New York is among the winners of the much sought after Race to the Top federal education grants.

Fifteen year-old Gabriela Molina’s 45-minute commute to summer school begins on the L train in Brooklyn. One subway connection later she’s now on a ferry to Governor’s Island. "When they first tell you that you have to take a lot of transportation you say 'it’s difficult.' But once you take it, it’s okay," she says, as a ferry pulls away from the Manhattan dock, blasting its deep horn.

After years of steady improvement, it now appears that test scores have fallen in New York State. The percentage of elementary and middle school students passing the annual math and reading tests has dropped by double digits. Just 53 percent of students met the standards on their English Language Arts exams in grades 3 through 8. That's a 24 percentage point drop since last year. The percentage of students passing the math tests fell by about the same, with just 61 percent now on grade level.

New York State is among 19 finalists for the second round of federal Race to the Top education grants. The others include Washington, D.C., New Jersey, California and Maryland. Connecticut wasn’t selected.

New York City principals are getting a jump start on the new national standards for math and literacy supported by the Obama administration. Training sessions are taking place this summer even though the changes won't be rolled out until 2012.

United States Senators from New York and New Jersey are pressing for British and Scottish officials to testify before the Foreign Relations Committee, following more questions about the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.

It’s no secret that cities are often hotter than their surrounding regions. For one thing, they’re crowded with warm bodies. And they contain lots of machinery to power our lights and keep our cars and transit systems moving.

Swimming classes start this week at New York City public pools. The city Department of Parks & Recreation’s free "Learn to Swim" classes are open to children and adults at 35 of the city's 54 pools. The first round of classes begins Wednesday after Tuesday’s registration period.

The city has lost its appeal of a court ruling that prevented it from closing 19 failing schools.

It’s officially summer.

A proposal to eliminate New York State's annual exams in social studies for elementary and middle school students will be considered Monday by a Board of Regents committee.

Where did the money go?

The agencies that authorize charter schools in New York State defended their oversight of the publicly financed schools today at a hearing before a state Senate committee in Manhattan.

New York State lost the competition for education funds known as Race to the Top.

In the month since the Haitian earthquake the city's public schools have taken in 219 students from Haiti.

New York City and New Jersey public schools will be closed today, Wednesday, in anticipation of a big winter storm that promises to dump 12 inches of snow on the area.

The NAACP and the teachers union have filed a lawsuit claiming the city violated state laws with last week's vote to close 19 low-performing schools.

Despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg's prediction of "great progress," New York City students pretty much followed the pattern of other states and cities on this year's national math exams.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city has found a loophole to a state law enabling it to use student test scores to evaluate teachers.

In the first story of a new series, WNYC’s Beth Fertig visits a remedial class at LaGuardia Community College in Queens to see why math is such an obstacle.