Education Commons^™

Becoming His Own Boss, Reginald A. Blake Jr.

Capstones

Sports and Academics have long been linked. If an athlete's grades aren’t up to par they can’t play, but when an athlete practices in the morning and at night, travels for games, how much learning can they actually do? There are cases however when an athlete uses sports as their ticket for higher education because their grades wouldn’t cut it. 16-year-old Deon McLaughlin is one of those students. For all his success on the court he’s battled with maintaining his school’s rigid academic standards. As good as he is, he knows the NBA isn’t a possibility, for him basketball is …

How New York City Is Failing Students With Special Needs—And Why Minority Kids Have It The Worst, Pamela Subizar

Capstones

Under federal law, children are guaranteed free, appropriate education, but reports have found failures at every level of the New York City special education system. Despite some improvements by the city in recent years, initial evaluations are still delayed, and mandated services go unprovided. Complaints filed against the city have multiplied. Thousands of parents have to sacrifice savings and time fighting for better services. This report describes the particular challenges faced by minority families using data analysis, interviews with experts, and stories.

Latino students depend on these public services the most—they represent half of NYC students in special education programs. …

Despite Overcrowding, School Siting Process Stalls New Buildings, Megan Conn

Capstones

More than half of New York City’s 1.1 million students attend an over-utilized school, where the number of students enrolled exceeds the official capacity. But for years, the School Construction Authority has been slow to identify and acquire sites to build new schools. When City Council ordered a task force to review nearly 30,000 potential sites, the SCA excluded parent representatives from the analysis process, then reported that only two sites could potentially be used for schools. Though the SCA contracts with commercial real estate brokers to identify sites, the agency has declined to specify how many sites the brokers …

Students With Mental Health Disabilities Suffer From Discrimination Across College Campuses, Abigail Nequa Napp

Capstones

Over the course of several months, we investigated and reported on how colleges and universities have been discriminating against students with mental health disabilities. We FOIA'd the Department of Education for a history of pending and resolved cases (from 2008 - November 2019) to uncover violations committed by colleges. In several instances, institutions discriminated and punished students instead of accommodating their mental health disabilities as required by law. We also reviewed recent lawsuits involving students against universities that focused on punitive leave of absence policies as well as wrongful death suits. This revealed further inefficiencies, deficiencies and tragedy in the …

Finding Justice, Hannah Miller

Capstones

Finding Justice tackles the devastation caused by wrongful conviction through the journey of Jeffrey Deskovic. After serving 16 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, Deskovic has strived to rebuild his life. The film follows him as he finishes law school and runs a foundation that frees the wrongfully convicted, all while dealing with lingering trauma.

Discipline Or Destiny: A School-To-Prison Pipeline Story, Trayonna Hendricks, Kourtney Webb

Capstones

The school-to-prison pipeline is a phenomenon by which students, mainly students of color, are pushed out of schools and into juvenile detention centers and through the criminal justice system. This documentary series explains and displays what "the school-to-prison pipeline looks like through a personal story.

https://readymag.com/u1985351703/1646028/

From Muhammed To The Jobup: Engaging Malemployed Immigrants Through Journalism, Tiziana Rinaldi

Capstones

I focused my graduate work on the local community of malemployed immigrants. They are foreign-educated newcomers — medical doctors, pharmacists, teachers, lawyers and engineers, to name a few of their professions — who lack the resources to find skill- appropriate work in the U.S. They end up either unemployed or working at "jobs for which they’re overqualified or overeducated or both,” I wrote for NJSpotlight in 20171.

Using the social journalism method2 of engaging members of a chosen group to fill important if not crucial information gaps, I developed The JobUp, a series of free, offline educational events, as my …

Postpartum Pains, Lakea Youngblood

Capstones

The Academy once again came under fire. This time for banning a commercial that advertised a postpartum support. People all over the country became enraged. The Academy seemed more friendly to movies about murder than postpartum, in alignment with the sexist ideas that have been pervasive in this country since its foundations. This short documentary pushes back against this narrative and the silence around postpartum by showing the realities of it through a woman’s journey.

The film is a personal documentary about myself. After having my first child, I found myself traumatized and scarred by the pains of postpartum. Because …

Black Graduates Confront Another Crisis Amid Protests And Pandemic, Jazmin Goodwin

Capstones

Black graduates confront another crisis amid protests and pandemic: Their optimistic expectations are now dashed and the result will be more inequality in America.

Much has been written about how among America’s workers, youth will suffer the greatest economic setbacks during the pandemic. Just like millennials who entered the labor force after the 2008 financial crisis, Generation Z will likely experience permanent declines in wealth, which will have ripple effects on their health and wellbeing. But those setbacks aren’t evenly distributed. Among young workers, Black youth will likely bear the largest burden.

Link to capstone project: http://www.blackgrads2020.com/