We asked readers to weigh in on test-prep for children who will take the OLSAT exam as part of the gifted and talented application process.

More than half of the poll’s respondents, 56%, supported preparing their young children for G&T testing, although as many people were enthusiastic (28%) as resigned (28%) to the test-prep reality. Another 26% rejected the very idea of OLSAT test-prep, while the balance, 16%, thought it an unnecessary (and entirely optional) part of the process. See the results here. We’ll be curious to hear how families feel their test prep (or lack thereof) affected their kids’ experiences at the actual test.

This week, we’re asking readers what they think of the deep education cuts Mayor Bloomberg outlined in his budget address: 15,000 DOE jobs at risk, including thousands of teachers. How will these cuts affect you?

The Education Committee of the New York City Council convened a hearing yesterday on the DOE’s nascent reorganization of special education. It’s the third planned reorganization of special ed since Bloomberg-Klein’s Children First initiative and according to Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children (AFC), the structure implemented in 2002 “has been wiped out and rebuilt twice in the past seven years.”

DOE representatives Deputy Chancellor Marcia Lyles, District 75 Superintendent Bonnie Brown and Executive Director for Special Education Initiatives Linda Wernikoff spoke of steady, incremental progress (while acknowledging profound shortfalls, both academic and procedural). Advocates from the United Federation of Teachers, the ARISE coalition, Parents for Inclusive Education (PIE) and AFC, among others, steadily chipped away at the good-news testimony from the DOE, describing problems in communication, transportation, the provision of mandated special services, enrollment, and outright discrimination against children with special needs and their families.

Even as the DOE was promoting one version of reality, advocates proposed another, and council members seemed caught in the middle, trying to understand basic processes — how a child gets evaluated, what is an IEP (individualized education program) — while seeking answers to questions brought by constituents in their districts. No one could deny the basic facts on the ground: Of high-school students with IEPs, fewer than one in five graduate within four years (about one in four graduate after five years). And the IEP “diploma” many students earn essentially functions as a certificate of attendance and confers zero access to post-secondary or career options like college, the military, or technical training, prompting committee chair Robert Jackson to ask, “So why do we call it a diploma?”

The pending review (and likely restructuring) of special education, and its oversight by Garth Harries, troubled many advocates present, who raised pointed questions of political expediency, economic necessity, and Harries’ preparedness for the job. (A lawyer and MBA, Harries has no special education expertise.) Harries’ responsibilities commence next week, according to Lyles. No end date was made public for a report or preliminary recommendations.

No matter how long the process may take, children and families need and deserve ongoing guidance. Families with questions can explore Insideschools resources, DOE information, or call 311 and ask for the Special Education Call Center, which has resolved more than 15,000 special ed questions since its inception in 2007, according to DOE’s Linda Wernikoff.

Today at noon, Mayor Bloomberg will give his annual budget address – the last before the November election. The mayor’s budget is expected to include 23,000 job cuts, nearly a billion in new taxes, and other “doomsday” strategies to stanch a $4 billion budget gap. (Slim consolation in the Times’ report that things aren’t quite as bad as they could be.)

Earlier this week, Chancellor Klein testified in Albany that up to 15,000 education jobs are at risk; in a statement yesterday that echoed Klein’s threat (and, possibly, predicted similar challenges for organizations like New York City Teaching Fellows), Teach for America’s New York office announced drastic cutbacks in recruitment and funding. GothamSchools has details here; their prediction that there won’t be too many eager 22-year-olds teaching in the city’s schools come September seems entirely plausible. (Of note, more of the new teachers who do get hired will likely be placed in charter schools, which characteristically feature longer workdays and a longer school year — and, rarely, union protection. The truism of sending the least-proven teachers into the toughest settings is, unfortunately, looking all too true again.)

Tune in here to watch the Mayor speak.

This afternoon, the DOE announced that 26 schools will take occupancy on 22 new or improved sites in Sept. 2009, including six entirely new school buildings. Part of the Mayor’s $13 billion, 5-year capital plan, these new, expanded and relocated schools will add more than 14,000 seats for New York City students.

Not all of the new spaces have school programs assigned to them yet, but for those that do, schools range from elementary to high schools and include traditional schools and charters. Many are young schools that ‘incubated’ at other school sites and are now ready to move to a permanent location.

Among the brand-new schools are a new selective high school, the Cinema School, slated for the Bronx — and a 1500-seat high school in Sunset Park that is the first large high school to open in the Bloomberg-Klein era. More information, organized by district, can be found here.

About 27,000 eighth graders and their parents will learn next Thursday, Feb. 5, whether they will be offered seats at the city’s eight specialized high schools, based on the results of the SHSAT, or specialized high school admissions test. The test, administered in October and November, is long, hard, and challenging: Fewer than 6,000 students scored high enough on the 2007 exam to earn offers to the specialized schools. Students who applied to LaGuardia High School will also hear news next week.

In fact, some students may hear good news from two (or even three) schools: Those who meet the SHSAT bar will also receive word of their non-specialized, general-ed high school placement, and have three weeks to choose which school to attend. Kids who auditioned for LaGuardia and were accepted may also hear from two other schools: The specialized test school that accepted them and their standard match.

Most students, though, didn’t take the SHSAT, and won’t hear news on their high-school placement until early March. In the meantime, the DOE is rolling out new high schools at a New High School fair in early February, where it plans to introduce at least a dozen new high schools in every borough save Staten Island. We’ll have more on the new schools as particulars are available — decisions are still being made, according to DOE sources, and final details have yet to be nailed down. The fair is slated for Feb. 7 and 8 at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn.

The timing of the New High School fair, before placements are known, means that many families that might be eager for new options a month down the road will still be waiting for first-round placement news. Will people who don’t yet know they need new schools take the initiative to attend a new school fair? (In February? In Brooklyn? I’m skeptical.) The deadline for applying for a new school is February 26 – the very same day SHSAT and LaGuardia offers are due back to school counselors. That’s a solid week before matches will be announced. How are families to know whether to pursue a new school if they don’t yet have first-round results? But although the timing may be awkward, it’s not new. Every year the DOE announces new high schools in February and high school placement decisions in March.

The New York City Student Union is starting the Student Government Project, which was developed to help create and improve student governments in high schools around the city.

On Thursday, February 26th we are launching this project with a forum to develop connections between existing student governments. We also want to collaboratively create a basis for what a successful student government is and how it is run in different institutions. And we’re hoping to “seed” student governments in schools where they do not already exist. Students in schools with successful student governments will share their experiences and give suggestions to students trying to start their own.

Please invite anyone you know who attends or works in a public school! (Let us know you’re coming: RSVP at union@nycstudentsunion.org. )

And of course… if you have connections.. we’d always love some press!

Parents who initially opted out of gifted and talented testing but have reconsidered now have an opportunity to sign their child up for testing: The DOE just announced an extension in the G&T deadline. Requests for Testing forms will be accepted at public schools for students currently enrolled in public school pre-K classes and at Borough Enrollment Offices for kids in other programs through February 9, 2009. (The original deadline was November 19th.) Families who have already submitted a testing request should sit tight; those with questions can call (212) 374-5972.

The extension is due, at least in part, to a corresponding extension in the pre-K registration calendar, according to the DOE.

We’re still hoping that news on the new citywide G&T schools, planned in theory for Brooklyn and Queens, will be made available before the score reports and applications are sent to eligible families on April 6, but to date, DOE sources have been noncommittal.

Update: Kathleen Brannigan of the DOE wrote us to caution: “The G&T extension is just for children applying to Kindergarten, meaning those children born in 2004. The extension is not for children seeking entrance to 1st and 2nd grade programs.” We appreciate the clarification.

Brooks was in the bathtub last week, and here’s what I overheard: “You don’t have to be worried, cow. Your friends are here. Look: pig is here, horse is here, duck is here. If you cry, someone will give you hug. See? Horse wants to give you a hug. Mmmmm. There. Don’t you feel better?”

In the old days, presented with a set of animal bath toys, Brooks would repetitively pour water over them.

Not only is Brooks finally delving into imaginary play, he’s showing me what a warm and nurturing place his kindergarten classroom is. Of course, this confirms what we already knew from meetings with the teachers and therapists, and it is also firmly on display whenever I pick him up or drop him off. I love watching Brooks experience such tender interactions with his new grown-up friends. Although it wouldn’t be fair to credit the school alone with this developmental leap in imaginary play (we’ve been working on it since Brooks was 18-months-old), the program is certainly living up to our expectations. For example:

Brooks came home last week with a worksheet entitled “People like it when I say hi!” with hand-drawn pictures of mom, a bus driver, a hallway, and someone new. This apparently simple worksheet not only encompasses the social greeting component, but also fine-motor drawing skills, and reading practice. I think it’s emblematic of the efficiency of their multi-disciplinary approach. (It’s also nice to see that Brooks is finally drawing stick figures with legs that don’t come out of their heads.)

