Overcoming years of resistance by the City School District of New Rochelle which has been loathe to acknowledge gang-related problems in some New Rochelle schools, the New Rochelle Police Department has successfully launched a new gang resistance program which is currently being tested at the middle school level.
Over the winter, three New Rochelle police officers were sent to Utah for two weeks of training where they were certified as instructors of the G.R.E.A.T. Program, a school-based, law enforcement officer-instructed classroom curriculum. With prevention as its primary objective, the program is intended as an immunization against delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership.
The officers will soon wrap up a 13-week pilot program at the Isaac E. Young Middle School in what they hope will be the first of many courses taught in the New Rochelle public schools. G.R.E.A.T. lessons focus on providing life skills to students to help them avoid using delinquent behavior and violence to solve problems. The G.R.E.A.T. Program offers a continuum of components for students and their families.
The G.R.E.A.T. Program consists of four components: a 13-session middle school curriculum, an elementary school curriculum, a summer program, and families training. The pilot program centers on the middle school curriculum but the hope is to roll out the elementary school program over the course of the next school year.
The program is not part of the NRPD D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program which is primarily focused on drugs but there is some overlap in that D.A.R.E. teaches skills kids need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence and is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.
The Gang Resistance Education And Training (G.R.E.A.T.) Program, previously administered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is now being administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a component of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice.
G.R.E.A.T. has developed partnerships with nationally recognized organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the National Association of Police Athletic Leagues. These partnerships encourage positive relationships among the community, parents, schools, and law enforcement officers.
G.R.E.A.T. Middle School Curriculum
The G.R.E.A.T. Middle School curriculum is a skills-based curriculum designed to produce knowledge and attitudinal and behavioral changes through the use of facilitative teaching, positive behavior rehearsal, cooperative and interactive learning techniques, and extended teacher activities. The goal is to prevent youth crime, violence, and gang involvement while developing a positive relationship among law enforcement, families, and our young people to create safer communities.
The G.R.E.A.T. middle school curriculum was designed for middle school entry-level students in 6th or 7th grade. It is a life-skills competency program designed to provide students with the skills they need to avoid gang pressure and youth violence. The curriculum consists of thirteen 30- to 45-minute lessons designed to be taught in sequential order and cover topics such as:
- Relationship Among Gangs, Violence, Drugs, and Crime
- Facts and Fiction About Gangs and Violence
- Empathy for Others
- Refusal-Skills Practice
- Getting Along Without Going Along
- Influences and Peer Pressure
- Refusal-Skills Practice
- Keeping Your Cool
- Recognizing Anger in Others
- Tips for Calming Other
- Consequences for Fighting
- Conflict Resolution Practice
- Where to Go for Help
The town of La Vista, NE put up some videos about their G.R.E.A.T. program, one of which gives a glimpse into how the classes are taught:
As we have been critical of the District for their past failure to acknowledge the existence of gangs in New Rochelle and their operations within the public schools, we want to be sure to credit those who agreed to bring this program into the public schools. The first step to solving a problem is admitting you have a problem and from the looks of the program this is a good first step.
EDITOR’S NOTE: the G.R.E.A.T. logo and sections of this article were taken from press-related materials and other portions of the G.R.E.A.T. web site.
apples and oranges
look like several bloggers have mentioned, there are signficant differences between immigration laws, gang membership, quality of education and so on. The facts are plain enough.
1. by no means are all gang members mexican. in fact, a few years earlier kids of other nationalities and races banded together against mexican kids. i know this for a fact and so do the principles of NRHS and Isaac just to mention a few.
2 by far the greater majority of mexican adults and childen are fine people and it angers me to read some of the earlier blogs.
3. we know why they are here — in our parents and grandparents day, droves of people came from italy, ireland, germany, russia, etc…. there were no immigration quotas then and speaking for my forebearers, they would have found a way here if there were quotas. we are a great country and who the hell wouldn’t want to come here.
