Challenging the digital divide during the pandemic.

When COVID shut down our schools and libraries in Spring of 2020, I knew something had to be done to give kids screen-free alternatives to reading. Through multiple calls with parents, school leaders and Scholastic, Inc., I got 446 new books mailed to the homes of 160 middle school students in a low-income neighborhood, to keep them reading through the summer.

This was an experiment of sorts. As the parent of an 8th grader and 5th grader in NYC public schools, I was hoping at least 80 kids in my son’s middle school would express interest, to see if young adult readers who live for cell phones and screens would be interested in reading real books. It was also a challenge to technology as the de facto learning solution.

I also wanted to see how a diverse school with an underfunded PTA, where the majority of students qualify for free lunch, could manage to sponsor a book give-away without asking anyone to qualify their need. I wanted to give away new books to anyone in need of resources with out having to qualify their need or feel ashamed to ask.

In normal times, kids would have access to school and public libraries to find free, age-appropriate books for daily reading assignments. That changed on March 16. Now reading has become a bigger chore, and not just for my kids.

In April, following the New York City-wide school shut down, my 8th-grader’s teacher asked her students to read a book a week from a list of suggested titles. She included links and tips for downloading. That’s when I decided to make it my mission to challenge our dependency on screens.

Don't get me wrong, I like what’s possible on the internet. But I rarely get frustrated with real books and paper and pencils and basic learning tools that still function well and don’t create friction. Okay, I may occasionally nag my kids to put down the paperback they’re engrossed in, but it doesn’t compare to the nagging to get off their screens.

My family is fortunate to have several electronic reading devices at home, along with high-speed internet. We've logged into all the free apps for downloading and sharing books online. But I realize that depending on new apps and devices is a bigger burden on some families than others.

Besides, my kids still prefer to read books they can hold and pages they can flip by hand. And I’m glad they do. They spend too much time as it is sitting 12 inches from screens for so much of the day.

My son’s middle school has an economic needs index of 62% averaged over the past 5 years. And that’s only going to get worse with job losses and escalating living expenses.

So far, most of the proposed solutions to education during COVID-19 involve screens and technology. That has become the de facto solution to learning from home. And it assumes that all families have the same facility with technology.

Kids need learning opportunities that don't require screens and that don't increase the gap between the have’s and have not’s or the savvy and not so savvy adults. And as parents and teachers, we can't allow reading literature on phones to become normalized. Public school is supposed to be there for all of us, to provide access to education regardless of financial status. Schools may be closed but kids still need access to affordable, frictionless learning tools.

We couldn’t have done this without our Principal, staff, and parent leaders at Tompkins Square Middle School, a diverse community school in District 1 on the LES who were willing to support the idea.

Separate and unequal.

NYC school children are separate. And their schools are definitely not equal.

Take middle school, the point at which most families must apply to school, based on preference beginning with the following choices: public charter school or private parochial school or private independent school or home school or public school in the district where you live or public school in the district where your child attended elementary school?

The vast majority of NYC families opt for public school. But the decision-making doesn't end there. The complicated and overwhelming process of choosing a school continues. Because public schools are not equal or interchangeable –by design. Over the years, each school has emerged with unique features, offering different pedagogical approaches to meet changing community needs.

Even in a small community district on the Lower East Side, where there are only seven district middle schools to consider, the process is highly fraught and extremely time consuming.

Some offer dual-language Mandarin. Some require Spanish every year. Most do not. Some offer Regents algebra to prepare for high school, some do not. Some start in 6th grade and end in 12th. Some have 30 kids per class; some have 18. Some screen, but each screen is unique. Those with screens are not required to share their screening rubric. Some schools have a critical mass of above average test-takers. While some serve a disproportionate number of struggling learners.

The anxiety is fed by information asymmetries between the parents (consumers in this education “market”) and the school officials (suppliers in this “market”). Information that consumers want to know in order to compare options may be very difficult to access because of how school information is distributed and shared. Families bear the burden in filtering out what is relevant, valid, and even accurate. School (and DOE) websites are not always complete or up to date. They lack descriptions of extra-curricular or academic support programs. I’ve emailed principals with questions and received no reply. Parents also rely on generic school tours. School visits are by far the best way to get a true picture. But how many working parents are able to take time off from work or spend evenings visiting all of them?

Adding to the confusion over school choices, the rules and procedures that families are required to follow change, almost every year. There are deadlines, forms and applications. Some schools have their own unique screening process that includes more tests, essays and interviews.

