{"id":270019,"date":"2026-06-17T20:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/270019\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T20:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:55:12","slug":"nyc-schools-launch-working-groups-in-5-districts-to-tackle-inequities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/270019\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC schools launch working groups in 5 districts to tackle inequities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Since taking office in January, schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels has repeated a refrain that he wants the nation\u2019s largest school system to be safe, academically rigorous, and integrated.<\/p>\n

But he has revealed little about his tangible policy goals in each of those areas. Now, he\u2019s signaling that some of those ideas may come from local communities rather than top-down from the Education Department or City Hall.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, education officials announced that five of the city\u2019s 45 superintendents will convene working groups with parents, teachers, principals, and community organizations that will \u201caddress structural and instructional inequities in their district,\u201d according to a press release. They are expected to meet monthly.<\/p>\n

The groups represent \u201clocal solutions for systemic problems,\u201d Samuels said Wednesday morning during a discussion with author Heather McGhee who has written<\/a> about how racism has broader effects beyond people of color. Officials said all districts will have similar groups within three years.<\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

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Samuels suggested that the groups, which will be led by local superintendents, could begin to tackle some of the system\u2019s biggest policy challenges. His conversation with McGhee touched on declining enrollment and the growing number of underenrolled schools<\/a>; a state mandate to lower class sizes<\/a>; and segregation of students<\/a> by race, ability, socioeconomic status, and language. <\/p>\n

Officials did not share who was selected by superintendents to serve on each working group, or commit to release each group\u2019s recommendations publicly. <\/p>\n

Previous administrations have also set up working groups to tackle thorny policy problems. <\/p>\n

Under pressure from parents and advocates to address deep racial segregation in the city\u2019s schools, former Mayor Bill de Blasio created a working group<\/a> to recommend solutions. Some advocates were frustrated that the city did not embrace some of the group\u2019s most sweeping suggestions. Still, some local districts have taken action to integrate local schools<\/a> absent a broader citywide mandate, though others have sputtered<\/a>. (Mayor Zohran Mamdani said <\/a>that he would adopt some of the recommendations from de Blasio\u2019s diversity advisory group that were not implemented, but he has yet to do so.) <\/p>\n

On the campaign trail, Mamdani committed to getting rid of mayoral control<\/a> \u2014 which gives the mayor largely unfettered power to set the school system\u2019s policy direction \u2014 in favor of a more democratic system. He reversed his position just before taking office<\/a> and recently won a two-year extension for it from state lawmakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But he has consistently vowed to give families and educators more of a say in policymaking and Samuels signaled the working groups were an effort to make good on that promise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people ask me \u2026 \u2018You have mayoral control, and are you going to really listen to parents, and are you going to listen to communities?\u2019\u201d Samuels said, \u201cthis is one of our main initial first steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first five districts that will participate are: Manhattan District 3 (Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, and parts of Harlem); Bronx District 7 (Mott Haven and Port Morris); Brooklyn District 13 (Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill); Brooklyn\u2019s District 16 (much of Bedford-Stuyvesant); and Queens District 25 (College Point, Whitestone, Hillcrest). Samuels previously led District 3 and 13.<\/p>\n

The Wednesday morning event was livestreamed but the Education Department did not invite reporters to attend. Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said members of the working groups were invited and there wasn\u2019t additional room due to the fire code. <\/p>\n

The five working groups are expected to share their recommendations with the Education Department by the end of next school year, Brownstead said.<\/p>\n

She indicated those reports could take multiple forms and officials plan to wait to release broader policy ideas until they review the recommendations. No funding has been earmarked for the working groups, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to figure out what is the thing that we are going to do on behalf of our most marginalized young people, oftentimes, but on behalf of every single child in your district,\u201d Samuels said.<\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[104147,41579,9,104146,11,10,104148,104149],"class_list":["post-270019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-chancellor","tag-kamar-samuels","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-public-schools-press-office","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-ps-194","tag-school-visit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}