, including five in Colorado Springs, George Washington High in Denver, Northridge High in Greeley, and Grand Junction High in western Colorado.

Barbara Hill, who used to coordinate Latin programming at the University of Colorado Boulder, said, “When I arrived in the 80s, Latin was thriving and there were [high school] programs all across the state.”

She said there are lots of reasons Latin has been steadily discontinued in some public schools, including the rise of American Sign Language offerings and increasing demand for Spanish, which is attractive to many students because of its prevalence in Colorado and its usefulness in future careers.

Hill said there’s also a misconception among some school leaders that Latin’s an elitist language — a claim that may have been true in some classrooms in the past, but not anymore.

“The teachers have changed with the times, and they realize that a Latin program depends largely upon their ability to connect with and … teach a wide variety of students,” she said.

Rosevear, who started taking Latin in eighth grade in her Fargo, North Dakota junior high school, said another impediment to broader Latin adoption is that the state doesn’t require any world language courses for high school graduation. And while Cherry Creek High School offers six languages — Latin, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, and American Sign Language — the Cherry Creek district, like many in Colorado, also doesn’t require any world language to graduate.

Some teachers emphasize Latin as a spoken language

Tim Smith started a recent Latin class at Loveland Classical School with a story about Saint Columba saving his friend from Scotland’s famed Loch Ness monster more than a thousand years ago.

Soon, Smith and his ninth grade students were discussing which form of “mordere,” the verb “to bite,” they should use to describe Nessie’s attack on the friend. Was it one clean bite to the leg? Or was it taking awhile to chomp through the limb?

As they talked it through, one student murmured, “It’s where we get morsel.”

Smith, who’s one of four Latin teachers at the K-12 charter school’s two campuses, favors a newer approach to Latin education that emphasizes immersion in the spoken language, the same way students might learn Spanish or French.

Smith became a convert about a decade ago when his wife suggested he learn to speak Latin as an everyday language. At first he told her “That’s not a thing,” but after researching it, discovered a weeklong Latin immersion experience in West Virginia.

“I was confident that I could say things like, ‘Caesar led an army across the Alps,’” Smith said. “But to ask, ‘Where’s the bathroom?’ or ‘How old are you?’ ... I had never tried to have any kind of casual conversation before.”

The West Virginia trip jump-started his journey to becoming a fluent Latin speaker and now he emphasizes speaking in his Latin class as much as reading and writing. Smith also tapes a Latin cooking show on YouTube called Coquamus, or “Let’s Cook.” Recent episodes, filmed with his daughter, who’s a senior at Loveland Classical, feature the pair cutting up a pineapple — “ananas” — and making a chocolate pie — “scriblita socolata.”

Smith said he realized the impact of his immersion approach to Latin when he saw seventh grade boys trash-talking on the basketball court

“Like, a kid makes a basket, and he’ll shout, ‘Quid est nomen mihi?’” said Hill, laughing. “What’s my name? What’s my name?”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org

Lawmakers advance bills on DEI, sex ed, chaplains in schools

2025-02-05T22:59:36+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Indiana senators discussed and passed controversial bills on Wednesday about social studies curriculum, sex education materials, and chaplains in public schools.

One would require schools to seek school board approval for and publicize information about their sex ed curriculum. Another would allow chaplains to work as counselors in public schools. Lawmakers also discussed legislation to restrict how teachers can approach issues like race, class, and privilege in history and social studies lessons, as well as a bill that takes aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion curriculum and training

Most of the bills echo proposals that failed in past sessions and have sharply divided Democrats and Republicans. But the bills are now moving forward in a vastly different national political landscape, one where some of these ideas have support from President Donald Trump and his administration.

Lawmakers have until Feb. 20 to approve bills in their respective chambers. That means committees have a few more weeks to complete their work and advance bills to second and third readings to the full chamber.

Notably, the House Education Committee was poised to consider a bill Wednesday expanding Indiana’s law banning transgender girls from girls’ sports at the collegiate level. But lawmakers removed the bill from the agenda.

Here’s more on what the Senate Education Committee discussed and did Wednesday.

‘Teachers shouldn’t be encouraging those pessimistic views’

Senate Bill 257 would require teachers to base history or social studies instruction on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of the United States. It also prohibits teachers from teaching that the U.S. national identity or culture has been established by racial identity or racial discrimination, gender identity or gender discrimination, victimization, class struggle, a hierarchy of privileges, or systemic exclusion. It would apply to all schools that teach these subjects.

It was authored by GOP Sen. Spencer Deery, who said he was concerned about statistics showing that young people have adopted a grim view of U.S. history, including one survey finding that more than half of young people are in favor of writing a new constitution.

“Teachers shouldn’t be encouraging those pessimistic views,” Deery said.

Deery argued that these views are “trendy, but short-sighted” and prevalent in school curriculum throughout Indiana and the United States. He denied that the bill would affect teachers’ ability to teach historical events like the Holocaust.

“Those things can be examples of ways we fell short of our ideals, or how we progressed from those shortcomings,” he said. Deery also authored last year’s controversial law on “intellectual diversity” and tenure at colleges and universities.

But Sen. J.D. Ford, a Democrat, asked whether teachers would feel uncomfortable teaching the Constitution, if they could not mention that the Constitution permitted enslavement and included the Three-Fifths Compromise, which were both forms of discrimination.

Deery said that the bill does not prohibit teaching that racial discrimination occurred, but does prohibit teaching that the country’s identity is rooted in racial discrimination.

In response to a request from Sen. Shelli Yoder, a Bloomington Democrat, to see the Indiana-specific data of these surveys, Deery said he believed most teachers were already in compliance with the provisions of his bill.

Public testimony was largely opposed to the bill. Education committee chair Sen. Jeff Raatz, a Republican, eventually decided to postpone a vote on the bill until next week to make technical corrections.

Chaplains as school counselors bill returns

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 523 revives a proposal from last year that would allow school chaplains to work as counselors in public schools on a paid or volunteer basis.

But this year’s version seeks to address past criticisms by requiring that the chaplains have some counseling experience.

Communication between students and chaplains would be confidential, with a few exceptions. Chaplains would provide secular “advice, guidance and support,” but could provide nonsecular support to students if a student and the student’s parents allowed it.

Bill author Sen. Stacey Donato, a Republican, said chaplains already work in public schools for sporting and other special events and could help students in crisis.

“Chaplains are not a new concept. The idea of a chaplain is not to convert people to a different religion. They are there to support people, regardless of their faith,” Donato said.

But Indianapolis Democratic Sen. Fady Qaddoura said in most other contexts, chaplains work with adults, rather than children. He asked what kind of secular support a chaplain could provide, to which Donato suggested tying shoes, zipping coats, and opening ketchup packets.

During testimony, Christopher Lagoni, executive director of the Indiana Small and Rural Schools Association, said church leaders already volunteer in schools and sometimes eat lunch with students, for example. He did not know of any working as counselors.

Both the Indiana School Boards Association and the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents also expressed support for the bill, saying it allowed for local control.

But ACLU of Indiana Executive Director Chris Daley expressed concern that the bill would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause. Other speakers during public testimony — including religious leaders — questioned whether chaplains had the right training to work with students.

The bill passed out of the education committee on party lines.

Schools must publicize sex ed curriculum

Senate Bill 442 would require a public school that teaches sex education to obtain school board approval for the curriculum by submitting information about topics that will be taught, whether a male or female teacher will lead the course, and whether male and female students will take the course together.

The district must also publicize this information on its website.

Track Indiana education bills moving through the Statehouse

Indiana law currently does not require schools to teach sex education other than providing information about HIV, but those that do must emphasize abstinence. In 2023, lawmakers prohibited any human sexuality instruction before third grade.

Before the vote, senators approved an amendment to remove private schools from the requirements. They voted down an amendment that would require any sex ed curriculum to include instruction about contraceptives, consent, and healthy relationships.

The bill passed on party lines Wednesday. Qaddoura expressed concerns that the bill would lead to political fights at school board meetings.

“It will really rile up people against our school boards in different communities,” Qaddoura said.

Senators poised to pass anti-DEI bill

The Senate as a whole has already taken a major step toward restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in schools.

On Tuesday, Senate Bill 289 advanced through second reading of the Senate, with an amendment to incorporate some of the language of Senate Bill 235.

The bill would restrict mandatory diversity training in public K-12 schools and ban the hiring of DEI trainers and consultants at state universities. SB 289 also requires schools to post instructional and curricular materials online that relate to DEI, race, ethnicity, sex, or bias.

The combined bill does not include a long list of concepts initially included in SB 235 — like bias, allyship, cultural appropriation, microaggressions, social justice, heteronormativity, and gender theory. Bill author Sen. Tyler Johnson, a Republican, saying he felt “like we couldn’t define some of the terms in there.”

But the bill does define DEI as any effort to manipulate the composition of employees with respect to race or sex, to provide differential treatment on the basis of those characteristics, or other training or policies not expressly required to comply with federal law.

The bill could pass the full Senate as early as Thursday.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org

Trump wants to withhold money from schools teaching ‘discriminatory equity ideology,’ gender identity

2025-01-29T23:39:54+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday seeking to withhold federal funding from K-12 schools that teach “discriminatory equity ideology” or “gender ideology.”

The order defines discriminatory equity ideology as anything “that treats individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups” rather than as individuals. That includes the idea that people can be inherently privileged or oppressed because of their race or gender, which likely targets concepts such as white privilege.

The language is similar to the text of several state laws that have sought to limit teaching about systemic racism and sexism and targeted “critical race theory” — though the order does not use that term.

“Gender ideology,” as defined in an earlier executive order, includes any acknowledgement of gender identities besides the male or female sex that a person is assigned at birth.

The news was first reported early Wednesday by the Daily Caller.

Federal funding accounts for about 8% to 10% of funding for K-12 schools but can represent a much larger portion in high-poverty schools and districts.

It’s unclear what exactly would rise to the level of teaching these concepts. But the executive order’s targeting of education issues related to race and gender illustrates the administration’s keen interest in pushing schools away from teaching certain subjects in certain ways — a desire Trump began expressing strongly towards the end of his first term.

Trump executive order seeks to steer federal funds to private school vouchers

Trump and other critics of critical race theory often have used the term as a catchall for everything from efforts to diversify the teacher workforce to curriculum revisions that better incorporate the perspective of Black Americans in lessons about slavery and the founding of the country. Some conservatives see course materials that refer to systemic racism or white privilege as evidence of critical race theory in K-12 schools — a viewpoint that would likely carry over to “discriminatory equity ideology.”

Trump and his supporters have used the phrase “gender ideology” to describe teaching about gender identity and the existence of transgender people. In an earlier executive order, Trump sought to define sex as a binary — male or female — that cannot be changed. On Tuesday, Trump issued another order seeking to curtail gender-affirming care for trans children and teens.

It’s also unclear whether the federal government has the authority to do this. Federal law prohibits federal officials from telling schools what they can and cannot teach. The American education system is set up such that decisions about what kids should learn are made at the local level.

On top of that, several states require schools to teach ethnic studies and to include a diverse range of perspectives in their lessons. Seven states require schools to include lessons about LGBTQ history or issues, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks such laws. Trump has previously said he wants to shift authority over education to the states, in tandem with his stated desire to close the U.S. Department of Education.

Similar efforts to restrict lessons about sexism, racism, and bias at the state level have faced legal challenges at the state level for being too vague. A settlement in Florida over the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law found that students and teachers couldn’t be prohibited from discussing LGBTQ issues, so long as it wasn’t part of formal instruction.

The order could stoke fear and confusion among educators and school officials, many of whom already operate under a state law or district policy that limits what they can teach about certain hot-button topics. Eighteen states have laws or official policies limiting lessons on racism and sexism, according to a tracker maintained by Education Week. Some states also restrict lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity, or require parents to give permission for their children to learn about these topics.

How exactly the federal government would monitor what’s being taught in classrooms across the nation’s some 13,000 school districts is also an open question. Some states with laws limiting instruction about racism, sexism, and gender identity have set up websites or processes where parents can review curriculum and report lessons or teachers that they think are out of compliance.

On Tuesday, the Department of Education opened a civil rights investigation into a Denver high school that converted a girls’ restroom to an all-gender restroom based solely off a local news report, rather than a formal complaint. That probe could be a preview of how the federal government might deal with schools that the Trump White House believes are ignoring or somehow flouting the executive order, without a time-consuming complaint or investigative process.

The order directs the incoming secretary of education to provide the president with a plan within 90 days on how to end lessons on these topics.

Trump nominated Linda McMahon, the former CEO of the WWE professional wrestling franchise, to head the U.S. Department of Education, though her confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.

The order also reinstates the 1776 Commission, which was set up during the first Trump administration to promote “patriotic education” and to challenge lessons that present “America’s story solely as one of oppression and victimhood rather than one of imperfection but also unprecedented achievement toward freedom, happiness, and fairness for all.”

Experts said the report produced by the commission, composed of conservative thinkers and academics, whitewashed and distorted American history. Former President Joe Biden disbanded the commission shortly after he took office.

This story has been updated to reflect the contents of the executive order signed by Trump.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

NAEP results: Tennessee students buck grim national trends on nation’s report card

2025-01-29T05:09:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Tennessee students held their ground on a major national test in a year when average student test scores declined nationwide.

Results from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, released Wednesday, show that average test scores in Tennessee increased slightly in fourth and eighth grade reading and math, compared with 2022, though the gains were not statistically significant.

Tennessee’s latest post-pandemic results stood in contrast to declines seen nationwide and in many other states. And Tennessee students scored three to four points higher than the national average in math and one to two points higher in reading.

“Tennessee students did well relative to other states, and we did better than some of our neighbors,” Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds said.

“We didn’t move backwards, we moved a little bit forward, and we expect to do better next year,” added state Rep. Mark White, of Memphis, who chairs a key House education committee and also serves on the NAEP governing board.

Math scores outpace reading scores

Tennessee has launched numerous initiatives aimed at bolstering early literacy, but the latest NAEP showed the state’s most dramatic improvements came in math.

In fourth grade math, 42% of students scored proficient or advanced, an increase of 6 percentage points from 2022. The state was one of 29 jurisdictions that posted scores similar to 2019, before the pandemic. Only Alabama had average scores higher than 2019. Nationwide, average scores are down three points, and 22 states had declines.

In eighth grade math, Tennessee’s proficiency rate also grew, while the national average declined. Tennessee was one of just two jurisdictions with similar scores to 2019. Average scores dropped 9 points.

In fourth grade reading, Tennessee was one of 47 states with no statistical change from 2022. Nonetheless, its scores were up slightly, whereas the nationwide average dropped by two points from 2022 and by five points from 2019.

The small increases in eighth grade reading scores were not statistically different from 2022 or 2019, but again, the small increase stood in contrast to nationwide averages that dropped 5 points since 2019. Tennessee also saw more notable increases in scores among higher-performing students in the 75th percentile.

The relatively strong showing in math, according to state officials, could be tied to the full return to in-person learning, which studies show is especially important for math instruction; Tennessee’s 2021 adoption of new math standards; and the subsequent rollout of math curriculum to align with those standards.

They expect that trend to continue with passage of a 2024 state law spotlighting more analysis of and support for math instruction.

Tennessee was an early adopter of pandemic-era interventions

Tennessee has been held up as a model both for how it managed federal pandemic relief spending — quickly steering money into tutoring, summer learning camps, and afterschool programs aimed at students who had fallen furthest behind — and for its intense focus on early literacy. State test results from 2024 show students there making steady progress since 2021.

The challenge now will be to maintain progress and deploy state funds to replace federal pandemic relief aid that expired last year.

“We still have that obligation at the state level to continue to support districts in as many ways as possible,” said Reynolds, the state’s education chief. She cited free professional development resources provided to school systems by her department as one example.

“Local school officials also knew that the money was ending, so they’ve been building in their own sustainability practices to keep the work going,” she said.

White, the state lawmaker and NAEP official, said the state’s controversial 2021 third-grade reading intervention and retention law was a key part of the mix. It pushed children whose families might have opted for summer breaks into summer learning programs and motivated schools to increase support for struggling readers.

“If a child is not reading proficiently in third grade, we want to really understand why and not just pass them on,” he said.

State officials already are digging into the latest NAEP data on how various student groups performed — to study how they can offer better support.

Tennessee’s growing population of English language learners saw across-the-board improvement, while students with disabilities showed slight decreases.

The national results track with test score trends from the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, which in 2024 showed that students continued to improve from post-pandemic lows.

The alignment of national and state data is important, said Amy Owen, the state’s senior education policy director, because “it shows that our students will be able to compete with students from across the country when they look at post-secondary and career opportunities.”

“We’re seeing steady increases, which is significant when you think about where our kids were during COVID,” added Reynolds. “Our fourth graders were kindergartners then, our eighth graders were fourth graders.”

Memphis district opts out of separate NAEP assessment

Since 2018, NAEP has also released results for Memphis Shelby County Schools, one of roughly two dozen large urban districts participating in national math and reading tests through the Trial Urban District Assessment program, which is designed to help those districts measure student performance against districts in other large cities.

But last year, leaders of the Memphis district chose not to participate in the program.

White, who represents part of Memphis, said the lack of participation represented a “leadership breakdown” as the district cycled through superintendents.

“That’s sad that we don’t have their scores,” he said. “We can’t continue that trend.”

What is NAEP?

Not every Tennessee fourth-grader or eighth-grader took the national test when the federal government administered the assessments in early 2024.

NAEP tests a nationally representative sample of students in every state. In Tennessee, each of the four assessments was taken by about 1,700-1,800 students in 80-90 schools.

The results, published as the nation’s report card, allow comparisons across states and are an important marker for showing how students are doing over time.

The last three testing cycles happened in 2019, 2022, and most recently in 2024, providing an especially helpful comparison of what students knew before the pandemic and how much they have rebounded from COVID-related learning disruptions.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Many teachers won’t teach the inauguration. That’s a loss for students, this ‘civics nerd’ says.

2025-01-15T21:33:59+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Beyond the pomp and circumstance, a presidential inauguration can provide many teaching moments about democracy and the transfer of power.

Donald Trump’s first inauguration was marked by counterprotests and a Women’s March that drew hundreds of thousands of opponents to Washington, D.C. This year, local officials report more interest in tickets to the inauguration itself and fewer applications for protest permits. What could that shift show students about American politics?

Chalkbeat spoke with Emma Humphries, chief education officer at the civics education advocacy group iCivics, about why teachers should teach the inauguration and what lessons this national event contains. iCivics provides teaching resources, games, and support for teachers who want to incorporate the inauguration, the presidential transition, and many other civics topics into their classroom lessons.

During the 2000 election, Humphries was a high school student in South Florida, near the epicenter of the vote count controversy. Her teachers made lots of space to talk about it in school.

“It wasn’t so fraught that [teachers] had to shy away from it,” said Humphries, now a self-described “civics nerd.” “School was a safe place to ask, ‘What’s going to happen?’”

But today, Humphries said she has heard from many teachers who are not planning to teach the inauguration. And this year, they have a handy excuse in that most schools will be closed during Monday’s inauguration in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday.

Emma Humphries is the Chief Education Officer at iCivics.

That’s a loss for students, Humphries said, because they don’t get to engage with different points of view, don’t get the sense of historical context, and don’t get to hear teachers — at least the ones who feel comfortable doing so — use the inauguration to provide “a sense of security and stability in a very fraught world.” Teachers can use such events, she said, to show that while America has been through trauma and controversy, it has endured.

“You’re missing out on what should be sort of a shared national event,” she said. “I think it’s sad when kids aren’t being brought to the table for those things.”

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You were a classroom teacher for many years before joining iCivics. Did you teach the inauguration?

I would let my administration know ahead of time that I was planning to do this and what my goals were and sometimes communicate with parents. The way I would justify it — and not that I got pushback, but I felt the need to justify it — is this is a historical moment. I tried to really keep the focus on the office of the presidency. And so regardless of the person, this is about the office of the presidency and their inauguration is a really big deal.

Where do you think that need to justify it came from?

If you’re in a really blue community and a red president is taking office, there might be pushback, and vice versa. It should just be: It’s the inauguration. It’s a big deal in our political calendar.

And even more so if you’re in a purple community, a pluralistic community, I think that’s where you’re seeing the most hesitation from educators. When it comes to the teaching of anything political or controversial, it’s those politically heterogeneous communities where teachers have the hardest time, because there’s tension in the classroom, there’s tension in the school building, and in the community at large.

When you do have communities where you have students that feel really differently about what this means for our country and what it may mean for themselves personally, what advice do you have for teachers on how to navigate that?

What I’m hearing more than anything is that teachers are not covering it. I think a lot of them are relieved that it’s a federal holiday, and so it gives them an excuse to not cover it. And then for the AP Government teachers who really feel like they have to, it’s a homework assignment.

Does that feel like a loss to you?

Absolutely, and it transcends inauguration. I consider it educational malpractice to not teach about an election during your presidential election year, but at the same time I get it.

I pulled this quote from an AP Government teacher [from a social media group for educators]. This teacher said, “I’ll be honest, we’re in the midst of a semester transition at this point. So there’s my excuse. But I’m avoiding the topic because I’d like to keep teaching for another eight and a half years. Feels like this year is a trap if you are from a district as 50/50 polarized as mine.”

What are students not getting when they don’t discuss it together as a class, or if the teacher just passes over it?

It’s making it easier for [students] to sort of pick a camp and stay in it. It’s not teaching them how to engage across differences, to understand how the other side might view things, how to understand that two things can be true at once, in terms of your beliefs and someone else’s beliefs.

Something we say a lot about civics is that the classroom is the laboratory for democracy. The same way you learn science in a science lab, you learn about civics and democracy in a social studies class. And if we’re removing the controversy, we’re removing the current, we’re removing the relevancy, then we’re removing the opportunity for students to really engage across differences. They’re not getting that practice.

When you would have students watch an inauguration, what would you ask them to look for? What are the learning opportunities there?

One is just who do you see and who are they? And kids will get excited about pointing out the political figures across the aisle. I would encourage them to look for folks, Democrats and Republicans, look for the symbols of American democracy, the flag, the military presence.

But my favorite thing to do is language analysis. What are the themes you’re gathering and what is the tone? Does it feel optimistic? Does it feel scary and foreboding? You’re not telling the kids how to think about what the person is saying. You’re trying to get them to really hear what the person is saying.

And if nothing else, go to history. If the current feels too fraught and too scary, then lean into the history and go back to other examples where there was just as much tension in the country, just as much polarization, and we still saw this peaceful transfer of power.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

One state tried algebra for all eighth graders. It hasn’t gone well.

2025-01-02T11:15:00+00:00

This story about eighth grade algebra was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

BRAHAM, Minn. — It was fourth-period Basic Algebra 8 class on a gray October morning at Braham Area High School. Teacher Rick Riccio had assigned an exercise on converting large integers to scientific notation, but fifteen minutes in, some students had lost focus. Two girls at a back table sang, their worksheets empty. Two boys pulled up games on their laptops, as two other girls discussed what they’d name their children someday.

Riccio tried to reel them in as he walked around answering questions. “You’re a little too crazy today,” he said to the girls in the back. “You gotta settle down and get this done.”

Not all eighth graders are ready for the abstract concepts — like variables, linear functions, slope — that come with Algebra 1, some experts and teachers say. Those more complex ideas also require extended concentration, which is difficult for many middle schoolers.

“Eighth grade, they’re just in full-on puberty, hormones,” said Zach Loy, another math teacher at the high school, an hour’s drive from Minneapolis. “Are they capable of sitting down and focusing on one thing for two, three minutes at a time without getting distracted? I see that as being the hardest barrier.”

But under a 2006 Minnesota law designed to boost the number of students going into math and science careers, all eighth graders were required to take Algebra 1. At the time, legislators argued that getting more kids through algebra before starting high school would ensure they were on a path to graduate having taken calculus, often seen as a gateway for entry to selective colleges and to well-paying jobs in fields like engineering and medicine.

There was a logic behind that: In a traditional course sequence, finishing calculus is easier if students take Algebra 1 by eighth grade since they can continue on to geometry, Algebra 2, precalculus or trigonometry, and then calculus their senior year.

But a Hechinger Report analysis of federal data shows Minnesota’s law hasn’t worked out as planned. Between 2009 and 2017, the share of the state’s students taking calculus did rise modestly, from 1.25 to 1.76%. But other states saw far larger gains, and Minnesota dropped from sixth to 10th place among states for calculus enrollment as a share of total enrollment. (2017 is the latest year for which there are compiled federal data on calculus enrollment, according to U.S. Department of Education spokesperson Alberto Betancourt.)

On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national test done every two years, Minnesota fell from second place among the 50 states in 2009 on eighth grade math scores to eighth place in 2022, the latest year of available data.

Braham and other districts report that there’s been no change in the number of their students taking calculus, in part because many students just aren’t interested in STEM-heavy careers, administrators say. In addition, state education leaders responded to the 2006 mandate by introducing a policy in 2007 that enabled students to take Algebra 1 over two years instead of one, neutralizing the effect of starting the course earlier.

Students in eighth grade algebra teacher Rick Riccio’s class work through an exercise. At Braham Area Schools and in other Minnesota districts, an algebra-to-calculus pipeline hasn’t materialized.

In many school districts around the country, algebra has become a hot button issue, with some parents pushing their kids to take it in eighth grade — and school districts to offer it then — because of the opportunities it may unlock in high school and beyond. But the share of students in eighth grade algebra who are Black or Hispanic has remained low. A few districts have tried eliminating the eighth grade algebra option altogether as a way to increase equity and get rid of separate advanced and standard math tracks, stirring parent opposition.

Minnesota went the opposite route, effectively giving students the same opportunities by placing everyone on an accelerated track. Its experience suggests early universal algebra isn’t a cure-all for boosting the share of students in advanced math.

“That replicates what most of the studies have found,” said Scott Peters, senior research scientist at educational assessment organization NWEA. Early algebra does appear to slightly boost enrollment in advanced math courses in the short term — for example, more 10th graders taking Algebra 2 — but the effect fades as students get older, he said.

And there could be a downside. A 2015 study found that a brief experiment by California to enroll all eighth graders in algebra backfired, lowering test scores in large districts, though it had little effect on small and mid-sized ones. “If you push a kid too far, too fast, they might be either less interested or feel defeated or it hurts their self-efficacy and confidence in math,” study co-author Andrew McEachin said.

Taking algebra early seen as key step toward calculus

The roots of universal eighth grade algebra go back to the late 1990s, when policymakers began promoting it to get more students through calculus in high school. That, in turn, would boost their college and career chances — especially for Black and Latino students and those from low-income households — and help U.S. competitiveness, went the thinking. Between 2000 and 2005, the share of U.S. eighth graders enrolled in algebra shot up from 27% to 42%, according to the Brookings Institution. (By 2020-21 it was less than 24%, according to the U.S. Department of Education.)

Minnesota legislators took notice. In 2006, a state education bill required for the first time that the state’s eighth graders take Algebra 1, starting in the 2010-11 school year. “I remember people saying they wanted to make sure students could complete algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus in high school,” said former state Sen. Steve Kelley, the bill’s co-author. “To do that, we needed to have them take Algebra 1 in eighth grade.”

Related: Is calculus an addiction that college admissions officers can’t shake?

Many math experts warned against the move. “This whole idea is a very naive belief that if we just kind of make it for everybody, everyone will learn,” Brookings education researcher Tom Loveless told the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 2008. That same year the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommended against mandating Algebra 1 at a prescribed grade level. “Exposing students to such coursework before they are ready often leads to frustration, failure, and negative attitudes toward mathematics and learning,” the group wrote.

But Minnesota kept universal algebra in eighth grade and to date is the only state that’s adopted and stuck with the policy. California mandated its plan in 2008 but reversed course in 2010 after a court-ordered postponement and pressure to adopt the Common Core standards, which recommended that eighth graders take pre-algebra, not algebra. About 6.4% of school districts around the country, most of them in Minnesota, report having policies mandating algebra in eighth grade.

Many students still shy away from calculus

At Braham and other Minnesota districts, the algebra-to-calculus pipeline hasn’t materialized. In some districts, not many students head into careers that require calculus, and that’s been true both before and after the mandate, said district leaders. Most students pursue fields in which calculus isn’t needed, like nursing, education, business, or dental hygiene, said district social worker and career advisor Staci Kuhnke. Isanti County, where Braham is located, has about 70 manufacturers, an energy company headquarters, a hospital, and a community college.

This year, in a senior class of 47 students, just one is taking calculus, through an arrangement with a local community college, she said. Most students do not take a math course their senior year.

Related: Is it time to stop segregating kids by ability in middle school math?

Braham ninth grader Savannah Gudilias, 14, said she wished she’d waited till ninth to start Algebra 1. She struggled so much that it hurt her confidence in math. “I didn’t understand it and still don’t,” she said. She wants to be a nurse. “Actually, that takes too much math,” she said. “Maybe a teacher. But not a math teacher.”

