COVER STORY

EXCLUSIVE to education update An Interview With Teresa Heinz Kerry by Pola Rosen, Ed.D. READ INTERVIEW

The Road to Schools’ Renaissance
by Jill Levy, President,
Council of School Supervisors & Administrators
Reflecting on the current nationalh dialogue concerning mayoral control versus decentralized control of a school system, I think we, as a nation, may be focusing on the wrong topic if we really want to see a renaissance in our public schools. READ ARTICLE

Working Together for Kids
by Randi Weingarten, President, UFT
Imagine NASA excluding its rocket scientists when planning a mission to Mars, or a hospital not consulting doctors when drawing up plans to build a new intensive care facility.  It’s a good bet that problems will arise down the road. The same holds true for education. READ ARTICLE

EDITORIALS & LETTERS

Guest Editorial
Building a Brighter Future for Our Children
by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
Just a few weeks ago, the new school year began for New York City’s 1.1 million public school students. And this school year, we’re going to make sure that the youngsters who are preparing to enter the middle grades get the skills they need to do the work that’s expected of them. READ ARTICLE

Letter to the Editor - October 2004
READ LETTERS

SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS

An Interview with Arnette Crocker, Principal, Young Women’s Leadership School
The newly opened Young Women’s Leadership School, modeled on its successful predecessor in Harlem and founded by Ann Tisch, is a public, single gender school in the Bronx. Ed.
by Pola Rosen, Ed.D.
READ INTERVIEW

Teachers Network Unveils Support Program for New Teachers
by Joanna Leefer
Many new teachers report the first year of teaching is often an overwhelming and lonely experience. They find themselves caught in a labyrinth of paperwork during the day, and lesson preparations late into the night. READ ARTICLE

A Year of Change: Leadership in the Principal’s Office
by Gillian Granoff
A New PBS Series airing on October 10th was unveiled at channel 13’s headquarters shortly before this paper went to press. With Bill Baker, President of Channel 13 presiding and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein as well as Deputy Chancellor Carmen Fariña in attendance, three graduates of the unique initiative to train New York City’s principals were followed from summer training, to shadowing working principals, to finally assuming leadership of their own schools. READ ARTICLE

Intergenerational: An Occasional Series on Relationships Between Children and Grandparents
by Pola Rosen, Ed.D.
Leah Gittelman is a freshman at Bucknell. During her first week of classes she sent her grandmother, artist Marilyn Weiss in New York City, an essay she wrote on “something I respond to aesthetically.” “Hey Nana,” she wrote, “hope you enjoy it. I love you.” READ ARTICLE

Philanthropist Eli Broad Awards California School District $500,000
by Lucy Friedland
Shouts of jubilation erupted as billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad announced the winner of his annual scholarship competition in Los Angeles. The $500,000 award, presented to Garden Grove Unified, a school district just south of Los Angeles, is the top prize in a nationwide competition geared toward public schools that have exhibited significant improvement in student performance despite economic hardship, limited resources and urban blight. READ ARTICLE

Sir Edmund Hillary Brings Schools  to His Beloved Himalayas
by Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Living quietly and making his way in the family beekeeping business in Auckland, New Zealand, but his brain always abuzz with thoughts about adventure, young Edmund Hillary could only dream of heroic conquests, but that was just fine for him, he recalled years later. READ ARTICLE

The Pros and Cons of 5th Grade Promotion
Against Testing and Retention
Advocates for Children and other experts have asked for a withdrawal of the proposal to retain 5th grade students on the basis of a single test score. READ ARTICLE

The Panel for Education Policy Approves End to 5th Grade Social Promotion
by Mayor Michael Bloomberg
I would like to thank the Panel for Education Policy for approving our plan to eliminate social promotion in the 5th grade. READ ARTICLE

COLLEGES & GRAD SCHOOLS

Drew Barrymore Draws Crowd at Barnard for Her Film on Voting
by Dorothy Davis
Youth voting has been a hot issue this campaign season.  Since only 37 percent of 18--24 year olds voted in 2000, groups to register them have sprung up around the nation. But most of those we spoke to in the capacity crowd at Barnard College one recent Sunday evening to preview Drew Barrymore’s film on the importance of voting said they came to see Drew Barrymore. READ ARTICLE

