David Banks

The chancellor largely stuck to ideas he’s emphasized during his 20 months as chief. Chalkbeat wants to hear your thoughts on what he should prioritize.
Students returned to the city’s nearly 1,600 schools on a sweltering Thursday as a possible bus strike loomed.
High school superintendents are urging schools in their districts to adopt a standardized English language arts curriculum.
The judge outlined 40 specific actions for the Department of Education to take, including assigning additional staffers to overdue cases.
The group, which favors screened school admissions, endorsed 147 candidates across the city’s 32 local school district council seats, with 115 of them winning their races.
New York City’s College Choice program attempts to set up a stable future for students in foster care, who might otherwise be unable to pay for college or incur student loan debt, even with federal and state grants.
The tentative deal with the United Federation of Teachers includes annual wage increases between 3% to 3.5% over five years. It follows the pattern of raises set by District Council 37.
This year’s offer data shows very little change in racial and economic diversity, particularly for high school, despite seeing the biggest admissions changes.
Nearly half of NYC’s school districts are mandating their elementary schools use a single reading program come September.
Also known as the “festival of lights,” Diwali is observed by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and some Buddhists as a celebration of light over darkness and good over evil.
With just a month until the school year ends, families are scrambling to find alternate summer programs for their children.
The decision to start the new school year with steady budgets, however, doesn’t mean schools are completely immune from cuts.
For future school years, education department officials are bracing for some big expenses to comply with the law.
Balanced literacy and word guessing are out. Phonics, science, and social studies are in.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams blasted the mayor’s approach to early childhood education, describing the system as “broken” and “in full crisis mode.
In the next two years, all NYC elementary schools will be required to overhaul literacy instruction.
As the city expects another wave of newcomer immigrant families, educators are worried it will become even more challenging to support English learners.
Two-thirds of that cut, or about $650 million, is the result of Adams’ decision to reduce the city’s contribution to the education department.
The education department’s spending per pupil has increased by 46%, in large part due to the billions in federal COVID aid the district received as enrollment has dipped.
The $78 million plan was first unveiled in January in the mayor’s preliminary budget.
The project involved counting up technology such as tablets, laptops, desktop computers, printers, and smartboards.
City Hall did not rule out the possibility that individual school budgets could be cut.
Education department officials are planning to rein in the city’s free-wheeling approach to curriculum. Whether they follow through is an open question.
There might be more attention on this year’s state tests, following the spotlight on last year’s dip in national test scores.
The vote by the city’s 23-member board — largely comprised by mayoral appointees — is not the final step for the agency’s budget.
NYC is beefing up career programs in education, technology, business, and health care. Officials are also offering hundreds of paid, three-year apprenticeships.
The move is a victory for advocates who have pushed to reduced police presence in schools, but it won mixed reactions from educators and union officials.
The seismic shift that made devices more accessible to students than ever before has now pushed some teachers to fold technology more often into their lesson plans.
The needs are high as data shows worsening mental health among young people, including more students reporting thoughts of suicide.
Schools Chancellor David Banks has been raising the alarm about the recent spate of killings and shootings involving young people, calling it a “state of emergency” that requires more intervention.
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