David Banks
Hawkins previously oversaw payments to preschool providers during a wave of delays. But local lawmakers and advocates praised her appointment.
Ahmed’s tenure at the Division of Early Childhood Education came at a time of upheaval for the city’s sprawling publicly-funded early childhood system.
Both officials took on some of the Education Department’s highest-profile challenges in their prior roles.
Chancellor David Banks has staked his education agenda on changing the curriculums educators use. Few schools are exempt from the new mandates.
The nation’s largest school system is “very much leaning towards” banning cell phones, David Banks said Wednesday.
The policy shift comes after some Manhattan parents lobbied Chancellor David Banks to impose geographic admissions preferences at high-demand local high schools.
Just 4.5% of offers at specialized high schols went to Black students and 7.6% to Latino students, a slight uptick from last year. About two-thirds of the city’s students are Black or Latino.
The parent leaders were involved in high-profile controversies surrounding transgender students and the Israel-Hamas war.
As New York Gov. Kathy Hochul mulls a statewide cell phone ban in schools, NYC students and teachers describe current policies as confusing and challenging for teachers to manage.
The list of schools that would offer the admissions bump hasn’t been finalized. But the campuses under consideration include Millennium, Beacon, Bard Early College and Eleanor Roosevelt High Schools.
Families at The Brooklyn School of Inquiry have won a lengthy fight to avoid using Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s reading program. Will other schools follow?
The protest was a sharp contrast to the congressional hearing earlier in the day that focused almost exclusively on the experiences of Jewish students and educators.
‘There have been unacceptable incidents of antisemitism in our schools,’ Banks told members of Congress. But he also defended the record of the nation’s largest school system.
Chancellor David Banks is set to testify at a congressional hearing on antisemitism in K-12 schools, facing the committee that recently grilled the presidents of elite colleges.
The announcement set off alarm bells for school integration advocates, who worry it could roll back progress diversifying several high-demand schools.
Banks previews the message he plans to take to Congress for a hearing on responses to antisemitism in school.
Listen as student reporters speak with Banks about New York City’s Hidden Voices curriculums, school integration efforts, and more.
The city school system, like districts across the country, has dealt with a surge in tensions following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of the Gaza strip.
The literacy overhaul has enjoyed support from many advocates and experts. But will the momentum last as NYC expands its reading instruction shift?
Carolyne Quintana, a deputy chancellor who oversees the department’s signature literacy initiative, is leaving at the end of the school year.