What happens now to students in New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic?
Here is an open letter to Mayor DeBlasio and Chancellor Carranza from the city’s leading advocates for children:
April 24, 2020
Dear Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza,
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the ugliest inequities in our society into the glaring light for all to see. We must not continue the same system that resulted in these inequities, but must instead fundamentally change the way we think about our education, our society, and the world. In addition to the enormous number of lives lost and many more having fallen ill, New York City’s most vulnerable families and communities are suffering the ripple effect of harm caused by decades of segregation and systemic disinvestment in historically marginalized communities. Schools, which have increasingly carried the burden of serving the basic needs of families, have seen perhaps the most intense upheaval in day to day practices. This upheaval has been particularly hard on our most marginalized communities: multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and those living with housing instability.
The transition to “remote learning” has exposed and exacerbated existing gaps in access and opportunity for students across New York City. The Department Of Education launched an extensive effort to get devices and wifi access to every student, yet the remaining technical disparities alone warrant complete restructuring of the way students are evaluated towards a more humane grading system. To adhere to traditional grading at this moment would only serve to perpetuate the real impacts of pandemic-related stress, racial and economic disparities, and the fact that most teachers were not and still are not adequately prepared to provide high-quality instruction remotely.
Clearly, we are at a moment of global and local transformation. We need to respond and transform as well—by embracing responsive teaching and grading that honors and embodies the principles of equity and excellence as espoused by the DOE. A system-wide policy on grading and promotion grounded in equity and humanity is critical.
To that end, we propose the following for all NYC district schools in the 2019-20 school year and students who are alternately assessed in the 2020-21 school year:
Instruction during the school shutdown should be built around social cohesion, critical consciousness, social-emotional support, belonging, inclusion, and wellness.
Schools provide a responsive curriculum with space for students to reflect on their current reality. Teachers will co-develop learning targets/goals with students and families and pathways to achieve those goals through individualized learning plans. These plans will be prioritized for vulnerable students for next school year, based on core competencies and the four principles outlined in NYSED CRSE framework. All students on alternate assessment must be re-evaluated when schools reopen next year.
2. All seniors graduate.
Provide post-graduation and college transition support and planning for graduating seniors. Provide summer instruction to seniors who need to complete work from prior terms so they can graduate in August. Allow 21-year-old students who have not met graduation requirements to return to high school for the 2020-21 school year.
3. All students are promoted to the next grade.
Teachers identify essential skills and knowledge from their 2019-20 courses to be spiraled into the next level course/grade. DOE provides resources and a platform for summer learning courses that is accessible to all students to ensure continuity of learning. Schools conduct diagnostic assessments in person and when it is safe to do so to determine students’ progress, and plan curriculum and supports accordingly. Diagnostic test results should not be used as a tracking function in which vulnerable students are subjugated and inequalities are further exacerbated. This policy will not supersede individual parent choices to hold students back.
4. All elementary school students receive narrative reports only for the marking period (no grades).
Narrative reports communicate important information to students, families and next year’s teachers while maintaining a focus on learning.
5. All middle and high school students receive full credit for the marking period.
Assessment of assignments during remote learning is based on mastery of core competencies, rather than on compliance/completion factors. Students receive intensive supports over the summer and next school year to progress academically.
We believe quickly resolving the promotion and grading policies can help educators and the DOE focus on responding to the immediate needs of students and investing in long term strategies to support students in the coming school year. Moving forward, we hope we can deepen the conversation on what the purpose of schooling and education should be, what we should value and elevate, what we can eliminate, and how to create a school system that is authentically rooted in social justice values. This pandemic is an opportunity to dismantle systems of oppression and build a society that honors our collective humanity. We look forward to creating this school system with you.