Any concerns that we had back in September about a small, potentially restrictive self-contained special ed class have pretty much melted away. Brooks is making regular short visits to the integrated Nest class these days, and if he continues to progress, he may move into the integrated model next year. We also worried that all this concentration on social issues might shortchange academics; no more. Many weekend mornings, he sits at the computer and Googles “dvd,” “toys,” “max and ruby,” clicks on the search results, and calls me over: “Look, Mommy. I added something to the cart!” He once got to a Craig’s List ad for a new car (maybe from a search on the movie “Cars”?). Once he figures out credit card numbers, we’re in trouble. In the meantime, he’s doing just fine.

The teaching units in the classroom are chosen as carefully as everything else, and the current one encompasses “dealing with change,” a big challenge for Brooks and his five classmates. In an attempt to put at least a dent into their over-reliance on schedules and routines, these kids are learning that’s it’s okay to “switch things up.” As a part of that, his teachers are trying to encourage Brooks to take more risks, instead of responding with his usual automatic “no” when asked to participate in certain classroom activities.

Last week, Brooks told me I should come to school because “it’s fun and they have centers and snack.” So I told him that I didn’t think they would let me come to school, because I’m a grown-up, and he paused and said: “Mommy, you need to take a chance!”

Author’s Note: I learned recently that the Intensive K program that Brooks attends is not technically part of the ASD Nest program, although it does feed into it. It is separately funded. I apologize for any confusion.

One-time anonymous, now-outed ed blogger Eduwonkette Jennifer Jennings announced yesterday that she’s trading the computer screen for a classroom — “I’m hanging up my cape” — as a new-fledged faculty member at New York University, where she’ll begin teaching in the fall. After more than a year of dissecting and describing statistical minutiae — and of welcome challenges to both the conventional wisdom and the DOE spin — her contributions will be missed.

But fear not, policy wonks: Eduwonkette’s frequent co-blogger Skoolboy, aka Columbia University professor and Teachers College faculty fellow Aaron Pallas, lives on — posting occasionally at GothamSchools.

Lauren Thomas’ post last week inspired a flurry of weekend responses. Many tackled serious philosophical quandaries, like asking what happens to those “left behind” when the brightest students are culled into special classes — and challenging the merits of mixed-ability class groupings, particularly for kids who are bored to tears with teaching to the middle (or well below, as one commenter suggested). The core issue is whether acting in one child’s best interest — via G&T, Prep for Prep, honors classes and the like — benefits or harms other kids. It’s a personal, politically sensitive question many parents confront: Do I want to giver my child advantages over others? Does my desire to give my child every opportunity ‘owe’ anything to the greater good?

Lauren wrote of her belief that “a rising tide floats all boats.” Is that true — or is that an expensive idealism, on the shoulders of the most able? What if your child, bright or struggling, is the one being left behind? What if your local school — without special gifted classes — offers kids small, intimate classrooms of 16 or 18 students, and the district’s ‘best’ gifted program taps out at 27+? Can “so-called ‘undesirable’ schools” be transformed, as one commenter asked, “if the best and the brightest in the community remained”? And is it the responsibility of the parents of the ‘best and brightest,’ whoever they may be, to lift the community up — or to secure the best educational challenges for their children? Can we do both?

Our bet is that you’re asking these questions, too, even as the OLSATs continue. We’re eager to hear from readers whose children have been tested — how’s it going? Has your thinking changed or been affected by the test? And we’re eager to hear from those who’ve opted out, by opting ‘in’ to their zoned schools. Comment here, or on our forum: The conversation is ongoing and complex, with all voices welcome.

A new day dawned in our nation’s capital on Tuesday, and I was in D.C. to share the hope. President Obama has made improving communication, transparency, and participation in government a day-one theme of his administration.

Back in our beloved Gotham City, the Department of Education is echoing the transparency theme. Asking for public input is a relatively new theme at DOE. That’s got to be a positive, right? There is even a new Community Input page on the DOE website. Since the effort is still in its infancy we can expect a few stumbles. For instance, the District 3 rezoning link today says that process is still under consideration and invites public comment, but that process was completed in November 2008.

Is it also to be expected at this stage that “transparency” and “openness” will mean different things to different people? Charter school siting, another controversial issue, was the topic of a letter sent to CEC members across the city this week. The letter said that principals had been informed if their buildings were being considered for a charter school or program, but the DOE refused to tell CEC members which schools had been informed. DOE invited CEC members to check on a website where school siting decisions are supposed to be posted. While the DOE seemed to be making an effort to reach out, many CEC members did not agree that being told what website will show completed siting decisions constitutes “consultation.”

The DOE’s first steps toward increased transparency and community involvement may seem unsteady and reluctant, but in the spirit of the moment, let’s hope that they are toddling in the right direction. If I were the State Legislature, I would use the mayoral control law renewal process as an opportunity to help DOE reach toward the Obama standard.

Welcome occasional blogger Lauren Young, a journalist whose son attends a New York City Universal Pre-K program.

Which is the smarter choice: To send your child to school with a lot of other bright kids, or to place her in a more mixed environment, with students of varied academic achievements? BusinessWeek recently named America’s Best High Schools in conjunction with Great Schools. Plenty of the finalists for the “Best Overall Academic Performance” award are special schools that draw the brightest kids in the area. Indeed, in New York, the top-ranking school on this list is New York City’s own Stuyvesant High School, which serves “academically gifted students” (who also happen to be terrific test-takers).

I understand the lure of gifted programs. But I’m also a firm believer in the notion that a rising tide lifts all boats. When schools pluck the most brilliant kids out of the educational system and lump them together, I think it creates a leadership void for the students who are left behind.

A few years ago, we moved to a neighborhood in Brooklyn because it had the locally zoned elementary school (P.S. 29) with an excellent academic reputation. Since our son began school last fall, I feel much more connected to our community. It’s virtually impossible to walk down the main drag in our neighborhood or go to the playground and not see folks we know from school. That’s why I ultimately opted not to sign up our son for the gifted and talented test. Even if my kid is “G&T,” I don’t want him attending a school miles away from our home. (It’s hard to believe, but not all parents think their children are geniuses, by the way.)

What’s your educational philosophy? Should smart kids be sifted out of the academic system, or is it better to mainstream bright kids with everyone else?

I always know when the New York State tests are coming up, and not because I hire tutors or visit the many websites that offer practice tests and tips, including the state education department.

It starts with my younger son’s sniffles. They become more pronounced in the days before the test. A sore throat is next, then complaints of a headache.

A visit to the school nurse follows. The whole body, it seems, is aching.

Later, I can count on a night-time visitor. I will be quizzed on how many hours of sleep are needed to be considered a good night’s sleep. (Answer: more than I got with so many interruptions). A request to stay home follows, and a new round of questions begins: “Do the sixth-grade tests count for high school?” the sixth-grader asks between sniffles.

After years of taking tests, he’s attuned to the concept that fourth-grade exams matter because middle schools see them. And because he has an eighth-grade brother, he’s overheard all the conversation about finding a high school in our household and knows that high schools do take into account scores on the seventh-grade exam.

So how do I answer? My first impulse is to be reassuring: relax, don’t worry, you’ll do fine, just do your best.

As a veteran New York City public school parent, though, I know the best schools are highly competitive.

There aren’t enough seats in the best schools for all who choose them. So as much as I’d like to downplay the tests, I do hope my sons will bring home high scores.

I know, too, that you can’t possibly fully prepare a child for the city’s specialized high schools and tell them their score isn’t important, when in fact the score determines who gets into prestigious and coveted institutions like Stuyvesant or Bronx High School of Science.

The annual tests our children begin taking in third-grade have not been without controversy: a coalition of parents, educators, and other state leaders have long called for a break and a review of what they call “excessive high stakes exams.”

The schools my children have attended have managed to balance test preparation with the rest of the curriculum, so it hasn’t seemed oppressive. (Well, to me, of course. The kids have complained mightily about vacation packets of practice exams.)

I think I may have dodged this year’s “do-they-count?” question with a promise to rent a movie or watch the mindless and annoying American Idol and by focusing on the good news that there’s usually no homework during test week.

I’m not sure it will quell my sixth-grader’s anxiety. I will ask how the tests went, but I’d still rather talk about what books he’s reading and what he’s learning in class.

And if he wakes me up again this week with a stomach-ache or sore throat, I’ll tell him the truth: High schools do not look at the sixth-grade tests.

