When a school is failing as badly as East High, the surrounding community seems to go through many of the same emotional transitions as a person dealing with a life-threatening illness. Many of those raw emotions were evident at a meeting at East last week, where about 100 students, parents, staff, and residents reacted to […]
education
Posted inNews & Opinion
East’s problems mirror an unstable district
It’s tempting to think that the pending shakeup at East High School is just the State Education Department doing its job: pushing for greater accountability. But the situation at East mirrors the serious problems permeating much of the Rochester school district. And a plan for improving the district as a whole instead of just focusing […]
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Cuomo’s plan to educate inmates makes sense
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to give state prison inmates access to college degree programs has got critics sharpening their knives. A trio of Republican Congress members are behind the latest move against Cuomo’s plan. House Representatives Chris Collins, Tom Reed, and Chris Gibson have introduced legislation, the Kids before Cons Act, that would prohibit the […]
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The most powerful group you don’t know
Many parents and teachers are familiar with their local school board members. But most probably couldn’t tell you what the New York Board of Regents is or what it does, says Eric Mihelbergel, a founder of New York Allies for Public Education, a coalition of 45 education-advocacy organizations with 25,000 members across the state. NYSAPE […]
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Cuomo presents his 2014-15 budget
Governor Andrew Cuomo is sticking to his claim that if the state continues to hold down spending increases, the budget will have a $2 billion surplus by the 2016-17 budget year. And during his budget address this afternoon, Cuomo once again said that the surplus will enable a suite of tax cuts for businesses as […]
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Cuomo lays out his 2014 agenda
During his State of the State address this afternoon, Governor Andrew Cuomo spelled out his 2014 initiatives. But few, if any, of the big ticket items came as a surprise. He announced a plan to allow 20 hospitals to prescribe marijuana as treatment for some serious ailments, but that had already been leaked to the […]
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Powering-up parents
Brenda Coleman says her son LaBronze, 10, is intelligent and has an impressive vocabulary. And there are times when he is extremely talkative, she says. But Coleman says she has to keep LaBronze on a tight, consistent schedule. Any unusual variations can trigger serious behavioral problems, she says. When that happens, she says, “this house […]
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Vargas’s plea to higher ed
Bolgen Vargas may be remembered as the superhero who figured out a way to reverse 30 years of declining student performance in the Rochester City School District. Or he could be remembered as another name on a long list of well-meaning superintendents ultimately bested by an ossified bureaucracy. After two years leading the school district, […]
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ROTC’s culture club
Petite with luminous eyes behind a pensive stare, 20-year-old Amber Brewer looks too young to be charged with protecting the country. But don’t let her youthful appearance fool you. Brewer, an Army Reserve officer training cadet, says she’s confident that she’ll know how to handle combat and lead a platoon when the time comes. Brewer, […]
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Mayoral candidate White talks about education
Alex White, the Green Party’s candidate for mayor, unveiled his education plan at a brief press conference yesterday. Given that White’s opponent, Democrat Lovely Warren, has made education the cornerstone of her campaign, White had to sa y something on the topic. But his plan is really a repackaged version of the Green Party’s fight […]
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That machine wants your job
Several years out of the Great Recession haven’t produced the economic boom of many past US recoveries, and we continue to hear about the millions of Americans who have joined the ranks of the permanently unemployed. As Republicans continue to feather the nests of the rich with the failed expectation that they will create jobs, […]
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School puzzles
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas says that managing ambiguity has become one of his biggest challenges. For example, Vargas says that he supports teacher-led schools, where teachers and schools operate with as much autonomy as possible. But with greater autonomy with operations and programs comes greater accountability, he says. | “Teacher-led schools, in my definition, […]