So word of mouth continues to act as the default influencer that sways families towards or away from certain schools because seeking the opinion of others who we most identify with is usually the easiest.

Parents want two things: they want easier and more complete access to information about their school choices. Every school should be required to report on a standard set of characteristics including and especially, the academic resources they provide for learners at all levels.

Every school should offer academic interventions for struggling learners as well as opportunities that challenge all students, including those who excel. And every school should have appropriate staff to provide social and emotional counseling for their students. As a parent, these critical supports are what we consider as we are choosing schools. What school would best fit our child and meet their needs? Unfortunately, this critical information is rarely communicated clearly to all families. And yet, the schools know what they have to offer.

Academic offerings and schedules for each grade level must be posted, on all DOE and school websites, and on the walls of school entrances. And the school must update this information every year.

Parents also want assurance that, whichever school their child is assigned to, will provide them with a learning environment that is as good as, if not better, than the schools they don’t get assigned to. Unfortunately, parents are not confident that equal opportunities and high quality experiences exist in every school. Hence, the hysteria over school applications.

The bottom line is, we don't trust that the educational experiences offered by public schools are all equitable. The disparity that exists in our schools is a result of the cherry picking of the DOE as much as it is the families who invest whatever resources and authority they have to mold their school into one of the exceptions.

High School Lock Up

Ever been greeted at a public school with a metal detector and half a dozen security guards where parents are forbidden to enter?

Six high schools share space inside one building that I visited on a recent afternoon to drop off my son’s high school application. I’m having second thoughts about the school now.

When told I couldn’t get a receipt for the application, I asked if I could step inside to bring it to the school’s administrator. Nope. Only with an appointment. There was a flank of security officers standing near the chest-high security desk straight ahead. They were adamant and not too friendly. And even though it was 4:00, security wouldn’t escort me either.

I told the guard at the door that the school I was applying to doesn’t offer tours, and I was curious to see how the school "felt." How many schools in the building? Were they big? small? And most of all, what’s with the high level security that made me feel I was entering a juvenile detention facility?

When I asked a student at the High School Fair to tell me what she liked and didn’t like about the school, the didn’t like was obvious. Metal detectors and no cell phones allowed by anyone at any time in the building. I didn’t think much of the student’s complaints until I visited for myself.

Standing in the doorway I thought, this may be one of the only times I’lll get a sense of the environment where my kid could spend most of his waking time for the next three years. So I asked more questions, partly because I was disturbed by the sense of arbitrary power these uniformed guards demonstrated. The guard at the door showed some sympathy. He turned to me in a low voice and explained that the building was also headquarters for school safety, so they had to be on their toes.

But it all felt wrong. It felt like an environment with six disparate schools that treats everyone like a possible criminal. As my son put it, no wonder the 12th graders at the school he was applying to take all their classes somewhere else.

I had heard that a few of the schools in the building were the reason for the extra security. And if that’s true, wouldn’t that warrant more social workers and guidance counselors? Don’t we all know by now that adolescent violence acted out through mass shootings or fights with blades and guns (presumably what metal detectors are for) are a result of trauma experienced by the perpetrator? By untreated psychiatric or social/emotional scars? So why not hire more mental health professional for high-risk kids? Why turn a school building into an unwelcome fortress? Why create a place where every day the majority of visitors and students are treated like potential criminals, incapable of behaving like thoughtful human beings?

What a sad way to start the school day.

High School Directory. Now online!

At The Public Good, we explore free and open government data, with an eye towards making public information accessible to the public. Besides analyzing data as part of our policy research and program design work, we look at the impact of improving access to public information and its value for ordinary citizens.

We believe that information about publicly funded programs should be accessible to everyone. Because increasing knowledge about government policies and services helps public consumers find the resources and make the choices best suited to meet their needs.

This is especially true when it comes to public education. However, with a school system as large as NYC’s, ensuring that everyone can easily access all the information they need to make timely and significant decisions is a constant challenge.

This spreadsheet is a test case that has filtered criteria such as graduation rate (87% minimum) which is an important indicator to me, holding everything else equal. Keep in mind, there are close to 100 columns and it can be hard to associate variables specific to each of multiple programs within schools because it was saved as a flat-file, rather than a conventional database that can parse relationships between columns. It’s still a heck of a lot easier than working with the monstrous print directory and it respects my family’s needs and preferences - unlike the current My Schools search tool.

