News Update: Recent Interesting Articles and Reports

Here are some recently published interesting articles and reports to check out.

State/Local:

• “For Transgender Homeless, Choice of Shelter Can Prevent Violence,” by Diana Scholl, City Limits, Dec. 6 – Transgender homeless at risk of violence in certain shelters, city policy allows people to stay at shelters based on gender they self-identify with.
• “Subtraction Lesson: The 26 Schools Slated for Closure,” by Jarrett Murphy, City Limits, Dec. 6 – City closing more public schools, examination of reasons for their shutdown.
• “Fights Over Medicaid Could Threaten New Administration’s Health,” by Ari Paul, GothamGazette, Dec. 2010 – Due to high state budget deficits, Gov. Andrew Cuomo facing pressure to cut spending on health care for low-income people.

National:

• “High Expectations & Strong Supports Yield Postsecondary Success,” The Forum for Youth Investment, Dec. 14 – Brief on increasing education for older, vulnerable youth by providing the support needed for their success.
• “How to Turn a School System Around,” by Nikhil Swaminathan, GoodMagazine, Dec. 9 – Reports provide information on how school systems can improve and better educate students; city and local school districts must tailor options to meet specific school systems’ needs.
• “America’s Most Vulnerable,” by Charles M. Blow, NYTimes, Dec. 10 – A United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) study shows the level of child wellbeing in the wealthiest 24 countries in the world, with the U.S. ranking last. – “Children that Fortune Forgot,” NY Times, Dec. 12– Chart displaying information revealed by UNICEF study.

News Update: Additional interesting articles

Here are some additional interesting articles related to our issues to check out:

New York News:

• “Cathie Black makes debut as schools chancellor; meets, greets Bronx parents, students,” by Rachel Monahan, Henrick Karoliszyn and Meredish Kolodner, NY Daily News, Nov. 30 – New NYC School Chancellor Cathie Black approved despite lack of education experience, makes first appearance at city public school in Bronx.
• “Students rally to save Newton H.S.,” by Aisha Al-Muslim, Queens Courier, Dec. 1 – Students protest outside Queens Center Mall, urging Department of Education not to close their school which has had a 50% graduation rate for the past six years.
• “Single Stop Helps Bronx College Students Stay in School,” by Peter Milosheff, Bronx Times, Nov. 15 – CUNY community colleges are helping low-income students remain in school with Single Stop USA, a non-profit that connects students with benefits counseling, legal and financial advice, and tax preparation.

U.S. News:

• “Senate Passes One-Year TANF Extension,” CLASP, Nov. 20 – The Senate passed, by unanimous consent, a bill that provided for a one-year extension of the TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) block grant program through Sept. 30, 2011.
• “The Raging Fire,” by Bob Herbert, New York Times, Nov. 15 – Column on reason for proficiency inequality amongst black and white students shown in report by Council of the Great City Schools.

Proficiency disparity between black and white students shows education inadequacy

A Nov. 9 article in the New York Times reports a huge proficiency disparity between black and white students. The data, produced in a report titled “A Call for Change” by the Council of the Great City Schools, was compiled from national math and reading tests known as the National Assessment for Educational Progress, which are given to students in fourth and eighth grade. The report states:

• 12% of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, while 38% of white boys are.
• 12% of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44% of white boys.
• In high school, black boys drop out at nearly twice the rate of white boys.
• On average, black boys’ SAT scores are 104 points lower than white boys’ scores.
• In 2008, black men represented only 5% of college students.

According to the report, poverty alone does not explain these differences, because, for example, poor white boys do just as well as black boys who do not live in poverty. The report suggests convening a White House conference, advocating for Congress to appropriate more money for schools and creating networks of black mentors.

While these measures may be helpful, these statistics reveal a deep disparity in our society that goes beyond government funding and mentors. This data points to not only inadequacy in America’s education system, but to racial inequality that clearly has not been overcome. It is particularly upsetting to see this injustice affecting youth as early as elementary school, for progress should be evident in each generation. If children are held back by racial inequality so early in life, it will be infinitely more difficult for them to move beyond the disparity and overcome such boundaries as they age.

These statistics should not be ignored. They should come as a warning to Americans that great progress is critically needed, and it is time for government officials, academic researchers, teachers, and really, any American citizen, to work towards change.

