GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Elizabeth Green is editor of GothamSchools. In 2009-2010, she was a Spencer Fellow in education journalism at Columbia University. 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. She has also written about education issues for the Village Voice and The New York Times Magazine. 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 managing 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. Philissa has also written about education issues for the Village Voice, the Nation, and the New Republic. 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.

Geoffrey Decker is a GothamSchools staff writer. He joined GothamSchools in 2011 from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where he covered Brooklyn schools for NYTimes.com‘s The Local blog and contributed to the New York Times. As a regular contributor to Brooklyn’s Patch.com sites, Geoffrey covered school closures and other co-location battles throughout central Brooklyn. He has also covered crime, politics, and government for NBC New York and high school basketball for Bed-Stuy Patch. Geoffrey studied journalism at Marist College. Email gdecker@gothamschools.org.

Rachel Cromidas is a GothamSchools staff writer. A New Yorker by birth and a Chicagoan at heart, she has written about education, urban affairs and culture for the New York Times, the Chicago News Cooperative, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and others. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she studied legal theory, gender and sexuality, and worked as a web editor. Email rcromidas@gothamschools.org.

Our Contributors

Jessica Campbell is a graduate student at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, which she will graduate from in May. Before pursuing journalism she spent five years teaching middle and high school English in Brooklyn. She studied English and Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a reporter for The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Our Alumni

Anna Phillips was a staff reporter at GothamSchools from 2009 to 2011. Anna graduated from Columbia University, where she was the editor-in-chief of The Blue and White, the undergraduate news magazine. She is currently an education reporter for the New York Times.

Kelly Vaughan was a member of the founding team at GothamSchools in 2008 and left to return to the classroom in 2009. She is now a founding science teacher at a Brooklyn charter school.

Maura Walz was a staff reporter at GothamSchools from 2009 to 2011. She graduated from the University of Chicago and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She currently covers Georgia schools for the Southern Education Desk at Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Chris Arp, a freelance writer, was a regular contributor to GothamSchools in 2011. As an NYC Teaching Fellow, Chris taught at an elementary school in Brooklyn from 2008 to 2010. As a teacher, he contributed to the GothamSchools Community section with a column titled “Learning to Teach.” Chris graduated from Princeton University.

Sarah Darville is a student at Columbia University, where she is news editor for the Columbia Daily Spectator. She is from Coral Springs, Fla. She interned with GothamSchools in the summer of 2011.