Miseducation: Recent Episodes
The Bell
New York City is home to the nation’s most segregated school system, a fact that surprises those who think of the Big Apple as a progressive beacon. Deep inequities exist at every level of the NYC school system. We think more people should know about them and push to fix them.
That's why, each semester, we bring together a team of high school interns from across the school system to tell important stories from the perspective of the real experts: students.
Miseducation is a program of The Bell. For more, visit bellvoices.org/podcast and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @miseducationpod.
By Autumn Wynn
In New York City schools, restorative justice – or RJ – has been around for almost a decade. It’s a way to repair harm by bringing together the person who caused it, the person affected, and the community.
Restorative justice circles are designed to help students heal, take accountability, and build stronger communities, but too often they feel like just another routine. Most RJ schools rely on circles — structured conversations that serve three tiers: Tier 1 community-building before harm occurs; Tier 2 conflict resolution when harm happens; and Tier 3 reintegration after healing. At my Brooklyn high school, we sit in a circle twice a week, yet phones stay out and eyes glaze over. Far from the healing practice they’re meant to be, these sessions can become checkbox exercises.
As a peer mediator and RJ leader, I’ve seen both their promise and their pitfalls. Black students are suspended 3.4 times more than their white peers. Studies show that even minor suspensions can derail academic achievement for years. A 2022 citywide study found that some students “do not care, do not pay attention, or fall asleep during circle”. I see my peers doing the same. So I started asking: What would it actually take to make it work? And how should we reassess success — beyond suspension rates — to include trust, student voice, and genuine community healing?
Join me as I dig into the gap between adult-led and student-led circles, sit down with restorative justice facilitator Javon Lomax, and make the case that real healing demands students, not just staff, at the forefront.
This is a video-first episode. You can watch it now on Youtube.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
What is happening with the youth vote during this year’s mayoral race? Are New York City’s young people tuning in? Are the candidates reaching out to young voters? And why hasn’t education been a centerpiece of the mayor’s race so far?
Producers Jojo Fofana, a senior at Fordham High School for the Arts, and Roberto Bailey, a junior at Hunter College High School, examine the 2025 mayoral race and the role of young people in the election. They dig into the candidates and their positions, what they have to say directly to students, and why only 18% of young voters actually cast ballots.
You’ll hear from the candidates who sent one-minute videos to Chalkbeat with their direct appeal to young New Yorkers, and you’ll hear the producers share their candid reactions to these clips. And you’ll also hear what Jojo and Roberto wished the candidates would have tackled head on. In a conversation with Chalkbeat’s Amy Zimmer and Alex Zimmerman, you’ll learn more about the challenges of getting the candidates to focus on issues touching the Education Department — the city’s largest agency.
Ultimately, P.S. Weekly’s final episode of the season is a call to action, offering tips on how young people can register to vote, research the candidates, and connect with youth-focused organizations.
To find out more about how to register, visit Vote.org, and to learn more about how NYC high school students can get involved, check out YVote.
If you want to find out more about the candidates views on important education issues, you can find the candidates’ responses to seven critical education questions Chalkbeat asked them or you can read a cheat sheet here.
If you want to see which candidates best align with your views, check out the “Meet your mayor” quiz from our friends at THE CITY and Gothamist in which they asked the mayoral hopefuls where they stand on issues such as affordable housing and public safety.
P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.
P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.
P.S. Weekly episodes will also be featured in the Miseducation feed.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
Why do so many young people lack the fundamentals of civics knowledge? Is the education system adequately preparing future generations for active participation in democracy? Do New York City teens know there’s a big mayoral race coming up — and can they name any of the candidates?
Producers Jasmyn Centeno, a senior at Uncommon Leadership Charter High School, and Annie He, a senior at John Dewey High School, tackle these questions head on. They talk to their P.S. Weekly peers who are focusing on the upcoming mayor’s race to hear more about Gen Z’s behavior: They may actively repost social media content about politics, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into voter action.
Jenna Ryall, the Education Department’s director of Civics for All, explains the city’s efforts to get young people to “practice” democracy before they’re expected to participate as adults. The goal, she says, is to help students engage in civil conversation and make sense of the information around them.
Civics education isn’t about teaching students what to think, Ryall said. “We are teaching them how to think.”
P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.
P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.
P.S. Weekly airs Thursdays this spring. Episodes re-publish in the Miseducation feed on Mondays.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
It’s been five years since COVID shut down New York City schools. How are kids faring with the aftermath? How do they talk about the pandemic – or not?
The fallout is often framed around “learning loss” or dips in test scores, but what about some of the social impacts, like the quiet shifts in students’ personalities or the mounting mental health struggles many are still confronting?
Producers Mateo Tang O’Reilly, from Central Park East High School, and Katelyn Melville, from the Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts, explore the ripple effects that continue to weigh on young people’s lives, such as “school refusal,” which is when severe anxiety or other mental health issues prevent students from attending class.
Chalkbeat’s Amy Zimmer discusses how the prolonged isolation exacerbated school refusal, highlighting the challenges schools face in getting kids back into the classroom. Anika Merkin, a Chalkbeat Student Voices Fellow, shares her personal experience as someone whose struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, led to school refusal, and how she managed to do the hard work in therapy to turn things around. Her story serves as a reminder to hold onto empathy and grace for the students whose lives continue to be profoundly touched by the pandemic.
P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.
P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.
P.S. Weekly airs Thursdays this spring. Episodes re-publish in the Miseducation feed on Mondays.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
What is the state of youth climate activism in New York City?
The momentum of the climate protests at the start of the 2019-20 school year may have slowed since the pandemic, and many students remain apathetic, but climate anxiety continues to fuel some students into action.
Producers Sanaa Stokes, a senior at Manhattan’s Professional Performing Arts High School, and Aponi Kafele, a junior at Manhattan’s Essex Street Academy, tackle the issue head on — and help make a difference along the way.
They spotlight the work of Alice Schwartz, an Essex Street student, who has been tirelessly pushing to implement a mandated composting program at the school, only to be met by bureaucratic hurdles and logistical challenges.
But her persistence — and the power of student journalism — pay off. As the producers dig into the reasons for the delayed composting program, they connect Alice with an Education Department official, who realizes the oversight and rectifies the situation. It’s a moment of triumph and hope, revealing how climate advocacy and holding institutions accountable can lead to small victories.
P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.
P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.
P.S. Weekly airs Thursdays this spring. Episodes re-publish in the Miseducation feed on Mondays.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
Cutting class. Fights. Vaping. School bathrooms have long been notorious for all sorts of illicit behavior. And in response, many schools now significantly restrict access to bathrooms or are adding surveillance tools, including vape detectors.
Producers Isabella Mason, from Midwood High School, and Bernie Carmona, from Beacon High School, wade into the debate over school bathroom policies.
At Midwood, for instance, the school locks bathroom doors for the five minutes while changing classes, and bars access during the first and last 10 minutes of class. The school’s assistant principal of safety and security, Richard Franzese, discusses the evolution of the policy and the lengths the school has gone to crack down on incidents. Beyond limiting the times the bathrooms are open, the school has bathroom sign-in sheets, allowing up to three students in at a time, and has school aides stationed outside.
“There's no perfect solution,” he said.
And Chalkbeat reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney sheds light on how schools are specifically responding to student vaping, illuminating the tension between simply enforcing rules versus dealing with larger issues related to addiction and mental health.
P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.
P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.
P.S. Weekly airs Thursdays this spring. Episodes re-publish in the Miseducation feed on Mondays.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
P.S. Weekly airs on Thursdays this spring. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts.
Episodes republish Mondays in the Miseducation feed.
There’s no way to ignore the rise of AI in schools.
