Testimonials for SPI

  • "SPI is remarkable in its ability to inspire teachers as leaders and to develop students as real writers in the world."

    Sheridan Blau, Former President, National Council of Teachers of English

  • "Wonderful, heartbreaking, hilarious, beautiful and so very alive. This is a treasure box of what is best in us."

    Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize winning author

  • "SPI is the greatest thing I've seen come along in the 40 years of my teaching life!"

    John Browne, retired public school teacher

  • "I commend the Student Press Initiative on the preparation of a new generation of journalists and bold, independent thinkers."

    Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, Brooklyn 57th Assembly District

  • "SPI's presence in our ninth grade class has expanded our vision and validated our belief in the importance of authentic student writing."

    Angela Pruitt, Assistant Principal, Brooklyn Preparatory High School

  • "The writing's on the wall. These talented, ironic student voices explode and set the pages on fire. Their emerging voices of truth, pain, and triumph are to be heard, cheered, but not denied. Hear them."

    Rita Williams Garcia, author

  • "I wholeheartedly join with Teachers College in its commitment to seeing the Student Press Initiative succeed. Its growth potential and its centrality to the College's mission - to provide creative professional development models for teachers throughout the New York City public school system - make it among the College's highest priorities."

    Senator Charles Schumer

  • "A testament to teacher collaboration, to professional freedom, and the understanding that teaching is a constructivist act. Such rigorous and authentic work is rare."

    Jacqueline Ancess, Co-director, National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, & Teaching

  • "This project gives students an opportunity to engage with people outside their communities, and to discover that individuals have very different experiences of historical events."

    Meriam Lobel, curator and oral historian, Tribute WTC Visitor Center

  • "There are so many layers in a publication project. I've never worked on a unit that encompassed so many different skills and actually exceeded so many Language Arts standards."

    Susan D'Elia, English Teacher, Manchester Regional high School, Haledon, NJ

  • "The youth teach us with their words. Their words remind us that they will forge their own and make their own voices and we'd better facilitate them or be consumed in their wondrous fire."

    Roger Bonair-Agard, poet, spoken word artist, and co-founder of the LouderArts Project

  • "It feels great to be a published author. I feel like a star!"

    Student, NYC Public School

  • "SPI has exposed us to genres of writing which most of us have never experienced before. It has given us the confidence to tackle any form of writing we put our minds to."

    Ranise Rhodes, 10th grade student, co-author of the award-winning Yesterday's Issues, Today's Perspectives, Tomorrow's Lessons