Which means he can start worrying now about his seventh-grade exams.

Over the past week or so, we and others have written about the DOE’s Garth Harries. He’s in charge of the Portfolio office, which controls the closure and opening of schools, charter school development, and Career and Technical Education programs, among other large-scale projects. Harries has newly been dispatched to evaluate (and probably remake) the special-education system within the public schools. It’s no stretch to say, Harries’ plate is, essentially, loaded.

Now comes news that Harries has been chosen for a prestigious executive management training program sponsored by the Broad Foundation, designed to “prepare prominent leaders from education, military, business, nonprofit and government sectors to lead urban public school systems.” The program spans ten months and includes six extended weekend workshops in cities across the United States, after which, the “Broad Center will help place participants in urban school districts as superintendents and senior executives.”

Broad program graduates have been placed at the heads of school systems in 37 cities across 23 states, and in dozens of leadership slots in non-urban settings. Which forces the questions: Where, exactly, is Harries going? And what, exactly, will happen to his many, many projects and myriad responsibilities, if and when he exits New York City for greener pastures? Or, is this a first step into the well-shined shoes of Joel Klein, should the day come when the current chancellor leaves the scene? The answers will, of course, be closely guarded. But what’s certain is that an already-full plate is now brimming over. Can one person — even a super-capable “analyst and mechanic of large operations,” according to DOE spokesman David Cantor – juggle it all?Update: As of Monday February 2, Harries will devote 100% of his estimable energies to special education, according to Deputy Chancellor Marcia Lyles’ testimony on January 29th, before the City Council’s Education Committee.

Q. My daughter is a high school junior. We want to start visiting colleges this year, and we want to know of programs or colleges offering scholarships to minority students (we are Haitian-Americans). We have heard of a program called “Posse” do you know anything about this? Also, my daughter plays the cello. What about academic or music scholarships? Thank you for any leads you can offer.
A. You and your daughter are at exactly the right point to start researching both colleges and scholarship opportunities. First you’ll need to research potential schools that can offer your daughter the academic, cultural, and social life that will help her thrive; then over spring break, on occasional weekends, and over the summer, you will need to make some campus visits so you can see things for yourselves.

At the same time, you need to research scholarship possibilities. Scholarships and grants, as opposed to college loans, are gifts. They will allow your daughter to pursue her education with reduced financial burdens. There are two kinds of scholarships: institutional and non-institutional. Institutional scholarships are those awarded by a specific college or university. Almost all schools have some form of scholarship, and these can range from full-tuition to a token amount; generally, all applicants to these schools are automatically considered for scholarships when they apply for admission.

The non-institutional scholarships are offered by outside organizations, and these will require research and separate applications. The application process usually begins at the start of the student’s senior year. Again, this outside help can range from full tuition to small grants of $100 - $500. The Posse Foundation is one of a number of organizations that seeks out talented public high school students “with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes.” In partnership with a number of colleges and universities, Posse offers these students 4-year, full-tuition scholarships. Students must be nominated by their high school or by community-based organizations.

Another great resource is BlackExcel.org, which offers a scholarship directory for minority students. You can find many leads here!

Some other organizations that seek out minority students include the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, and the Gates Millennium Scholars.

And there are even more opportunities! The college office at your daughter’s high school probably has the College Board’s comprehensive Scholarship Handbook 2009. This is for all students, not just minority students, and lists 2,100 scholarship programs offered by organizations nationwide. They are indexed by state, by organization, and by subject area. So you can look up, for example, science scholarships, math scholarships, scholarships for students who are leaders in community service, and scholarships for military dependents. In some cases, essays are required, while in others there are specific forms to complete. Your daughter can also go to the “Paying for College” section of the College Board’s website to perform her own scholarship search. The more information she provides at this site, the more she will find scholarship information attuned to her interests.

Your daughter’s musical talent could possibly be another source of scholarship funding if she plans to major in music, colleges may ask her to audition and then make awards based upon her musical talent. Specific talents and interests are another whole area of scholarship potential. The website of Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music offers a long list of music scholarships offered by many different organizations.

There are many organizations, large and small, that are committed to assisting all students in financing their educations. Unfortunately, the financial situations of a number of these groups may have changed during the current economic crisis. Still, there will be many viable opportunities. Now, in the middle of your daughter’s junior year, is the perfect time to start the research!

 Have a question for Jane?  Search archives | Contact the College Counselor

I was fortunate enough to attend a Speak Out event in the Bronx this past Thursday evening that was co-sponsored by the ARISE Coalition and Parents for Inclusive Education (PIE). These advocacy groups are working hard to ensure that NYC special ed students get the appropriate and free public education that they are entitled to by law, and they have recently hosted public forums for parents in all five boroughs.

As a special needs parent myself, I’ve often wondered how other New York City families, especially those with fewer resources, cope with an autistic or developmentally delayed child. My husband and I both have college degrees and English is our first language, and we still have trouble reading an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan), which is often more complicated than a tax form. We have made it our business to seek out the best resources to help us navigate the DOE and ultimately to get Brooks the services he needs. We’ve been fortunate in that the countless hours we’ve committed to our son’s education have paid off. But for those who lack higher education and often don’t speak the language—not to mention, don’t have the time to devote to the process —not only does the diagnosis often come later, which makes everything more difficult, they are frequently left to fend for themselves in terms of advocating for their children. Thanks to the efforts of groups like ARISE, the families I met on Thursday night are getting the assistance they desperately need.

Single-digit temperatures did not deter these Bronx parents from taking advantage of the opportunity to tell their stories, and many spoke of their heartbreaking attempts to do right by their children.

“Why is my son not receiving physical therapy?” That’s what one committed mom asked the teachers and administrators at her son’s school. They responded that even though physical therapy was on her son’s IEP, it was not available at their school, and they referred her to the district. The district’s response was that he is indeed getting physical therapy. He is indeed getting physical therapy?!

Whether these kinds of bureaucratic exchanges are a result of bad record-keeping, which the DOE openly admits to with respect to special education records, or bald-faced lies, which is the interpretation of this Bronx mom, the bottom line is that a public school child who requires physical therapy as an integral part of his education is not getting it.

Other parents spoke of long automated phone calls to the DOE that provided nothing more than numbers to press for information they already had. They spoke of teachers who gave up on kids as soon as they heard the word “autism.” They spoke of high-functioning children with autism coming home from school beaten up because they had been placed in classes with violent, emotionally disturbed children.

What was remarkable about the evening is that regardless of how horrible these stories were, they were underscored by hope. These parents didn’t hesitate to remind each other that there are some really good teachers out there. Even though more than one speaker recommended that the CSE (Committee for Special Education) in the Bronx be shut down and then rebuilt from scratch, they all believed that this system could somehow be saved, and that they could help to make that happen.

Unfortunately, the one representative from the Office of Special Education Initiatives that attended the meeting left well before many of the parents had a chance to speak.

At the start of the meeting, AHRC and PIE advocate Chris Trieber encouraged parents to get up and speak in order to dispute this quote from the DOE: “90 percent of parents are satisfied with the quality of education their children received.” Near the end of the meeting, one parent responded: “Maybe they should change that to 90 percent of parents are NOT satisfied.”

Dear Judy,

Hi, I want to prepare my four-year-old for the OLSAT. We did not get a date, yet, but I heard it could be next month, and I would like to get him some test prep material or a tutor. Do you have any recommendations?

Nervous mom

Dear Nervous mom (and potentially nervous moms),

It seems to me a bad idea to put a small child through a cram sessions in the few days, weeks, or even months left before the OLSAT. It’s better to work on bringing a well-rested, calm, and happy child to the test. Your child will do much better if she does not feel the same pressures that you do. One school placement consultant we know advises parents to tell your child, just before the test, that “these people want to know what a four-year-old can do.” It sets the child up to perform well without involving her in high stakes.

That’s the immediate answer to the nervous mom question, but because there have been lots of questions from many anxious parents about this subject, and although testing for the gifted and talented programs is well under way, I thought it useful to discuss this issue further.

Here’s my best advice for now and for the future: continue to do what you probably have been doing since your child was born. Read to your child and talk about what you read, play with language through rhymes and riddles, count and sort while doing everyday tasks, cut way down on television, and instead, play games, go to children’s museums, performances, zoos, and the library. Discuss everything you do, leaving plenty of opportunity for your child to do the talking. These activities are fun ways for you and your child to spend time together, and will help him succeed in school, no matter what the program.

