Reality Check in High Schools in NYC

Rachel Leinweber • 4 minutes ago on Schoolbook.org:

This response is to a discussion about a Stuyvesant student who presumably did some 'research' with a few kids in that school about achievement, and specifically what made a given student maintain a superior drive to succeed?.. Not clear about the details of that 'study', but this was my comment:


If anyone thinks that looking at Stuyvesant (or any of the select few high schools in NYC where only the top 5% of students get into) is an interesting way to look at 'achievement', we have allowed the entire system to go the way that Bloomberg & The Educrats want us to go. Try looking at the majority of kids in urban high schools(UNDERFUNDED, largely minority, largely poor) who actually have to FIGHT to achieve. And in those majority rise up a few fantastic learners, and THEY are the remarkable ones. And the teachers who work and help those few kids in the morass of the more than 50% of the poorly run, poorly administrated high schools in NYC ... they - those teachers who stick it out - are the other heros of that story. Stuyvesant and Harvard are bastions for the very few select, and studying how their achievement for those rarified group of students is about disingenuously 'playing' at presumed 'research'. If this is student led and directed, I hold my criticism for Schoolbook and any of the grown ups promoting the work as significant... and invite people to look at the massive bodies of research (generally ignored by the current NYC/DOE) which shows that a supportive educational and literate friendly familial system is the way for success at schools and beyond. What more do we really need to think about besides how to rescue the nearly 100,000 students in high schools this term who are NOT at Stuy or anywhere equally strong academically, financially or otherwise?

Got $$ ? PTA's and the 10% in NYC

AT NEST+m, G&T Citywide on the Lower East Side, the 'suggested' donation for each family is $1000. Many parents (myself NOT included) mistakenly think that because their child 'scored' a seat at one of the very few G&T available by the NYC/DOE, they (the families) should be happy to foot the bills for whatever the principals want. AT NEST this year, the general fund raising was expanded, when Principal Livanis decided to cut the number of cluster and other teachers, eliminating Dance, Chess and at least one teacher position in the lower grades. The PTA at NEST is a good support for the school community generally, but the idea that she (the Principal) KNOWS that parents can/will fill in to restore services is a controversial topic.
For example, at NEST, where Technology is part of the name (new explorations in science, TECHNOLOGY and math), my son has not had a single Technology focus class since KINDERGARTEN! Until this term, when the PTA got permission and then raised monies for a Technology teacher... isnt that shocking to anyone at all?
Schools which are not eligible for any federal Title I funding (due to rather affluent demographics of the student body) tend to use the PTA's in this manner. And there are certainly some legitimate arguments to be made (we - the parents, can afford it, have our kids in a high performing school, etc etc)... but isnt there a problem with the principals strategically cutting programs that they KNOW the parents/PTA's will cover?
The current way the principals are told to manage their financial pool is an issue. And, if programs cease to exist in schools simply because PTA and Parent Groups dont have the resources, what does that say about the political voices in terms of PUBLIC (tax paid, free) education for the vast majority of our students ??

Blogging again... too much to say about Public Schools in NYC

As a parent, educator, citizen of NYC, as a former public school kid here in NYC, a child of a public school teacher (28+years), and for all the multitude of other roles we all play in this complex and busy city, I say this to those who ask for the reality about public education here and now:

We live in a city where public school is in fact NOT free

1. if we want to have smaller or better staffed classes
2. if we want to have our kids participate REGULARLY in afterschool programs that are NOT JUST a sort of glorified babysitting in the school's cafeteria
3. if we want our kids to be learning about foreign languages in any meaningful or substantive way
4. if we want our kids to be able to get into better schools than 50% of the city's kids get into generally; ie the Specialized Middle and High Schools such as NEST (G&T), Mark Twain (Coney Island Gifted), LaGuardia, Stuyvesant, Tech etc...

In fact, this topic of how much we "pay" into our kids' PTA funds, afterschool programs, trips and 'enrichment activities' is really about how the city has become increasingly a place of the families/kids/students who HAVE enough to support the "GetIntoAGoodSchool&College" habit and those who DO NOT (have enough), and/or about how parents who 1.are not literate, 2.not prepared educationally, socially or economically, 3.struggle with day to day subsistence here in New York ... how these multitudes of parents and family units are left INCREASINGLY out of the entire game .

That leaves the aproximately 10% of each grade, PreK to 12th, who still attend public school, but who could PROBABLY both get into private schools and pay for them, WHO LIKE ME choose to 'stick it out' but who also understand the level of $$ commitment and who can articulate the issues enough to get into the schools we want to attend.

Rachel Leinweber
IPhone : 718 757 5110