Best Selling Books by Ellen Schwartz

Giving birth to Jacob was supposed to be the happiest moment in Ellen''s life, but for her and her husband Jeff, the joyful moment turned into their worst nightmare when they learned Jacob had Canavan Disease: a devastating cerebral degenerative disease of infancy. Jacob would never see, speak, walk, or sit up. There ie no treatment or cure. He would die. Maybe in six months. Maybe in two years. No one knew. In some ways, the worst was yet to come, for not only was Jacob born with a death sentence, but his disease would require as many as eight serious operations within his first year. The unbearable helplessness of a parent forced to endure with impotence the endless agony of a son in constant pain. He required constant, round-the-clock supervision. The strain and stress on the family was unbelievable. And yet, as Ellen painstakingly chronicles in this raw but unforgettable memoir of a mother and her son, Despite all his disabilities, Jacob loves life more than anyone I have ever met. He shows me how to live each day to the fullest. Jacob is eight years old. He continues -- despite the odds -- to live each day to the fullest.

Senescent cells are one source of the chronic inflammation associated with the diseases and debilities of aging. Whereas cellular senescence in fibroblasts is well documented, how this process is orchestrated in epithelial cells, the origin of human carcinomas, is much less understood. I used normal primary human oral keratinocytes (NOKs) to elucidate senescence programs in a prototype mucosal epithelial cell that undergoes senescence spontaneously. Widely-accepted assays were used to characterize senescence phenotypes in these cells, and showed that p21WAF1/CIP1 is not a reliable marker of senescence for NOKs, as it is for fibroblasts. Transcriptome analysis by RNA-seq, and analysis by mass spectrometry of secreted proteins, both soluble and those associated with extracellular vesicles (EVs), were performed. Findings regarding NOK senescence were buttressed using other methods, including microscopy and immunoblotting. Identification of top upregulated and downregulated genes at the mRNA level emphasizes the pro-inflammatory and cancer evasion aspects of NOK senescence. Two of the donors displayed an expected repression of DNA repair genes, correlating with downregulation of E2F1 mRNA and protein, but a divergent result was evidenced for the third donor. Analysis of RNA-seq results within the context of the canonical senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP) and inflammatory pathways (NF-[kappa]B, interferon, and p38MAPK) known to operate in senescence was conducted, and secretion of elements of the canonical soluble SASP was measured. RNA-seq results highlighted potential senolytic targets, including immune evasion mechanisms. The secretome analysis identified a number of pro-inflammatory damage associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and other molecules that likely contribute to the deleterious effects of senescent cells. The data enabled me to propose additions to the senescence associated secretory phenotype, including HSP60, which was found on the surface of EVs. A co-incubation experiment showed that EVs from senescent NOKs can create inflammation by stimulating STING-dependent interferon pathway signaling in THP-1 monocytes. Sequencing of DNA from these EVs showed that they are associated with mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. These results highlight important senescence changes in epithelial cells in terms of how these cells contribute to chronic inflammation and age-related diseases, and how this inflammation might be alleviated.

More than 86,000 students enrolled in first grade in New York City in the fall of 1995. These students were expected to graduate from high school in June 2007. As we seek to understand why some met this goal while others did not, it is critical to know where they began. Researchers followed this cohort for their first eight years of schooling: from their first days in fall 1995 through June 2003 when they were expected to complete eighth grade. To learn (1) the demographic characteristics of the first grade class of 1995-96, (2) who stays and who leaves, (3) who is held back, and (4) the academic outcomes for each group. The New York University (NYU) Institute for Education and Social Policy analyzed student-level data provided by the New York City Department of Education for all first through eighth graders from 1995-96 through 2002-03. This report presents their key findings and insights. (Contains 7 figures and 5 footnotes.).

This paper examines the relationship between the timing of SNAP benefit payments and participation in school lunch and breakfast using the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS). An event study approach examines participation over the five-day window before and after the SNAP payment. We find that school lunch participation decreases 17 to 23 percentage points immediately after the SNAP payment among 11-18 year olds while breakfast drops 19 to 36 percentage points. The decline begins the day prior to payment. We find no effects for 5-10 year olds. Models examining participation over the full SNAP month using individual fixed effects yield similar findings. Among teenagers, participation in school lunch and breakfast decline in the first two weeks of the SNAP month, increasing afterwards. Non-school meals show the opposite pattern. Overall, results indicate SNAP households rely more on school lunch and breakfast toward the end of the SNAP month. Adolescents substitute away from school meals to non-subsidized meal options earlier in the SNAP benefit cycle.

