Alina Adams is a New York City mom of 3 school-age children and a New York Times best-selling author of soap-opera tie-ins, figure-skating mysteries and romance novels. She is a contributing writer to TODAY Show Parenting, Mommy Poppins, BlogHer, Red Tricycle, Café Mom, and Kveller. After going through the NYC school application process with her own children and realizing just how convoluted, Draconian and needlessly complex it was, Alina resolved to help make all parents aware of all their school choices—and how to get them—via her books, “Getting Into NYC Kindergarten” and “Getting Into NYC High-School,” as well as her podcast, “NYC School Secrets: Parents Helping Parents.” Read more and listen at: www.NYCSchoolSecrets.com
Last week, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio announced that 2021 would be the last year his Department of Education would administer the public school Gifted & Talented test for placement into Citywide and District programs. His spokeswoman, Miranda Barbot, clarified: “We will spend the next year engaging communities around what kind of programming… Continue reading How NYC Parents Can Save Public School Education: It’s Up To You!
My December 21, 2020 post, Answering Parent Questions About Getting Into NYC Kindergarten 2021: COVID-19 Edition, prompted an avalanche of — what else? — more questions. On top of asking whether there will be Gifted & Talented testing and how seats will be filled at those schools if there isn’t (answer: we still don’t know;… Continue reading Will It Be Easier To Get Into Your First Choice NYC School For September 2021 – Or Harder?
A post that I wrote this past August receiving as many new hits per day as more recent updates suggests that New York City parents are desperate for information about how to apply their children for Kindergarten in 2021. Here are where matters stand as of Monday, December 21, 2020. General Education Public Schools: Unlike… Continue reading Answering Parent Questions About Getting Into NYC Kindergarten 2021: COVID-19 Edition
On Thursday, December 10, 2020, almost exactly nine months after he first closed New York City public schools, Mayor Bill De Blasio triumphantly announced that he finally has a plan for dealing with the disruption and learning loss. He calls it the 2021 Student Achievement Plan! (But wasn’t the bulk of the disruption and learning… Continue reading A Matter Of Trust: Why Some Families Have Lost All Faith In NYC Schools
As we shared last week, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio unexpectedly held a press conference the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend to announce the school re-opening plan he’d promised the previous Wednesday but then said would be coming sometime in early December. (Got that?) Hizzoner proclaimed that while middle and high schools would remain… Continue reading The Needs Of the Many Outweigh the Needs Of the Few: NYC Schools Edition
On October 29, Brooklyn City Council member Brad Lander reached out to his New York city colleagues: I am writing to request your support for Reso 1397 which would prohibit the use of screens for admission into community school district middle schools for the 2021-2022 school year. To counter, I shared my May 2019 post,… Continue reading An NYC Schools Admissions Plan So Crazy It Just Might Work – For Everyone
The National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP) — nicknamed “America’s Report Card” — released their 12th grade scores at the end of October. The horrifying results: Just 37% of 12th-graders reached or exceeded the academic preparedness benchmarks for both math and reading that would qualify them for entry-level college courses. (Ed. note: They are being… Continue reading The Other Epidemic: Majority of American High School Seniors Aren’t Proficient at Reading Or Math