4. some bloggers have rightfully pointed out the vast issues with the immigration policy — esentially there is a quota system for legals (few mexicans and some other cultures can get on this as the numbers are used up) well indians, chinese, europeans, etc. cannot easily swim the oceans, but people from mexico, central america, etc. have far less problems.
5. ok that said, the problem is gangs and yes, they do exist, but nowhere to the degree they do in other parts of the state or we would have much more experience with it on a daily basis. but they do exist and they are problems for youngsters in the schools that want to get ahead. any relief from our professional police and others should be welcomed.
6. the school district has a duty as bob points out to accept residents (key word as perhaps many are not) — it doesn’t matter how many live in a room, that is not their problem.
7. the district has limitations in how they handle students from mexico, central america, haiti, etc… in terms of the fact that they pose a significant problem — not so much on behavior, but on ability to grasp curricula. Much more needs to be done and it is useless to argue who is better than who. It just needs to be recognized and fixed.
8. some mentioned problems in the district that suggest that some of these people are being used… literally used. that is painfully correct.
9. Like a previous blogger, I am concerned about Jefferson from a number of standpoints and still cannot get my arms around a 100% favorable vote by uniion members from this school. Hard to believe and even harder to track the trending results of state test scores.
Stop labeling these people. They are not really different than many of us. They love their families, churches, and yes, a cerveza or two but so do I and many of you. Check with the PD and tell me given the dire situation that some of you have raised, are these people really what you say they are. You should really be talking to city hall,albany, washington, your councilperson. Maybe i am biased myself, these are largely very decent people and not unlike my forebearers in terms of many children, love of church, an occasional dust-up, a beer or two and a need to survive in an unfriendly or at least strange culture.
warren gross
According to New Rochelle City Officals…
There aren’t any gangs in New Rochelle. If that’s true, why do we need this program? Oh, I get it. Mayor Bramson once again tried to pull a smoke and mirrors show. So now that we know that there ARE gangs in New Rochelle, would you like to know how many gangs there are in this Crappy City of Ours? I know of at least 5, Bloods, Crips, Vatos Locos, La Raza, & Latin Kings. I’m sure there are more.
MakeNewRoBetter,
Stop
MakeNewRoBetter,
Stop complaining and look at the positive aspects here. Yes, there are Bloods and Crips, and several variations of Latino gangs. That being said, these gangs, which exist in every city, have been kept, pretty much, under control for the most part in New Rochelle. All you need to do is take a look at Mt. Vernon, Yonkers, Poughkeepsie and even Peekskill where serious gang violence is much worse than here; where violent crimes are commom place among these groups. The gangs also exist in most smaller towns such as Tuckahoe, Cortland, Yorktown & Port Chester. I think New Rochelle compares more with those communites. The point is, education and prevention, of any kind, can’t hurt these kids. In fact, if the program doesn’t work, I’m sure the police are gathering all kinds of intelligence from their interactions with the students to help combat the problem now and in the future. Anyway, I think it is a great idea that New Rochelle has taken the lead with a program like this. I don’t believe it is available in any other community in Westchester. I also asked around and found out that the program, including the police officer’s salaries, are paid for by a 1.5 million dollar federal grant to the school district and NRPD. Bravo!
$1.5 mm grant for G.R.E.A.T is GREAT!
“I also asked around and found out that the program, including the police officer’s salaries, are paid for by a 1.5 million dollar federal grant to the school district and NRPD. Bravo!”
Good work!
I am happy to hear that there is enough money to run this program well beyond the pilot program.
Yes it is, but I’m told the
Yes it is, but I’m told the entire grant is a 4 year grant and IS NOT specific for the GREAT program itself. I do not know how much is allocated for GREAT and other programs. I couldn’t get those answers, but someone should.
I never said it wasn’t a great idea…
All I stated is that City Officials have denied the existance of gangs in New Rochelle, knowing full well that gangs do exist in our community.
