This morning I was a guest on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC in New York, along with Helen Zelon, the author of a new report in City Limits magazine taking a skeptical view of the Obama Administration’s plans to bring the Harlem Children’s Zone model to other cities. (The report isn’t online yet, but it should be posted on the City Limits web site soon.) There is audio, along with comments from listeners, on the WNYC web site, here.
Posts Tagged ‘New York City’
Brian Lehrer show
Monday, February 8th, 2010WNYC report
Saturday, November 14th, 2009Beth Fertig at WNYC reports on this week’s conference on replicating the Harlem Children’s Zone model. In an accompanying blog post, she quotes Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, on whether communities applying for Promise Neighborhood grants need to be “shovel-ready” to have a shot at federal support:
These are scarce resources and there’s tremendous interest out there. And I think this work has to continue whether schools and neighborhoods and communities get funded or not. But we want to invest in those places that have the capacity to deliver dramatically better results for children. So this is not just about a good idea, it’s not just about good will or good intentions. We want to put lots of dollars, millions and millions of dollars behind those places that have the capacity, the political will, the courage and the plan to dramatically improve student outcomes.
Promise Neighborhood news
Thursday, October 1st, 2009As preparations continue for the Harlem Children Zone’s November conference on replicating the HCZ model, news from New York City and Chicago on plans to apply for President Obama’s proposed Promise Neighborhood program.
According to NY1, Mayor Bloomberg, speaking at a charter-school anniversary in Harlem, announced that his administration is “pushing to use part of President Barack Obama’s ‘Promise Neighborhoods’ funds for the creation of two new Children’s Zones, one in Brooklyn and one in the South Bronx.”
Meanwhile, Catalyst Notebook, a Chicago schools blog, reports that
Three Chicago neighborhoods are taking the first steps toward potential replication of the Harlem Children’s Zone, the highly-praised program that provides education and social support to poor children and families in Central Harlem.
Representatives from social service agencies in Chicago Lawn, Logan Square and Woodlawn will travel to New York City in the coming weeks to attend a multi-day conference and a ‘practitioner’s institute’ for organizations that are interested in launching Promise Neighborhoods, an initiative of the Obama Administration modeled on the Children’s Zone.
Dwyer Center event
Monday, September 28th, 2009On Thursday, October 8, at 6 p.m., I’ll be answering questions and meeting readers at a reception at the Dwyer Cultural Center in Harlem to celebrate the release of the paperback edition of Whatever It Takes. The Dwyer center is located at 258 St. Nicholas Avenue, at 123rd Street. Here’s the announcement.
At Columbia J-School
Monday, March 23rd, 2009At LynNell Hancock’s Covering Education Seminar at the Columbia University School of Journalism, talking about the experience of reporting at the Promise Academy middle school. Video by Maura Walz.
Columbia J-School
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
One student’s account of my recent visit to LynNell Hancock’s Covering Education seminar at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Education Equity Conference Video
Thursday, December 18th, 2008Now online: video of my talk in November at the Campaign for Educational Equity symposium, at Teachers College in New York City.
Inside Schools
Friday, December 5th, 2008Insideschools.org, “an independent, not-for-profit website devoted to informing parents, teachers, and students about New York City public schools,” has started an online book club. The first book under discussion is Whatever It Takes.
Paul Tough, who writes about education for the New York Times Magazine, tackles hefty social science quandaries – like what causes poverty and how it can be alleviated — within the narrative of Geoffrey Canada’s dramatic, ongoing struggle to change the lives of Harlem’s children. … After five years of reporting, Tough describes Canada’s venture – the Harlem Children’s Zone – through the stories of the people who work for and are served by the project, which includes two charter schools. Tough also explains the research behind anti-poverty efforts, relating it to the sometimes nail-biting, sometimes heartbreaking, yet surprisingly hopeful story of Canada’s work.
Teachers College Report
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008On the Teachers College website, a report on last Monday’s Campaign for Educational Equity symposium:
“My own journalistic investigation into the questions of poverty and education started a little more than five years ago, not far from here, when I first visited [HCZ Founder] Geoffrey Canada,” Paul Tough, an editor at The New York Times Magazine, told an audience at Teachers College’s fourth annual Symposium on Education Equity in November. “By the end of our first conversation, I knew I wanted to write an article about Geoff’s work, and by the time that article came out in The New York Times Magazine in 2004, I knew I wanted to go further and write a book.”
Tough, author of the recently published Whatever It Takes:Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America, concluded that “a true solution to the problem of underachievement in inner-city schools is going to require more nurturing families and safer neighborhoods, as well as better teachers and more accountable schools. It’s not only possible to fix both problems at the same time, it’s essential.”
Harlem Event
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Also on Monday, Geoffrey Canada and I will be talking about Whatever It Takes and the Harlem Children’s Zone at an event sponsored by HCZ and the Hue-Man Bookstore. Details above.