After only three years on the job, New York City’s Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza is stepping down. A new chancellor from within the school system, Meisha Porter, takes over next month. The change in leadership in the nation’s largest school system comes in the midst of the pandemic, with the majority of New York City students still enrolled in full-time remote learning. 

WNYC education reporter Jessica Gould says Porter — a former teacher and principal at the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice and most recently, the executive superintendent in the Bronx — will inherit a number of policy challenges from her predecessor, who criticized segregation in schools and struggled to eliminate the city's admission exam for gifted and talented programs. 

Gould says that's in addition to figuring out if high schools can resume in-person learning this spring and how to safely re-open the entire school system by September, as Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised to do.  

"Parents really want more information now about what school re-opening next fall is going to look like," she said. "And educators need to address students' learning gaps and figure out how to support them academically and emotionally after the pandemic."

Click "Listen" in the player above for their entire conversation.