Advanced Placement · Educational Equity · NYC high school

A Brooklyn School Working to Help Students Share Their Own Voices

(This is a guest post by Natasha Cherry-Perez, Senior Associate Director of Community Engagement at Uncommon Schools and super Mom to an outstanding high school student.) In middle school, Ruth Kendall remembered the mathematical expression Pi (3.14) all the way out to 400 digits. She loves numbers so much, the Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School… Continue reading A Brooklyn School Working to Help Students Share Their Own Voices

Advanced Placement · homeschooling · NYC high school · online learning · remote learning · student voices

So You Want To Homeschool? How To File the Paperwork You Need & Register for AP Exams, Too!

I started homeschooling myself in November, but before I could begin that endeavor, I had to complete two tedious tasks. Firstly, I had to register for AP exams. Secondly, I had to submit an Individualized Home Instruction Plan and Letter of Intent to the NYC Department of Education. Registering for AP exams took the longest… Continue reading So You Want To Homeschool? How To File the Paperwork You Need & Register for AP Exams, Too!

Advanced Placement · Computer Science · homeschooling · NYC high school · student voices

Exceeding Expectations: How I Chose My Homeschooling Classes

At the beginning of November, I left 11th grade at Stuyvesant High School, and started homeschooling myself. One of the primary benefits of homeschooling is that it freed me to select my courses of study. Had I stayed at Stuyvesant, this year I would have taken American Literature, Spanish 3, US History, Health, Regents Physics,… Continue reading Exceeding Expectations: How I Chose My Homeschooling Classes

Accountability · Advanced Placement

How the College Board Siphons Public Funds and Profits off Student Failure with AP Courses

The New York City Department of Education’s AP for All initiative “aims to ensure that by fall 2021, students at all high schools will have access to at least five AP classes.” AP for All is part of the DOE’s Equity and Excellence for All agenda, run by the Office of Equity and Access, whose… Continue reading How the College Board Siphons Public Funds and Profits off Student Failure with AP Courses

Blog · New York City

4 Things High School Students MUST Know Before Signing Up For AP Classes

If you are currently in high school in NYC, your school probably offers AP courses. You may know that they are “advanced” classes, with a final comprehensive test at the end, and you were probably told that you can earn college credit for taking them. If you’re a good student who wants to save some… Continue reading 4 Things High School Students MUST Know Before Signing Up For AP Classes

Blog

A SHSAT Compromise I Can Live With – Can You?

It was exactly at this time last year when Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza announced their plan to introduce a bill in the New York State Assembly that would alter admission to New York City’s 8 Specialized High Schools from a single Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) to extending offers to… Continue reading A SHSAT Compromise I Can Live With – Can You?

School Choice

Most of My Students Didn’t Know Any College Graduates But That’s Not Stopping Them From Going to College!

Taylor Cook is a college counselor in Rochester, New York. She grew up in Rochester, New York, until the age of 8 before moving to Fairport—a suburb a few miles east of the city. After graduating high school, Taylor enrolled and graduated from Nazareth College with degrees in Spanish and international studies. “I can’t believe… Continue reading Most of My Students Didn’t Know Any College Graduates But That’s Not Stopping Them From Going to College!

Blog

So Let Me Get This Straight: If Black Kids Come to a School, the School is Going to Automatically Fail?

It’s over 50 years since the historic Supreme Court vote that ushered integration into public schools into the public school system of United States of America.  Yet in 2018 rich white people are still up in arms about the mere mention of allocating seats in their segregated schools for minority children. They didn’t want our… Continue reading So Let Me Get This Straight: If Black Kids Come to a School, the School is Going to Automatically Fail?

Blog · School Choice

Letting My 14 Year-Old Make His Own Educational Decisions

Today, Monday, March 26, is the day when all New York City eighth-graders must either decide which public High School offer they are going to accept or, if they were given no match during the First Round, turn in their application for the schools left in Second Round. (For tips on why and how you… Continue reading Letting My 14 Year-Old Make His Own Educational Decisions

Accountability

Why Quantity Doesn’t Equal Quality In NYC Schools: So Where Is the Accountability?

It’s February of 2018 and public Kindergarten, Middle School and High School placements are due out in about a month (or two). In order to to convince families to stick with the system and ignore all their other options, the following are things the New York City Department of Education (DOE) would like you to… Continue reading Why Quantity Doesn’t Equal Quality In NYC Schools: So Where Is the Accountability?