academic and careers

NYC lawmakers push to expand specialized high school exam to combat low black, Latino enrollment

The proposal comes as city officials announced that only 11% of students admitted to specialized schools this year were black or Latino, compared to 70% of all city students, a figure virtually unchanged from years past.




academic and careers

New York suspends state exams after coronavirus closures

The annual math and English exams administered annually to New York 3rd-8th graders, as well as exams for English Language Learners, will no longer be given this school year, said Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa and interim state Education Commissioner Shannon Tahoe.




academic and careers

Advocacy groups urge NYC Education Dept. to include homeless students in childcare at ‘resource centers’

But the centers, slated to open Monday, are currently limited to children of healthcare and transit workers and first-responders - and advocates worry homeless students will be left behind.




academic and careers

NYC’s remote learning amid coronavirus shutdown brings smiles, a few tears, on first day

Students cracked open laptops or homework packets Monday morning, while parents wrangled restless kids and teachers reconnected with pupils longing for some structure after a week of aimlessness spent mostly indoors.




academic and careers

NYC school food workers fear for their health as schools continue to churn out meals during coronavirus shutdown

When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, Donald Nesbitt, then a cook at a Brooklyn public school, packed a bag and slept at school so he could continue making food for the many students who relied on him for their regular meals.




academic and careers

NYC school principal dies from coronavirus

A Brooklyn principal has died of complications from the coronavirus, the principals union announced Monday.




academic and careers

Two NYC Education Dept. employees who shared building with principal who died of coronavirus also hospitalized: sources

Rona Phillips, the principal of KAPPA V High School in Brownsville, is in intensive care with pneumonia, officials said. “Our thoughts are with Principal Phillips and her family for a speedy recovery, and we’ll support the school community in every way we can,” said Education Department spokeswoman Miranda Barbot.




academic and careers

NYU med school letting students graduate early to fight coronavirus

The Grossman School on Medicine is making the unprecedented move “in response to Governor Cuomo’s directive to get more physicians into the health system more quickly," it said in a statement.




academic and careers

‘Like Uber Computer': How a Brooklyn middle school delivered hundreds of laptops amid the coronavirus school shutdown

A Brooklyn middle school took a novel approach to remote learning: A computer drop-off service to students.




academic and careers

Top NYC Education Dept. staffer tests positive for coronavirus

The staffer hasn’t been working out of the agency’s Tweed Courthouse headquarters for nine days and is currently quarantined out of state. The employee alerted close colleagues as a precaution, according to sources.




academic and careers

NYC officials ask for help for daycares providing critical services during coronavirus crisis

The small businesses, many of which already run on razor-thin margins, are struggling to make end meet amid the crisis.




academic and careers

Racial justice groups criticize city teachers union’s use of controversial face recognition technology

The United Federation of Teachers tested security camera technology from a company affiliated with Clearview AI




academic and careers

New Jersey furniture company workers say they were laid off in midst of coronavirus in retaliation for union efforts

Workers were organizing with Teamsters Local 814 in the hopes of starting a union to address simmering concerns over pay and inconsistent hours.




academic and careers

NYU students ask for refund, get video of dean dancing instead

NYU students ask for refund. Dean sends video of herself dancing




academic and careers

CUNY names three new college presidents

The Board of Trustees voted Monday night to approve the three new college chiefs for Queens College, Hostos Community College and The CUNY Graduate Center, officials announced.




academic and careers

'I don’t know what that grading system should look like’: Reality - and dilemma - of NYC’s remote learning sets in

Teachers and school leaders across the country are struggling to maintain a semblance of structure and normalcy during remote learning while adapting to the approach’s many limitations. Grades are at the center of that debate.




academic and careers

They can’t catch a break: NYC schools lose a week of spring break to continue remote learning

City teachers and students will lose most of the annual public school pause this year after state officials announced remote learning would press on during the first half of April, officials confirmed Tuesday.




academic and careers

Sociologist and NYC’s most famous neighborhood explorer, William Helmreich, dies of COVID-19

The author of “The New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6,000 Miles in the City,” was 74.




academic and careers

NYC officials eliminate the last remaining days of school spring break

City schools were originally supposed to be off April 9-17.




academic and careers

NYC Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza tells teachers to stop using Zoom for remote learning due to security concerns

Many teachers have been relying on the videoconferencing platform to chat with students during remote learning.




academic and careers

'Back to square one’: Coronavirus dorm closures at CUNY sends some students back to their foster homes

Many of the city's foster youth were thrust into uncertainty last week when CUNY ordered them out of their dorms due to coronavirus. Unlike their peers, these students have no childhood bedrooms to return to, and often no families who can help them through the shutdown of the economy or the closing of their colleges.




academic and careers

Regents exams canceled for N.Y. high schools due to coronavirus shutdown

The high-stakes exams are graduation requirements for New York high school students.




academic and careers

NYC students will be assigned enrichment activities during canceled spring break

The goal for remote learning during the break “is to maintain the exciting and enriching aspects that Spring Recess provides,” Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza told teachers in a Monday night email.




academic and careers

Regents are cancelled, but students still have to pass the courses attached to them

Students normally must pass five of the end-of-course exams to graduate from state high schools, but officials scrapped the exams Monday amid statewide school closures triggered by the coronavirus outbreak.




academic and careers

CUNY opens emergency relief fund for struggling students with $2.75 million in private donations

CUNY officials hope the new relief effort — started with two $1 million donations from the Dimon and Petrie Foundations — will eventually grow to $10 million.




academic and careers

Five kids, two iPads: how one Bronx family is navigating remote learning with a technology shortage

As a single parent of five young children with two iPads and no computers at home, she’s had to ration both her own attention, and her kids’ time with the devices.




academic and careers

Late-life literary success makes Brooklyn College teacher one of three CUNY profs to win Guggenheim Fellowships

