With pre-K applications almost due, parents’ phones keep ringing
With names culled from birth records and child-care centers, workers have already dialed up more than 135,000 parents of four-year-olds.
All posts by Patrick Wall
City’s community schools plan stirs doubt among supporters
Some supporters of Mayor de Blasio’s vision for creating new “community schools” expressed doubts about the program, which will include more extra instructional time and after-school programs for students.
94 struggling NYC schools will get extra support and tutoring time, but could still close
Following the so-called community schools model, the city will bring physical and mental health practitioners, guidance counselors, adult literacy teachers, and a host of other service providers into these schools. They will also add an extra hour of tutoring to the school day and receive money for new after-school seats, summer programs, and more teacher training.
With 80 minutes of new teacher training each week, schools set out to see what works
After years of meeting over lunch and between bells, the city’s teachers now have 80 uninterrupted minutes every Monday afternoon to collaborate and train.
Thousands of four-year-olds help de Blasio fulfill pre-K goal
“This is a moment of fulfillment, a dream we’ve had for a long time finally coming to fruition,” de Blasio said at Inner Force Tots, a pre-K site in Brooklyn on Thursday morning.
In pursuit of pre-K goal, New York City goes to great lengths to enlist yeshivas
As the city scurries to make 53,000 full-day pre-kindergarten slots available this September, every seat counts. But when officials tried to round up pre-K seats in Jewish schools, the largest group of non-public schools in the city, some ultra-Orthodox yeshivas hesitated to add full-day programs that would limit their time for religious instruction.
Educators question contract’s bet on teacher training over student tutoring
New York City’s proposed teachers contract stakes a claim about the time educators spend with students: quality beats quantity. Some are questioning that tradeoff.