This study examines the development of a 1950s educational programme for the inclusion of children with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) -- those with IQ scores of less than 50, referred to as "trainable" or "dependent" children -- into community life. Conducted by the American Association of Parents of…

This dissertation explores how afterschool programming shaped New York City children's experiences from the 1930s-1960s. Centering the many organizations that planned activities for children, I explore the beliefs and institutional dynamics that determined what the work of afterschool involved. With purposes spanning education, recreation,…

Background: New York City is one of the most segregated school districts in the country, but between 2012 and 2021, school integration moved from a marginal to a central education policy. Existing narratives have emphasized the efforts of parents and school and political leaders, with less attention given to the significance of citywide coalitions…

For decades the City University of New York has served as a model for public higher education in the United States. Since 1969, CUNY has attempted to construct policies that support the postsecondary ambitions of New York's underrepresented students. The era of Open Admissions that ushered in the 1970s remains one of the greatest social…

This article explores the All-Day Neighborhood Schools (ADNS) program, operated as a partnership between the New York City Board of Education and local philanthropists from 1936 to 1971. Designed to expand the resources available to children and parents, the program included after-school activities, additional teachers, professional development,…

Large urban school districts across the country face the daunting challenge of deciding what kind of system will best administer and support schools with widely differing needs, resulting in high achievement for all students. In New York City, the best system structure has been debated for decades. A new Annenberg Institute for School Reform…

Schools serve both to connect and separate people within society. Therefore, the landscape of school reform presents an opportunity to explicate the opposing forces of connectedness and competition that are entrenched in twenty-first century society. It can serve as a laboratory in which to study foundational social issues. This study is an…

This paper examines issues of academic freedom and the community's role in a review of public and legal events leading to the court's striking down of the 1940 appointment of Bertrand Russell to teach at the City College of New York. Russell was to teach three philosophy courses relating logic, mathematics, and science to philosophy. Episcopal…

Presents excerpts from interviews with Zella Jackson, Title I Coordinator in New York City's Community School District 5, Central Harlem. Offers a glimpse of one perspective on life in Harlem, particularly its educational environment. (RL)

A lunch program on the Lower East Side with kosher meals for Jewish children and Italian meals for Italian children and a health program in which visits to students' homes are a regular service are a small part of the efforts made 50 and 100 years ago to meet the needs of New York City's immigrant school children. The implications of such a…

Examines political activist Bayard Rustin's arguments for a teacher-community alliance surrounding the issues of community control and racial separatism during the 1968 New York school crisis. The paper explores Rustin's efforts within the context of the political, racial, and economic realties of the time that prevented coalition building. (GLR)

Portrays a principal, district superintendent, and reformer, whose career lasted from 1872 to 1912. Whereas her career illuminates aspects of women's history and educational change, her conflict with the East Side community demonstrates the perils of simplistic thinking about race and ethnicity. (Author/JM)

Describes the curriculum encountered by immigrant children who entered New York City public schools in the early 1900s. Focuses on one community, East European Jews, and examines its role in shaping the public education its children were receiving. (KH)

Various agencies contributed to the education of black adults in Manhattan (New York City) during the period 1880-1930. Most of these programs were centered in Harlem as that area became home to vastly increasing numbers of black people. Organizations which contributed to adult education included the churches with their "lyceums," which…

Examines how an interracial coalition of radical teachers from the Teachers Union of New York City and community activists from Harlem promoted black history and intercultural curriculum and collaborated with parents for school reform during the 1930s-40s. Their efforts to develop more culturally responsive schools were derailed in the late 1940s…