cc: L. Chen, Chief Academic Officer
J. Williams, Public Advocate
C. Johnson, Speaker, City Council
Signed by: (organizational affiliation for identification purposes only):
Mark Treyger, Chair, City Council Education Committee
Advocates for Children New York City
Alliance for Quality Education (AQE)
Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC)
Class Size Matters
Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)
D30 Equity Now
El Puente
Good Shepherd Services
Immigrant Social Services (ISS)
INCLUDEnyc
IntegrateNYC
Literacy Trust
Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative (EJ-ROC) at NYU Metro Center
Masa
Mekong NYC
MinKwon Center for Community Action
New Settlement Parent Action Committee (PAC)
New York Immigration Coalition
NYC Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ)
Parents Supporting Parents
Peer Health Exchange New York City
Read Alliance
South Asian Youth Action (SAYA)
The Child Center of NY
YVote/Next Generation Politics
Shannon R. Waite, PEP Mayoral Appointee
Shino Tanikawa, CEC 2
Ushma Neill, CEC 2
Robin Broshi, CEC 2
Emily Hellstrom, CEC 2, Chair Students with Disabilities Committee
Kaliris Y. Salas-Ramirez, CEC 4
Pamela Stewart, President CEC 5
Ayishah Irvin, CEC 5
Tanesha Grant, CEC 5
Aide Zainos, President, CEC 9
Thomas Sheppard, CEC 11
Ayanna Behin, President CEC 13
Tajh Sutton, President CEC 14
Yuli Hsu CEC 14 Vice President
Camille Casaretti, President CEC 15
Antonia Ferraro Co-Vice President CEC15
Nequan McLean, President, CEC 16
Erika Nicole Kendall, President CEC 17
Jessica Byrne, President CEC 22
Tazin Azad, CEC 22, Diversity and Cultural Inclusion Committee Co-Chair
Jonathan Greenberg, CEC 30
Martha Bayona, CEC 32
Amy Ming Tsai, CCD75
Grisel Cardona, CCD75
Sonal Patel, D2 parent, SLT member at PS 11
Mar Fitzgerald, D2 Parent Leader
Patricia Laraia, D2 Parent Leader
Nina Miller, D2 Parent Leader
Akeela Azcuy, D2 Parent Leader
Nina Miller, D2 Parent Leader
Cheryl Wu, D2 Parent Leader
Jeannine Kiely, D2 Parent Leader
Atina Bazin, D28 Parent Leader
Rashida Harris, D4 Parent Leader
Amy Hsin, Associate Professor of Sociology, Queens College, CUNY
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
What an incredibly thoughtful and common sense piece.
As for guiding principles, right now equity and access are critical. Since the access-divide is now cavernous, reaching every students someway, somehow is a must and we must celebrate even the smallest first step in participation at home.
We are in this for the long haul. Possibly in total come September or some hybrid version of bricks and mortar and learning at home – with or completely without technology.
We are starting from square one with many families – just like the need for Parents as Teachers and other birth-to-five make home a place of play and learning (and vocabulary). Taking the pressure off now – and putting aside words like “accountability” “data, data, data” “grades” “retention” and (worksheets) is essential.
It is a forced opportunity to reform reform.
It’s probably just as well that nobody bothered to ask the overwhelming majority of NYC public school parents their views on this, since very few would have any idea what it means.
“Instruction during the school shutdown should be built around social cohesion, critical consciousness, social-emotional support, belonging, inclusion, and wellness. Schools provide a responsive curriculum with space for students to reflect on their current reality. Teachers will co-develop learning targets/goals with students and families and pathways to achieve those goals through individualized learning plans. These plans will be prioritized for vulnerable students for next school year, based on core competencies and the four principles outlined in NYSED CRSE framework.”
“Teachers will co-develop learning targets/goals with students and families and pathways to achieve those goals through individualized learning plans.”
Yep, plenty of time for teachers who have, oh, 40, 80, 10, 120, 150 students to do so. . . as long as those teachers don’t eat, sleep, shower or any of those other things that just might be important in life and living.
The “individualized learning plans” are part of a system of control in which the parents, but more importantly, the students are viewed as being deficient in some way so that they need to be cured/fixed of that deficiency. To hell with their own aspirations. It is a medical model applied to the teaching and learning process and it is a false way of interpreting what the teaching and learning process is about.
But, but, but we [teachers] need to be seen as “professionals” like a doctor, diagnosing and curing supposed ills of learning and then, maybe just maybe we’ll be paid like them.
I expressed my desire to have NYC high schools and middle schools use only pass/no pass grading for classes.
That is actually something that parents have debated.
But reading this letter, I still have no idea if the signers of the letter support having only pass/no pass, no grades at all (i.e., all passing) or if it is up to each school to decide and letter and number grades can still be used? (The absurdity of a student at home receiving a number grade of 99 or 95 or 88 decided by their physical education teacher boggles my mind.)
Can anyone interpret what this letter says about grades for middle and high school students?
And if the signers aren’t making a clear recommendation, how do they expect the DOE to figure it out? Just let each school do whatever they want?
It is gibberish. And no need to ask anyone here, you and I are the only NYC public school parents among the commenters here.
Are we really the only ones? I thought there were a few more.
Aside from some of the jargon, is your take on this that the letter doesn’t make any recommendation about grading policy for middle and high schools except that all students would move to the next grade? Since I prefer a pass/no pass grading policy for each course, for the 2nd semester, I’m disappointed that the letter doesn’t address it. Maybe that’s a third rail they don’t want to touch!
Right, I see no position on grading policy for those levels.
How do we know you are public school parents? You don’t even use your names. I am a public school parent and not sure why you are confused.
Young children in elementary school get reports instead of grades.
Middle and high school students pass for the marking period – no grades needed. Assuming they passed the first marking period of spring semester, they will also pass the second marking period which is basically the entire period of remote learning. They can then receive credit for the class. So seniors can graduate and others can be promoted to the next grade.
All elementary school students receive narrative reports only for the marking period (no grades).
All middle and high school students receive full credit for the marking period.
