BY NICK FORTIER Orientation implies a process. When someone attends an orientation they generally expect to be oriented toward something: a culture, a code of conduct, an approach to the set of tasks at hand. Orientation also implies a direction or trajectory – a goal. Attendants are entering a new institution that they are hoping… Read More Orientation
BY MATT GONZALES Matt Gonzales is a MA student of Education Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is a former special education teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and a longtime activist. He currently works at the New York Department of Education in the Office of Teacher Recruitment and Quality, and interns… Read More Mayor de Blasio’s School Renewal Plan: Is This Going to Derail Community Schools?
BY MATT HASTINGS There is a well-worn comparison made between public schools and factories. Students are moved through school systems along assembly lines. Teachers work on the students as they pass in and out of classrooms coordinated by a system of bells. The end product of this assembly is some kind of standardized person, who… Read More Return on Investment Schooling
BY DAKOTA CINTRON On November 6th, 2014 the Center for New York City Affairs (CNYCA) released the 72 page report, A Better Picture of Poverty: What Chronic Absenteeism and Risk Load Reveal About NYC’s Lowest-Income Elementary Schools. The 2014 CNYCA report is an update and refinement of the agencies pioneering 2008 report on chronic absenteeism.… Read More Absenteeism and Poverty
BY CASSIE GARE The standards movement is meant to raise expectations for all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic or disability status. For many students with special needs, however, the unintended consequences of accountability have come at a high price, in many cases leading schools to compromise educational quality in the name of rigor. Proponents… Read More The Unintended Consequences of Accountability: Serving Students with Special Needs
TC Public Space 