By Elizabeth Ling, DFER NY State Director
I wanted to draw your attention to two articles from this past week addressing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s initiatives to improve NYC’s failing schools. The first is an op-ed by Dr. Pamela Cantor of Turnaround for Children, a non-profit doing ground-breaking work to address the debilitating effects of poverty on children’s ability to learn. The second piece, by Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform, urges the mayor to continue pressing for necessary intervention measures.
Both pieces highlight the hard work that is taking place among educators, students, parents and policymakers as NYC gains traction in changing the educational trajectory for many children in its struggling schools, which are often located in high-poverty neighborhoods. There is more work to be done, as this is an outsized task and one that is a marathon and not a sprint.