This is a guest post by Darla M. Romfo, who serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Children’s Scholarship Fund (CSF), a nonprofit that provides partial scholarships for low-income children in grades K-8 to go to the school that best meets their needs. This school year, CSF and its partner programs nationwide are… Continue reading Giving the Gift of Opportunity to New York Children
Kindergarten Connect, the form New York City parents use to apply to public school Kindergarten for September 2019, came out on December 5 after being delayed from its originally announced date, December 3, presumably due to the ongoing disaster that is the new Parent Portal. Kindergarten Connect was designed to help all families exercise school… Continue reading Some Families Don’t Know How To Exercise School Choice. Others Don’t Know They’re Already Doing It: An Open Letter To Both
This post is by Joy Prescott, a fourth-grade math teacher at Pemayetv Emahakv Charter School in Florida and the 2019 Florida Department of Education Teacher of the Year. It was originally published at National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Over the course of almost two centuries, Florida’s Seminoles endured three wars with the U.S. government, resisted numerous… Continue reading Rekindling the Heritage of an Unconquered Indian Tribe
This is a post by my friend and colleague Zachary Wright, a national finalist for the United States Department of Education’s School Ambassador Fellowship. Zach is an assistant professor of practice at Relay Graduate School of Education serving Philadelphia and Camden. Prior to that, he was the 12th-grade world literature and AP literature teacher at Mastery… Continue reading No Matter What Anyone Says, the Money Ought to Follow the Kid Regardless of What Kind of Public School They Choose.
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!
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?
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!
This is a guest post by my friend and colleague Lane Wright. Lane lives in Tallahassee with his wife and three children and serves as Director of Policy Analysis at Education Post, a national nonprofit. You can substitute NJEA and other abusive parents for Lane’s references to the Florida Education Association. Imagine a family with 10 kids: Nine… Continue reading The Abusive Parent in The Charter School/Traditional School Family
Yesterday the New York City Department of Education released student test scores on standardized test scores. What do they mean? It depends on whom you ask. Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said this: “These scores are indicative of the sustained progress we have made in classrooms, schools and districts across all five boroughs,” Carranza said in… Continue reading Everything You Need To Know About NYC’s Test Scores
It’s a common complaint among those who turn down their collective nose at public charter schools: they don’t serve their fair share of students with disabilities, or at least those with moderate to severe disabilities, and they counsel out kids who can’t deal with academic rigor, either back to their sending districts or to private… Continue reading Not Backpacks Full of Cash: Backpacks Full of Rights! NCSECS Takes On Special Education Equity in Charter Schools
