It makes psychological sense that in a culture where we are gradually losing control of decision-making and privacy, people would glom onto any power play that offers the illusion of autonomy.
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5/29/15
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo appears locked in a political death spiral. Last year brought growing dissatisfaction with the State Education Department’s dysfunctional implementation of the new Common Core State Standards . . .
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4/30/15
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Over the years, I’ve investigated many hot-button topics in education, but none is as contentious as the battle over high-stakes testing for students in grades 3 through 8.
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4/16/15
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For weeks New Yorkers heard rumors that when the state’s budget battles finally ended, teacher performance would be measured more effectively, elected officials would be held to higher ethical standards . . .
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4/9/15
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Standard & Poor’s reduced the Town of Hempstead’s bond rating by three levels last week, but town officials noted that the municipality still received a solid investment grade and that there were …
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By Julie Mansmann
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3/13/15
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Parents went back to school on Nov. 20, when North Merrick School District educators led an evening of discussion about the Common Core State Standards’ mathematics curricula titled “Parents University.” It was the first of three or four such seminars that the district plans to hold this school year.
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12/10/14
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In jumping into the teacher-tenure debate, I know I’m stirring up a hornet’s nest. But who doesn’t like a little danger now and again? So here goes.
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7/16/14
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Sometime between when third- to eighth-grade students took state English Language Arts tests at the beginning of April and when they took state math tests four weeks later, some Merrick and North Merrick parents decided that enough was enough.
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By Brian Racow
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5/23/14
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The North Merrick School District announced in March that each of its schools — Camp Avenue, Fayette and Old Mill Road — had qualified for a $75,000 “Reward School Dissemination Grant” from the state Education Department due to their students’ high performance on state assessment tests in 2011 and 2012.
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By Brian Racow
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4/17/14
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When New York state debuted new standardized tests for third- to eighth-graders in English and math last year, a handful of Merrick parents told school administrators that they would not allow their children to take them. Earlier this month, the number of students whose parents have joined this protest nearly doubled at Merrick Avenue Middle School, more than doubled in the North Merrick School District and more than tripled in the Merrick School District.
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By Brian Racow
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4/17/14
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