In New York City, elementary and middle school students speak a wide variety of languages in their homes (167) and come from a vast number of countries (192). Over 1 in 10 children are limited English proficient (LEP) and another 3 in 10 are English proficient and from homes where languages other than English are spoken. Given the challenges to educating students with varying language needs, it is important to gain an understanding of the differences and similarities between students who are not yet proficient in English and those who are proficient, and to further distinguish among the English proficient students who are and are not exposed to English at home. What are the differences in the characteristics and school performance of LEP and English proficient students? Do English proficient students exposed to English at home differ from those exposed to other languages? This report, a companion to our report on immigrant students, answers these and other questions through a statistical portrait of the demographic characteristics and academic performance of New York City''s elementary and middle school students by English language proficiency and home language groups.

Schools are not static entities--reforms are enacted, curriculums change, new principals and teachers arrive and others leave, and, importantly, students exit and enter the school system. These students may be graduating or reaching a terminal grade, beginning school, entering from local private or parochial schools, moving from another district, or emigrating from another country. This brief focuses on the latter group: the immigrant students in New York City (NYC) public elementary and middle schools over the past decade. As the largest and most diverse school system in the country, it is particularly important that education professionals in NYC have a comprehensive understanding of their students and how they are changing. This report presents a statistical portrait of the demographic characteristics and educational experiences of immigrant students in NYC''s elementary and middle school grades (1st-8th grades) during the 2008-09 academic year. It documents the size and diversity of the immigrant population; compares differences between the native-born and immigrant students across a series of socioeconomic, demographic, and academic performance variables; examines differences within the immigrant population related to time in the U.S. and differences in region of origin; and notes similarities and differences between the foreign-born student population in 2009 compared to 2000. Two appendices are included: (1) Differences in School Performance of Region Groups within Poverty, Racial/Ethnic, and English Proficiency Groups [Tables]; and (2) Countries Included in Regional Groupings.

High school reform is currently at the top of the education policy making agenda after years of stagnant achievement and persistent racial and income test score gaps. Although a number of reforms offer some promise of improving U.S. high schools, small schools have emerged as the favored reform model, especially in urban areas, garnering substantial financial investments from both the private and public sectors. In the decade following 1993, the number of high schools in New York City nearly doubled, as new "small" schools opened and large high schools were reorganized into smaller learning communities. The promise of small schools to improve academic engagement, school culture, and, ultimately, student performance has drawn many supporters. However, educators, policy makers, and researchers have raised concerns about the unintended consequences of these new small schools and the possibility that students "left behind" in large, established high schools are incurring negative impacts.

We evaluate the effectiveness of small high school reform in the country''s largest school district, New York City. Using a rich administrative data-set for multiple cohorts of students and distance between student residence and school to instrument for endogenous school selection, we find substantial heterogeneity in school effects: newly created small schools have positive effects on graduation and some other education outcomes while older small schools do not. Importantly, we show that ignoring this source of treatment effect heterogeneity by assuming a common small school effect yields a misleading zero effect of small school attendance.

Provides lessons plans about commonalities, health, and cooperation.

Using the literature on achievement differences as a framework and motivation, along with data on New York City students, we examine nativity differences in students'' rates of attendance, school mobility, school system exit, and special education participation. The results indicate that, holding demographic and school characteristics constant, foreign-born have higher attendance rates and lower rates of participation in special education than native-born. Among first graders, immigrants are also more likely to transfer schools and exit the school system between years than native-born, yet the patterns are different among older students. We also identify large variation according to birth region.

We evaluate the effectiveness of small school reform as systemic reform in the nation''s largest school district, New York City. Using rich administrative data for four cohorts of students, we examine the extent to which graduation and testing outcomes improved for all students, not only those in small schools. Our findings show that high school outcomes improved overall, that these improvements were not driven solely by the positive effects observed in small schools, and that the results are robust to student characteristics and selection. Importantly, this paper provides insight into how the introduction of new small schools improves outcomes district-wide.

