Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

From Labor Day through early December, armies of parents spread out across the city, combing the admissions offices of private schools and public talented and gifted programs. According to the Department of Education, more than 16,000 students applied to public gifted kindergarten and first grade programs alone last year. And the competition is surprisingly stiff, with less than one seat for every ten applicants last year. In recent years a demographic bulge of children born after 9/11, has meant that times are even tougher for would-be kindergarteners and the parents.

Monique Walker, a mother of two, who recently returned to the city has applied to eleven private schools for her son.

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The competition, raft of tests, and the Byzantine application process amount to a trial by fire that leaves many parents overwhelmed.

For Serge Avery a public high school teacher and father of two young children, testing presented an additional problem. In testing his son he found himself doing something he wouldn’t otherwise agree with.

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Despite how foreign this world can look to onlookers and its inhabitants, most parents express a desire to simply give their children a good education–though the process has some asking just where it ends.

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But many parents are concerned that having to go to such lengths for something as simple as a good education means that many children will be educationally left out in the cold.

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And while these parents spend an uncertain  application season getting their children into the best public and private schools to city has to offer, what is certain is that many more children will have to settle for less.

Arts and Letters Daily had teaser for a New Yorker article that got my attention today: “Academic performance of kids in U.S. schools would be enhanced by getting rid of the worst 10% of teachers. How do you know who they are?” My response: academic performance of kids in U.S. schools would be enhanced by getting rid of the worst 10% of students. (more…)

Dick Barnett had snapped his Achilles tendon and was lying on the operating table when he realized he couldn’t call for a substitution. He’d won three national championships at Tennessee State University and was one of the first black players drafted into the NBA. But he’s focused solely on sports in college and had left in 1959 with a “D” average and no diploma. He had no alternatives to his pro basketball career.

“Suddenly I woke up and I understood that education meant something beyond just playing basketball,” said Barnett to an audience gathered at the CUNY Graduate Center for the first event in a series on “Civil Rights in the 60s.”

After a successful operation, he began taking courses to finish his B.A. and eventually earned a Ph.D. from Fordham University’s School of Education–with a 3.9 GPA.

Barnet, a Knicks all-star, was one of four legendary players who recently told about their experiences as some of the first blacks in the NBA. The others were Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, flamboyant New York Knicks-Baltimore Bullets start who recently produced the documentary “Black Magic”; Boston Celtics great “Mr. Clutch” Sam Jones, who was named One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History; and Thomas “Satch” Sanders, who was named to the Hall of Fame for his 13 years with the Celtics and then received the Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award. Together, these four accumulated 22 world championships.

But they were fouled off the court. They faced racial quotas from general managers, slurs hurled by fans and were often refused service in restaurants. “It didn’t matter that you were a so-called celebrity, you had to deal with that just like other blacks,” said Sanders. In 1961, the Celtics were in Lexington, Ky. and went to a cafeteria for something to eat before a game. When the cafeteria workers refused to serve Sanders and other black teammates, they decided not to play. Honoring their decision, their legendary coach Red Auerbach found them a ride to the airport, even as the game played on.

Among the audience at the Graduate Center was Bernard Tomlin, the head men’s basketball coach at SUNY Old Westbury, who had brought 14 of his players to learn from the NBA legends. “The most valuable part was the education component,” said Tomlin, who wants his players to find a better balance between academics and sports.

“That’s our ongoing mission,” he said.

Parents, students, and community organizers chanted, “Don’t Believe the Hype!  Don’t Believe the Hype!” at a rally against Mayoral control of NYC Public Schools. 

Community members and the umbrella group Campaign for Better Schools spoke out to reform Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership of the massive school system of over one million children.

Although state test exams and graduation rates have increased since the takeover in 2002, Campaign for Better Schools says that the most high needs children like English language learners have not been helped.  National test exams scores have not shown improvements. 

At Hunter College on Sunday groups advocated for transparency within test scores and DOE resources, checks and balances of mayoral power, and more public participation within the decision making process of the schools.

This upcoming June, Mayoral control of schools will be up for renewal by state officials. 

Hear voices from the rally.

Ernesto Maldonado

Parent and Activist

Bronx, NY

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Choua Vue

Campaign for Better Schools

Representative

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Jauna Williams, 14

Student at Banana Kelly High School

Bronx, NY

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So Pine Magazine issued a challenge to its readers a couple of weeks ago: take the Frog Leap Test (an exercise they say is used to test spatial reasoning, it seems), pass it, take a screenshot, and send it to them. I did it on the second try.

Now, this program may be used with Chinese students, but I doubt that their ability to solve it at a young age means “smarter than” compared to at least the Pine Mag. editors. It’s probably just a matter of how much training you have in spatial reasoning. Perhaps the students get a focus on this earlier than students with other nation’s curricula.

Still, I cringe at the thought of someone to suggest that my being able to solve the puzzle (see below) is due to my being Chinese American. Paranoia? Perhaps. But this twisted logic is hardly absent from discussion in an American society that seems to be experiencing an upswing in xenophobic thought. As usual, I’ll slough off this thought, though.

In my case, years of learning according to the NYC specialized math and science curriculum probably helped condition me to find this a rather straightforward exercise.