Of course all these gangs are mexican related
It’s pretty obvious we need to get all the illegal mexicans out of New Rochelle. We should also raise the taxes in New Rochelle 10% to get the ones who use the system out. They live 5-10 in a house or apartment, a 10% raise on property taxes will significantly bite into their earnings which they send back to mexico every week. The landlords will pass this onto the illegal renters. I also suggest a Library fee for anyone who doesn’t have a green card or social security card. These illegals don’t pay for the upkeep of the library and they shouldn’t be using it. Any tax dollars going into any programs which illegals use should immediately be taken away as well. We have enough trouble funding our hospital with all the immigrants walking out on their hospital bills. New Rochelle probably loses 1 million dollars a day from the use of illegal mexicans being paid below wage dollars. That money is in turn sent back to mexico and not injected into the local New Rochelle economy. That’s nearly 350 million dollars a year New Rochelle is losing on taxable wages. It’s time we stop this mess of the illegals and protect ourselves from becoming another Port Chester.
How about some realistic solutions to illegal immigrants in NR
The problem of illegal immigration is a FEDERAL issue so railing against NRPD or Mayor Bramson or the Schools is pointless.
Do you REALLY want to do something about people living 5-10 in a house (I know of houses where TWENTY or more people live)? Instead of going all xenophobic against Mexicans and complaining to local officials about federal issues, how about looking at laws we have on the books already. Simply enforcing laws we have on the books would both increase the cost to illegals being here. They would get paid less for working on the books and their cost of living would go up if they had to pay a full rent to live here. So, you want to focus on raising their rent to normal levels and you want to force companies to put them on the books.
Landlords who failed to comply might then find their property seized and employers might be looking at tax evasion charges and fraud for failing to pay into the workman’s compensation fund and otherwise failing to pay into the system.
The illegal immigrant population comes to New Rochelle for a very simple reason: they are PAID to comes here. What the do in coming here is perfectly logical. If you create financial incentives, intended or otherwise, people will respond to them. This is Economics 101.
Rather than “ban” or “drive out” illegal immigrants it makes more sense to require them to pay the full cost of their being here. Now, I do not mean charging them to use the library or attend school because that is discriminatory and will be knocked down in a lawsuit very fast.
The fact is that illegal immigrants or welcome here primarily by businesses that profit off them. Ironically, as our post on the mafia in New Rochelle makes clear, often these illegal immigrants are working on the public payroll through federal, state and local contractors. How much of that stimulus money is going to go to hire illegal immigrants. The scam is simple — respond to an RFP quoting union scale then replace union workers with illegal immigrants. Everyone is happy because the contractor pockets the difference and the state can get lower bids. Of course, the contractors are crooks who rob, lie and steal in many other ways and the average person foots the bill.
Here is a trial balloon. Maybe it is a bad idea of maybe it needs work but I want to see a program that includes PROTECTING illegal immigrants, especially children, from abuse at the hands of unscrupulous landlords and employers. By shifting the debate to protecting the children of illegal immigrants it becomes possible to undercut the claim that enforcing existing law is somehow discriminatory.
SPECIAL HOUSING SAFETY TASK FORCE IDEA
1. Create a special Housing Safety Task Force combining NRPD, NRFD, the Building Inspector, the Corporation Counsel (our lawyer), Westchester County Health Department and appropriate State and Federal agencies including the State Tax Department and the IRS.
2. This task force should then baseline the problem by developing a criteria for “at risk” housing then apply those criteria by reviewing EVERY house and apartment dwelling in the City to place those houses/dwellings on a “watch list”.
3. Each house/dwelling should then be inspected for violations and other problems and the owner of the house cited — early and often — to raise the amount of fines as fast as legally allowed. The Corporation Counsel should then begin proceeding to seize properties of scofflaw landlords.
