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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, APRIL 1-7, 2022 BXR
Charter School Guide
NYC charter schools emerge as new
opportunity for diverse, inclusive education
BY ISABEL SONG BEER
With 272 charter schools
throughout the five boroughs of
New York City, many parents are
wondering what exactly makes
a charter school different from a
more traditional public school.
If there are drastic differences or
benefits between public and charter
schools that suit their children’s
learning styles, is it a good idea to
make the switch? And what exactly
is a charter school?
According to the National Alliance
for Public Charter Schools,
charter schools receive government
funding but operate outside the previously
established school system in
the area where the charter school is
physically located. They maintain
independent operation from traditional
school districts, giving them
freedom “to design classrooms that
meet the students’ needs.”
The New York State Education
Department (NYSED) reports that
approximately 145,000 NYC students
are enrolled in charter schools –
roughly 14% of all NYC students.
Charter schools in NYC also encourage
a diverse enrollment of students.
According to the NYSED, in
the 2020-21 school year half of the
student body in the NYC charter
school system identified as Black
and 40% as Latinx. Additionally,
79% of charter school students are
economically challenged, 8% are
multilingual and 9.3% live in temporary
housing.
“Charter schools employ many
many Black and Latinx educators,”
said James Merriman the CEO of
NYC’s Charter school system on
Jan. 13. “I think increasingly we
are having a ‘moment’, and I think
people are beginning to realize
that while it is fine to have a white
teacher and white administrators, it
is so important that Black students
see people like them in positions
of leadership in front of the classroom,
who understand some of the
struggles that kids come into school
with.”
Since charter schools do not operate
in any of NYC’s established
public school systems, they are able
to implement certain rules and regulations
that other public schools in
the area are not – especially COVIDrelated
protocol.
“Charters are overseen by an independent
board of trustees, which
itself is overseen usually by one of
three entities in New York City – either
by the board of education, by the
NYS education department Board
of Regions and also by the Charter
School Institute of the SUNY Trustees,”
said Merriman.
Because of this, charter schools
are not governed by the NYC Schools
Chancellor or the Department of Education,
and each school is able to
make independent decisions regarding
the safety of their students as
the COVID-19 pandemic continues
to spread.
“Charter schools have to follow
the same health and safety regulations
that district schools do,” said
Merriman. “They follow what the
department of health NYC and NYS
tell them to do in terms of testing,
vaccination. social distancing. But
on the other hand, they can also
make their own decisions about
whether it makes more sense to go
virtual. Many of the charters – not
all – stayed open, but many decided
that they would hold the first two
weeks of class virtually.”
Charter schools are designed to
accommodate the individual learning
needs of students, and this includes
students in need of special
education.
“At the NYC Charter School Center
we actually have a collaborative
which almost every charter school
belongs to better provide special education,”
said Merriman. “Providing
special education well is very
very difficult, but charter schools
are stepping up to that and have basically
the same rates of students
who are identified as needing special
education as those in district
schools.”
With five more charter schools
being planned to open in the coming
year, it is clear that the popularity of
charters is increasing.
“We are trying to make sure students
actually get the services they
need, and beyond that succeed as
we hope all students do,” said Merriman.
3 ways educators can use
newspapers in the classroom
The COVID-19 pandemic
had a profound impact on
communities across the
globe. No individual, household
or industry was unaffected
by the pandemic,
and the ripple effects of the
virus may be felt for years
to come. Though many effects
of the pandemic have
been devastating, one unforeseen
and potentially
positive consequence of the
spread of COVID-19 was a
growing recognition of the
invaluable role played by local
newspapers.
Responses to the virus
and strategies regarding
how to combat it varied
greatly, and local newspapers
were a go-to resource
for citizens who wanted to
learn about rules and regulations
in their towns. For
example, in England the
Bishop’s Stortford Independent,
a local weekly paper
in Hertfordshire, experienced
a significant monthly
web audience growth during
the pandemic.
Prior to the global outbreak
in January 2020, the
paper’s monthly web audience
was 260,000. By October,
that number had spiked
to 360,000, reflecting a growing
need for local news outlets
as readers across the
globe sought to learn about
the pandemic within their
own communities and how
local officials were responding
to the threat posed by
COVID-19. If the pandemic
illustrated the vital role local
newspapers can play,
it’s important that readers
recognize that role won’t
be any less valuable when
COVID-19 is in the world’s
rearview mirror.
Educators can help the
next generation of readers
recognize the importance
of local newspapers by taking
various steps to incorporate
newspapers into
their lessons.
1. Employ newspapers
when teaching current
events.
Everyone was directly
affected by the COVID-19
virus, making the story
of the pandemic one of the
most unique in modern history.
Though children are
often sheltered from global
news stories about conflicts
or economic crises, no such
sheltering was possible during
the pandemic, as kids
were forced to learn from
home and confront life with
little or no access to extracurricular
activities. Educators
can show how local
newspapers reported on the
pandemic when teaching
current events, using that
example as the foundation
for teaching current events
in the future.
2. Utilize the newspapers
when teaching ESL.
Students who do not
speak English at home or as
their primary language can
benefit greatly from their
local newspapers. It might
be easy to learn how to say
certain words in English,
but reading them in a newspaper
gives ESL students
a chance to see the words
they’ve learned in context.
And because local newspapers
feature sections on
everything from news to
sports to entertainment,
ESL students are sure to
find a few articles that appeal
to their existing interests.
3. Use newspapers to encourage
a love of reading.
Just like ESL students
are bound to find something
that interests them in the local
newspapers, their English
speaking classmates
are sure to find a recap of
their favorite team’s most
recent game or a review of
the latest superhero movie
or a local news story about
their town to pique their
interest. Students may not
realize it, but they’re learning
when reading such stories
by developing their
vocabularies, fine tuning
their comprehension skills
and catching up on current
events. The valuable role
played by local newspapers
was on display during the
pandemic. That role won’t
be any less valuable in a
post-pandemic world, and
it’s a lesson teachers can apply
in