Don’t put inappropriate pressure or unrealistic expectations on your small child. Scores on the OLSAT and the Bracken School Readiness Test, like other tests, come from a child’s reasoning and abstract thinking abilities, level of academic readiness, and his ability to convey these qualities while sitting patiently, remaining attentive for a long time, and forgoing the sidetracks a curious child will take - especially in a strange setting.

If you are still determined to prep your child, start by trying out the sample tests in the information booklet that the Department of Education supplies. Piece of cake for your child? Stop there. Need some brushing up? Search the Web for Otis-Lennon School Ability Test or OLSAT, and you will find books, software, and advice - mostly for sale to parents who want to prep their children. Some parents have recommended tutors via our forum, so take a look at what others have to say. Private tutors and services can be pricey, depending on how many hours you sign up for. Some agencies say they will help talented kids who can’t afford the fees. Others offer discounted specials.

Remember, gifted programs are not the only alternative for your bright child. There are other options in many districts. Don’t neglect your local school. Chances are it’s well-worth putting your energies toward supporting and improving it. Check out all the possibilities in our Find a School section on Insideschools.org

If your daughter does qualify for G&T programs, consider becoming a member of AGATE, a statewide advocacy organization for gifted education.

Meanwhile, relax and enjoy your bright child.

Judy

 Have a school question for Judy?  Search archives | Contact Judy

A few days ago, we weren’t alone in cheering the DOE for its plan to stream live video of the Obama inauguration to the city’s schools. Yesterday, though, hundreds of students at a number of schools, including elementary and middle schools in Brooklyn and Queens, didn’t get to see the 44th President take the Oath of Office. One school relied on the kindness of neighbors, while another switched to a small radio feed — not quite up to the challenge of an auditorium filled with excited middle-schoolers.

We know the video worked in many schools, but wonder if your child was able to view the Inauguration at school. If not, did you recap the events of the day at home? And what did your child’s school do instead of watch? We’re sure someone seized the moment for something creative and energetic.

More than 3,000 public school students from all over the city converged at the Harlem Armory this morning to watch the inauguration. The event was hosted by Democracy Prep Charter School (check back soon for their new review), but students from 34 schools spanning all grade levels waved flags, recited the pledge of allegiance, made posters celebrating their schools and the inauguration, viewed the festivities in Washington on three massive screens and cheered robustly for the new President. The mood was festive and celebratory, with even the youngest students eager to speak to the significance of the day.

We asked students from several schools what the inauguration meant to them:

“I am pleased that we have our first African American President and I hope that he makes a change with the economy,” a ninth grade student from the Academy of Social Action said. “It is hard for people to pay for things now.”

“Can a girl be president?” (Yes!) “Then I want to be president!” said a third grade student from the Bronx Academy of Promise.

After spending two hours on a bus from their school in Brooklyn, the first graders from East New York Prep were still excited. “He is going to change the world like Dr. Martin Luther King!” on girl said. “He is like my brother!” another said.

Students from Bronx Lighthouse Charter School wore shirts that said “Be like Obama” on the back. Two boys in the fifth grade said that being like Obama meant being a role model.

“It gives a new beginning for all the people who didn’t have a chance,” a sixth grader (on the left) at Bronx Preparatory Charter School said. “Obama is going to make all our dreams come true.”“I think it is very exciting that we get to see the first black president,” said an eighth grader (on the right).

“America’s changing,” said a sixth grade girl (on the right)from Fredrick Douglas Academy.“Happy day!” said a boy (on the left).

Everyone we spoke with — including more than a few sometimes-tearful teachers — echoed that sentiment: It was indeed a happy day in Harlem.

The students who livened up election season with their infectious and intelligent song, “You can vote however you like,” will be performing their newest song, “Dear Obama” at four inaugural balls tonight. The students, who wrote the songs themselves, admitted that it wasn’t easy. “We couldn’t find anything that rhymed with Ahmadinejad!” one boy told CNN. The kids attend a private school in Atlanta founded by a former Harlem public school teacher Ron Clark.

I will be up in Harlem today at an inauguration event organized by Democracy Prep Charter School. Thousands of students from at least 24 public schools will watch the inauguration together in the Harlem Armory, write postcards to the new president, and enjoy music and dance performances. Pictures and stories from the event to come. Students across the city will be watching the inauguration from their schools and homes. Is your school or family doing anything special to commemorate the inauguration? Send us your stories.

In jubilation and celebration, New Yorkers will watch Barack Hussein Obama be sworn in before noon today as the 44th President of the United States. In city schools across five boroughs, tens of thousands of students will be watching, too.

Bars and coffee-shops are hosting Obama parties; even some large movie theatres are opening their doors — for free — to New Yorkers seeking community and shelter from the cold. Upper West Siders will gather starting at 10 a.m. at Symphony Space; downtown, the Landmark Sunshine Cinema on Houston will open at the same hour, and in Brooklyn, BAM has space for thousands more.

This incandescent moment is the new beginning. Tomorrow, the real work begins.

On this National Day of Service, we hope that local food banks are bursting with volunteers and shelves are groaning under the collective weight of cans and other goods; that Habitat for Humanity work crews have run out of hammers; that coat and blanket drives are literally overwhelmed with the donated warmth of New York City’s residents.

But beyond today — and beyond tomorrow, too — opportunites to give back yawn open, waiting to be filled. Herewith, a few ideas for organizations and programs; perhaps a dash of inspiration, too, if you move from “I should…” to “I will.”

Food Bank NYC runs food banks, soup kitchens, nutrition education programs and more, and needs daily and weekly volunteers.

The American Cancer Society’s Charity Runner program matches able runners with challenged athletes — and organizes staffers at roadside Cheer Stations (for the more sedentary among us).

World Hunger Year needs grassroots volunteers for strategies to eradicate hunger and poverty.

Idealist and VolunteerMatch give people with time and energy to give places, programs, and folks to connect with — myriad opportunities, ongoing and one-off, professional and social, in a do-gooders double clearinghouse.

New York Cares organizes city volunteers for one-day citywide efforts, ongoing programs, and more, including opportunities for groups of civic-minded youngsters.

For families who love the city’s parks, NYC Parks Dept. needs volunteers for their Winter Jam on February 7th. Email April Rodriguez for details, and bundle up.

For urban gardeners, consider the Plant A Row project, which gives home-grown food to soup kitches and food banks that serve the poor.

January is National Mentoring Month: Find out more here, or contact the I Have a Dream foundation for information on Saturday tutoring in Long Island City — they aim to work with all the third-graders in the Ravenswood houses there.

And Donors Choose matches generous givers with teachers’ wish lists — have a look at the science, writing and classroom projects you can help to fund. (It’s a great way to honor a big birthday or anniversary, as many can chip in to a single project, and you’re not stuck with yet another objet d’questionable art.)

Caveat donator: This list is, by its very nature, incomplete. Please write us to mention projects you’re involved with. It’s a big world out there; it needs all the help we can give it.

Earlier this week, DOE announced a new data-management system for special education students in the city’s schools. Hard on its heels comes news, thanks to GothamSchools‘ Philissa Cramer, that DOE wunderkind Garth Harries will oversee an evaluation and, it’s thought, eventual revamp of special education across the city’s 1400+ schools.

Advocates for the special education community like Kim Sweet, Advocates for Children executive director, say that Harries lacks the practical background to undertake this important effort, especially in economically fragile times. Inexperience didn’t stop Harries before; although he has never taught in or led a public school, as head of the DOE’s Portfolio office, Harries has overseen the closing of dozens of large, failing schools, and the opening of hundreds of new, small high and secondary schools in their place.

An educator he’s not, conceded David Cantor of the DOE’s press office; he characterized Harries instead as an “analyst and mechanic of large operations.”

Gulp.

In his State of the City address yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg listed his initiatives designed to lift the city out of the economic trough and back into the black. Education played a supporting role: One of the Mayor’s proposals will direct $900 million over five years to “greening” city schools and other buildings. He also promised 50 new schools, with 15,000 new seats, and underscored a commitment to Career and Technical Education, particularly in high-tech fields like engineering, information technology, and sustainability.

Another proposal, P311, creates a public-school information resource, available by calling 311. While some say the parent info line is a nod to real gaps in Mayoral Control – the near-exclusion of parent voices in DOE decision-making — it also reveals, at last, the awareness that DOE has not been accessible to parents with pressing questions. Here’s what the Mayor said: “Parents still can struggle to get basic information and find answers…the right ones — without getting the runaround.”

In that moment, the City glossily acknowledged DOE’s communications shortfalls, and admitted that far too often, the right answers to real questions are hard to find, and entail far too much effort.