4. Throughout the process, houses/dwellings should be flagged for additional follow up; these houses should be placed under surveillance to build a case against landlords and tenants who violate the City Code on how many non-relatives can live in one house and any other regulations on over-crowding.
REQUIRE CITY AND SCHOOL DISTRICT CONTRACTORS TO PROVIDE PROOF THAT ALL WORKERS ARE LEGAL RESIDENTS OR CITIZENS
1. The City or School District issues ID’s to workers on City or School District projects. Only workers with such IDs can be on the job site. To get the IDs the worker must have all the proper paperwork that they are legally entitled to work in the U.S. Extend this to any State or Federal projects that occur within New Rochelle (if you can).
2. Have inspectors run surprise inspections. Fine any contractor found to have workers without IDs on the job site.
3. Contractors who have a certain level of violations would be suspended or even banned from bidding on contracts in the future
On a side note, the school system only gets 20% of its funding from NYS and the feds; 80% comes from local taxes, mostly property taxes so they do not welcome illegal because they get tons of money from NYS (they do get some). They do not really care WHERE the money comes from. The school system is controlled by the union which wants two things – more members and more money for its members.
Funding???
Who funds this program, do you know?
Funding
The G.R.E.A.T. web site indicates that local law enforcement can apply for grants to fund training, materials and teaching the courses. I have a call into NRPD to get a definitive answer but the initial indication I got was that NRPD was applying grant money they had obtained. More info as soon as I get it.
Excellent Job
This is a great program for all children! Shows the New Rochelle Board of Ed is 100% on top of their game in support of all the needs of every school in the district!!
Let’s not get carried away
This is a good program. NRPD deserve credit for making it happen. CSDNR deserves credit for letting NRPD into the schools.
Looking through the material I do not think this is a great program for ALL children. It needs to be appropriately targeted.
This pilot program certainly does not show that the BOE is “100% on top of their game in support of all the needs of every school in the district!!” but id does show that the District can learn new tricks. This program is long overdue but let’s not quibble. Instead, let’s encourage continuing this program past the pilot stage and an expansion within Isaac E. Young Middle School where it is most sorely needed and then into other schools in the District.
Targeted to whom…
Whom do think it should be targeted to?
What the hell is this world
What the hell is this world coming to???
Programs take away from educational teaching
While we feel we may want to praise addressing potential gang scenarios, I have mixed feelings on introducing this program into the school.
Unfortunately, some children are victims of circumstance and surroundings. These children MIGHT benefit from some of the program material and are probably in need of a “reality check”. The vast majority of children, on the other, will not benefit. If I still had a young child in the system I may not want him/her being introduced to this without me being present to help explain it, and they aren’t going to remember any questions they had by the time they speak to you tonight either.
Little by little we seem to be taking away the time from old fashioned education. Old fashioned education?? Yes, old fashioned education. Spelling tests, vocabulary words, sentence writing, multiplication charts, POP QUIZES (make you feel old?, simple ABC’s (never find that in Barnard school..Reggio Emilia..oh please, who cares if my child knows how to set a table at 5 years old?) I’ll teach her that at home!Crunching for state mandated tests, programs such as G.R.E.A.T and D.A.R.E, resources that are being used/funded so that the non-english speaking children can keep up with the Jones’s, all things that take much needed time away from basic learning.
My nephew spent 20 minutes the other day filling out a questionnaire on bullying. The little wise guy purposely answered all the questions as if he had been bullied, and so did the rest of his little friends. Im sure the statistic bells will be ringing after all these answer sheets are recorded. I guess we can look forward to another program being introduced on how to deal with bullies.
Don’t knock the Barnard education
I agree that there is not enough traditional education, but Barnard is the only place my son had weekly spelling tests. At Trinity if they have a test once a month it’s alot. I guess the adminitration thinks that a state test once a year is enough.
I personally think a program like this is window dressing. If a kid is going to join a gang it is because of their family, friends, and their need to be accepted. Or it could be fear. Two parent families, church, and real academic challenges would do more to end gangs than any tax-payer funded program. I guess it is better than nothing, but the real problem is parents neglecting their responsibilities.
