Finding the right school is one of the most important decisions parents and families make for their kids, but it can sometimes be the hardest, especially in New York City.
When I give my “Getting Into NYC High School” workshops to parents and community groups around the city, I warn families that “getting Into NYC high school makes getting into NYC Kindergarten feel like puppies and kittens in a warm basket.” (I don’t even invoke getting into NYC middle school, which manages to combine the… Continue reading This Change Could Make Getting Into High School Easier For NYC Kids!
(This is a guest post by Allie Ryan, a former elected SLT Parent Member of her children’s Title 1 elementary school, where she has been a Co-Class Parent for several years. Her children have attended two district-wide G&T programs. Allie is also a founding member of PLACE, Parent Leaders for Acceleration Curriculum and Education, and… Continue reading Good-Bye To All That: NYC Public School Mom Explains What Drove Her Out Of the System
New York City General Education public school Kindergarten applications for 2020 were due on Tuesday, January 21. At the last minute, the Department of Education extended the deadline to Sunday, January 26. It was absolutely, positively not due to technical glitches with the very expensive MySchools Parent Portal. (For tips on how to circumvent the… Continue reading A Revolutionary Rezoning Plan To Increase School Diversity, Bring in More Funding & Make Parents’ Lives Easier! Would You Support?
A new year doesn’t mean an end to New York City’s education woes. In honor of 2020, we highlight 20 stories which are bound to continue vexing NYC families, ranked by how much traffic they received in 2019: 20: The Big Con: Why NYC’s Plan For Raising Student Achievement Isn’t Close To Good Enough For… Continue reading Top 20 NYC Education Stories To Follow In 2020
(This is a guest post by Michael N. Manta, a senior at Xavier High School who lives in Queens. Michael co-founded the nonprofit NYCMentors.org with his younger brother, Jonathan Manta, to provide mentorship to high achieving underserved middle school students.) In the age of Google and what seems to be an unlimited amount of knowledge… Continue reading The Benefits Of Peer Mentorship for NYC Teens Applying To High School
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he was running for President — as a Democrat, after being elected in NYC first as a Republican, then as an Independent — on Sunday, November 24th. As with other political candidates, I am only going to talk about his education policy record. Here are two major… Continue reading Second Round Shenanigans: Hunter, Special Music School & Other NYC Schools’ Subjective Admissions
(This is a guest post by Dr. Joiselle Cunningham, a senior advisor at HERE to HERE, CEO of Pathways to Creative Industries and lecturer at NYU. She previously led in the Obama Administration and received her doctorate from Harvard University. ) “I really love fashion and musical theater,” one student we’ll call Amy shared with… Continue reading Pathways to Creative Industries: Building Greater Access to the Arts in New York City Schools
Just in time for Democratic Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren to unveil her education plan severely limiting school options for low-income families, and the release of 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores in math and English (spoiler: New York City stayed flat overall and went down in math), comes Miss Virginia, a movie about… Continue reading School Choice Goes to the Movies: The Sequel!
In late 2018, the New York City Department Of Education (DOE) unveiled their brand new, online Parent Portal, MySchools, which was supposed to make applying to all levels of the school system — Universal Pre-K, Kindergarten, Gifted & Talented, Middle and High School — more streamlined, efficient, and convenient. In 2019, some parents couldn’t register.… Continue reading The Spooky Case Of the Mysterious, Missing SHSAT Tickets: Parents Sound Off On Department Of Education Incompetence (Part #3)
Earlier this month, I offered A Modest Proposal for Turning NYC School Admissions Upside Down – & Letting Parents Decide the Education They Want For Their Kids. The gist of it boiled down to: What if … A computer algorithm more sophisticated than the one in use now aggregated students by interest and location to… Continue reading Ditch “Gifted” Testing & Accelerate Any Child Who Wants It? NYC Parents Weigh In!