Students are embracing it. Educators are battling it. Policymakers are trying to get ahead of it. There's no turning back.
But are there some classes where AI just doesn't belong?
Producers Annie He, a senior at John Dewey High School, and Roberto Bailey, a junior at Hunter College High School, explore how AI use among students is exploding and question its effect on creativity.
Writing teachers are especially worried. To combat these new, rapidly evolving tools, some teachers are resorting to old ones: pencil and paper.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
P.S. Weekly airs on Thursdays this spring. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts.
Episodes republish Mondays in the Miseducation feed.
When schools have high rates of teacher turnover, students lose connections to trusted educators, and new teachers who fill the openings are often less experienced.
Producers Mateo Tang O’Reilly, from Central Park East High School, CPEHS, and Katelyn Melville, from the Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts, BILA, compare turnover at their schools and examine how relationships between teachers and administrators might play a role in retaining or losing educators.
David Wertz, a former music teacher at BILA, shares how his struggles with administrators ultimately drove him from the school. And Candice Ligator, a teacher-turned-administrator at CPEHS, reflects on what supportive relationships between teachers and administrators can look like — helping us think differently about how that dynamic could be built.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
P.S. Weekly airs on Thursdays this spring. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts.
Episodes republish Mondays in the Miseducation feed.
Applying to college is stressful enough. Navigating the financial aid process adds a whole new layer. And for children of immigrants, including those with undocumented parents, the process comes with even greater hurdles and anxieties.
Producers Jasmyn Centeno, a senior at Uncommon Leadership High School, and Jojo Fofana, a senior at Fordham High School for the Arts, explore the frustrating and complicated experience many students — including themselves — have when navigating the FAFSA process.
For students like “Gabby,” whose mother is undocumented, applying for financial aid comes with very real fears at a time of heightened deportation concerns under the Trump administration.
Danielle Insel, a counselor at University Neighborhood High School, sheds light on the systemic barriers and technical glitches students face, along with the emotional support they need to get through it as they find their path to college affordability.
P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.
P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
P.S. Weekly airs on Thursdays this spring. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts.
Episodes republish Mondays in the Miseducation feed.
Are New York City students getting the sex education they need? P.S. Weekly’s episode 2 explores the systemic shortcomings and urgent need for comprehensive — and inclusive — sex education in New York City schools.
Producers Aponi Kafele, a junior at Manhattan’s Essex Street Academy, and Sanaa Stokes, a senior at Manhattan’s Professional Performing Arts High School, expose the patchwork approach to sex education across schools, from anatomy lessons using gingerbread men to teachers who aren’t trained in the subject.
The information gaps are especially concerning for LGBTQ+ youth. One student, who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, wishes his school offered sex ed where he could ask more questions and get more advice. “I think it's important for sex ed to normalize sex, especially for people our age,” he told Sanaa. “So we don't carry on these fears into our adulthood.”
And Aliyah Ansari, a teen health strategist from the New York Civil Liberties Union, explains why her organization is pushing for change, calling on the state to require K-12 comprehensive sexuality education in public and charter schools that would be age and culturally appropriate and medically accurate and inclusive.
“We see time and time again,” Ansari said, “our students are not getting the information that they need.”
P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.
P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
P.S. Weekly airs on Thursdays this spring. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts.
Episodes republish Mondays in the Miseducation feed.
Episode 1 dives into the state of ethnic studies in New York City schools and how the Trump administration could threaten the recent expansion of Black studies, LGBTQ history, and other diverse curriculums in schools across the five boroughs.
Producers Bernie Carmona Pereda, from Beacon High School, and Isabella Mason, from Midwood High School, discuss the critical role of ethnic studies courses — and their uncertain future.
Hear from Marame Diop, a sophomore at Yale who created an ethnic studies course while a student at Beacon High School, which gave her peers an alternative to typical history classes that focus too much “on some old, white, dead guy.”
And Chalkbeat reporter Julian Shen-Berro explains how federal pressures could lead to potential self-censorship in the classroom, raising concerns about the future of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the nation’s largest school system.
P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.
P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
We recorded this bonus episode live at the annual SXSW EDU conference, hosted earlier this month in Austin, Texas. P.S. Weekly’s student reporters spoke on a panel at the event, diving into the pressing inequities of New York City’s school system.
Listen to what it’s really like to navigate the largest school system in the country, from the admission process to stark resource disparities within schools — and what students would change if they were in charge.
Featuring: P.S. Weekly reporters Marcellino Melika, Bernie Carmona, and Salma Baksh, along with Chalkbeat New York reporter Alex Zimmerman.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
By Bernie Carmona, Katelyn Melville and Kelsi Bowen
In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, students across the country have missed school far more regularly than before it. In New York City, the chronic absenteeism rate (percentage of students who miss at least 10% of total school days) hovered around 25% in the years leading up to the pandemic. When students returned to classrooms in the 2021-2022 school year, the rate jumped to 40%. It remains stubbornly high.
We wanted to understand why and what schools can do to reverse the trend.
While analyzing attendance rates and student demographics of nearly 500 New York City public high schools, we noticed an outlier in the data. Pan American International High School, which serves recent arrivals to the country who often face economic hardship and housing instability, reported a chronic absenteeism rate of just 14.6% in the 2022-2023 school year — lower than some of the city’s most sought-after screened and specialized high schools.
In this episode, follow us on our trip to Pan American, where we uncover the stories behind the numbers and hear directly from three students who each made a big turnaround in their attendance. What made the difference? What can other schools learn from Pan American’s approach? And… have adults been talking about this issue all wrong?
Tune in to find out.
Miseducation is The Bell’s flagship podcast and internship program, which gives New York City public high school students the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system. This episode was made possible with support from College Board.
Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
Miseducation interns Kelsi, Katelyn, and Bernie join parent advocates in a live panel marking 20 years of NYC's high school admissions process, sharing personal stories and bold ideas for a more equitable future.Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.
Sabrina is joined by two student leaders to share a special announcement about a new citywide initiative called Journalism for All. The initiative will provide curriculum, training, funding, and other forms of support to 30 NYC public high schools that want to start journalism programs. The initiative is led by the NYC Youth Journalism Coalition, which is directed by The Bell.
The application is open now through November 4. All of the details, including information session registration links, can be found at youthjournalismnyc.org/all.
While protests over the Israel-Hamas war have gripped New York City college campuses, we look at how high schoolers have reacted — and the student freedom of speech issues being raised.
P.S. Weekly reporter Dorothy Ha speaks to Orlena Fella, whose high school was uniquely impacted by recent protests at City College. Then, Dorothy heads over to the New York Civil Liberties Union for an in-depth conversation about student rights with Racial Justice Counsel Camara Stokes Hudson.
Finally, Dorothy talks to host Jose Santana about how free speech concerns have shown up at her high school.
Want to get in touch? Email us at PSweekly@chalkbeat.org.
To stay up to date on New York City schools coverage throughout the week, sign up for Chalkbeat New York's daily newsletter at ckbe.at/subscribe-ny.
Learn more about The Bell's student programs and podcasts at bellvoices.org.
What happens when a teen wants therapy but their parents are unsure? Is NYC’s bold initiative to offer free virtual therapy to teens working? Tune in to find out.
News Bulletin — Chalkbeat's Amy Zimmer breaks down top education stories from the past week. (2 min)
Segment A — Salma Baksh interviews a mother-daughter duo as they discuss conflicting views on therapy. (11 min)
Segment B — Shoaa Khan explores Teenspace, the city's new virtual therapy initiative that provides free services for teens. Hear about the ambitious new program from Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan and therapist Dr. Jill Daino . (8 min)
Learn more about Teenspace: talkspace.com/nyc
Want to get in touch? Email us at PSweekly@chalkbeat.org.