Barnard is a JOKE!!!
Two years ago, I sent my child there. My child was there for ONE DAY!!! My child was 1 of two white children in the class. There were 2 black children and about 18 hispanic children. Of the 18 hispanic children, 2 spoke english. And this wasn’t just in my child’s class. It was like this in all the classes there. My child is smart. If I left my child in Barnard, my child would have suffered and been robbed of a quality education. My child has friends that go to Barmard. The parents compare their children with mine and can’t believe the difference. Yes people, it’s that noticable. So, for all those who think the New Rochelle School system is good, take a real good look and don’t be fooled by the smoke and mirrors. The New Rochelle School System wants you to think that they are great. So great that they compare themselves the the bottom of the barrel when it comes to other school districts, (Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, etc…). Compare them to Rye, Pelham, Edgmont, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck…) Only then can they state they are worth the money we pay in taxes. But until then, they suck and thousands of children are suffering. Thank You Mayor Bramson. I should also thank Tim Idoni as well. New Rochelle became a safe haven for illegal mexicans and hasen’t stopped since. Everything in New Rochelle suffered because of this illegal alien invasion. Watch people, Sound Shore Medical Center will be closing it’s doors soon as well. These illegal mexicans bleed the system dry and mever contribute a dime back into it. So once again, thank you Tim Idoni and Mayor Bramson for distroying what once was a beautiful city. New Rochelle, NY R.I.P 2009.
There are 2 Programs at Barnard
If you are talking about the Head Start Pre-K program you are right. It is a non-white, non english speaking majority.
However, the lottery education at Barnard which is Pre-K to 2nd grade, has been very good for both my children, with a more diverse mix of students then you find at Trinity where a white, english speaking kid is a minority. The lottery program has excellent teachers, with only a few exceptions.
I have one Barnard graduate and one current. It would be interesting to see what percentage of Barnard children make the 4th grade kaleidescope program compared to their peers.
There are many problems with the New Rochelle Schools, Barnard lottery is not one of them.
In Scarsdale, Rye, Pelham, the difference is parent’s committted to their children’s education. In New Rochelle this is the exception, not the rule. Because of that the Board of Ed can do what it pleases. Ultimately they believe most of the parent’s don’t care anyway.
I like Barnard but…
…I hope you will expand on your comment “There are many problems with the New Rochelle Schools, Barnard lottery is not one of them.”
I am hoping you do not mean that the lottery is a true lottery in the way that it is presented by the District where you get in based on a random chance (altered somewhat for siblings). Tell me folks do not believe that you get a space in Barnard’s main program by pure random luck of the draw. For those who think so, does anyone to check whether kids who drew higher numbers get in while kids who got lower numbers than those kids do not. I can assure you it is NOT random. They use the lottery as the basis for sorting the classes but they are basically using quotas.
I have a news flash for white parents if you don’t already know this: whites are a significant minority in the school system. The melting post is the HS so you can get a good picture from that; it is about 1/3 black,African-American, 1/3 white, 1/3 hispanic. A magnet school like Barnard should be the same, right?
Is it?
So why do you “like”
So why do you “like” Barnard?
Why is Barnard Elementary School not a Neighborhood School?
An interesting discussion has evolved around Barnard under the above Post. Back in November of last year, we wrote an article Why is Barnard Elementary School not a Neighborhood School?
People interested in discussing the Barnard School may want to comment there as well.
Why I like Barnard School
Two reasons:
1. My youngest son could not speak properly when he was little. He was placed in the speech & language program for one year at Barnard and showed dramatic improvement. These days we can’t shut him up :-). Seriously, the speech and language program was excellent. It so good that he was removed from that program after one year. Looking back to home movies from that time, it is clear the results were profound. The speech and language specialists were first-rate.
