Helen Zelon

Asking questions about New York State’s new charter law, and a potential conflict of interest, as the state prepares to review new charter school applications.

In the wake of a critical report by the Brookings Institute, over $200 million in proposed funding for Promise Neighborhoods may be cut back by 90% — despite Geoffrey Canada’s strong and organized opposition.

President Obama has identified Geoffrey Canada’s lifework, the Harlem Children’s Zone, as a model anti-poverty initiative that deserves national replication. In a special investigative project for City Limits magazine (paywall), Zelon takes a close look at the program’s intentions and checkered results. Web extras include an interview with Geoff Canada, one of his […]

Real estate: The perennial New York problem. Read more here about how the Department of Education co-locates charter and traditional public schools, with profoundly mixed success.

After a not-so-fast and plenty furious political contest to advance crucial ed-reform policies, New York State won a Race to the Top grant from the Obama administration. But the funds won’t directly go to kids or to classrooms. Ok, now what?

The Center for New York City Affairs’ (affiliated with Milano/The New School) Schools Reporting team writes about the city’s schools and underserved youth in lengthy, deeply-researched reports. See here for an exploration of the Bloomberg/Klein empowerment initiative, and here for an assessment of the administration’s signature reform strategies — and outcomes.

The culture of business reshapes the world of education, in Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s Children First reform efforts. If the news is as good as city leaders say, why are so many people worried?
Read more at City Limits weekly.

More than 30,000 students a year take the entry exam for the city’s prestigious “specialized” high schools. About 5,000 earn offers of admission. Why do these students’ ethnic and demographic makeup differ so dramatically from the balance of the city’s students? And why won’t the Department of Education permit evaluation of potential […]

Spend January 20, 2009 at the International High School at Lafayette, an all-immigrant high school in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, with students from more countries than the US has states.
Story and images at City Limits weekly.

The New York City Leadership Academy trains untested principals to take over, and turn around, struggling city schools.
Sandra Stein, CEO of the Leadership Academy, defends the reinterpretation of business practices for the education-leadership environment, in this question-and-answer featured in City Limits weekly.

The first round of Department of Education Progress Reports incited hot debate, in the City Council chamber and elsewhere, about how to define “progress” — and whether it’s possible to grade the city’s schools based on standardized test scores.
Read about a contentious hearing (and a beat-it-quick, side-door exit by the DOE’s accountability czar […]

New York City’s School Safety Agents are charged with school security — but are not under the direct supervision of the NYPD, which hires them, or school personnel, whose buildings and communities they serve. The New York Civil Liberties Union’s School Safety Act aims to address the accountability gap — but hasn’t yet been passed […]

In 1973, the National Committee on Excellence in Education’s report “A Nation at Risk” famously described “a rising tide of mediocrity” in America’s schools. A quarter-century later, the tide hasn’t fallen: Only 70 percent of the nation’s high-school students — and at best, 60 percent of New York City high-schoolers — are graduating. […]

Cost-conscious NYC Department of Education purchasing requirements mean that local publishers — including minority- and women-owned businesses who’ve worked with the DOE for a quarter-century or more — are prohibited from doing business with the DOE. Local laws, which govern city agencies, don’t pertain, because the DOE is neither fish nor fowl — neither a […]

In an archipelago of classrooms scattered around Washington Square, NYU offers more languages, including courses in translation and interpretation, than any other school in New York.

Part of New York magazine’s Best of New York 2007 cover story; read the original on line.

New York magazine profiled New York City’s established and rising movers and shakers, including this short list of the most influential voices in public and private education.

One of New York City’s much-heralded new, small high schools, struggling to retain students — and maintain order — in the face of daunting odds.

In a disused church school in a desolate stretch of Coney Island, aspiring athletes
– most possessed of more drive than sheer talent — take the lessons of sports to the classroom.

A seafaring school set in the landlocked heart of Brooklyn, within the time-worn edifice that once housed Bushwick High School. In November 2006, the Harbor School learned it will relocate to Governor’s Island, where it will have its own dock, boats, and ferry service to the Brooklyn “mainland.”

A hidden gem on the edge of New York City, Leon M. Goldstein is a public high school that feels nearly suburban, on the campus of Harvard-by-the-Bay, aka Kingsborough Community College.

Guidance for kids (and panicked New York City parents) facing a labyrinthine, daunting high school application process: Make smart choices that don’t feel like you’re gambling with your child’s entire future.