Objective: This paper explores the effect of the economic conditions of source countries and the human capital characteristics of coethnic immigrant communities on foreign-born students'' reading and math achievement. Methods: We use data on New York City public school foreign-born students from 39 countries merged with Census data on the characteristics of the city''s immigrants, and United Nations data on the economic conditions of countries. We estimate regressions of student achievement on home country and coethnic immigrant community characteristics, controlling for student and school attributes. Results: Children from middle income nations and nations where English is an official language have lower reading scores than students from other nations, though no such effects are observed for math. Children from immigrant communities with higher levels of income and educational attainment perform better in school than children from other communities. Yet children in highly English proficient immigrant communities test slightly lower than children from less proficient communities.

The recent foreclosure crisis has plagued nearly every city in the U.S., including New York City. Despite considerable attention to the causes of these mortgage foreclosures and the consequences they have had for communities, we know little about their impacts on individual families and children. Given that more than 2.8 million U.S. property owners received a foreclosure notice in 2010 alone; it is likely that large numbers of children are leaving their homes and moving schools, as well. This policy brief examines the prevalence of foreclosure among buildings housing New York City public school students and explores the relationship between foreclosures and student mobility. Specifically, the authors examine whether children who live in properties entering foreclosure are more likely than their peers to switch schools. Such mobility is of potential concern because research suggests that changing schools is often damaging to children''s academic performance (Hanushek et al., 2004; Schwartz et al., 2007). This brief also explores how the new schools the children attend after moving differ from their origin schools, in terms of student demographics and performance. Our research focuses primarily on elementary and middle school students who attended New York City public schools in the 2003-04 and 2006-07 school years. For additional information on our data and methods, see Been et al. (2011), "Kids and Foreclosures: New York City." Key finding include: (1) 20,453 public school students lived in buildings that entered foreclosure in 2006-07; (2) 61 percent of students living in buildings that entered foreclosure lived in 2-4 family or larger multi-family properties; (3) 57 percent of students living in buildings that entered foreclosure in 2006-07 were black, compared to 33 percent of all other students; (4) Public school students living in buildings in foreclosure were more likely to change schools in the year following a foreclosure notice than other students, and the effect was amplified for children in multi-family buildings; (5) Students living in properties that entered foreclosure were significantly less likely than their peers to leave the New York City public school system in the subsequent year; and (6) Students who moved to new schools after a foreclosure moved to lower-performing schools on average. The change in school quality was no more dramatic, however, than that experienced by other students who moved schools.

The mortgage foreclosure crisis has affected millions of households around the country. Researchers and policy makers have begun to pay attention to the external costs that these foreclosures impose on surrounding properties and neighborhoods (Schuetz et al., 2008; Harding et al., 2009). But few have considered the collateral costs for children, who may, as a result of foreclosures, be forced to leave their homes, communities, and schools. Moreover, even children whose families are able to stay in their homes may experience considerable stress from the foreclosure process. In this report, the authors use a unique data set on New York City students to examine the characteristics of the City''s students and schools that have been affected by foreclosures. Specifically, they link student-level academic records to building-level foreclosure data in New York City to address three questions about children living in properties entering foreclosure. First, how many students live in properties entering foreclosure? Second, what are the characteristics of those students and how do they compare to those of the full population of students attending New York City''s public schools? Third, are students living in properties going through foreclosure concentrated in particular schools, and if so, what are the characteristics of those schools? The focus is on students from the 2003-04 and 2006-07 academic school years. Key findings include: (1) The number of public school students facing foreclosure has increased over time; in the 2006-07 school year, the number of students living in homes that received a foreclosure notice rose to 18,525; (2) 57 percent of students facing foreclosure are black, as compared to just 33 percent of public school students in New York City as a whole; (3) Students facing foreclosure are no more likely to be poor than other public school students in New York City; (4) Half of the students living in properties entering foreclosure in 2006-07 attended just 17 percent of all City schools; (5) A small number of schools--mostly located Brooklyn and Queens-- educate a large number of students facing foreclosure; and (6) The schools with larger shares of students facing foreclosure on average have: (a) Larger percentages of black students; (b) Higher shares of students receiving free or reduced-priced lunch; and (c) Lower shares of students scoring proficient on standardized math and reading tests. "Identifying Students Affected by Foreclosure" is appended.