2. My youngest daughter got in through the lottery. I do not know why people would say that they do not do enough work at Barnard because the curriculum has been VERY demanding and time consuming for parents. She is “stepping up” this month and we will be sorry for her to leave Barnard. Every teacher she had was excellent. The Reggio program IS “child-driven” in that the class chooses topics to learn about – one time it was sharks another time it was the human body, then planets but within that they are taught the basics of reading and writing. Math follows the NYS curriculum so I would imagine is no different than the other schools.
BTW, in point of comparison, my two older kids went to Sts. John & Paul which was great up until 3rd grade but went downhill after that. We ended up pulling our kids out of there at 5th and 3rd grade respectively. I believe my two kids who went to the NR public schools got a better fundamental education than the two who went to SJP.
There was one incident of note that happened at Barnard where a student with some issues acted out with a pair of scissors and my daughters finger was cut. We did not hear about it until our daughter got home and were initially upset that the school had not called. It was parent-teacher night and the staff was very distracted. The teacher and the school nurse had intended to call but forgot. When they realized we had never been called they along with Ms. Lambert were very good about the whole situation and took all the appropriate steps to make us and, most importantly, our daughter feel at ease going back into the classroom.
All I can say about that is it is too bad that the school does not ALWAYS respond the way they did in that case. They made a mistake in not calling us about the incident but turned the situation around by admitting they had made an error and then setting about making it right. It is what is so frustrating elsewhere in the District where there is almost a phobia about admitting a mistake.
“Barnard is not one of them”
In Trinity you rely on a district employee to run the PTA. Barnard has a very active PTA, did anyone attend the carnival last week, movie nights, gym nights, etc. Most of these events are open to all the kids at Barnard (including the Head Start kids), but it is the lottery mothers who run it.
You have an experienced Principal at Barnard, she might not be the world’s best Principal, but she certainly is competent. At Trinity there is a revolving door for this position and now they are going to put in a weak inexperienced assistant as the Principal. Can you imagine a school district hiring an inexperienced person to run the 2nd largest elementary school in the district (it might even be the 2nd largest in the county).
That is a joke.
As for the Emilio Reggia method, that is just a BS name for what they do. Most of the teachers my chidren had teach tradtional methods. One of my children was even taught Phonics in the first grade. That is pretty traditional. From what I understand it is not a district practice to teach Phonics.
I can’t say about the racial mix at Barnard with any precision, but I might make this observation. Parent’s who care are more likely to take the steps to sign up for the lottery. Parent’s who don’t care don’t. Does this skew the racial mix at Barnard? I bet it does. What do you think?
They do sort the students in the lottery classes. In our experience their was always a class with mostly Spanish language kids together. As parent’s we requested that our children be seated with English speaking children. Whether or not our request was “officially” accomadated, we’ll never know, but it always seemed that they separated the kids by language.
The other thing that is nice about Barnard is its size. It reminds me of the small neighborhood elementary school I went to when I was a kid. It is not one of the huge warehouses that pass for schools in the rest of New Rochelle.
Barnard is Absolutly Not Diverse…
…it skews more like 75% hispanic, 15% white & 10% black. And as for the HS, 60% hispanic, 25% white, 15% black. The New Rochelle Public School System is pathetic. New Rochelle Politicians and City School District Members have destroyed the city’s educational system since Idoni took the Mayor’s Office. I remember when Jefferson School was a top educational institute, now it’s a joke. Our City Officials have done nothing but raise taxes each and every year. And idiots keep voting yes to school budget increases. It’s like throwing away money. People, wake up!!! The money isn’t going where it should be. It’s going in the pockets of a lot of dishonest people in City Hall and the School Board. Every year the schools get worse. It’s not the teachers, it’s the politicians. They allow illegal mexican aliens, who don’t speak English, into our school system. Why? I’ll tell you why. They allow them, as well as many non-resident students into the system to collect more money from the state. The more students you show on paper, the more money the city can ask for from the state. Question: How many New Rochelle Public School Kindergarten parents can honestly state that their child was “really” reading on their own after 4 months in the program? I would bet, not one. But, if you look at other public and private schools, such as Mamaroneck, Rye, Scarsdale, Pelham, Eastchester, etc… I know of many kindergarten children that can read on their own, but not one child in New Rochelle. Pathetic!!! They also DO NOT cater to non speaking English students like New Rochelle does. Maybe that’s why English speaking students aren’t excelling like their counterparts in the other areas I mentioned before. So, I would say that The City School District of New Rochelle and City Hall are depriving our children of the education they deserve and the education we are paying for as tax payers. So why are we paying for more then what we are receiving when it comes to education? Can taxpayers sue City Government for Services Not Rendered? And get money back? I have to check on that.