Caden Rivera, a 16-year-old junior, said middle school was the beginning of a math slide for her. She got As in elementary school math but her grades fell once she hit algebra in eighth grade. “I was just really immature and didn’t pay attention,” she said. “And I needed more time — some people learn slower and others faster.” After high school she wants to get a culinary degree and knows she’ll need more math, but she has no interest in calculus.

Students graph linear equations in Zach Loy’s ninth grade algebra class at Braham Area High School in Minnesota.

Others are doing well in the course. Sean Oldenburg, an eighth grader, wants to someday get a job at the BNSF Railway Company, where four generations of his family have worked. He thinks he’ll pursue an engineering degree, which would mean he’d take calculus in high school. Algebra 1 in eighth grade has been a stretch. “I could do multiplication tables, all that stuff great,” he said. “Then you started adding these symbols, and I didn’t get it.” But he’s confident he’ll master it. “It just takes time,” he said.

Many districts lack math teachers, training

When it comes to math, Braham’s leaders have worries that are more basic than getting students to calculus. District scores on state eighth grade math tests have lagged behind the state average most years since 2010. The district, which at fewer than 800 students is small, is 87% white and has a poverty level in the low-to-middle range, with 44% of students getting free and reduced-price lunch.

Ken Gagner has been Braham’s superintendent since 2015. Gagner, trim and graying, is mostly neutral on eighth grade algebra for all — he said it’s good for students to be exposed to increased rigor but worries those who aren’t ready for the course could be turned off to math completely. What the district really needs to address its math gap, he and other administrators said, are more certified math teachers, math tutors to help those struggling and smaller class sizes. Gagner said when the district advertises for math teachers he would be happy “if we would get four applicants.”

Related: Some schools cut paths to calculus in the name of equity. One group takes the opposite approach.

At Pillager Public School District, 100 miles northwest of Braham in another rural town, eighth grade Algebra 1 has played out much the same way. Ryan Krominga, the district director of curriculum and instruction, said the mandate came with little direction from the state. So districts simply took their ninth grade algebra textbook and content and started using it in eighth grade, he said.

Minnesota now ranks lower on state-by-state comparisons of calculus enrollment and eighth grade math performance than before its universal eighth grade algebra policy started.

Many eighth graders aren’t developmentally ready for the more complex concepts involved in algebra, he said. They don’t get enough time with the concrete elements of math, such as multiplication and division, because there’s pressure to get to algebra so quickly, he added.

“In my experience, it hasn’t worked out,” he said of the requirement. “I haven’t seen that kids have this huge understanding of mathematics or that they’ve increased their algebraic thinking.” And the district has seen no increase in the number of students taking calculus, he said. Some years they don’t offer the class because they don’t have enough students who want it.

Little pressure to change math policy

Not all districts dislike the policy. Jeremy Larson, assistant superintendent of learning and accountability at Moorhead Area Public Schools in the state’s far west, said two years of algebra gives the district flexibility to slow down eighth graders who may have been accelerated too fast into Intermediate Algebra, the second part of the district’s two course Algebra 1 sequence. “If they’re in Intermediate Algebra as an eighth grader and it’s just kind of difficult, we say, ‘Hey, let’s just take a step back,’” said Larson.

And unlike the other two districts, Moorhead’s calculus numbers have increased, though not by much: An average of 1.3% of students in the district were enrolled in calculus in the three years before the eighth grade requirement took effect in 2010. Today it’s about 1.5%, or 13 more students per year in a district with total enrollment of about 6,200.

Related: Data science under fire: What math do high schoolers really need?

The Minnesota Department of Education contends that the state’s drop in calculus enrollment and eighth-grade math scores compared to those of other states isn’t representative of its larger efforts. “These are two of many measures of student success that MDE looks at to guide our support of school communities,” said spokesperson Anna Arkin in an emailed response to Hechinger’s findings. “We are invested in every student receiving a world class education and thriving in school.”

There’s been no pressure to change the mandate. That’s in part because of the 2007 revision legislators made to the state education standards, enabling schools to stretch algebra over two years, said Mike Weimerskirch, associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Mathematics. Weimerskirch said the issue didn’t come up during the latest state committee revision of the math standards. “It’s been long enough now that it’s just kind of become accepted, become part of the culture, and we’ve learned to deal with it,” he said.

Related: Eliminating middle school math ‘tracks’ often sparks outrage. Some districts buck the trend

Back in Riccio’s eighth grade algebra class a day later, slowing down made a difference. Riccio decided that it would be a catchup session because so many students struggled with scientific notation the day before. “Looking at some of these papers that you guys handed in, a lot of you have not gotten this concept,” he said. He went through the procedures again and put up an integer on the whiteboard. “So what is our number then?” he asked.

Algebra teacher Rick Riccio demonstrates scientific notation during a class at Braham Area High School in Minnesota.

“Would it be 5 times 10?” offered one student. “Why is it 5? No,” said Riccio, as students started cross-talking. “Everybody pay attention. Everybody quiet. Focus.” He wrote another large integer on the whiteboard. “What if I give you something like this? Any volunteers?”

“Can I try it?” said James Belland, a tall 14-year-old in a red T-shirt. “Jimmy, take a stab at it please,” said Riccio. Belland came to the whiteboard and wrote the conversion.

“You got it Jimmy,” said Riccio. “Everybody give him a round of applause.” The kids clapped and cheered. Riccio put up another problem and asked whether anyone else wanted to try. Ten hands shot up.

“It’s nice when these kids start getting it,” said Riccio afterward.

Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965 or preston@hechingerreport.org.

Correction: This story has been updated to more accurately describe the education assessment organization NWEA and to correct the name of the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper.

Las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora adoptan un plan de estudios para aprender inglés en high school

2024-12-13T01:31:50+00:00

Read in English.

En Aurora, los estudiantes de high school que están aprendiendo inglés como un nuevo idioma pasan 45 minutos al día en una clase especialmente diseñada para ayudarlos con sus habilidades en el lenguaje.

Pero sus maestros habían tenido que diseñar ellos mismos las lecciones, las cuales son clave para ayudar a los estudiantes a entender el resto de sus clases con compañeros cuya lengua materna es el inglés.

Después de un programa piloto que empezó el año escolar pasado, las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora están pidiéndole al consejo escolar que apruebe este mes un plan de estudios para esas clases.

Casi el 40 por ciento de los casi 40,000 estudiantes en las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora están aprendiendo inglés.

Alice Wilcox, una de las consultoras de educación cultural y lingüísticamente diversa que trabajan con maestros líderes en el desarrollo del idioma inglés, dijo que los maestros han estado pidiendo un plan de estudios. “Querían tiempo para enfocarse en estrategias de enseñanza”, Wilcox dijo. “Toma mucho esfuerzo examinar los estándares, crear evaluaciones, y luego crear unidades. Esto levanta la carga de los maestros”.

Alrededor del estado, estudiantes de high school en Colorado tuvieron grandes reducciones en pruebas estatales tomadas en la primavera de 2024, pero los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés tuvieron disminuciones desproporcionadamente grandes.

Por ejemplo, el porcentaje de estudiantes de 9º grado en o por encima del estándar de preparación universitaria para matemáticas en el estado disminuyó al 40 por ciento, en comparación con el 47 por ciento en 2023. El estado modificó temporalmente los requisitos de graduación para responder a resultados más bajos en todos los niveles de high school.

En Aurora, el distrito señaló los datos específicos a su distrito que demuestran brechas en crecimiento entre los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés y los estudiantes que no están aprendiendo inglés como un nuevo idioma. Los estudiantes de 10º grado en Aurora y que están aprendiendo inglés obtuvieron una calificación promedio en lectura de 320 en la prueba PSAT, una reducción en comparación con 358 en 2022. Mientras tanto, los estudiantes de 10º grado que ya hablan inglés obtuvieron una calificación promedio en lectura de 442 este años, un aumento en comparación con 435 en 2022.

Otros datos de Aurora muestran que los estudiantes de high school que están tomando la prueba ACCESS, la cual evalúa el dominio del inglés de todos los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés, han demostrado una reducción en sus resultados de crecimiento. Los estudiantes multilingües también tienen menos probabilidad de estar en camino a graduarse.

Líderes del distrito dijeron que los datos muestran que sus estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés necesitan más apoyo en high school. Aurora empezó a adoptar materiales de un plan de estudios para clases de desarrollo del idioma inglés en 2019, empezando en el nivel primario, y en 2020 adoptó materiales para escuelas de educación media.

En esas escuelas primarias y de educación media, los estudiantes dominan el inglés por encima del promedio, y en las escuelas primarias, sus aptitudes siguen aumentando.

Líderes del distrito dijeron que esperan que, al proporcionarles a los maestros de high school un plan de estudios, eso ayude a que los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés mejoren su adquisición del idioma y tengan más éxito en otras clases y pruebas.

El distrito empezó un programa piloto el año pasado para evaluar materiales de high school, pero lo extendió a este año para reunir más datos. Este otoño, las siete high schools integrales del distrito aceptaron participar y probar los materiales.

Al consejo le están pidiendo que apruebe los materiales de Vista Higher Learning para high school. Los materiales incluyen un programa llamado Get Ready! (“¡Prepárate!”) para estudiantes recién llegados que están empezando a aprender el idioma, y Engage (“Participa”), otra serie de materiales para estudiantes más avanzados.

El distrito encuestó a los maestros y estudiantes que probaron los materiales durante los últimos meses. Según datos del distrito, el 85 por ciento de los 746 estudiantes que respondieron dijeron que los materiales los apoyaron en sus otras clases.

Los materiales para estudiantes recién llegados recibieron el respaldo del 91 por ciento de los maestros, mientras que el 67 por ciento de los maestros estuvieron a favor de adoptar el plan de estudios Engage.

Los líderes del distrito dijeron que a algunos maestros les preocupa que los materiales de Engage sean demasiado avanzados y obliguen a los estudiantes a dar un gran salto en su transición de las lecciones para recién llegados. Pero los líderes también dijeron que la editorial estaba trabajando con el distrito para realizar algunas modificaciones y diseñar cursos de capacitación para que los maestros apoyen a los estudiantes en esa transición.

Missy Winternitz, otra de las consultoras de high school en el distrito, dijo que a los maestros les gustó que los materiales del plan de estudios incluyan contenido que corresponda con otras materias que los estudiantes están aprendiendo. También ayudó a los maestros para que planearan y colaboraran entre ellos.

Y los líderes dijeron que, al visitar los salones de clase durante el programa piloto, notaron que los estudiantes estaban participando y practicando sus habilidades de escritura, las cuales a veces se ignoran como parte del aprendizaje de un idioma, dijeron. Prácticas para hablar, escuchar y leer también están incorporadas.

El plan de estudios para recién llegados empieza con un lenguaje inicial que los estudiantes necesitan enseguida, e incluye un montón de práctica para hablar.

Conforme los maestros siguen recibiendo grandes cantidades de estudiantes recién llegados al país, Renna Martinez, una consultora de recién llegados en el distrito, dijo que los maestros que estaban probando los materiales encontraron que son útiles hasta cuando los estudiantes empiezan a medio año escolar.

“No importa cuándo entre un estudiante durante este año, el plan de estudios realmente proporciona un buen punto de entrada para iniciar o continuar su adquisición del inglés”, Martinez dijo.

Los líderes del distrito dijeron que también es importante que los estudiantes se sientan apreciados y representados en el plan de estudios. Más del 56 por ciento de los estudiantes que respondieron a la encuesta dijeron que las lecciones incluyeron experiencias de su cultura.

“Queremos que nuestros estudiantes se sientan realmente orgullosos de ser bilingües y de tener un origen abundante y diverso”, dijo Annalee McBee, la directora de educación cultural y lingüísticamente diversa en el distrito. “Estamos en una mejor situación en este mundo porque tenemos una forma diversa de pensar”.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Yesenia Robles es una reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado que cubre los distritos escolares de kindergarten a 12º grado y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia por correo electrónico a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

‘Tools to traverse the world’: A Manhattan International Baccalaureate program adds a high school

2024-12-12T20:07:12+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

A few weeks ago, Kyla Harrison, a Manhattan eighth grader, attended math class in an unusual setting: Hamilton Fish Park.

During the excursion, Kyla and her classmates calculated the slopes of staircases in the park — an activity that was a natural extension of the teaching philosophy at the School for Global Leaders, an International Baccalaureate middle school on the Lower East Side.

The International Baccalaureate program, often referred to as IB, centers student learning in self-directed, project-based work, aiming to help students take greater ownership over their academic work and establish connections between the knowledge they gain in the classroom and its real-world applications.

Some New York City schools have embraced the model as a way to offer families rigorous academic options outside of “gifted and talented” programs, which often sort and separate students within campuses. Offered across the globe, the IB program — which requires schools to undergo a multi-year accreditation process— may see increased interest among city schools seeking to distinguish themselves as the state changes diploma requirements. Regents exams are expected to be optional by fall 2027. Meanwhile, the IB program already offers state-approved alternative exams to the Regents.

For Kyla, trading worksheets for a concrete example made the lesson more memorable.

“I’m definitely going to remember how to calculate slopes,” she said. “It’s more fun when you get to interact with the work, instead of just sitting in a boring classroom all day.”

And though she’s nearing the end of her time in the middle school program, Kyla isn’t quite ready to leave the unique academic environment she’s found at the School for Global Leaders. She plans to stay at the school as part of its first ninth grade class next year, as the school looks to expand to a 6-12th grade program.

Principal Keri Ricks hopes the expansion will give local families a wider menu of academic options when considering where to attend high school. And for students like Kyla, Ricks said the high school will offer a chance to stick with the IB curriculum over a longer period, facilitating further growth.

Statewide, there are 121 accredited IB schools in New York, including about 106 public schools, according to the IB website. As of last year, at least 17 public schools across the five boroughs offered the IB curriculum, and more appear to be in the works. Brooklyn’s District 13 has added eight IB elementary schools and four IB middle schools in recent years, in part to offer families an alternative to more exclusive gifted programs. (Only four of the district’s schools were represented in the data.)

“The IB program definitely cultivates a deeper understanding of the curriculum,” Ricks said. “It’s not teaching math in a step-by-step format. It’s teaching math in the global context of how we’re going to use it in the real world.”

She pointed to a recent seventh grade outing to tourist hotspots like the Empire State Building around midtown Manhattan. Students had to devise their own visitor guides to the various locations — calculating distances between them and optimizing walkable routes, while also learning about the history behind the city locations.

The school serves about 150 students across its middle school grades. Expanding to a high school program over the next few years, the School Global Leaders hopes to welcome about 100 students per grade, Ricks added. The school already has classrooms allocated within the building for its incoming ninth graders, with sufficient space available to build out additional high school grades, Ricks said.

From left, John Dorrier, Kyla Harrison, Principal Keri Ricks, Jonathan Monteleone, and Jaielle Alejandro Welch pose for a portrait at School for Global Leaders, an International Baccalaureate middle school on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

The school is also planning to offer a career-focused track that specializes in computer science — giving students a chance to earn skills and experience that will translate into careers in the field. Through the IB program’s partnership with Arizona State University, Ricks hopes students will be able to take virtual computer science classes at the university, potentially earning certification in different computer science programs while still in high school.

Starting up a high school program isn’t without its challenges, particularly as state education officials are engaged in a multi-year process to update New York’s high school graduation requirements. That effort seeks in part to expand options for students, introducing more project-based assessments and other means of demonstrating proficiency in core subjects.

Though that effort appears to pair well with the philosophy of the IB program, it also introduces some uncertainty, Ricks said.

“We are building it out using the state requirements,” she said. “But we are also thinking about how we need to be able to change on a dime.”

Parents, educators say IB program has bolstered student engagement

Parents and educators at the school said the creative freedom offered by the IB curriculum had allowed their students to excel.

For eighth grader Jaielle Alejandro Welch, an English unit on mystery novels let her own creativity thrive. She had the opportunity to write her own mystery story inspired by her love of Agatha Christie and other mystery writers. Then, she turned her story into a pitch for a Netflix T.V. show.

“I enjoyed it so much,” Jaielle said. “To learn about different kinds of writing techniques, and to compare perspectives, and to learn about how people might react.”

Jaielle’s mother, Jenay Alejandro, attributes her daughter’s recent academic strides to her heightened engagement with her work.

“She talks about it all the time,” she said of the mystery story assignment. “We’ve been beyond happy with her growth. I don’t believe in the test, the test, the test, but all her scores have just skyrocketed over the past couple years.”

As part of his class, Anthony Sanchez, a Spanish teacher at the school, tasks his students with completing “neighborhood reviews.” Students are encouraged to spend time in Latino communities in New York City with their families, using their Spanish skills to order food from restaurants, and listening to everyday conversations in the neighborhoods.

“That’s what really differentiates IB,” he said. “You’re not trying to just fill in a check box, you’re trying to equip this human being with tools to traverse the world.”

And as the school expands to serve high school students in the coming years, Ricks said she hopes to attract individuals who are eager to shape their own academic experience.

“I think the beauty of it is that we’re at a place right now where we’re building the program,” she said. “That’ll give us amazing opportunities to actually sit with the kids that are going into this program and figure out: What are their interests? What are their wants? What do they want to study?”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

In Aurora high schools, students learning English as a new language might get new materials

2024-12-11T19:24:21+00:00

Leer en español.

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

In Aurora, high school students who are learning English as a new language spend 45 minutes per day in a class specifically designed to help them improve their language skills.

But their teachers have been on their own to design the lessons that are key to helping students understand the rest of their classes with native English speakers.

After a pilot program that began last school year, Aurora Public Schools is asking the school board to approve a curriculum this month for those classes.

Almost 40% of the almost 40,000 students in Aurora Public Schools are English learners.

Alice Wilcox, one of the culturally and linguistically diverse education consultants who work with English language development teacher leaders, said teachers had been requesting a curriculum. “They wanted time to focus on instructional strategies,” Wilcox said. “It takes a lot of effort to look at the standards, create assessments and then create units. This takes the lift off of teachers.”

Statewide, Colorado high school students saw large decreases in scores from state tests taken in the spring of 2024, but students learning English had disproportionately larger decreases.

For instance, the percentage of ninth graders at or above the state’s college readiness benchmark in math fell to 40% from 47% in 2023. The state temporarily adjusted graduation requirements to account for the lower scores across high school levels.

In Aurora, the district pointed to their district-specific data showing widening gaps for English learners compared to students not learning English as a new language. Tenth graders in Aurora who are English learners had an average reading score of 320 on the PSAT test, down from 358 in 2022, while 10th graders who aren’t English learners had an average reading score of 442 this year, up from 435 in 2022.

Other Aurora data shows that high school students taking the ACCESS test, which measures English proficiency for all English learners, have shown declining growth scores. Multilingual learners are also less likely to be on track to graduate.

District leaders said the data show their English learners need more support at the high school level. Aurora started adopting curriculum materials for English language development classes in 2019, starting at the elementary level, and in 2020 adopted materials for middle schools.

In those elementary and middle schools, growth in English proficiency is above average, and at the elementary schools, proficiency is still increasing.

District leaders said they expect that providing curriculum for high school teachers should help English learners improve their language acquisition and be more successful in other classes and on tests.

The district started a pilot last year to evaluate high school materials but extended it this year to gather more data. This fall, all seven of the district’s comprehensive high schools opted in and tried the materials.

The board is being asked to approve the materials for high school from Vista Higher Learning. The materials include a program called Get Ready! for newcomers who are just starting to learn the language, and Engage, another set of materials for students who are farther along.

The district surveyed the teachers and students who tested the materials for the last few months. According to district data, 85% of 746 students who responded said the materials supported them in their other classes.

The materials for newcomers had support from 91% of teachers, while 67% of teachers were in favor of adopting the Engage curriculum.

District leaders said some teachers worried that the Engage materials were too advanced and required a big jump for students transitioning from the newcomer lessons. But leaders also said the publisher was working with the district on making some adjustments and designing training for teachers to support students in making those jumps.

Missy Winternitz, another of the district’s high school consultants, said teachers liked that the curriculum materials include content that applies to other subjects students are learning. It also helped teachers plan and collaborate with each other.

And leaders said they noticed when visiting classrooms during the pilot that students were engaged and practicing writing skills, which they said sometimes are overlooked as part of learning a language. Speaking, listening, and reading practice are also incorporated.

The curriculum for newcomers starts off with introductory language that students need right away and includes a lot of speaking practice.

As teachers continue to see large numbers of new-to-country students, Renna Martinez, a district newcomer consultant, said that teachers piloting the materials found them to be helpful even when students start mid-year.

“No matter when a student enters within this year, the curriculum really provides a good entry point to start or continue their English acquisition,” Martinez said.

District leaders said it’s also important that students feel valued and represented in the curriculum. More than 56% of the students who responded to the survey said the lessons included experiences from their culture.

“We want our students to feel really proud about being bilingual and having a rich diverse background,” said Annalee McBee, the district’s director of culturally and linguistically diverse education. “We’re a better place in this world because we have diverse thinking.”

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that Aurora elementary and middle school students using new English language development curriculum made above average growth in English proficiency. A previous version of the story said their English proficiency was above average.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee panel still waiting to hear first book appeal under 2022 school library law

2024-12-11T12:00:01+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Two years after Tennessee lawmakers made it possible to ban books from school libraries statewide, not a single book challenge has been heard, let alone approved.

And no complaints are waiting to be considered, either.

Since early 2023, parents, students, and school employees have been able to challenge library content by submitting an online form to the Tennessee Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission.

But only three appeals have been filed with a commission that this year hired its first full-time staff at an annual cost of $500,000, in part to manage anticipated book appeals. All three appeals were withdrawn within a month.

“It’s been surprising,” said Commission Chair Linda Cash, about the lack of appeals before the state panel.

Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature passed Gov. Bill Lee’s school library law in 2022 to establish a local review process to make sure books and materials are “appropriate for the age and maturity levels” of the students who can access them.

A few months later, lawmakers approved a second measure creating an appeals system so that book complaints can go before the state’s existing textbook commission if the complainant isn’t satisfied with a decision by a local board or charter school. That law gave the commission unprecedented authority to ban certain books statewide, or to restrict them to certain grade levels in all Tennessee schools.

The school library legislation came after Tennessee emerged as one of the first states to restrict classroom discussions about race, gender, and bias. That the commission, two years in, has not considered any book ban complaints is evidence that school library debates are playing out locally instead of at the state level, with conservative parents getting mostly what they want.

Rep. Jerry Sexton, a Republican from Bean Station who co-sponsored the bill to create a book appeals process, said at the time that school libraries needed to be purged of content that he deemed as “pornographic” and “obscene.” His proposal also would have required schools to provide the commission with a list of books in their library collections.

When pressed on the House floor by Democratic Rep. John Ray Clemmons of Nashville about what the state should do with any banned books, Sexton said: “I would burn them.”

But Senate sponsors, who originally wanted the textbook commission simply to develop library guidance for schools, were more measured about approving any legislation that could ignite a wave of book removals. The Senate and House ultimately approved a compromise bill to establish the appeals process, without requiring schools to submit lists of their library books to the state.

“I think these appeals to the state will be rare,” Sen. Mike Bell, a Riceville Republican, said at the time. “I can’t imagine it being more than a handful – five a year, 10 a year.”

To help with the appeals process, the commission hired its first full-time staff — an executive director, staff attorney, and administrative assistant.

Cash, the chairperson who lobbied for state funding to staff up, said the administrative help was needed and overdue, regardless of whether the commission received book appeals.

Linda Cash, who chairs the Tennessee Textbook Commission, is also director of Bradley County Schools and the state's 2025 Superintendent of the Year.

The unpaid, all-volunteer, 13-member textbook panel still has its core responsibilities of approving state textbooks and instructional materials and establishing contracts with publishers to guarantee availability to schools at the lowest price. (The body just completed the latest textbook adoption cycle to align classroom materials with Tennessee’s science standards. The panel will look next at textbooks for career and technical education, then social studies.)

As also required under the 2022 law, the commission last year issued library guidance, not only for itself as the state’s appellate body, but for school districts and charter schools to follow to make the local review process more consistent.

Cash, who is also the chief of Bradley County Schools, never expected the commission to receive a flood of library book appeals. But she anticipated the state panel would have acted on at least some after two years.

Instead, book banning action escalated at the local level after lawmakers voted this spring to expand the governor’s “age-appropriate” library law to prohibit materials that offend conservative sensibilities, especially related to sexual content and LGBTQ issues. The law now includes a broad checklist of the kinds of content deemed unsuitable, including nudity, descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, and excess violence.

As a result, at least 1,100 books were removed locally during the first few months of the academic year, according to a statewide survey of members of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians. Hundreds more have been pulled since the survey was conducted. Leaders with the librarians group believe those numbers are conservative.

The vast majority of the removals were handled preemptively by school officials and librarians without going through local complaint processes that had been in place for years. Those processes generally allowed students, parents, or educators to flag their concern with a school librarian and eventually take unresolved matters to the local school board that took into consideration a recommendation by an ad hoc review committee of educators and parents.

“I think that’s unfortunate,” Cash said of some unilateral book removals under the stricter library law.

The commission’s library guidance, issued in 2023, called for local schools to adopt and follow a thoughtful process for receiving feedback about library materials.

“We have professional librarians who do an excellent job of looking at books and bringing concerns before committees of educators and parents to screen them,” Cash said.

On the other hand, Cash believes the library laws have made school officials and librarians more attentive to the concerns of parents and increased scrutiny of book collections for age-appropriateness.

“Parents want to be heard and listened to,” she said. “When we don’t do that, I think that’s when we begin to have issues.”

Former Sen. Jon Lundberg, who co-sponsored the bill that ultimately opened the door to statewide book bans, said he’s not surprised that the textbook commission has yet to hear its first challenge of a local library decision.

“It wasn’t that bad decisions were being made about library books,” said the Bristol Republican. “We just decided to establish a process, in case there ever was a need.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Lawsuit accuses famous literacy specialists of deceptive marketing

2024-12-04T22:28:24+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

A lawsuit filed in Massachusetts state court accuses famous literacy specialists Lucy Calkins, Irene Fountas, and Gay Su Pinnell and their publisher Heinemann of pushing reading curriculums they knew didn’t work.

Adopting a consumer protection approach, the lawsuit charges the curriculum authors with “deceptive and fraudulent marketing.” The filing alleges they willfully ignored decades of research into more effective practices and used shoddy studies to prop up their own work, then charged school districts for updates when they were forced to admit their materials were not effective.

“Think about that: If your car is broken, and it’s the fault of the manufacturer, the manufacturer recalls the part and fixes it,” said attorney Ben Elga, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. “They do not charge you for their failure. It’s outrageous.”

The lawsuit also names Heinemann parent company HMH, previously known as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Teachers College at Columbia University.

The plaintiffs, who are seeking class action status and inviting other families to join the lawsuit, are two Massachusetts families whose children struggled to learn to read. One of the parent plaintiffs, Karrie Conley, said in the lawsuit that due to her school district using Calkins’ Units of Study curriculum, she had to spend more on private school tuition and reading tutors for two of her children than she spent to send her older child to college.

“Nothing is more painful than trying to help them, but not knowing how,” she said in a Wednesday press conference announcing the lawsuit. “So many times I’ve asked myself, How did it get like this? I trusted that when I was sending my children off to school, they were getting instruction that had been tested and proven effective. I trusted that these so-called experts were actually experts.”

The lawsuit comes as many states are overhauling their approach to reading instruction to better align with decades of research into how children learn. What’s known as the science of reading calls for explicit phonics instruction that helps students connect letters and sounds, as well as texts that help students build the background knowledge to understand what they read.

Calkins’ Units of Study curriculum and Fountas and Pinnell’s Leveled Literacy Intervention and other materials instead relied on exposure to books and promoted discredited methods such as three-cueing, in which students use the first letter of a word and various context clues, including pictures, to guess what a word might be.

These curriculums were widely used in American schools, with Calkins in particular achieving near legendary status among teachers. Critics say these instructional methods are largely to blame for American students’ low rates of reading proficiency. Journalist Emily Hanford’s work on reading instruction and her podcast Sold a Story helped push these pedagogical debates into the public eye.

Calkins later acknowledged she made mistakes and changed Units of Study to include more phonics instruction. But critics said the changes were not sufficient. Units of Study was once the most widely used elementary curriculum in New York City schools, but the nation’s largest school system abandoned it as part of a reading overhaul. Last year, Teachers College disbanded Calkins’ Reading and Writing Project.

Fountas and Pinnell, meanwhile, have largely stood behind their work.

A lawsuit represents one perspective on a complaint. Representatives of Heinemann, Teachers College, and Calkins, Fountas, and Pinnell could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Heinemann has previously defended its products and all three authors.

Dozens of states have adopted new curriculum standards that encourage or require that schools use evidence-based reading instruction, but others, including Massachusetts, have not.

Elga, the lead attorney and founding executive director of Justice Law Catalyst, has a background in consumer protection and antitrust cases. He said he believes this is the first time that a consumer protection approach has been used to advance an education policy agenda.