To stay up to date on New York City schools coverage throughout the week, sign up for Chalkbeat New York's daily newsletter at ckbe.at/subscribe-ny.
Learn more about The Bell's student programs and podcasts at bellvoices.org.
In P.S. Weekly’s food episode, fourth graders visit NYC schools’ test kitchen, high schoolers rate grilled cheese sandwiches, and students dish on having microwave access. **News Bulletin — Chalkbeat reporter Julian Shen-Berro breaks down top education stories from the past week. (2 min)
Segment A — Student reporter Ava Stryker-Robbins and Chalkbeat reporter Alex Zimmerman visit the NYC Public Schools' test kitchen to learn about the process food items go through before they end up in school cafeterias. Spoiler alert: they have to win the approval of some tough critics. (12 min)
Segment B — Student reporter Jose Santana makes a surprising discovery when he visits the Bronx Latin school cafeteria on a recent Plant-Powered Friday. (6 min)
Segment C — Student reporter Santana Roach speaks with his principal and students at his school, Frederick Douglass Academy II, about access to microwaves. (7 min)**
Want to get in touch? Email us at PSweekly@chalkbeat.org.
To stay up to date on New York City schools coverage throughout the week, sign up for Chalkbeat New York's daily newsletter at ckbe.at/subscribe-ny.
Learn more about The Bell's student programs and podcasts at bellvoices.org.
In this special episode, student reporters Shoaa Khan and Jose Santana speak to Chancellor David Banks about a range of important issues that affect students. Hear what the leader of the NYC public school system had to say about a new "Hidden Voices" history curriculum, school start times, the persistence of school segregation, cell phone policies, and more.
Want to get in touch? Email us at PSweekly@chalkbeat.org.
To stay up to date on New York City schools coverage throughout the week, sign up for Chalkbeat New York's daily newsletter at ckbe.at/subscribe-ny.
Learn more about The Bell's student programs and podcasts at bellvoices.org.
In the first segment, student producer Christian Rojas Linares explores a new apprenticeship program through the eyes of Heidy Torres, a high school junior who works 16 hours a week for Bloomberg, the finance giant and media company.
The second segment, produced by Marcellino Melika and Tanvir Kaur, focuses on a student who has devoted enormous energy to getting into a top college — submitting 23 applications requiring 50 supplemental essays.
Want to get in touch? Email us at PSweekly@chalkbeat.org.
To stay up to date on New York City schools coverage throughout the week, sign up for Chalkbeat New York's daily newsletter at ckbe.at/subscribe-ny.
Learn more about The Bell's student programs and podcasts at bellvoices.org.
More than 200,000 New York City students have a disability classification that entitles them to specific learning accommodations — but do they always get them? Students share their experiences.
RSVP for "Inside P.S. Weekly" Zoom event on April 17: https://ckbe.at/psweekly
Want to get in touch? Email us at PSweekly@chalkbeat.org.
To stay up to date on New York City schools coverage throughout the week, sign up for Chalkbeat New York's daily newsletter at ckbe.at/subscribe-ny.
Learn more about The Bell's student programs and podcasts at bellvoices.org.
The national wave of book bans has been coming ashore in surprising ways in New York City.
News Bulletin – Chalkbeat reporter Alex Zimmerman breaks down top education stories from the past week. (1 min)
Segment A – Student reporter Salma Baksh interviews her former librarian Lindsay Klemas, who received online backlash for promoting an LGBTQ+ book during Pride month. (8 min)
Segment B – Shoaa Khan and Tanvir Kaur take us to an English class at the Academy of American Studies, where students read banned books — exclusively. (6 min)
RSVP for "Inside P.S. Weekly" Zoom event on April 17: https://ckbe.at/psweekly
Want to get in touch? Email us at PSweekly@chalkbeat.org.
To stay up to date on New York City schools coverage throughout the week, sign up for Chalkbeat New York's daily newsletter at ckbe.at/subscribe-ny.
Learn more about The Bell's student programs and podcasts at bellvoices.org.
Officials estimate that more than 36,000 migrant students have enrolled in New York City public schools over the past two years.
What challenges are these new students facing? And what are schools doing to support them? This student-reported episode explores these questions through conversations with students, educators, and a journalist who's been covering the issue.
Segment A
Chalkbeat Reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney breaks down the issue and how the broader media narratives don't necessarily reflect experiences on the ground. (6 min)
Segment B
Student reporter Jose Santana interviews a Claremont International High School student about her transition to the school system and how one program has made a big difference. (9 min)
Segment C
Student reporter Bernie Carmona talks to Sunisa Nuosy, a former international high school teacher about the joys and challenges of educating immigrant students. (7 min)
Additional reading:
• Read this story about students from NYC’s largest school for newcomer immigrants as they push for a change in the school name
• Read this first-person story from an educator advocating for more school social workers to support NYC migrant students
To stay up to date on New York City schools coverage throughout the week, sign up for Chalkbeat New York's daily newsletter at chalkbeat.org/newsletters*.
Learn more about The Bell's student programs and podcasts at bellvoices.org*.
Want to get in touch? Email us at PSweekly@chalkbeat.org.
Welcome to the the sound of the New York City school system.
P.S. Weekly explores pressing issues facing students and teachers in the Big Apple. The Bell's team of high school student producers work alongside Chalkbeat's seasoned education reporters to bring you stories, perspectives, and commentary you won't get anywhere else.
Episodes air Wednesday mornings, starting March 27.
>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify
The threat came in an e-mailed letter from the principal to the entire student body: Stop following the anonymous Instagram accounts, or face suspension.
When Principal David Marmor of Francis Lewis High School in Queens discovered two accounts — one which posted fight videos and the other which included vulgar content that in some cases targeted specific students — he didn’t hesitate to act. In addition to threatening suspension, he promised to cancel all “celebratory events” like pep rallies and prom until the accounts were deleted or lost all their followers — a dramatic step that raised questions about the line between students’ free speech online and punishable behavior.
First reported by Chalkbeat New York, the case immediately caught our attention. Social media's impact on our lives as teens can't be overstated. Anonymous Instagram pages that share confessions, photos, and videos about school communities have become increasingly common. Sometimes the content is harmless. Other times, it feeds into vicious bullying.
We called up Chalkbeat’s Alex Zimmerman to break down what happened at Francis Lewis and discuss the broader implications of Marmor’s actions. Should schools be allowed to regulate students’ social media use? If so, did this principal go too far?
Learn more about our work at https://bellvoices.org.
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This episode was hosted by Shoaa Khan and Jose Santana. It was produced by Sabrina DuQuesnay, Mia Lobel, Mira Gordon, and Taylor McGraw, and made in collaboration with Amy Zimmer and Alex Zimmerman from Chalkbeat New York.
Music from Blue Dot sessions.
This episode was made possible in part by the Summerfield Foundation, the Pinkerton Foundation, FJC, and Hindenburg Systems.
It’s clear that disproportionate access to high school journalism is a consequence of broader education inequities. But, what about the news industry itself? In this episode, professional journalists shed light on the lack of diversity in the news industry, which is about 80% white, and less representative of the general population than other fields according to Pew Research. The lack of journalism opportunities for students of color feeds the diversity problem in the field.
Despite the odds, this has been a year of success for school newspapers, new and old. And they get their due recognition at an annual student journalism conference held at Baruch College. Great expectations, breath-holding moments of tension and unexpected triumphs all come to the fore in this fourth and final episode of Missing Voices. All eyes – and hopefully your ears – are on these high school journalists vying for glory in between the margins.
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The Missing Voices series was reported by Wesley Almanzar, Jadelyn Camey, Fredlove Deshommes, Edward Mui and Jayden Williams. Editing and production support from Sabrina DuQuesnay, Mira Gordon, Abē Levine and Taylor McGraw.