Whatever the case, I’m pleased! Woohoo!

Here’s my screenshot:

S
O
L
U
T
I
O
N
S

The solution is:
Y (yellow)1 – R (red) 1 – R2 – Y1 – Y2 – Y3 – R1 – R2 – R3 – Y1 – Y2 – Y3 – R2 – R3 – Y3

The book took more than two years to be put together. Phantom Students focus on the experience of New York City author, Charlton D’souza, on what he and other students faced while attending Marymount Manhattan College Community Leadership Program (CLP). The program was designed to reach out to students in communities that have been overlooked by institutions of higher education. 

The program began in 1993, with 15 students enrolled, D’souza had discovered. When the year was over, only one student graduated from it. By a very slim margin, the entire class dropped out.

In 1999, 17 students out of a class of 27 graduated, making it the highest number of students to complete the program. In total, 156 students were enrolled in the program.

The program itself is no longer in existence. The last class enrolled documented thus on a chart in Phantom Students was in 2001. His colleague and long time friend since high school, Brandon C. Jennings, was in the program at the time it was cut along with D’souza in early 2004. In addition, he is still paying a loan to this date. 

Nationally, D’souza researched that one of the reason why students were dropping out of school was due to economic issues. He went to the U.S Census website and saw that “In 2005, the average tuition was $13,425 for room and board (for in-state students) at the nation’s four-year public colleges and universities. In 2008, that number has increased to $15,372.”

For private institutions, in 2005, tuition, room and board was $36,510. In 2008, the number increased to $41,000 a year.

D’souza was in the program on a full academic scholarship, but on February 21, 2004, he did not get to see it last. It was in the evening when he was leaving school. One of the security guards handed him a letter. Inside, it was a statement that said he was “no longer a student and had been discharged from the university.”  

When he was in transition of wanting to transfer to another school, D’souza could not get a transcript or speak with any members of the administration. So he protested “outside the college and held a press conference seeking help. He also began to file complaints to the United States Department of Education and the Attorney Generals office, and the person holding the position was former governor, Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer also has a connection with the institution as well.  

The young man is very driven and determined. Even his former Marymount professor Americo Casiano believes in him. Casiano currently works for the Bronx Council on the Arts, a private non-profit organization that provides “cultural services and arts programs” for community oriented organizations throughout the Bronx.

The book is almost ready to print. It has only 176 pages. And he has a website where he is trying to reach out to schools to speak about his story. He came up with the name Phantom Students because he  ”wanted to bring attention to the students who weren’t graduating from college.” Pretty soon the book will be up on the website to be viewed chapter by chapter. Later this month, a book signing party will take place.

Visit the website at http://www.phantomstudentsacrossamerica.com/  

It’s second period, Friday morning in senior civics class. A pile of New York Times newspapers sit on the front desk, and two maps of America are displayed on the side chalkboard, one with blue states, and the other with red. Beside the maps, lists of vocabulary words like “swing state,” “Electoral College,” “liberal,” and “conservative” wallpaper one section of the East Harlem classroom.   

 Ms. Chou, who students call by first name, Lena, flicks off the lights and Charles Gibson appears on the projector screen.  Gibson’s news segment briefly describes the differences between the health care plans of Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain.

 About twenty pairs of eyes are glued to the screen.  One or two students drop their gaze to scribble a few notes on their papers, and someone sucks his or her teeth in disapproval of McCain’s sound bite about crossing state lines to find proper health care.

 After the television clip, Ms. Chou, 28, the Participation in Government Teacher at Central Park East High School asks, “Who has the better plan?”  The majority of the class instantaneously agrees, Obama.

 “Barack Obama is the catalyst for their engagement,” says Chou. During the last Presidential election, I don’t remember the same excitement, it was about choosing the lesser of two evils.”

 To explain the overwhelming support students feel for Obama, Ms. Chou says, “East Harlem is predominately Latino and African American and having a major candidate like Obama is such an unprecedented move, they have become engaged by him being a man of color.”

 Ms. Chou adds that not everyone in her class is sold on Obama.  There are a few undecided members of the class, and yes, even a McCain supporter.  “I think its not because of his (McCain’s) ideological factors,” says Ms. Chou, “but because he is a more seasoned politician.”      

 During the long election season Ms. Chou says she has witnessed students take part in fiery debates about the candidates, despite the fact that most of the teenagers are unable to vote and some are misinformed about both Obama’s and McCain’s viewpoints.

 Ms. Chou’s goal is to tune her students into the election process and accurately inform them about the issues.  She views the 2008 Presidential Election as, “a good entry point into civil engagement.  They won’t be voting in this election but voting in elections for the rest of their life.”

Hear what the students of Central Park East High School have to say about the election.

Kenya Clark, 17

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Hinde Jelleal, 17

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Fatima Johnson, 17

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Maspeth Playground Opens in an audio piece.

The voices behind the images and quotes are in the story below. They include the principal, students, and officials from the Trust for Public Land. Here’s an interview with Andy Stone, the New York City director at the Trust for Public Land.

How many kids can you jam into a school building? Some developers’ responses: Not our concern! As population continues to rise as a result of new construction and immigration, public schools are looking more and more like rush hour subway cars than places where real learning can take place.

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