The Catch-22 of De Blasio's PreK

Thanks to Mayor De Blasio, NYC now guarantees free Universal Pre-Kindergarten to four-year-olds.  Seats are available in many elementary schools where the child can seamlessly graduate to Kindergarten and remain until middle school; and UPK typically follows the same schedule as the rest of the school.  

Until 2:30.   If you’re a parent in need of After-School, you most likely have some tough choices. Apparently, NY State thinks the school building is safe enough for PreK students from 8:30 - 2:30 but not after that.  And the State doesn’t trust the same After-school staff who care for Kindergarten children to care for PreK children.

If you’re a working family who can afford to hire a nanny, that’s one solution. Or you can cobble together school pick ups of your four year old with friends and family for a year. But if you are one of the 74% of DOE students who are economically disadvantaged, and you need reliable child care every day, your PreK child may have to leave their school to commute to a day-care center for the last 2-3 hours of each day.  Or you may prefer to keep your child in a Head Start program where free (working person’s) 8-10 hour day is offered rather than enroll them in a nearby public school.

Because the State oversees the licensing of child care programs, including After-School.  While the City Department of Education manages education programs at District schools. Despite expanding the availability of UPK in NYC, the City and State have created a gap in educational opportunities for children not yet in Kindergarten.  And these archaic regulations limit what the City will offer in terms of After-school options.

Another program expanded under De Blasio, provides free After-School for many more students. Yet it excludes PreK students.  So the Mayor oversees district schools, including UPK, the State oversees After-school regulations and the Mayor decides who gets funding. And the parents don’t have much say in any of this. Or do they?

Middle School Community Search Tool

It’s finally here! a Google map we’ve created that includes every District, Boro and City-wide middle school for Manhattan students/residents. Easy to use and including some basic info. you need to help narrow down your search.

Middle Schools Manhattan Map

Basic stats like total enrollment and percent of students passing state tests as well as admissions criteria and priorities are included.

And best of all, this link allows you to open up the map on your mobile device using Google maps application. So you can navigate commute routes, estimate travel time, and see what else is in the school’s neighborhood.

We created this free and simple tool because we believe that access to public information should be accessible to all. Especially when it comes to finding community resources. So please share this link with anyone know who might find it useful.

Finding Middle Schools

Middle school is set up as a system of choice. We’re expected to research options, visit schools, compare deciding factors and fill out an application form with our choices in rank order. All within a few weeks.

So why can’t school information be easier to find? For starters, I’d like a map with markers of each school that my child is eligible for. Ideally, admissions criteria would be transparent. It’d be great to know if essays or auditions or non-English language skills are expected and and what chance my child might have in getting a seat.

Here’s a list of options for 5th graders currently enrolled in District1, according to the 2019 DOE directory. Please let us know if there is additional school information you’d like to see. We are updating this map.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1MTPw54MzKHCz9gkjOFUShd0nGBec2Ch7&usp=sharing

Choice and equity

For the past eight years, The Public Good has been actively researching NYC Department of Education (DOE) policies around school choice.  We look at the socio-economic trends and disparities within neighborhoods, while assessing the painful reality of schools, neighborhoods and a City that is increasingly divided and driven by self interest.  

We are inspired to do this work by our vision of living in a city where public school children are not segregated from each other by shortsighted policies and differences in families economic situations.

One area we have been exploring is the link between resources and funding for services such as after-school programs and the socio-economic composition of elementary schools. In community District 1 where my kids have attended public schools since PreK and which is one of two Districts without zoned schools, parents “choose” where to send their child for PreK or Kindergarten and hope for the best. In a community where 19% of residents live below NYC’s poverty threshold (compared to 14% Manhattan-wide), a handful of elementary schools do not receive any assistance to make afterschool programs affordable for all children. That’s because, NYC allocates support for afterschool only if a school has a minimum of 60% of students who qualify for public assistance. So kids whose families live below poverty choose (or are assigned a school) where the majority are not in poverty, the most disadvantaged kids will still have to pay for afterschool.

So my question for the past several years has been, are the City’s policies around afterschool and enrichment funding contributing towards the growing economic segregation in our school system? If you were a working parent earning minimum wage and needed safe and dependable care for your child from 3:00-6:00pm every day and you could choose between sending your kindergartner to a school with free afterschool or one where you had to pay $3,000 a year, everything else being equal, you might lean towards the free full-time option.

Applying to Middle School: can we make it easier?

Earlier this year we presented some of our work on the NYC Middle School application process at the BetaNY School of Data conference.  Our work looks at strategies to make information about school options and the process itself more transparent and less burdensome to families.  Tricia and her team at this year's NYC School of Data.