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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M BTR AY 7-13, 2021 13
The COVID-19 crisis
has caused the greatest
economic crisis
since the Great Depression.
Working New Yorkers have
felt the pain day after day
and are wondering how to
plan a career and future for
their families during these
uncertain times.
The answer must come
from what has always worked
in times of economic crisis:
a mutual commitment from
government, labor leaders
and industry to bring opportunity
to working people.
Generations of New Yorkers
have risen up from poverty
to the middle class by working
for the City and for the
City’s vendors. This is especially
true with respect to
construction industry, where
City contracts have historically
created new opportunities
for work, and in doing
so, built the nation’s greatest
city from the ground up.
As New York City recovers
from this crisis, we’re
ready to do that again. The
City is now proposing to incorporate
into nearly every
contract –from paper and pencils
to software and medical
gear to buildings and ferries–
goals for vendors to hire lowincome
people, or people from
low-income neighborhoods
and public housing facilities.
This is not an ideological
pipedream. Indeed, this proposal
builds upon the historic
Project Labor Agreement,
which was negotiated
between the Building Trades
Council and the City of New
York and already establishes
some elements of this proposal
in the construction industry.
We now propose expanding
this model to a far broader
range of contracts beyond
the work we have done in the
construction industry.
This proposal will transform
our City. Estimates
show 40,000 jobs would be
reserved each year for lowincome
people and residents
of low-income neighborhoods
and public housing facilities.
Taxpayer dollars will
be used to help families and
neighborhoods emerge from
the pandemic stronger than
ever.
The best anti-poverty program
is a good job, and this
proposal, which requires approval
by the State Legislature,
will convert the billions
of dollars that the City
spends each year into a job
creation machine for poor
people and people from disadvantaged
areas. The COVID
crisis challenged us in every
way imaginable. But we will
come back stronger, if we focus
on making our economy
fairer and more inclusive for
working people.
J. Phillip Thompson is
the Deputy Mayor for Strategic
Policy Initiatives and
Gary LaBarbera is the President
of the Building and Construction
Trades Council of
Greater New York
LET US HEAR FROM YOU
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BY WILFRED VAN GORP
After canceling state standardized
tests in 2020 because
of the pandemic, New York is
once again testing children in
grades 3 through 8 in English
Language Arts (ELA) and math
this year.
This poses a unique set of
challenges both for students,
who have not taken these exams
in two years, and educators,
who must evaluate academic
performance by children
who have spent the last year
learning remotely or in hybrid
models, which do not provide
the same level of education as
full, in-person classrooms.
Previously, scores could be
easily compared year to year,
so individual students and
their families could measure
their progress and districts
could be assessed based on
how they compared across the
state and within regions.
However, in 2021, state standardized
tests are measuring
academic performance for
what is, essentially, a lost year.
Learning loss has been a
persistent problem during the
pandemic, with students falling
behind while trying to
take their classes over Zoom.
For students with special
needs, the loss has been particularly
severe, producing often
even greater lags.
Absent the usual support
they receive, from extra staff
and specialized instructors,
to individualized educational
plans, students with conditions
such as autism, ADHD,
dyslexia, and other learning
challenges, have been hardest
to reach with virtual teaching.
If their peers have missed out
on the full benefi ts of a year of
schooling, the loss to special
needs students may amount to
far more.
These students, in a sense,
will be further penalized by
exams which do not account
for this learning loss and yet
will still be measured by the
same yardstick.
For this reason, families
should approach these tests,
and the scores their children
receive, with a lot of caution.
At the same time, this unusual
testing period can provide
an opportunity.
Over the past 13 months, in
my own practice, I have seen
so many parents bring in their
children to be evaluated for
autism, ADHD and other conditions
because they noticed –
during remote, home learning
– signs that indicated there
may be a problem. Often, these
were signs they had not seen
before because normally their
children were in school, and
teachers had never brought
them to their attention.
But being home as a proxy
teacher or tutor for their child,
they saw up close the challenges
that their children confronted,
and the problem behaviors
or symptoms at hand.
This led directly to children
being diagnosed with
some of these disorders and
given the appropriate treatments.
We may see a similar phenomenon
emerge as a result of
this year’s state tests.
Learning disabilities and
other cognitive conditions
have been exacerbated by remote
schooling and we might
expect to see those signs evident
in the test scores.
The exams can act as an
early warning system that a
child needs help.
Ironically, in the case of
special needs children, the exams
this year might be better
at identifying these conditions
than previously.
School districts are not incentivized
to diagnose learning
problems in children because
it requires them to
provide extra support.
For this reason, parents
should pay extra attention to
these testing results if they
suspect their children of having
a learning disability or
other challenge.
Wilfred van Gorp, a New
York City-based psychologist,
is Director of the Cognitive Assessment
Group and past President
of the American Academy
of Neuropsychology
To create good
jobs in the
communities hit
hardest by COVID
Testing for a lost year
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