At Middle School 88 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, there is a security guard at the entrance, long hallways plastered with art, and students, slouching on a sofa, staring into their phones. It is a pretty typical scene. Except for Room 128. For most of this school year, the room has contained the makings for a […]
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BALTIMORE — Mary Donnelly, the principal of John Ruhrah Elementary/Middle School, has watched with pride for 18 years as new languages proliferated in the hallways, different countries were added to her social studies work sheets and the student population nearly quadrupled. The influx of poor immigrant families brought a flood of resources as the school’s […]
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BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — In Benton Harbor, a small city beside Lake Michigan, the high school binds generations and strangers. This is a place where basketball games are a highlight of the social calendar, where signs celebrating state championships are placed at the edge of city limits, where residents say what year they graduated when […]
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For a generation now, school reform has meant top-down mandates for what students must be taught, enforced by high-stakes standardized tests and justified by macho rhetoric — “rigor,” “raising the bar,” “tougher standards.” Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose that next year virtually every student passed the tests. What would the reaction be from politicians, businesspeople, […]
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ACCRA, Ghana — At dawn on a recent Tuesday, 18-year-old Jane Newornu pulled on her blue gingham school uniform, stuffed her books into her knapsack and grabbed a banana as she ran off to school. Her twin sister, Jennifer, still in her pajamas, watched with a pang of envy. Instead of going to class, Jennifer […]
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Democratic presidential candidates have generated headlines with multibillion-dollar plans to raise teacher salaries. Kamala Harris set the bar by proposing to give public school teachers an average raise of $13,500. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are among the major candidates that have since followed suit, both announcing ambitious platforms to elevate the teaching profession at […]
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[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] CHESTNUT RIDGE, N.Y. — The mother of an unvaccinated child here in the New York suburbs says eating papaya helps to combat measles. The father of another child who has not been immunized believes that big pharmaceutical companies are […]
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MINFORD, Ohio — Inside an elementary school classroom decorated with colorful floor mats, art supplies and building blocks, a little boy named Riley talked quietly with a teacher about how he had watched his mother take “knockout pills” and had seen his father shoot up “a thousand times.” Riley, who is 9 years old, described […]
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Viewed negatively, such a system discriminates against the less highly educated and those who perform less well on ability tests. At the same time, meritocracy privileges an arrogant, complacent and entrenched elite — largely white, increasingly Asian — with the money, resources and connections to jump to the head of the line. The brutal caste […]
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All three of Darren O’Brien’s teenage daughters have been bullied at school. He said they had been shoved into lockers; one was surreptitiously recorded, he said, and another told to kill herself. Mr. O’Brien, a 38-year-old paper mill employee, said he pleaded with school principals, teachers and a guidance counselor to find a way to […]
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PORTLAND, Ore. — The final meeting of the year for the Pacific Islander Club at Roosevelt High School was mostly celebratory, with candy leis for the departing seniors and a spread of fried chicken. But the club was talking climate change, and for many students in North Portland, Ore., the subject hit close to home. […]
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LOCKPORT, N.Y. — I have a 16-year-old daughter, and like every parent in the United States today, I worry about her safety when she’s in school. But here in Western New York’s Lockport City School District, those fears have led to a wasteful and dangerous experiment. This week the district’s eight public schools began testing […]
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ANNA, Ohio — In early May, in a classroom at Anna High School, five seniors focused on controlling a canary yellow robotic arm. They took turns tapping code into a pendant connected to the arm. Their assignment was to make the arm grab and move a bunch of AA batteries, one by one, from one […]
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A high school English teacher in Fort Worth was fired on Tuesday after asking President Trump to rid her school of undocumented immigrants in public Twitter posts that she thought were private messages to the president. ImageGeorgia Clark, a former high school English teacher in Fort Worth.CreditFort Worth ISD, via KTVT The board of the […]
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LAFAYETTE, La. — T.M. Landry College Preparatory School, a private school in Louisiana that garnered national attention for helping underprivileged and minority students attend elite colleges, is under federal investigation over its college admissions practices after disclosures that it cut corners and doctored applications, according to multiple people contacted by the F.B.I. The F.B.I. opened […]
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Seemingly unfazed by the stage lights and television cameras, one gifted adolescent after the next approached the microphone on Thursday night and without a hint of timidity correctly spelled daunting words like “erysipelas” and “aiguillette.” In the end, after 20 rounds had distilled a group of 562 competitive spellers to just eight, those who were […]
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PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Layla Kegg’s mother, back home after three weeks who knows where, says she’s done with heroin, ready for rehab and wants to be part of her daughter’s life. But Layla has heard all of this before and doesn’t believe a single word. Layla’s trust was broken long ago, after years of watching […]
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About the Series Premiere A school in Louisiana had become famous for its record of placing students at elite universities, broadcasting their success through viral videos. Then, The New York Times published an investigation, uncovering rampant abuse of multiple students, few classes and fake transcripts. The school’s myth burst. The reporters, Erica L. Green and […]
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HOUSTON — Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday released the first major policy platform of his campaign, a sweeping education proposal that urges federal investment in low-income schools, supports universal prekindergarten and higher teacher pay, and, he added in a public appearance later, opposes for-profit charter schools. But in keeping with his more moderate tendencies, […]
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KABUL, Afghanistan — Attacks on Afghan schools tripled from 2017 to 2018, a Unicef report said Tuesday, as the Taliban and other extremist groups in Afghanistan continue to wage a campaign of violence against so-called softer targets, far from the battlefield. The number of attacks increased to 192 from 68, a surge not seen since […]
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