Brooklyn, NY – Parents in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, gathered today to celebrate recent improvements at Walt Whitman Library. The recent improvements capped a months-long grassroots campaign in the neighborhood to push for expanded programming and greater community involvement. Nearly 2,000 Fort Greene parents shared in the effort to improve the library.

Today, parents gathered in Fort Greene, Brooklyn to celebrate recent improvement at Walt Whitman Library. Testimonies from two of the parents who spoke -- Ana Mena and Patrick Cabiness, are below. Follow StudentsFirstNY on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to see photos from today's event.

A year and a half has passed since the de Blasio administration took over the Department of Education, assuming control of 1,800 schools, 70,000 teachers, and 1.1 million students. Within months of taking office, Mayor de Blasio negotiated a generous new teachers’ contract, laying the groundwork for what has been a cozy alliance with the United Federation of Teachers. Since then, with his schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, at his side, Mayor de Blasio has turned his attention to school quality. With much media fanfare, a patch-work of ambitious-sounding new programs has been announced. Formerly significant issues like school accountability and teacher evaluations have been watered down or ignored. Throughout, Mayor de Blasio’s disdain for charter schools has been loud and clear.

June 23, 2015

Chancellor Fariña:

We are writing to you today to urge you to take action to improve P.S. 289 George V. Brower School in Crown Heights Brooklyn. For years, this school has lagged behind other schools in New York City on state math and English language arts tests (scoring 30% in math and 22% in ELA respectively, in 2014 ). That means this school is only preparing roughly 1 in 4 children. To make matters worse, the teachers and administration at P.S. 289 are consistently inattentive to the needs of both parents and students. That is why we, the parents of P.S. 289 students, are calling for the following changes:

The following remarks were delivered by parent and StudentsFirstNY organizer Darlene Boston at an event today marking the implementation of Avontes Law.

My name is Darlene Boston and I’m the organizer for the Bedford-Stuyvesant chapter of StudentsFirstNY.

I want to thank Councilmember Cornegy for his leadership on this issue. He has been out front from the beginning and this would not have gotten done without his efforts.

Today, Queens parents called on the State Legislature to raise the charter cap and provide better school options for their children. Read their statements below.

On March 28, parents and community members came together in a rally to tell state legislators why they support Governor Cuomo's plan. To learn more about the education proposals included in the New York State Budget, visit studentsfirstny.org/deal.

In this year's state budget, Governor Cuomo with the support of the Senate and Assembly delivered real improvements that will make schools better and help our students learn. 

Here's what's changing and how the new policies will work to improve New York schools.

Parents know firsthand the impact a quality school and great teachers have on their child's future potential. On March 2nd, they traveled to Albany and joined clergy members and education reform advocates to ensure state leaders understood the importance. With just a few weeks before the state budget is due, and key proposals in Governor Cuomo's education Opportunity Agenda being considered, these parents made it clear that action is desperately needed to turnaround New York's failing schools and ensure every classroom is led by an effective teacher.

Learn more about the rally and then join these parents in speaking up #ForOpportunity at studentsfirstny.org/foropportunity.

"It's clear that special interests are hell bent on making sure parents and teachers don't have accurate information on teacher effectiveness. When teacher evaluations bear zero resemblance to student learning, which is the case in 4 out of the 5 big school districts, it makes a strong case for Governor Cuomo's improvements to the system. It is shocking that you can have a district like Syracuse with 97% of teachers rated effective or above when student proficiency is in the single digits. It's also shocking to see districts like Beacon, that gamed the evaluations so there's a swing from 24% of teachers effective to 100%. Governor Cuomo is right to design a statewide system that parents and educators can count on as fair and reliable."

-- Jenny Sedlis, Executive Director, StudentsFirstNY