Search

Reports that in the wake of disclosures heard on tapes made by school superintendent Colman Glen, Chancellor Bernard Mecklowitz has suspended nine members of the board of School District 27 in Queens, New York for improperly influencing appointments. Other school board suspensions in New York City recently; What was heard on the tapes.

Reports that Colman Genn, 53, testified before the Joint Commission on Integrity in Public Schools in Manhattan that school board members in School District 27 in Queens pressured him into filling unnecessary jobs with their friends and supporters. Genn taped the conversations; Genn's contract renewal; Role of James C. Sullivan.

Examines the progress of 61 East Harlem students promised payment of college tuition if they stayed in school from sixth grade through high school. Details of the scholarship program sponsored by Eugene M. Lang, of the `I Have a Dream Foundation'; Lang's personal involvement with the students; Student response.

Analyzes the causes of increasing incidents of racism on college campuses nationwide. Resentment of white students against affirmative action programs and grants; Efforts of colleges and universities to devise new codes of campus conduct.

Profiles the seven members of the New York City Board of Education, seven distinctly chiseled personalities who together set policies for a system of 956,000 students. They labor in relative anonymity, with Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez making the news.

Discusses the New York City Board of Education's debate over distributing condoms to students. Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez was infuriated by the board's voting to consider whether parents should be allowed to bar their children from getting them.

Presents a periodic look at the effects of New York City's financial plan on various agencies and services. Says that art, music and electives will be cut, there will be fewer guidance counselors, textbooks will have to make it through another year, and experimental programs will be abolished.

Says that New York City public-school students lifted their performance on the annual reading test, surpassing the national average for the first time in three years. Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez contended that the reading scores, coupled with the 4.9 percentage point increase in mathematics test scores announced last week and improvements in attendance and the drop-out rate, show that the city's school system is beginning to turn around.

Comments on the multiculturalism in New York City schools. Gives examples. Says that any curriculum that emerges from the state-commissioned report urging a greater emphasis on nonwhite cultures in social studies curriculum will probably have far more impact in suburbs and small towns with more uniform populations than New York City's.

Discusses New York City's public-school students' startling improvement in mathematics over the last year. 60.6 percent of those who took the annual achievement test in April performed above the national average, an increase of 4.9 percentage points over the test's results in 1990, and the largest one-year gain in at least 20 years.

Reports that fewer New York City high school students are dropping out before their original graduation date and more are staying in high school for five, six or seven years. School officials attribute this to a decade of dropout prevention programs--everything from a more determined badgering of truants to the creation of small alternative high schools.

States that more than 1,000 additional New York City teachers are expected to retire in the next month to take advantage of pension incentives passed by the state Legislature. The plan will allow the city's school system to save the jobs of many young teachers. Concerns.

Discusses the results of the New York City Board of Education's ethnic census of its 955,154 students. Decrease in number of white families leaving public school system; Spanish-speaking immigrants may soon become the system's dominant ethnic group; Influx from Eastern Europe; Other findings.

Discusses the comeback being made by Eastern District High School in Brooklyn under the leadership of Floyd Green, the 46-year-old principal. Long known for turning out more dropouts than graduates, the school is now calmer, attendance is up slightly, and assaults are down. It is the `high school of last resort for kids who have been doing poorly before they get here.'

Says that New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez will propose an overhaul of the city's expensive and much criticized system of special education to reduce the number of children wrongly assigned to classes for the handicapped and tochannel more money to children in regular classes. Details of the overhaul.

Says that many children with no identifiable physical or neurological defects are being shunted into expensive programs for those with specific disabilities, when all they need is counseling and smaller classes. Cost.

Analyzes the collapse of the protest that disrupted the City University of New York (CUNY) for three weeks. Students' argument was not on local grievances, and by tying up the university they were hurting only the very students and professors they were trying to help.

Tells how police officers streamed onto a Bronx campus of the City University of New York and, without bloodshed, recaptured it from students who had chained doors shut for the last three weeks in a protest that has crippled much of CUNY. The police action came as large numbers of ordinary students, approaching graduation or seeking professional credentials, grew increasingly enraged at the duration of the protest.

Details a recent report from the Board of Education concerning a Bronx school district, No. 9 in the west-central Bronx, where two-thirds of the district's children read below grade level. Administrators `overwhelmed' by their responsibilities; Schools as `boring environments'; District superintendent Dr. Edward Whitney.

Discusses the student protests on at least eight campuses of the City University of New York. The goal is to head off tuition increases and budget cuts, but the students are asking a far deeper question, one that is also being asked at the system's highest levels: Will the financially beleaguered university be able to sustain its historic mission of offering a way out of poverty for immigrants, minorities, and the poor?

Tells about Public School 38 in southern Queens, a school with practically none of modern things that most other schools have, but whose improvement in reading scores is greater than that of any other school with a full kindergarten-through-sixth-grade program. Contrasts it to Public School 44 on the north shore of Staten Island, which had the largest drop in reading levels.

