As Bronx social studies teacher Seth Gilman sipped his coffee and prepared to log on for a day of virtual teaching, he was met with an error message. At first, he worried it would be a repeat of a disastrous pivot to remote learning during a 2024 snowstorm. "Oh no, not again," he thought to himself. But within about 20 minutes, his school had resolved the issue and he logged in to Google Classroom, the platform schools use to share schedules and Zoom links.
In her first "State of Our Schools" address Monday, Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos gave an overview of how the Education Department is meeting families' needs and announced a new accountability tool that breaks down a variety of education initiatives, from the expansion of the NYC Reads curriculum mandate to chronic absenteeism rates per district. The tool is divided into family engagement, teacher support, and student well-being, tracking 37 topics ranging from staff hiring updates and expanding autism programs to increasing voter turnout for the local Community Education Council elections.
We are deeply saddened to learn that one of our students was detained by ICE while attending a legal hearing to seek asylum. This young person should be returning home from school today, surrounded by family - not facing detention.
"We can't continue to do the same things that we have been always doing and expecting to get better results," Adams said during a press conference at Brooklyn's Dock Street School for STEAM Studies.
