Adi Talwar
Amy Ming Tsai at a Education Council Consortium Meeting in lower Manhattan.
In addition to the staff shortages, District 75 has a teacher-absentee rate exceeding the rate of New York City teacher absenteeism citywide, according to federal data.
Most members of the Absent Teacher Reserve aren’t there for disciplinary lapses. Many are trapped by a combination of reforms that put experienced teachers on the sideline and made it costly for principals to get them back in the game.
‘If you just look at the data, we’re good,’ says one expert. ‘But if you look at the actual breakout of the teacher turnover rate, it is significantly higher in communities of color.’
There’s disagreement on how to measure chronic teacher absenteeism, and the causes of it are more complicated than you might assume. But there’s no denying big disparities in absentee rates—even among schools in the same district.
Across the city, state and nation, students deal with missing teachers every day. It’s a multifaceted problem whose impact on school performance is often overlooked in the debates about education policy.
Only 35 of the more than 6,550 homeless students enrolled in pre-K were in special education – a share that falls well short of citywide averages.
When the Green Jobs/Green New York bill was signed in 2009, there was talk of delivering both energy efficiency and economic justice. But prospects for real progress were narrowed by negotiations over the law.
Special-education students who are supposed to get 12 months of services sometimes face obstacles during the summer months, during which their risk of regression is greater than for other kids.
City Limits’ series on summer learning continues with a look at a Brooklyn program where learning to excel at science, technology, engineering and math involves learning—among other things—how to yelp.
There were 500 applicants for the 162 spots in a program that gives kids a chance to fly a flight simulator, staff Mission Control and program a robot—reflective of the larger challenges facing STEM education in New York.
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
Founded in 1976 in the midst of New York’s fiscal crisis, City Limits exists to inform democracy and equip citizens to create a more just city. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
