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
Joseph S. Lento is a licensed Teacher of Orchestral Music and School District Administration. In 2014 President Obama named him a National Teacher of Arts and Humanities. Joseph has commendations from Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. In 1999 he was named NYC Public Schools Bronx County High Schools Teacher of the Year.… Continue reading The NYC Department of Education Wants to Reserve Seats in Elite High Schools By Race. Here’s Why That’s Wrong.
Less than 24 hours after my post, New Year, Old NYC School Argument, ran on NY School Talk, The New York Times published their piece on the same subject, Why Black Parents Are Turning To Afrocentric Schools. Now, I’m not suggesting that my post had anything to do with it. The NYT article had obviously… Continue reading To Each Their Own: Power To the Parents!
Kindergarten Connect, the form New York City parents use to apply their children to public school Kindergarten for September 2019, is scheduled to close on Monday, January 14th, although on-going problems with the “new and improved” online Parent Portal may cause the deadline to be pushed back due to technical difficulties. To help parents know… Continue reading New Year, Old NYC School Argument
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
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!
“I put him in that group on purpose,” my son’s math teacher told us during Parent-Teacher conferences. “The other students were having trouble understanding some of the concepts and I knew your child could help explain them.” This isn’t my son’s first time at this rodeo. A few years ago, his Computer Programming teacher flat… Continue reading In Mixed Ability Classrooms, Who Is Really Doing the Teaching?
This is a guest post by Ariela Rozman who co-founded EdNavigator, where this post originally appeared. Before that, she served for eight years as Chief Executive Officer of TNTP. In October, The New York Times shared the heartbreaking story of TJ, a child with special needs who had been left behind by New York City schools. Heartbreaking because… Continue reading In NYC’s Special Education Labyrinth, Families Need a Guide: For Proof, The Heartbreaking Case of TJ.
Fifteen years ago when I began my journey as an education advocate, I was in it for myself. More specifically, for my son Jonah, who has multiple disabilities stemming from a genetic mutation called Fragile X Syndrome. I saw my quest as securing a high-quality seat for my boy in a school that would provide… Continue reading The Dead Canary: The Problems Within NYC’s Special Education System Signify Global Dysfunction
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?