Time will tell if a bank of telephone operators will, in fact, have access to the kind of detailed schools information we collect here on InsideSchools – or that the DOE offers, in its inimitable density, on its website. (Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum was quick to critique the 311 response to problems encountered by parents of special education students.) But the aim of providing direct consumer service to parents about the city schools can’t be faulted. Readers will forgive a certain cautionary skepticism about its realization.

Also in the service vein, citing President-elect Barack Obama’s National Day of Service (and the 80th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.), Mayor Bloomberg charged Deputy Mayor Patti Harris with developing a “blueprint” for engaging more New Yorkers in public service. At least one local effort is aiming to make the world a slightly better, and warmer, place: Warm Up to Change, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

For events in your neighborhood (and beyond), look here for a zip-code searchable database and lots of information on getting involved.What are you doing for the National Day of Service? We’ll post notifications of local projects on January 19th — if you let us know the details.

Budget cuts proposed by Gov. David Paterson threaten to trim the Department of Education’s Office of Library Services a whopping 40 percent, according to Library Services Director Barbara Stripling.

“These cuts are so huge we can’t get our head around it. I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Stripling said by telephone this morning. Cutting library funds when times are hard ends up hurting the very kids the state and city aim to help, because families can’t afford to buy books, she said. “What’s scary to me, is that this is what our kids need now. Across the country, libraries are having a tough time just when their use is most needed.”

“You can’t cut a vital service to kids by 40 percent,” said Stripling. “This will decimate Library Services. Nobody can survive a 40 percent cut.”

Despite state mandates that require a library in every public school, only about 75 percent of the city’s public schools now have libraries, Stripling says. Many small schools that share campuses are being encouraged to develop ‘campus’ libraries, to share both the resources and the financial burden of a school library. Stripling says generous donors like Macy’s, which made a $271,000 grant for middle-school reading this year, give her hope. But a quarter of a million dollars won’t go far in stanching a 40 percent budget gouge.

Stripling, who says she’s known in her office for making lemonade from bad-news lemons, says “I truly believe they just don’t understand what they’ve proposed — that they’ve thought about the fact that it’s 40 percent of our budget. I think it’s going to work out. I hope!”

For those inclined to do more — for anyone who got happily lost in a school library or had a great childhood librarian (thank you, Mrs. Owens) — there’s a petition gathering names to protest the proposed cuts.

This afternoon at 1 p.m., Mayor Mike Bloomberg will give his eighth State of the City address — the last of his second term, and arguably, the most critical, as the city faces fiscal crisis and the Mayor faces a third-term bid.

The Mayor will speak from Brooklyn College. Watch live here, or listen to a livestream at your desk (don’t forget your headphones!).

The DOE announced today a 5-year, $55 million contract to electronically track records for students with special needs, both within the public schools and for a minority of students in private or parochial schools who receive city-funded special ed services. (The bid was awarded to a Virginia company with a previously checkered record with the City, according to the Times.)

While the innovation is hugely welcome — as in, welcome to the 21st century — its arrival comes far behind similar systems for gen ed students. Advocates for special education students and their families often voice the opinion that special ed kids take a back seat to mainstream students. In fact, special ed is its own kind of parallel DOE universe, with unique processes for assessment, enrollment, and school placement. But rarely is the disparity so explicit as it seems today, when technologies in place for mainstream kids finally reach the special ed realm.

As Advocates for Children’s Executive Director Kim Sweet noted, the new systems are long overdue and are designed to prevent the kind of falling-through-the cracks, incomplete or haphazard record-keeping of the past. But even this good news — and it is good news — prompts another question: Why are innovations in the two systems, mainstream and special ed, so far apart? For those who see two worlds, one for the able and one for the challenged, this belated victory seems, well, bittersweet.

Yes, it’s January, and the idea of dunking in a mountain lake is about as appealing as, well, water-boarding. But weather notwithstanding, it’s high season for summer-camp fairs, which can be great resources for families new to the city-kid summertime rituals. Even veteran camp families find new ideas at the fairs — with up to 100 camps represented, it’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t. Camp choices include day camps, sleepaway camps, and hybrid camps that host kids Monday through Friday, then ship ‘em home for the weekends.

Fairs well be held Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3pm, January 24th/25th on the Upper East and the Upper West Sides, and on February 7th/8th downtown and in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Particulars and more information here.

Bundle up. Think summer.

I’ll never forget when my husband first introduced me to his Dad: I was immediately pulled into a great big bear hug. Because I was so much younger then, I didn’t realize how fortunate I was to be welcomed into the kind of family where love and generosity run rampant.

Although we lost the patriarch of my husband’s family last year, his legacy of outsized loyalty and affection lives on. When Brooks was first diagnosed, I remember breaking down and being comforted by my sister-in-law, who assured me that my son would indeed have a meaningful relationship with his aging grandfather and all of his aunts and uncles and cousins. This was a tall order back then: As a toddler, Brooks was horrified at the notion of even entering my sister-in-law’s apartment. Each time we pushed his stroller through the front door of her building, he would start to cry hysterically. “Happy Chanukah” became “let’s survive Chanukah,” and all the other holidays followed suit — until Brooks finally started coming around (improving, recovering, coping—whatever you want to call it).

Fast forward to this year: All my sister-in-law’s efforts have paid off and resulted in her singlular and very special relationship with Brooks. These days, he adores her, and shows it by torturing her with his repetitive games at family holidays. She has been planting the seeds of a sleepover for quite a while now. Of course, at first mention, Brooks said no immediately. But last week at dinner, while he was running through the laundry list of what he wanted to do that weekend, he came out with: “Mommy, I want to have a sleepover at Aunt Madeline’s.” That’s right. In the very same apartment that he once couldn’t tolerate. Without me or my husband. On his own initiative. Wow.

This monumental event actually took place over the weekend, and I’m still feeling a little light-headed. Brooks experienced a whole new level of independence. My husband and I rediscovered a whole new level of existence: For a day and a half, neither one of us had to parent. We could eat uninterrupted meals and share uninterrupted conversations. Again, wow.

I’m sure that one day soon, Brooks having a sleepover at his Aunt’s won’t seem like a big deal. I guess it’s human nature to take things for granted. But for now, I can hardly think about it without tearing up; without thinking about how our family dodged a bullet when Brooks was 18-months-old, and how we are so incredibly fortunate that Brooks is doing these things that any other regular kid his age does.

If you’re a special needs parent, I wish you many of these ordinary/extraordinary events. And also, your very own Aunt Madeline.

Insideschools has learned that a sixth-grade student was mugged yesterday afternoon at J.J. Bryne Park in Park Slope, the city park that essentially serves as MS 51’s de facto schoolyard, lunchroom, social hub and outdoor gym. The boy, who was chatting with friends after school, was approached by a group of apparently older children at 3:20 pm. When a would-be mugger found only a stick of chewing gum in the boy’s sweatshirt pocket, he took out his frustration by giving the younger boy a beating, leading to facial bruises, a black eye, three and a half hours in the Emergency Room (and a bruised young ego, too). The aggressors scattered after the attack and the younger students returned to MS 51, where parents were called and an ambulance summoned.

This morning, the boy’s mother went to the school to speak with the principal — and as she waited, another youngster came into the office to report an attempted assault on her way to school.

Sixth-graders at MS 51 and other schools citywide have new freedoms — they may leave school for lunch, they may take public transportation, and they have time to socialize and visit with friends. But with freedom comes risk. “These kids are open targets, on their own for the first time, in the park,” says parent Deborah Hodge, who says she was surprised to learn that her son’s experience wasn’t unique, and that other sixth graders had been victims of physical attacks near the school.

“All parents should know this,” she said this afternoon, after talking with others whose kids have been roughed up. “If I had known what happened before, I might’ve acted differently.” Ironically, Hodge says the physical freedom was one of the things that attracted her family to MS 51 — but she rejects the notion that “you need to run from school to home,” and feels her son, along with his schoolmates, should be safe and feel secure after school in the park. (NYPD officers are on hand intermittently, although they are not a daily presence.)

Hodge is interested in hearing from other MS 51 parents; she says she’d like to take something positive out of this scare and help make her son’s school community stronger. Contact her at deborahodge@gmail.com or drop a note in our comments string.

Editor’s Note: the Safe Haven program on the Upper West Side is one community’s response to similar challenges.

For more on middle-schoolers’ independence, read one boy’s manifesto, his mother’s response, and this conversation about one mother’s controversial, kid-driven choice.

In a city like ours, with so many immigrant families and tens of thousands of students who are themselves first-generation citizens or born overseas, English Language Learners have long comprised a sizeable fraction of the city’s student body. Now, a national project published by Education Week characterizes the state of the nation (in state-by-state assessments) with regard to its immigrant, language-learning students, in the stupendously detailed Portraits of a Population, which readers can peruse for free via the EdWeek website.

