Tag: Education

Feb 23

2023

Most suburbs lag on reading instruction

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Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series. Our previous story focused on the challenges face by Buffalo schools and its adoption of a phonics-based approach. Unlike 30 other states, New York does not require a phonics-based approach to reading instruction. That leaves each of the state’s 731 school districts free to select its own reading curriculum. “New York, in general, is behind most other states when it comes to this, which I think is reflected in the reading scores,” said Jeff Smink, deputy director of The Education Trust – New York. “Every district is like the Wild West,”[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 22

2023

Buffalo’s abysmal reading scores

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 Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series. Our second installment: Poor reading skills are a problem nationwide, including in many of Buffalo’s suburbs.  Only two of the 48 tested fourth graders at Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy on the city’s West Side read at proficient levels in 2022. Likewise, just two fifth graders at School 53 on the East Side read at grade level. That’s out of 62 pupils tested. Not a single fifth grader at Martin Luther King Jr. School, in the shadow of the Fruit Belt neighborhood, tested at a proficient reading level in 2022.[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 12

2022

Monday Morning Read

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Treat yourself this holiday season to a free subscription to WeeklyPost, our email newsletter sent Sunday mornings. Below is the “What I’m Reading” portion of the newsletter. Buffalo schools don’t enjoy a good reputation. Many teachers in the trenches resent the tag. Yet they acted last week to further tarnish the district by taking a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Tonja Williams. Not because she’s doing a bad job, mind you. But rather, she won’t settle contract negotiations on their union’s terms. Bad form, people. As former School Board Member Larry Quinn noted in a guest column in The Buffalo News, there’s[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 31

2022

Gains by the right in school board elections

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Michael Wooten interviewed Layne Dowdall on her recent story about candidates elected to local school boards who were endorsed by right wing organizations. In the interview, which aired on Tuesday on WGRZ’s Town Hall, Dowdall reported that the candidates pledged to oppose the teaching of Critical Race Theory, sex education and Covid vaccine and mask mandates. Twenty-two of these candidates won election in western and central New York, half of them in Erie and Niagara counties. Two of them won seats on the Williamsville School Board, the second largest district in the region.

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 21

2022

Eye-catching public pensions 

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Working for a public school system in New York State tends to pay well. So does being retired from one. Teachers and administrators who retired last year left with an average pension of  $73,552 annually. That was up about $2,500 from the previous year.  The figures reflect teachers and administrators who put in at least 30 years and worked outside of New York City.  Retirees from Western New York averaged $63,060. That placed WNY in the middle of the pack of nine regions around the state. Tops was Long Island, with an average pension of $94,108 per year. Pensions for[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 2

2021

Buffalo schools open with laptop shortage

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Some 31,000 Buffalo students are preparing to go back to school next week, but the district’s IT department isn’t quite ready for them. Fewer than half of the 15,000 laptops the district issued to students last year have been returned to the district to be serviced and made compatible with system updates. As a result, only a fraction of students will be fully equipped to jump into the school year. The rest may have to wait until October for functional devices. At the end of the school year the district asked families to return student devices like iPads, laptops and[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Nov 4

2015

Buffalo superintendent outlines reform agenda

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Buffalo Superintendent Kriner Cash said Wednesday he intends to be “very aggressive” pursuing reforms in Buffalo schools and indicated he’s prepared to place underperforming schools in receivership if he can’t bargain contract changes with the Buffalo Teachers Federation. Cash, on the job since the end of August, made the remarks during an interview with Jim Heaney during a luncheon at Osteria 166 sponsored by Investigative Post. Cash opened his remarks by both praising the city and saying he has found it parochial and resistant to change. He went on to outline an extensive, potentially exhausting agenda that he said needs[...]

Posted 9 years ago

May 13

2012

BTF President Phil Rumore interview

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Rumore fielded questions on a wide range of issues, ranging from teacher evaluations to contract negotiations to his future plans in the face of a call for his resignation from at least one state education official.

Posted 12 years ago
Investigative Post

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