Gifted and Talented Admissions

FAQ’s: 20 Questions NYC Parents Have About Applying To Kindergarten – Answered!
Finding the Right School

FAQ’s: 20 Questions NYC Parents Have About Applying To Kindergarten – Answered!

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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!

Could This Change Make NYC Kindergarten Admissions Easier – Or Harder?
Finding the Right School

Could This Change Make NYC Kindergarten Admissions Easier – Or Harder?

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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?

Will Changing Admission to Specialized High Schools Change Specialized High Schools? How Do We Find Out?
Finding the Right School

Will Changing Admission to Specialized High Schools Change Specialized High Schools? How Do We Find Out?

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This past weekend, 30,000 New York City 8th graders took the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) in hope of being among the 4,000 students accepted to one of the eight schools which use the SHSAT as its sole qualifying measure. This year, twenty percent of seats at every school are being set aside as… Continue reading Will Changing Admission to Specialized High Schools Change Specialized High Schools? How Do We Find Out?

Want To Make NYC Schools More Diverse? Fix These Parent Portal Problems First!
Finding the Right School · School Choice

Want To Make NYC Schools More Diverse? Fix These Parent Portal Problems First!

Alina AdamsLeave a comment

Thursday, October 11, 2018 was the last day New York City parents could sign their children up to take either the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) or audition for LaGuardia School of the Arts. It was also the first day when NYC parents could sign their children up to take the Gifted and Talented… Continue reading Want To Make NYC Schools More Diverse? Fix These Parent Portal Problems First!

NYC’s Top 25 Elementary Schools for 2018 & How You Can Get In!
Finding the Right School

NYC’s Top 25 Elementary Schools for 2018 & How You Can Get In!

Alina Adams1 Comment

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!

Why Our NYC School Chancellor Is Absolutely Right About Gifted & Talented Programs… And Why He Is Absolutely Wrong
Finding the Right School

Why Our NYC School Chancellor Is Absolutely Right About Gifted & Talented Programs… And Why He Is Absolutely Wrong

Alina AdamsLeave a comment

After announcing his plans to change admissions to New York City’s Specialized High Schools, and after expressing confusion as to why any family would opt for a screened school (despite his own daughter doing so in San Francisco), and after calling a mother “racist “ who objected to District 3 middle-schools setting aside 25% of… Continue reading Why Our NYC School Chancellor Is Absolutely Right About Gifted & Talented Programs… And Why He Is Absolutely Wrong

NYC Mom Deliberately Blackballed From Zoned School!
Finding the Right School

NYC Mom Deliberately Blackballed From Zoned School!

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The mother below wishes to remain anonymous: My son was denied entrance by our local zoned public school. Here is my story. In November 2017, I visited my zoned school, The Manhattan Beach School (PS 195). We had been displaced by Hurricane Sandy. Our home was a ticking time bomb and we had to move… Continue reading NYC Mom Deliberately Blackballed From Zoned School!

Summertime… And the Waitlists Are Moving: How NYC Families Can Get Into the Schools Of Their Choice
Finding the Right School · School Choice

Summertime… And the Waitlists Are Moving: How NYC Families Can Get Into the Schools Of Their Choice

Alina Adams1 Comment

Not a day has gone by over the past couple of weeks that a family I’m working with hasn’t emailed to cheer that they’ve finally gotten off the waitlist at their first-choice school, usually kindergarten, but sometimes other grades, all the way up through high school. For most parents, summer is the time when you… Continue reading Summertime… And the Waitlists Are Moving: How NYC Families Can Get Into the Schools Of Their Choice

The Lottery: A NYC Schools Horror Story (With Apologies to Shirley Jackson)
School Choice

The Lottery: A NYC Schools Horror Story (With Apologies to Shirley Jackson)

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Shirley Jackson’s 1948 short story, The Lottery, is considered a classic of slow-building horror. A small town holds a lottery every year to decide which citizen will be ritually stoned in order to insure a good harvest. Everyone goes uncomplainingly along in the name of tradition, and, despite a few scattered grumbles, nobody outright says… Continue reading The Lottery: A NYC Schools Horror Story (With Apologies to Shirley Jackson)

What To Expect When You’re Expecting a New SHSAT Plan (Part #3): Whose Fault Is It, Anyway? And Who’s Going To Fix It?
Accountability · School Choice

What To Expect When You’re Expecting a New SHSAT Plan (Part #3): Whose Fault Is It, Anyway? And Who’s Going To Fix It?

Alina AdamsLeave a comment

In Part #1 of our four part series, I dove into the nitty-gritty of the Mayor’s plan to get rid of the SHSAT test in Specialized High School admissions, and speculated about his true motives. In Part #2, I laid out who would win and who would lose when the proposal is codified into law.… Continue reading What To Expect When You’re Expecting a New SHSAT Plan (Part #3): Whose Fault Is It, Anyway? And Who’s Going To Fix It?