For a home-town view of the challenges and satisfactions of working with ‘newcomer’ students, have a look here, for one teacher’s experience — and take your hat, beret, cloche, or watchcap OFF, in recognition of the effort, heart, and goodwill involved in knitting kids into the complicated American quilt.

I just wanted to spread the word about a new after-school program for kids with autism.

Here’s what I know about it:

• It has been specifically designed for the Nest kids at PS 178, but open to other kids as well (K through 2nd grade).
• It’s brand new, runs Tuesdays from 3pm - 5pm from Tues. Jan. 20 to Tues. June 16. (Hopefully, it will grow into additional days as well).
• It is up in Washington Heights (A or 1 train).
• The main teacher is a social worker and second-year grad student at Columbia who has experience running programs for autistic kids. The other teacher is a certified Yoga instructor.
• The cost is $500, and if a grant comes through, it could be significantly less.

We’re signing Brooks up and are hopeful that it will be an exciting program. For information, contact the program organizer, Victoria Neznansky (212-569-6200, ext. 204). She’s very committed to it and understands how much a program like this would mean to parents. If you’re interested, please call her.

For the first time since the Census Bureau began counting, the steady decline in fiction reading among American adults has reversed. Although just 52 percent of Americans reported having read a novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months, “the proportion of overall literary reading increased among virtually all age groups, ethnic and demographic categories since 2002,” according to a New York Times analysis of the NEA study released today.

Although internet reading was included in the 2008 data, the NEA chairman Dana Gioia credited popular series like Harry Potter and Twilight, community-based reading programs like “The Big Read,”(with participating organizations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens), and Oprah’s book club with helping spur the reading rise.

Insideschools’ book club may not be as big as Oprah’s and our first book is actually non-fiction, but we still hope that many of you have found time to read Paul Tough’s book about the Harlem Children’s Zone: Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America. The book provides plenty of fodder for discussions about New York City, public schools, and national campaigns to eradicate poverty. When we sit down with Tough, we hope to ask him as many of your questions as possible. Please post questions on the blog comments or email them directly to me, Lindsey, over the next two weeks. If you’re feeling squeezed for time but still want to participate, you can read excerpts of the book in the New York Times Magazine (where Tough is an editor).

For more information on the book and our book club, see the original post.

Middle-school families across New York City now join the ranks of high-school applicants and their parents: The waiting game is in full flower, with everyone on tenterhooks, hoping for good news from their schools of choice. The deadline for middle school applications was this past Friday, January 9th, but for a few ultra-cool customers, the middle-school wait may be over far sooner.

That’s because ICE, the Institute for Collaborative Education, has borrowed a page from higher-ed, offering students who they describe on their website as exceptionally strong candidates a chance to apply — and be accepted — early, well ahead of the middle school admissions pack. Applications for Early Admission at ICE were due on January 5th; acceptance is granted on a rolling basis, which means that students can hear news, good or bad, within weeks of their application. Other students’ applications are reviewed only after the early-admissions batch is complete.

We’re curious to learn more about ICE’s admissions practices: How many students apply early? Of those who choose the early timeline, how many are accepted? Long-established as a progressive school with a personalized, unconventional culture, is ICE a pioneer, the tip of a new admissions wave? Even its regular admissions calendar is unique: Students can apply for a seat at the secondary, 6-12 school up to March 5, well beyond the DOE’s high-school and middle-school deadlines.

We also wonder how, logistically, ICE can offer both early admissions and an extended admissions calendar in a DOE-determined climate of centralized middle-school admissions. If you have answers — or more questions — let us know.

Public charter schools straddle an uncertain divide — with public money, they often serve targeted constituencies, from the consistently underserved to families looking for cultural connection and context. What the charters characterize as focus — on a particular community, ideal of academic achievement, or on intellectual discipline — critics see as exclusionary and discriminatory, and counter to the melting-pot theory of public education.

In a weekend Valentine to culture-based charter education in Minnesota, Sara Rimer of the Times celebrates the ability of these specialized schools to serve the ethnic minorities whose children make up the student body. All well and good, says Rimer, as kids new to the U.S. gain in academics but keep a foundation in their home culture. But what’s good for the country often doesn’t square up as positive in New York City. Witness the firestorm over Khalil Gibran International Academy – the city’s first Arabic-language public school, which was forced out of its original placement, lost its founding principal and is scrambling now to gain a foothold in a remote location, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. To describe the public response to KGIA as oppositional is to understate the force of gravity: Despite the presence of dozens of language-based city schools, this one inflamed the barely dormant spark of discrimination and anti-Muslim sentiment.

In today’s Times, Elissa Gootman describes a new proposal for a Hebrew-language charter school, backed by financier Michael Steinhardt (among others) and the project of Steinhardt’s daughter Sara Berman. Planned for the Midwood-Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, great pains have been taken to separate the school’s Hebrew studies — language, culture, history, music, and arts — from any formal religious instruction. Students of all races and ethnicities will be eligible to apply, if the proposal is approved this week by the New York State Regents. But the students that choose to attend the school may or may not reflect the surrounding, racially diverse community.

While some of the loudest KGIA naysayers are now silent, many critics question the charter school’s ability to offer values-neutral instruction. But the proposal, from Gootman’s report, seems rock-solid, and the school may well go forward.

The counterpoint of both stories leads to three big questions: First, why is it good for schools in the heartland to inculcate particular cultures, and not good in New York? And second, does a school that’s highly focused on a language or a culture contradict a bedrock principle of public education — to bring youngsters into the American culture even as they learn to read, write, and think? Can public schools do both, serve specific constituencies and serve the greater good?

Apparently neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep potentially-gifted and talented tots from their testing. The Department of Education has announced that despite the foreboding weather forecast (there is a 90 percent chance that 1-3″ of snow will fall over the 5 boroughs tomorrow), “as of now, gifted and talented testing this weekend will proceed as scheduled.” The DOE urges families to leave extra travel time and call 311 for updates.

Yesterday, the DOE announced the phaseout and eventual closure of Bayard Rustin High School in Chelsea. No new 9th graders will be permitted to enroll in September 2009.

The news landed hard on the school’s new principal and faculty, and it left me wondering about the 8th graders and families who’ve spent the fall visiting high schools and making their choices. It’s not possible to know how many students ranked Rustin first — or second, or third, or 12th. Neither can we know how many hours the school leadership invested in developing and hosting tours, open houses and information sessions for new students — hours that might’ve otherwise been invested in instruction. But it is entirely possible to ask, within the often-repeated mantra of Children First, why this decision was not made — or made public — before the high-school application process closed.

Decisions to close a school are (one can only hope) likely not made in haste. Someone in the DOE’s Office of Portfolio Development had to know this was in the winds a few weeks ago, before the high-school applications were due. Whether there’s an internal communication gap within DOE, and the Office of Enrollment simply didn’t know of the forthcoming decision to close Rustin, or a deliberate separation between enrollment processes and Portfolio, which determines closings and new school openings, it seems like the Children didn’t come First this time at all.

To the extent that parents’ voices are represented in the New York City education system these days, Community Education Councils are charged with representing them at the school district level. The Community Education Council of District 3 passed a resolution last June on mayoral control, saying that the system would be greatly improved with more transparency, checks, and balances.

CEC3’s specific recommendations — reflecting weeks of hearings, surveys, and discussions with parents and other community members in our district — include: more disclosure, transparency, and independent analysis of DOE data; a stronger and more independent Panel on Education Policy, with members appointed to fixed terms; and more high level decision making roles filled by professional educators, including a mandate that either the Chancellor or the top official in charge of teaching and learning be an experienced educator.

Other parent groups are also working on recommendations on how to improve the mayoral control law when it comes under review next June. The Parents’ Commission on Mayoral Control & School Governance, a group consisting of two dozen parent activists, has been working all fall on a legislative proposal set to be released next month.

Unfortunately, some seem to be taking a “with-us-or-against-us” stance on the law, rather than welcoming discussion on how it might be improved. Last week both the Post and the Daily News guffawed in a bullying manner at State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver for saying that the mayoral control law will need to be “tweaked.” Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters pointed out that the attacks, in which both papers made nearly identical points on the same day, seemed coordinated by City Hall.

The experiences of my children provide a sanity check for me on how well the system is working. The seventeen (17) school days on which my child will be taking standardized tests this year seems excessive. (The teachers and administrators at our school agree.) Our afterschool program funding for next year is uncertain. The amazing staff at our school put on a talent show last month. They danced and sang and told jokes to raise money to compensate for some of the mayor’s midyear funding cuts. I don’t know what they will do for an encore when further cuts are implemented next fall. We can hope, wish, and pray that the Department of Education spends less money on its testing bureaucracy and ensures that sufficient operational funding gets to the kids, but we have few avenues to influence these decisions. If the mayoral law is amended in a thoughtful manner, the system might be improved for all its participants.

