Success Academy reshaped what free education for low-income students could look like. The network boasts above average scores on state tests and impressive college admissions statistics. Some alumni, however, wonder if the academic pressure and strict behavioral standards are worth it. Its famously test-focused approach has raised a question: How much pressure on students is too much?

P.S. Weekly producers Jeremiah Dickerson, a senior at Williamsburg Charter High School, and Noa Salas Adam, a junior at Stuyvesant High School, dive into the complex world of Success Academy.

Dickerson, himself a former Success Academy student, interviews another former student about what it was like to attend the school. They touch on everything from uniforms, “mouth bubbles,” and clip charts to extremely rigorous academics and the lingering emotional price tag of attending Success Academy.

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

New York City schools enrolled 793,000 K-12 students this school year, down about 15% from the 2019-20 school year, according to Education Department data. The number of students who have left the system during this time is bigger than Philadelphia’s entire public school population. That has left the city’s school system with an increasing number of small schools that may be unable to provide their students with a full array of courses and resources. 

Solving the enrollment puzzle is top of mind for New York City officials, especially as the city confronts its own budget problems. But merging schools is not always easy. 

P.S. Weekly producers Rayleen Laloi, a junior at The Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts, also known as BILA, and Ermione Aleah Raymond, a senior at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, both experienced school mergers firsthand. They explore what happens to students when two schools become one. 

Rayleen talks with Osei Alfred, who attended the School for Human Rights before it became part of BILA last year. The merger changed Osei’s high school experience, for better and worse. He shares insights for schools who might be facing the same situation. 

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Several of our student reporters recorded this live conversation at SXSW EDU in Austin, Texas on March 9, 2026. Moderated by Salma Baksh, the conversation explored how student journalists can ask hard questions, hold institutions accountable and drive change in their schools and communities.

Listen as Fredlove Deshommes, Jeremiah Dickerson and Aponi Kafele discuss their reporting on the student journalism gap in New York City schools, credit recovery and school composting, respectively. Together, they reflect on what empowers them as reporters, what adults can learn from listening to students and why expanding access to journalism education is essential.

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P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

But reaching that status symbol has some significant consequences: AP Calculus has garnered a reputation for being a barrier to higher education. The class has become a gatekeeper, with many selective colleges requiring students to take the subject. Those who took it in high school are at an advantage, and schools with majority Black and Latino students tend to miss out. The number of such schools offering calculus has hovered under 40% over the past decade, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. 

P.S. Weekly producers Mateo Tang O’Reilly, a junior at Central Park East High School, and Jasper Mallorca, a senior at High School of Art and Design, ask: Does AP Calculus serve a purpose other than proving academic rigor to colleges? They explore the unseen value of calculus beyond the classroom. 

Mateo sits down with Dash Anderson, a Brooklyn high school math teacher who shares his experience teaching calculus in a way that brings the subject to life with real-world examples, from video games to “Moana.”

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Hunter’s 15.3% student poverty rate was the lowest of any public high school in the city, according to public data from the 2024-25 school year. By comparison, Bronx Science and Stuyvesant, two of the city’s specialized high schools, each had about 50% of students from low-income households.

The lack of socioeconomic as well as racial diversity at Hunter — which is run by CUNY’s Hunter College — doesn’t get as much attention as the demographics at Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and other specialized high schools in the five boroughs. Like those coveted institutions, Hunter also bases admissions on a test. Except to even qualify for Hunter’s test, you have to be invited, based on state test scores. 

Now, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his administration backing efforts to bolster integration in public schools, some Hunter students are fighting for change from the inside.

Producers Roberto Bailey, a senior at Hunter, and Zoe George, a senior at Bard High School Early College Manhattan, know the landscape of competitive high school admissions well: They’ve experienced it. 

We also hear from Hunter student and activist Kassidy Khuu about the admissions process at the Upper East Side institution, what she and others are doing to try and change it, and the underlying question of who gets access to a “gifted” education.

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

In our first episode of Season 3, The Bell’s high school reporters landed an exclusive interview with schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels.

The new schools chief made his three priorities known: safety, academic rigor, and integration. But The Bell’s student reporters grilled him on the issues most important to them, including artificial intelligence, how he plans to approach racial integration, and whether he will fulfil Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promise to make school buildings greener.

In this episode, you’ll hear Samuels’ answers — and the student reporters’ assessment of his responses.

You can watch the full, unedited video of our interview with the chancellor on YouTube.

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

The Bell’s high school reporters have once again teamed up with Chalkbeat New York’s veteran education journalists to bring you pressing issues in New York City schools from the perspectives of students who experience them firsthand. 

Led by the Bell’s Senior Producer Maria Robins-Somerville and Technical Director Jake Lummus, this season dives into critical issues of the moment and how students are not only responding to the world around them but actively shaping their education. 

