(This is a guest post by Dana Kaplan. Dana has her MA in Early Childhood Education with an additional certification in Gifted Education. Dana joined PS 33, Chelsea Prep for the 2006-2007 school year. During Dana’s tenure at PS 33, she taught Pre-K for two years, launched the ICT-Kindergarten class, and independently created, piloted, and… Continue reading How To Choose a Gifted & Talented Program For Your Child
Let me recap the New York City schools week of April 18 to April 24, 2020 for you. First, on Saturday, April 18, the Parent Portal, which malfunctioned so spectacularly in so many ways last year, continued to glitch in we-obviously-haven’t-fixed-it-yet ways. General Education Kindergarten offers of admission, at that point scheduled to be released… Continue reading Your General Ed and G&T Kindergarten 2020 Admissions Questions – Answered!
(This is a guest post by Yiatin Chu, Maud Maron, and Amy Tse, Founding Members of Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curricula and Education, a.k.a. PLACE NYC.) On December 12th, 2019, over 100 parents crowded around lunchroom tables of East Side Middle School to hear State Senator John Liu speak about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal… Continue reading State Senator Speaks On The Future of SHSAT, Screened Schools & G&T Programs
Earlier this month, I offered A Modest Proposal for Turning NYC School Admissions Upside Down – & Letting Parents Decide the Education They Want For Their Kids. The gist of it boiled down to: What if … A computer algorithm more sophisticated than the one in use now aggregated students by interest and location to… Continue reading Ditch “Gifted” Testing & Accelerate Any Child Who Wants It? NYC Parents Weigh In!
When news dropped late last month (literally 10 minutes before my middle child’s birthday dinner) about a proposal to get rid of New York City’s Gifted & Talented programs, The NY Daily News asked me to write an editorial on the topic. It ran on August 27 and was entitled, Eliminate Gifted & Talented Programs?… Continue reading “Implying That Black and Hispanic Kids Only Do Better When They’re In School With White Kids Is Racist.” A NYC Mom Speaks Out.
Last week, I shared the stories of several New York City parents who, after a great deal of perseverance, hard work, and a whole lot of anxiety, were finally able to get their children accepted at the public schools of their choice. This week, in her own words, we’ve got the account of a mom… Continue reading The Mom Who Did Everything Right When Applying Her Child To NYC Public School Kindergarten – And What Happened Next
It’s been an extremely difficult season for New York City public schools admissions. The new Parent Portal found novel and exciting ways to malfunction. Placements would appear and disappear. Results were posted for high school and Gifted & Talented admission, only to be nullified and families informed they weren’t official. One parent shared with me:… Continue reading Parents Helping Parents – When the Department of Ed Won’t (Gifted & Talented Edition)
New York City families who’d been ripping their hair out for over two months finally learned where their children had been placed for General Education public school kindergarten on March 28th. The results had been posted for nearly a full day before the Department of Education notified anxiously waiting parents that they were available. When… Continue reading How It Really Works: Behind the Scenes of a NYC Public School Waitlist & More Parent Portal Glitches!
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
News broke last Tuesday, March 12th, that some rich parents, including actors Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) and Lori Loughlin (Full House), paid from $15,000 to $500,000 to fraudulently arrange their children’s acceptances into colleges ranging from Yale to University of Southern California. The usual suspects made the appropriate shocked noises. Like when Major Strasser learned… Continue reading Say Goodbye To Hollywood: How Much For a ‘Good’ NYC Public School?
