Miseducation

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...

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 Mi...

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...

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 b...

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 childre...

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...

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,...

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. Want exclusive content from Miseducation? J...

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 occ...

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 immed...

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’ ment...

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 r...

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 b...

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. To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter ,  Facebo...

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. Miseducation is...

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...

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 spor...

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...

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...

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 ha...

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...

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’...

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. Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on...

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. Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report...

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? 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.