Last week, the big New York City news was: Amazon Is Coming To Long Island City, Queens! While pundits debated what that will mean for housing prices, public transportation, and other quality of life issues, The Wall Street Journal hoped for improved student tech training and internship opportunities, The Daily News revealed that it would… Continue reading How Will Amazon Affect Schools In Queens – And All Of NYC?
There is no nice way to put this: The Department of Education’s Parent Portal is an unmitigated disaster. Since it opened, I have received literally hundreds of emails from frustrated families who are having trouble registering, getting confirmation, or even logging on. Their calls to the DOE are going unanswered, requiring multiple hour wait times,… Continue reading FAQ’s: 20 Questions NYC Parents Have About Applying To Kindergarten – Answered!
“I put him in that group on purpose,” my son’s math teacher told us during Parent-Teacher conferences. “The other students were having trouble understanding some of the concepts and I knew your child could help explain them.” This isn’t my son’s first time at this rodeo. A few years ago, his Computer Programming teacher flat… Continue reading In Mixed Ability Classrooms, Who Is Really Doing the Teaching?
Are you a New York City parent applying your child to public school Kindergarten for September 2019? Congratulations! Here are just some of the forms you’ll need to fill out: Interested in a traditional zoned Kindergarten? That goes on Kindergarten Connect! (Whether it’s your zoned school or not.) Unzoned Kindergarten? Dual language Kindergarten? Magnet school?… Continue reading Could This Change Make NYC Kindergarten Admissions Easier – Or Harder?
This past weekend, 30,000 New York City 8th graders took the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) in hope of being among the 4,000 students accepted to one of the eight schools which use the SHSAT as its sole qualifying measure. This year, twenty percent of seats at every school are being set aside as… Continue reading Will Changing Admission to Specialized High Schools Change Specialized High Schools? How Do We Find Out?
Thursday, October 11, 2018 was the last day New York City parents could sign their children up to take either the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) or audition for LaGuardia School of the Arts. It was also the first day when NYC parents could sign their children up to take the Gifted and Talented… Continue reading Want To Make NYC Schools More Diverse? Fix These Parent Portal Problems First!
Last year’s post on NYC’s Top 10 Elementary Schools By Test Scores: What Makes Them Special – And How You Can Get In proved such a reader favorite, we’ve updated it! Because many schools make a return appearance, we’ve expanded our list to the top 25, and added details about how some of them get… Continue reading NYC’s Top 25 Elementary Schools for 2018 & How You Can Get In!
Last month District 15 in Brooklyn announced the elimination of all screening processes for admission to middle school. (Yes, even the performing arts one).) Instead of taking into consideration grades, test scores and more, Park Slope’s 11 middle schools will assign seats by lottery, with 52 percent of slots in every school set aside for… Continue reading Who Will (And Won’t) Benefit From Unscreened NYC Schools
Earlier this month, The Atlantic ran a piece entitled, Teens Are Protesting In-Class Presentations. Taylor Lorenz wrote: “(S)tudents have started calling out in-class presentations as discriminatory to those with anxiety, demanding that teachers offer alternative options…. “Nobody should be forced to do something that makes them uncomfortable,” says Ula, a 14-year-old in eighth grade, who,… Continue reading Should Schools Push Kids Out Of Their Comfort Zones?
PJ Library, a non-profit which sends out free Jewish children’s books, also has a book club for parents. Their most recent selection was Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jewish Mothers Do To Raise Successful, Creative, Empathetic, Independent Children by Marjorie Ingall. In Chapter 6: Emphasize – But Don’t Fetishize – Education, Ingall, as all New York… Continue reading Should Schools Teach Your Child Values?
