Author: siteadmin
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How private tutoring makes an unequal education system even less fair
Studies show that almost every student can improve their grades with private tutoring. But when only the rich can afford it — in New York the average cost of private tutoring is $64 an hour, though rates can easily approach and even exceed $100 — it’s no surprise their children are overrepresented in elite high schools and colleges, at…
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A Summer of Test Prep Means More Asians in the City’s Elite Schools
Those involved in the tutoring business believe the deck is stacked because too many smart kids don’t even know about the importance of test prep. While certain Asian immigrants have created a pipeline of tutoring centers, educators say black and Latino students often don’t have the same networks in their communities. https://www.wnyc.org/story/certain-immigrants-tutoring-key-specialized-high-schools-test/
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Op-Ed: NYC High School Admissions Creates Winners And Losers. I Lost.
You would never guess that Victory Collegiate is located in one of the most diverse and wealthy cities in the world: my school was 90 percent black, 7 percent Hispanic, and had a few Arab and South Asian kids. Most of us qualified for free lunch. One day, in my AP Biology class, a bullet…
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Demolish the meritocracy myth: No, the specialized high school exam is not a fair admissions screen; it’s discriminatory
And for others, paid school consultants, tutors and prep courses, some starting as early as kindergarten, give students with means, or those with parents in the know, a leg up. That includes poor Asian families who spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars prepping for the exam. The same can be said for gifted…
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High-Stakes Standardized Testing Supporter: John Liu
Name: John LiuSenate Link: https://www.nysenate.gov/senators/john-c-liuBallotpedia: https://ballotpedia.org/John_LiuPhone: 718-765-6675 Senator John Liu is a supporter of keeping the SHSAT exam as the SOLE measure of merit for admissions to Specialized High Schools. Senator Liu leads the Democrat Senate NYC Education committee. Which means he gets to decide what NYC education bills are brought to the Senate floor.…
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How One ‘Ordinary’ Brooklyn High School Produced Six Nobel Laureates, a Supreme Court Justice, and Three Senators
Verba, it turns out, was a graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York. So is Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. And the Senate minority leader, Charles Schumer. And even a former Republican senator from Minnesota, Norm Coleman. At least six Nobel laureates also attended the…
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McCauliffe 2018 Case: MOTION for Preliminary Injunction
The judge’s motion denying a preliminary injunction which attempted to block scheduled changes to the Discovery program. You can find most case documents here https://shsatsunset.org/christa-mcauliffe-intermediate-school-pto-inc-et-al-v-de-blasio-et-al/ The 40-page document also contains lots of findings of fact that should be a useful legal overview. Here are some notes… As a preliminary matter, the Court finds that Plaintiffs…
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It’s the peer effect, stupid: What makes schools like Stuyvesant great? It’s not test-based admission, but a broader culture of excellence
We’ve conducted more than 70 interviews (and counting) with adult alumni of Stuyvesant High School who graduated between 1946 and 2013 for a book we’re working on called “The Peer Effect.” (We both graduated from Stuyvesant in the 1980s.) Many of the people we’ve interviewed grew up poor, and/or were black, Latino or Asian. Some…
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Chancellor Carranza’s Gifted & Talented Remarks at the CEC4 Townhall
Recently at the district 4 education townhall, Chancellor Carranza was asked a fairly complex question on Gifted and Talented programs. Parents wanted to know what your vision for G&T education is? Can you commit that G&T education will always be a part of the DOE? What are your positions in terms of access to G&T…
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NYC has the country’s most segregated schools; will the city’s plan to change that make its best schools worse?
The old “integration will make our schools worse” argument. A frequent argument after Brown vs. Board in the 60’s makes its return. “There’s no research that shows that it’s either valid or reliable as an instrument to identify talent,” said Carranza about the SHSAT. “It’s just a hard test.” NYC Chancellor https://pix11.com/2019/02/16/nyc-has-the-countrys-most-segregated-schools-will-the-citys-plan-to-change-that-make-its-best-schools-worse/