Before Mayor-Elect Lovely Warren does anything in office, she apparently wants residents to give their input on several issues impacting the city. Last weekend she held a brief event built around focus groups. A couple of people who attended the event said it was an impressive guest list consisting of neighborhood leaders, school officials, business […]
Tim Louis Macaluso
I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education, health care, and local politics for City.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Evans won’t seek seventh term as Rochester school board president
Malik Evans said today that he will not seek another term as president of the Rochester school board. Evans served six terms at the board’s helm and presided over several tumultuous periods, including the messy departure of former Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard. The board will elect its leaders in January and with Evans’s announcement, the way […]
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Vargas warns board of $33 million to $46 million budget gap
In a preview of his proposed budget for the 2014-2015 school year, Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas told board members last night that the district faces a $33.2 million budget gap. But that figure doesn’t include fully funding some of what Vargas called academic priorities, such as increasing reading support to meet third grade proficiency […]
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Senator Flanagan’s early Christmas gift to testing critics
Many parents, teachers, and education advocates may be sighing with relief today. The reason? At least some of their concerns about high-stakes testing, implementation of the more rigorous Common Core curriculum, and teacher evaluations have been heard by New York State Senator John Flanagan. After five hearings, Flanagan issued a report yesterday that might cause […]
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New York’s City Council says enough testing
Former New York City education chancellor Joel Klein spent years extolling the benefits of high-stakes testing. But now, the NYC City Council is saying enough is enough. And they’re asking the state Education Department to forgo using student test results as a main assessment tool. The council, according to an Ed Week article, unanimously passed […]
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Public relations battle continues over Common Core
For the last two months, State Education Commissioner John King has been on what officials call a “listening tour” in communities around the state.
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Mental illness: smashing the stigma
This is the first installment of a two-part series on mental health attitudes, research, and available services in the Rochester region. For much of the last century, the subject of mental health has been locked away in the public psyche, to be dragged out only after tragic events seize national attention: the student who walks […]
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Two Rochesters and two Americas
While Lovely Warren campaigned for mayor, she made a compelling observation about the city that resonated with many voters. Her description of “two Rochesters”— a city divided by economic and political power — was one of the most important narratives of the mayoral election. Warren tapped into a sense of anger about wealth disparity. But […]
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New report paints grim picture of poverty in the Rochester area
What’s most distressing about the report’s findings is the extreme concentration of poverty in Rochester, and the deep barriers to social and economic progress it poses.
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Obama’s optimism overshadowed by a somber interview
A contemplative and at times somber President Barack Obama took to the stage at American University last night for an interview with Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball.” The interview in many respects showed a different president than the man who first took office in 2008. The big smile wrapped around a canyon of teeth was […]
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Imagination more important than testing, Ravitch says
As news of how US students’ scores on the most recent Program for International Student Assessment exams compared to their peers in many other countries, a kind hysteria set in. US students’ proficiency in math, science, and reading barely ranked in the top 20. While some education and business experts read the results as further […]
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Absences add up
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas has successfully brought public attention to the connection between attendance and student achievement. While the district’s low graduation rate has been reported for years, one of its underlying causes — chronic truancy — received less attention. School officials confirm that three months into this school year there are 186 students […]