Scoring and sound mixing from Peter Leonard. Music from Blue Dot Sessions.
Made possible with support from the Education Writers Association and the Pinkerton Foundation.
In the summer of 2022, Press Pass NYC launched a fellowship for aspiring high school student journalists. A cohort of students from around NYC began their journeys in a summer bootcamp, where they learned the basics of journalistic writing and reporting.
“It brings like a huge responsibility, knowing that you're going to take all this information and bring it back to the school,” said Ashley Conde Lopez, reporter for The Writer’s Weekly at the Academy for Young Writers in Brooklyn.
Our team followed these Press Pass Fellows from bootcamp through the school year to see the results of their training and preparation. Three schools are featured here: The Institute for Health Professions at Cambria Heights; The Academy for Young Writers; and Health, Education and Research Occupations (H.E.R.O.) High School. Can these three schools overcome the obstacles of an unequal education system to create successful student newspapers? Tune in to find out.
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The Missing Voices series was reported by Wesley Almanzar, Jadelyn Camey, Fredlove Deshommes, Edward Mui and Jayden Williams. Editing and production support from Sabrina DuQuesnay, Mira Gordon, Abē Levine and Taylor McGraw.
Scoring and sound mixing from Peter Leonard. Music from Blue Dot Sessions.
Made possible with support from the Education Writers Association and the Pinkerton Foundation.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Seemingly every New York City high school used to have a student newspaper. That’s what we learned on our trip earlier this year to the Center for Brooklyn History’s archived high school newspaper collection. Today, few NYC high schools have student publications of any kind.
What happened? Where did all the school newspapers go? To find some answers, we sat down with Keith Hefner, founder of Youth Communication, a nonprofit that has been publishing high school students’ stories for more than 40 years.
Then, we meet the adult and students behind Press Pass NYC, an organization dedicated to bringing student newspapers back. It’s an ambitious mission. What will it take for them to succeed?
To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
New York City is the media capital of the world, but not for its youth. Just one in four public high schools has a student newspaper these days. And there are big disparities in access by race and class.
In this system of haves and have nots Townsend Harris high school in Queens is definitely among the haves. Its student newspaper, The Classic, has received national recognition for hard-hitting reporting in recent years.
Meanwhile, at Pace High School in Manhattan, dedicated students and a veteran English teacher are defying the odds by building The Pacer from scratch.
To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
When you think about New York City, what do you think of? Wall Street? Fancy business ventures? The place where dreams come true? That’s certainly how I thought of it when I moved here from the Philippines at age seven.
But there’s another side to the city.
In 2021, about 1 in 10 public school students experienced some type of homelessness. That’s around 100,000 children. Quite surprising for the financial capital of the world.
In the city of billionaires and luxury brands, how could so many not have access to something as basic and foundational to life as stable housing?
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In many schools across the country, high schoolers have the opportunity to take AP, or Advanced Placement, classes. These high-level courses are designed to introduce students to the rigor and expectations of higher education, and to help them get a leg up in the college application process. Some students look forward to the challenge, while others dread the stress and anxiety they bring.
In this episode, I dive into the reasons for inequitable AP access across New York City, how this reality affects students and what further actions are being taken to make change.
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The transition from middle school to high school can be socially bewildering for many young people, but for New York City public school students like me it can also mean adjusting to drastically different economic and racial demographics. I went from my neighborhood school in the Bronx to a predominantly white school in Midtown, Manhattan.
At my middle school, I took an art class that had no art teacher. At my new school, the basement has ten studios completely dedicated to music. There’s also a black box theater, a dance studio, an art studio, and a film lab. These are just some of the differences I noticed.
Seeing these drastic disparities in the opportunities given to students got me thinking: if all public school students deserve an arts education, then why has a complete music and arts program become a luxury and a privilege? What do students lose when they don’t have the opportunity to explore their extracurricular passions?
Join me and a few guests as we discuss the unspoken price of creativity in New York City public schools.
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In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act. It aimed to “provide nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day.” More than 60 years later, Michelle Obama championed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which required schools to provide students with healthier lunches. Since 2017, New York City has provided free breakfast and lunch to all public school students.
These acts and reforms are great; they seek to ensure that all students receive nutritional meals at school. But in practice, let’s just say the results are… mixed.
Students sit and eat in the cafeteria every day, and yet conversations about education often leave out this crucial element of our daily lives as students.
In this episode I document the quality of school lunches through the perspective of those who eat them, students. I also chat with one of my teachers, who used to help develop school lunch menus and guided me in my search for answers about how lunchtime can be improved.
Get ready listeners, because we’re about to have a food fight!
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When I was in seventh grade, something changed in my school. The administration at the Bronx Academy of Letters was implementing a strange new policy called “Yondr.” Haven’t heard of it? Neither had I.
Yondr is a company that makes lockable pouches for smartphones to create “phone-free spaces for artists, educators, organizations, and individuals.” The idea is that it helps with student learning by removing distractions from the classroom.
As you might expect, students had some questions about the new policy, many of which I was wondering myself: Is the Yondr phone policy underestimating student maturity? How is the policy affecting student-teacher relationships?
To get some answers, I talk to teachers, my principal, students who have experience with Yondr and even representatives from the company. Listen to this episode to for an inside look at the impact of restrictive cell phone policies on schools like mine.
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At my high school, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, almost two thirds of the student body identify as people of color. When students witnessed a teacher make a racially insensitive comment during class, they knew something had to be done. The administration stepped in and facilitated a restorative circle, but the impacted students left feeling unsatisfied.
This incident offers a lens into an ongoing debate about how teachers and school staff should handle acts of racial discrimination to properly protect students of color in public schools.
In this episode, I went looking for answers. I spoke with students who are active members of my school’s Black Student Union, one of my guidance counselors and my vice principal to figure out what needs to happen for our school to live up to its anti-racist commitment. Plus, I spoke with the NYC Department of Education’s Student Voice Manager to understand how the school system handles incidents of racism and discrimination in schools.
Reporting resources for students:
Report student-to-student discrimination, intimidation, and harassment, including sexual harassment and/or bullying: https://www.nycenet.edu/bullyingreporting
Office of Equal Opportunity reporting form (for adult-to-student discrimination): https://www.nycenet.edu/oeo
You can also call 718-935-2288 or email the Office of Safety and Youth Development (OSYD) at RespectforAll@schools.nyc.gov
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If you grew up in New York City, chances are you have heard of the Regents. The Regents are standardized exams that students across the State of New York have to pass in order to graduate and earn a diploma that’s recognized by the State Board of Regents.
Some words people I spoke to used to describe these exams: “A mess,” “stressful,” “Frankenstein” and “inequitable.” Today, there are Regents tests for ten core subjects, including U.S. History, English Language Arts and Chemistry. Most New York high school students must pass five of them in order to graduate.
New York is one of only eight states that mandate high school exit exams. As so many other states are turning to alternative forms of assessing academic proficiency, why does New York still use these standardized tests as a graduation requirement? How should graduation readiness be evaluated?
To all our New Yorkers, get ready for an educational flashback that you probably hoped would stay in the past.
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Every year thousands of students fill out the FAFSA, a form designed to help working class families receive financial aid for college. Simple right? Fill out a form, get some money, go to college. Well, not quite.
The FAFSA isn’t as easy to complete as it may seem. It encompasses 180 questions ranging from your family dynamics, to how much you and your parents earn, to citizenship and immigration status.
Not only are there many questions, but they are often confusing. Those in most need of the FAFSA’s support, low-income and first-gen students, are often the ones who struggle the most. Some students’ parents don’t speak English well, so they have to take on the extra effort of translating. Others are in unique living situations, and might not fit neatly into the categories the FAFSA wants.
