Episodit
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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 [email protected].
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.
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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/nycWant to get in touch? Email us at [email protected].
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.
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Puuttuva jakso?
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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 [email protected].
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.
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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 [email protected].
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.
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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 [email protected].
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.
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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 [email protected].
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.
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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 [email protected].
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.
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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 [email protected].
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
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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.
To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
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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.
To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
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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.
To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
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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 [email protected]
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- Näytä enemmän
