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?
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!
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?
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
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?
High school juniors are now in full swing of their college search. Yet even in earlier grades college is on the radar for parents and students. With ever increasing competition, as evidenced by the continually decreasing acceptance rates at colleges, more and more families are beginning the college journey in sophomore year. The extra time… Continue reading Is Your Child a High School Freshman or Sophomore? It’s Not Too Early To Think About College!
During a recent trip to my hometown, I reconnected with some old schoolmates. As we were recounting our high school days, someone mentioned our class valedictorian, which evolved into a discussion on class rank, and none of us could recall where we stood in the pecking order. It was not something that I remember reviewing… Continue reading Is Class Ranking a Thing of The Past? A Long Island Mom Considers Her Daughter’s Experience
The start of my daughter’s junior year — and diving head first into the college prep process — is officially here. As I was going through a list of things to start tackling, results from a recent National Association for College Admission Counseling report caught my eye: the most important factor that colleges consider when… Continue reading What’s Wrong with Grade Inflation? Ask This Long Island Mom.
Recently, the results of two new studies prompted me to delve deeper into the complex world of how effectively our teachers are being evaluated in New York. Collectively, the studies show that despite states’ efforts to make evaluations tougher, principals continue to rate nearly all teachers as “effective,” and when principals are asked their opinions… Continue reading If All The Teachers of Honors Courses Are “Effective,” What’s Up With These A.P. Test Scores?
The US News & World Report released their latest rankings of America’s top public high-schools last month. Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña was quick to crow about how New York City schools topped the New York State list. The majority of those were specialized high schools, the ones her boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio, accuses students… Continue reading Why NYC High Schools Struggle With US News & World Report Rankings