As students poured out of Bayard Rustin High School for Humanities this afternoon, most of them were discussing the news that principal Nancy Amling had announced during fourth period: the Department of Education is phasing out the large, comprehensive high school beginning this June. No new ninth graders will accepted for September, and the final class will graduate in 2012.

Reactions were mixed - some students said that “the school needed to be closed” and that life as a Bayard Rustin student was “boring. All I do every day is go home and sleep because there are no extracurriculars and no homework that needs to be done.” Other students vigorously defended their school, arguing that they were getting punished for past classes’ graduation rates and defending the principal, who came to the school this September, as a strict leader who should have been given the chance to turn things around.

Many of the teachers walking out of the school looked depressed and walked quickly away from the building. They had been told yesterday afternoon by a tearful Amling, and although several of them admitted that the news didn’t surprise them, they were still upset. The educators who have been at the school for the least amount of time will be the first to let go, they said. “Insideschools?” one young teacher asked. “I am going to be spending a lot of time on your site in the near future.”

The Department of Education cited the school’s low graduation rate, the F on its latest report card, and low student interest in attending the school as factors in the decision, but Bayard Rustin’s recent troubles also include allegations that the former principal tampered with Regents scores and generally unfavorable press-coverage. In the past two months, teachers have anonymously criticized the school leadership on our forum, suggesting that it would take something as dramatic as a student strike to draw attention to the school’s problems.

Students were hardly striking today as they left school, but knots of ninth graders debated whether or not they would stay for the next three years or transfer to another high school, an option reserved for the freshmen, they said. Again, they were divided:

“I am staying! This is my school, and I like it,” one girl said emphatically.

“I’m not staying,” another girl said. “I am going somewhere else. There are going to be too many less people here.”

“Too many less people?” her friend repeated. “Get your grammar right! Now that is why they are closing this school down.”

The inauguration is almost here! For the first time ever, the DOE has made an arrangement with ABC News to stream the Obama-Biden inauguration live onto public school computers. I asked my sixth-period teacher yesterday if we could watch the swearing-in during her class, expecting her to smile and shake her head “no,” but she didn’t even blink, before responding with an enthusiastic “Of course!” (I guess she wants to watch, too.) In my old elementary school PS 321, all third- through fifth-graders are crowding into classrooms on the 20th to stare at TVs broadcasting the ceremonies, a highly unusual practice for this school. Obama’s election is an historic moment for a million and one reasons. But one of the most exciting, for me, has been the passion and action that Obama’s campaign inspired in the youth of this country. I’m thrilled to see the DOE and public-school educators embracing this new energy. Teenagers are often considered fairly apathetic, and anyone younger is pretty much written off, considered too uninformed to be labeled at all. But this thinking has really changed. I’m hoping and praying that this energy will hold after January 20th. And in the meantime, I’m thrilled to applaud the DOE on their work to make the inauguration so accessible to students.

Editor’s Note: We’ve informally heard of a few other schools holding school wide assemblies to watch the inauguration. Parents, let us know what your child’s school has planned: Will students be able to watch? Are any special lessons being developed to mark the day? We’d love to have a sense of what’s going on citywide — and hope that schools will take good advantage of DOE’s agreement with ABC to offer their students and staff access to history as it’s unfolding.

It looks like middle school report cards, which should be going home with students tomorrow, will be at least a day late — due to problems coordinating the new DOE ‘universal’ format with school data. According to one parent coordinator in Brooklyn, information entered by schools didn’t mesh with the new format — and school staff is spending extra hours writing report cards by hand, to go home on Friday, January 9th.

Let us know if your child’s report card is delayed, too; we’re hoping for comment soon from DOE.

Our family was fortunate enough to spend this New Year’s the same way we’ve spent the last dozen or so: with the same three close friends, home-made cocktails that are usually shades of blue or pink, and food that tastes remarkably good (and not just because of the blue and pink stuff).

We’ve forged our own quirky traditions along the way: Jenga tournaments that culminate in crowning a Jenga Boy or Jenga Girl for the year, ear waxing, small gift exchanges that generally involve chocolate; but the one that all of us insist on every year, even if it’s many hours past midnight, is our “manifest” ceremony. Each of us takes a few quiet moments to write down our wishes for the next year. Then, one by one, we set our little lists on fire and watch them burn while reciting a secret poetic phrase that is supposed to green-light all our hopes and wishes. The friend who brought this annual tradition into our lives then collects the ashes and adds them to the ones of the prior years.

Since just like a birthday wish, you can’t tell anyone what you write or else it will not come true, I dare not divulge my list. But I can speak to what I did not write, which kind of surprised me. As I sat there with pen poised, I thought about writing: “Brooks will improve so dramatically that he will lose his autism spectrum diagnosis.” Hmmm. Certainly something I hope for. Certainly something I practically salivate over, and certainly, a scene I play out often from beginning to end: how the pediatric neurologist tells us and how my husband and I both start to cry. But I couldn’t write it down.

There are a lot of reasons, I think. First of all, I’m someone who makes an extra effort to be grateful for what I’ve got (even if I don’t always manage to do it successfully). Three years ago, when my father’s “flu” turned out to be a swift and mortal cancer, I learned to appreciate what I have. You never know how long you will have it. Would it be asking too much to have my son completely lose his diagnosis, considering how far he’s come? Not so long ago, we weren’t certain he would develop language. My husband and I have a beautiful, affectionate, funny, sometimes-infuriating 5-year-old. With or without a diagnosis, aren’t we lucky just to have him?

Secondly (and I definitely feel guilty about this one), maybe I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment. To be honest, I’m not as sure as I once was that Brooks will actually lose his diagnosis. Last year, when he was still in pre-k and mostly in a special-ed environment, when he was making leap after developmental leap, it seemed almost inevitable that he would mainstream. But this year, even though he’s in a special-ed class, typically-developing kids are everywhere, and the planet-sized gaps between Brooks and his peers are striking. Add to that our recent move and Brooks’s new school, which essentially have functioned as a welcome mat for regression, and I find myself much less optimistic. Certainly not without hope, but 2008 was a tough year.

Third, I don’t want to put pressure, even the featherweight pressure of my flammable wish, on Brooks. Faced with a question with even the slightest whiff of expectation, he quickly resorts to “no” or “I don’t want to talk about it,” even when he clearly knows the answer (which is often the case). Maybe he needs breathing space—I know my husband and I do! Ever since Brooks was 18-months-old, we’ve been working tirelessly to identify how far we can push him. “Too far” is a moving target that needs to be tested and re-tested, and it takes a lot of time and energy. Frankly (guilty, again), we’re tired. Maybe the real truth is that I don’t want to put pressure on myself. If Brooks doesn’t shed his diagnosis, won’t it be our fault? Isn’t now the “sweet spot” of possibility, the time when his young brain is still elastic enough to conquer the repetitive habits and sensory challenges and social weaknesses? Are we simply too exhausted to continue hammering away?

The bottom line is that our basic family foundation seems to be shifting. Although this is always, subtly happening, at times like New Year’s, the rumbles make us see that we need to change in order to move forward. If Brooks loses his diagnosis, this year or any other year, so be it. And if he doesn’t, so be it. I’m officially taking it off my “must happen” list.

What will remain on that list, however, is that the three of us do our best to help one another and to help ourselves. Autism or not, we will love and care for each other; we will continue to teach Brooks how to make friends and how to succeed in the mainstream world. We will temper accepting his limitations with celebrating his strengths, of which he thankfully has an abundance.

And when he grows up, I hope Brooks will spend his New Year’s Eves deriving the same comfort that we do now, from his own small group of close and loyal and lasting friends. Whether they set their wish-lists on fire or not.

Q: My son is graduating from high school this coming year. He has an IEP. Will this IEP automatically follow him through college and is there such a thing as special education in college? Are there any programs you know of that can assist him, and are there any majors for special education students?

A: The fact that your son has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) indicates that you have been an advocate for him! But this plan will not follow him to college — IEPs, as guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), apply only to elementary and secondary schools. It is possible for students with disabilities, including learning disabilities, to receive special services in publicly-funded colleges; this is covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1973. But to obtain these services, you and your son will have to be proactive and ask for them — the colleges will not know he needs services unless he discloses this fact. So save your IEP and any supporting documents in order to request services. Colleges and universities vary in the accommodations they offer and the evidence they require in order to grant these services. And bear in mind that some schools offer more help than others. You will simply have to check with each school’s disability services or student services office.