“Consumer law is very broad, so there are a lot of cases that challenge products that don’t do what they say they should do or are marketed in a deceptive way,” he said. “This is the first case we’re aware of applying those laws to this type of product.”

The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages and injunctive relief, including that the defendants provide an early literacy curriculum that reflects the science of reading at no charge.

Families have previously sued states and school districts over rock-bottom literacy rates, alleging that government entities have failed in their obligation to meet students’ basic educational needs. These “right to read” lawsuits have resulted in settlements in Michigan and California that sent millions of dollars to districts with low reading levels but without mandates on how to teach reading.

Elga said he sees school districts as victims alongside students.

“It’s our contention that one of the major problems here is that the school districts have been the victims of this faulty marketing,” he said. “So we wanted to bring a case that challenged the people who were actually distributing these types of materials.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

List of nearly 400 purged library books is circulating among Tennessee school districts

2024-11-16T00:10:49+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

One Tennessee school district’s list of nearly 400 books removed from library shelves, including titles by authors ranging from Dr. Seuss to Toni Morrison, is being used by other school systems as a possible template to follow.

Administrators for Wilson County Schools directed the district’s librarians to pull the books a month ago. This week, leaders with Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools sent its librarians the same list to consider when reviewing their collections.

A third large suburban district, Rutherford County Schools, instructed its librarians this week to remove around 150 titles — 51 of which overlap with the list in neighboring Wilson County.

The removal there came at the request of school board member Frances Rosales, who told Chalkbeat that she used the Wilson County list and reviews on the website Book Looks as the basis for her request.

The purges come under Gov. Bill Lee’s 2022 “age-appropriate” school library law, which lawmakers expanded this year to prohibit public school libraries from having books with “nudity, or descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual content, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse.”

Sponsors of the changes, enacted amid national “culture wars” fueled in part by pro-censorship websites, say their goal is to protect students from obscene content and give families more control over their children’s education.

But the changes have also created a climate of fear, confusion, and self-censorship for school leaders and librarians, prompting some to revise or ignore their own review processes and preemptively pull titles from their shelves.

Graphic novels and books containing LGBTQ+ topics for high schoolers are among the casualties, as are classics like Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” about a young African American girl who longs for blue eyes, and popular children’s picture books like David Shannon’s “No, David!” and Seuss’ “Wacky Wednesday.”

“This law was designed to catalyze book banning,” said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program. “We should not be surprised now that we are seeing the mass removal of books in response to this censorial legislation.”

Tennessee law likely faces a constitutional challenge

Tennessee’s original 2022 law, championed by the governor, required districts to publish the list of materials in their library collections and periodically review them to make sure they are “appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials.” Each community was to define what is considered age-appropriate based on local standards.

This spring’s revisions by the legislature added a definition of what’s “suitable” — including verbiage about sexual content, nudity, and violence that could be interpreted to prohibit literary classics like “Romeo and Juliet,” historical novels such as “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and encyclopedias containing photographs of nude statues.

The law is expected to be challenged in court over its vague wording, a lack of compliance guidance from the state, and the uneven way the law is being applied across Tennessee.

Among groups tracking its implementation are the ACLU of Tennessee and some publishing companies.

In Florida, several large publishers sued education officials there in August over a 2023 state law prohibiting sexual content in school libraries. They argued that the law had ignited a wave of book removals in violation of the First Amendment.

‘Creating an unofficial statewide book ban list’

A survey conducted this fall of members of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians found that more than 1,100 titles had been pulled statewide under the revised law during the first few months of the academic year.

“I’ve removed 300 books in the first month of school,” one librarian anonymously told the organization.

Since the survey, the number of titles pulled across Tennessee has ballooned “from a trickle to a tidal wave,” said Lindsey Kimery, a Nashville school library supervisor who is one of the group’s leaders.

“If Wilson County’s list is being shared around, and district leaders see it as a cheat sheet so that they don’t have to conduct their own reviews, it’s creating an unofficial statewide book ban list,” Kimery said.

A spokesman for the Clarksville-Montgomery district, which serves about 38,000 students near the Kentucky border, emphasized that Wilson County’s roster was being used “as a resource, not a mandate” for its own librarians.

“We are not directing you to immediately remove all of these titles from your library collection,” curriculum leaders told principals last week, according to talking points from the meetings that the district shared with Chalkbeat.

“However, we are providing this list as an example of books already vetted by Tennessee educators and strongly encouraging you and your library-media specialists to review the list and consider, if you have these titles in your collections, whether these materials violate state law.”

Books in violation must be removed, the principals were told.

In Rutherford County, where 150 books were removed this week, the school board voted Thursday night to give librarians time to review the titles and come back with a formal recommendation on whether they should be permanently removed or returned to the shelves.

“I don’t believe we intentionally have pornography in our schools, but I do believe that some books with questionable content have trickled in,” said Rosales, who told Chalkbeat that she “put a lot of thought and research” into her request to remove 150 titles.

She added, however, that “our librarians are experts, and we need to give them time to review these books and give us a report.”

Other school systems conducting library reviews reported that Wilson County’s list isn’t factoring into their work.

A spokesperson for Knox County Schools said the East Tennessee district is collaborating with its librarians and legal team to identify books for possible removal and will provide its schools with a list in the weeks ahead.

Below, you can view the list of books removed by Wilson County Schools.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Rita Joseph, NYC Council’s ed committee chair, talks school budgets, curriculum mandates, and more

2024-11-11T20:55:08+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

City Council member Rita Joseph, a former teacher who chairs the committee on education, hasn’t forgotten her roots in the city’s public school system.

Since taking office in 2022, the Brooklyn council member has visited nearly 100 schools across the five boroughs, Joseph recently told Chalkbeat. She holds monthly meetings with a coalition of advocates, as she’s sought to help the city’s schools navigate a contentious budget cycle in City Hall, an influx of asylum-seeking and other migrant students, and other major education challenges.

Her time as chair of the council’s education committee has also coincided with a period of major overhaul in the city’s public school curriculums. Former schools Chancellor David Banks mandated elementary schools adopt one of three approved literacy curriculums — the signature policy of his tenure — while also introducing curriculum overhauls for middle and high school math.

With another budget cycle on the horizon and a change in leadership at the city’s Education Department, Joseph has her eyes set on a number of key priorities, including securing more permanent funding for programs that previously relied on federal relief dollars, expanding the city’s early childhood education system, and improving transportation options for students.

Chalkbeat sat down with Joseph last month to talk about a range of issues facing the city’s public schools.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The City Council held a hearing in September on school bus services. What were your takeaways from that hearing? What stood out to you?

Two years later, we’re still in the very same spot: Kids not having routes, kids are not being picked up on time, students that are medically fragile still don’t have traveling nurses.

And also, the students with IEPs [individualized education programs] who are medically fragile have to be on the bus for a certain amount of time, and we’re finding they’re still on the bus for two hours, when they’re supposed to be on the bus for an hour.

On the budget, last year was a big year — expiring stimulus funding and budget cuts. Obviously, a lot of that was restored, but looking back on it, how do you assess how much of your priorities you got?

I got everything. But I could never do this work by myself. I meet with advocates once a month. We even created a group called the Emergency Coalition to Save Education Programs, and that included advocates, parents, not-for-profit organizations, and labor. We got together, and we went on a five borough tour to listen to the parents, the families: If this was to be cut, what is the impact?

I remember going to the Bronx and Learning to Work, [a paid work program for students at alternative high schools,] resonated with me because I was meeting these young people. They came to testify. They came to say, ‘Let me tell you what this LTW has done for me. I’m not on the corner, Council member Joseph. I can help my mother. I can buy my own pair of sneakers.’

It’s giving a child that second chance at education.

Fairly late in the year, Mayor Adams noted he’d recently learned how many programs were funded by stimulus money. How were you able to get him on board with this?

We met with him in October 2023.

We sat down. I laid it out for him. I said, ‘This is what’s on the line.’

I called him out on every cut, from lunch to community schools, [which partner with nonprofits to provide wraparound support for students].

Hold harmless, [a policy to preserve school budgets despite enrollment drops,] was also very important for me. I told him, ‘That’s one way to stabilize, versus them bleeding out. We know we’re losing students, but we have to hold schools harmless.’

In the next budget, is hold harmless something you will continue to fight for?

I would have to look at the lay of the land first. I don’t think I would rush to that. I would assess what I have first, before I would make such a big decision.

Are there other big priorities that you have for the upcoming budget cycle?

I would like to baseline quite a few things. I would love to baseline the mental health continuum, LTW, student success centers [a peer-led program to promote college-readiness], and STH [students in temporary housing] coordinators — they play such an integral role for our students living in temporary housing.

Last year, the city’s Education Department and the United Federation of Teachers agreed to allow qualified teachers to switch to a bilingual license without losing their tenure. What do you make of this change?

I had to give up my tenure in order to switch over to an ESL license.

Now, UFT allows you to change your license and still retain your tenure. I wish they had that when I was there.

I gave it up because I knew there was a need. We were getting a lot of students from Chile at the time when I was at P.S. 6 [in Brooklyn]. We got a lot of students from Yemen as well. And when they were coming in, there was a shortage of ESL teachers in the building. So I went and took the course and got an extension to my license.

That is one piece of advice I gave to Chancellor Banks. You don’t need a new degree. Get an extension from your common branch license. It’s 15 credits, take the test, and you have an ESL extension that can be used across the city. That was one way to create the pipeline and make it easier for folks to become ESL coordinators and ESL teachers.

What are your general thoughts about the curriculum mandates?

[We need] more support for educators. No drive-thru professional development. There should be ongoing support, all year round.

New York City Reads — I like the concept that all students should be able to be on reading level by third grade, because that’s when you take your first city exam. So even by the end of second grade, you should already be meeting proficient.

When the reading scores came out, no one highlighted it — and I really want to sit with those superintendents — Districts 5, 7, and 16 [Harlem, South Bronx, and Bedford-Stuyvesant, respectively] did really well. I want to know, what were they doing over there? What were they doing differently? Those are Black and brown communities. What were the principals and the superintendent doing to support the educators and the students?

Same thing with math. We’ve got to make sure kids know their domain-specific vocabulary when it comes to math. There’s languages that go with these specific subjects. Teachers should master them. Principals should master them. And I think principals should also be part of that, because they evaluate teachers, right? So you’ve got to know what you’re evaluating your teachers on.

And reading should not be punishment. Reading should be joy.

I’m a big fan of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I have every collection, every single book that came out. I even have one signed by Jeff Kinney. So you know, I was like the coolest teacher in the building for having one signed by the author.

Find what the kids like. If it’s fashion, or cooking, or whatever it is, make sure they’re reading for something they enjoy.

What are your impressions of the new schools chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos?

I’m a fan. I like her. I like her work. Because we come from the same. Teacher, principal, assistant principal, acting superintendent. She knows the lay of the land. She knows how to navigate this space. And she’s like me, she’s a worker.

We’re here to support her. She has an ally.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

NYC families can earn up to $875 for evaluating financial literacy curriculum

2024-11-01T15:57:58+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

New York City public schools families and educators: The city’s Education Department wants your help to review its K-12 financial literacy curriculum and will pay participants.

The effort, announced in an email sent this week to some school communities, comes at a time when city and state leaders have called for more robust financial education in schools, and the city is eyeing a move to implement a systemwide financial literacy program. A growing number of students and educators have highlighted the importance of gaining skills in budgeting and money management before graduation.

The city’s goal is to “engage all students in financial literacy by 2030,” according to E.M. Eisen-Markowitz, a school research, design, and learning partner from Eskolta School Research & Design, which is working with the Education Department to conduct the curriculum review.

“Superintendents will have the opportunity to select from a number of vetted curriculum options for all of the schools in their district,” Eisen-Markowitz said in an email to Chalkbeat.

Educators selected to review the curriculums will be paid hourly per session, while students and families will receive an up to $175 stipend for up to five hours of work per curriculum. Participants can review as many as five curriculums for a maximum possible stipend of $875.

Interested students, parents, and educators must fill out a form by Nov. 15 to participate.

Evaluators will be asked to read through the lessons, fill out a scorecard, have a call with a research facilitator, and attend a Zoom session on a Tuesday or Thursday evening between the months of December and March, according to the email Eisen-Markowitz sent to schools.

The calls, which will take place between 4-6 p.m., will be discussions on the curriculum with other participating educators, students, and parents.

The Education Department had already begun to support school districts implementing financial literacy instruction as the city plans to scale that instruction up to cover the entire public school system, spokesperson Chyann Tull said.

“Financial literacy is critical to the New York City Public Schools mission of ensuring that students graduate with a strong plan and a clear path to economic security,” she said in a statement. “As always, we want our students, families, and educators to have a voice in curricula that will best serve them.”

Across the state, officials have highlighted the importance of financial literacy.

In a joint op-ed earlier this year, state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli argued financial literacy should be taught in all New York schools. And as the state considers how to update New York’s high school graduation requirements, one proposal includes adding credit requirements for financial literacy.

“Just as teens are required to take a driver’s education course before getting behind the wheel of a vehicle, we have a responsibility to empower students with the skills to effectively manage their finances before applying for a credit card, student loan or mortgage,” Rosa and DiNapoli said. “It’s time for New York to catch up to states who for decades have taught a financial literacy course and required it for high school graduation.”

New York City education leaders have struck a similar tone.

During a community conversation hosted by Mayor Eric Adams at a Brooklyn middle school last week, schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos stressed the importance of financial literacy for the city’s youth.

“What do you do with your money?” she said. “We need to stop building generational trauma in our Black and brown families and wrap our arms around them and build some generational wealth.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

New York is redefining graduation requirements. Here’s what educators want to know.

2024-10-31T16:24:08+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

New York City educators are eagerly awaiting new details on the state’s efforts to reimagine high school graduation requirements, which officials are expected to unveil on Monday.

Many have praised the proposed removal of Regents exams from diploma requirements, but questions remain over what a new system will look like in practice, sparking some fears over potential inequities across the state’s schools and uneven academic standards.

“Everybody has the question of, ‘What are these things going to look like?’” said Kiri Soares, principal of the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in Brooklyn. “The one thing I’ll say about the Regents standard is that there is an equity element to them, which is that there’s an expectation that all kids have to meet this bar. And so I get worried sometimes about, ‘What is the replacement of the bar?’”

New York is one of just a handful of states that requires exit exams, though research has found little evidence to show such exams improve student achievement. And the Regents exams, a more than a century-old rite of passage for New York’s high schoolers, have long faced criticism from students and educators who feel it is an insufficient measure of student learning.

Under a looming overhaul outlined in June, students would no longer be required to pass the state’s Regents exams to earn a high school diploma. Instead, the exams would be among a slew of options for demonstrating proficiency in key areas, including project-based assessments, work-based learning experiences, and more.

Though many support giving students more options, questions remain on what the overhaul could mean for individual schools.

“We have consistently said, from the beginning, that this endeavor is about raising the bar for all, not lowering rigor for some,” said JP O’Hare, a spokesperson for the state Education Department. “The plan we will set forth on Monday will be a thoughtful approach with a timeline that allows educators the opportunity to take stock of their programs in order to prepare our students for a lifetime of continuous learning, fulfilling careers, and informed civic engagement.”

Educators worry about unequal rigor and resources

The state’s full plan — which will include the regulatory and fiscal implications of the proposed changes — comes as the latest step in a multi-year process to overhaul graduation requirements.

Last year, a 64-member Blue Ribbon Commission put forward 12 recommendations for updating the state’s high school graduation requirements — including the adoption of a “portrait of a graduate,” comprised of seven key areas for students to demonstrate proficiency: critical thinking, effective communication, cultural and social-emotional competences, innovative problem solving, literacy across content areas, and status as a “global citizen.”

Those recommendations were later synthesized into four proposed actions by state education officials, one of which was to end the requirement that students pass Regents exams.

In many ways, Soares welcomes the state’s efforts to redefine graduation requirements.

“The Regents exams are over 100 years old, and they measure one kind of learning,” she said. “The idea of moving from testing to doing — like having an internship or these other experiences — is so much more powerful.”

Still, she worried that some students could be pushed into pathways perceived as less rigorous, a concern she said was particularly relevant for students who are already underserved. Soares wondered what measures will be put in place to ensure that all students are held to the same expectations and given the support to meet them.

Bobson Wong, a math teacher at Bayside High School who served on the Blue Ribbon Commission, said he’s been pleased to see the state officials be “genuinely receptive” to input from educators and students, noting they’ve spent months soliciting feedback in public forums. But it will be critical that the state develop policies that are “practical enough to work,” he added.

“One issue that has come up over and over in the discussions that we had on the commission, and also in the public forums, is who is going to pay for all of this?” Wong said. “Regents exams are easy to implement. That’s a big reason why we still have them.

“If you all of a sudden say, ‘Okay, we’ll do project-based learning assessments instead,’ then, who’s managing that, and who’s keeping track of all of that, and who’s going to make sure that all students have equitable access?” he asked.

The proposed changes could spark concerns “that schools and districts will be left to their own devices, and will open the floodgates without students having adequate preparation for postsecondary opportunities,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

“I think the Regents long ago lost its value as a guarantor of graduate quality,” he said. “But the challenge all along really has been: How do you fill that vacuum?”

Some NYC schools already use alternative assessments

Some schools in New York already use alternative models for testing student proficiency. For more than two decades, a coalition known as the “performance standards consortium” has received waivers from the state to forgo Regents exams except for English.

The consortium model has attracted fierce support from educators and families. Proponents argue that performance-based assessments can be just as or even more rigorous than exams, while offering a deeper learning experience that better prepares students for higher education and employment.

But the model can take additional resources and buy-in from school communities to implement, requiring more staff and training than a traditional exam, Bloomfield said.

“The consortium model is a very exacting standard, and it’s not clear how districts across the state will be able to implement that particular pathway,” he said. “You have to have a lot of people involved in grading the PBAs [project-based assessments], as well as helping students develop their PBAs.”

Soares, who was excited by the prospect of bringing in aspects of the consortium to her school, said she hopes that the state will provide schools with resources based on existing models.

“I don’t want the onus to be only on the schools to figure out how to do this,” she said. “I would like to be provided with sources and models of things that they have already vetted and approved.”

Steve Lazar, a high school teacher who previously helped found a consortium school in Manhattan, said the added flexibility would allow for meaningful discussions about how to best assess students in school districts across the state. But he wondered whether the same would apply in New York City, worrying the nation’s largest public school system might opt for a top-down approach.

Lazar doesn’t share in concerns that the changes could result in uneven levels of rigor across the state’s schools. He argued that the focus on Regents exams sometimes pushes teachers to emphasize rote memorization instead of challenging students to grapple with evidence and reason through difficult questions.

“I would not consider current graduation requirements rigorous by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

New learning community to bring Newark educators together to address ‘urgent’ literacy crisis

2024-10-29T21:25:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

Newark organizations are launching an initiative aimed at improving student reading rates and early learning outcomes by supporting educators in tackling the city’s “urgent” literacy crisis.

My Brothers Keeper Newark, in partnership with Rutgers University Newark, is hosting the Newark Early Literacy Professional Learning Community, which will focus on strengthening educators' understanding of foundational literacy skills and practices in the classroom.

The goal is about not only acquiring new skills, but also fostering a community of educators who are equipped to navigate the literacy challenges students are facing since the pandemic, according to Jhanae Wingfield, who is working with My Brothers Keeper to launch the professional learning community.

The project will span nine sessions starting in November and cover pre-K to third-grade literacy topics such as phonics, writing fluency, comprehension, and cultural response literacy learning, among others. The sessions will also review recently signed literacy legislation taking effect next school year to prepare educators to meet the needs of young students and ensure all children can read at or above grade level.

“The need is already here, and we really wanted to think about how we can establish, or start to build out a literacy ecosystem,” said Wingfield, assistant professor of professional practice at Rutgers University Newark. “How are we creating full systems that address this literacy concern from different angles, but also create more sustainable pathways to keep the success and growth going?”

Professional learning communities, a widely used strategy in education, bring together administrators, teachers, literacy coaches, and community partners to discuss school development and student achievement. Last summer, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka declared an “urgent” literacy crisis throughout the city and launched a 10-point Youth Literacy Action Plan that calls on schools, programs, and city leaders to help students refine foundational reading and writing skills.

This school year, Newark Public Schools’ proficiency rates on spring statewide assessments rose by roughly 2 percentage points in English language arts but remained behind pre-pandemic levels, pointing to students’ slow post-COVID academic recovery. English language arts performance among the city’s public school third-graders remains the lowest of any grade for a third year in a row, but higher than last year’s proficiency rate – now at 23.4%.

Newark has many assets, said Mark Comesañas, who is leading the new initiative as the executive director of My Brothers Keeper Newark. His organization is focused on “better coordinating all of those assets” by leveraging the community resources already available for students.

He said he believes that city students have been among the hardest hit by remote learning, and that illiteracy is an “urgent crisis” Newark leaders should remain committed to ending.

“There’s a long way for everyone to go in moving literacy outcomes, and we hope that this is one way to help us do that together,” Comesañas added.

The work of the learning community will be “foundational, but rigorous,” Wingfield said. Educators will be challenged to reflect on their literacy practices and ask themselves how they can make adjustments in their classrooms to support student’s understanding of basic reading and writing skills such as learning to spell, improving their handwriting, and refining their vocabulary. The sessions will also cover best practices to support English language learners and students with disabilities, who remain the furthest from academic recovery since the pandemic. And the learning community will focus on preparing parents through a parent academy by explaining high-level literacy topics and equipping them with the skills needed to engage their children with reading and writing at home.

Experts from My Brothers Keeper Newark will facilitate the sessions in combination with literacy leaders from Rutgers University Newark and professionals like Mary Ann Reilly, former Newark Public Schools’ assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, who has more than 40 years’ of experience in public and charter districts.

The group will also review new state legislation aimed at improving student reading proficiency by mandating literacy screenings for K-3 students, using high-quality literacy instructional materials, and implementing data analysis strategies for literacy instruction and intervention. The legislation, signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in August, takes effect next school year and is intended to require an early intervention program and establish a new office in the state’s education department dedicated to equity and academic recovery, all of which hold special significance in Newark where youth literacy rates are struggling.

The professional learning community will hold its first session on Nov. 19 and is currently recruiting participants. Those interested can register online or email info@mbknewark.org for more details.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

‘Backbone of New York City’: Arts groups showcase their work to schools, as funding concerns remain

2024-10-23T20:31:12+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Dozens of cultural arts organizations flocked to Lincoln Center on Tuesday, joining elected officials and educators for a celebration of arts education in the city’s schools — replete with a performance by dancers from the Juilliard School.

It was the second “Arts & Culture in the Schools Showcase,” held by Manhattan Council member Gale Brewer, aimed at promoting connections between local schools and cultural arts organizations.

The showcase comes at a time of heightened concern over the state of the city’s arts education.

In recent years, students, advocates, and elected officials have pushed for the city to provide more funding for arts programming in schools. Meanwhile, critics of a state law mandating smaller class sizes have argued it could push schools to convert dance, music, and art studios into classrooms — as the city works to bring tens of thousands of classrooms below the legal limit over the next few years.

And though City Council members reached a budget agreement with Mayor Eric Adams last year that restored more than $40 million in arts education funding that was previously propped up by expiring federal relief dollars — in addition to more than $50 million to cultural institutions — city data shows stubborn gaps persisting in student access to arts education.

“Nobody needs more money than schools and the arts,” Brewer said at the Tuesday event. “Those are the backbone of New York City.”

Middle school students are required by the state’s Education Department to complete two or more semesters of arts instruction across two different disciplines taught by certified teachers by the time they enter high school. But many schools in New York City are failing to meet that requirement, with just 36% of local students doing so in the 2022-23 school year, according to a city report.

That represented a slight uptick from the year before, but still fell well below the state mandate.

Though a majority of public schools offered instruction in visual arts and music in the 2022-23 school year, less than half of the city’s middle and high schools offered dance and theater instruction — with figures falling to as low as 21% for high schools that taught dance. As of the same year, there were roughly 2,400 full-time certified arts teachers, as well as about 800 part-time teachers, employed across the public school system, according to city surveys.

“We’re going to continue to fight and push for more funding,” said Laurie Cumbo, commissioner of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs. “We want to see art teachers in every single school in New York City. That’s really the ultimate goal.”

More than 50 nonprofit arts organizations attended the Tuesday showcase, ranging from music to performing and visual arts to computer programming. Citywide, more than 600 cultural arts organizations partnered with public schools in the 2022-23 school year, with a majority of those partnerships occurring in elementary schools, according to a city report.

Jada Foster, the program manager of Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools program, said her organization has facilitated local school visits from a range of LGBTQ authors, including Roya Marsh, Mark Oshiro, and Maulik Pancholy.

The program has partnered with roughly 180 schools across the five boroughs, running writing workshops for K-12 students and providing a safe space for students to discuss books that address issues of homophobia, racism, sexism, and more. It’s a program that’s become especially important in the wake of book challenges in schools and libraries across the country, which have largely targeted stories written by LGBTQ authors, she said.

“We always want to invite educators in, and encourage educators who want that inclusive curriculum to apply to our program,” Foster said. “With the rise of book bannings, this is a program that will provide students that necessary space.”

Lulu Fogarty, the director of education at Symphony Space, said the cultural education organization has partnered with schools for roughly 40 years, educating students from prekindergarten through high school on traditional cultural art forms.

“If a school is studying Latin America, for instance, we have a series where we’ll send in a group that does folk dances from Mexico, there’s going to be a samba music from Brazil class, there’s an Afro-Latin Jazz workshop, there’s a capoeira workshop,” she said. “Along with that series, there’s a field trip opportunity, so students can come to our theater at Symphony Space to see their teaching artists perform live on stage.”

Symphony Space partners with more than 50 schools in the city, serving about 15,000 students each year, Fogarty said.

Meanwhile, New York City Children’s Theater partners with both schools and shelters to help students adapt stories into theater performances, said Yvonne Roen, the organization’s director of development. The program invites students to participate in multiple languages, an aspect Roen said has been particularly helpful in recent years, as the city has seen an influx of asylum-seeking and other migrant students.

“When students are working together and building a play, they suddenly see something about a classmate that they’ve never seen before, because this person is speaking their own language — they’re having their own experience and that forms a bridging of the classroom,” she said. “It also gives students an opportunity to present themselves in a way that they don’t normally get to be in a classroom.”

Before the pandemic, NYCCT worked across more than 30 shelter sites in partnership with the city’s Education Department, said Frank Ruiz, the organization’s education program manager. But after losing funding in 2021, their work in shelters was limited to just two sites, Roen added.

Three years later, with funding cobbled together from City Council and various foundations, NYCCT has partnered with 11 shelters, in addition to more than 40 schools.

“As long as we get the funding, we’re going to keep expanding it, because it’s really important,” Roen said. “We really believe that everyone has a story to tell.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Some NYC teachers experiment with AI-powered tools, while Education Department develops guidelines

2024-10-18T20:08:26+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

A year ago, James Randle, a high school social studies teacher in Queens, started exploring how artificial intelligence could help make his work more efficient.

He experimented with one AI-powered program that surprised him with its ability to render basic lesson plans. Then Randle discovered an essay grader that used artificial intelligence to determine how well student papers adhered to a rubric — a tool he found useful for conducting first passes on essays.

“I was blown away by what it could possibly do,” said Randle, who has taught at the Academy of American Studies for 24 years.

Randle isn’t alone in seeing potential for AI-powered tools to make waves in the education sector. In recent years, a rash of new AI technologies have cropped up, with a spate of companies marketing their tools toward school districts. And across the country, nearly 20% of K-12 teachers reported using AI in their instruction last school year, according to one report.

The explosion of school-oriented AI technology has sparked serious concerns among skeptics — with critics raising questions over how AI companies handle sensitive student data and whether such tools can be trusted in education settings after cases of bias and inaccuracy.

In New York City, the public school system has taken nascent steps toward embracing the new technology. Despite some early reservations, former schools Chancellor David Banks became an AI cheerleader by the end of his tenure at the helm of the nation’s largest school system, touting its ability to “revolutionize” schools in a speech last month and devoting his final day as chancellor to a convening of an AI advisory council.

Despite enthusiasm from some of the city’s top education leaders, teachers are still waiting for the Education Department to issue more concrete guidance or plans for how and when AI should be used in schools. And in the meantime, educators are taking matters into their own hands, with Randle and others wading through the barrage of new companies promising to streamline time-consuming aspects of their jobs.

Randle said he “fell into a rabbit hole” of different AI-powered tools last year — struck by just how many were geared toward educators.

“Every time I kept turning around, there were more and more opportunities for teachers,” he said. “It was like a train rush.”

In AI, some educators see potential. Others see danger.

Two years ago, generative AI exploded into the public eye with the release of ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by the tech company OpenAI that stunned users with its ability to generate cogent and lifelike writing.

ChatGPT sparked a wave of concerns in schools across the nation — earning a ban on school devices and networks in New York City — amid broad fears that students would use the tool to cheat on assignments.