The process is time-consuming and draining.
Check out my episode to hear directly from students who have experience filling out the form, as well as people who provide FAFSA and college readiness support, such as the guidance counselors.
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Are women more likely to contract STDs? Can HIV be cured by having sex with a virgin? Is using two condoms safer than using one?
These are only a handful of the questions about sex that exist in the minds of high schoolers across the city. But because this topic often evokes discomfort and embarrassment, from both adults and young people, questions like these often go unasked. They become misconceptions. In the age of social media, where students like myself get a lot of their information about sex from the internet, misconceptions like these can and do cause real harm.
According to the New York City Department of Education, schools are only required to teach an HIV and AIDS curriculum. Sometimes even these few lessons are pushed to the margins because of parental disapproval or time concerns.
The result? A glaring void in comprehensive instruction on safe sex and healthy relationships. That’s a problem.
In this episode, you’ll hear more about the current standard of sex education in New York City high schools, how it affects teenagers and what needs to change.
So, get comfortable listeners, because we need to talk about sex.
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My classmates are not happy with my school’s 8:20 a.m. start time, and honestly, neither am I. I’ve missed that first bell so many times. I had 12 tardies and 4 detentions in the past quarter alone, just from being late. And I’m not just late, I’m tired. When I get home, I’m physically exhausted, my bones hurt, and I just want to go to bed straight away.
But as a junior, each month is very important. College applications, SATs, and the course work keeps getting harder. I just have too many responsibilities: homework, the internships I need for college applications, and the side jobs to support my family.
School start times are a policy choice.
Who's calling the shots when it comes to school start times? Is student health and well-being even on the agenda? To get some answers, I chatted with sleep experts, fellow students and even the head of my school.
Join me as I navigate through the maze of early mornings, shedding light on the detrimental impact of sleep deprivation on our lives. Will we ever see efforts to start school later? What needs to be done? Trust me, this is one podcast episode you don't want to hit the snooze button on.
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For the first time ever New Yorkers have the opportunity to vote in a citywide participatory budgeting initiative. It’s not people on the ballot. It’s people’s money — tax dollars – and how to spend them. All New Yorkers age 11 and up can have a say in how $5 million of taxpayer money is spent. On the ballot this year are projects like financial literacy classes for youth in the Bronx, revitalizing cinema deserts in Canarsie to anti-violence and restorative justice programming in the Lower East Side.
This episode of P.S. Weekly explores the People's Money initiative and the people behind it.
To vote, go to participate.nyc.gov. Voting closes June 25, 2023.
Mental health, perhaps more than ever, is a topic of conversation for the masses. Clinical terms like “triggered” and “anxiety” crop up in everyday discussion. Tik Tok channels dedicated to self-help and self-care offer tips on living your best life. And when it comes to young people, public leaders, from doctors to principals are trying new preventive approaches, like tele-therapy, to reach students before they’re in crisis. In the midst of a generational shift on mental health, we wanted to elevate the voices of young people who are thinking deeply about it. This is a conversation on mental health featuring Miseducation interns Wesley Almanzar, Fredlove Deshommes, Jose Santana and Nusrath Uddin. They discuss what mental health means to them and how they navigate the topic in their lives in and out of school.
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As we kick off our first ever spring fundraising drive, one of our student reporters shares what working with The Bell has meant to him.
Donate at give.bellvoices.org.
Every year The Bell trains a group of high school students from across New York City in audio journalism. These student interns report and produce original stories for the Miseducation podcast. Over the past five months, this year’s reporters have been hard at work on their episodes. The theme of the upcoming season is Questioning the Status Quo.
Each student picked an aspect of the New York City education system that we’ve all gotten really used to. Things that students have just come to accept as normal.Through in-depth research and reporting, they are making a case for what needs to change.
On this week’s episode, we’re sharing a preview of what they’ve been working on.
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Between Clarksdale and Cleveland on a quiet stretch of Highway 61 in the Mississippi Delta lies a town called Mound Bayou.
Mound Bayou has more churches than stoplights, more vacant stores than occupied ones — a place that appears forgotten. But locals — folks who grew up here and stayed — wear these special glasses that allow them to see the town as it used to be.
Put the glasses on and an overgrown lot transforms into the first Olympic size swimming pool available to Black Mississippians. The boarded up brick building on the corner turns into a bustling bank that holds more Black wealth than anywhere else in the state. The crumbling circular drive across the street backs up with traffic into a hospital that delivered more than 100,000 Black babies. For the better part of a century, this unremarkable, hollowed-out town was an oasis of Black self-sufficiency in a state brimming with racial terror.
Last month, during mid-winter break, the Miseducation staff joined The Bell’s executive director Taylor McGraw, who recently moved back to Mississippi, for a week-long road trip from Memphis to New Orleans. We journeyed through barbecue joints, civil rights museums, blues clubs, the cold halls of the Mississippi legislature, and the windy banks of the Mississippi River. Of all the places we stopped, Mound Bayou, this tiny dot on a map, left the biggest mark.
This is the story of Mound Bayou.
To learn more about the Mound Bayou Museum of African American Culture and History, visit moundbayoumuseum.com.
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This episode features “EWA Radio: Student Data Privacy as a Civil Rights Issue,” recorded live on March 9 at the SXSW EDU Conference in Austin, Texas.
Panel description
Schools collect lots of information about students – health records, attendance, grades and disciplinary actions. Many parents aren't aware the data may be shared with others, including private companies or law enforcement, and even analyzed to identify and predict student behavior. Experts explain how some of these seemingly innocuous records have the potential to put students (particularly Black and Hispanic children, students with disabilities and LGBTQ+) on a different life trajectory.
Panelists
Kavitha Cardoza (moderator)—Public Editor, Education Writers Association
Elizabeth Laird — Director, Equity in Civic Technology, Center for Democracy & Technology
Clarence Okoh — Senior Policy Counsel & Just Tech Fellow, Center for Law & Social Policy
Marika Pfefferkorn — Solutions Sustainability Officer, Twin Cities Innvoation Alliance
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In this week’s episode, high school senior and Miseducation intern Wesley Almanzar reflects back on his experience growing up in the New York City school system.
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Coco and Bissiri go to different public high schools, a few miles apart on Manhattan’s west side. One, predominantly white and middle-class. The other predominantly Black and working class. But demographics aside, what about the quality of education? The resources students have or don’t have. The classes. The extracurricular opportunities.
This week, as a follow-up to our two-part series on the persistence of school segregation, we’re re-airing an episode from back in 2018 to illuminate the vast differences in NYC students’ educational experiences—depending on what schools they attend.
You can read the show notes from the original episode here.
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Last week, we traveled back in history to learn about Civil Rights-era efforts to integrate New York City’s segregated schools and we featured a speech from Reverend Milton Galamison, the leader of the 1964 NYC school boycott. In the episode, we fast forward to present day to take a look at what has changed (and what hasn’t) in the fight for integration.
Ash’aa Khan takes us to Queens to hear a conversation about school diversity between NYC schools chancellor David Banks and hosts of the School Colors podcast, Mark Winston-Griffith and Max Freedman.
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It’s February 3, 1964, in New York City, and time is up. An umbrella of civil rights organizations — the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, the New York Urban League and the NAACP — have patiently negotiated and waited… and waited for the Board of Education to submit a thorough plan to integrate the city’s segregated schools. But the plan that comes forward in the 11th hour is weak: no timetable, no serious commitment to change the status quo.
So, close to half a million students stage a one-day school boycott. They call it Freedom Day. It’s the largest single demonstration of the Civil Rights era, almost twice the size of the March on Washington. And it’s rarely taught or talked about these days.
