Education Inequality

Education Inequity DO Stage

by Anna

As a group we worked with about 10 different organization all taking different parts in solving education inequality. Our fieldwork stretched from watching movies, making phone calls, lobbying and hands on tutoring kids. This stage taught us so much. We started not even knowing all the different types of school and what differentiate them. We…

by Aditya

We wanted to help public schools get funded and we wanted to raise awareness about underfunding. We thought that one of the best ways we could help was to participate in protests and lobbies. We met a lot with the alliance for quality education to fight for funding in public schools.

by Aditya

At the Mount Carmel Holy Rosary School in Harlem, we helped kids write letters to the donors of the scholarship that they were on. It was not a lot of work for us but we learned a lot about the general mood of the school. The kids told us that they have about a 20…

by Aditya

The bus going to Albany Left at 7 from One MetroTech Center and it arrived in Albany at 11. We went into the building and were guided to a room where all the lobbyists were sitting. A few different people made speeches, a parent, a teacher, and a student, about the problems that underfunding caused…

by Elisabeth

We had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting with parents from all different boroughs that worked with AQENY. We came on time, which was apparently a little late. A few parents and two AQENY people were sitting at a large conference table. A slideshow was on a TV at the front of the room.…

by Elisabeth

On Monday, December 14th, we were originally scheduled to volunteer at a program called DEER, Drop Everything and Read. It was an animal themed reading program held at the school once a month. When we arrived we found out that the event was actually cancelled because a teacher had called in sick and a class…

by Elisabeth

Anna, Sophie, Ryann, Reggi and I all volunteered at a Christmas event at St.Brigids with Children’s Scholarship Fund as a joint effort between the educational inequity and the children in poverty groups. Anna, Sophie and I took the bus across town and arrived in front of the school where we met Reggi. Ryann was already…

by Elisabeth

At 5 in the morning, when the moon was still out, we began our trip to Albany. After driving to One Metrotech and walking around in the freezing cold, we were finally able to board the bus. We were some of the first people on the bus, and we watched as people with a wide…

by Elisabeth

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to stand on the steps of City Hall with AQENY as the conducting a protest/press event. As we approached the front gates, people from the organization and parents were already gathered in the area by the steps. They were handing out signs to be held up…

by Oliver

We went to PS 98 for an event called DEER. When we got there we figured out that the event was canceled. We then asked what to do, we were sent to the library to help out in the school. We walked into a class where they were only speaking Spanish. The same was for…

by Oliver

AQENY gave us the chance to rally at city hall. When we got there Maria (our contact) handed us signs. These signs said things from AQE, Alliance for quality education to the amount that the school district was owed. Collectively the amount is around 5 billion dollars. We heard some very motivational speakers. There was…

by Oliver

At 6:30 am we boarded a bus that would take us to Albany. On the bus we were served pork gumbo, rice, and a roasted pig knee. My other group members did not like this at all. I liked it until I got to the pig’s knee. After my food I fell asleep. We arrived at…

by Anna

Renee Shaw works at a Public School in Arlington, Virginia. Just a year after their school was renovated in 2004, they were already short on space. Renovating again would cost too much money so instead they added a trailer. When renovation schools, the state goes in order to all the schools to renovate them. With…

by Aditya

With AQENY, we participated in a protest that was pushing to give schools the money they are owed. It turns out that schools in New York state are owed around 6 billion dollars. When we got there we briefly met with Maria (our contact) who greeted us and gave us signs to hold. Then we stood…

by Anna

Our bus left 1 Metro Tech Brooklyn at 6:30am and headed up through the Bronx making stops along the way to pick up other people. After a brief sleep I woke up to the smell of chicken rice and spaghetti with tomato sauce. Elisabeth refused to eat her food because she thought it was disgusting so…

by Elisabeth

Yesterday we talked to Renee Shaw, a tech specialist at Barret Elementary school in Arlington, Virginia. Only a year after her school was renovated in 2004, they already were running out of space. To combat this issue they put in a trailer, a impermanent solution to a permanent problem. They couldn’t afford to renovate the…

by Anna

School around the 5 boroughs are getting parts of their education taken away in different ways. Some parents send their kids to a school that has a homework help program to find out when they get there that that program has been discontinued due to shortage of funding. Robotics teams and computer classes have been…

by Anna

Breakfast with Santa was a very informative event where we went to St. Brigid School and helped at a holiday bash. There was food that Ryann helped dish out and a arts and crafts table where Sophie, Reggi, Elisabeth and I settled in at. There were four areas, one for coloring, one for candy cane ornament making,…

by Elisabeth

A couple of weeks ago we went to volunteer with the Go Project. It was on a saturday at our school, starting at 9:30. When we arrived at the school we were taken to another room with what seemed like a volunteer group from another school. They gave us a quick briefing on the day…

by Anna

Jump Start is an organization that goes into preschools and assists in the class room. Collage students are the only ones who actually go into the class rooms so part of the point of this meeting was so that the people who run the company knew more about what actually went on in the class…

by Anna

We went out to PS 98 on Monday December 14. The event we were going to attend (DEER) was canceled so we did other stuff around the school. We helped organize the library. There were two people working in the library neither of whom spoke english. One lady was able to say the word “five.” It…