But the city has since reversed that ban, and some educators have warmed to the notion that generative AI could be a valuable tool for students and teachers alike.

Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department, said the DOE was “currently developing guidelines for educators that are in alignment with the city’s Office of Technology Innovation.”

“Generative AI is constantly evolving,” she said in a statement. “As we prepare our students to be on the cutting edge of this technology, we are encouraging safe and responsible experimentation in the classroom and continuing to gather feedback and insights from industry leaders through our AI Advisory Council.”

Edward Castro, the family leadership coordinator for the city’s Consortium, International, and Outward Bound schools, said his district has partnered with the PlayLab, a tech company that develops AI-powered tools for educators. He’s found their tools particularly helpful when it comes to translating materials for families whose first language isn’t English.

“We wanted to make sure that we explained to educators that this is not a toy or a cheating vessel,” he said. “It’s a tool to help streamline and automate routine tasks, and to support our kids, especially our kids for whom English is not their first language.”

Generative AI chatbots, like ChatGPT, operate by analyzing large swaths of data, then predicting what text would likely follow a user’s prompt. But critics are quick to note that those responses don’t necessarily adhere to logical reasoning and aren’t guaranteed to be accurate, with reported instances where the tools have produced incorrect and biased responses.

Because of these deficiencies, Benjamin Riley, the founder of Cognitive Resonance, an organization that provides consulting on generative AI systems, is concerned that some school districts have looked to generative AI as a way of providing students with personalized tutors, or for teachers to speed up the grading process.

“It takes me all of two minutes with any of the existing tools that are out there to demonstrate just how unreliable they are with what we humans would consider the truth,” Riley said.

His organization has raised alarm over the ways in which generative AI technologies fall short in classroom settings — noting that such tools may not correctly understand what sequence of lessons will effectively build knowledge in students, might propose content based on misconceptions about how students learn, and could potentially spread misinformation or perpetuate cultural biases.

Riley added he understands why educators might look to AI-powered tools to ease the burden of grading, but he noted such tools tend to focus primarily on grammar and structure.

“Since they’re not thinking devices, there’s no capability for them to imagine what was going on in the mind of the student,” he said. “What I’m really worried about is that it won’t be wrong, but it will just be steering students toward a norm that what really matters is getting the surface features of your essay right, rather than grappling with the ideas.”

Randle, who has been using the AI-powered CoGrader to help markup student papers based on a grading rubric, said at times the tool will grade students more harshly than he would. He always checks to ensure that papers are graded correctly and to adjust the AI’s scoring.

But the tool has saved him hours on grading and allowed him to spend more time giving personalized comments, he said. So far, Randle has been paying for access to CoGrader and other AI tools he’s using as an individual, with no schoolwide contract.

Cora Neville, the principal of Highbridge Middle School in the DREAM charter network, said schools in her charter network have also been using AI-powered tools to help with grading and lesson planning. Before, grading student constructive responses could take four or more hours.

Using AI-powered tools from PlayLab sped that process up to about an hour, Neville said.

Can AI companies be trusted with student data?

With the arrival of AI, some educators remain wary over whether tech companies can appropriately handle sensitive student data.

For example, in a set of “guardrails” released over the summer, the American Federation of Teachers emphasized that safety and privacy should be maximized any time such tools are used in school settings.

Those concerns boiled over in California earlier this year, after the Los Angeles Unified School District attempted to roll out its own custom-built chatbot. But the tool, which relied on a large pool of student data, was later paused after the company that produced it collapsed amid concerns that the chatbot mishandled sensitive student data.

Castro said that he’s taken concerns over how AI companies handle student data seriously.

“Making sure that things are fair, unbiased, and that privacy is protected is paramount,” he said of his district’s approach to using AI. “Anything I put in is public-facing.”

Neville said she’s seen AI-powered tools marketed toward certain aspects of the school system that involve confidential student data — like those that offer to generate individualized education programs, which outline mandated services and support for students with disabilities.

“That information, for one, is confidential. But you also want to know your students intimately and deeply,” she said. “I would hate for someone to say, ‘Alright, I’m going to use these prompts, I’m going to throw this information into it, and it’s going to write the IEP for me.’”

“I don’t want to lose sight of the intimacy of really getting to know your students,” Neville added.

Despite drawbacks, some hope AI can reduce teacher burnout

Though imperfect, Randle hopes that AI tools can help stem some of the losses of early career teachers, who have left the field in increasing numbers since the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020. It’s a use he believes could be particularly meaningful, as teacher turnover hit unusual highs both nationally and in New York City during the pandemic.

“With any resource that teachers are using, someone may have things they don’t approve of,” Randle said. “But every teacher is going to look over everything that they are going to put in front of kids, and everything they’re going to ask kids to engage with.”

In addition to saving hours on grading, he sees generative AI as a useful tool for new teachers who are still learning to construct lesson plans.

Randle was initially stunned by the ability of Khanmigo, an AI-powered teaching assistant, to generate templates for different lesson plans. Though it didn’t create worksheets and other materials that a teacher might need, he noted it offered the building blocks of a comprehensive lesson.

More recently, he has been using MagicSchool, another AI-powered tool, that Randle said can create even more comprehensive lesson plans — replete with presentation slides, quizzes, worksheets, and even songs or jokes that educators can sprinkle into lessons.

“It’s a great place to get some good ideas and brainstorm,” he said, adding that for new teachers in particular, “it’s hugely helpful to have a system in place and not have to start from scratch.”

Neville, too, sees potential for AI to help younger teachers. But she added it isn’t all upside — as the streamlined process could make it more difficult to learn.

“It takes that learning experience away from the teacher,” she said. “When I came up, there was no AI generator. So not only did you have to be a skilled teacher, you also had to know the content well.

“You really have to be tactful with how much you rely on the system,” Neville said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

New English curriculum shows science of reading’s promise but can leave Philly teachers frazzled

2024-10-17T21:26:12+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

The Philadelphia school district’s demanding new English language arts curriculum is getting mixed reviews from teachers.

One of their major complaints is that they must spend a lot of time making sure they can use provided materials in their lessons. They also say there is not enough class time to help lagging readers, and that they haven’t been adequately trained to teach the new curriculum.

At the same time, teachers do not dispute its emphasis on the science of reading, which is now generally accepted as the best method for literacy instruction. There are also indications that teachers are seeing students engage better with reading materials and demonstrate stronger literacy skills.

The new curriculum is part of an ambitious instructional overhaul the district launched last year, when it spent $70 million in pandemic aid on new math, English language arts, and science materials. About $25 million went to the new reading curriculum from EL Education, including Expeditionary Learning for grades K-8 and Study Sync for 9-12. Officials hope this helps students improve on sobering academic outcomes: On last year’s state exams, only about 34% of Philadelphia’s students in grades 3-8 scored proficient in reading.

The curriculum shift also represents the latest chapter in a long-running tug of war in Philadelphia between the value of imposing a regimented, standardized curriculum, and the power of giving teachers leeway to be creative and innovative.

But as with any big initiative in school districts, the devil is in the details.

“It tells you to use [certain] cards or pictures, but they aren’t provided,” said Shelly McKeown, a second grade teacher at the Lowell Elementary School in Olney. “You have to make tons of copies and cut things out yourself.”

Worse, she said, in her school, there aren’t enough books for all the students: “There are only five or six copies of each text.” That means several students share a single book — not great for encouraging emerging readers.

Aly Boyd, a literacy specialist at McCall Elementary School in Queen Village, said she favors the science of reading, which requires systematic instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness as well as promoting fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

But while some of the curriculum makes sense, Boyd said, “overall it’s not cohesive. The tools are not aligned to the objectives. I wish I knew why.”

Many teachers, she said, “are scrambling” to prepare and to cover everything in the time provided, especially when they are facing children with skill levels all over the map.

“You always go back to teacher knowledge as the best tool as long as they know the content area,” Boyd said. “But I don’t think this curriculum makes it easy for teachers to learn.”

In a statement responding to questions from Chalkbeat about the new English curriculum, district spokesperson Monique Braxton said the district has “been thoughtful in providing support” to teachers.

She cited 12 paid — albeit optional — professional development sessions in the spring, an optional summer institute on the science of reading, and additional “mandatory and voluntary” sessions since the school year started.

In addition, she said, the district provides coaches and learning specialists to help teachers.

While the EL Education curriculum is grounded in the science of reading, “texts are more complex than teachers are used to, and the amount of content within each lesson is very dense. It can be a steep learning curve,” said Laura Boyce, the executive director of Teach Plus PA, a teacher advocacy group that supports lessons based on the science of reading.

The teachers’ guide for the curriculum, Boyce noted, is well over 100 pages long for a six-week unit.

New curriculum represents latest pendulum swing for teachers

Through much of the 2010s, teachers could choose from several different programs for reading instruction, Boyce said.

But a 2020 study by the Council for Great City Schools found that district curriculums did not “put enough emphasis on foundational skills in the early grades,” among other deficiencies. About three years ago, city teachers created a homegrown reading curriculum. While some people liked this “by Philly, for Philly” approach, it was never formally evaluated for quality, Boyce said.

When the district adopted the slate of new instructional materials last year, Superintendent Tony Watlington warned people not to expect that the EL Education curriculum would lead to instant improvement. But he did tout its emphasis on the science of reading, and district officials said they had done their research.

“Before we decided on this, we engaged stakeholders, teachers, community members, and asked what they were looking for,” said Dr. Nyshawama Francis-Thompson, the district’s chief of curriculum and instruction, in an interview.

In contrast to the era when Philadelphia teachers often took the lead on choosing or developing curriculum, Mary Williams, a professor of education at La Salle University, said via email that she has heard from teachers that the lessons are too scripted.

“This program is not going to be successful unless the teachers get some flexibility in how it is implemented and get more professional development support and coaching,” she wrote.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers went so far as to conduct a recent survey of teachers on the curriculum, and presented a rundown of the most common complaints to district officials.

Some 800 teachers responded. Among the top concerns were too little time to cover the material, not enough training, and insufficient tools to help students who fall behind, said PFT President Arthur Steinberg.

“We saw there was some unrest with it, people weren’t happy, so we wanted to nip it in the bud and get more information from as many members as we could,” Steinberg said.

The union wants to help create a response to teachers’ concerns “so people in Harrisburg don’t call us failing anymore,” Steinberg said, referring to legislators who decide how much state education aid to send to Philadelphia and other districts. (The PFT has not shared detailed results from the survey publicly.)

State lawmakers are making their own push to get more Pennsylvania school districts to change how they teach reading.

Earlier this month, the Senate adopted a bill passed previously by the House that encourages districts to adopt curriculums based on the science of reading, although it doesn’t mandate them to do so and doesn’t provide corresponding funding.

It would authorize the Pennsylvania Department of Education to create a state literacy council that would develop lists of acceptable curricula, and help schools assess students’ reading skills, among other things.

“This gives kids a fighting chance,” said Rep. Ed Neilson, a Democrat from Northeast Philadelphia, during a House debate on the bill. “My son got lucky to learn how to read. This bill will help kids like mine.”

Boyce said advocates will push Gov. Josh Shapiro to include $100 million in his proposed budget for next year dedicated to this initiative.

Curriculum gets good reviews for older grades, student engagement

For all the issues with the new curriculum, some teachers say their students are benefiting.

“My students are more engaged, they are able to answer comprehension questions more easily, they have a bigger vocabulary in their speech,” said Kristyn Kahalehoe, a kindergarten teacher at John Hancock, a K-5 school in the Far Northeast.

While the rollout hasn’t been perfect, she said her students “are able to answer questions about the text” while also having “a higher retention of letter names and sounds.”

At a seminar last month at Drexel University on the science of reading, first grade teacher Kinu Aneja told attendees that she thought the new curriculum was “strong” due to its emphasis on phonics and because it dictates the need “to meet students where they are.”

But with sometimes as many as 30 students in the class at varying stages of development, she said a teacher can nevertheless get “overwhelmed.”

And the district hasn’t necessarily provided everything teachers might want to use with the new curriculum.

For instance, it includes a “tools challenge” in which students learn about tools and also work on their motor skills. Among the tools needed are spatulas, eyedroppers, and tweezers. But the district did not provide those things, expecting that teachers would bring them from home.

District spokeswoman Christina Clark did say that part of the curriculum is “supplemental” and not mandatory.

Kahalehoe said her students are doing well with the new curriculum but acknowledged that she may have it easier than those in higher grades. “I wouldn’t have the same perspective as a seventh grade teacher,” she said.

Aly, the reading specialist at McCall, said she considered the curriculum to be much stronger in the higher grades than in the lower ones, when phonics is most important.

The new curriculum does not provide a second grade teacher easy access to kindergarten-level phonics tools, for example, that could be useful for students still at that stage of development.

For help, teachers could “click around online,” she said. But that, she said, “is very time consuming. … It’s frustrating.”

Aneja, who spoke at the Drexel forum, is in her fourth year teaching in the district, and her third at Bache-Martin Elementary School in Fairmount. In a subsequent interview, she stressed that kids come to classrooms from different backgrounds and at different academic levels. Adapting to the new curriculum is a “hard adjustment,” she said.

“The big takeaway is that in theory the curriculum makes sense, but it requires a lot of prep and studying on the teachers’ part and right now that’s hard to implement,” Aneja said.

Still, Aneja has high hopes the new curriculum will ultimately benefit students.

“At the end of the year, we’ll be able to see a fuller picture,” she said.

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.

‘A mess on our hands:’ NYC teachers union raises alarm on math curriculum overhaul

2024-10-11T20:20:37+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

New York City’s teachers union has been a key supporter of the ambitious effort to overhaul the literacy curriculum in elementary school, but it’s been a very different story when it comes to a big math curriculum push.

Schools Chancellor David Banks is mandating almost every city high school adopt the same curriculum for Algebra I – a move that United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew in recent weeks has been publicly criticizing in stark terms.

“We have a mess on our hands,” Mulgrew told Chalkbeat this week. “I’ve been to a lot of high schools, and in every school, they’re telling us the same exact thing: that in the end, the students are going to be harmed.”

Mulgrew’s opposition is a dramatic turn from the union’s literacy support, and comes at a crucial moment for the nascent math curriculum overhaul. After rolling out Illustrative Math — a curriculum that emphasizes open-ended activities and student discussion — to roughly 260 high schools last year, officials expanded it citywide this year, while also mandating roughly 100 middle schools to use one of three pre-approved math curriculums.

The union chief’s pushback could spell trouble for the Education Department, especially at a time of transition. The department is already navigating the turmoil of an abrupt leadership change and chaos in city hall following Mayor Eric Adams’ indictment.

One looming question is how the curriculum shift will impact students’ scores on the Algebra I Regents exam, a state-mandated test at the end of the course that students must pass to move on to higher-level math courses and graduate.

While officials have yet to share citywide results for last year’s Algebra I Regents, some early results are sparking concern.

Josephine Van Ess, superintendent of Queens South High Schools, whose district participated in last year’s Illustrative Math pilot, told parent leaders Algebra I Regents pass rates in her district fell from 59% in 2023 to 45% last year, the New York Post first reported. Van Ess attributed the drop in part to the new curriculum and referenced “a decline across the city” in Algebra I Regents scores.

The test also changed last year, making it difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison with 2023, but educators said the changes weren’t extensive.

Mulgrew said union officials were not involved in planning the math curriculum changes and have been raising concerns for the past year over the curriculum’s lack of remediation for students far behind grade level, unrealistic expectations about how quickly teachers should move through lessons, and misalignment with the Algebra I Regents exam.

Expanding it this year was “doubling down on a bad bet,” Mulgrew said.

Education officials are holding firm. Banks has argued that math results were so underwhelming across the city, and riddled with so many inequities, that he had to try something new and ambitious. Just 48% of Black and Latino city students who took the Algebra I Regents in 2023 passed, compared to 74% of white and 83% of Asian-American students, according to state data.

Big new curriculum efforts often lead to early “implementation dips,” officials have argued.

“We’re playing the long game here,” Banks said at a September press conference.

And many educators support the philosophy behind the new curriculum, which pushes students to discover math concepts on their own rather than relying on teachers to explain rules that students then memorize and practice. Education Department officials emphasized that teachers new to the curriculum are receiving extensive professional development.

Deputy Chancellor Danika Rux, who is overseeing the curriculum overhaul, said addressing the union’s concerns is a “priority for us.” She said officials are meeting with the union to hear their concerns and quickly address them. ”We’re committed to making this work,” she said.

Debates flare over content, rollout of new curriculum

From the outset, the sweeping curriculum changes have drawn clashing responses from educators.

Some of the disputes reflect a long-simmering tension in math education between giving students room to explore and discover ideas on their own, and offering direct instruction with practice and repetition.

“You coming up with what ‘congruent’ means, that will stick with you a lot longer than if somebody’s telling you the definition of ‘congruent,’” Rux told reporters who participated Thursday in a sample Illustrative Math lesson at Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School in the Bronx.

But some educators said it’s simply not realistic to expect students to learn math skills without lots of built-in time for drilling and practice.

“All of the discovery is one thing, but not being able to actually make it ‘sticky’ is really something that I struggled with,” said one Brooklyn math teacher who participated in last year’s Illustrative Math pilot and spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “The more [students] practice, the more they retain. But there was very little practice actually provided in the [Illustrative Math] curriculum.”

The Brooklyn teacher said he appreciates aspects of the new curriculum, and has used activities from it for years, but took issue with the city’s rollout of the mandate.

“People were just getting insane burnout,” he said. “All this stuff was coming down from the top. All of it, we were being told you have to do it by this date.”

His experience teaching Illustrative Math last year was so draining that he decided to stop teaching math this year, he said.

Teachers express concerns over fast pace of curriculum

For Mulgrew, the pressure to keep moving through the curriculum prevents teachers from stopping and shoring up lagging foundational skills for struggling students when it’s needed.

“Knowing that the majority of [their] students aren’t getting this, [teachers] can’t back off to do any sort of remediation to try to help them, because [they] have to stay on this pacing calendar,” he said. “This is insane.”

But some educators say continuing to offer challenging activities even while some students need extra support is part of the point.

“The result of focusing all of your attention on what students don’t know and remediating something from previous grades is a lack of equity in the grade-level content that students are allowed to learn,” said Emma Comstock Reid, a Fannie Lou Hamer algebra teacher.

Comstock Reid, who has been using Illustrative Math for years, added that the curriculum does include “adaptation packs” to help support kids behind grade level. Officials added that the curriculum’s open-ended activities allow students at different grade levels to contribute.

Educators have also raised concerns that the curriculum doesn’t align well with the year-end Regents exam. And while the long-term fate of the Regents exams is murky, they play a critical role now in students’ ability to graduate and move on to higher-level math courses.

Education Department officials urged patience with the test scores.

“There is something to be learned” from the Queens district that saw a big drop in Algebra I Regents scores this year, including the need for additional professional development for teachers, said Miatheresa Pate, the city’s interim chief of academics and instruction. “All data is good data.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Warren Township’s Pleasant Run Elementary takes a broad approach to improving reading

2024-09-23T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

This article was originally published by Mirror Indy.

Every corner of the first grade wing at Pleasant Run Elementary comes alive during small-group reading time.

Teachers and instructional assistants steer colorful carts loaded with workbooks and binders up and down the hall as students break up into small groups for a half hour several times a day. Students are seated in semi-circles around their teachers or on colorful carpets at the front of a classroom or tucked to the side in the hallway.

Breaking up into small groups — into what looks like a sort of organized chaos — allows students to focus on learning reading and writing skills adjusted to their individual needs. For the Warren Township elementary school, the all-hands-on-deck approach to literacy has helped drive a turnaround on the state’s third grade reading exam, called IREAD, at a time when state officials are laser-focused on improving Hoosier students’ reading skills.

“Every kid is seen in a small group every day by an adult in this building,” Pleasant Run instructional coach Megan Reyes said. “That has made a huge impact on student growth.”

Last year, only about 60% of Pleasant Run students passed IREAD. But this year, the scores jumped 21.5 percentage points — one of the greatest improvements across the state, putting the school up to par with the rest of Indiana students who passed the test at a rate of just over 82% this year.

And, Pleasant Run students are defying the odds. About one in three students are English language learners and more than 80% identified as coming from low-income backgrounds last school year. National trends show students in these groups are statistically more likely to struggle with standardized exams. But, at Pleasant Run, all demographics showed growth this year.

“It was great to see that our efforts have paid off,” Principal Travis Koomler said, “and we were able to put the right things in place to better support our kids.”

Pleasant Run’s approaches are practiced in elementary schools across Warren Township. And those schools have seen success, too.

For the first time in the district’s history, students in Warren Township schools collectively surpassed 80% passing in the IREAD exam — making it the only school district in Marion County where test scores were higher than before the pandemic.

Improving student literacy requires comprehensive effort

Students at Pleasant Run participate in a 90-minute literacy block led daily by their classroom teacher plus 30 minutes of writing. Between those regular classroom lessons, students get an additional 30 minutes of small-group instruction tailored to their needs.

Educator teams at Pleasant Run use data collected through assessments and informal checks to pinpoint where students excel and where they need help. Maybe one student needs help with vowel sounds while another is ready to work on short passages.

During small-group instruction time, those students can be paired with peers in their grade to focus on accelerated lessons or to review concepts they need to spend a little more time with.

First grade teacher Ali Summers encourages students to sound out a word at Pleasant Run Elementary School.

On one Monday morning in September, first grade teacher Ali Summers used this time to go over letter sounds with four students — sounding out each consonant and vowel or a word before moving onto the next. Students followed along using a custom-made blending board, a tool that helps kids visualize each word as it’s spoken aloud.

Across the room, another five students worked with a bilingual instructional assistant on reading comprehension prompts. As a dual-language immersion school, Pleasant Run has several of these assistants who can help multilingual students build up background knowledge and oral language skills that may come easier to classmates whose first language is English.

A third group — still in the same classroom — studied separately with a different bilingual instructional assistant, and a handful of students scattered across remaining desks worked on vocabulary exercises on their digital tablets.

Pleasant Run administrators say keeping these groups small is key. The school has about a dozen instructional assistants total. And other teachers for related classes — such as gym, art, and STEM — have also been trained and work with students during small-group time to ensure student-to-instructor ratios stay low.

The district also partners with Circle City Readers, a program of the Mayor’s Office of Education Innovation that places paid and trained tutors in Indianapolis schools. For Pleasant Run, the program adds another seven adults to the building during reading intervention time.

All told, students can receive more than two hours of in-school reading and writing time. There’s also after-school tutoring opportunities with provided transportation and worksheets sent home with families.

It’s an all-hands-on-deck effort, administrators say. Ultimately, the goal is to both help kids learn and find joy in reading.

“We’ve seen students really embrace reading because they know how to decode and figure out how to read the words,” Reyes said. “That has increased their desire to read because they can.”

Reading support means involving families too

Pleasant Run first ramped up its support for reading during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

Teachers attended a series of virtual trainings as a part of a state program called the Indiana Literacy Cadre which helps teach educators about the science of reading — a method of language arts instruction that emphasizes phonics and reading comprehension.

The state now requires schools to use a science of reading-based curriculum. However, as a part of the state literacy cadre, Pleasant Run adopted the teaching style early.

It’s also just as important, Reyes said, to get families involved.

Last year, her team began sending packets home with students every week familiarizing the kids and their parents with the IREAD test. The school has also had parent meetings to answer questions about the state exam.

First grader Nelson Perla uses an iPad to work through a Lexia reading lesson at Pleasant Run Elementary School.

That communication has become especially important this year, administrators say, as Indiana rolls out a retention requirement for third graders who do not pass the test.

Pleasant Run administrators say they want parents to understand the importance of helping their students pass the exam on time. Koomler said the school has already identified about 65 students who are at risk of not passing. Those students have been invited to additional after-school tutoring to get ahead of the new requirement.

“Parents have been very supportive,” Koomler said. “They want the best for their child as well and I think they understand the importance of the IREAD test now, so I haven’t had any problems with getting parents on board.”

With this type of support for families in place, Pleasant Run administrators said they weren’t surprised by their school’s recent success on the IREAD exam.

The team is aiming even higher this year with a new goal: 90% passing. That would surpass the school’s 82% pass rate and set another district record.

“The growth that we saw last year has really motivated teachers to keep going,” Reyes said. “They did put in so much work, and because it paid off, I think that just really keeps the momentum going for us.”

Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.

An arts school got $632,000 to save its theater program, but then picked a new partner to run it

2024-09-20T21:50:31+00:00

Manhattan’s Professional Performing Arts School found itself in the middle of a drama in the spring when its longstanding theater program announced it would have to pull its teaching artists and close the curtains earlier because of a funding shortfall.

Students at the Hell’s Kitchen 6-12 school sprung into action, launching a GoFundMe campaign that raised $60,000 and included donations from famous alums, including “The Bear” actor Jeremy Allen White. Another A-list alum, Alicia Keys, donated $60,000 with her management company, Roc Nation.

And this year, the school got the full amount it needed for the theater program.

It seemed like a happy ending for Waterwell, which had been embedded at the school for more than a decade.

But the theater company, co-founded by “Succession’s” Arian Moayed, did not return this September.

Instead the school tapped Rosie’s Theater Kids to take over the school’s high school drama program and middle school program. Rosie’s Theater Kids has for years been running the school’s musical theater program for high school students.

And in a twist, the hero who rescued the theater program at the school, commonly known as PPAS, wasn’t one of its illustrious alumni, or even the Education Department. It was a state assembly member.

Manhattan Rep. Tony Simone presented a check to the school at a Wednesday PTA meeting for $632,000, from a pot of discretionary funds he worked with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to secure.

“Arts education is big for me,” said Simone, who met with staff and students from the school after the drama unfolded last spring. “Sadly, that’s where the government tends to cut first.”

State Rep. Tony Simone, who secured $632,000 for the Professional Performing Arts School, talks at the school's PTA meeting on Sept. 18, 2024.

Shawn Dell, the head of the school’s PTA, said the members of the school leadership team — made up of students, parents, teachers, administrators, and social workers — “unanimously agreed that a change was needed.”

“As with any major change, there are a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out, but overall the response from students and families has been positive,” she wrote in an email. “The excitement within our community is palpable.”

Waterwell Board Secretary Maria Somma said the organization had several meetings with Simone earlier this year to discuss the importance of arts education, and while the organization was “greatly disappointed” they were not invited back to the school after 14 years, they applauded Simone for helping the arts thrive at PPAS.

A small arts school in the spotlight

PPAS may not be as well known as some of New York City’s other prestigious arts schools, like LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which has inspired the “Fame” movies and television series, or the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, which was founded by the late Tony Bennett and his wife. Some of it is because of its size. LaGuardia has about 2,400 high school students. Frank Sinatra has about 840 kids in ninth through 12th grade. PPAS has about 530 students in its combined middle and high school.

PPAS uses a conservatory-style model, which is fairly unusual in a public school. Waterwell’s professionals, for instance, had led acting classes two hours every day for high school students, while for middle school, they led musical theater classes 1½ hours each day. (The school also partners with the Ailey School for dance and the National Chorale for voice.)

Waterwell was much beloved by the school community. The program’s now-ex head told parents in March that it would end earlier than usual because of a 20% budget shortfall. Education Department officials, however, disputed that and said the program’s work order was above what the school could afford, and that they had warned the program about it months before.

Despite Waterwell’s popularity, some parents already had rave reviews for the changes.

Amanda Rinzel, the parent of an eighth grader, said the middle schoolers have for the first time choices for electives (Shakespeare, improv, writing your own film/stage performance piece, or dance styles) and more performance opportunities.

“We are very happy with the change,” she said.

“Waterwell will continue to make professional productions, using the same core values and tools we have always taught our students — to be artist-citizens who tell stories that are relevant, illuminating, and inspiring,” Somma said in a statement. (The organization’s upcoming production of THE FORD / HILL PROJECT will turn the senate hearing transcripts of Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford into a performance this year at the Public Theater.)

Waterwell wished the school “nothing but love and support,” she added.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

‘Beloved’ and five other library books banned by one of Tennessee’s largest school systems

2024-09-20T03:58:42+00:00

In one of Tennessee’s book banning hot spots, the Rutherford County Board of Education voted Thursday to remove six books from high school libraries, including Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the horrific realities of American slavery.

Also removed were Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” a coming-of-age novel in which a supporting character is gay, and “Wicked,” Gregory Maguire’s popular retelling of the classic “Wizard of Oz” tale.

But Sherry Shahan’s “Skin & Bones,” which delves into eating disorders, failed to get enough votes for removal and will stay on high school library shelves in Rutherford County Schools, a suburban district south of Nashville with about 50,000 students.

The votes came amid a politically charged national climate and debates in Tennessee over what constitutes age appropriateness versus censorship.

Tennessee legislators recently revised Gov. Bill Lee’s 2022 school library law to expand the definition of what books are prohibited. The goal, they said, is to ensure the materials are appropriate for the ages and maturity levels of the students who can access them.

