To be sure, there is a lot the Bloomberg administration has not accomplished in the social policy arena. City funding for a number of vital social programs--from child care to summer jobs for young adults--has been cut or flat-lined even as demand for these services has increased. Many of those interviewed say that the administration moved away…

Research has shown that rooms with greater amounts of open floor space have higher test results. Four recent trends that have negatively impacted open space in classrooms: (1) storage of CCSS materials in the classroom, (2) storage of science kits in the classroom, (3) inability to remove unwanted material, and (4) inability to remove unneeded…

New York is poised to take an important step to improve student achievement by expanding learning time for students attending high-poverty, low-performing schools. Recent district- and state-level investments in expanded learning time--a promising strategy to close achievement and opportunity gaps--will give students more time to learn core…

At a recent national forum at the Ford Foundation in New York, 140 education and youth development professionals discussed how to better support adolescent learning. Drawing on the discussion and the latest research in neuroscience, psychology and cognitive learning science, TASC presents an action agenda that can be tailored to circumstances in…

In this article, we present findings from a three-year comparative longitudinal and ethnographic study of how schools in two cities, Buffalo and Denver, have taken up STEM education reform, including the idea of "inclusive STEM-focused schools," to address weaknesses in urban high schools with majority low-income and minority students.…

The election of Mayor Bill de Blasio in November 2013 was a historic moment for proponents of student-centered, equity-driven public education. During the campaign, de Blasio ran on an agenda of ending New York City's "Tale of Two Cities" and elevated a comprehensive vision for improving the city's more than 1,800 public schools as a…

The New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) gifted-and-talented programs aim to support all students of exceptional learning potential within the public school system. Using proprietary data made available to us by the NYC DOE, we show, however, that substantial disparities exist in the rates of gifted-and-talented admission test taking,…

As cities across the country and globe continue to generate new solutions to a wide variety of vexing problems, sharing information about what works and what doesn't has become more important than ever. Yet, outside of a few prominent policies, the vast majority of successful municipal experiments never reach a national audience or, for that…

The "Study of Deeper Learning: Opportunities and Outcomes"--funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation--aimed to determine whether students attending high schools with a mature and at least moderately well implemented approach to promoting deeper learning actually experienced greater deeper learning opportunities and outcomes…

This study addresses public universities' policies and practices in the USA (United States of America) with a focus on public bilingual teacher preparation in Spanish-English programs (initial credential licensure and Masters of Education programs with, or without, endorsements). We questioned: "What do bilingual programs look like in public…

The "Study of Deeper Learning: Opportunities and Outcomes," funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, is a "proof-of-concept" study to determine whether students attending high schools with a mature and at least moderately well-implemented approach to promoting "deeper learning" experience greater deeper…

Community colleges are under pressure these days to produce graduates who can land jobs. But identifying which occupations and skills are in demand is often easier said than done. LaGuardia, a City University of New York campus in Long Island City, is one of 10 community colleges across six states experimenting with software that collects…

Maureen Curtin, associate professor in the English and Creative Writing Department at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Oswego, reports in this article on an initiative that is designed to spur teams of faculty and visiting artists to teach "intellectual issues" through students' storytelling. The courses were part of the…

Cross-sector cradle-to-career initiatives are increasingly central to communities' strategies to support children and youth. StriveTogether Cradle to Career Civic Infrastructure provides a framework for how a community comes together around a vision; improves and builds upon those efforts over time; and invests the community's resources…

This article presents findings from an exploratory empirical study of teaching residents' opportunities and learning within the overlapping contexts of English as a Second Language (ESL)/special education classrooms and high-need urban schools. Utilizing documentation from the first year of a teacher residency program, our findings illustrate the…