Presents the findings of a report released by the Dade County (Fla.) Public Schools' Office of Educational Accountability on the experiment in power sharing, known as school-based management, which New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez first tried in Miami before coming to New York. Although the effort to reform schools has worked in New York, it has not made a difference in Miami.

Tells about Dr. Westina L. Matthews, who cast the pivotal vote to give New York City's high schools the nation's first full condom distribution program, and how she made her tortured decision by fasting and praying.

Tells how teachers at Public School 192 in Harlem feel they have been let down. Their plan for spending $1.1 million in federal money for remedial programs was turned down by the district superintendent--the person who had encouraged them in the first place. Reason for the decision.

Discusses the findings of a Board of Education task force: The city, which prides itself as the world's cultural capital, is not providing most of its public school children with art and music classes. City's fiscal problems to blame; Effect on arts industry.

Reports that the New York City Board of Education spends $68 million a year on dropout prevention, which many educators say is an unaffordable extra. An outside study found that such programs had minimal impact.

Reports that, four months after they won a 5.5 percent wage increase, New York City teachers agreed to save their younger colleagues from layoffs by deferring part of this year's salary for four years. The agreement would defer as much as $590 in gross pay per teacher.

Discusses the proposals of the Temporary State Commission on New York City School Governance, known as the Marchi Commission. More school districts; Shift of power; Increase of mayor's accountability for the schools.

Discusses the differing views on the proposed Ujamaa high school for New York City. The school focuses on the needs of black and Hispanic young men. Features of the plan; Pros and cons.

Discusses the Ujamaa Institute that the New York City Board of Education is preparing to establish. It will be an experimental high school that, while open to both sexes and all races, would have a special emphasis on the problems of young black and Hispanic men.

States that the New York City Board of Education plans to add a high school student as a non-voting member to give the board's adults a youngster's perspective on school life.

Discusses the Educational Records Bureau in New York City, a testing service for 4-year-olds seeking admission to private schools through their kindergartens. Parents consider the test a key, at an absurdly young age, to Harvard or Yale. This month, directors of 55 of the city's top-flight nursery schools said they were `seriously considering eliminating the testing' in their schools.

Discusses the alternate-side-of-the-street parking in New York City, where car owners rise extra early each morning, and, unshaven, unwashed and unkempt, slip clothes over their pajamas and race downstairs to move their cars to the opposite side of the block to elude a $35 ticket.

Presents the second article of a periodic series on New York City schools, and tells about Richard W. Wong, 56-year-old Cantonese immigrant and the godfather of a neighbor's three children who attend Public School 192 in Harlem. He is part of an experiment in power-sharing known as school-based management that is the center of School Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez's blueprint for overhauling the city's lackluster schools. How he has contributed.

Presents the first of a periodic series. Reports on a visit to Public School 192 on Harlem's western edge, and tells about the power-sharing experiment, known as school-based management, that is the cornerstone of School Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez's plan to overhaul the schools. Details.

Discusses the plan submitted by the New York City Board of Education that allows them to take responsibility for only $57.5 million of the $94 million worth of cuts but outlined ways the remainder could be reached. Predicted results of the deep cuts.

States that the New York Board of Education abandoned its resistance and agreed to seek the full $94 million in budget cuts requested by City Hall. Possible emotional split between Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez and the seven board members; Prospect of layoffs.

Comments on the close relationship between New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez and the teachers union. How the alliance has benefited both sides; Possible perils.

Reports that a new system of Athenian democracy is being practiced in P.S. 64 and 240 other schools in New York City's school system for the last two years that allows teachers to request additional equipment for their classes to a panel of teachers, administrators and a principal. One of the boldest drives to shake up the nation's largest school system in two decades; Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez's reputation behind the idea; More.

Recounts the changes in the New York school system since decentralization 20 years ago. Decentralization meant to make schools more responsive; Political connections; Self-interest of political groups; Descriptions of problems in four specific districts.

Tells about the dress code (requiring male students to wear ties) being planned by Frank Mickens, principal of Boys and Girls High School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Mickens's aim is to impart a sense of pride in black boys drawn to drugs and danger of the streets and to give the school a more businesslike air.

Discusses New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins' 5.5 percent raise for teachers. Objections of top city budget officials; Split in the city's negotiating ranks.

Presents the comments of students at the Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Manhattan on what they think about the school system's proposal to distribute condoms. Most think that it is a sensible step for the schools to take.

States that five of the seven members of the New York City Board of Education said they favor the distribution of condoms to teen-agers in school clinics--a reversal of the position taken by previous boards.

Comments on the opening of New York City's schools. Influx of children born to crack-addicted mothers; Less money to address its problems; More optimism; Experiment in power sharing; New testing office.

Illustrates the indifference and lack of authority in New York City schools by telling the story of a former student who has been arrested in the shooting death of a 9-month-old boy.

Reports that New York City school officials announced plans to cut $62.3 million in planned spending for the coming school year, a figure that they said is likely to reduce the teaching force in some places and further tighten the central bureaucracy by as many as 350 positions. Effects of the cuts.

Compares two schools, P.S. 28 and P.S. 309, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The wide gap in performance, and the reasons for it; Leadership styles of their principals; Quiet differences.