Tag: Education

Jul 12

2024

What about a branch library at the Broadway Market?

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After years of inaction, progress is being made toward bringing library books to the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood – with a branch library in the Broadway Market suggested as one possibility. John Spears, director of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, and Chris Hawley, a community advocate, met last week to discuss ways to address the book desert that exists in a large swath of the city’s East side. As a short-term solution, they discussed the possibility of expanding the library’s bookmobile in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood. As a longer-term goal, they talked about establishing a “physical presence” in the community, Spears[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Jul 2

2024

Buffalo daycare center has history of complaints

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Mary’s Little Lambs Child Care Center. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel.  This story was updated July 2t 12:53 pm. An East Side daycare center whose owner was recently arrested and charged with shoving an employee has been cited for 20 violations in the past 2-1/2 years, a few referencing allegations of possible maltreatment or inadequate supervision of children. State inspectors since 2022 were called to investigate complaints at Mary’s Little Lambs Child Care Center eight times prior to the June 11 incident, when owner Mary Goodwill was charged after allegations she used physical force against a teenage staff member. Another employee[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Jun 7

2024

Buffalo-areas schools spending about $28,000 per student

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Thirty-nine school budgets totaling $4 billion were recently approved in Erie and Niagara counties for the upcoming school year. The money will educate some 138,000 public school students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The individual budgets range from a low of $17.7 million in North Collins, the smallest school district, with just 564 students, to a high of almost $1 billion in the largest district, Buffalo public schools, with some 30,000 students. (Charter schools in the Buffalo area, with some 12,000 students, are not included in this analysis.) We looked at per pupil spending - total budget divided by enrollment.[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 6

2024

Charters outperform urban public schools in reading

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The reading skills of young students who attend charter schools in and around Buffalo are slightly better than those attending urban public schools, an Investigative Post analysis has found. The results of 2023’s testing showed 30 percent of third through fifth grade students at the 19 charter schools tested in Erie and Niagara counties could read and write at or above grade level, according to the New York State Education Department.  That compares with 25 percent of students in the same grades in Buffalo public schools. “There’s more we want to achieve for our kids, clearly,” said Fatimah Barker, executive[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Apr 26

2024

School districts succeeding at reading

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A third grade student raises a hand during Karen Shedrick’s lesson at Cuba-Rushford Elementary. Photo by Garrett Looker This is the second in a series on literacy in Western New York public schools. The first installment can be found here. Young children scramble around a gymnasium at Cleveland-Hill Elementary School on a recent night, gazing over tables lined with piles of books — all free for them to take home. Laia, who’s in the second grade, filled a bag full of new titles, books slightly above her current reading level, “so she can advance and be ahead of the curve[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Apr 25

2024

Reading scores lag across WNY

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Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series. Our second story is here.  It’s not just Buffalo where students are struggling to read and write. Only 39 percent of third through fifth graders in Western New York’s 99 school districts scored at grade level on recent English Language Arts tests. What’s more, 31 percent of students lack even basic reading and writing skills. In some districts, including Buffalo and Niagara Falls, that figure approaches or exceeds 50 percent. The problems extend from the city to the countryside, urban neighborhoods to suburban cul de sacs, according to an Investigative[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 31

2024

Pushing for phonics-based reading instruction

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Education advocates called on state leaders Tuesday to step up their commitment to phonics-based instruction to address poor reading skills in students across New York. “Reading is foundational,” said Jeff Smink, interim executive director for The Education Trust-New York said at a press conference at the state Capitol. “Fundamentally, it’s a civil right that’s necessary to participate fully in American society … Unfortunately, in New York, we have too many students that don’t have that right.” New York remains one of the few states in the country that has not passed legislation focused on the “science of reading” – a[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 26

2023

Garrett Looker’s reporting on literacy

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Over the past year, parents, school district officials, education experts, and a smattering of others have told me – either directly or off-hand – that literacy is the key to a child’s future.  It’s not necessarily surprising, nor is it a revelation.  But after a year unpacking the state of reading in Buffalo, there’s at least one conclusion that can be reached: learning to read is complex. At the core of it is a battle for a fair, equitable education for all of Buffalo’s children, education experts have said. “Our district has a commitment to improving the literacy rates of[...]

Posted 2 years ago
Investigative Post