Some of the New York City Department of Education’s technology initiatives are being put under the microscope by local media outlets in the context of possible teacher layoffs and other fiscal pressures facing the 1.1 million-student district.
A March New York Times article examined the education department’s plan to increase spending on technology despite cuts in state aid, both in broad efforts to improve connectivity and other technology infrastructure at city schools, and in the more focused Innovation Zone initiative, which is slated to expand from 80 to 125 schools this year and eventually reach 400.
Meanwhile, an audit of the Innovation Zone announced the same month by the office of John Liu, the city’s comptroller, termed the program “controversial” and said reactions to some of the iZone programs at town-hall meetings in Manhattan and the Bronx were mixed.
And the New York Post reported that the School of One adaptive-learning middle school math program would not be expanding from three to seven schools in the wake of the departure of Joel Rose, the program’s co-founder. Rose left to launch his own nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading the program’s idea beyond the city.
The School of One won a $5 million federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grant based on its expansion plans, but that grant could now be in jeopardy, according to the Post‘s story.