Bank Street Provides Leadership for Inner City Teens: Series Reflect On Being Black in America
by Sybil Maimin
Ellis Cose launched a new speaker series for participants in I-LEAD, the rigorous academic and leadership enrichment program for inner city teens at Bank Street College of Education, with a talk on his latest book, The Envy of the World: On Being Black in America. The book’s title, he explains, is meant to be ironic and captures the sentiment in Toni Morison’s Sula that many whites admire black style, music, and athletic ability and want to be like us” but do not want to “be us.” READ ARTICLE

CUNY Presents a Moving Tribute to Ground Zero
by Gillian Granoff
Recently, Return to Ground Zero: Images of Pain and Hope was on exhibit at the City University of New York Graduate Center. The exhibition is a recollection of thoughts, emotions, and reactions of survivors of September 11. READ ARTICLE

METROBeat

Homeless Prevention Programs for At-Risk Families
by Matilda  Raffa Cuomo and Tom Hameline, Ph.D.
New York City spends millions of dollars every year to provide transitional housing and supportive services to thousands of homeless families and individual adults. Each month, the city shelters almost 9,000 families (including 15,000 children) and over 8,000 single adults. READ ARTICLE

Education Through the Libertarian Lens
by Richard Campagna
I appreciate the opportunity to reflect and comment upon the status of education in America and particularly the effect of the federal government’s involvement in education. Certainly, with the current election pending, it is valuable for voters to understand how politics and governments have impacted their children’s educational choices. READ ARTICLE

SPECIAL EDUCATION

The Misunderstanding of Dyslexia
by Sally Shaywitz, M.D.
Recently I heard that a friend’s brother—a graduate of a competitive college with an MBA working for a business firm—was demoted once he told his superiors he was dyslexic. As unbelievable as this may seem in the 21st Century, such lack of understanding of dyslexia and the unfounded stigma associated with it remain. READ ARTICLE

TECHNOLOGY & EDUCATION

Product Review:
Layton Technology’s Audit Wizard
by Mitchell Levine
Longtime readers of Education Update’s Technology and Education section are undoubtedly aware of the almost $1.1 billion the New York City school system has spent on technology and technology education. Despite that wise investment, one thing that‘s unfortunately remained a limited resource is IT support. READ REVIEW

Product Review:
The MacCase MackPack Combo
by Mitchell Levine
The largest deployment of education technology resources in the history of our school system will occur when the New York City Department of Education completes its stated goal of finally reaching the “one-to-one computing standard” in the hopefully near future. READ REVIEW

BOOKS

Review of PI–A Biography of the World’s Most Mysterious Number by Alfred S. Posamentier & Ingmar Lehmann
by Merri Rosenberg
“Can I read that when you’ve finished?” my husband asked, after circling around me in my recliner as I read this book this past weekend. Normally, my book reviewing assignments don’t interest him in the slightest. READ REVIEW

CAREERS

Paleontologist Mark A. Norell: Remains Make His Day
by Jan Aaron
Even as a kid, Mark A. Norell was a collector. “I went for bugs, rocks, even old bottles,” he said, during an interview in his spacious office at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Now, as chairman and curator of AMNH’s Division of Paleontology, Dr. Norell specializes in researching the evolutionary relationship between small meat-eating dinosaurs and present-day birds. READ ARTICLE

MUSIC, ART & DANCE

Educating the Imagination
by Scott-Noppe Brandon
During my vacation this past summer I read the final report of The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States, or as it is generally known, the 9/11 Commission Report. I felt compelled to read it for several reasons besides the obvious reasons of a concerned citizen. READ ARTICLE

Strings of Glory: Pablo Casals To Be Honored at the 92nd Street Y
by Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Thirty one years to the month since he died in 1973 at the age of 97, the incomparable musician Pablo Casals will be back on the radar screen (he’s never been off for the professionals), when the 92nd Street Y presents Pablo Casals, Artist of Conscience: A Homage to the Great Cellist and Humanitarian. READ ARTICLE

NEW JERSEY NEWS

Nobelist Shimon Peres At Seton Hall University
Recently, Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, received an honorary degree conferral and addressed the Seton Hall community as part of the Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations World Leaders Forum. READ ARTICLE