Students Outside New York City Underperform on State Tests

The poor academic performance of students in city schools has been a long-standing concern. When students struggle to acquire essential skills, it can significantly hinder their ability to compete successfully in the job market as adults. Large city schools tend to have high concentrations of economically disadvantaged students. In fact, over three-quarters of students in […]

The Poor Performance of Disadvantaged Students on New York’s English Language Exam at District-Operated and Charter Schools in Upstate Cities

The poor performance of economically disadvantaged students, particularly those in schools with high percentages of needy students, has long been a concern. In my first post, I examined the performance of disadvantaged students on the state’s grades three through eight mathematics exam at district-operated and charter schools in large upstate New York cities. In these […]

Students in Large Upstate Cities Performed Poorly on the Most Recent State Assessments

Historically, economically disadvantaged students have performed poorly on the State’s annual Student Assessments. That pattern continued in the 2022-2023 school year. On the State’s Grades 3-8 mathematics examination, only 30% of students in districts where 80% of students were economically disadvantaged were rated proficient, on average, compared with 70% of students in districts where 20% […]

Have Charter Schools in Upstate Cities Achieved their Promise?

According to a recent article by Albany Times-Union columnist Chris Churchill, the sponsors of a new Charter school in Schenectady faced a chilly reception from area elected representatives. Churchill wrote, “Before it even opened, the new Destine Preparatory Charter School was denounced by two area politicians, Phil Steck and Angelo Santabarbara. In a joint statement issued when […]

An Early Look at COVID’s Educational Disruption in New York State

When COVID hit the nation in early 2020, the nation’s schools shut down. The disruption continued into the 2020-2021 school year, as most schools offered remote or hybrid learning rather than in-person instruction. Some reopened but suspended in-person instruction because of COVID in classrooms. These decisions became contentious, with critics pointing to their likely impact […]

New York’s Uneven Economy

Although the COVID pandemic caused double-digit unemployment levels in 2020, the nation’s recovery has been rapid. Unemployment decreased quickly in New York and the country, dropping to 4.4% percent in New York and 3.5% in the nation in July 2022. The recently announced July number for the United States is as low as pre-pandemic unemployment […]

Census Surveys, Data Limitations, and Household Income Change in New York State

On the surface, finding the answer to how household median incomes changed over the decade from 2010 to 2020 is simple. At the national level, data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey is sufficiently robust to allow us to know the incomes of each group for each year and measure change during the period. […]

COVID-19 erased New York’s Employment Gains over the Past Decade

From June 2011 to June 2019, New York saw employment increase by 388,440 – 4.4%. But by June 2021, the pandemic had erased all those gains. In June, the state’s employment was lower than in 2011 – by 72,916 jobs or 0.8%. Both before the COVID pandemic and in June 2021, New York’s job performance […]