But instead of holding public votes on questionable material as Rutherford County’s board did Thursday, the revised law has created confusion for librarians and school leaders, prompting many to quietly pull controversial books from the shelves. A recent survey of members of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians found that more than 1,100 titles have been removed statewide under the changes, with more under review.

Rutherford County’s board voted one by one on seven books under review at the request of board member Caleb Tidwell, who cited “sexually explicit” content that he believes crossed the line of local community decency standards.

The votes came in a packed meeting room after two hours of public comment and debate, with more than a dozen citizens speaking both for and against Tidwell’s proposal. Some who opposed the books read several passages aloud.

Also removed were two novels by Sarah J. Maas, “Queen of Shadows” and “Tower of Dawn,” and Yaa Gyasi’s “Homegoing.”

The decisions came after several board members expressed confusion over which state laws and policies to follow in making their decisions: the state’s criminal obscenity law that calls for review of the material as a whole, or the revised school library law that prohibits sexual content either “in whole or in part.”

Members also voted against considering a compromise from Stan Vaught, a newly elected board member who proposed creating mature reading areas within school libraries requiring parental approval for access. The seven books in question would be placed there, he said.

The ACLU of Tennessee, which sent a Sept. 16 letter urging board members to keep all seven books, said Thursday’s votes represented the viewpoints of a vocal minority who wants to ban books that address race, racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and marginalized groups.

'Beloved' is Toni Morrison's haunting novel about sexual violence and the brutality of American slavery. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.

“Rutherford County students will pay the price and be at a significant disadvantage compared to their peers across the state and the U.S. who have access to these materials and are developing the critical thinking skills needed for college and beyond,” Kathy Sinback, the organization’s executive director in Tennessee, said in a statement.

But Tidwell, who called for the books’ removal, said the decisions were a “win for the protection of minors,” and he hinted that more library books will be reviewed.

“While there is likely more work to do, tonight was a step forward,” he said after the meeting.

The district already removed 29 titles earlier this year, as well as one last year, Mike Curato’s “Flamer,” a graphic novel about a gay teenager struggling with his identity.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated which character in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” identifies as gay.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Under Tennessee’s stricter school library law, some books quietly disappear

2024-09-17T22:09:26+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Jennifer Edwards was a teenager in Arizona when she first read “Beloved,” Toni Morrison’s haunting novel about sexual violence and the brutal realities of American slavery.

“It had a profound effect on me,” she said, citing the empathy, historical understanding, and critical thinking skills the book imparted.

Now a mother of two sons and living in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Edwards wants teens in her community to have access to her all-time favorite book.

But under a recently revised state law broadening the definition of what school library materials are prohibited, her local board of education is set to vote Thursday on whether to pull the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and six other books with mature themes from the shelves of Rutherford County Schools.

“Banning books is not OK,” Edwards told the board last month as it began reviewing the materials. “Just because you don’t like what the mirror shows you doesn’t mean you put the mirror down.”

This week’s vote comes after the district, south of Nashville, already removed 29 books from its libraries this year under a previous policy, part of a wave of purges on campuses across Tennessee and other states.

How the ‘age-appropriate’ debate is altering curriculum

In Tennessee, that wave started under Gov. Bill Lee’s 2022 school library law requiring periodic reviews of catalogs to ensure materials are appropriate for the ages and maturity levels of the students who can access them. Librarians and teachers had to publish their inventories of book collections online for parents to view. Early removals included books about marginalized groups, including people who identify as LGBTQ+, and descriptions of slavery and racial discrimination throughout U.S. history.

This spring, scrutiny escalated. Republican lawmakers added a definition of what’s “suitable” and, based on the state’s obscenity law, prohibited any material that “in whole or in part contains descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse.”

In the absence of state guidance on how to interpret the changes — What constitutes excess violence, for instance? Are photographs of nude statues allowed? What about Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet”? — some school boards like Rutherford County’s are putting questionable material to a vote. Educators in many other districts are quietly culling their shelves of certain books.

“Yes, there is some subjectiveness to it, but there’s also a line. We need to determine what the line is, and then hold it.”
Caleb Tidwell, board member, Rutherford County Schools

A recent survey of members of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians found that more than 1,100 titles have been removed under the changes, with more under review. One librarian anonymously reported pulling 300 titles at a single school since the start of the academic year. Only a sixth of the organization’s members responded to the survey.

“We may never truly know the level to which books have been removed from school libraries in Tennessee,” the organization said in a statement, noting that large-scale removals may cause some libraries to fall under the state’s minimum standards for collection counts.

“A literal interpretation of this law may have the unintended consequences of gutting resources that support curriculum standards for fine arts, biology, health, history, and world religions, to name a few, especially in high schools, where AP curriculum and dual enrollment courses require more critical texts,” the group said.

Lindsey Kimery, one of the organization’s leaders, said the law’s rollout has created “chaos and confusion” for school librarians.

“Some librarians have received guidance from their central office; some have not,” she said. “Some boards are updating their policies for handling book challenges to align with the law’s changes. Some districts have interpreted the law to mean they should preemptively go through their collections and pull anything they think has one of the prohibited topics in it.

“It’s all over the map,” Kimery added.

‘Phantom book banning’: Censorship in the shadows

The quiet censorship is being noticed by First Amendment advocates, from the ACLU of Tennessee to Julia Garnett, who graduated last spring from Hendersonville High School in Sumner County, north of Nashville.

Garnett started a free speech club at her high school during her senior year. Now a freshman at Smith College in Massachusetts, she is the youth spokesperson for the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, Sept. 22-28.

Last week, she searched her alma mater’s online library catalog to look for books by Sarah J. Maas and Ellen Hopkins, whose popular young adult novels are frequently challenged or banned due to their mature themes and sexual content.

None were listed.

“They used to be there, but they’ve disappeared,” said Garnett. “I call it phantom book banning, where libraries are being censored, but not in a public way. I think that’s what scares me the most.”

The law is vulnerable to a federal challenge on First Amendment grounds, said Kathy Sinback, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee. The statute’s vagueness, a lack of compliance guidance from the state, and the uneven way the law is being applied across Tennessee are among issues that open the door to a lawsuit.

“But we’d love to see the legislature fix the problems next year without having to pursue litigation,” Sinback said. “We’d like to see it made constitutional in a way that will ensure our children have access to the literature they deserve.”

Legal precedents support students’ First Amendment rights

The House sponsor of the law’s recent revisions, Rep. Susan Lynn of Mt. Juliet, did not respond to emails asking if she’d be open to revisiting the law. Some of her critics worry the goal is ultimately to take a legal challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court, where conservatives hold a majority.

The Senate sponsor, Joey Hensley of Hohenwald, said he believes the law is constitutional.

“I’m always open to making laws better,” he said, “but I don’t think this interferes with people’s First Amendment rights, and I’m personally not hearing about problems with it. The law’s intent is simply to ensure public schools do not give children access to materials that are not appropriate for their ages.”

Sen. Joey Hensley, of Hohenwald, co-sponsored 2024 legislation to identify what school library materials are prohibited, and to require local school boards to act on book complaints within 60 days.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said higher courts have consistently sided with First Amendment advocates on challenges to content in school libraries, even as efforts to ban books in public schools and libraries reached an all-time high in 2023.

The school library is supposed to be a place of voluntary inquiry — a safe space for students to explore ideas under the supervision of adults instead of alone on their cellphones.

“This gets to the core of the First Amendment,” she said, “the idea that libraries are a marketplace of ideas, and elected officials should not be able to dictate their contents.”

“Students are not just students; they are citizens.”
Ken Paulson, director, Free Speech Center, Middle Tennessee State University

But it’s also possible that another school library case could someday reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Two book ban cases from Iowa and Texas are already making their way through the federal courts.

Current legal precedent stems from the high court’s 1982 ruling involving a school board in New York state that wanted certain books removed from its middle and high school libraries. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled against the board and held that “the right to receive ideas is a necessary predicate to the recipient’s meaningful exercise of his own rights of speech, press, and political freedom.”

Justice William Brennan wrote that while “local school boards have a substantial legitimate role to play in the determination of school library content,” the First Amendment doesn’t give government officials the power to ditch books because they don’t like them or disagree with their viewpoints.

Ken Paulson, director of the Tennessee-based Free Speech Center and a former editor-in-chief of USA Today, also cites the importance of a 1969 Supreme Court ruling establishing that students have constitutional rights, too.

The case involved students in Des Moines, Iowa, who wore black armbands to their public school in silent protest of the Vietnam War. The court sided with the students.

“Because someone is 12 or 14, we sometimes think they don’t have constitutional rights,” Paulson said. “But they do, and they’re surprisingly robust. Students are not just students; they are citizens.”

Middle Tennessee district is a book ban hotspot

In Murfreesboro, a college town that is home to about 50,000 students in Tennessee’s largest suburban K-12 district, most titles removed so far were in high school libraries. They generally were contemporary young adult novels containing sexual content and other mature themes, from child abuse and suicide to substance abuse and LGBTQ+ issues.

The books were flagged as “sexually explicit” material by school board member Caleb Tidwell and removed this spring without going through the district’s library review committee that includes a principal, teachers, librarians, and a parent.

Rutherford County Board of Education is scheduled to decide Sept. 19 whether to remove seven more books from local school libraries.

Xan Lasko, who recently retired as a high school librarian in Rutherford County, said the directives she received from Superintendent James Sullivan bypassed the district’s usual review process for handling complaints. Instead, Tidwell cited a provision of board policy requiring the immediate removal of sexually explicit material. Sullivan concurred, according to their email exchange obtained from the district through a public records request from Nashville TV station WSMV.

Tidwell, a Republican who was reelected to the school board in August, said he made the requests on behalf of individuals who have expressed concerns but who feared retaliation from the media and individuals in the district.

In his opinion, all of the materials in question violate both the state’s obscenity law and local board policy. Most, he said, have “education value near zero, or very low.” For those that provide historical context, other books that go into those topics — but without sexually explicit language — are available.

“It’s a very contentious topic,” said Tidwell, who has three school-age children. “But if we focus on the content, most of this stuff is pretty clear. Yes, there is some subjectiveness to it, but there’s also a line. We need to determine what the line is, and then hold it.”

Lasko, the former librarian, said that’s what librarians and educators do.

“My biggest issue is that a small number of people were making the judgment to curtail what students are able to read using a vague law,” said Lasko, who now chairs the intellectual freedom committee of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians.

“We have master’s degrees in library science. We know what we’re doing,” she said. “But a lot of times, we weren’t being consulted.”

New library policy diminishes the role of librarians

In advance of this week’s vote on Tidwell’s latest request to remove more books, the board revamped its library materials policy to add language from the revised state law. It also eliminated the 11-member review committee appointed annually by the board to consider book complaints.

Instead, materials that district leaders deem to be in violation of the state’s obscenity law are to be immediately removed from all school libraries and then reviewed for a final decision by the board.

A second avenue for removal — through complaints filed by a student, parent, or school employee — also requires a board vote after receiving recommendations from the principal and superintendent and a review by an ad hoc committee.

“Before,” said the ACLU’s Sinback, “there was a thorough process where every person on the review committee had expertise and would read the book. They’d look at the questionable content but also the overall quality of the material and how it could impact kids exposed to it in both a positive and negative way.”

Now, she said, the decision rests completely with board members.

The changes concern school librarians like Brian Seadorf, who oversees the collection at Blackman High School in Murfreesboro. He asked board members and parents to “just talk to us” if they have concerns about certain books.

“We are educators, we are parents, we are grandparents. … We are good people,” Seadorf told the board on Aug. 22.

Angela Frederick, a Rutherford County resident and school librarian in a neighboring district, added: “The titles you’re considering removing are for older students approaching adulthood. It is developmentally appropriate for teenagers to mentally wrestle with difficult topics. It is also excellent preparation for higher education. Shielding them from books like these does not prepare them for anything but ignorance.”

For Edwards, the Rutherford County parent who also spoke to the board, she’s most upset that “Beloved” is on the chopping block, even though she knows it’s a deeply sad and painful book to read. (Morrison, who died in 2019, said she was inspired to write the novel based on the true story of an enslaved woman, Margaret Garner, who killed her own daughter in 1856 to spare her from slavery.)

“Just because you don’t like what the mirror shows you doesn’t mean you put the mirror down.”
Jennifer Edwards, parent

“I remember it took me several weeks to finish ‘Beloved’ when I was 15, because I had to put it down every few days,” recalls Edwards, now 42. “I had to have time to process what I was reading.”

“But to restrict literary genius,” she continued, “it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Correction: A previous version of this story attributed a quote from Rutherford County resident Angela Frederick to librarian Brian Seadorf. This version corrects the misattribution.

‘Rebirth of our school system’: First day for NYC’s nearly 900,000 students

2024-09-05T18:24:05+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Bedtimes restored. Alarms reset. Roughly 900,000 public school students returned to New York City’s buses, subways, and blocks on Thursday morning buzzing with nerves and excitement for the first day of school.

Nowhere was the back-to-school energy more amplified than at P.S. 257, a magnet school for the performing arts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Mayor Eric Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks were greeted by a DJ blaring music in a courtyard brimming with families. A smiling inflatable tube man flapped around in the crisp fall weather.

The festivities included a book giveaway and a celebration of the school’s ballet team, who won back-to-back national championships. Kids posed for pictures in front of a welcome back banner, hugging their caregivers before heading inside.

Angelica Jean-Lewis, a 5-year-old entering first grade, could hardly contain her joy, breaking into a dance moments after walking through the school’s front gates. Mary Paul, her mother, said Angelica woke her at 6:30 a.m.

“She was ready to go!” Paul said, laughing.

Banks, who high-fived kids amid the festivities, said, “This is the first day of school. It represents the rebirth of our school system, and we are always excited.”

Still the nation’s largest school system, with roughly 1,600 schools, continues to face challenges.

Mayor Eric Adams high-fives students as they walk into P.S. 257 for the first day of school.

Enrollment has declined over recent years, but the number of students citywide is expected to hold steady this year, largely due to the thousands of asylum-seeking and other migrant students who have brought their own set of challenges to school. Distractions from cellphones will likely continue to eat up class time, as the city’s put the brakes on a promised citywide cellphone ban. (Though many schools are implementing their own bans, collecting phones or requiring kids to lock them in pouches all day.)

How schools and students use, and perhaps misuse, AI will likely be front and center. Politics will surely touch schools in significant ways once again, with November’s presidential election and continued tensions over the Israel-Hamas war. And neighborhood violence will continue to reach into schools; this week, a teacher had his hand grazed by a stray bullet fired from outside the building, while he was setting up his classroom in the Bronx.

The biggest shift for the 2024-25 school year — and the Adams administration’s signature initiative — will be the continued push to standardize English and math curriculums for many students across the five boroughs. All elementary schools must now use one of three pre-approved reading programs. The city is expanding its ninth grade algebra curriculum mandate for nearly all schools and is scaling up a middle school math mandate over the next three years. The city has also required a curriculum for prekindergarten.

Few parents at P.S. 257, where Adams and Banks mingled with families, knew anything about the reading curriculum changes. Their school, in District 14, will be using a program called Into Reading, which is by far the most popular of the three curriculums. All elementary schools in 22 of the city’s 32 local school districts are using it this year.

Roseleen Magdaleno, a fourth grader at the school, said reading was her favorite subject in school — though her family wasn’t aware that the city’s literacy curriculum had changed in recent years.

Andrea Cole, whose sons Zyon and Trystan attend fifth and third grade respectively at P.S. 257, wasn’t aware of the city’s literacy curriculum overhaul. But she said she felt good about the instruction her sons were receiving, even though the material could be difficult.

“I feel like the curriculum that they’re teaching is a bit challenging for some students,” she said. “But anything new to children, they’re going to automatically grasp later on.”

It is perhaps unsurprising that parents weren’t aware of the changes. Some parents have complained that they feel in the dark about their school’s reading programs and are hungry for more communication.

At P.S. 138 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in District 17, which is adopting Into Reading this year, none of the parents Chalkbeat spoke with had heard about the city’s literacy initiative.

King, a third grader with a bright blue Sonic the Hedgehog backpack, was ready to start his first day at the school after transferring from a charter school. His dad, who declined to give his name, said he was most nervous about the state tests that begin in third grade. He hadn’t heard about the city’s new reading curriculum initiative, but he welcomed the focus on literacy.

“Reading comprehension is where he really needs more work on,” King’s dad said.

Just under half of New York City students in grades 3-8 are considered proficient in English, based on state exam scores, which was a big impetus for the curriculum shift.

After nearly half of the city’s school districts joined the new curriculum mandate last year (with the rest starting this year), scores on state English exams dropped — even more steeply for the schools already using the mandated curriculums, a Chalkbeat analysis found. Experts, however, urged caution when interpreting aggregate test scores since other variables could push scores up or down, such as fluctuations in federal COVID relief funding and elevated rates of chronic absenteeism.

Kids were more focused on things like school lunch — and last year, students mobilized when the city cut some of its most popular food items. Olivia Rivera, a P.S. 257 third grader, was most looking forward to a return to the cafeteria.

“My favorite is yogurt,” she said.

Olivia, who is on the autism spectrum, has attended the school since pre-K. Her mother, Awilda Rivera, said the school has been transformative for her daughter.

“In the beginning, she was a little shy,” said Rivera, who is also a member of the school’s PTA. “But with all the support, she’s been singing here.”

Students line up for their first day of school at P.S. 257 on Sept. 5.

Middle and high school admissions season already underway

Eddie Espada, a paraprofessional at P.S. 257, said both he and his fifth-grade son Jordan were thrilled to start the school year.

“He’s a little nervous about it as well, because it’s his last year,” Espada said.

They’re already preparing for the middle school admissions process this fall, hoping to stay close to home in Bushwick, just a few blocks from their elementary school.

For the city’s families of fifth and eighth graders, the clock starts ticking for middle and high school applications almost as soon as the year starts. High school applications open Oct. 1 and close Dec. 4, according to the Education Department. Middle school applications open Oct. 9 and close Dec. 13. (Offers are sent out March 6 and April 9, respectively.)

Tatiana Cruz just went through the kindergarten admissions process for her daughter’s first year at P.S. 138 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. After having her daughter in the preschool where she works, Cruz felt some anxiety as she dropped her off in a sea of students in red and burgundy uniforms, awaiting a classroom assignment from a school staffer with a clipboard. But Cruz was no stranger to the school.

“I went here,” Cruz said. “That’s why I wanted her to come here.”

Cruz appreciated that school still gives kids opportunities to work with paper and pencil and practice handwriting, even as schools increasingly move towards laptops and tablets.

P.S. 257 parent Brian Vasquez adjusts the backpack of his daughter, Elise Vasquez, 5. This is Elise’s first day of kindergarten.

Ongoing debate over cellphone ban

As more school districts across the nation have embraced cellphone bans this year, New York City is continuing to take its time despite initially promising otherwise.

Kevin Alvarez, a 12th grader at the Williamsburg High School of Art and Technology, said his school doesn’t have a cellphone ban in place, though teachers ask them not to use them during class.

Though phones can be distracting, Alvarez said he doesn’t believe a citywide ban on phones in schools is needed.

“If people know how to control themselves, I don’t think it’s a problem,” he said. “Me and my friends, we don’t really have that problem.”

Marielis Acosta, another 12th grader at the school, noted phones can come in handy during the school day — allowing them to quickly calculate equations or translate between languages, for example.

Still, she acknowledged they can be a nuisance for teachers and disruptive to learning.

“We’re pretty addicted,” she said. “It’s pretty bad for school. It’s really distracting.”

One floor up, at the co-located Brooklyn Latin School, an 11th grade student said his teachers employ different policies to keep them off their phones during the day — including one who asks them to put their phones in pouches when they enter the classroom.

“I’ve seen some of my classmates have excessive use of cell phones,” said the student, who asked that his name not be printed. “But it doesn’t really mandate this whole over-the-top, put your phones in pouches approach.”

Roughly 300 schools already banned phones last year and 500 additional schools were planning to implement bans this year — bringing the total to about half of all schools — Banks told reporters on Thursday. But the Education Department paused its plans on a citywide ban to avoid having the plan fall apart because of “things we did not anticipate,” he said.

“We just want to be able to have a reasonable and studied response,” Banks said.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

5 education issues to watch as NYC students head back to school

2024-09-03T18:50:03+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

More than 900,000 New York City public school students will return to the classroom on Thursday, ushering in a new academic year.

It marks the start of a school year that will bring a slate of new initiatives and challenges to the nation’s largest school system, including the rollout of new curriculums and a possible citywide cell phone ban. It will also bring a shift in how students commute: Instead of MetroCards, they’ll get OMNY cards they can use any day, any time, all year long.

Meanwhile, students and families will feel the lingering effects of major struggles from recent school years.

Elementary school teachers and students will continue to adjust to the city’s literacy curriculum mandate. Schools will still grapple with how best to meet the needs of the thousands of asylum-seeking and other migrant students who have entered the school system. And tensions fueled by the Israel-Hamas war could persist in school communities this year.

Plus, several looming elections — both local and national — could mean a school year where students are especially politically engaged.

Here’s a look at five major education issues that may come into play this school year:

Curriculum changes continue in NYC classrooms

This school year will, for the first time, see every local school district adopt new elementary literacy curriculums under the city’s mandate — the signature education initiative of schools Chancellor David Banks.

That mandate started last year, with nearly half of the city’s districts required to select one of three pre-approved curriculums. The curriculum overhaul came as Banks sought to improve the city’s literacy rates, though already some school communities have pushed back on the mandate, and at least one school won a waiver out of it.

Last month, as state test results showed a dip in English scores among the city’s 3-8 grade students, education officials acknowledged that the new curriculums may have negatively affected test scores, with teachers still getting used to unfamiliar materials. However, experts told Chalkbeat that aggregate test scores should be interpreted with caution, as many other variables besides the curriculum changes could push scores up or down.

Separately, the city is looking to overhaul math curriculum in middle schools, while expanding its mandate for ninth grade algebra.

This school year will also see the citywide rollout of a new K-12 Black Studies curriculum. Banks has also said that additional curriculums are being developed for the city’s Hidden Voices initiative — which seeks to teach New York City students about individuals from diverse backgrounds — including stories about Muslim and Jewish figures who have played significant roles in history.

Status of NYC school cell phone ban remains unclear

Near the end of last school year, momentum for a systemwide school cell phone ban picked up steam — with Banks expressing support and promising a policy update would arrive during the summer.

But that prospect became less certain last week after Mayor Eric Adams said the city was “not there yet.”

“There will be some action in the upcoming school year, but the extent of a full ban, we’re not there yet. We want to make sure we have parents on board,” Adams said.

“The previous administration attempted to do this, and they had to roll back,” he added, referencing a previous cellphone ban instituted by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, then overturned by his successor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio. “I don’t want to go backwards after we make a determination.”

With just days remaining until students return to the classroom, Banks said an update would be made “very shortly.”

“Cellphones, in my opinion, have no place in our schools,” he said during an appearance on ABC7. “There may not be a full-on mandate just yet, but over the next couple of days, we’re absolutely going to have something to say about cellphones in schools.”

In July, Chalkbeat reported that the city’s Education Department was considering a ban that would go into effect in February. Under that policy, schools would have to come up with their own plan for keeping phones out of students’ hands during the school day.

Many schools already have bans — with some collecting phones at the start of the day and others requiring students to place them in locked pouches. Still, many educators have been hopeful that a citywide policy could help offer clearer and more consistent enforcement.

Enrollment shifts continue to pose challenges in NYC

New York City schools and educators continue to face challenges as a result of citywide enrollment shifts. Though enrollment ticked up last year for the first time in eight years, the city’s student population remains well below pre-pandemic norms, with just over 912,000 students in the system from pre-K to 12th grade during the 2023-24 school year.

Whether the upward trajectory persists this year is an open question – one with major implications for the city’s schools. Funding from the state is based on student headcount, and at individual schools, budgets are linked to student populations. Enrollment shifts in the coming years will play a key role in a number of critical policy questions, including how the city complies with the state class size law and whether officials will be forced to merge or close more small schools.

Student demographics have also seen notable shifts in recent years. The number of English language learners, for example, jumped from 135,000 in the 2022-23 school year to more than 148,000 last year — a change with major implications, as schools have scrambled to hire more bilingual staff.

Presidential, mayoral, and education council elections loom

In November, voters across the nation will cast their ballots for the next U.S. president, choosing between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. It’s an election that has garnered serious interest among young people, with nearly 60% of people nationwide aged 18-34 reporting they were “extremely likely to vote,” according to a 2023 poll by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.

In New York City, the election may drive youth engagement in politics, particularly as older high school students prepare to vote for the first time. It may also serve as a tool for grounding lessons about civic engagement in classrooms across the city.

Meanwhile, here in New York City, several local elections could have an impact on the city’s school system.

Later this school year, elections will be held for two-year seats on the city’s Community Education Councils — parent-led boards that have the power to approve or reject school rezoning plans, pass resolutions about various school-related issues, and work with district superintendents.

And with the city’s mayoral election set to take place next year in November, challengers to Adams are gearing up for the Democratic primary in June. Already, several notable figures have thrown their hats into the ring, including city Comptroller Brad Lander, a frequent critic of Adams.

Educators, students experiment with artificial intelligence

It’s been well over a year since the tech group OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the public, and in the time since, it and a slew of other chatbots have offered new ways to generate writing and content using artificial intelligence.

Already, some students at New York City high schools are reporting widespread use of AI-powered chatbots among their peers, while nationwide 44% of teenagers reported they were likely to use AI-powered tools to complete their schoolwork for them.

Across the country, schools have grappled with how to respond to the new technology, with some large districts creating their own AI-powered tools at times to mixed results.

In New York City, the public school system initially blocked ChatGPT on school devices and networks, citing “negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content.” But a few months later, the Education Department reversed course, with Banks proclaiming the city’s schools were “determined to embrace its potential.”

It remains to be seen what citywide policies or partnerships will be adopted regarding artificial intelligence. But already, local teachers have begun experimenting with the tools, including those geared toward developing lesson plans or assisting with grading.

Meanwhile, the American Federation of Teachers has released a set of “guardrails” and other resources intended to help educators safely navigate the new technology. The organization emphasized that safety and privacy should be prioritized any time AI-powered tools are used.

Teachers: We want to hear from you about how you’re using AI-powered tools in the classroom.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

National teacher of the year urges teachers to ‘find their voice’ as experts in their profession

2024-08-26T23:24:49+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

The Tennessee educator chosen as the nation’s teacher of the year is calling on America’s 3.5 million teachers to “find their voice” on behalf of students as many states seek to censor teachers, ban books, and push voucher policies that send taxpayer funding to private schools.

Missy Testerman, who just ended her tenure as Tennessee’s teacher of the year, said that bigger educational priorities demand attention: air conditioners are breaking down in aging school buildings as a new academic year begins; federal pandemic relief funding is running out to pay for tutoring and summer learning programs; and school communities are struggling to provide mental health support, especially for their most marginalized students.

“When we find our voices, we find our own way to stand in the gap for kids. It is not enough to just shut our classroom doors and teach,” Testerman said in her video address to the nation, released this month by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Testerman, who officially began as her profession’s top ambassador in July, is on leave this academic year from her job at Rogersville City School, where she teaches English language learners in her rural Appalachian town of 4,500 people. Her new role includes traveling to more than 150 speaking engagements or appearances before organizations spanning education, business, health, and government.

Among her messages: Teachers are experts in their field.

“Your governor is not an education expert. The legislature is not filled with education experts,” she told Chalkbeat. “If you want an expert on education policy and outcomes and what works for students, ask your teachers, your administrators, your director of schools.”

That message has resonated at her talks, where she’s routinely greeted afterward by a line of educators waiting to thank her.

“It’s hard to do a profession where you are the expert, but you’re often not treated as such,” she said. “Sometimes, we need to be reminded.”

Testerman spoke with Chalkbeat on Friday before ceding her title as Tennessee’s teacher of the year to the 2024-25 honoree, Bryan Kerns, a math and fire management instructor at Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport.

In many ways, Testerman said, Tennessee epitomizes the challenges faced by educators she’s met across the nation, many of whom feel like they’re walking on eggshells just to keep demanding jobs that pay a modest salary.

While she applauded a focus on early literacy and significant investments in vocational and technical education under Gov. Bill Lee’s administration, she said other policy changes during the last six years have been more of a burden.

A 2021 state law limits what public school teachers can say about race, gender, and bias in the classroom and interferes with instruction on difficult but important topics included in the state’s academic standards. A group of Tennessee teachers is challenging that law in federal court.

Tennessee’s 2022 school library law, billed as a way to ensure materials are age-appropriate, quickly expanded so that a state panel can ban certain books statewide, based on local complaints. This year, lawmakers added a definition of “suitable” that makes it easier to remove materials, including many stories about Black people or those identifying as LGBTQ.

Also this year, the legislature passed a law requiring public school employees to out transgender students to their parents and debated a bill designed to ban LGBTQ+ flags in schools. Testerman called the second proposal, which failed to pass, a distraction.

