The principal of Scholars’ Academy in Rockaway Park, one of the schools relocated after Sandy, says he has witnessed countless acts of compassion and kindness since the storm devastated his community.

Matthew Willoughby, who leads the Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction, explains how he gets his students ready for college with creative projects and field trips in addition to traditional academics.

The principal of a troubled secondary school in Manhattan has announced she will leave the school a day after the Panel for Educational Policy is scheduled to vote to phase out its middle grades.

The Bronx middle school Aspire Preparatory claims it is being unfairly tarnished because of one especially bad year. The school earned its first F last year when a high number of teachers were absent and it had to lean heavily on a revolving door of substitutes. Now it will likely be phased out, only a few years after it took the place of an even less successful school.

Maria Velez-Clarke, principal at the Children’s Workshop School in the East Village, reflected on how her school, which has 225 students, was founded on the principle of collaborative learning with less hierarchy in management, and how that has fared in the age of more standardized testing and teacher accountability.

An encounter on the C train reinforced the understanding of a city high school principal about the complex neighborhood codes that educators must overcome if they are going to help black and Latino male students.