Sigrid Nunez, 69, authored the National Book Award-winning novel “The Friend," which depicts a woman’s grief over the death of a close friend as she cares for his dog. She’s among 175 recipients of this year’s grants, which aim to give awardees the financial freedom to pursue their creative work.




academic and careers

‘Just brutal’: NYC Ed Department reveals 50 - from administrators and teachers to facilities and food workers - have died from COVID-19

The COVID-19 deaths included 22 paraprofessionals, 21 teachers, two administrators, two central office staffers, a facilities employee, a guidance counselor and a school food worker.




academic and careers

‘We paras are the front lines:’ NYC schools confront devastating coronavirus death toll among classroom paraprofessionals

Twenty-two of the city’s 25,000 paraprofessionals have died from the coronavirus, a rate four times higher than the rest of the 150,000-employee Department of Education, according to the agency’s data.




academic and careers

College Board cancels June SAT, promises at-home exam if school still out by fall

The next opportunity to take the test is Aug. 29, and the College Board will offer an additional chance to take the test in September if students are able to return to school.




academic and careers

CUNY faces calls to freeze price hikes, reimburse tuition amid pandemic

CUNY students, whose median family income is $40,000 a year, say it’s the worst possible time to face additional expenses.




academic and careers

Nearly 8,000 NYC elementary school students qualify for ‘gifted’ school programs, neighborhood disparities persist

The bulk of students taking the test do so before starting Kindergarten—an aspect of the process critics say privileges parents with the money and savvy to prepare their young kids for the high-stakes exams.




academic and careers

Older NYC high school students working during coronavirus pandemic struggle to keep a grip on classwork

Maira Ramirez feels a pang of guilt when her phone buzzes with class assignments while she’s working double shifts at a kosher market to support her financially-strapped family during the pandemic. “I would be at work and see the notifications pop up on Google Classrooms," said Ramirez, a 20-year-old student at West Brooklyn Community High School — a transfer school for students who have struggled in traditional high schools. “I’d be like ‘Damn, I can’t even do them.'”




academic and careers

Thousands of NYC school bus workers furloughed after city declines to renew bus company contracts because of coronavirus shutdown

Union officials say school bus workers will be hit hard by the cuts.




academic and careers

Coronavirus led N.Y.’s Blythedale Children’s Hospital and its school to help special-needs students with online studies, telehealth care

Dozens of students and patients are thriving through distance learning and telehealth consultation via the Blythedale Children’s Hospital.




academic and careers

NYC council members urge de Blasio to avoid classroom cuts in budget negotiations

The lawmakers say the city should turn its attention to pricey contracts, testing payments and administrative costs before axing $181 million from school budgets that cover the salaries of teachers, social workers, and other staff.




academic and careers

NYC Education Dept. reinstates Zoom after security and privacy upgrades

Schools chancellor Richard Carranza put the kibosh on the app in early April, several weeks into the city’s seismic shift to remote learning, citing concerns about Zoom’s privacy and security features.




academic and careers

When After-School Is Shut Down, Too

With schools moved online and kids cooped up at home, soccer coaches, dance instructors and other leaders of extracurricular activites are finding creative ways of keeping kids active and engaged.




academic and careers

The New Federal Rules Will Better Protect Students Accused Of Sexual Assault

The Trump administration says new rules announced on Wednesday will better protect students accused of sexual assault and harassment, but critics say they will make it harder for survivors to report.




academic and careers

Ohio State University Student Holds His Commencement In A Living Room

Many 2020 graduates are attending virtual commencements due to the pandemic. But Trent Johnson of Ohio State University took a real walk — dressed in cap and gown — across his family's living room.




academic and careers

Foster Care System In West Virginia Struggles To Help Children During The Pandemic

The coronavirus shutdown is straining a foster care system in West Virginia. Home visits have shifted to online check-ins, and referrals have plummeted as schools are now closed.




academic and careers

Federal Rules Give More Protection To Students Accused Of Sexual Assault

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced what she called historic changes Wednesday to Obama-era guidelines that she said will make the process fairer.




academic and careers

A Few Schools Reopen, But Remote Learning Could Go On For Years In U.S.

Governors are starting to float ideas for reopening schools. But there are many concerns about what education will look like when that happens.




academic and careers

News Brief: COVID-19 Testing, Georgia Shooting, Montana Schools

An update on coronavirus testing. Georgia authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of an unarmed black jogger. And, a small number of students in Montana go back to school Thursday.




academic and careers

CDC Guidance For Reopening Schools, Child Care And Summer Camps Is Leaked

The document has been in the works for some time, but reports say the White House tried to suppress it.




academic and careers

Students Call College That Got Millions In Coronavirus Relief 'A Sham'

In a federal lawsuit, students accuse Florida Career College of breaking promises about career training and job placement. The for-profit school has been allotted $17 million in federal pandemic aid.




academic and careers

Small, Private Colleges Get Boost From Coronavirus Relief Funds

Congress set aside $350 million to help colleges with "significant unmet needs" related to the pandemic. Most of that money has gone to small schools that serve just a fraction of U.S. students.




academic and careers

Judith Warner's New Book On Middle School Suggests It Doesn't Have To Be All Bad

The author of And Then They Stopped Talking To Me tells NPR, "I expected middle schoolers to be these sorts of monsters. And they weren't. They were just kids."




academic and careers

France Is Planning A Partial Reopening Of Schools

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Jean-Michel Blanquer, French minister of education, about how France is planning to reopen primary schools on May 11.




academic and careers

French Education Minister Says School Reopenings Will Be Done 'Very Progressively'

France's minister of education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, talked with NPR about the gradual reopening of schools, which will be voluntary. Still, many parents and administrators are against the plan.