“From my standpoint, there are so many problems facing schools — I’ll give you a list,” she said. “But that’s not one that I think we need to waste a lot of time on. Let that be a local decision.”

Meanwhile, Lee’s administration is pushing for a statewide voucher program that would let any Tennessee family use taxpayer money toward private school tuition, regardless of their family income.

“Tennessee is currently in the bottom tier of states in per-pupil funding for public education, and increasing that should be our focus,” said Testerman.

“Right now, however, there’s a $144 million placeholder in our state budget for a voucher program that didn’t even pass,” she continued. “It’s disheartening for teachers to know this money is sitting there doing nothing while their students have so many needs.”

Testerman said the money could be used instead to fix broken air conditioners in Memphis schools, hire more mental health professionals in her own school system, and replace outdated Chromebook laptops in suburban Williamson County near Nashville, one of the state’s most affluent districts.

“If Williamson County is seeing these kinds of financial problems,” she said, “you can imagine what’s happening in urban and rural districts in East and West Tennessee that don’t have the tax base to raise funds the traditional way.”

While it often feels like her profession is under attack, Testerman said she’s inspired by the educators she’s met across America as she advocates for higher compensation and respect for them.

“This job can feel heavy,” she said. “Teachers are facing student behavioral and mental health issues at a scale they’ve never seen before. We have no idea what kids go home to. But we can make the seven hours that they’re with us happy. We can use those hours to deliver academic content in a way that prepares them to move on and hopefully create a good life.”

“We are hope givers,” she said.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Most Americans are leery of book bans — but they don’t oppose all restrictions, survey says

2024-08-21T12:05:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

A majority of Americans worry more about children losing access to books that could teach them something about the world than they do about children being exposed to potentially inappropriate material.

And most trust teachers and school librarians to make good choices about the books they stock at school.

But they also think age appropriateness is a legitimate reason to restrict book access, especially for elementary students. And there are big differences on the issue between liberals and conservatives, between LGBTQ adults and others, and between parents and non-parents.

That’s all according to new polling from the Knight Foundation that examines public attitudes toward book restrictions in public schools. Knight talked to more than 4,500 adults, including 1,413 parents of children aged 18 or younger, and oversampled parents of color to better capture their perspectives.

The picture that emerges is “nuanced,” said Kyla Gabriel, director of learning and impact for the Knight Foundation, which has done research on free expression issues for decades.

For example, 88% of parents of public school children say they feel confident that their local public schools choose appropriate books, compared with 76% of non-parents. But more public school parents say they support some efforts to restrict book access than do non-parents — 40% to 32%. And more than half of parents whose children don’t attend public school support efforts to restrict book access, reflecting the greater representation of religious conservatives among private school and homeschooling parents.

“This is much more complex than ‘a majority of adults oppose book restrictions’,” Gabriel said. “When they have a child in the public school system, they are not necessarily supportive of book restrictions, but they might see some reasons to restrict books.”

Reflecting similarly conflicted views, a survey last year by the Every Library Institute found that large majorities of parents trust librarians and believe their children are safe using the school library — even as smaller majorities supported the idea of restricting book access in some cases, requiring parents to sign permission slips for library use, and allowing parents to opt their child out of using the school library.

And an Ipsos poll found that Democrats had more concerns about book bans, but voters of both parties said they would be less likely to support a candidate who supported restricting book access. The issue continues to resonate politically: In a July speech shortly after she became the likely Democratic nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris contrasted her party with Republicans: “We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.”

Uncertainty over who should decide on appropriate books

In the Knight survey results released Wednesday, majorities of conservatives, Republicans, and white evangelical Protestants support restricting books in public schools.

But even some conservative respondents worried that works considered classics could be banned in liberal communities because they touch on ideas or use language now considered outmoded or offensive.

“Books like ‘Huckleberry Finn,’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ‘Catcher in the Rye’ all need to be made available to students,” one respondent told Knight. “Just because the far-left liberals think all things not woke need to be banned, the students will miss out on learning about the culture and history of this country.”

“They just better not restrict access to the Bible,” said another.

While most Hispanic respondents did not support restricting books, they were more likely to support some restrictions than other ethnic or racial groups, while Black respondents were the least likely ethnic or racial group to support restrictions.

Just 12% of LGBTQ adults told Knight they support book restrictions in school. Many LGBTQ youth report feeling unsafe at school even as many states have adopted restrictions on talking about gender and sexuality and some schools have removed books that mention LGBTQ topics.

Large majorities said students should have access to books that might contradict their parents’ political, religious, or moral beliefs. Some respondents cast efforts to restrict book access as “censorship.”

“These efforts sound like the actions of right-wing extremists who want to restrict education and access to information in order to inhibit students’ critical thinking so they will more easily conform to the extremist ideology,” one respondent said.

Still, 61% said age appropriateness would be a legitimate reason to restrict access to certain books, with some comparing this to TV and movie ratings systems.

There was less consensus about who should decide whether books were appropriate. About half said they trusted librarians and teachers to make the call, but those school professionals scored higher than other groups. Fewer than a third said the school board should decide, and just 21% said the state government or non-parents in the community could be trusted with the decision.

While a majority of respondents said books that portray or discuss racism should be available to all students, fewer than half thought elementary school students should have access to books that mention sexual orientation or the existence of non-traditional gender identities. This aligns with other polls about people’s comfort levels with discussions of race and American history at school versus discussions of sexuality or gender in the classroom.

In contrast, 70% of LGBTQ respondents — many of whom were once LGBTQ students themselves — said that books touching on sexuality and gender identity should be available even to elementary students. Many advocates say seeing themselves represented in books and other media is valuable for LGBTQ children who may feel isolated or unsafe in their schools.

Nearly a quarter of respondents were aware of efforts to restrict books in their community, and of those, more than half said the efforts had been successful. One in five respondents from the South said they were aware of successful efforts to restrict books in their community, compared with 6% of respondents in the Northeast.

While six in 10 respondents said the issue of book access was important, just 3% said they had gotten involved personally — 2% to prevent a book from being restricted and 1% to restrict a book.

A large majority of respondents said that parents should be able to raise concerns about particular books, but far fewer thought that community members who didn’t have children in the schools should be able to raise concerns. Respondents also thought that books should not be removed or restricted based on a single complaint.

Studies by PEN America have found that most book bans are instigated by a relatively small number of people. Florida — where a large share of book challenges occur — adopted a law this year that limits people who don’t have children in the school system to one challenge per month.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Educators rebuke Hillsdale College for soliciting donations to ‘put the Constitution back in Tennessee schools’

2024-08-13T23:21:47+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

A conservative Christian college involved in classroom culture wars is suggesting that the U.S. Constitution is absent from Tennessee schools, drawing a public rebuke from a member of a Republican-appointed committee that developed the state’s social studies standards.

A recent mailer from Hillsdale College in Michigan warns that K-12 education is at a crisis point. “Activists and bureaucrats,” it reads, are pushing to “replace individual rights with the destructive idea of unequal rights based on identity using critical race theory and other Marxist ideologies.”

A mailer Hillsdale College sent to Tennessee residents.

The mailer solicits tax-deductible donations ranging from $15 to $100 to help the college continue to send pocket-sized copies of the Constitution to schools that request them.

“Will you help put the Constitution back in Tennessee schools?” it reads in bold print.

But according to the state’s social studies standards, which lay out what students should know at each grade level, the Constitution has a prominent place in Tennessee schools.

Students are expected to be introduced to the Constitution in second grade. By fourth grade, students are to examine constitutional principles such as the separation of powers, federalism, and checks and balances. Three constitutional amendments are covered in eighth grade.

The mailer isn’t sitting well with two former social studies standards committee members and others who advocate for the subject and develop resources for educators to teach it well.

“When you see a flier like this, you realize that a lot of people believe it. If something goes uncontested, people believe it,” said Bill Carey, executive director of Tennessee History for Kids, a nonprofit that produces resources for educators on state history. “It’s not true, obviously. Tennessee may do a better job of any state at teaching civics and the U.S. Constitution.”

Carey, who served on a 10-member committee that revised the standards in 2016 and 2017, voiced his criticism in an opinion piece published in newspapers across Tennessee. He received the mailer at his suburban Nashville home and shared a copy with Chalkbeat.

Asked to comment on Carey’s op-ed, a Hillsdale representative said the college’s main concern is curriculum, or the lessons and instruction students get to learn material in the standards.

“Despite the best intentions of good, even excellent, state standards, some teachers and administrators can and do deviate from them,” said Labin Duke, the school’s associate vice president of national donor outreach, in a written response. “Recent legislation in Tennessee aimed at restricting inappropriate materials in schools suggests as much.”

Duke did not cite evidence of schools or teachers deviating from Tennessee’s social studies standards.

In 2021, Tennessee became one the first states to adopt a law restricting what educators can teach about race, gender, bias, and other concepts. The law has led teachers to exercise caution when teaching about school segregation and raised concerns about a chilling effect on authors speaking to Memphis high schoolers about their book on George Floyd’s death.

William “Freddy” Curtis, a retired government and civics educator who also served on the 2016-17 social studies standards committee, agreed that social studies gets short shrift nationally but took umbrage at Hillsdale’s characterization of what’s happening in Tennessee.

The committee, which he vice-chaired, added standards about the history and application of the Constitution, he said. He does not think deviating from standards is a problem in Tennessee, citing as evidence a requirement that districts give every high school student a civics exam.

Curtis was an elementary school teacher, high-school government teacher, principal, and district superintendent in Cannon County, a rural area between Chattanooga and Nashville. He’s also a self-described conservative, Republican primary voter, and ordained Church of God minister who served as an adviser on Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s first gubernatorial campaign.

“To be told I am a Marxist activist … I didn’t like that at all,” Curtis said. “I am probably a proponent of some of the things Hillsdale does. But this is so crazy, it’s off the charts.”

He added: “A lot of teachers are conservatives, particularly in Tennessee.”

Kira Duke, state coordinator for the Tennessee Council for History Education, which promotes the importance of history and supports teachers, said Tennessee’s social studies standards are fairly specific about what to teach about the Constitution compared to other states.

For example, she said, “North Carolina standards are written to be broad, to address more themes, and you can make an argument there is a place for that.”

Hillsdale has gained a higher national profile in recent years for championing a classical liberal arts education, including pushing to expand its affiliated charter schools in Tennessee. The mailer appears to use boilerplate language that could be sent anywhere in the country, and it states that donations may go to other causes along with pocket Constitutions.

Mark Finchum, executive director of the Tennessee Council for Social Studies and a former National Council for Social Studies board member, said the mailer uses scare tactics.

“I don’t really care for propaganda,” Finchum said. “Words are so important, and we need to choose them carefully.”

Duke, of Hillsdale, said in the statement that the mailer “simply aims to support educators who want all students to meet Tennessee’s high standards.” The college has distributed more than 5 million free copies of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, including more than 700,000 to teachers and students nationwide, he said.

Carey said students need context, not just copies of primary source material. He pointed to a number of ways the country’s seminal document is being taught in Tennessee, including with free online curriculum produced by the Secretary of State’s office.

When the committee was revising the standards a few years ago, members had sometimes heated debates on how to word standards that cover the origins of world religions, how to teach Tennessee history, and when students should learn about the Holocaust.

The U.S. Constitution, he said, was not a contentious topic.

Eric Gorski is a managing editor for local news. Reach Eric at egorski@chalkbeat.org .

New Jersey governor signs bills to mandate literacy screenings for K-3 students starting in 2025

2024-08-13T22:29:10+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a set of bills Tuesday aimed at improving student reading proficiency, which dwindled after the COVID pandemic, by mandating literacy screenings for K-3 students and implementing new educator training on reading instruction next school year, among other initiatives.

“When it comes to overcoming barriers to literacy, we do not have time to waste,” Murphy said to a group of education advocates, educators, and lawmakers in the library of Park Elementary School, a pre-K-8 school in Newark’s North Ward where roughly 780 students are enrolled. Newark Superintendent Roger León, school board members, and a few parents and students were also in the audience at the news conference.

The two bills Murphy signed are intended to help improve students’ reading skills, require an early intervention program, and establish a new office in the state’s education department dedicated to equity and academic recovery, all of which hold special significance in Newark where youth literacy rates are struggling.

Reading proficiency for the city’s third graders took a nosedive after the pandemic, and city leaders and educators have been employing various initiatives over the last few years to help students recover. In 2019, 51.6% of Newark Public Schools’ third graders met state reading standards, a rate that dropped by nearly 15 percentage points in 2023, when only 36.9% of third graders were proficient.

Third grade is a particularly crucial time for reading in a child’s development, experts say, and reading proficiency at that grade level can predict what reading levels will be in eighth grade and beyond. Students of color in New Jersey are also more at risk of falling behind as reading proficiency levels among Black third graders in public schools started to decline in 2019, before the pandemic, according to a report by The Racial Equity Initiative.

“From birth to third grade you are learning to read,” Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz said at the news conference. “From third grade and beyond, you are reading to learn.”

Ruiz, an alumna of Newark Public Schools who represents the city as part of her legislative district, has been advocating for years for the literacy initiatives outlined in the two bills that Murphy signed.

One bill, S-2644, establishes a Working Group on Student Literacy within the Department of Education that will be dedicated to researching evidence-based literacy strategies, screenings, interventions for students, and professional development programs on literacy education for teachers. This group will present its recommendations to the state education department, and state officials will then publish guidance for districts on literacy strategies.

After that’s implemented, in the 2025-26 school year, traditional public school districts and charter school networks, which are privately run but publicly funded schools, will be mandated to conduct two literacy screenings annually for all K-3 students, and notify guardians of the results within 30 days.

The other bill, S-2647, establishes the Office of Learning Equity and Academic Recovery in the state education department, which will coordinate resources and research best practices for literacy, learning equity, and learning acceleration.

The legislation signed also includes $5.25 million to implement these literacy initiatives, which was earmarked in the 2025 state budget passed in June.

“We have generations of third graders that are not reading at grade level and if we don’t do something to shift course, we are complicit in that,” Ruiz said.

Several advocacy groups worked with Ruiz and other lawmakers on the policies.

“As we move forward and look to the new school year, there is still much to be done, especially when it comes to serving our most under-resourced learners, who are disproportionately Black and brown children,” said Paula White, executive director of JerseyCAN, an education policy nonprofit that was part of the collaborative effort behind the bills.

Newark school and city leaders have pushed various efforts over the last year to help student reading rates.

Last summer, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka declared an “urgent” literacy crisis throughout the city and launched a 10-point Youth Literacy Action plan that called on local schools, parents, community partners, and programs to get young children reading and writing.

The district also mandated 10,000 students last year to participate in summer programs to target math and reading, and school leaders last fall created a plan aimed to boost student performance in writing and English language arts.

Among the students at the bill signing was Kennedy, 8, a rising fourth grader at Park Elementary School, who was there with her mom, Sharmaine Maxey, of Newark.

Maxey proudly said that her daughter is part of the gifted and talented program at the school, loves to read, and was skipped from first grade to third grade last year.

“When you’re in a public school classroom, there’s such a variety of learning styles, and sometimes a teacher may need to pour more of her time into one student and take learning time away from another,” Maxey said, applauding the intervention programs the bills will trigger next school year. “As a mom of a gifted student, this news is precious to me because it’s the stepping stone that’s needed here in Newark.”

Jessie Gómez contributed to this story.

Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Contact Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana unschooling parents push for child-led learning, but some worry about lax regulation

2024-08-12T10:37:13+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Kori Simmons teaches her children at home, but doesn’t follow a curriculum. She doesn’t give many written tests or traditional homework. And she provides lots of educational flexibility for each child.

On Monday, the Shelbyville mom might focus on Native American culture. She’ll play her reed flute for the kids and help them make dream catchers.

Tuesday could bring chemistry and physics. The kids will mix cornstarch and water to create oobleck, a substance that behaves both like a liquid and a solid, to learn about non-Newtonian fluids. Wednesday might be flower-planting. Or papier-mâché. Or geysers made from a two-liter bottle of soda and a roll of Mentos.

Simmons, a former substitute teacher, plans to fully educate her younger daughters, ages 5 and 8, in this method. It’s called unschooling, a niche of home schooling that promotes child-led learning without the rules and structure of a traditional school environment.

“It’s really a play it by ear kind of thing, which sounds so crazy because we’ve all grown up in the public school system where everything is supposed to be planned out,” Simmons said. “We have to know who needs to do what, when, and life just isn’t that way.”

As state lawmakers look for ways to expand school choice and more families use options like vouchers for non-public schools, the unschooling movement offers an unconventional model made possible by the near-total freedom Indiana parents have over their children’s education. A Senate bill last session about school choice would have expanded home-schooling parents’ access to state funding for classes and educational services. But after some expressed concerns the proposal would also attach regulations to home schooling, lawmakers backed off.

Unschooling, which operates on a spectrum but legally isn’t distinct from homeschooling, goes untracked and largely unregulated. In fact, Indiana is one of 11 states that has both lax home schooling regulations and no requirement to report home schooling enrollment, according to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association.

State law requires home educators to provide instruction equivalent to that of public schools but doesn’t mandate specific courses or skills to be taught, and it leaves what’s equivalent open to interpretation. Plus, since the state doesn’t track home schooling or unschooling, Indiana has no way of enforcing the requirement for equivalent instruction.

That means Hoosier parents have almost universal freedom to design their unschooling, with some integrating curriculums with exploratory learning, and others allowing their children to completely direct their education.

Definitions of unschooling aren’t precisely nailed down. But generally, unschooling emphasizes less curriculum, learning through exploration and hands-on activities, and few if any academic requirements compared to traditional home schooling, according to practitioners and experts on home education who spoke with Chalkbeat.

It’s difficult to know how widespread the practice is because it’s not tracked by the state or federal government. An Indianapolis Facebook group for unschooling families has over 700 members, but the total number of parents in Indiana’s unschooling community is unclear.

Practitioners of unschooling say that a less-regimented form of education helps kids discover their passion for learning and follow their interests at an early age, which builds confidence and independence. However, critics say unschooling can result in an incomplete education, and the lack of oversight limits the ability to intervene in potentially abusive situations.

“What we know is that there are certainly families for whom and young people for whom home schooling and unschooling work very well,” said Robert Kunzman, professor of education at Indiana University and managing director of the International Center for Home Education Research. But there are also instances, he added, “where it is a cover for neglect or abuse, and it runs the gamut everywhere in between.”

Unschooling prioritizes child-led learning

Nationally, the number of families who home-school has skyrocketed since the pandemic, with an increase of 51% from 2017-18 to 2022-23 in states with comparable enrollment, according to a Washington Post analysis that collected data from 32 states. Indiana was one of 19 states without data available.

The analysis revealed that home schooling is now the nation’s fastest growing form of education.

Parents often choose to home-school because they are dissatisfied with the public education system or want to provide moral instruction, according to polling from before and after the pandemic began.

Similar data is not available for unschooling. However, Kunzman believes that many of the reasons for home-schooling would overlap with the reasons for unschooling — namely, the disillusionment with public schools and anti-establishment attitudes.

Unschooling takes those beliefs a step further and removes many traces of the public school classroom model, instead focusing on kids learning through experience and exploration. It’s a philosophy that gained traction in the 1970s and 1980s with the advocacy of public education critic John Holt.

Unschooling can vary from household to household, Kunzman added. While one family might purchase a curriculum for one subject and use child-led learning for other subjects, another family might rely entirely on the unschooled approach.

“Historically, unschooling emerged from a real dissatisfaction with institutions in general and highly structured, highly directed forms of education,” Kunzman said. “I think it appeals to parents and children who have a real resistance to externally dictated requirements.”

Simmons started home schooling and then unschooling during COVID. She was unhappy with how much remote learning resembled “busywork,” she said, and felt she could teach her children more effectively.

She began by relying mostly on curriculum, but switched to an unschooled approach when she noticed that book work was not engaging her kids.

“It was getting so monotonous for them,” Simmons said. “We were throwing in some hands-on things, and I realized they were learning so much more from discussion and from hands-on things.”

Kylene Varner, home educator and legislative liaison for Indiana Association of Home Educators, said her family mixes more structured home schooling with child-led learning. (She prefers the term child-led or delight-directed learning rather than unschooling.) She said she emphasizes history, world language, and literature, but encourages her children to go deeper when a topic appeals to them.

Her philosophy is that learning comes more easily when her children are passionate about the subject. When her daughter wanted to know more about jewelry making, Varner was excited to help her follow that curiosity, she said.

“Let’s go,” Varner said. “Let’s explore that. Why would I not take advantage of her having an interest in that?”

Kori Simmons' children build graham cracker gingerbread houses during a Christmas party with their unschooling co-op.

Simmons said in her unschooled method, she values not just an interest-led education, but a practical one. She created her own graduation requirements with benchmarks for English language arts and math, but also an emphasis on skills like hitching a trailer, cooking meals from scratch, public speaking, and growing vegetables.

If her children want to pursue higher level courses such as calculus, they’re welcome to. But if they’re not interested or don’t plan to attend college, she said, they don’t need that coursework.

“It is not an assumption that my children will go to college,” Simmons said. “It is an assumption that my children will be successful. Now, if success for them means that they work at McDonald’s, and they become a manager, then I’m okay with that as long as they are able to pay their own way, take care of their own family, have what they want, do what they want, and those sorts of things.”

Few home schooling, unschooling regulations exist in Indiana

When it comes to rules for approaches like home schooling and unschooling, Indiana is one of the most relaxed states in the country, said Christopher Lubienski, professor of education policy at Indiana University.

Under state law, parents can remove their elementary or middle school students from public school without reporting their intent to home-school to the district or the Indiana Department of Education. There are also no subject matter requirements for home education, unlike Ohio and Kentucky, which both mandate English language arts, history, mathematics, science, and government or civics.

“It’s largely unregulated,” Lubienski said. “It’s mostly defined by court rulings. The legislature simply hasn’t weighed in on these issues for the most part.”

The state legislature has heard only one bill in the last 10 years that would have increased the regulation of home schooling. Last year’s Senate Bill 255 would combine and expand existing state funding programs and allow Hoosier parents to apply for annual grants for a range of educational expenses, a boost for school choice in the state.

Home schooling families were eligible for funding in the first draft of the bill. But home education advocates expressed concern over the accompanying state oversight.

The bill’s author, Republican Sen. Ryan Mishler from Mishawaka, subsequently said the next draft of the bill, which legislators will consider in 2025, would exclude home-schoolers.

The exclusion of home-schoolers from state oversight fuels concerns about neglect and abuse, Lubienski said. The Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a nonprofit that advocates for state protections for home-schooled children, counted 191 fatalities since 2000 in its database of home schooling abuse and neglect cases.

In terms of concerns about educational neglect, Lubienski said, critics of home schooling and unschooling are skeptical that parents without special training are qualified to teach children.

“If you have parents who aren’t necessarily trained in how to educate a child that are doing this, is that child going to get the same preparation that a child in a regular school would?” he said.

The unschooling community rejects families who use the method to cover up abuse or neglect, Varner said, and those cases don’t represent the larger community. She added that any adult who witnesses child neglect or abuse is a state-mandated reporter.

Before recommending unschooling to a family, she would want to ensure the parents are prepared to provide a sufficient education, Varner said. She said gaps exist in any education model, but unschooling parents must internally hold each other accountable.

“That’s more of like a mentor-mentee relationship,” Varner said. “That’s not something that can be satisfied through legislation.”

Indiana’s lax home schooling regulations in Indiana don’t just impact parents and kids. Schools in Indiana can take advantage of the minimal oversight to pad their graduation rates by reporting high school dropouts as withdrawals to home schooling.

Unschoolers’ educational outcomes not clear

There is little empirical evidence to broadly support or discredit unschooling. Social scientists can’t control for variables like family background when it comes to the practice. And supporters as well as critics of unschooling often misrepresent what data is available to advance their preferred narrative, Kunzman and Lubienski said.

Organizations like the Home School Legal Defense Association have been highly influential in reducing regulations for home schooling across the country. Lubienski said these organizations claim home-schooled children score higher on exams, but the samples in the cited studies are not representative, and it’s difficult to conduct a controlled experiment on the issue.

“Kids who come from families with more educational resources, where parents are more invested in education, tend to do better in school whether they’re home-schooled or not,” he said.

In Indiana, if unschooling prevents children from receiving a quality education, that neglect would be largely hidden from view, Kunzman said. But, he believes the unschooling tenet of using the child’s interests as a starting point for deeper learning is not inherently a problem.

“When done well, I think that could be a really enriching form of education,” Kunzman said. “I think the risks are that it can also be not done well, and it can be a context where young people might not gain some vital skills and knowledge that they need.”

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org.

NYC families flock to sign up for Summer Rising. They often don’t show up.

2024-07-29T23:10:54+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Since launching Summer Rising in 2021, New York City officials have frequently pointed to the large number of applications as evidence of the program’s success. But attendance numbers tell a very different story.

This year, roughly 138,000 elementary and middle school kids applied for 110,000 available seats in the free program spawned during the pandemic. Its combination of academics and camp-like activities aimed to reconnect students to school — and each other — after remote learning. For the first time, summer school was no longer just for students who were failing classes. That reduced its stigma.

In fact, once it began, parents clamored for it, and the city kept it going, ponying up city dollars this year to cover the costs after federal COVID stimulus funding dried up. Schools Chancellor David Banks said the program has become a “cornerstone in the lives of our youngest New Yorkers.”

Yet on an average day in 2022 and 2023, only about 60% of students enrolled in Summer Rising actually showed up to the academic portion of the day, which is overseen by the Education Department, according to agency figures obtained by Chalkbeat that haven’t previously been publicly reported. Officials didn’t share numbers for this summer but said attendance so far is “on par” with past years.

The ongoing attendance challenges are raising questions about whether the program — which costs $240 million a year — is the best use of city resources, and whether an initiative designed during the height of the pandemic is still the right approach. Low attendance has made it difficult for program operators to plan staffing, among other practical challenges, and raises questions for some educators about whether Summer Rising is meeting families’ needs.

Education Department officials attributed the anemic attendance to the optional nature of its free summer programming. Only a fraction of the attendees are mandated to attend Summer Rising for academic reasons. So it might not come as a surprise that the program’s daily attendance is dramatically lower than during the school year, which averaged between 88% and 89% in 2022 and 2023.

But interviews with more than a dozen principals, community-based organizations, families, and experts indicate that specific features of Summer Rising may be contributing to the attendance shortfalls.

“We’re not even evaluating to see if it’s doing the things that we want it to do,” said Bronx City Council Member Althea Stevens, the chair of the Council’s Committee on Children and Youth and a former youth services provider.

Stevens, along with some principals and program operators, argue that the city should return to the pre-COVID system, in which the Department of Youth and Community Development, or DYCD, offered free summer camps for an estimated 90,000 students — including more than 500 camps located in public schools for around 60,000 kids — while schools ran summer classes for kids who failed courses during the school year.

Prior to COVID-19, DYCD’s summer camps cost an estimated $61 million a year, according to United Neighborhood Houses, an organization that lobbies on behalf of nonprofit youth services providers. Last year, the city allocated $150 million for just the DYCD portion of Summer Rising, according to city budget officials.

Others fiercely defend the Summer Rising model.

Students’ COVID academic losses “are far from recovered,” said Steven Wilson, the cofounder and CEO of the National Summer School Institute, an organization that developed the summer school curriculum now used in roughly two-thirds of Summer Rising sites.

“The most caring thing we can do is make sure they have additional instruction — very high quality and very engaging instruction,” he said.

Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle called Summer Rising a “vital” program for families, saying, “We’re immensely proud that Summer Rising provides such essential supports to our families that need it the most.”

Attendance woes driven by range of factors

Educators and summer camp operators acknowledged that underwhelming attendance often comes with the territory of running free summer programs, where attendance is generally not mandatory and families aren’t on the hook financially.

“I don’t know how to fix the problem,” said one principal who runs a Summer Rising program, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to talk to the media. “A fair number of parents sign up and either decide to do something else, or kids talk them into doing something else.”

Even so, multiple Summer Rising nonprofit partners said they routinely saw higher attendance in the summer camp programs they previously ran, which didn’t have a designated academic portion.

A spokesperson for DYCD said attendance in school-based summer camps in 2019 averaged 69%, compared to 60% attendance for Summer Rising for the past three years.

The first four hours of the Summer Rising day are purely academic, a turnoff for some families seeking a more recreational experience. Parents of children with disabilities have consistently reported challenges getting accommodations for their kids. And logistical snags, including sparse communication with parents, a lack of field trips, and placements far from home, have kept some kids away, families, and educators said.

Mike Halpern, the assistant executive director of Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, a summer camp operator that runs 16 Summer Rising sites in the Bronx and Manhattan, said that when the Department of Youth and Community Development “let us do whatever we wanted … the kids would come more than they do now.”

Tova Snyder, center right, works with students to make sure they mix the right colors for a mural at the student entrance of the Theatre Arts Production Company School, or TAPCo, in the West Bronx. Snyder led an art class at the school after TAPCo landed a grant to paint the mural as part of the city’s summer school program, Summer Rising.