In terms of which colleges your son might consider, that depends largely on his individual interests and abilities. Does he want to stay close to home? Does he want a commuter college or does he want to live in a dorm? Are finances an issue? All of these questions should be taken into consideration.

There are a few schools that offer programs especially aimed at students with disabilities. Landmark College in Vermont was specifically established to help students with dyslexia, ADHD, and other learning disabilities. The SALT program at the University of Arizona offers a similar program. You can obtain further assistance by consulting the National Center for Learning Disabilities (this organization offers a scholarship as well). You can also read and download a government brochure titled “Students with Disabilities Preparing for Postsecondary Education”. In addition, there is an excellent website, LD online, which outlines resources about college for students with learning disabilities.

The law protects the rights of students with disabilities to obtain the services they need to help them succeed, but the law does not guarantee admission. To avoid disappointment, plan realistically. Start by discussing with your son his hopes and dreams. Then discuss with his school counselor which schools might offer the best possibilities. Without knowing the nature of his IEP or his interests, it is difficult to recommend specific schools. However, the schedule flexibility of the community college system, along with its moderate cost, might be a good way for your son to start his post-secondary studies.

 Have a question for Jane?  Search archives | Contact the College Counselor

The Globe today highlights an MIT/Harvard study of Boston-area charter and ‘pilot’ schools, in which charter schools steadily outperformed both the pilot schools — essentially, charter-style schools run by the city with union contracts for teachers and staff — and Boston’s traditional public schools. The study documents striking gains in middle-school math — gains that are reflected here in New York’s 78 public charters, despite profound gaps in early-grade math scores.

Citywide, only about half of third-graders in charter schools score at level 3 or 4 on state math exams (54%), compared with 87% of third-graders in the city’s hundreds of non-charter elementary schools. By eighth grade, though, the balance has flipped: Three-fourths of charter students score level 3 or 4 in math, compared with 60% citywide.

Some might attribute the gains to the focus many charters place on drills, skills, and testing, while others contend that without basic skills, kids can’t progress to master more sophisticated content. No one can argue that stronger parent engagement, a characteristic many charter schools share, drives attendance and thus achievement: Kids who show up learn more. Notably in Boston, charter schools are characterized as “independent public schools dedicated to innovative teaching,” while New York’s charters extend the DOE’s familiar focus on achievement and accountability.

The pesky ‘details’ nearly always overlooked deserve loud mention: According to the New York City Charter Center annual report, charters serve far, far fewer English Language Learners than other city schools — only about 3% of charter students need language instruction, compared with 14% of students citywide. (Yes, that’s nearly five times as many.) And students who require special education count for only 9% of charter students overall, compared with 14% of public-school students. The Center says charters are “marginally behind” other public schools in this regard, but from here, the gap doesn’t seem marginal at all: Non-charter public schools have a third more special-needs students, many of whom require a level and sophistication of services charters cannot provide, such as special, self-contained classes and cash-intensive resources, like adaptive gyms, speech instruction, and physical and occupational therapy.

So all well and good to compare apples with apples — but when the fruit bowl’s more inclusive, it’s important to recognize what goes into the mix.

Dear Judy,

We are in the process of applying for middle schools in District 15. Almost every school we have looked at says (1) they are highly selective with many more applicants than spots and (2) will only consider kids who rank them first or second. Are the middle schools (unlike the high schools) really informed as to where we rank them? And if so, should we avoid listing any of these schools in any spot other than one or two even if we would far prefer them to other schools in the district? Along the same lines, should we avoid listing any schools other than those we really like or by doing this are we risking not getting placed at all?

Brooklyn Mom

Dear Brooklyn Mom,

The Department of Education consistently responds to questions about the middle school application process by saying that each district has different rules, so we asked around in several districts. Wanda Barbot, middle school director at the Brooklyn Secondary School for Collaborative Studies, said that the schools in District 15 do not see how kids rank schools on their applications. On the other hand, Walter Friedman of the District 3 enrollment office said yes, the middle schools do know how you rank them on your application.

My advice to you, and to all parents and kids about to submit their applications to middle school, is that regardless of rankings, be savvy — don’t waste your first and second choices on schools where you don’t have much of a chance. Make your choices realistic with an eye to how your grades, attendance, and lateness will stack up against other applicants. To avoid total misery, do not list schools that you would hate, but be sure to list a good number of choices because the middle school guide contains this ominous phrase: “If an application is not completed or if a student does not rank sufficient choices in numerical order, he or she will be placed in a middle school in the district in which he or she resides or attends elementary school based on available space.”

Don’t forget the option to apply to schools that have a separate application process and may be open to students citywide. Look in the back of the district directories; there are 11 such schools in Brooklyn (every borough has them). Also search for “unzoned” schools in our Find a School section. There are Manhattan schools for gifted and talented kids that you test or audition for, and ICE (Institute for Collaborative Education) which does not test but asks for a personal essay. Remember, these individual applications will not compete with the ranked-list application.

Be sure to follow the directions in the middle school handbook: make sure that the information supplied by the school is correct, and that you are applying to schools for which you have a reasonable chance to get in. Finally, check our section on Applying to middle school for more tips.

Good luck!

Judy

 Have a school question for Judy?  Search archives | Contact Judy

While thousands of fifth graders will hand in their middle school applications on Friday, approximately 2,000 sixth graders will sit for the Hunter High School admissions exam. A recent Times article showed how seriously some of those students have been preparing for the exam: taking up coffee, reading the dictionary, and spending weekends and holidays at costly Asian-inspired test-prep boot camps. Meanwhile, another section of the venerable newspaper urges parents of 5 year-olds who are sitting for gifted and talented testing to “stay sane.” Sage advise but, as Liz Belkin wrote in a blog entry about the Obama girls first day at a new school, many (otherwise sane) parents still find it hard to drop their children off and then go home, wait, and hope for the best.

Imminent budget cuts to the city’s schools will hamstring some programs, and simply erase others, like after-school activities and non-academic enrichments, depending on how individual principals parse out the cuts. But even in this arid economic climate, creative New York City teachers find ways to make less into much, much more — provided they have the institutional support to think outside the ‘box’ of convention, and access to resources to help them realize their plans.

Take, for example, Jon Goldman’s four English classes and 14-student advisory at Beacon High School in Manhattan. Goldman, a Shakespeare maven and fencing aficionado, developed an unusual classroom experiment, which launched with Principal Ruth Lacey’s okay in September.

The theory is simple: A ‘green’ classroom, where all work is accomplished online, on screen, and entirely without paper, thanks to a powerful, portable school computer, a SmartBoard, wireless access, inexpensive flash drives for students to ‘carry’ assignments and projects back and forth, and a staggeringly tech-literate student body (only one of Goldman’s 139 students this year lacked computer access at home; another who had a computer but no internet found ample ‘net resources at school, in libraries and internet cafes, and at the homes of relatives and friends). Books, readings, and other classroom materials are provided on line and via the school’s internet portal; so far, essays, tests, and homework have been assigned and returned electronically.

So far, Goldman’s noted a more interactive, engaged classroom experience. Kids are doing as well or better without paper, he says, even with the challenges of glitch-fixing. And in a note to Insideschools, he added, “I’ve not used a single handout or xeroxed paper, or printed anything out other than college recommendations that had to be submitted in hard copy.” No copies, no printouts, no paper, no waste: It’s hard to imagine, for any parent who’s rummaged through the crumbly recesses of their kid’s backpack searching for a trip-permission slip — or a progress report. From multiple sets of 75-page reading packets to 250-page novels, everything that was on paper in 2007-08 is on the screen in 2008-09. Goldman was assigned a ream of copy paper in September — recently noted as a hot commodity – and estimates he’s used fewer than 100 sheets, largely for college recommendations and, as required by Beacon procedure, for attendance reports.

Goldman’s solution may not work as easily in schools that aren’t as tech-steeped as Beacon, which began its life as an outgrowth of the Computer School, and which serves a predominantly middle-class student body The flash drives cost about $10 — less than a movie ticket and a Coke — with subsidies available for students who need them. Notably, Goldman (whose wife works for Advocates for Children, Insideschools’ parent organization) turned to Teacher’s Choice and to generous parents to fund his proposal, which he estimates has saved “tens of thousands of sheets of paper, and thousands of dollars” since its inception.

It seems probable that, in this vast city, other teachers are taking new angles on using classroom resources. If you know someone who’s saving money, saving trees, saving stress, or saving time by creative classroom strategies, let us know. (With critical mass, the discussion can move to Insideschools’ forums, for ongoing dialog and inspiration.)