by Aditya

We interviewed Jacqueline M Cotugno, who works with jumpstart, over the phone in order to find out a little more about jumpstart. Although she reiterated many of the things we heard at the Jumpstart breakfast, she did impress upon us a few new things. She talked about what the college students learned in the program:…

by Aditya

Recently we volunteered at the Go Project. The Go Project is an organization that does group classes, at our school, on Sunday, teaching kids from K through 5th. Each class has a professional teacher and handful of volunteers. I chose 5th grade, and was placed accordingly in class 5B. Then we went to the auditorium…

by Anna

The Go Project is an organization that tutors children that are behind in school. They tutor over 600 children across four sites. The started out tutoring 15 children of whom they would drive around and collect for tutoring. They have since grown to help children 1st-5th grade. We arrived in the morning to have a…

by Oliver

We met with the organization GO Project. They work with kids that are behind grade level and get them up to speed. At the meeting there were three team leaders. They talked about the progress and what they do with the kids. One thing that struck me was when one of the leaders said that…

by Oliver

My social justice recently watched “Waiting For Superman”. I did not like it. Although it did bring out the flaws in the education system. We collectively thought that this was a bad movie. All it talked about was the flaws. It never said anything about a start to a solution. It was basically a rant…

by Elisabeth

Today we sat in on a meeting at the Jump Start offices. The meeting was with a few members of the Jump Start community and three college students. The college students, who taught in Jump Start programs across the city, were talking about their work with the organization and their personal experiences. Jump Start is…

by Aditya

Jumpstart is a preschool tutoring program that provides resources and attention to preschool children. They focus on vocabulary, literacy, reading and writing. They give room for creativity while maintaining a structured 2-hour session. We contacted them and were able to go to a breakfast with them. We learned about how they structure their tutoring sessions,…

by Aditya

Halle Sage was a Teacher in Teach for America. She worked in a small public school in inner-city Baltimore for 2 years. During the meeting, she told us about her experience as a Teacher. She said that in her school the other 2 teachers decided that one would teach math, the other would teach English,…

by Aditya

The Alliance For Quality Education is an organization that works on making sure everyone gets equal school opportunities through legal action. They deal with things like Charter school got-to-go lists and other related issues by suing the school for the cause of expulsion. They also fight for underfunded schools by pushing policies and actions legally.…

by Aditya

Beyond Measure was a movie that explained and showed a New schooling technique. It criticized the current public school system that primarily teaches for the test, not for the attainment for knowledge. It described a demoralizing effect of failing on a test for something you didn’t learn. It explains that you can’t judge a person’s…

by Aditya

“Waiting for Superman” is a controversial movie about charter schools. The movie talks about how Charter schools work and how they began. They use many fancy statistics to make it seem like they are the answer to the failing public school system. Then we read an article called, “The Myth Of Charter Schools”. This article…

by Elisabeth

Beyond Measure was a screening held by Mya Dunlop, whose son created MyloWrites. Beyond Measure talks about the curriculum that most schools have attached themselves to in recent years called “teaching to the test.” Teaching to the test is when everything you learn is about a test you will take. Instead of projects they spend…

by Elisabeth

Halee Sage was a teacher with the organization Teach for America for 3 years. Teach for America is an organization that sends teachers to under-performing or otherwise not as good schools. Halee taught in Baltimore from 1991 to 1993. She told us about her problems and set backs with the school and how it affected…

by Elisabeth

AQENY is the Alliance for Quality Education New York. 3 days ago we met with their campaign coordinator, Maria Bautista. The organization that Maria works for is actually mainly focused on the legal and financial sides of public education. They sue the government for under funding their public schools, which happens more often then you’d…

by Elisabeth

Our group watched the movie Waiting for Superman directed by Davis Guggenheim. Waiting for Superman focused mainly on charter schools, and the lotteries that are required to enter them. Since charter schools are held in such high esteem, most often more people are applying for spots than spots available at the the time. So, they…

by Anna

Today we met with Maria from the Alliance for Quality Education. They work on getting the government to give Public Schools the funding they need and deserve. They often sue the government for underfunding public schools. She spoke to us about “the myth of charter schools” and how yes, they seem like a great solution…

by Anna

In your meeting with Halee Sage we discussed a Public School she worked at for two years in Baltimore. She was working in a very small class room trying to teach 30 or so 5th graders. She spent the first portion of her time in the class room simply teaching the kids how to navigate…

by Anna

Beyond Measure was a very informative film that really made me realize how unfair it was to judge students based off one test. We are so lucky to have projects built into our curriculum but some public schools do not have the resources to do that. Children all have different learning styles and it does…

by Anna

Waiting For Superman was a very interesting movie which made us realize that Charter Schools were an option. I was surprised how hard it was to get into the Charter Schools. I think the lottery is so unfair because there could be a kid with so much potential who is unable to reach their potential because…

by Clair

Public schools in New York alone are owed over 5 billion dollars. Important programs, like art and music, are being cut. The schools that are affected by these cuts are not providing them with an education that sets them up for success, many kids are left to continue the cycle of poverty and inequity. Click…

Interview with Donna Dees

Interview with Beth Sousa, Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor at Planned Parenthood

Interview with Ana Oliveria, CEO of New York Women’s Foundation

Meeting with former D1 Soccer player Carly Wetzel

The Teenage Perspective

Learning About Local Climate Activism With Keanu Arpels-Josiah