New chancellor of NYC’s public schools fundamentally disconnected from public education

Cathleen Black, chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, has been selected by Mayor Bloomberg to replace Joel Klein as chancellor of New York City’s public schools. This selection has come as a total surprise to educators and advocates throughout the City. Although Mayor Bloomberg calls her a “world-class manager,” and she is on the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, she has no background in educational pedagogy or management. In addition, Ms. Black is technically (i.e., legally) unqualified for the position. The City must apply for a waiver of the requirement that the Chancellor have a graduate degree in education in order for Ms. Black to take the position.
In a NY Daily News article, Alexander Nazaryan, who previously taught English in NYC public schools, writes:

“By picking someone even more part of the corporate world than Klein, Mayor Bloomberg is signaling that the battle against the entrenched interests of the teachers union will continue, along with a push to make the public school system more accountable for results: Assess and evaluate, reward achievement, shed dead weight, just as on Wall Street and in midtown.”

Nazaryan states that problems under Klein’s reign can be attributed to the fact that “he was a lawyer, not an educator.” Ms. Black, a lawyer by training and a business manager by practice, is similarly if not more out-of-touch with the public education community. For example, many advocates and reporters are criticizing Black as fundamentally disconnected from public education. Not only was she not educated in public schools, but she has never been a parent of a public school student — her own two children attended a private boarding school in Connecticut.

Although Bloomberg said Black could rely on city Education Department staff members to help fill any gaps in her knowledge, without background in the area, successfully running the nation’s largest school system with a $23 billion budget, 135,000 employees, and one million students will be a difficult feat. As mentioned in previous blog posts, education reform is urgent for New York’s youth. Hopefully, we will soon be surprised by Black, and proved wrong that her qualifications, though impressive, are not suiting for this position.

For more on Cathleen Black, see:
The Huffington Post
The NY Daily News
The New York Times
Education Weekly

Governor candidates’ plans (or lack there of) for education reform

In the City Limits article, “Fill in the Blanks: Cuomo’s Education Plans Short on Detail,” Helen Zelon writes that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic nominee for Governor, lacks specificity when it comes to his plans for education.

Cuomo’s five-point plan hardly mentions education reform, although he has said that educational inequality is “probably the civil rights issue of our time.”

He said:

“There are two education systems in this state, one for the rich and one for the poor, and they are both public systems.”

The nominee further explained that the disparity in New York’s education system is caused by the fact that it is funded through the property tax system, as discussed in a previous blog post. Richer school districts have more valuable property to tax, and thus more money to spend on their schools.

Zelon reports that Cuomo wants to cap the property taxes that fund the state’s schools, “while improving school results across the board.” But how academic achievement will be improved has not been directly addressed.

Moreover, experts like Karl Corn of the New York State United Teachers are skeptical of the property tax cap. Corn says capping taxes

“will exacerbate the achievement gap, [because] poorer districts would not be able to raise the money they need locally,”

Cuomo’s Republican opponent, Carl Paladino, also does not appear to have made education reform a priority in his campaign, or provide concrete details on his education policy. However, he supports private- and parochial-school vouchers and growth in the state’s charter schools, including residential charters targeted to the state’s poorest students.

In the New York Post article “‘Strangling’ NYC kids’ futures,” Howard Fuller and Kevin P. Chavous advocate for holding every elected official accountable for education reform. They write:

“Parents and community members must stand together and tell their elected officials how important it is to create a better public-school system.”

Indeed, in this coming election, it is time for New Yorkers to take a stand, and make the need for education reform at the top of Cuomo’s and Paladino’s plans. Education inequality, and ultimately a failed education system, is unacceptable for the children who represent New York’s future.

To make your opinion heard:
Contact Cuomo’s campaign
Contact Paladino’s campaign

Interesting articles and reports

Here are some more interesting recent articles and reports to check out:

• “$4.5 Million for Housing Programs,” by Peter Milosheff, Bronx Times, Oct. 20 – A total of $4.5 million awarded to not-for-profit housing agencies and local governments in NYC, Long Island, and Westchester County to build or modify 292 homes for low-income families, people with disabilities, and the elderly.

• “Introducing the Big Fix: What Will it Take to Transform Three New York City High Schools?” by Anna Phillips, WNYC, Oct. 18 – A focus on three of 30 schools across the city about to begin in an experiment, supported by Obama, to determine how to improve education. The city will use millions of federal dollars to either improve these schools, or shut them down and open replacements.

• “‘Culture of Poverty’ Makes a Comeback,” by Patricia Cohen, New York Times, Oct. 17 – Culture revisited as a cause of poverty; however, unlike in the 60s, researchers now acknowledge that it is not something inherent in the cultures that causes poverty, but the institutions of racism and isolation that have suppressed these cultures for so long.