Interesting to see
Yes it would be interesting to see how many Barnard graduates excel beyond their peers. When you find a way to get that information, please, come back and share it with us. I have had numerous friends who had a child or children “graduate” from there and on their own accord they have noticed the difference in comparison from one child to the other. My own nephews who are now grown, were no exception. One attended Barnard and one did not. Granted each child is unique in their own way. By no means am I saying that my experiences are that of every family. I still suggest that before any family rushes to Barnard, they take the time to fully understand the Reggio Amelia concept and the method of which their child will be taught. These are formidable years we are talking about. Lets not get so overly excited about a full day kindergarten.
If that’s the truth of it
Why don’t more people speak up about it. Can so many people realy not care ? All the new programs, catering to a lower common denominator, set the bar lower so you can say more are successful. It reminds me of the saying “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”. Entropic in nature, constant vigilance and hard decisions will make a difference. Not pandering and skewed data.
Legal or illegal all are allowed…
Regardless if a student is here legally or illegally, they (children) are all entitled to a free, public education. An education may even be mandatory for all children. Schools are not required to turn in ‘illegals’, but are required to provide education for children who can prove residency. They do not have to prove citizenship…
Lol! Yeah, it’s New
Lol! Yeah, it’s New Rochelle’s fault regarding the “invasion” of illegals. I don’t want “illegals” here either, but come on already! Other than enforcing the housing issues, New Rochelle has no control over who decides to live here. I bet though, MakeNewRoBetter, has his/her grass cut or any “cheap” labor done by the same people he/she doesn’t want here! It isn’t fair, agreed….but it is a much larger social issue that will never be solved by ANY local politician. Protect our borders!
Dont knock the Barnard Education??
Your title confuses me. Just because your child took spelling tests is enough to attest to the fact that Barnard provides a solid foundation for learning??There are spelling tests in Barnard because there are NO state mandated tests at that age. Look around the classrooms…do you see any ABC’s up on the wall? Do you see the alphabet anywhere?? Nope. Google Reggio Amelia and read up on it.That is the method of teaching for that school.
I am speaking from experience when I tell you there is one thing those children are learning to do..and thats EAT!
There’s nothing ‘old-fashioned’ about a GOOD education.
…
‘Spelling tests, vocabulary words, sentence writing, multiplication charts, POP QUIZES…’
…and lets add Geography and maybe Penmanship to that list, too. (Do they even learn cursive/script anymore? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about home-schooling!
And, yes, too much time is spent ‘teaching to the test’ (the State tests-which by the way, seem to be ridiculously over-simplified).
state mandated tests
the amouny of time wasted on these is ridiculos.Dont you know these test are really there to try to make the school look good as well as the teachers.This is why they work so hard on them
Thanks for the pick me up
Thanks for picking me up on the leftouts…and one more thing on the state tests…what good is the process if you cant guarantee that ALL the tests will be handed in…right Cindy Slotkin?? It’s no wonder Jefferson test scores SOARED the first few years you took over.
Not sure if there is or isnt, but one would think there would be sequential control numbers on the tests making it that much harder to cheat.