You’ll hear about students fighting to integrate one of the city’s most elite public high schools, what it’s like after your school is merged with a neighboring school, and why teens want a more diverse teaching workforce. You’ll find out whether calculus matters and get personal with students struggling with mental health because of the current political climate. You’ll also learn more about the city’s special education system and what it was like to attend one of the city’s most rigorous charter schools. Plus, you’ll hear directly from the city’s school chancellor. 

Listen on Thursdays this spring, starting April 9. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

This is a video-first episode. Watch on YouTube.

Student journalists Roberto Bailey, Aponi Kafele, and Autumn Wynn also pressed the chancellor on her commitment to the city’s Journalism for All initiative and what students can do if they don’t feel their schools are sufficiently academically rigorous.

Cover Photo: Dulce M. Marquez
Videography: Christian Williams Fernandez and Kevin Jones
Editing: Taylor McGraw
Special thanks: Alex Zimmerman

Recorded on August 12, 2025

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Producers Jojo Fofana, a senior at Fordham High School for the Arts, and Roberto Bailey, a junior at Hunter College High School, examine the 2025 mayoral race and the role of young people in the election. They dig into the candidates and their positions, what they have to say directly to students, and why only 18% of young voters actually cast ballots. 

You’ll hear from the candidates who sent one-minute videos to Chalkbeat with their direct appeal to young New Yorkers, and you’ll hear the producers share their candid reactions to these clips. And you’ll also hear what Jojo and Roberto wished the candidates would have tackled head on. In a conversation with Chalkbeat’s Amy Zimmer and Alex Zimmerman, you’ll learn more about the challenges of getting the candidates to focus on issues touching the Education Department — the city’s largest agency. 

Ultimately, P.S. Weekly’s final episode of the season is a call to action, offering tips on how young people can register to vote, research the candidates, and connect with youth-focused organizations. 

To find out more about how to register, visit Vote.org, and to learn more about how NYC high school students can get involved, check out YVote. 

If you want to find out more about the candidates views on important education issues, you can find the candidates’ responses to seven critical education questions Chalkbeat asked them or you can read a cheat sheet here. 

If you want to see which candidates best align with your views, check out the “Meet your mayor” quiz from our friends at THE CITY and Gothamist in which they asked the mayoral hopefuls where they stand on issues such as affordable housing and public safety.

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Next week on P.S. Weekly, student journalists Roberto Bailey and Jojo Fofana are delving into the upcoming primary election.

They’ve been digging into who the candidates are, what their positions are, what they have to say directly to students, and trying to figure out why only 18% of 18-29 year-olds actually vote.

Dropping in your feed, Tuesday, June 17th.

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Producers Jasmyn Centeno, a senior at Uncommon Leadership Charter High School, and Annie He, a senior at John Dewey High School, tackle these questions head on. They talk to their P.S. Weekly peers who are focusing on the upcoming mayor’s race to hear more about Gen Z’s behavior: They may actively repost social media content about politics, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into voter action. 

Jenna Ryall, the Education Department’s director of Civics for All, explains the city’s efforts to get young people to “practice” democracy before they’re expected to participate as adults. The goal, she says, is to help students engage in civil conversation and make sense of the information around them. 

Civics education isn’t about teaching students what to think, Ryall said. “We are teaching them how to think.”

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

The fallout is often framed around “learning loss” or dips in test scores, but what about some of the social impacts, like the quiet shifts in students’ personalities or the mounting mental health struggles many are still confronting? 

Producers Mateo Tang O’Reilly, from Central Park East High School, and Katelyn Melville, from the Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts, explore the ripple effects that continue to weigh on young people’s lives, such as “school refusal,” which is when severe anxiety or other mental health issues prevent students from attending class. 

Chalkbeat’s Amy Zimmer discusses how the prolonged isolation exacerbated school refusal, highlighting the challenges schools face in getting kids back into the classroom. Anika Merkin, a Chalkbeat Student Voices Fellow, shares her personal experience as someone whose struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, led to school refusal, and how she managed to do the hard work in therapy to turn things around. Her story serves as a reminder to hold onto empathy and grace for the students whose lives continue to be profoundly touched by the pandemic. 

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

The momentum of the climate protests at the start of the 2019-20 school year may have slowed since the pandemic, and many students remain apathetic, but climate anxiety continues to fuel some students into action. 

Producers Sanaa Stokes, a senior at Manhattan’s Professional Performing Arts High School, and Aponi Kafele, a junior at Manhattan’s Essex Street Academy, tackle the issue head on — and help make a difference along the way. 

They spotlight the work of Alice Schwartz, an Essex Street student, who has been tirelessly pushing to implement a mandated composting program at the school, only to be met by bureaucratic hurdles and logistical challenges. 

But her persistence — and the power of student journalism — pay off. As the producers dig into the reasons for the delayed composting program, they connect Alice with an Education Department official, who realizes the oversight and rectifies the situation. It’s a moment of triumph and hope, revealing how climate advocacy and holding institutions accountable can lead to small victories. 