What prompted the protest? How was northern integration activism received in that era? Hear about it from the boycott’s lead organizer, Reverend Milton Galamison. This episode includes excerpts of a speech he delivered a month after the boycott, on March 5, 1964. Listen to the full speech at The New School Archives and Special Collections.
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Quiz time. Did a human write this episode intro, or was it AI?
So, you may be wondering, what the heck is chatGPT? Well, it's basically a super smart computer program that can understand and respond to human language like a pro. And let me tell you, it's making waves in the education world!
We're going to talk about all the cool ways chatGPT is being used in schools, from helping students learn new languages to writing the most killer essays, this technology is making it easier for students to learn and teachers to teach. But, as with any new technology, there are some potential downsides that we'll also be discussing.
So, grab a notebook and a pen, because you're going to want to take notes on this one, folks!
Hard to tell, right? This week, Miseducation student reporter Bree Campbell digs into the chatGPT debates with NPR reporter Emma Bowman, who’s been covering the impact of the new AI technology on schools.
Oh, and if you guessed human, you’re wrong.
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Just before her senior year of high school, Kesar Gaba did something brave. She examined a very difficult period of her life and had a conversation with her mother about it for the first time. She wanted to see if a discussion like this could help her mother open up about her own struggles.
Kesar recorded the conversation with her mother for the Summer Youth Podcast Academy in 2021. We’re airing Kesar’s story now for the first time. Afterwards, producer Mira Gordon catches up with Kesar, now a freshman in college, and asks how her relationship with her mother has changed.
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We are marking this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday with a special P.S. Weekly episode devoted to an aspect of MLK’s legacy that isn’t as regularly studied as his “I Have a Dream” speech or his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” We’re focusing on how MLK and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement organized — a blueprint called the Six Steps of Nonviolent Social Change.
In an educational conversation with Mira, Sabrina shares analysis and examples of how these steps shaped her own organizing as a student fighting for school integration.
To learn more about the six steps and Dr. King’s philosophy, visit The King Center.
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For several years in a row, the number of students in New York City schools experiencing homelessness has exceeded 100,000. This year, city schools have the mounting challenge of welcoming a growing number of recent migrants who are entering a youth shelter system that doesn’t have enough beds.
To dig into the issue of youth homelessness, Miseducation producer Abe Levine and student reporter Fredlove Deshommes sat down with Wayne Harris, a regional manager in the NYC DOE’s Office of Students in Temporary Housing. They quickly learned that Wayne is not your average bureaucrat.
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Earlier this year we collaborate with WNYC Studios on an in-depth series about a year of reporting from inside a divided Brooklyn school building trying to unite through sports. The series is called Keeping Score. If you missed it, definitely go back and check it out.
Today’s episode is an update from two of the Miseducation reporters-turned-characters in the series, Mariah Morgan and Lauren Valme.
Mariah and Lauren are members of the girls varsity volleyball team. The Keeping Score series followed Mariah, Lauren, their teammates and coaches over the course of the first season of the John Jay Jaguars. Prior to last season, there were actually two varsity girls volleyball teams in the same school building. The girls went to different schools on different floors, and were rivals. One of the teams had mostly Black and Latin players. The other – mostly white and Asian. But, in 2021 they decided — after a decade of playing on opposite sides of the net — to join forces, to merge, to integrate.
In this interview with fellow Keeping Score reporter Renika Jack, Mariah and Lauren dig into what happened in Year 2 of this experiment at the intersection of race, class, and public schools.
The volleyball season ended a few weeks ago. Did the Jaguars make progress toward integration and equity on the court? Did they reach their goal of a city championship?
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When the principal emails you about a story you wrote in the student newspaper, it’s usually a sign of trouble. In Denisse Merino’s case, the email she received led to something very different.
Denisse is a senior at Leadership and Public Service High School and writes for the school’s news site, The Lead. Her school is part of a small but growing cohort trying to reverse the trends in unequal school journalism access for students at predominantly Black and Hispanic high schools. Backed by training and support from the nonprofit organization Press Pass NYC, Denisse has taken on a leading role in the newspaper club.
Denisse also happens to be one of our Miseducation student reporters this school year. In this episode, she shares about her thoughts on the value of student journalism and about the story she wrote that convinced her principal to act.
The New York State constitution promises “a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this state may be educated." But what happens when that word — all — is tested?
Roughly one in five NYC public school students has a learning disability. Some have particularly severe behavioral or mental health challenges requiring accommodations that the average school isn’t equipped to provide. So what then? Where do those students go?
Well, according to new reporting from Abigail Kramer, it often depends on what their parents can pay.
Listen to my conversation with Abigail about what she uncovered in her story and what she thinks needs to change.
In a recent episode of his podcast Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell revisited one of the key concepts from his hit book Outliers. It deals with privilege in education, just not in the ways you typically hear about it. The story got really got us thinking, and so we thought we’d share it with you.
This week, we’re airing parts of “Outliers, Revisited” from Revisionist History. Then, stick around for a Q&A between our student reporter Fredlove Deshommes and two of the shows producers, Eloise Lynton and Lee Mengistu.
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By Jadelyn Camey
In late September, I attended a press conference at which schools Chancellor David Banks announced changes to the middle and high school admissions process. The headline was that students whose grades place them in the top 15% of their 7th grade class — or the top 15% citywide — will now receive priority access to about 100 “screened” public high schools. Questions have risen about how this new policy will impact student diversity in the city’s already segregated schools. To break down the news and make sense of the nation’s most complex public school admissions process, I spoke to Chalkbeat New York reporter Alex Zimmerman.
To learn more about this issue, check out Chalkbeat’s recent reporting.
NYC overhauls high school admissions, leaves middle school changes up in air Sept. 29, 2022
NYC schools chief criticized for saying some kids deserve top schools more than others Oct. 13, 2022
New NYC high school admissions rules could slow pandemic-era diversity gains Oct. 14, 2022
Applying to NYC high school? Here’s what you need to know. Oct. 20, 2022
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By Sabrina DuQuesnay
In his ten months on the job as schools chancellor, David Banks has not been shy about naming the challenges he faces. Steep enrollment declines. Pandemic recovery. Budget cuts. He’s offered harsh critiques of the NYC school system and the bureaucracy that runs it.
On Tuesday, Nov. 1 he sat down with a roundtable of student journalists, including a few Miseducation reporters, to answer questions on topics ranging from school funding to censorship of student newspapers. Hear what he had to say in the first episode of P.S. Weekly.
(Chancellor Banks ran out of time for all of the questions but promised to follow up with written responses to the ones he missed. We’ll post those questions and answers here when we receive them.)
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The series ends with a final test for the Jaguars at the city championship. After the last point has been scored, members of the team try to assess their success. And what about the success of the merger? Students and coaches look at how the integration played out across John Jay’s athletics program, and ask: was it all worth it?
For stats, photos, bonus audio and more, check out our Keeping Score page.
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“Keeping Score” is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. Connect with us at keepingscore@wnyc.org.
For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn.
For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon.
Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul – with additional tracks by Hannis Brown and Isaac Jones. Special thanks to Atiqa Chowdhury, Delsina Kolenovic, Giana Ospina, Adrian Uribarri, Mike Barry, Theodora Kuslan, Andrea Latimer, Kim Nowacki, Dalia Dagher, Jennifer Houlihan Roussel, Michelle Xu, Rachel Leiberman, Miriam Barnard, Andrew Golis, Christopher Werth, and the entire team at The United States of Anxiety.
What does it mean to lead a team in an anti-racist way? After getting strong feedback from Mariah and other players, Coach Mike Salak decides to change his tactics. But as the girls volleyball practices lead into tournaments, it’s clear that who gets to play continues to be a divisive issue.
For stats, photos, bonus audio and more, check out our Keeping Score page.
