Upon hearing the news, my thoughts immediately turned to Chapter One of Rachel Carson’s famed 1962 book “Silent Spring,” which is said to have singlehandedly launched the environmental movement in the United States.
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10/25/19
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Welcome to another annual rite of spring: the state exams for grades three through eight.
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4/11/19
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With state standardized tests in grades three to eight beginning this week, administrators in Bellmore and Merrick — the epicenter of the parent-led “opt-out” movement —have been reaching out to parents, who were feeling anxious since the State Education Department threatened last year to begin cracking down on districts with low test-participation rates.
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By Erik Hawkins
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4/4/19
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The contradictory narratives of the Jan. 18 confrontation in Washington, D.C., between a teen in a Make America Great Again hat and an indigenous rights activist led to a week of fury and misunderstanding.
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By Erik Hawkins
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1/31/19
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In the remarkable 2014 film “Whiplash,” J.K. Simmons plays Terence Fletcher, a maniacal music professor at an elite East Coast conservatory bent on producing the next truly great jazz musician . . .
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9/21/17
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Last week, the state Department of Education released the results of this spring’s English Language Arts and math exams, and Bellmore-Merrick — a community that has been at the forefront of the statewide “opt out” movement — saw few changes from 2016.
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By Erik Hawkins
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8/31/17
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New York State Education Department officials will have to forgive the public if people don’t appear eager to embrace Next Generation Learning Standards. We were burned by Common Core.
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6/1/17
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Nearly 95,000 Long Island children in grades three through eight — roughly 52 percent of the total — did not take the New York state standardized English Language Arts exam last week, as the “opt-out” movement continued . . .
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4/6/17
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The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District again had among the highest percentages of students in Nassau County opting out of the state English Language Arts exams last week, with 73 percent of seventh- and eighth-grade students sitting out the exams.
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By Erik Hawkins and Brian Stieglitz
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4/6/17
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Four years ago, Uriel Longman-Gonzalez, 26, of Freeport, rushed to the nearest Northwell Health hospital because of agonizing abdominal distress. After an examination and blood work, he received a call from a doctor who wanted to speak with him in private. He was told that he had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and that if he didn’t come in when he did, his stomach could rupture, killing him.
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By Brian Stieglitz
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2/8/17
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