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Producers Isabella Mason, of Midwood High School, and Bernie Carmona, from Beacon High School, wade into the debate over school bathroom policies.

At Midwood, for instance, the school locks bathroom doors for the five minutes while changing classes, and bars access during the first and last 10 minutes of class. The school’s assistant principal of safety and security, Richard Franzese, discusses the evolution of the policy and the lengths the school has gone to crack down on incidents. Beyond limiting the times the bathrooms are open, the school has bathroom sign-in sheets, allowing up to three students in at a time, and has school aides stationed outside.

“There's no perfect solution,” he said. 

And Chalkbeat reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney sheds light on how schools are specifically responding to student vaping, illuminating the tension between simply enforcing rules versus dealing with larger issues related to addiction and mental health. 

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Students are embracing it. Educators are battling it. Policymakers are trying to get ahead of it. There's no turning back.

But are there some classes where AI just doesn't belong?

Producers Annie He, a senior at John Dewey High School, and Roberto Bailey, a junior at Hunter College High School, explore how AI use among students is exploding and question its effect on creativity.

Writing teachers are especially worried. To combat these new, rapidly evolving tools, some teachers are resorting to old ones: pencil and paper.

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Producers Mateo Tang O’Reilly, from Central Park East High School, CPEHS, and Katelyn Melville, from the Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts, BILA, compare turnover at their schools and examine how turbulent relationships between teachers and administrators might play a role in retaining or losing educators. 

David Wertz, a former music teacher at BILA, shares how his struggles with administrators ultimately drove him from the school. And Candice Ligator, a teacher-turned-administrator at CPEHS, reflects on what supportive relationships between teachers and administrators can look like — helping us think differently about how that dynamic could be built.

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Producers Jasmyn Centeno, a senior at Uncommon Leadership High School, and Jojo Fofana, a senior at Fordham High School for the Arts, explore the frustrating and complicated experience many students — including themselves — have when navigating the FAFSA process. 

For students like “Gabby,” whose mother is undocumented, applying for financial aid comes with very real fears at a time of heightened deportation concerns under the Trump administration. 

Danielle Insel, a counselor at University Neighborhood High School, sheds light on the systemic barriers and technical glitches students face, along with the emotional support they need to get through it as they find their path to college affordability. 

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Producers Aponi Kafele, a junior at Manhattan’s Essex Street Academy, and Sanaa Stokes, a senior at Manhattan’s Professional Performing Arts High School, expose the patchwork approach to sex education across schools, from anatomy lessons using gingerbread men to teachers who aren’t trained in the subject.

The information gaps are especially concerning for LGBTQ+ youth. One student, who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, wishes his school offered sex ed where he could ask more questions and get more advice. “I think it's important for sex ed to normalize sex, especially for people our age,” he told Sanaa. “So we don't carry on these fears into our adulthood.”

And Aliyah Ansari, a teen health strategist from the New York Civil Liberties Union, explains why her organization is pushing for change, calling on the state to require K-12 comprehensive sexuality education in public and charter schools that would be age and culturally appropriate and medically accurate and inclusive. 

“We see time and time again,” Ansari said, “our students are not getting the information that they need.”

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Producers Bernie Carmona Pereda, from Beacon High School, and Isabella Mason, from Midwood High School, discuss the critical role of ethnic studies courses — and their uncertain future. 

Hear from Marame Diop, a sophomore at Yale who created an ethnic studies course while a student at Beacon High School, which gave her peers an alternative to typical history classes that focus too much “on some old, white, dead guy.”

And Chalkbeat reporter Julian Shen-Berro explains how federal pressures could lead to potential self-censorship in the classroom, raising concerns about the future of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the nation’s largest school system.

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Here’s what’s coming up:

They tackle issues that are shaping student life today—AI in classrooms, shifts in immigration policy, sex ed in the cross hairs, school politics, curriculum fights, and more. Expect in-depth reporting, fresh youth perspectives, and stories you won’t hear anywhere else.

Listen on Thursdays this spring, starting April 4. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts

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P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Listen to what it’s really like to navigate the largest school system in the country, from the admission process to stark resource disparities within schools — and what students would change if they were in charge.

Featuring: P.S. Weekly reporters Marcellino Melika, Bernie Carmona, and Salma Baksh, along with Chalkbeat New York reporter Alex Zimmerman.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

News Bulletin — Chalkbeat's Amy Zimmer breaks down top education stories from the past week. (2 min)

Segment A — Salma Baksh interviews a mother-daughter duo as they discuss conflicting views on therapy. (11 min)

Segment B — Shoaa Khan explores Teenspace, the city's new virtual therapy initiative that provides free services for teens. Hear about the ambitious new program from Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan and therapist Dr. Jill Daino . (8 min)

Learn more about Teenspace: talkspace.com/nyc

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Send us Fan Mail

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.