Education
Porter helps welcome
Lower East Side kids back
from remote learning
Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter greets a P.S. 064 Robert Simon student as
children return to school on the Lower East Side, on April 26, 2021.
BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
Monday marked another fi rst day
of school for the New York City
public school system as roughly
51,000 children previously enrolled in
remote learning returned to physical
classrooms.
Students trickling back into classrooms
were the latest cohort to enroll in the city’s
blended learning, where students can take
classes both remotely and in-person inside
of school buildings, during the most recent
“opt-in” window.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor
Meisha Ross Porter opened a new
enrollment window in March after the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
changed their social distancing guidelines
for schools to allow students to sit three feet
apart in classrooms instead of six.
To celebrate another fi rst day of inperson
classes, Porter greeted students
outside of P.S. 64 on the Lower East Side.
“Nothing replaces the power of being
in-person and getting hands-on support,”
Porter said in Tweet.
The return to physical classrooms represents
a step towards normalcy for many
students who have cooped indoors for over
a year due to the pandemic.
Jonathan Schneiderman, a senior at
Stuyvesant High School, was happy to fi -
nally return to in-person classes last month
with the city reached a major milestone
and reopened high schools in late March
ANDREW KELLY
after the second system-wide shutdown in
November.
“I felt like school was back,” said Schneiderman.
Stuyvesant students are lucky in students
are offered in-person classes fi ve days
a week. He didn’t realize how excited he was
to return back to a more normal in-person
school schedule until he realized during his
commute he was running late for classes on
the fi rst day back and was actually excited to
be “properly” late to school. Something that
had not experienced in over a year.
“I’ve shown up to class a minute later
than I was supposed to because I’ve lost
track of time or because of having problems
with Zoom,” he said. “But I haven’t been
late because I failed a race against time…
one of those is very active and one is not
and I was having the one that is active…
you don’t know what you have lost until
you have it back.”
Although the number of blended learning
students has grown, the majority of
public school students have not returned
to a physical classroom this year. About
650,000 out of the city’s over one million
public school students are still learning
completely remotely.
Mayor de Blasio plans on getting rid of
blended learning this upcoming fall and instead
only offer families full-time in-person
or remote options. But while de Blasio has
repeatedly pushed the positives of in-person
learning and said most families want their
students to return to live classes as soon
as possible a number of families still fear
sending their children back into buildings.
HIGHER ED TODAY
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In the world of higher ed, May 1 is
National College Decision Day – the traditional
deadline for high school seniors
to commit to a school for the fall. Nowadays
many colleges have flexible calendars
that make it more of a symbolic
date. Still, for students and their families
this is a time of year that signals
propitious decisions and great expectations,
along with high hopes and the
inevitable degree of apprehension. The
moment in which we find ourselves this
year only heightens those emotions.
Throughout my career as a college
professor and president and now as
CUNY’s chancellor, I’ve always appreciated
the energy and sense of anticipation
that drives students’ transitions.
From the acceptance letter to the welcome
to-campus orientation to the first
day of classes, the journey holds great
promise, but it can also be fraught with
hesitation, especially for students who
will be the first in their families to attend
college. At CUNY, those first-generation
students make up nearly half
our students.
Having worked with many of these
incoming students and their parents
over the years, I’ve been inspired by
their commitment to get to college and
by their aspirations for completing their
education and pursuing their dreams.
But I’ve also been cognizant of how
daunting it all can be, and the reality
that so many factors can pose obstacles,
impede the progress and even prevent
many of those students from making it
to the first day.
That’s why we don’t take the time between
May and September for granted.
Over the past few years, CUNY has paid
increasingly closer attention to helping
admitted students navigate the transition
and to providing a range of support
so they’re ready, willing and able to begin
classes in September.
This year, as we consider the stillopen
questions of when, how and to
what extent we can safely return to our
campuses, incoming students will have
corresponding questions and concerns.
Will remote or hybrid classes in college,
for instance, be the same as they have
been in high school? So the initiatives
we’ve developed to connect with admitted
students will be more important
than ever.
Last summer, we expanded our innovative
College Bridge for All program
to offer every graduating senior in New
York City public high schools support in
their transition to college. The program,
a collaboration with the Department of
Education and supported by grants from
Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Carroll
and Milton Petrie Foundation, trained and
paid about 200 CUNY students to be “nearpeer”
coaches for graduating seniors. The
CUNY coaches offered help with all kinds
of things: Academic planning, FAFSA
filing, adapting to online classes, accessing
programs like CUNY Start and much
more. We found that the program had a
positive impact on enrollment in a year
when enrollment was down. The expansion
couldn’t have been better timed, and
we’re gearing up for another successful
summer for College Bridge.
This year we’re also launching the
CUNY Recovery Corps, a special summer
youth employment program in partnership
with the city that will hire thousands
of CUNY students, including 2,000
who will be part of what we’re calling the
CUNY Welcome Corps. They’ll lead orientation
activities and social events, some
virtual and some in person, for new students
on every CUNY campus.
It’s all part of our determination to
support this year’s incoming students
and welcome them with an even bigger
embrace.
Even in times of uncertainty, I try to
remember that higher education has the
power and potential to transform lives.
Perhaps that is truer now than ever, as we
emerge from this tumultuous year and a
half as a community, a city and a country.
And that’s why National College Decision
Day this year has even greater significance.
In fact, I see this time as an inflection
point in CUNY’s historical commitment
to advancing access and opportunity
for all New Yorkers. The high school seniors
who are making their decisions this
month, and anticipating their arrival on
CUNY campuses come August, have a lot
to look forward to.
To every student out there making
their decision and every parent and
grandparent, hermana and tía who helped
them get to this point and proudly share
in the excitement of seeing them take the
first steps to a brighter future, congratulations.
This, too, is your accomplishment.
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16 April 29, 2021 Schneps Media