Michele Hamilton,
There is no particular reason for you to believe I am a public school parent in NYC, but I have never claimed to represent anyone but myself – I’ve never held myself as a spokesperson for all public school parents. I’ve posted on this blog for quite a long time.
FLERP! and I disagree on many issues, but I don’t have any reason to doubt that FLERP! (who has also posted on the blog a long time) is a public school parent, too. There is simply nothing to be gained by pretending to be public school parents when we are not in what we post. I’m often critical of certain charters and if I didn’t believe in honesty, my posts would carry more weight if I pretended to be a charter school parent. I am a public school parent who supports public education and being honest about that allows people to know my pro-public school bias.
I asked a question because the letter was not clear on that. High School and Middle School students could both be automatically advanced to the next grade and receive a number grade, as the two things are not mutually exclusive. I’m in favor of pass/no pass. As you may know, not passing a class or two in high school doesn’t necessarily prevent a student from being in the next grade. But clearly there are subjects like math or science where sometimes foundational knowledge are needed to take the next level course, and it would make no sense for students who were not able to get a basic proficiency in the foundational course to be expected to take the next level one. But that is no different than a 4 year college, where it doesn’t matter whether a student takes a class his first, second or third year but that class would be needed before taking a higher level class that builds on what is learned in the earlier class. High school classes could be considered that way, too, and there would be no failure attached to taking the class a year later if – during these stressful times – a student was not able to learn a passing level of knowledge allowing him to move on to a higher level class.
Thank you for clarifying what you think the letter intended.
Hey I wanna play. (Does it count if you once had kids in a NYC Montessori PreK? 😉 )
Maybe I’m getting quarantine-punchy, but doesn’t “space for students to reflect on their current reality” sound like a padded cell?
I would just love to never have to read the phrase “This pandemic is an opportunity” ever again. But I guess we’re heading into the eye of the storm and we’ll be seeing that more and more.
Oh, it’s an opportunity no doubt. For those with the money to buy up more and more resources (meaning the little gal/guy loses out bigtime) so that after the current depression passes fewer will be a lot better off and many will be worse off.
I’m not for pandemic opportunism, but I am all for pandemic lesson learning.
Unfairness is being exposed, and it must be addressed. It would be wrong to hold back students or deny them opportunities because their schools fled online to create safe distance. Just as people who lost their jobs and/or medical insurance should be given back their jobs and insurance, students who lost access to their classrooms should be given promotion to the next grade, non-punitive report cards, and diplomas if they are seniors. Selective schools can be a little more inclusive and less selective for one year. Giving grades in spring, 2020 is a cruel prank.
So the “opportunity” phrase was not the best word choice. Sorry. I understand.
Try it this way – – if we learn nothing from any situation or crisis then we are no better than the fools trying to manage them without a clue – especially this one. Wars won decades ago cost thousands of lives to protect the nation and they sparked innovation and technology.
Katrina was an opportunity or pick your word – word choice aside, it exposed 21st century racism on the national news (and before fox went all conspiracy theory on everything) to a national audience – – a preventable death toll – and yet it was a situation form which we should have learned and constructed a means to restructure public education with equity and access for more children – and instead we saw the demise of schools in the name of “reform.”
As for the language of the letter – of course it’s jargon filled – it was written for educators. Let’s hope parents not in one of those many organizations are writing their own stories and suggestions.
And, only public school commenters here? Does that dismiss everyone else?
There is no precedent for what our schools and the kids and teachers in them have experienced this spring nor for what will happen in the next school year. We should not pretend to go about business as usual.
Whenever classes resume – hopefully – in the fall, I think it would be best for kids and teachers to return to the classrooms they had to suddenly abandon. (Let’s make an exception for seniors, unless there are some who wish to return to their schools, but that ought to be optional, not a requisite.) Especially in our hardest hit cities, where public schools are alway under-resourced, everyone, kids and grownups, will be trying to recover from severe disruption and trauma. Resuming the disrupted school year will create some stability by a return to familiar people, routines and spaces. The grownups will need their network of colleagues too, as they carry the burden of their own losses and help students through theirs. Let teachers have some time to have eyes on kids and figure out what emotional supports are needed in addition to assessing who is where academically. This will be a “Maslow before Bloom” moment for every child.
Then in perhaps November, or maybe January, begin the next school year. At that time grades for SY 2019-20 can be given, if they must. Let kindergartners begin their first year at that time too. Ban testing for SY 2020-21 because it will be even more invalid than usual; perhaps we can finally extinguish it forever. We’ll save the test prepping and test administration that is costly both in terms of time and money. Redirect those funds away from Pearson et al into the classrooms to reduce class size. Doing so will allow teachers to move ahead more quickly in terms of academics, and to hire support personnel to deal with ongoing issues of trauma reflected in our schools.
There will always be an asterisk attached to education during the pandemic. Since that’s true, let’s focus on how to best support our children at a time of enormous loss and fear.