Want exclusive content from Miseducation? Join us on Patreon.
“Keeping Score” is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. Connect with us at keepingscore@wnyc.org.
For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn.
For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon.
Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul – with additional tracks by Hannis Brown and Isaac Jones.
Mariah Morgan, a junior at Park Slope Collegiate and setter on the girls varsity volleyball team, was an early proponent of the merger – she helped lobby for it as a member of the Campus Council. But her optimism is tested when practice starts. To understand the building’s complicated history, she explores how Millennium came to be at John Jay in the first place, and why the campaign to merge the athletics programs began.
For stats, photos, bonus audio and more, check out our Keeping Score page.
“Keeping Score” is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. This four-part series will appear in the United States of Anxiety feed on Thursdays in June.
Connect with us at keepingscore@wnyc.org.
For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn.
For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon.
Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul – with additional tracks by Hannis Brown and Isaac Jones. Special thanks to Andy Lanset, Norman Scott, Gwynne Hogan, and Afi Yellow-Duke.
The John Jay Educational Complex, a large brick building in Park Slope, Brooklyn, houses four high schools: Cyberarts Studio Academy, the Secondary School for Law, Millennium Brooklyn, and Park Slope Collegiate. Each school is its own separate universe, but the students yearn to connect. When the administration announces that the athletics programs will merge, they ask what it will take for the building to live up to its new motto: “We Are One.”
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The topic of mental illnesses and disabilities has always hit close to home for me. I come from a family where mental health issues are like a tradition that gets passed down through every generation. This history with mental illnesses has made me more inclined to speak out for the individuals that live with them. In particular, I aim to shed light on the mistreatment of Black and Hispanic children with mental illnesses or disabilities in low-income public schools.
It is estimated that less than 15% of American children experiencing poverty who are in need of mental health care, receive services. My older sister Janaya falls into that 15% that did receive care. But this was after a lot of advocating on my mother’s part. Janaya only began to see therapists seven years ago after my mom took her to get diagnosed when she was in middle school. Despite receiving mental health care, Janaya’s issues didn’t just vanish. She still struggled with a set of learning disabilities.
Tune in to hear Janaya’s harrowing journey through the public school system and my mother’s steadfast determination to get her the support she deserved.
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My name is Adnaan Elahi. I’m a high school senior and a Muslim student. I go to an incredibly diverse high school in East Harlem. Many of my peers are recent immigrants or first-generation students such as myself.
The New York City public school system is filled with students from numerous backgrounds. This includes race, ethnicity, and what I’ll be focusing on: religion.
The issue of freedom of religion within public schools can be a complicated one, so what does practicing one's religion look like in the nation’s largest public school system? And when you hit some obstacles, how do you address them?
Since the closing of the schools due to COVID in March 2020, it’s been hard on students, academically and emotionally. How can you find the desire to learn when you're staring at a screen at 8 in the morning?
After a year and a half of Zoom school, former Mayor de Blasio decided that it was time for every student to go back in person. In September of 2021, schools finally reopened. But then, when the new year came around… Omicron entered the scene. The week we got back from winter break, school felt like a ghost town.
I wanted to take you on a day of my life in school during Omicron, from the morning to dismissal, to show everyone what school really was like. This is January 14th.
Every student in NYC public schools goes through the high school admissions process. About 80,000 eighth graders every year researching, and ranking, and waiting, and ultimately landing in one of more than 400 high schools.
My process surprised lots of people. Not because of the school — Edison — that I got into. But because of the school I turned down.
It’s 8:40 am on a Friday. Just a 5 minute walk from Jay St MetroTech, you can find high-schoolers heading south on their way to school. Students hike up the concrete stairs leading to the red doors under the stone sign that states, George Westinghouse High school. There is a long line this morning that stretches from outside on the block all the way to the inside of the lobby. You can hear the occasional teeth suck as they watch another kid hold up the line to go through the metal detectors.
Metal detectors are a huge part of Westinghouse culture, quickly blending into the lives of students and staff. The practice of rechecking pockets and belongings, before stepping in front of one of these devices, lodges its way into the minds of kids as soon as they begin high school.
This is a story about my friend Rojuiana and her incident with the metal detectors that almost landed her in prison and left a permanent mark on her school record. But there is even more at stake here.
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Every Tuesday after school, students rush to their bright red lockers, throw their coats on, and head for the stairs. The sound of student chatter is everywhere, while kids squeeze their way through the cramped halls. Usually everyone is heading home by now, but there are a couple of stragglers trying to find a room to stay in before Comic Arts and Illustrations Club starts. I recognize them immediately because they’re the same kids who always stay for the chance to be themselvesin a safe creative space with Ms. O’Neal… and it’s no surprise why.
In my selective high school it’s easy for students of color – including me – to feel disregarded. But every now and then you find a supportive adult who goes out of their way to make you feel seen.
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I didn’t expect for it to be this hard to navigate my high school years, but then halfway through my sophomore year, Covid hit. Everything changed. I found myself in a state of panic over my safety, my family’s safety, and on top of that, I was stressing out about school and my grades.
Do teachers realize the extent to which we, students, have been affected? What are their views on students’ mental health— and their role in helping students manage stress? I took these questions to my school and got some surprising answers.
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Have you ever had that one person in your life that just kinda opened your eyes and changed your perspective? Someone who just stood beside you, always made sure you were okay –– a good supporter and encourager? Yeah, I mean that kinda person.
I met Dominique Jones when I was a middle schooler attending the Boys and Girls club of Harlem, where she was the director at the time. In this episode, I reunite with Ms. Dominique and share with her the impact she had on me.
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In the final installment of “Unmuted,” we dig in to the college advising equity gap, made even worse by the pandemic. Consistently, NYC public high school students have told us that they don’t feel properly supported by their schools in the college process.
We wanted to find out how students managed applying to college at the height of a global pandemic––when students were not even in the school building. What obstacles presented themselves to seniors? Did students think college was still worth it?
We spoke with students and their advisors from the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice, and representatives from College Access: Research and Action (CARA) to find out.
Since beginning to report this story back in the fall of 2020 as high school juniors, we’ve become seniors ourselves. As we’re nearing the end of our own college processes, we round out this episode by reflecting on our experience applying to college.
• For more reporting on this issue, check out the Guidance Gap series from The Hechinger Report.
• To learn more about CARA, visit caranyc.org.
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In 2018, we reported a story called Who Gets to Play? that featured Bronx students, their athletic director David Garcia-Rosen and the fight for sports equity in New York City public high schools. It was a David vs. Goliath fight that culminated in a class action lawsuit.
Nearly four years later, we have news to share.
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School sports have never just been about the sports themselves — and when they got cancelled is when people finally realized how important they actually are. In this episode we bring you into our worlds. We want to put you in our cleats, sneakers and boots to give you an inside view of a year without sports AND what it’s taught us about inequities that existed long before Covid-19.
NYC school officials have said a lot about the importance of supporting students’ mental health throughout the pandemic, but do their actions match their words? What resources are or are not being provided to students? In this story, we put the adults’ words to the test.
Our investigation takes us from the depths of Google to the counselor’s office to the NYC Department of Education central office — and a lot of places in between. What did we learn? You’ll have to listen to find out.
As students dust off their backpacks and return to school buildings amid continued uncertainty and anxiety, Miseducation returns with “Unmuted,” a new podcast series investigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the 2020-21 school year from the perspective of students.
Last year, as school communities and support systems grew increasingly fragile––affecting students’ mental health, the sports teams they cherish, and their ability to receive guidance through the college process––our team of interns reported on these issues and built a community with each other in the process.
In Episode 0, we take you behind the scenes to show how our interns pulled off this impressive feat entirely remotely.
