In my 2017 post, Beyond the Zone: All Your NYC Elementary School Options (And How To Get Them) Explained, I mentioned Deborah Meier as someone who didn’t believe that the primarily African-American and Hispanic families of Harlem should be forced to settle for the education their zoned public schools were offering. In 1974, she founded… Continue reading NYC Schools Of Choice: Then and Now
(Photo Credit: Christina Veiga of Chalkbeat) By this point, New York City parents have grown accustomed to the hypocrisy. The hypocrisy of elected officials and celebrities who sent their own children to Screened and Specialized schools, now expressing shock (and judgement) that any other families might want to do the same, and working their hardest… Continue reading NYC School Hypocrisy Continued: Universal Pre-K Edition – Are Parents Part Of the Problem?
At New Visions for Public Schools, it’s all about continuous school improvement. The organization supports a network of 70 district and 10 charter schools in New York City serving, all told, 40,000 students. (When you include individual district support, those numbers increase to 440 schools serving 230,000 students.) Jefferson Pestronk, Vice President of Strategy and… Continue reading At New Visions for Public Schools, It’s All About Continuous School Improvement. How’s That Going?
This is a guest post by ShaRhonda Knott-Dawson, who currently resides in the west suburbs of Chicago with her two school-aged girls and her husband, Brian. She blogs at ShaRhondaTribune.com and ChicagoUnheard.org. This piece originally appeared on Education Post. “What you not gone do…”—An African American proverb Last month Democrats for Education Reform released polling… Continue reading Democrats Won’t Dictate Where My Black Children Go to School.
This is a guest post by Zachary Wright, a national finalist for the United States Department of Education’s School Ambassador Fellowship and 2013 Philadelphia Teacher of the Year. Now he 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… Continue reading This Charter Supporter Gets Real about Success Academy. Will School Choice Opponents and Union Proponents Get Real Too?
StudentsFirstNY reports that dozens of public charter school parents from across New York City rallied outside the NYC Department of Education in support of a longstanding City initiative that allows charter schools to mail flyers to prospective families. New York City has a model program where it protects parent privacy so that no school has… Continue reading “Why Would the Mayor Want to Block Me and Other Parents From Knowing Our Public School Options?” Parents Speak Out.
This is a fact sheet from the New York City Charter School Center that counters myths with facts about the DeBlasio Administration’s threat to block charter schools’ access to Vanguard, the city Department of Education’s direct-mail vendor. Without access, NYC families will have a far more difficult time making public school choices for their children.… Continue reading Myths Vs. Facts on NYC DOE’s Threat to Limit Parent Information About Public School Options for Their Children.
Spring is a major holding pattern for New York City families. Middle school placement, Universal Pre-K, and Gifted & Talented scores are due “any minute.” Kindergarten General Education, charter schools, and high school offers are out. But the process is far from over. High schools hold a Second Round for those unhappy with their initial… Continue reading The Butterfly Effect: Good and Bad News About Your NYC Public School Waitlist
Last week, I received the following email from a parent: I‘m being told by the parent coordinator at our zoned school (PS 11Q) that general ed school choice is not real, and my child will be attending the zoned school no matter what I ranked. The PS 11Q parent coordinator did not schedule any open… Continue reading The Sorting Hat: How NYC’s Kindergarten Admission Really Works
On Monday, March 3, 2019, the Board of Trustees for the State University of New York approved 13 new charter school applications. However, only 7 of those will be allowed to open, due to the charter cap. Among them is a new middle school for Manhattan’s District 3 (Upper West Side and parts of Harlem)… Continue reading How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth It Is To Have Ungrateful NYC Families!