The lagging attendance can make it difficult to know how many teachers to hire and lead to inconsistent class sizes, several principals said.

Schools are supposed to follow up with families whose kids aren’t regularly attending, disenroll those who aren’t attending at all, and pull in students from the waitlist when possible. An Education Department spokesperson said students are supposed to be removed from the program following six consecutive absences and three outreach attempts. But outreach can be difficult in a program that only lasts six weeks.

When Kiri Soares, the principal of the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in downtown Brooklyn, ran her own summer school program prior to the pandemic, she made sure her kids showed up.

“They knew me, they knew my staff, we did the outreach,” she said.

But now, Soares runs a Summer Rising site filled mostly with families from other schools who she doesn’t know. That means just tracking down the families can take weeks, by which time the program is almost over, she said.

Academic focus divides families, educators

The dedicated time for academics — Summer Rising’s defining feature — has proved one of its most controversial.

Proponents say the program is helping. Students across roughly 126 Summer Rising sites using the National Summer School Institute curriculum in 2023 improved by an average of 15 percentage points on a literature test from the beginning to the end of the summer, and by 24 percentage points on a pre- and post-math test, according to figures compiled by the organization.

“I noticed it helped a lot,” said Shantel Andrews, the mother of an elementary student with a disability currently attending a Summer Rising program in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. “I fought for her to get in this year. I stayed up late. I’m glad I got her in.”

Some educators say that expanding summer school beyond kids who are required to attend has been most helpful to the students who have to be there. They say it helps them to be in classrooms with kids at other academic levels.

Others have found the opposite, arguing it’s harder to target support for kids who need it when they’re in larger, more heterogeneous groups.

For Michelle, a Brooklyn parent whose third grader got a spot in Summer Rising for the first time this year, the academic portion of the program was a major turnoff, and far less engaging than she expected.

“My child was very unhappy and cried when I picked her up the first day,” recalled Michelle, who asked to use only her first name because she works in education and is concerned about professional consequences. “She said, ‘this is school.’”

Michelle said she doesn’t mind some academic enrichment as part of a summer program, but “to have kids sit in a classroom with workbooks and tablets and call that enrichment … it’s not thoughtful.”

Eventually, Michelle decided to only send her daughter three days a week — even though she could go five days a week.

For families of the roughly 20% of city students who are mandated to receive special education services, reviews of Summer Rising are mixed.

The Education Department allocates each Summer Rising program between $5,200 and $6,600 to hire two education paraprofessionals to support students with disabilities, according to budget documents. There are more specialized programs with additional resources for students with 12-month Individual Education Programs, or IEPs.

Paul Trust, a Queens parent and public school teacher who’s previously had concerns about the academic focus of Summer Rising, said the program has been especially helpful for his child with a disability: “She came into September as the only student who came into school having gone up in reading.”

But Lupe Hernandez, a Manhattan parent of an 11-year-old with a disability who is entitled to year-round support through his IEP, was unhappy about the lack of school bus service in the evenings. And on his first day, a lack of planning left him sitting in a cafeteria for several hours.

In fact, she was so frustrated by his experience after that first day that even though he’s still technically enrolled, she hasn’t sent him back since.

Some push for return to pre-COVID camp system

Halpern, the Bronx Summer Rising camp operator, attributes his programs’ relatively high attendance — which he says hovers in the mid-70% range — to the weekly field trips to nature camps in Harriman State Park in the Catskills.

But Halpern has a notable edge: His organization owns the summer camps, making it possible to bring each of the 16 Summer Rising programs at least one day a week.

“The kids really, really enjoy the outdoors,” he said, “far away from the school yard environment.”

Other parents say their Summer Rising programs have struggled to consistently offer the frequently advertised once-a-week field trips, giving few if any chances to get outside the school.

Several program operators said it can be much more challenging to plan more intensive or elaborate recreational activities when they get so much less time with kids than they did in the previous summer camp system.

“There’s a little bit of a disconnect and misalignment with the curriculum educators are using in the morning … to what’s happening later in the afternoon with the CBOs,” said Jennifer Zweifler, an associate director with St. Nick’s Alliance who oversees three Summer Rising programs in Brooklyn.

In a “perfect world,” the city would return to the pre-COVID summer camp system, while still recruiting public school teachers to offer extra academic support, Zweifler said.

Soares, the Brooklyn principal, said “the crisis and the learning loss” that prompted the city to launch Summer Rising are still very real. But the attendance numbers should tell city officials that they need to rethink the program, she said.

“We’re facing a real dilemma of convincing kids and families that school is even worth going to,” she said. “Summer is wasted to be re-doing the form of learning [students do] all year long.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org .

Should teachers customize their lessons or just stick to the ‘script’?

2024-07-23T10:01:00+00:00

This story is published in partnership with The Hechinger Report. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

It’s a Sunday in June, and high school history teacher Chris Dier is poring over readings, lesson plans, and other resources to put together next year’s curriculum for his Advanced Placement U.S. and World History classes.

School doesn’t start until mid-August. But Dier, Louisiana’s teacher of the year in 2020, has followed this same routine for years. He spends part of his Sundays throughout the school year and summer preparing lessons for his classes. In his 14 years of teaching, Dier said he has never really had a curriculum provided by his school district that he can use without making significant adaptations. In fall 2020, he started teaching at Benjamin Franklin High School, in New Orleans, a top-performing charter school that doesn’t offer teachers any curriculum or materials.

“For better or worse, essentially, we are responsible for creating our own curriculum,” Dier said. “The curriculum I teach is purely something that I create.”

Every year, school districts across the country spend millions of dollars on curriculums, the planned sequences of materials teachers use to guide instruction. Many buy off-the-shelf materials created by curriculum companies, while a few districts create their own.

But many teachers say those materials don’t always work well — at least not without changes. Teachers say curriculums aren’t culturally relevant or inclusive, don’t prioritize a student’s perspective, ability, and experience, and seem to be created by providers who are removed from the classroom. In some cases, teachers say a lack of professional development on how to implement a curriculum can make it hard to use.

It’s long been common for teachers to write lesson plans and adapt instruction to their students, to a degree. Some districts and schools, like Benjamin Franklin, where Dier teaches, even expect it, asking educators to create their own curriculum using state standards and subject-specific frameworks from groups like the College Board as a guide.

But teachers, regardless of where they teach, say that they often spend a significant amount of time and effort creating and refining curriculum materials. Experts and researchers warn that if teachers are provided with a high-quality district curriculum and mix it with materials from sites like Teachers Pay Teachers and Pinterest, which some experts say have low-quality, unvetted resources, they dilute otherwise rigorous content, and create inequities among students.

Simone Gordon, who teaches English as a new language to fourth and fifth graders at PS 361 in Brooklyn, often includes materials that are not part of the official curriculum, such as books that offer more diverse characters or discussions on current events.

David Steiner, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, said he thinks curriculum providers need to do a better job of offering curriculums for students who have genuine challenges with grade-level materials and for English language learners. Steiner’s team at the institute surveys teachers nationally to determine what curriculum they use in the classroom, and how they use it. Based on some of those responses, Steiner said he worries that there’s also a “sort of resistance to a scripted curriculum” among teachers who say it doesn’t properly build on or connect to a student’s prior knowledge or experiences.

“The research is against them,” Steiner said. “The research is heavily in favor of following a script — not necessarily every last letter of that script, but following a really good curriculum that’s standards-based and content-rich.”

States push for higher quality, standards-aligned curriculums

A curriculum is meant to guide educators in what to teach students in particular subjects and grade levels, and should be aligned with a state’s standards on what knowledge and skills students need. How a curriculum is designed, rolled out, and used in the classroom varies by state, district, and teacher.

Steiner, who has worked with several states to implement high-quality curriculum, said there has long been a tradition of school districts and state education leaders recommending, but not mandating, a particular curriculum. That creates a risk that inexperienced teachers might select materials that are below grade-level, according to Steiner, who referenced a recent report on the subject from the education nonprofit TNTP.

There have been attempts to better align curriculum to learning standards. In 2017, the Council of Chief State School Officers created a network designed to help states implement high-quality, standards-aligned curriculums. At least 13 states, including Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Texas, have signed on since then and have begun developing initiatives to review curriculum to ensure it is high quality and to help districts use vetted materials.

Louisiana has also served as a model of how to better align curriculum with state standards and provide teachers professional development, according to a 2019 survey by the group RAND. Louisiana’s use of standards-aligned materials was higher than other states, with 71% of math teachers in Louisiana and 80% of English language arts teachers reporting they used such materials and understood what their subject standards are. (The next-highest state for math was Delaware, where 51% of teachers of that subject reported using standards-aligned materials.)

Related: How a Colorado district changed its reading curriculum to better reflect students

Alexandra Walsh, chief product officer at curriculum company Amplify, said that ultimately “it is the district’s responsibility” to determine how a curriculum is used. “We really try to put great materials in the hands of teachers and let them make informed and great decisions about what to do for their students,” she said. All of Amplify’s curriculums include pacing guides, she added, so if a teacher needs to modify a lesson, there is room to do so. The company also tries to provide at least one day of professional development on each curriculum.

Julia Kaufman, a senior policy researcher at RAND and a co-author of the RAND report, said a high-quality curriculum should be standards-aligned, have built-in support and instructions for teachers, engage students in a meaningful way, and include assessments that are tied to what a student is being taught.

According to the survey and other research by Kaufman and her team, elementary and high school ELA and science teachers are the most likely to cobble together materials from several different comprehensive curriculums. Math teachers are more likely to be what Kaufman’s research identified as “modifiers,” who make considerable changes to a single curriculum or supplement it to better address students’ needs. Only 19% of teachers surveyed were “DIY teachers,” meaning they use a completely self-created curriculum. DIY teachers also tend to be high school teachers of science and English (the survey did not look at history teachers).

If teachers are coming up with their own curriculums rather than relying on standards-aligned materials, chances are that every class is learning different things, Kaufman said.

“Some modification feels healthy to me and important,” she said. But, she added, there should be some foundational content that is aligned with what the state says a student should learn in a particular grade.

Off-the-shelf curriculums don’t meet all students’ needs

Teachers of students in special education and of students learning English, in particular, complain that curriculum materials are not sufficiently attuned to those children’s needs.

Simone Gordon, who teaches English as a new language to fourth and fifth graders at PS 361 in Brooklyn, said she has to adapt the district-provided curriculum to her students by using a different book than the one suggested or by breaking a lesson into parts that can be easily understood by her students.

Gordon will often bring in books that offer more diverse characters or discuss current events that are not included in the curriculum but are “what students are seeing and witnessing,” she said.

“I like being given the curriculum when there’s flexibility, and then the option to kind of say, ‘I’m going to use this part, but I won’t use that part,’” she said. “It’s nice to be able to say, ‘My students are really interested in what’s going on with climate change. I’m going to do a thematic study on that.’”

Similarly, Sarah Said, who teaches English language learners in School District U-46 in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, said she sees pre-written curriculum as a starting point, then adapts it to what her students need.

“When you have a curriculum that’s been researched and vetted — it’s okay to use it,” she said. “But you have to make it your own.”

Related: Students with disabilities often left out of popular ‘dual-language’ programs

Kate Gutwillig, a special education teacher at PS 134 in New York, acknowledges that tension. In the past when teachers in her district and elsewhere had more freedom to create their own curriculum, she said it felt like a “double-edged sword” because “I know what my kids need but on the other hand, we’re teachers, we’re not curriculum writers.”

Gutwillig, whose school was in the first cohort to roll out a new literacy program, NYC Reads, said the new curriculum is a welcome change from previous ones she’s been given because it was vetted to meet the diverse needs of students. Still, there are gaps when it comes to her students with disabilities.

“Those curriculums were not written specifically for those kids,” she said; they need to be “adjusted or perfected.”

Teachers often modify curriculums to add diversity

The research on the value of a scripted curriculum is important — but teachers say so is the reality they face in the classroom every day. Dier, the teacher in Louisiana, said pre-written, district-provided curriculum materials often don’t cover local history or are not relevant for his students. Recent anti-critical race theory and anti-LGBTQ legislation has also made it harder to teach history in schools, he said.

“My goal is to ensure that the minoritized identities that are so often excluded from, in terms of curriculum, find their space,” he said. “I don’t see a robust curriculum, at the district or state level that ensures that, so that’s why I always want autonomy over my own materials.”

Dier said he isn’t just picking random materials for his classes. He uses the A.P. U.S. history curriculum and Louisiana’s U.S. History state standards and what will appear on the state assessment, and mixes those with current events and history he thinks his students should know.

“I look at the two curricula that I have to use, and then I try to teach the history that is usually pushed to the margins and not included in that framework,” Dier said.

Related: Many high school math teachers cobble together their own instructional materials from the internet and elsewhere, a survey finds

Still, he said that teachers who create their own curriculum must make it transparent and accessible to parents, students, and administrators. Dier said he creates a public Google calendar at the start of every school year that includes the materials he’s teaching “so people know these are still materials of high caliber, quality, and rigor.”

In some districts, teachers are pushing for a bigger role in selecting or developing curriculum so they can provide better materials for their students.

Petrina Miller is a transitional kindergarten teacher at the 116th Street Elementary School who has been teaching at Los Angeles Unified School District for 26 years. Her district is slowly rolling out the Core Knowledge Language Arts, a new curriculum based in research on how students learn to read. She said it doesn’t necessarily work for all students.

Petrina Miller’s students in her combined class of transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students participate in a lesson on the solar eclipse.

The curriculum is split into two parts, skill-based and knowledge-based; the latter “is really not student-centered,” she said. “It is the strangest, most detached unit that makes no sense.” The unit includes lessons on kings and queens — but only “talking about the European kings” — and on Christopher Columbus, which was “just revisionist history, and it was just horrible,” she said.

“I’m not teaching them that, it’s not even true. We just can’t do that,” she said. Instead of telling teachers to follow a curriculum as written, without review, administrators have to get teacher and student buy-in, she said.

After her normal workday, Miller said she goes home and spends about two hours making worksheets and activities. She also spends hundreds of dollars of her own money to make the curriculum more engaging. For the unit on kings and queens, for example, Miller and other teachers hosted a ball and bought hats and crowns for students that featured favorite characters like the princess from Super Mario Bros.

Walsh, of Amplify, said the company, which produces the Core Knowledge curriculum, tries to ensure that it contains materials that reflect and speak to students from many different backgrounds. She said the company also hopes it is “expanding their view of the world.” Units like the one on kings and queens, she said, “ignite students’ imagination about things they don’t know anything about.”

In Los Angeles, Miller is part of a small educator-led campaign, informally launched this year at her school, to involve teachers in reviewing curriculum and other materials to ensure they are culturally relevant. The campaign got the attention of LAUSD school board members and the district, she said. Educators hope it will result in a bigger role for teachers in the buying process for new curriculum programs going forward.

“My students are mostly Latino and African American, and they don’t see themselves in the curriculum,” she said. “It’s hard for them to connect with it.

“It’s teachers that are on the front lines,” she added. “They think of things that maybe someone who hasn’t been in the classroom for a while won’t think of.”

This story about teacher curriculum was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

NYC educators: How are AI-powered tools changing your classroom?

2024-07-09T18:19:01+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

New York City teachers: We want to hear your thoughts about how artificial intelligence-powered tools like ChatGPT are changing the classroom.

It’s been more than a year since the tech group OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the public — with it and a slew of other chatbots and tools introducing new ways to generate writing and content using AI. Today, some students at New York City high schools report widespread use of AI-powered chatbots among their peers. And nationally, 44% of teenagers said in a survey they were likely to use AI-powered tools to complete their schoolwork for them, even though a majority considered it cheating.

Others say they’ve turned to artificial intelligence as a means of enhancing their learning — viewing it as a potential personalized tutor, capable of breaking down difficult concepts and challenging assignments.

School districts across the country have grappled with how to respond to the new technology. Some large districts have moved to create their own AI-powered tools — at times to mixed results.

Early last year, New York City schools blocked ChatGPT on school devices and networks, citing “negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content.” But a few months later, the city reversed course, with schools Chancellor David Banks proclaiming the city’s schools were “determined to embrace its potential.”

At a discussion last month at The Neighborhood School, which was co-sponsored by Chalkbeat, AFT President Randi Weingarten noted advances in artificial intelligence have prompted questions over how such tools could benefit educators.

“What if you used AI, for example, if you were a high school social studies teacher, and you used AI as the first cut of grading papers to actually make sure that grammar was right, or that spelling was right?” she said. “Some people might say ‘No, let’s not,’ and some people might say, ‘Well, that may be an interesting thing.’”

As conversations around AI in schools remain ongoing, we want to hear what you’re seeing in your classroom. Are your students using ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools? How do you think this technology is changing schools?

Please fill out the form below to let us know.

Loading…

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

A look at NYC’s upcoming school year: calendar quirks, cell phone bans, curriculum mandates

2024-06-25T20:30:15+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

When New York City students and teachers say their farewells Wednesday, they’ll close the books on a school year marked by curriculum changes, political strife, and budget woes.

And when they return for the first day of school on Sept. 5, the new year will hold similar promise as well as uncertainty.

At Chalkbeat, we have covered all the twists and turns. Some of the major struggles of the last academic year came as little surprise to educators and families. Elementary school teachers in nearly half of the city’s 32 local school districts were still adjusting to the new mandated literacy curriculums. Educators still grappled with how to best serve the thousands of new migrant students entering the system. And advocates braced for fights over budget cuts, as one-time federal COVID stimulus funding evaporated.

Other challenges were not necessarily on anyone’s bingo card. The city’s decision to cut chicken tenders, cookies, dumplings and other popular food items from the cafeteria menu because too many kids were eating these fan favorites came as a surprise and was eventually reversed after much outcry. The rise of ChatGPT caught the Education Department off guard and was initially blocked on school devices, before schools Chancellor David Banks reconsidered his approach to the emerging technology. And few would have predicted the tense climate school communities are now facing because of the Israel-Hamas war, as antisemitism and Islamophobia seem to be on the rise.

As this year comes to a close, here’s what you need to know for next school year.

We want to hear from you: What should be on our radar as we plan for the fall? Email us at ny.tips@chalkbeat.org or fill out this form.

Calendar watch: Notable dates for the New York City 2024-25 school year

As usual, school is starting the Thursday after Labor Day, but unlike many school years, there are no other days off in September. (Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, which follows a lunar calendar, falls on Thursday, Oct. 3, and Friday, Oct. 4.)

For the first time, New York City schools will be closed for Diwali (Friday, Nov. 1), known as the “festival of lights,” and observed by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and some Buddhists.

Schools will have a one-day week before winter break — unless a 12-year-old can force the Education Department to reconsider. School is in session on Monday, Dec. 23, before closing the next day through the following Wednesday (Jan. 1, 2025). Previously when Dec. 23 fell on a Monday, the city ultimately made it a day off.

Also, next June will have one fewer day off than this year: Eid al-Adha falls on June 5, which is already a day off for “Anniversary Day.” The following day, Friday, June 6, is a “clerical day,” meaning no classes for most students except those in 6-12 and high schools.

Curriculum mandates could see more pushback from families and teachers

Next school year will be the first that all of the city’s local school districts will adopt the literacy curriculum mandate, the centerpiece of Banks’ education agenda. As this initiative expands, more pushback could bubble up. Already one school has won a waiver to get out of the mandate.

Meanwhile, the city is now turning its attention to implementing math curriculum mandates for middle schools and expanding its mandate for ninth grade algebra in high schools.

A school cell phone ban could be on the horizon

Not only has Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’s considering a statewide school cell phone ban, Banks has also been getting feedback from New York City principals, who have overwhelmingly told him they’d like a citywide policy banning phones.

But the details of a ban are critical as to whether it will help reconnect students with their schoolwork — and each other, according to results of a Chalkbeat survey. Most schools across the five boroughs already have bans in place, but they differ dramatically. There’s no foolproof system, educators, parents, and students say, and whatever policy is ultimately passed will have to address not only the logistics but also the concerns of parents, who are often prime offenders of contacting kids during the school day.

Regents exams may soon be optional for a NY high school diploma

State education officials are overhauling high school graduation requirements that will make Regents exams optional. They plan to release a more detailed plan in November outlining how schools can implement the changes.

Though the exams aren’t going away, students will be able to choose from a menu of options to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in seven key areas: critical thinking, effective communication, cultural and social-emotional competences, innovative problem solving, literacy across content areas, and status as a “global citizen.”

One model, already in place at nearly 40 high schools that have waivers for Regents exams other than English, focuses more on project-based learning with “performance-based” assessments.

Budget cuts could force schools to do more with less

The nation’s largest school system has been bracing for impact as more than $7 billion in federal aid to the Education Department expires this summer. With that uncertainty comes whiplash, with proposed cuts followed by subsequent funding restorations.

Mayor Eric Adams ultimately decided to prop up the budgets of hundreds of schools that have struggled with declining enrollment since the pandemic. Still, city officials did not say whether schools will avoid cuts in the middle of the school year if the number of students who enroll is lower than anticipated, a practice that was paused during the pandemic but returned this school year.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Loading…

Math instruction overhaul: NYC unveils new curriculum mandate for middle and high schools

2024-06-24T22:42:52+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Math instruction is the latest problem New York City officials are trying to solve.

Middle and high schools are adopting standardized math curriculums in hopes of addressing stark racial disparities in state test scores, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday.

Known as “NYC Solves,” the new initiative takes a page from the city’s literacy curriculum overhaul, the signature education policy of Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks, which requires elementary schools to choose from among three pre-approved reading curriculums.

“Schools all over the city, even on math, were just kind of doing their own thing,” Banks said at a press conference at Samara Community School in the Bronx. “That’s no way to run a system.”

The vast majority of high schools are in the process of adopting a single Algebra 1 curriculum. By this fall, 420 high schools will use Illustrative Mathematics for that subject, a program that emphasizes building students’ conceptual understanding of math rather than focusing on more step-by-step procedures. (Six high schools were granted waivers from using the curriculum; officials did not immediately say which ones.)

Meanwhile, over the next three years, all middle schools will be required to use an approved math program. Curriculums created by the companies i-Ready, Amplify, and Illustrative Math are currently approved by the department, though Deputy Chancellor Danika Rux said the city may tweak that list in future years. Local superintendents will be able to select which curriculums their schools use from the list, a process similar to the city’s literacy initiative. Officials said they have allocated $34 million to “NYC Solves” over five years.

The districts in the first round — Manhattan’s District 2; districts 7, 11, and 12 in the Bronx; Brooklyn’s districts 14, 15, and 32; and District 26 in Queens — are participating voluntarily, officials said. Those districts already widely use Illustrative Math, meaning many middle schools will likely not see significant changes next school year. About 63 of the initial 93 middle schools participating in the first phase are currently using the curriculum, though a spokesperson said other schools may have been using a free version that is not tracked centrally.

At the high school level, the math curriculum mandate is expected to extend to other high school grades, as well as elementary schools and District 75, which serves students with disabilities, in later phases of the initiative, though officials did not offer a specific timeline.

The curriculum overhaul comes as the city’s students have long struggled with the subject, and some educator advocacy groups have pushed for changes. Fewer than half of the city’s elementary and middle school students scored proficient on state math exams last year given to third through eighth graders. Urgency to address the issue has been heightened by pandemic learning losses, as well as stubborn disparities in math achievement between Black and Latino students and their white and Asian American counterparts.

Last year, just 34.3% of students who are Black and 35.7% who are Latino demonstrated proficiency on their math exams, compared to 70.2% of white students and 77.6% of Asian American students.

“That is wholly unacceptable,” Banks said. “As the data shows, not only do we have a literacy crisis in this country, we absolutely have a math crisis as well. And this struggle with math, for many of us, runs very deep, and it starts early.”

Banks suggested that the curriculum changes could be a challenge for teachers, many of whom he said are themselves uncomfortable with the subject.

The Illustrative Math curriculum has focused on posing unfamiliar math problems to students with minimal introduction, prioritizing student exploration with a goal of developing deeper conceptual understanding. It was developed by a University of Arizona professor in 2011, following sweeping changes to math teaching that occurred after the rollout of the Common Core standards, a set of benchmarks meant to give states shared academic goals.

Earlier this year, the curriculum left some New York City educators divided — with some arguing it represented an overdue shift away from rote memorization, while others worried it lacked the kind of structure and built-in repetition that many students need, particularly those who are struggling.

Marielys Divanne, the executive director of Educators for Excellence, an advocacy group that has pushed for math reforms, praised the shift.

“NYC Solves is another huge and much-needed step forward in helping our students achieve better outcomes in math,” she said in a statement.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

To engage students in math, educators try connecting it to their culture

2024-05-13T10:04:00+00:00

This story about ethnomathematics was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

Before she got to the math in her lesson on linear equations last fall, Sydney Kealanahela asked her class of eighth graders on Oahu why kalo, or taro root, is so important in Hawaii. What do you know about kalo, she asked them. Have you ever picked it?

A boy who had never spoken in class, and never seemed even slightly interested in math, raised his hand.

“He said, ‘I pick kalo with my grandma. She has a farm,’” Kealanahela recalled. “He was excited to tell us about that.”

Class discussion got animated. Everybody knew about poi, the creamy staple Hawaiian food made from mashed taro. Others had even noticed that there were fewer taro farms on Oahu.

That’s when Kealanahela guided the conversation to the whiteboard, plotting data on pounds of taro produced over time on a graph, which created a perfect descending line. The class talked about why there is less taro production, which led to a discussion about the shortage of farm labor.

Kealanahela had taught eighth-grade math for six years at a campus of the Kamehameha Schools, but this was the first time she had started a lesson with a conversation about farming. The idea came from professional development she’d just completed, in ethnomathematics, an approach that connects math to culture by embedding math in a story about something relevant to students’ lives.

Ethnomathematics isn’t new, but until recently it was limited to a niche area of educational and anthropological research on how different cultures use math. Over the past couple of decades, it has evolved into one of several efforts to create more engaging and inclusive math classrooms, particularly for Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous students, who tend to score lower on federal tests than their Asian American and white peers. Ethnomathematics advocates say that persistent achievement gaps are in part a result of overly abstract math instruction that’s disconnected from student experience, and that there’s an urgent need for new approaches that recognize mathematical knowledge as it’s practiced outside of textbooks.

Many Black and brown students don’t feel comfortable in math classes, said Shelly Jones, professor of math education at Central Connecticut State University. She said those classes tend to be “competitive” and that teachers “hone in on what Black and brown students don’t know as opposed to honoring what they do know.” She added: “We are trying to pull in students who have not traditionally felt they belonged in math spaces.”

That said, research on the impact of ethnomathematics is limited, and its practice is largely confined to individual classrooms — like Kealanehela’s — where the teacher has sought out the approach. And teachers who incorporate ethnomathematics without the right support and instructional tools risk stumbling into a cultural minefield, experts say. Most teachers in U.S. classrooms are white. If one of those white teachers decides their Hispanic students should learn base-20 Mayan numbers, and their students ask why, the teacher will have to come up with an answer, said Ron Eglash, a professor in the University of Michigan’s School of Information.

“Telling kids, ‘Because it’s your heritage,’ sounds really awkward from a white teacher,” Eglash said.

But experts say that high-quality ethnomathematics lessons boost student confidence and engagement when used by teachers (of any race) who have been trained and who allow students the time to explore the material on their own and through discussion.

Math isn’t just ‘something the Greeks created’

Ethnomathematics falls under the same umbrella as culturally responsive math instruction. Experts say that teaching math this way requires teachers to get to know their students and create a learning environment where students can connect to math concepts. It involves developing lessons that reveal the math in everyday activities, like skateboarding, braiding, and weaving. It can also include exploring the math involved in cultural practices, like beading.

“A lot of this work is about removing barriers or perceptions from a marginalized population that math is something the Greeks created and is imposed on me,” said Mark Ellis, a professor of education at California State University, Fullerton. He said that culturally responsive instruction takes other measures into account, besides academic outcomes, when determining impact. These include students’ attitude about math, sense of belonging in math classes, and engagement in math discourses.

Traditional math instruction, Ellis said, is treated as if math were acultural, even though, as we know it in the U.S., math descended from the computational traditions of many places, including Mesopotamia (360-degree circles), ancient Greece (geometry and trigonometry), India (decimal notation, the concept of zero) and China (negative numbers). If these mathematical traditions are taught, Ellis and others ask, then why not Hawaiian calculations for slope, sub-Saharan fractal geometry, and Mayan counting systems?

Related: Eliminating advanced math ‘tracks’ often prompts outrage. Some districts buck the trend

Eglash argues that ethnomathematics lessons aren’t just for students from the culture that the lessons draw from. It’s important that students explore math concepts from all cultures, including their own, he said.

Ethnomathematics, a term coined in the 1970s by Brazilian mathematician Ubiratan D’Ambrosio, first appeared in the U.S. about 25 years ago. That’s when Eglash and his wife, University of Michigan design professor Audrey Bennett, developed a suite of teaching modules by which students learn the history or context of a practice — braiding hair into cornrows, for example — and then use algebra, geometry, and trigonometry to create their own cornrow designs with software.

