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?
On January 21, I wrote about Kids Left Waiting In the Cold as NYC Public Schools Cancel G&T Testing – But Don’t Notify Parents! This disaster was hardly the only one of the 2018-2019 admissions season. After my post ran, more parents contacted me. You can read their Department of Education stories of incompetence below.… Continue reading NYC Parents Sound Off On Department Of Education Incompetence! (Part #2)
When word of a snowstorm predicted to hit New York City over Martin Luther King Day weekend first surfaced, I sent out an email to my mailing list letting them know that the public school Gifted & Talented testing scheduled for that weekend might also be cancelled, and how to maximize their strategy for rescheduling.… Continue reading Kids Left Waiting In the Cold as NYC Public Schools Cancel G&T Testing – But Don’t Notify Parents!
Last year, our overview, Top 5 NYC School Issues That Enraged Parents in 2017 enumerated the posts that received the most hits during the course of the year, and speculated about what would happen in 2018. It says something about how much the Department of Education (DOE) cares about what New York City parents want… Continue reading These Are the Top 10 NYC School Outrages Which Appalled Parents in 2018 – Plus Tips On Navigating the New Parent Portal!
