GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

GothamSchools is an independent news source about the New York City public schools.

We seek to correct an unfortunate confluence of events: The movement to improve urban schools is reaching a peak of energy while the journalism industry is crumbling. That means that both the achievements and challenges of the movement risk escaping the healthy scrutiny of a vibrant press corps.

In our Newsroom, we publish daily news and analysis about school politics, policy, and research. Commentary and diaries from participants in the school system, from educators to parents to researchers, can be found in our Community section.

We are an initiative of The Open Planning Project, a Manhattan-based nonprofit dedicated to empowering civil society through technology.

We offer many ways to follow along:

• Subscribe to our RSS feed.
• Look for our daily news round-up, focusing on NYC education news but also including relevant stories from around the globe.
• Comment on a post with your opinion, experience, or links to relevant information.
• Send us story ideas, topics you’d like to see covered, feedback, and questions via email or anonymously.
• Follow us on Twitter @GothamSchools.
• Find events on our calendar, or submit an upcoming event.
• Submit an op/ed to our Community section or apply to be a GothamSchools diarist.

Who We Are

Elizabeth Green is editor of GothamSchools. This year she is taking leave and will be based at Columbia University, where she is a Spencer Fellow, writing a project about Michael Bloomberg’s transformation of the public school system. She previously covered the New York City schools beat for The New York Sun and covered K-12 education nationally at U.S. News & World Report. Elizabeth has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and The Brian Lehrer Show to speak about education news. She serves on the board of the Education Writers Association and is a 2006 graduate of Harvard. Email egreen@gothamschools.org.

Philissa Cramer is associate editor of GothamSchools. She founded GothamSchools’ newsroom in September 2008 and previously launched Insideschools’ first news blog. At Insideschools, she also visited and reviewed schools all over New York City and contributed to the third edition of New York City’s Best Public High Schools. She is now studying the history of education at New York University. Previously, she studied the history and policy of education at Brown University, where she was an editor of the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper. Email pcramer@gothamschools.org.

Anna Phillips is staff reporter at GothamSchools. She covered the debate over how to govern the New York City schools and is now following the 2009 city elections. She previously interned for Politico senior politics writer Ben Smith, the New York Sun, and City Limits. Anna holds a bachelor’s degree in U.S. history from Columbia University, where she was the editor-in-chief of The Blue and White, the undergraduate newsy magazine. E-mail aphillips@gothamschools.org.

Maura Walz is a staff reporter at GothamSchools. Before joining GothamSchools in the summer of 2009, Maura Walz reported on charter schools around the United States for the Carnegie-Knight Foundation journalism initiative News21. She came to journalism and the education beat after working as an editor of scholarly research databases outside of Washington, D.C. Maura holds degrees from the University of Chicago and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. E-mail mwalz@gothamschools.org.