• “U.S. to Let Insurers Raise Fees for Sick Children,” by Robert Pear, New York Times, Oct. 13 – In attempt to encourage health insurance companies to offer child-only policies, the Obama administration is allowing companies to charge higher premiums for coverage of sick children, if state laws allow it.

Unacceptable disparity in state funding of rich and poor school districts

For a state that calls itself progressive, New York’s education funding policy is awfully regressive. According to a new study by David Sciarra, Executive Director of the Education Law Center (ELC) in NJ, Bruce Baker of Rutgers University Graduate School of Education and Danielle Farrie, ELC Research Director, “Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card,” New York State’s school district funding has one of the largest disparities between rich and poor school districts in the nation. The inequality is so extreme that wealthy districts receive about $3,000 more per student.

This gap is due to the fact that wealthy districts utilize high property taxes to fund their schools, which many poor districts do not have. In 2007, the Court in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit found that the state was underfunding needy schools, leading to an increase in government funding for poor districts. In 2008 however, the recession led to a decrease in funding again.

The school funding fairness study states:

“Education has always been the cornerstone of freedom and democracy, and key to economic prosperity. But never before in our history has education been more crucial to the collective future of our nation and to the individual futures of our young people.”

As the workforce grows more competitive, quality education becomes even more imperative. The impoverished children, who make up the under-funded school districts, need adequate state education in order to gain knowledge and develop skills necessary for future success. The current policy of helping the rich get richer – and leaving the poor to grow poorer – will have lasting effects in the lives of these students if not changed soon.

New education system inspires hope

Geoffrey Canada’s innovative and inspirational anti-poverty model – Harlem Children’s Zone – is being expanded into 20 communities nationwide, including a second in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn.

The Harlem Children’s Zone is an inclusive education and social services network that begins with a baby university for expectant parents, continues with early-childhood programs, and ensues with charter schools that bring students from kindergarten to college. As discussed in the last blog post, this program effectively starts at the root, bringing students from “cradle-to-career,” as Yoav Gonen wrote in a Sept. 22 New York Post article. It begins immediately in children’s lives, allowing no time for students to fall through the cracks.

To get this expansion started, President Obama has requested $200 million in his 2011 fiscal budget to help implement them this year, along with $10 million for other planning grants. So while the state U.S. state of education may currently seem bleak, the future appears to be looking up.

New York students left behind

It is devastating to watch children fall through the cracks. But when reading the news this week, this is precisely what I saw. The New York Times reported on Sept. 23 that there has been a nearly fivefold increase in NYC students failing to move on to the next grade this year. How could all of these students be left behind?

The number of elementary and middle school students forced to repeat a grade rose rapidly due to higher standards on state tests and the broadening of the city’s tough promotion policy. But the solution for this problem is more complex than it may seem. If standards for grade promotion were lowered once again, New York’s education system would deteriorate. Students would not be learning, and the true problems at the root of this education crisis would be ignored.

Yet, if students are forced to repeat a grade, what will make the next year any different? If they were not successful the first time around, re-living the same experience will not suddenly impact them differently. And because of budget cuts, no additional money will even be designated to the 11,321 students who failed this year – so there will be no solidified differences in the process of their education.

It seems that the best way to resolve this huge educational inadequacy is to start fixing the problem at the roots. An Oct. 5 Brooklyn Eagle article by Mary Frost, “Forget Bailouts – Economic Future of U.S. Depends on Preschool,” states that a quality pre-school education, which many are not currently receiving, can lead to financial benefits to taxpayers and society in general through greater future earnings, more stable families, and lower crime rates in the future. But more immediately in the lives of the children, it can improve their future educational success.

If students come into elementary school with a strong pre-school background, they will be prepared. They will have the basis academically, and ideally, the support emotionally, to continue through school with confidence beginning at age 3.

Frost writes:

“The Economic Policy Institute’s study shows that providing just the 20 percent of the nation’s 3- and 4-year-old children who live in poverty with a high-quality preschool program would have a substantial payoff. These are the children who — if left without quality preschooling — would be most likely to need remedial and special education, enter the criminal justice system and use welfare benefits.”

If education programs are improved at the root, future problems will be alleviated. Children who otherwise may have failed would gain the potential to meet standards for grade promotion, and the potential to pull out of the cycle of poverty that many are currently stuck in.