Fearing my grandmother’s sudden departure from this world was the worst thing I could think of, but a few years ago when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I knew my greatest fear would be being forgotten. We both live in New York City, but with the pandemic going on, even taking the bus or the train to see her is impossible. In the final episode of this season, I share what these last few months have been like for us — and what no pandemic or disease could ever take away.
In Room 522C, the second smallest in the school, where twenty-five tenth graders sat knee to knee at small tables, we had the richest discussions. The class was about human rights, and the teacher, Amanda Marzan, was in her first year of teaching in New York City. On March 13, when the pandemic forced schools to close, Amanda, along with the 75,000 other public school teachers in the city, had to scramble to adapt to the new reality of remote learning. Earlier this year I talked to Amanda one on one, to understand the challenges she has faced.
When school went remote last spring, it also meant that the college process went remote. This was only an added challenge for immigrant students like me who are the first in their families to apply to and attend college in the United States. I had to navigate language barriers, confusing websites, financial aid forms, and decision deadlines with only the help of my college counselor, who became harder to reach when the pandemic struck because she was understandably juggling work and home life. In this episode I share what it’s like to be an immigrant student going through the college process during a pandemic.
All one million of New York City’s students were thrown into online learning when schools closed back in March. But for a lot of us, adapting to Google Meet and trying to stay on a regular schedule while not being able to see friends weren’t the only challenges. I began virtual school without a laptop, or even internet access in my home. In this episode, I share my first-hand experience of what it's like to be a low-income student in a pandemic, and speak about my struggles to receive technological support from the Department of Education in the midst of working to complete my AP classes and get through junior year.
Roughly 200,000 — 20 percent — of New York City public school students have diagnosed learning disabilities. It can be very difficult for these students to obtain adequate support and accommodations, as learning disabilities are commonly misunderstood among the general public. Throw in a global pandemic and learning becomes even more of a challenge. In this episode, you hear my older sister Luisa’s story, from her early difficulties in school, to my family’s struggle to ensure that she received proper assistance for her learning disabilities, to the moment in March when Covid-19 forced everything to change.
Brady Smith grew up in Seattle and spent his early adulthood “playing music and pounding nails” — not exactly the one you’d have imagined leading a second-chance high school for New York City youth. But it turns out that Brady has a lot in common with the students he now serves.
Hear about Aiyanna’s transition from a school where they “pick up the fork and feed you” to a school with more freedom than she’d ever imagined. Along this serendipitous journey, you’ll hear about special education, “professionalism,” and contrasting approaches to school discipline.
Adriana used to compete with friends to see who could make substitute teachers cry first. What happened when she transferred to a school that embraces restorative justice?
Javier Mata was never the homework type. When all those missing grades caught up with him, he knew he needed a fresh start. That's exactly what he found at The James Baldwin School in Manhattan.
"Transfer high schools" were New York City's solution to the giant number of high school dropouts in the early 2000s. This episode tells the story of the first transfer high school through the voices of two of its architects and an alum, Steph, who was in dire need of a second chance.
New York City's new schools chancellor Richard Carranza has faced criticism for the integration policies he's pushing for in one of the nation's most segregated school districts. But in an exclusive interview, he said he would stand his ground. Hear Carranza’s latest thoughts on specialized high school reform, his commitment to student voice and the two issues he said “keep him up at night.”
A record 115,000 New York City students live in temporary housing, according to state data published by Advocates for Children. At some schools, more than 40% of students are considered homeless. City and school officials have been vocal about this crisis, but solutions will likely take time. To better understand the challenges homeless students face and how best to support them in the classroom, we sat down with Amya Shaw, a high school senior who has lived in and out of shelters since she was nine years old.
You can read a text version of Amya’s story at YCTeen.org, where it was originally published.
To learn more about the homelessness crisis, check out Advocates for Children and Coalition for the Homeless.
Meet high school seniors Bissiri Diakite and Coco Rhum. The physical distance between their schools is five miles, a short trip up the west side of Manhattan. But if you measure the distance in resources and opportunities, they wouldn't fit on the same map.
How is it that public schools in the same school system can look so different? And what can we do to fix it?
While the Miseducation team gears up for the second half of Season 2, Sabrina and Taylor check in with a few updates and some listening recommendations to get you through summer.
According to a new lawsuit, more than 17,000 black and Hispanic New York City students attend a high school with zero sports teams. Tens of thousands more attend schools with just a handful of teams. Meanwhile, Tottenville High School, one of the whitest public high schools in the city, has 44 sports teams. A group of students and advocates in the Fair Play Coalition is seeking to change these facts and ensure that all students, regardless of ethnicity, have the ability to play any sport the Public School Athletic League offers.
The primary purpose of high school is to prepare students for college and careers, but some schools do way better than others. This episode, we meet two students on opposite ends of the college readiness spectrum, whose experiences shed light on our broken system.
This spring, our team of student interns is taking you inside NYC's segregated high schools to investigate the policies that perpetuate this dual system.We're looking at the lack of diversity in specialized high schools, unequal access to sports teams, racial disparities in college readiness rates, and lots more.Be sure to subscribe on your app of choice, sign up for our newsletter below, and follow @miseducationpod on social media.
At the City Council's December 7 hearing on school integration, representatives from the Department of Education showed no signs of picking up the pace to address what Council Member Ritchie Torres called a "crisis." Student members of Teens Take Charge and dozens of other advocates testified at the hearing. Students Whitney and Nelson joined Taylor to recap the highs and lows of the hearing.
Even though we've wrapped up Season 1, we will continue releasing Extra Credit segments that feature material we weren't able to squeeze into our episodes. If you are a student with a story to tell – or if you're an adult who wants to help us amplify students' voices – visit bellpodcast.com and click "Get Involved."
Featuring the testimony of a dozen members of the student-led group Teens Take Charge, season one ends with a strong call to action. Visit bellpodcast.com and click on "Join the Movement to End Segregated Schools" to get involved.
Hebh Jamal grew up in the Bronx but attended an elite public high school in midtown Manhattan. That experience gave her a sense of just how big of a difference five miles can make when it comes to schooling – and it prompted her to start asking questions about race, class, and enrollment. Eventually, she teamed up with a youth-led group called IntegrateNYC4me, and together, they found some answers.
Now, Hebh is an activist on a mission to integrate the nation's most racially segregated public school system. This present fight echoes of a similar one, six decades earlier.
Will the result be different this time around?
Extra Credit segments are a chance to hear more from the incredible young people featured in the season. We start with the young man at the center of the first two episodes: Noah.
There are plenty of examples of 100% non-white schools that have produced tremendous results. So, why raise a fuss about integration?
Episode 4 dives headfirst into that debate. It features two black scholars with a core disagreement about integration and two black New York City teens who attended very different schools.
From testy encounters in church youth groups to long-distance video game friendships, hear how students in racially isolated Harlem schools interact with white students. Plus, a look back at the social science that laid the foundation for the Brown v. Board decision.
With Episode 3 on the horizon, editor Taylor McGraw takes a short break to analyze the city's recently announced school integration goals, and to propose an alternative approach.
We pick up with Noah's story at the end of 8th grade and learn about his high school, how he chose it, and what's next once he graduates. Along the way, we dive into NYC's complex and controversial "open choice" admissions process for high schools. We hear about Noah's teachers, friendships, and thoughts on a range of topics, including segregation.
Noah is 16 years old, laid back, persistently late to school. His friends call him a genius. He shrugs off such praise – says he just does "what he's supposed to do." He's right. He passes his classes and state tests when he's supposed to pass them. But, in a segregated school system accustomed to failure and remediation, passing represents a rare feat. Noah's educational journey – full of twists and turns, successes and setbacks – provides an introduction to New York City's separate and unequal schools. This is the first in a two-episode series on Noah.