Eglash and Bennett designed the teaching tools with the idea that students can use a module to create their work, which can mean mixing cultures. A Puerto Rican student used Eglash’s module about Native American beading to create a Puerto Rican flag simulation.

In 2009, Richmond City Public Schools asked Eglash and Bennett to teach a module called Cornrow Curves to a class of Black 10th graders. Eglash asked the class where cornrows came from. Their answer: “Brooklyn!” That led to discussion about the African origins of cornrows — where they indicated marriage status, religious affiliation, and other social markers — and on through cornrows’ history during the Middle Passage, Civil Rights, hip-hop, and Afrofuturism.

Only then did the students begin doing math, designing their own cornrows, noticing how the plaits get closer together or further apart depending on the values students enter in a simulation. One student created a design for straight-line cornrows by visually estimating how far to space them apart. In her presentation to class, Eglash recalled, she said that “there are 12 spaces between the braids on one side, which covers 90 degrees, so the braids are positioned every 7.5 degrees because 90/12 = 7.5.”

The Cornrow Curves module and other lessons like it have now been adopted by districts in 25 states. The Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, began offering a culturally responsive computer science curriculum in 2008 that incorporates ethnomathematics lessons that Eglash and Bennett developed. Some evidence indicates that this course helped boost student participation in computer science: An external evaluation found that enrollment in the classes rose by nearly 800 percent from 2009 to 2014.

This screen capture of a Cornrow Curves programming module shows how mathematical concepts can be used to describe plaits of hair.

In 2012, Chicago Public Schools adopted the same curriculum for an introduction to computer science course and invested in significant professional development for teachers. In 2016, the intro to computer science course became a graduation requirement for all Chicago high school students, and 250 teachers are trained each year on the curriculum.

An outside analysis of the Chicago program showed that students who took the course before taking AP computer science were 3.5 times more likely to pass the AP computer science exam than those who only took the AP course. A separate study in Chicago and Wisconsin showed that where the course was offered racial and gender achievement divides disappeared and that students were more likely to take another computer science class.

Culturally responsive lessons help students feel like they belong

Keily Hernandez, 15, a first-year student at Chicago’s George Westinghouse College Prep High School, was happy to see the computer science course on her schedule this year, because she plans to major in computer science in college. At first, she found the cornrows module challenging — getting the designs to look the way she wanted them to look was difficult — but it was also fun, she said.

The class is collaborative, she said, and students often turn to each other or to the internet for ideas and help. Hernandez said that taking the class has relieved her doubts that she can be a computer scientist.

“The class made me reassured,” she said. “Math isn’t something that you just know, the same way that computer science isn’t something that you just know. You get better at it the more you do it.”

It’s students like Hernandez that Linda Furuto wanted to attract when she took the job as head of the math and science subdivision at the University of Hawaii West Oahu in 2007. At the time, student enrollment was so low that the school offered just two math courses. Furuto, who had grown up on Oahu and received her doctorate. in math education from the University of California, Los Angeles, recalled thinking, “This isn’t working. We need to implement ethnomathematics here.”

Related: Data science under fire: What math do high schoolers really need?

Over the next six years, she began to integrate ethnomathematics into coursework, and student interest grew. By 2013, the university offered more than 20 math classes.

“Students would say things like, ‘I hated math. I felt no connection to it. But now I see that math is my culture and because of that I want to be a secondary math teacher,’” Furuto said. “Just knowing that the life of a student has in some way, shape or form been transformed speaks volumes.”

In 2018, Furuto established the world’s first ethnomathematics graduate certificate and master’s degree program. So far, about 300 teachers have participated in the online program; about half are from Hawaii.

While teachers in Chicago get ongoing professional development in cohorts both before and while they teach the district’s ethnomathematics-based computer science course, educators who complete the University of Hawaii program are highly likely to be the only teacher at their school with this niche training.

Janel Marr teaches in the University of Hawaii’s ethnomathematics graduate program.

Kealanahela, the teacher on Oahu, said that as inspired as she was by the ethnomathematics program, she doesn’t have time to teach using the method more than twice every three months.

“To create a really good lesson that feels authentic to me, and not just thrown together,” she said, “it takes time to do the research.”

For a teacher who doesn’t have colleagues in their school using the same approach, it can be hard to fit in something new like ethnomathematics, said Janel Marr, a math resource teacher in Oahu’s Windward School District.

Marr was one of the first teachers to participate in the ethnomathematics graduate program, as an eighth-grade math teacher. Today she teaches in the graduate program.“When you go back to the classroom, there are so many other things from all sides, from administration and curriculum to state tests,” she said. “It starts to get overwhelming. It’s not being implemented as much as we in the program would want it to be.”

Math content should relate to the real world

Ideally, said Eglash, ethnomathematics content should be related to real-world situations, even if that involves exploring painful periods of history. Where possible, content should connect with art, history, sports, and math to provide multiple ways for students to interact. This is critical, he said, to address power dynamics and “identity barriers” in the classroom, like the race of the teacher. When teachers let students explore content individually and through group discussion, students gain control over their own learning.

“The teacher finds a way to use the tool that is authentic — which is something the kids pick up on and respect, even for white folks,” he said. “It’s when you are trying to be something you are not that teaching becomes awkward.”

Doing ethnomathematics right can also engage teachers, Marr said. She had been teaching eighth-grade math at Kailua Intermediate School for 13 years when she hit a wall. Her students would ask why they had to learn math, she said, and she didn’t have an answer. She was looking for inspiration when she heard about the University of Hawaii’s ethnomathematics program.

“My students would learn to work with the numbers and everything, but it wasn’t like they were making a connection of why there is slope,” Marr said.

Related: How one district diversified its advanced math classes — without the controversy

After earning her master’s, Marr had the idea to approach linear equations in a new way. She showed her students a photo of a mountain with a long, bare line down its lush, forested side and asked if anyone knew what they were looking at. Most students didn’t.

She wrote a word on the whiteboard: holua. The path, students learned from research they did in class, was made of gravel pounded into lava rocks, and it ran down the side of the Hualālai Volcano on the east side of Hawaii. Elite members of ancient Hawaiian communities sledded down mountainside paths like this one as part of the extreme sport known as holua.

“We talked about those pictures and talked about, well what would the slope be? How fast might they be going? Because slope is really related to the rate of speed,” she said. “Math isn’t just theoretical. It’s having an experience of being part of the place.”

Not just oppression: Lessons from one state on how schools can get Asian American history right

2024-05-09T11:01:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

A former California park ranger traced his fingers over the Chinese characters carved onto a wall. It was as if ghosts were there, sharing their stories, he said.

The ranger was standing in the immigration station on Angel Island, the lesser-known West Coast counterpart to Ellis Island. Tens of thousands of immigrants, mostly from China and Japan, were detained there in the early 1900s. Many left behind poems or messages.

Poems written in Chinese can be seen etched into the walls at the Angel Island Immigration Station in California.

Dozens of Illinois teachers watched the ranger in a recorded video. They had gathered over Zoom to learn about how they could incorporate Angel Island and other key elements of Asian American history into their lessons. It was part of a university-led training meant to help Illinois teachers comply with a three-year-old, first-in-the-nation law that requires schools statewide to teach at least one unit of Asian American history.

Laura Ouk, one of the trainers that April evening, pulled up two poems from Angel Island and asked the teachers to read them aloud. Then she offered some sample questions the teachers could use with their students to examine tone and themes, as well as how they might connect the poetry to the works of poets like Langston Hughes and Joy Harjo.

“They really appreciate being able to see it in action,” Ouk said, “rather than just being like: ‘Here’s a resource, now good luck!’”

Across the country, advocates are pushing for American history to include more perspectives and stories. Eleven states now require public schools to teach Asian American history in some capacity, and several others are considering similar proposals. But as states and school districts adopt new curriculum requirements, educators can struggle with their own lack of knowledge, where to find quality resources — and how to fit it all into an already crowded syllabus.

Laura Ouk demonstrates how teachers can use poems from Angel Island in their lessons as part of an April 2024 training about teaching Asian American history.

The work happening in Illinois offers insight into what can help. It’s common for teachers to feel overwhelmed and think: “I need to teach this, I don’t even fully know this yet,” said Ouk, the visiting inclusive education director at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Education and Illinois State Board of Education.

To address that, teacher trainers say they’re modeling lessons, showing teachers where Asian American voices and experiences naturally fit within existing curriculum, and sharing strategies that are useful for teaching the history of many marginalized groups.

“We don’t want teachers to blow up their curriculums,” Ouk said.

Why states are requiring Asian American history lessons

When Illinois’ governor signed the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act in 2021, it became the first state with a standalone law requiring public schools to teach Asian American history. Since then, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Florida have enacted similar laws.

Half a dozen other states — California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon and Utah — require schools to teach Asian American history as part of a broader curriculum, according to a 2023 report by the Committee of 100, a nonprofit tracking these efforts.

Proponents of these laws say they’re necessary because students typically don’t learn much Asian American history at school.

Eighteen states are silent on what students should learn in their history classes, according to research conducted by Sohyun An, a professor of social studies education at Kennesaw State University.

Other states focus on just a handful of events in Asian American history, An found, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Often, that instruction presents Asian Americans as powerless victims, An said, without showing acts of resistance, such as how Chinese immigrants who built the railroad protested their working conditions and pay. And it tends to be simplistic, glossing over, for instance, how U.S. and European imperialism created economic hardships that forced many Chinese to leave their home country.

“When we teach about power and oppression, we need to highlight people’s agency, resistance, and solidarity,” An said. “That’s, I think, what good history education is about.”

Collaboration is key to Asian American history training

As happens in many states, Illinois did not offer additional funding to help schools fulfill the new Asian American history requirement. So nonprofits, universities, and foundations have stepped in to offer training and support.

Ouk is part of the University of Illinois’ efforts to offer teachers both live and go-at-your-own-pace sessions. Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago, a nonprofit that works on racial equity issues, launched a free training for teachers in 2022 and put together written examples of how teachers can include Asian American experiences in their reading and social studies lessons.

The organization also maintains a giant database of lesson ideas.

“We’re trying to sift through all the garbage,” said Esther Hurh, an education consultant who helped develop the training and now leads sessions for educators. “Teachers want to do this, they just need people to support them.”

Together, the university and the nonprofit trained 1,700 teachers across Illinois last school year, the first year the new requirement was in effect. It’s a good start, advocates say, but a lot more teachers still need training. Without a better understanding of the Asian American experience, experts say, it’s harder for teachers to try out sample lessons, even if they’re good ones.

During the training that Hurh leads, teachers read reflections from Asian American teachers about how it felt not to see themselves in their own schools’ curriculum. Many felt ashamed or excluded.

Esther Hurh helped develop a teacher training for Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago.

In one essay, a Japanese American teacher recalls that as her high school history class approached its unit on Japanese American incarceration, she readied herself to share what happened to her own family.

But the teacher sped through the lesson, and there was no time for sharing.

“When you’re negated in curriculum, that plays a huge role in how you feel and understand your connection to schooling,” Hurh said. “For a lot of teachers, that’s a very compelling argument for them to do this work. Because, in the end, they’re doing it for their students.”

The training breaks down the many nationalities and ethnic groups that fit within the Asian American umbrella. Teachers also learn about two major Asian American stereotypes — the racist “yellow peril” and the “model minority” — and how those ideas repeat throughout history.

With that groundwork laid, teachers watch several model lessons, including how they can include the story of Mamie Tape, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, in lessons about efforts to desegregate U.S. schools; how Larry Itliong, a Filipino American, contributed to the famous Delano grape strike; and how the children’s book “A Different Pond” can support teaching about the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees.

Trainers want to show teachers how they can choose literature and primary sources that not only center the voices of Asian Americans, but diversify the voices they include. Stories about Pacific Islanders and South and Southeast Asians tend to be even less represented than those from East Asia, Hurh noted.

How teachers have put their training into action

Tom McManamen, who heads the social studies department at Neuqua Valley High School in west suburban Chicago, walked away from his session with 24 pages of typed notes that he still consults.

He now looks for additional visuals as he teaches about what it means to be American. For example, he plays a video in his human geography class about a Sikh farmer in California. When his students see a man in cowboy boots wearing a turban, they often exclaim: “Oh, wow!”

High school teachers across McManamen’s school district and county are getting trained, too. One colleague used what he learned to incorporate the murder of Vincent Chin into lessons about immigration and the auto industry. Another used political cartoons to teach about Asian American stereotypes. The training helped teachers know what to look for as they searched for resources that weren’t shown during the training, too.

“What I love is when I hear them brainstorming over it,” McManamen said, “What used to be a difficult conversation, like: ‘How do we do this?’ It’s now: ‘Oh, you could do this, we could do this! I ran across this when I was watching TV that was totally a great example!’”

Still, even with this kind of training, experts in the field admit it can be difficult for teachers to cover as much ground as they might like, especially if their state also has requirements around teaching Black, Latino, and Indigenous histories.

An, of Kennesaw State University, noted that teaching students skills so they can conduct historical inquiries on their own helps them keep learning. That could include showing students how to find stories that challenge the dominant narrative, read between the lines of primary sources, or look for examples of resistance whenever there is oppression.

“We don’t have to teach every single topic,” An said. “One lesson can do so many things actually, if it’s well-done.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

This Brooklyn high school psychology teacher wants her students to channel pessimism into action

2024-04-30T22:47:37+00:00

It might seem odd that a high school psychology teacher would be selected for a National Geographic teacher fellowship in the Arctic, but for Caitlyn Homol, last summer’s “paradigm-shifting experience” inspired her to develop a new interdisciplinary unit.

As the International Baccalaureate, or IB, Teaching and Learning Coordinator and IB Psychology teacher at Brooklyn Prospect High School, Homol is teaming up with her school’s Environmental Systems and Societies course to explore “the relationship between motivation, action, and climate attitudes that culminates in a beach cleanup and reflection.”

While on the 17-day expedition, Homol saw polar bears on land since there wasn’t enough sheet ice for their traditional hunting patterns. She saw marine debris on the shores of islands hundreds of miles north of inhabited towns. She and others started to feel pessimistic “about our collective chances of being able to preserve the sights we were seeing for future generations.”

That led Homol to get involved with visiting scientists from the Rozalia Project as they collected data on microplastics in the waters. She ended up filling in at the last minute for one of Rozalia’s Maine expeditions right as school was starting, helping them meet their 20,000-pound cleanup goal for summer 2023. That experience, she said, “brought me so much hope and energy for what we can do when we work together to do hard things.”

Homol, who has spent four of her nine-year teaching career at Brooklyn Prospect, recently won a national teaching award from the American Psychological Association.

Teaching psychology, Homol believes, gives students a strong background in social science research, and she encourages her students to seek out research opportunities when they go to college.

“I also think this course has so many natural connections with students’ own experiences,” she said. “There’s a unique chance for them to develop new self-knowledge while also expanding their perspectives of other people’s experiences.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

I attended Ohio State University as a first-generation student who had also been very transient in middle and high school, bouncing between schools up and down the East Coast and the South. I’d been a successful student but missed more than a couple of foundational courses I needed to be successful in my initial declared major, which was biomedical engineering. I was confused and humiliated by the struggles I faced in my chemistry and calculus classes, and after ending up on academic probation my first quarter, I lied to most people about how school was going because I was terrified of letting them down.

As a condition of exiting probation, I chose to take an education psychology course about study strategies at the Dennis Learning Center. It was transformative and helped reduce the fear I felt that I did not belong in college. I ended up working there for three years of undergrad as a learning specialist, where I facilitated workshops and met 1:1 with other students at OSU to interpret research to find meaningful study strategies.

That’s what led me to consider teaching, and Teach for America was an alternative certification program I was familiar with.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

I deeply appreciate my colleague, Khanh Le, who adapted an exercise she came across in her developmental psych program for our students. It asks students to take a fictional family of seven of different genders and ages and arrange them into hypothetical homes with room counts ranging from 1-7, in arrangements that are both ideal and least ideal.

Our students, who have a variety of cultural backgrounds, are often surprised to find that they have nearly unanimous agreement with each other in their room arrangements. We discuss the findings of the original study, which suggest that some values driving those arrangements are unique to the West and others are universal — and the consensus we have in our own answers is a proof of acculturation, or assimilation to U.S./New York culture. I love this lesson because it ties together research, relatability, and strikes a balance between appreciating difference and finding commonality with others around the world.

Are there particular things that students are seeing or experiencing in their lives related to the course that come up in the classroom?

The first thing that has positively shifted the tone of conversations we have in class is the decreasing stigma of mental health concerns.

At our school, we teach the “Abnormal Psychology” option offered in the IB Psychology course, and students are tremendously open and excited to share their experiences with each other. I would have been so embarrassed to talk about my mental health at that age, but kids are supportive and continue the conversation with questions or their own contributions.

The second development I’ve seen is less positive: I’ve noticed that students carry more pessimism these days. More students feel that nothing matters, and that there is nothing that can be done to improve the circumstances of themselves or their communities. This is a comprehensible reaction to climate developments, the inertia of systems and institutions to change, and an eroding pretense that a college education is a ticket to financial stability. I also think social media algorithms proliferate a lot of cynical (if not outright incorrect) interpretations of psychological and sociological knowledge.

I think as educators of young people, part of our role is to inspire students and to teach pathways to change. Of course, we have a duty to portray the world realistically in our classrooms. Many things are actually dire. But I think we also must take care to invite students to construct generative interpretations and applications of knowledge and research. Otherwise, we are left with the status quo and that pessimistic vision does become our fate.

We also have to let them feel the impact of taking action with others, *doing* things rather than just talking about them. This is tricky for adults too, but my summer experiences underscored how meaningful optimism comes from collective work and creation.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I was incredibly blessed to have consistently caring, effective, and diverse teachers for all 13 years of my public schooling. I especially credit the many Black women who taught me at Arlington Elementary School in Jacksonville, Fla., who saw my potential and imparted to me a sense of duty to make the most of my education.

It has been easy to draw from the example they and my other amazing educators set as I show up for students today. But the thing that has most shaped my overall career trajectory has been the challenges I faced as a student who wanted access to specialized programming.

I happened to find out about the International Baccalaureate program in my district through idle conversation with my school librarian, rather than through my school counselor or district-wide advertisement. I had to submit an application, attend an interview or take a test, and take a bus an hour each way to get to school. Years later, I found myself in rural Alabama: I navigated several hurdles to take online AP classes that were made available upon request through Alabama’s ACCESS plan for distance learning. There were so many hurdles to being able to participate in both programs, and because of it, I have chosen to work at schools that give a broader range of students access to the IB program by default.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

A mentor once told me, “Let someone else tell you no,” when I was debating sending in an application for a job opportunity years ago. For scholarships, school program ideas, jobs, or awards, spending less time being my own gatekeeper has opened up fantastic experiences.

Most recently, I pitched an ambitious idea to the Rozalia Project, which included setting aside spots on a July expedition on their sailboat for a teacher and a recent high school graduate — she said yes! Making this initial ask has also let us start envisioning a recurring beach cleanup program and a full Prospect Schools expedition a couple years out from now. We have other details to work out, but if I had let my own ‘no’ get in the way, I would have never fathomed how excited they would be to develop this partnership.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey school librarians want to partner with teachers to improve literacy rates

2024-04-30T15:50:58+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

Improving literacy doesn’t just happen inside the classroom. School librarians across New Jersey say they play an important role in fostering a love of reading and turning students into lifelong learners.

But their role in promoting and teaching literacy in schools is misunderstood and often not acknowledged, they say.

Librarians work with students and teachers in every grade and every subject, which allows them to follow students’ academic growth and develop relationships with them. They provide students with personalized book recommendations, help teachers collect resources for class projects, and teach students necessary research skills and digital literacy.

A recent report from the Center for American Progress found a link between school libraries and student achievement, including in reading. Decades of research shows that students with access to well-resourced school libraries with certified librarians consistently perform better. According to the report, these findings are still true when controlling for socioeconomic status.

“School libraries should always be considered essential in schools but especially when we’re trying to reverse the trend of low reading scores,” said report author Tania Otero Martinez.

Librarians said they see themselves as partners with classroom teachers in the effort to improve student literacy rates, with their work serving as a necessary complement to instructional strategies. NJ Spotlight News, in its ongoing multimedia Change Project series, recently focused on best practices for how to teach reading.

Beth Raff, president of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, said school librarians should be included in discussions about literacy, curriculum and selecting materials for classroom libraries.

“There needs to be more awareness and a seat at the table more often,” she said.

Number of school librarians declining statewide

Many people don’t understand the role of school librarians, sometimes called school library media specialists, even within a school, Raff said. She said their wide-reaching role is a worthy investment for a school district to make.

Mary Moyer Stubbs, legislative consultant for the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, said while classroom teachers focus on building foundational reading skills, school library media specialists bring a level of enthusiasm that will help reading become a lifelong practice.

The Center for American Progress report found that while school libraries benefit all students, vulnerable students see the greatest gains from access to libraries. These students have historically passed statewide reading assessments at lower rates than their peers. Students from high-poverty and racially diverse areas are less likely to have access to libraries, according to the report.

New Jersey has seen a decline in the number of school librarians since 2010, according to a project from Antioch University Seattle called SLIDE: The School Librarian Investigation – Decline or Evolution? In the 2015-16 school year, the state had one school librarian for every 996 students. By 2021-22, there was one librarian for every 1,138 students. New Jersey is ranked 27th out of 50 for its ratio of students to librarians, according to SLIDE. The project also found more than two dozen districts without full-time librarians, especially in South Jersey and along the Jersey Shore.

School libraries fulfill a need

Tania Otero Martinez, K-12 education policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, said increasing the number of school libraries with certified librarians is essential for all students to develop a love of reading, especially those who might not have access to books at home and are unable to visit their local public library.

“The school library can be the first place they come into consistent contact with books, the first place they can develop their love of reading,” she said.

Tricina Strong-Beebe, a K-8 school library media specialist in Hainesport, said it’s critical for students to have free choice over what books they read. In her library, this means students also have a say in what books are added to the library’s collection.

Students who are struggling to read are given opportunities to read with older students about subjects they are interested in, she said. This might mean pairing a book the student can read confidently with a more advanced book on the same topic that includes visual elements.

Faith Brody, a school library media specialist in Oaklyn and Collingswood, said librarians are trained in finding books for anyone, even readers who are struggling or uninterested. This might involve asking the student if they want to read a story or a facts book. If they say facts, she might follow up with topic suggestions and point out different sections in the nonfiction area of the library.

Brody said in addition to teaching students reading skills, it’s important to get students engaged and interested in reading so they want to continue reading. “If you can combine the two then you can be really successful,” she said.

Teachers, librarians ‘instructional partners’

Brody spent five years teaching reading as a classroom teacher before becoming a librarian. She said it’s important for teachers and librarians to work together to support students, such as through collaborating on research projects by compiling materials and library books. Everyone in the district should understand each other’s roles, including teachers, librarians, and administrators, she said.

“I would love for more librarians to be recognized and seen as instructional partners. We’re not just standing behind a desk, checking things out. We’re really thinking and trying to find tools and resources that will help,” Brody said.

Evelyn Mamman, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in the South Brunswick School District, said empowering librarians and promoting collaboration is central to her work. She said there is a librarian in every school in the district who is treated as an expert and instructional partner.

“I wanted to change the narrative that librarians are just there to check out books. All of this is intentional,” Mamman said.

Prioritizing librarians in school budgets

Librarians in the district work with students who are conducting research and co-teach lessons with teachers on information literacy, which is the ability to recognize what information is needed, find it, and use it effectively. Librarians also provide professional development and give input on curriculum, Mamman said.

“We will be doing our students a disservice if we do not have reading and librarians and informational literacy at the forefront. That shows based on the way we schedule, based on the way we collaborate, how we’re talking about books,” Mamman said.

She said the South Brunswick School District is facing significant budget cuts but is not considering cutting librarians because of how important they are to the district.

The New Jersey Association of School Librarians is fighting to prevent further cuts to school librarians and promote their importance. The association supports legislation that would require public schools with 300 to 1,499 students to have at least one full-time school library media specialist. Smaller schools would be required to have a part-time librarian.

The association is also calling for the administrative code related to school library media services to be rewritten to strengthen the requirement that library services are provided by a certified specialist.

“Being a reader is something you carry with you your whole life. It’s especially important that our elementary schools, and others, have access to a certified school library media specialist,” said Raff, the association’s president.

Hannah Gross covers education and child welfare for NJ Spotlight News via a partnership with Report for America. She covers the full spectrum of education and children’s services in New Jersey and looks especially through the lens of equity and opportunity. This story was first published on NJ Spotlight News, a content partner of Chalkbeat Newark.

Chalkbeat

NYC schools start Sept. 10, leaving parents scrambling for childcare

NYC teachers: How are you teaching about 9/11 on its 25th anniversary?

Vaping, bathrooms, stress: What 357,000 NYC students revealed in revamped school survey

How often do students in this school vape?

How often can you use a bathroom that matches your gender identity in your school?

How many of your teachers connect what you are learning to life outside the classroom?

How often do you use strategies you learned at school to stay focused when something frustrating happens?

How often do you feel included in school activities like clubs, sports, recess, field trips, and school events?

Colorado school district rejects controversial reading curriculum because of errors, Texas focus

How a Queens school transformed a local playground — and its students’ lives

A lesson in joy, leadership, and local change

Colorado district will eliminate Bible-based content in new reading curriculum, officials say

NYC reading scores sink, with third grade proficiency falling 14 points

This Colorado school district is using Biblically infused reading curriculum made for Texas students

Controversial from the beginning

A sudden pivot, little public discussion

Unequal algebra access in Philly is ‘discriminatory’ says key city official as district plans changes

An alphabet without an F: AI slop seeps into Teachers Pay Teachers curriculum marketplace

AI fuels cottage industry of curriculum creators

‘I do use AI-assisted tools’

Eric Adams mandated NYC preschools adopt a single curriculum. Under Mamdani, they’re getting more choice.

A sweeping change draws backlash

Assessment system sparks ongoing concerns

As more teen boys turn to sports betting, financial literacy teachers rush to show gambling’s real odds

At NYC’s first all-virtual high school, this award-winning teacher knows it’s not ‘one-size-fits-all’

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

Tell us more about the Virtual Innovators Academy. What are some of the ways teaching there is different from your previous experience?

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

You’ve worked with incarcerated youth in the past? Do you still do that?

You’ve also long mentored other teachers. Why is that important to you?

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

And finally, how do you plan to use the prize money from the Muller Award?

This Brooklyn teacher connects chemistry to the real world — and just won $25,000 for it

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

Tell us about the curriculum you’ve developed, and why you decided to create it.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

You brought the first AP course to your school. Why was that so important?

Is your educational experience connected to why you mentor early career educators through the NYC Men Teach program (which aims to get more men of color into teaching)?

Most kindergartners who start school behind never reach proficiency: study

Blending algebra and geometry: An approach to high school math slowly gains favor

Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education.

Workforce focus drives adoption of integrated math

Some states reconsidering integrated math approach

An NYC student was ashamed of his antisemitic thoughts. This fellowship helped him resist prejudice.

Creating safe spaces for hard conversations

An upper Manhattan mom was tired of screen time. She convinced 38 schools to take a ‘screen break.’

An effort to replace screens with other activities

Millions of students use i-Ready. But many parents view it as a villain in the ed tech fight.

Parents worry i-Ready leaves kids stuck academically

Research debate highlights broader concerns about ed tech

Pressure mounts on school boards to reconsider i-Ready

Kids are in a ‘reading recession’ as test scores continue to decline

A shift toward phonics and extra reading support

Getting kids ‘consistently in the seat’ helps Detroit

A bright spot in the South

The math equity gap: Thousands of NYC students miss out on Algebra 1 in eighth grade

She was expelled from high school. Now, she’s one of NYC’s top teachers.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom or your school?

Tell us more about the importance of joy in school. How do you bring joy into the classroom?

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

An alternative to gifted education: Why some NYC schools are embracing International Baccalaureate

Leaning on IB to tackle enrollment declines

The move to IB can be challenging

A middle school IB program helps students find their ‘voice’

This elementary school banned screens in the middle of the year. Will it solve their reading crisis?

Why a school banished screens and bought books

In reading instruction, students get a digital detox

Will eliminating screens help young readers?

Goodbye, Regents exams. NYC educators: Tell us how Portrait of a Graduate will change your classroom.

After fights over social studies standards, conservative activists turn to math

Conservative group wants to rewrite academic standards

Experts dispute whether simpler academic standards are better

Top teachers’ performance drops in high-poverty schools, showing school context is key

Safety, academic rigor, integration: Kamar Samuels embarks on 5-borough tour to discuss priorities

Staten Island, Feb. 10, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Manhattan, Feb. 24, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Brooklyn, Feb. 28, 10:30 a.m. to noon